Savory Autumnish Crepes

So Autumn is upon us today and that means a time of apples and pears! That means trying to find a way to use all those apples and pears that isn’t the traditional pie and applesauce. (Don’t worry, fall is my favorite time of year and there will be a giant apple post once I get my yearly bushel+ of apples.) Here is a crepe recipe I made up after Chris and I drove past a crepe cafe in Southfield. MMMM. It’s basically just a good ol’ fashioned crepe, filled with grilled chicken, spinach, fresh pear and a tarragon bechemel sauce. You wrap it all up and top with a sprinkle of parmesan, you’ve got yourself a tasty dinner.

CREPE:

Use whatever recipe you like best. I use the one from Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for More Food”. It’s a fantastic read filled with geeky humor and useful tips.

FILLINGS:

Grill some chicken breast and cut it up into little pieces, throw in some fresh spinach and a bit of sliced pear.

TARRAGON BECHEMEL SAUCE:

This is basically an alfredo sauce, minus the cheese. Make a roux by melting about 2 T butter and then mixing in enough flour to make a thick paste. Then add in about a pint of half and half or cream (depending on how much you are watching your figure) and whisk together until smooth. Let it simmer over medium to medium high heat, whisking often so as not to burn the sauce, until thick. Throw in a bunch of tarragon and some salt to taste.

Stick all the ingredients together, put the crepe on a plate and top with a little Parmesan and have yourself a autumnish french inspired dinner and enjoy!

Shanno

Red Beans and Rice

Here is my twist on a classic side dish. I actually ate this as dinner every day for a week.   The best part, I never got tired of it! It’s a great, simple, recipe that is really a one-pot dish. You just throw in all the ingredients and cook basically. I added in some pre-cooked chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s to make it more of a main dish. This is not necessary and you can change the type of meat if you choose. So I guess this makes it a maximum of two-pot recipe. Anyways, here’s how to cook it.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup brown rice
3 Cups water
1 small can crushed tomatoes, include all the juices
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can red kidney beans
Chicken sausage, cut up into chunks.
1 t oregano
2 t chili powder
cayenne to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Put everything into a pot. Mix around a bit. Bring to boil, uncovered. Cover and put down to medium heat. Let it simmer and cook until the rice is nice and tender. Enjoy!

Black Bean and Zucchini Summer Salad

I came up with this salad when contemplating how best to use the farmer’s market basil and zucchini leftover from the week before. It was partly inspired by a black-bean and corn salsa I made earlier in the summer. I didn’t have any jalepeno peppers on hand, but 1 or 2 seeded and chopped jalepeno would give it an extra kick. As is, it’s a refreshing and healthy salad to pair with a barbeque.

Ingredients:

2 15oz cans black beans

1.5 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4 in thick circles

1/2 c basil leaves

1/3 cup cilantro

12-14 grape tomatoes halved

Juice from 2 limes

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse the black beans and place in a large bowl.

2. Grill or bake the zucchini circles. I used a grill pan and cooked them until they were soft but not yet translucent. (3 mins or so on each side). Let cool slightly before adding to bowl.

3.  Coarsely chop the basil and cilantro and add to bowl.

4. Crush garlic into the veggies in the bowl and add the lime juice. Sprinkle in the cumin and mix thoroughly. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

5. Cut the grape tomatoes in half and toss with the veggies in the bowl to combine.

6. Chill in the fridge for 1 hr.

Enjoy
Zast!

Tuscan Bean Soup with a Twist

I came across several recipes for Tuscan Bean Soup in the past few days. It sounded like something simply, delicious and oh so tasty to make for dinner this week. It also helps that it’s pretty healthy as well. Pretty much every recipe I came across called for spinach. I like spinach, but I’m picky about how I like it and I don’t really like it in my soup. It’s a texture thing. Food is as much about texture as it is about flavor and this is also why I hate tapioca pudding. I digress, yet again.

Anyways, I replaced the spinach with basil instead. This gave it a nice burst of flavor. I also added in a couple tablespoons of cabernet to give it a nice little pep in flavor without overpowering the basil or other flavors. Here’s the full recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 carrots, peeled, and diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 32 oz Vegetable broth
• 2 15oz cans cannellini beans (with juices)
• 2 T red wine
• salt, pepper, oregano, parsley to taste
• 1 1/2 C very roughly chopped basil leaves

PREPARATION

• Heat up some olive oil in a large pot. Sautee the onions, carrots, and garlic until the onions start becoming transluscent.
• Add in the tomatoes, cover and cook on medium for about 5-7 minutes, until the tomatoes are mushy and everything in the pot looks incorporated.
• Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the basil. Make sure you include the juices from the cans of beans. This helps thicken the soup a bit. Let simmer on medium and covered for about 10 minutes
• Add in the basil, cover again, cook for about 2 minutes, until the basil is wilted.
• Serve with a topping of Parmesan or Asiago cheese. Enjoy!

Shanno

Chai Cookies – A comparison

I had a spur of the moment idea about a month ago to make chai flavored cookies. Basically I the shortbread cookie recipe from joyofbaking.com:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/shortbreads/shortbreadcookies.html

and jazzed it up a bit. I added in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and some honey. I then sent them off in a birthday package for my best friend.  Shortly after I made these, I discovered granualted honey at our awesome local spice store. I got some and decided to remake the cookies (albeit in bar form rather than cookie cutter form) and granuated honey instead of the real stuff. Overall I preferred the chai cookies with the real honey.

I think if I used the granualted honey as the only addition to these cookies or a cake, it would have worked just fine. However, once you start mixing in the other spices, its flavor is simply not strong enough to make a huge difference in the flavor. I think it’s a good idea, but I real honey has a stronger, for lack of a better word, honey flavor.

The moral of this story, is granulated honey is good, especially if you want to add in a honey flavor without affected the texture of the batter too much. However, be careful to not use strong flavors next to it, otherwise the milder honey flavor will be drowned out.

Here is the site for our local spice shop. They ship!

https://secure.spicemerchants.biz/sm/

Shanno

Pesto, the taste of summer

My favorite part of summer, is the easy (and inexpensive!) access to fresh basil. Luckily this is something I’ve inherited from my mother (along with a love of garlic). So, when she was up visiting A^2 this weekend and purchased a big bunch of it, I knew exactly what to do with it: Pesto! This recipe requires a food processor and to be honest, this recipe is the reason I purchased a food processor.

Ingredients:

4 to 5 c. fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 to 3/4 c. pine nuts

3/4 to 1 c grated parmesean cheese

1/4 c. olive oil, may need more depending on preference

salt and pepper to taste

First, crush the garlic cloves and place in the food processor. Grind 1/2 tsp of pepper in and pulse once.

Add the basil and pine nuts (start with the smaller amount) and pulse until finely chopped. You may need to pause the processor and scrape down the sides of the processor.

Turn the motor on and add the cheese and the olive oil. You may need to add more olive oil to reach the desired consistency. Taste and add salt as needed. I usually add more more garlic (crushed) as well at this point.

I prefer the pesto to be a thick paste, so that it can be tossed into pasta or thinned with balsamic vinegar and a little more oil for a tasty salad dressing.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies with a Honey Glaze

Mmm…chocolate and cinnamon. Perhaps my favorite flavor combination of all time, at least for now. You take that along with my new pasty brush, you get chocolate cinnamon cookies with a honey glaze. This recipe would probably go well with my liquid verision of this, hot chocolate with cinnamon and honey mixed in. Like I said, I love this flavor combination. Don’t be shocked if this comes up again. So, I’ll just go straight to the recipe because all I can’t really describe how much I love these cookies in words.

Ingredients:

• 2 C flour
• 1/2 C cocoa powder
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 C butter, softened
• 1 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs ( I used 3 small because that’s what I got from the CSA)
• 1/3 C honey
• 1/3 C water

Preparation:

• Sift together the dry ingredients. This is really important, at least when dealing with cocoa. The cocolate powder tends to clump and sifting really helps this.
• In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Then add in the eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly.
• Add in the flour mixture about a 1/2 cup at a time.
• Bake the cookies at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Watch them carefully! Since they are chocolately, it’s hard to tell when they are golden brown. I usually go with the “are they still shiny?” method.
• Let them cool.
• While the cookies cool, make the honey glaze. This is just whisking the honey and water in a saucepan and letting it simmer on medium heat until it the mixture thickens. The resulting glaze will slightly less thick than honey, but will brush onto the cookies a lot easier than straight honey.
• Brush the glaze onto the cookies (or drizzle it with a spoon).
• Enjoy!

Shanno

Roasted Eggplant Pasta Bake

I love lasagna and I love making lasagna. It’s a pallete I often like to experiment with. Long before the blog I went through a lasagna phase where I made about 5 different kinds of lasagna within a month. However, I don’t always have time to  build the whole lasagna, layer by layer, but I still have a hankering for flavor experimentation that cannot be denied. Thus, I go with the quick and dirty version, the pasta bake.

I’ve been dying to try this recipe since the middle of the prelims where I survived by dreaming up new recipes. So I finally got some eggplant from our CSA share and created this. It turned out far better than I expected and I will certainly be making this again. This recipe calls for mascarpone cheese which is a very soft, sweet italian cheese used in many desserts such as tiramisu. However, I used it here in a savory dish and the sweetness and creaminess really complement the squash tones you get out of the roasted eggplant. Remember this can also work as lasagna or if you take just the roasted eggplant mixture, it could work as a stuffing for ravioli, manicotti, or shells. Here’s the Recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 small eggplants or 1 larger one, peeled and sliced
• 1 lb of your favorite shaped pasta ( I tend to use Penne for these pasta bakes, it gathers up the sauce nicely)
• 8 oz mascarpone cheese
• 1 quart of your favorite tomato sauce (I use my homemade sauce, recipe below)
• 1 log fresh mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

• First prep the eggplant by laying all the slices on top of two layers of paper towels. Sprinkle some salt on top of the eggplant. Flip them over , sprinkle a bit more salt and cover with two more layers of paper towels. Stick come books on top of that and leave for about an hour or two. This will help get the extra moisture out of the eggplant.
• Once the eggplant is sweated, place on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven on 450 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until the face down side is slightly brown. Flip over and repeat. You can tell when they are about ready to flip over because it will start smelling like a roasted squash.
• While the eggplant finished roasting cook the pasta until just about done, but not quite. It will continue to cook a bit in the oven later so you don’t want to overdo it.
• Once the eggplant is nice and roasted, stick in a food processor and puree.
• In a bowl, mix the mascarpone cheese with the roasted eggplant puree.
• Mix the pasta sauce, cheese and eggplant mixture, and the pasta together and then stick into a 9×13 baking dish.
• Top with slices of the fresh mozzarella and stick back in the oven at about 350 degrees and cook until the mozzarella on top starts to bubble.
• Enjoy!

SIMPLE TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE

I use this tomato sauce for everything. It’s quick and delicious and  you know it’s not filled with extra preservatives and whatnot. For some flare, add in sausage, mushrooms, and/or green peppers. What I have below will give you a rather chunky sauce. If that’s not your style, then let it cook a bit and the stick it in the blender to make a smooth sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 large can of stewed tomatoes or 3-4 fresh tomatoes when they are in season
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 C red wine (I prefer merlot or cabernet)
• 1 T sugar
• salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and tarragon to taste

Preparation:

• Heat some oil a large, heavy bottomed pan. I generally use my enamel coated cast iron pot. Sautee the onions and garlic until the onion start becoming translucent.
• Once the onions are translucent, add in the can of tomatoes or the fresh tomatoes, chopped. Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. In the meantime, in a bowl, whist together the tomato paste and some water until it’s consistency is just a but thicker than pizza sauce. Pour into the mixture in your pot.
• Add in the wine and simmer for about 10 minutes so the alcohol can cook out.
• Add in the spices and the sugar and let it simmer covered for about another 20-30 minutes for the flavors to meld.
• Enjoy!

Shanno

Russian Week (2 of 2): Beef Stroganoff

The best beef stroganoff I’ve ever had was, strangely enough, in Russia. It was a little hole in the wall in St. Petersburg that our guide took us. My recipe is modeled off of that, or least as best as I could remember from my trip in high school. This can be served with either egg noodles or mashed potatoes. I prefer this version with the egg noodles.

This requires a beef roast that’s thinly sliced (about 1/4 in. thick). I just asked the butcher at the store to slice up the roast for me and they did a nice jobs.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef roast, sliced thin, and then into bite sized strips
• 2 shallots
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 T flour
• 10-15 mushrooms (depending on how mushroomy you like your stroganoff)
• 2 C beef stock
• 1 C sour cream

Preparation

• Heat a bit of oil in a cast iron pan over medium high. Once nice and hot, brown the meat, about 2-4 minutes per side depending on how thin the meat is. Once done, take out of the pan and set aside.
• In the remaining juices and oils in the pan, sautee the garlic and shallots. After about 2 minutes, add in the mushrooms and sautee until tender.
• Add beef back in and sift in the flour. Then add in the beef stock and the sour cream. Mix well and simmer until it’s heated through and thickens a bit from the flour.
• Put over the egg noodles and enjoy

Russian Week (1 of 2): Borsch

Vegetarian Borsch with Sour Cream

For those who know me, it’s no secret that I am half Ukrainian and speak (at least some these days) Russian. I wear my Slavic Heritage loud and proud. Naturally, then, I must share some of my favorite Russian foods with, Borsch and Beef Stroganoff. These are my versions, and my no means traditional, but they certainly hit the spot.

First the Borsch, of which there are as many ways to make this soup as there are for telemarketers to pronounce my last name. I mean, really, it’s amazing how many syllables I’ve heard people try and get out of my 1 syllable last name. But, I digress. Back to soup. The main ingredients of Borsch are beets and meat (usually in the form of beef stock or chunks of pork) and vinegar. For the quick, more common form of Borsch, you sautee the beets in some butter, add a bit of vinegar, and then add in the beef stock. This makes a great light lunch or snack. Ukrainian Borsch, when done properly, can act as an entire meal. It contains chunks of meat, beans, a ton of vegetables in addition to the beets. My version of the Borsch is a mixture of the two traditional forms and is vegetarian. I’ve always found the chunks of meat make the soup far greasier than I prefer. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium beets
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion
• 2 small tomatoes
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 3-4 carrots
• 2 large potatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 teaspoons of vinegar
• 1-2 teaspoons of dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel and cut up the beets into matchstick size pieces. You can also grate the beets if you prefer. Put a small amount of beets aside in a bowl of water to sit. Melt the butter in a large kettle and start to sautee the beets.
2. Add in the onions and garlic with the beets and sautee some more until the onions start to get soft but not translucent.
3. Add in the rest of the vegetables, all cut up into small chunks. Add in enough water to cover the vegetables by about an inch. Pour in the water and beets you set aside. This is done to help the Borsch achieve the vibrant magenta shade it should be. You can also add in the salt and pepper at this point
4. Bring to a boil and then simmer on medium-low to medium until the vegetables are all tender.
5. Mix in the dill and vinegar. Don’t forget the vinegar! It won’t taste right without it.
6. Server in a bowl with a dollop of sour cream, Enjoy!

I make this for lunches often and one pot lasts me a little more than a week. It’s a delicious food and certainly a comfort food if you’ve grown up with slavic food. Feel free to add in some chunks of pork or beef if you want it meatier.