Bubble & Squeak

Recently we had a roast chicken catastrophe in the kitchen. OK so catastrophe might be a strong term, but I was tired and when I roasted the chicken upside down, leaving the breast sort of raw in the middle it felt like a catastrophe. Especially since I didn't realise it was upside down until we went to carve it.

Honestly since I started cooking for myself (and others) I've made countless roasted chickens. Its easy, that's its whole draw.  Except after work when your stuffing herbs and lemons into a chicken's backside at 5pm, after cranking through another balls to the wall day during our busy season at my 9-5, with my mind on 700 other things. When my boyfriend came home at quarter to eight and pulled the bird out of the oven he asked if it was deformed...In these cases sometimes you want to cry, and it feels like a catastrophe. We all make mistakes, and sometimes we all eat chicken legs and mashed potatoes while the rest of our dinner roasts in the oven for lunch tomorrow.

Even better: sometimes delicious miracles come from kitchen catastrophe.

Bubble & Squeak is a traditional British dish typically made from the leftovers of a Sunday roast, mashed potatoes with a little egg and flour and whatever leafy green you roasted or boiled a side dish. In this case (and every case really?) I made some substitutions and additions so that it suited our palates, and what we have in the pantry.

I started with the leftover smashed potatoes (skins on is how we roll in this house, and we whip them with a good old fashioned hand masher, skim milk and local butter) I used kale chopped into ribbons and in place of the egg and flour I used a few tablespoons of nonfat cottage cheese and matzo meal (we're multicultural like that)

A quick spin in a warm pan sprayed with just a little olive oil, a flip and then i topped them with a spritz of thyme vinegar and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Its a warm, filling and surprisingly delicious lunch, or supper (I'd add a side salad).

Kitchen miracles can happen.

Bubble & Squeak

2 cups of leftover mashed or smashed potatoes
2 cups of kale, stems removed, sliced into thin ribbons
1/4 cup nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup of matzo meal
garlic powder, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flake to taste*

Mix everything above together, checking that the texture is not too wet or too dry to make patties if you need to add more matzo or cottage cheese to supplement, everyones leftover potatoes are different.

Form patties and chill while you bring a large skillet to medium heat, add a small amount of oil evenly to the pan and drop in your potatoe cakes. when you acheive a crusty brown bottom, flip them over and dio it again on the other side. Pull them from the pan and rest them for a minute before seving alongside your favorite condiments, we like thyme vinegar and salt, or spicy ketchup. Creamy horseradish sauce would be fabulous too. More...

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Recently here in the kitchen we experienced what I'm (still) calling the Sweet Potato Glut. No we didn't grow our own, but yes, I may have gone a little wild at the market. I had every intention of making these oven fries, to accompany some slow cooker 'pulled pork' sandwiches but never found the gumption, once my guests had arrived. So there I stood facing five rather large sweet potatoes, totally unwilling to let them go to waste. I roasted two of them last weekend, and made muffins with one (I actually made another batch of these this past weekend) and I found a way to stretch the other into dinner. Gnocchi had been something I had been interested in for a long time, and with the help of the man (its alot of work for only one set of hands!) we made a really pleasant dinner, that was both filling and reasonably healthy, (whole wheat flour and sweet potatoes keep me thinking that a bowl of potatoes, dressed in butter and a little thyme make a fairly healthy dinner...as opposed to a bowl of traditional gnocchi anyway) Gnocchi itself isn't very hard, really and if you maintain an organized level of chaos, its not too bad on ones kitchen either.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Adapted from Double Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld


1 3/4 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1 large egg, and 1 egg white
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of all purpose flour

In a mixing bowl combine ricotta cheese, potato puree, eggs,cheese, baking powder, and salt. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine both flours, and mix into wet mix all at the same time. Mix until the flour is incorporated and the color of the dough is uniform (no streaky orange)
Separate the dough into eight sections. Flour your work surface (I used more whole wheat flour) and roll the dough into foot long, inch high logs. Cut the dough with a fork into 1 inch by 1 inch morsels, lightly rolling the fork over one side of the pieces, creating a grooved side. Continue until you have no more dough.

At this point I seperated half of the gnocchi, froze them on a parchment lined baking sheet and later, transfered them to a freezer bag.


Fill a large pot with water, salt it generously and bring it up to a boil. Add the gnocchi, stirring very gently and cook until it just floats sim them off the top with a small mesh strainer, continuing to stir gingerly until all the gnocchi have come up to the surface and been skimmed out. We served these dressed in a little butter and sprinkled with thyme. Perfect comfort food. More...

Weekend Food 11/19-11/21

lots of cookin here this weekend. Chorizo and potato tacos made way for nachos, topped with a sweet and spicy corn salsa. On Sunday I started my holiday baking, ate some cheese, and stuffed a pumpkin full of chorizo and kale. It was delicious. What did you do this weekend? More...

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins

Muffins to make the (rainy, Fall) morning bright.

Last weekend I bought 5 sweet potatoes. I bought them with every intention of serving them as oven fries when I made pulled pork in my slow cooker for a group of friends that came over to visit. Since we ended up eating the sandwiches while we played cards, I never got the chance to make the fries. and so I am left in a sweet potato debacle. What do 2 people do with almost a half dozen sweet potatoes??

Well before I went out to visit a friend for a couple of hours on Sunday, I wrapped three in little foil jackets and popped them in the oven. The man turned off the oven when the timer dinged, and when I got home I had 2 cups worth of soft roasted sweet potato to work with. If we are home over the weekend, (an increasingly rare occurrence lately) I love to take the time to bake something that we can eat for breakfast through the week. It guarantees I will eat breakfast, and helps me turn a deaf ear to the siren song that is the coffee shop (and their gingerbread donuts) two doors down from my office. and so sweet potato muffins were born.

These muffins are great for Sunday baking and then munching all week long. While not a close cousin to the gingerbread donuts, they do pack a lovely amount of -natural- sweetness and spice. They are made hearty with oats and whole wheat flour while pecans give some nice crunch. The sweet potato puree helps to keep them moist through the week...I daresay that they would keep well longer, but I wouldn't be able to tell you. They don't last that long in my house.

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins
 Adapted from The Louisiana Sweet Potato Comission
1 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1 c. roasted and mashed sweet potato
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
1/4 c. skim milk (I used soy milk)
1 large egg
1 t. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk oatmeal, flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another small bowl, combine the sweet potato, brown sugar, oil, egg, milk and vanilla, whisking to blend well. Pour over dry ingredients and stir to combine. Mix until just moistened. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. Check at the 15 minute mark- the batter is fairly dense and will bake quickly. More...

Family Favorite

When you’re working toward any goal, it’s always easiest to start where you know things. It breeds confidence you’ll need later to make giant leaps when you can’t see a net to help you.

Since I’m trying to break through a depressing kitchen rut, I decided to start with what can only be called a ‘family favorite’ in our house: Melissa Clark’s Shrimp & Broccoli. I’ve made it countless times. I’ve mentioned it here before because its popularity and ease make it an all around winner. I have 13-year-old cousins that love this dish, and it’s this year’s birthday dinner request from the man. It’s so easy, you feel like you’re cheating...and it feels so good.

I always vary the spice blend, depending on what’s on hand, what’s being served with it, and what I feel like eating. We’ve eaten it dressed out in ginger and lemon grass with some rice noodles, or roasted in herbs and lemon zest over polenta. Last night we used smoked paprika, lemon zest and a pinch of herbs de provence. We served it with some parsley-flecked, almond – studded brown rice. 2 pans, dinner on the table, and I’m calling it a victory.  I’m back. More...

Weekend Food: Halloween Edition...

Our best trick or treater, by far, was the little boy dressed as Santa. Hilarious. This weekend I 'roasted' a chicken in my crockpot, atop some carrots and small potatoes. It fed us pretty much all weekend, reinventing itself into a chicken and pasta tossed with walnut parsley pesto, and then a chicken stew topped with parsley studded biscuits. The stew didn't turn out as beautiful as I had hopped but it was delicious, and while the man and I took turns handing out candy to Boba Fett(s) and princesses we sat around the kitchen eating (multiple) bowls of the stuff and watching what could be called the most ridiculously bland vampire movie ever... Tonight I'll be turning our pumpkin seeds into a roasted snack, (I was told they need a day to dry out) and eating another solo dinner, (hopefully not just candy!) since the man is out of the house...any suggestions? More...

Busy

I have no idea what I'm doing... Its been so busy outside of my kitchen that I actually went out last night for a cheeseburger. If that is not the most ridiculous stress eating, I don't know what is, I dont usually even eat beef, and its a pretty rare day (see what I did there?) that I go out for a hamburger...I also drank two cold, cold, beers (totally needed) and seriously contemplated a brownie sundae.
I (thankfully...?) didn't have any room for it when I was done with my dinner. What can I say? When things get tough, and you stay in your office until seven thirty at night just.trying.to.make.sense.of.all.this...paper! sometimes you have to fold, and go out for a burger. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to catch up on my Kitchen Cure tasks (you should see the utensil drawer...)and cook up some decent food. I have a broiler chicken that needs our crockpots attention (have you ever tried this?) and another batch of scones (recipe soon I swear!) to make. If I'm good, dinner will be at Jacky's Table on Saturday night. Maybe I'll sneak a few photos for you... More...

Mark Bittman's Molasses Wheat Bread

Truth Time: I dont bake bread. (banana bread doesn't count, its basically cake,) Want a cake? Want a tart? A pie?  sure thing, I'll be over with baked goods in an hour. Want a loaf of bread for morning toast? ....Well then go to the bakery. UNLESS youwant me to make this wheat and molasses flavored loaf. Its easy, and yeast free.

I've been enjoying this sucker toasted, smeared with currant preserves, and dunked in tea. If your inner old woman isnt as active as mine, I think that thick slices of this would work great as the foundation to turkey sandwiches,  because the molasses is just a little bit sweet. This bread is dense, so not too many toppings would be needed. You can make like my dearest friend Samantha and spread the bread with apple jelly and top it with leftover roasted onions, I think it would be delicious.

I would remove the bread from the pan as soon as your fingers can stand it to avoid getting that slimy skin on top (sort of like the banana bread) if you line your pan with parchment paper, leave the sides a bit long and then hoist it right out of the pan and onto a wire rack. then get out of your kitchen so you aren't tempted to pick at it. Or don't, and eat a slice still alarmingly warm with butter.

I won't post the recipe here, because I didnt adapt it, at all. Its the fear of baking thing...Gets me everytime. Next time I might top the loaf wiuth some oats, because Im fixated on starch. Other than that, its pretty delicious for the yeast-phobic, and it might delay my learning to bake a yeast based sandwich  or toasting bread just a little longer.

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Weekend Food 10/22 - 10/24

Just some snaps.

 

Running low on time so here's just a quick peek into the weekend in Kitchen75. Lemony drinks, a cranberry tart (look out for a post!) and pumpkin black bean enchiladas. Not pictured here was some delicious Indian take away, (tandoori chicken!) and some cranberry almond five spice scones, I'll post those ones up for you this week. More...

French Fridays: Hachis Parmentier

Real French peasant food. You may feel the need to toil in the feels before sitting down to this one.

Hachis Parmentier ( pronounced: ah she isss Pah ment eee ay) is the French version of shepards pie. Of course its classed up with the addition of sausages, beef brewed in bouillion, and a generous helping of whatever cheese you may have ripening (it would not be like the French to leave out the cheese!)
 I made this for Sunday dinner, (even though it was just the two of us, and yes, I did eat it all week long for lunches). After a chilly day with the windows open, cleaning house and tilling up all the weeds in the flower bed just outside my kitchen door (next years vegetable garden?) this was such a welcome end to the day.

Dorie calls for you to boil cube steak in water with vegetables, I went one step further and boiled in some beef stock and a cup of red wine I had leftover from cleaning out the pantry and freezer. Hot Italian sausage was added for a little zip, and I kept the carrots I boiled the beef with in the mix. I topped the potatoes off with cheddar, and while I wish I'd used a ricer, (per Dorie's suggestion) there is no room in my life (or my kitchen) for another appliance right now. Dorie's recipes are always a hit with the man, and this one certainly delivers.

While we aren't normally beef eaters, this is a hearty and inexpensive meal that lasts and lasts. By laying some spinach between the meat mixture and the potatoes, and keeping the carrots, you still get some vegetable goodness in there. We served our hachis parmentier with some steamed whole green beans, and a zinfandel. It was a lovely (if huge) Sunday (dinner for two).  

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Plum Ginger Cake

I have been trying to post this recipe for 2 days, I've lost the three (slightly) different posts, and Im feeling a leeetle burnt out on blogger. Its raining. Thats what I'm using as my excuse. Apparently I'm a delicate flower, and when it rains for more than three days, I get cranky.

The silver lining? I have cake. Ive been eating it for breakfast (using the same excuse of 'its raining') and its been delicious. Click the link below to get the recipe, without any of the adorable stories about the man eating bites off my plate even though he hates sweets, no ponderings on ginger's restorative powers. Just delicious cake. Why? Because, its raining.


Ginger Plum Cake
Adapted from Bon Appetit

I highly reccomend eating this warm, because the smell of the warm ginger cake is enough to put you through the roof. I also find that because it has way less sugar than half the cereal I eat, that this cake in a small wedge with a great big cup of tea is lovely not only in the afternoon, but also on your way out the door in the morning.

1 1/4 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed golden brown sugar
10 small 'prune plums' halved, pitted


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk


Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir 3 tablespoons butter, brown sugar  and a pinch of the crystallized ginger in a saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar creates a sludge-y syrup. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter cake pan greased, lined with parchment and greased again. Arrange plums in to cover the surface
Combine the dry ingredients, including ginger in a medium bowl. Cream the remaining butter, adding the sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over plums, it will be thick, but don't worry about it, it spreads and rises really well. Bake cake until a tester inserted into center comes out clean, I started testing at 45 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.
Place platter atop the pan. Invert cake. Gently lift off pan, and peel away parchment. Serve cake warm with powder sugar (or at room temperature for breakfast!).
Click Here For A Printable Recipe
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Proof!

I just want to prove to you that I do eat more than pasta...


The other night I was certain there was a cryo-sealed bag of whitefish...probably halibut, in my fridge. Certain. I have been reading Around My French Table on the train (yes, I'm lugging an enormous, hardcover cookbok with me. Don't judge! You're reading this blog)

I wanted do something with herbs, with leeks and carrots. I wanted to know just what a radish tastes like when you roast it. I was going for it!

...Until I got home and realized that I had actually stowed not white fish, but tuna in the fridge. No worries, thought I, I'll just do it anyway, how bad can it be...?

And you know what? It wasn’t! Roasted carrots, radishes, and leeks nestled under a piece of well-seasoned fish. Wrapped in parchment and left in the oven while you do more important things, like stirring the risotto, or dancing with the man, who was at that moment wandering through the kitchen singing to the cat. You make a little caper dressing, which you won't even put on the table, for fear of the vicious scorn that capers garner from that same man who sings to a cat (he feels similarly about chard)

It was a lovely dinner. It’s always nice when something starts as a mistake and a whim and ends up in the small victory that is a well prepared meal with the one you love.

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Squash & Honey Pie

Yesterday in Boston, the air was steamy. Summer, it would seem was not quite ready to unclench its muggy grip from us. I love summer, barbecues and sunshine that lasts until 9pm? Who doesn't like it? But there is a romance, and a wistful quality to Autumn that I find irresistible. I was determined to make this Autumn, the first in our new home, not just my favorite season because of the impossibly blue sky and the chilly nights, but because of the warm home and - yes the delicious, seasonal food (this is a food blog, after all) With maybe the exception of spring asparagus, I think Autumn has the strongest, most wide reaching grip on seasonal food. When the nights dip low into the fifties, and the maples burn red, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone not thinking of apple cider, roast pork, and pumpkin...well, pumpkin anything, really...

To usher in the my favorite season, I decided I needed a pie. The quintessential sweet of fall, is of course, the pumpkin pie. But I wasn't quite ready for pumpkin. I had received some honey from my Aunt, direct from her hive of bees, that I wanted to incorporate it in to the filling as a sweetener. I wanted something a little different...something not so spicy, and more fresh tasting. (this is the beginning of the season, after all) Acorn squash was the answer I came to. Martha had even written a recipe I could use as a guideline. I was in business.

The recipe that you can find here, gave me a great jumping off point, (corn meal crust??? Yes!) but I didn't follow it. I wasn't about to make mini pies, lest I eat a whole one. Roasting these squash (which I did the night before, while roasting vegetables and fish for our dinner) gave them plenty of softness, and a depth of flavor I appreciate. The filling gets a kick from cinnamon and orange zest, as does the sweetened cornmeal crust. Pie crust is one of the rare moments in baking when I feel comfortable winging it. So I do. My squash were enormous, so I used two beastly sized specimens, If you don't have such prolific squash, use three smaller ones.

Acorn Squash & Honey Pie


For the Crust:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup stoneground cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, dice into cubes and chill

1 egg yolk, mixed with about 1 tablespoon of ice water

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

more ice water as needed, added by the tablespoon.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl with the butter, using a fork (or your fingers!) until none of the lumps are larger than a pea. combine the egg and water with the zest and stir into the crumb mixture. Knead in the bowl until the dough is well incorporated and forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill until its time to roll out the dough.

For the Filling:

2 large acorn squash, (or three small ones)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon orange zest

4 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup honey

egg wash

To Create the Pie:


Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides (set some seds aside to dry on a paper towel, if you are anything like the man). In a 375 degree oven, roast the squash until its fork tender, (my large squash took almost one hour, but smaller ones should take about 40 minutes.) Let the squash cool to the touch, then scrape the orange fruit from the skin (an ice cream spade worked especially well for me) and whip in the large bowl of a mixer until smooth. Add spices and zest. whip some more. Add eggs, milk, and honey. mixing to thoroughly combined. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out your chilled dough to about 1/8" thick. I like to do mine on a flexible cutting board, then flip it over into the pie pan. Brush the inside of the pie dough with egg wash.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35 minutes, or until the middle of your pie is just barely set, The heat it carries over will finish it for you.

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Weekend Food: 9/17-9/19

This weekend was crazy, busy, and cold. We ate on the run almost all weekend. It was breakfast in the car, lunch standing at the kitchen counter, dinners at 9pm. As a result, alot of pasta was consumed. Its easy, it can be tossed with whatever is languishing in the back of the fridge, and if you pair it with salad, you don't feel so bad for eating a big pile of wheat. I have to be honest, I hate the being that busy. I want weekends to be relaxing. Especially when the crisp air of fall sets in, when walking home from the train at night becomes walking home at dusk. I want to read, leisurely mosey around making tea, and to make soup. This past weekend was not that idyllic fall weekend. We were in 2 states, went to bed at 4am, and were a total physical waste by Sunday night. Thank god someone else made dinner. (What? I made salad!) We got to have a delicious dinner with my family to celebrate a very special birthday for my now teenaged cousin. (The cake, I think gives it away)

 This week I'm hoping to be a bit more creative with my meals. I did a little spice shopping, and some reading. I feel ready.

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