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Posts tagged ‘Garlic’

Jan 18

45 Comments

Potato Croquettes with Chorizo, Manchego and Pine Nuts

2012 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

2012 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

I absolutely love croquettes.  When I see them on a restaurant menu I simply must order them.  Yet it occurred to me recently that I’ve never made them!  This recipe gave me a great excuse to play with my new deep fryer again.

When I put this recipe together, I was focused on creating a perfect balance of flavor in each bite.  This took quite a bit of experimentation and several test rounds.  I wanted them to be extremely flavorful, with bits of sweetness, spice and crunch.  The balance of chorizo, Manchego, pine nuts, and slightly caramelized onions achieved my goal.  The chorizo is spicy and meaty, and the toasted pine nuts add just the right amount of crunch.  The cheese is gooey and adds a bit of extra savoriness, or umami.  The onions add just enough sweetness (if you caramelize them too much they add bitterness).  Every bite really is perfect.

You don’t need a deep fryer to make these.  You can heat a neutral flavored, high smoke point oil (vegetable, canola, peanut, etc) in a large sauce pot or dutch oven.  I recommend using a thermometer to make sure you’re around 360 degrees.  If the oil is too hot, the outside will brown before the inside is properly cooked.  If the temperature isn’t hot enough the croquettes might absorb oil and become greasy.  You can try baking them but I can’t promise you’ll have the same results.  The outside won’t be as crunchy.

Lastly, you can substitute regular milk or cream for the evaporated milk.  I like using it because it has a subtle tang, almost like yogurt.  It adds another dimension of flavor.

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Dec 18

36 Comments

Creamy Chestnut Soup

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

Christmas has become such a special time for me. We travel to Tucson, AZ every year to visit my husband’s family. Every year I eagerly anticipate the moment we reach the desert landscape, surrounded by cactus and mountains, warmer weather and amazing food. I love experiencing the holidays through the eyes of his nephews. It’s such a fun trip. I’ll be bringing my camera this year and documenting our vacation. We leave Thursday! On to the recipe…

I grew up hearing songs about chestnuts, but had no idea what they tasted like. They’re delicious! As far as I’m concerned, this is the perfect winter soup. It’s silky, rich and inviting. Serve this at your holiday parties and people will rave.

If you’ve never roasted chestnuts before, removing the shell and skin can be a bit of a chore. They come off easiest when the chestnuts are still hot. I like to smash the hot nuts with the side of my knife like a garlic clove. If you have a really good blender such as a Vitamixyou can get away with leaving some of the skin on. It will soften during the cooking process and blend right into your puree. If you’re using a more standard blender, you may want to strain the soup through a chinoisor fine mesh strainer before adding the cream.

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Aug 11

25 Comments

Corn Chowder

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

When I worked a nine to five job, I was somewhat lazy about visiting farmers markets on the weekend.  Baltimore has wonderful markets but you really have to arrive early to get the best produce options.  When my husband and I moved closer to Washington DC, I was delighted to discover a small farmers market within walking distance of our apartment.  It may not be the largest market in the area, but I can find what I need.  And now that I work unusual hours, I love arriving early to the market on Saturday and wandering through the local, seasonal goodies.

If you’re looking for a farmers market in your area, a great resource is Real Time Farms.  In addition to providing information on farms and farmers markets, they also link restaurants to specific farms, which I think is pretty cool.

Right now is such a great time to buy corn.  Because this is the peak season, it’s cheap and full of flavor.  I love adding it to salads or mixing it with quinoa.  But in my opinion, chowder is the best way to enjoy corn in the summer.  Many recipes use bacon but I think that takes away from the star attraction.  This recipe brings out all of the natural sweetness and savoriness of the corn, has richness from the dairy and stock and a lovely earthiness from the fresh herbs.

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Aug 2

39 Comments

Roasted Gazpacho

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

Over Memorial Day weekend last year, my boyfriend proposed to me on top of the Empire State Building.  One year later, this past spring, we were married in Cabo San Lucas in a private beach ceremony.  It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

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Jun 14

6 Comments

Phase II Ends (Merguez: North African Lamb Sausage)

I cannot believe it’s been six long weeks since my last update.  Phase II just flew by and today was the first day of my new externship!  For the next six months I’m working at a wonderful restaurant with a friendly atmosphere and delicious, interesting food.

Culinary school has been an emotional roller coaster filled with wonderful highs and intense lows.  But I made it, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.  I’m looking forward to fine-tuning the skills I’ve learned now that I won’t be on daily information overload.  I have so much cooking to do!  And still so much to learn.

For something slightly different, I thought I’d share a recipe for lamb sausage.  It’s delicious and surprisingly simple.  You need a sausage stuffer (they are sold as stand-alone units or attachments for KitchenAid mixers).  But even if you don’t have the equipment, I still highly recommend this recipe.  Impress your family with some insanely good lamb patties!

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Mar 7

6 Comments

Tomato Soup

I’m sick.  I can’t remember the last time I had a cold this bad.  My throat is killing me, there’s a ringing in my ears… you get the idea.  I’ve spent most of the past 3 days in bed, and am extremely disappointed to have missed assisting a school event this weekend.  Not only was this supposed to be an interesting event (a cooking competition), but it was my first real chance to work with my Phase II instructors.  So their first impression of me is not showing up!  Not having the stamina to push through illness to perform as I would have to in a restaurant.  Oh well…

All I’ve wanted this weekend is tea, ice water, soup and ice cream to soothe the fire in my throat.  Today I dragged myself out of bed to make tomato soup.  It was easy to make and allowed me to feel slightly productive.  Now all I have to worry about is the research paper I was supposed to be working on this weekend.

This picture was taken with my new photography table setup.  It came out pretty well, needs some tweaking.  But I’m happy to be able to bring better quality images to the blog from now on.

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 28 oz can peeled whole tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano)
  • olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • fresh basil
  • chicken stock
  • cayenne pepper
  • soy milk and/or cream to finish

Method:

  1. Sweat the chopped onion on low heat with olive oil and salt.
  2. Toss in 2 whole cloves of garlic.
  3. After the onion is translucent, add the can of tomatoes.
  4. Add some chicken stock, maybe 2 cups worth.
  5. Add a small cluster of basil, attached to the stem so it will be easy to remove.
  6. Add some salt, pepper and cayenne to taste (cayenne adds a nice spice for sore throats).
  7. Let everything simmer for 45 minutes.
  8. Add some more stock if needed to thin the soup a bit.  Maybe 1/2 cup.
  9. Pick out the basil, then puree the soup well (I used an immersion blender).
  10. My soup was too thick at this point, so I added some soy milk and a splash of heavy cream.  You can use whatever you have- milk, soy milk, cream, chicken stock…  Thin the soup to the desired consistency.
  11. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
  12. Garnish with some chopped basil.

I think it’s time for another nap.

Feb 26

5 Comments

Week 8 – Exams and Comfort Food

The past two weeks have been intense. Due to the snow, we had a makeup class last Friday on my beloved day of rest.  Saturday was Open House, where we had to work the buffet.  Sunday was spent catching up on recipes and studying for exams.  And making homemade pasta again and again until I finally mastered it.  This week our recipe notebooks were due and we had our second written and practical exams. I’m up to around 130 recipes, if I’m counting correctly.

As usual, we made amazing food.  I’m wouldn’t say I’m exactly refined in the kitchen but I think I’m making slow and steady improvements.  My second practical exam went much smoother than the first one.  Though several times Chef walked by and told me to breathe.  And every time he said that I realized I was in fact holding my breath.  I don’t know how to be calm and speedy at the same time.  I need to work on my kitchen zen.

But I’m so happy to be there.  I don’t know exactly where I’ll end up after graduation but aside from my travel adventures I haven’t felt this alive in years.  Culinary school is where I’m supposed to be.

Between the weather and exams, I’ve been craving comfort foods recently.  School has made me a huge fan of soup.  And nothing goes better with soup than fresh bread.  I know bread-making is just around the corner because Chef has begun teasing us with fresh baguettes and focaccia throughout the day.  In the past two weeks we’ve made naan and cornbread, both of which I loved.  I thought I’d share the cornbread recipe with you.

Also on the menu this week was a delicious cauliflower soup.  Not something that would typically be pared with cornbread but I made them both one evening and they went surprisingly well together!  The cauliflower soup is rich with a delicate flavor, and the cornbread is one of the lighter, tastier versions I’ve tried.  You might want to make them separately.  This soup would go well with hearty artisan bread.  The cornbread goes great with chili or pork chops.

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Feb 11

5 Comments

Valentine’s Dinner For Two

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved

Classes have been canceled for the rest of the week!  I’m not surprised; it looks like the end of the world outside.  We had over two feet of snow this weekend and in the past 24 hours we were hit with another huge blizzard.  I’m getting a bit stir crazy.  Someone suggested I put together a Valentine’s Day dinner menu.  Perfect idea!

I’ve put together a menu I think you’ll love.  It’s not too heavy but is rich with flavor.  It’s also not super complicated.  There shouldn’t be any stress over a Valentine’s Day dinner!  On the menu is: chicken with a savory pan sauce, rice pilaf, broccoli, and chocolate mousse to finish.

  1. You can make the mousse in advance and let it chill until just before dessert.
  2. You can blanch the broccoli next, since you’ll finish cooking it before serving.
  3. Next take care of the rice, which can be kept warm under parchment paper while you cook the chicken last.
  4. You can finish the broccoli before serving dinner but make sure you time it with the chicken so that everything is served warm.

If this seems like too much, you can skip the rice or broccoli and just serve the chicken with one side.

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Feb 5

2 Comments

Week 5 – Are you going to blog about that?

I learned an important lesson this week: don’t mention your culinary school blog while at school because heckling will ensue.  I also realized that I cannot stay up late on a school night.  I become practically useless in the kitchen.

More importantly, I learned about food!  Among other things we made puff pastry, grilled fish, coq au vin, melting hot chocolate cake, decadent mashed potatoes… and started learning about food costing, which may be a challenge for me.  I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I haven’t touched math in at least 10 years.  It’s a shame because I used to be pretty good at it.  Now, my head spins while trying to figure out how to put the numbers together.  I know what I’ll be studying this weekend.

And it may be an extra long weekend!  We’re supposedly in for a blizzard.  I stopped by the grocery store to pick up ingredients for stock and I’ve never seen so much madness.

During these chilly winter months, I can’t get enough soup. It’s warm, comforting, and simple to make.  I thought that in honor of this week’s blizzard I’d offer up a yummy version of potato leek soup.  In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child states “Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make.”  I love Julia and I like her recipe, but I really really like this recipe.  Again, I highly recommend using homemade stock.  It’s easy to make and the results are dramatically different.  Real chicken stock contains collagen (gelatin) from the bird, which gives a richness and thickening power to recipes that cannot be replicated by store-bought products.

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Jan 30

3 Comments

Weeks 3 and 4: Things Get Intense

When I decided to leave my desk job to attend culinary school, I knew it would be a challenging experience.  What I didn’t anticipate was the mental and physical exhaustion.  It feels a bit like I’ve just come home from a trip overseas.  I often have no idea what time or what day it is.  Starting at 6:30-7am is starting to take its toll.  Many of us chug coffee and Red Bull all day like our lives depend on it.  And it’s kind of true.  We have to be fast and focused and the crash at the end of the day seems inevitable.  If we’re not learning, cooking or eating we’re supposed to be mopping, scrubbing, doing dishes and making stock for the entire school.  The days, the dishes, and my kitchen teams have all started to blend together.

We’re making three or four technique heavy recipes per day.  I now have a binder containing fifty recipes.  Fifty!  In a month!  When I’m not at school I’m practicing techniques (the knife skills need a LOT of work), reading, writing papers, typing up notes and recipes… it’s time consuming, to say the least.  My desire to cook and clean at home has diminished for obvious reasons.  I’m still working on finding the proper balance between my personal and culinary worlds.  Sometimes they feel like two entirely separate universes.

I’m sharing my favorite sweet and savory dishes from the past week.  On the savory side, I’m offering up a beef bourguignon recipe that knocks the socks off every other version I’ve tried.  Like most of the my culinary school recipes, this one relies heavily on technique.  I can give you the ingredients, but if they’re not used properly the results won’t necessarily be special.

On the sweet side… poached French meringues on crème anglaise, topped with caramel.  It’s a light dessert that plays with texture and temperature.  School is definitely turning me into a sweets person.  When I eat out I’m typically too full at the end of the main course to order dessert.  But the desserts we’ve been making are fun and have that perfect level of sweetness.  I’ve enjoy making them so much that a few times I’ve wondered if perhaps I belong in the pastry program!

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Nov 17

12 Comments

Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

I was at the grocery store, debating whether to write a blog about Thanksgiving (the obvious choice) or brussels sprouts.  Seriously.  I like them, and everyone is writing food blogs about Thanksgiving.  Then I saw these:

Holy stalk of brussels sprouts! Clearly Thanksgiving can wait another day or two!

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Oct 25

12 Comments

Orange Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

roasted-chicken

With regards to roasting a chicken, Julia Child says “While it does not require years of training to produce a juicy, brown, buttery, crisp-skinned, heavenly bird, it does entail such a greed for perfection that one is under compulsion to hover over the bird, listen to it, above all see that it is continually basted, and that it is done just to the proper turn.”

She’s correct.  I can’t think of a better way to enjoy chicken, but this takes a solid 2 hours of my time.  An excellent weekend dinner.

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Oct 18

1 Comment

Simple Tomato Sauce

Last night I had the most amazing dinner with friends at La Tavola in Little Italy.  The service was friendly and the food was fantastic. I had an incredibly fresh bruschetta appetizer and the gnocchi with pesto.  But by far the best thing I tasted all night was the tomato sauce that several of my dining companions had with their pasta.  It’s amazing how the simplest things can have the biggest wow factor when done exceptionally well.  Everyone was raving about it and when I returned home I couldn’t stop thinking about how I might possibly recreate it.

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Oct 15

38 Comments

Curried Pumpkin Apple Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium cooking pumpkin, halved and seeded
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 cup leeks, chopped, white and pale green parts only
  • 2 apples, peeled and chopped
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 can light coconut milk
  • 1/2 can Masaman curry paste (I used Maesri)
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 425 F.
  2. Coat the pumpkin flesh with some olive oil and place face down in a roasting pan.  Add about an inch of water to the pan and place in the oven.  Bake until the pumpkin is soft, about 45-50 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for a bit, then scoop out into a bowl and puree with an immersion blender.  Set aside.  (You can use canned pumpkin and skip this step, if you prefer.)
  3. In a large pot, saute the onion, garlic, and leeks in olive oil on medium-low heat until tender, about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the apples and saute for 2 more minutes.
  5. Add the chicken stock and coconut milk.
  6. Add the curry paste and stir well to combine.
  7. Now add the pumpkin puree in and slowly stir until everything is combined.  If you want a stronger curry flavor feel free to add more of the paste.  Let the soup simmer for 40 minutes.
  8. Cool briefly and blend with an immersion blender.
  9. Heat for another 5 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with some hearty bread!

Oct 7

3 Comments

Pesto, Two Ways

pesto

I love pesto; it’s such a simple, flavorful way to eat pasta.  And it’s a great opportunity for creativity in the kitchen.  I thought I’d post two of my favorite recipes.  I’m not listing out ingredient quantities because this should really be done to taste.   I like a lot of garlic, you might want less.

Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Pesto

  • Fresh Basil
  • Garlic
  • Sun-dried tomatoes (I prefer them packed in oil, such as Bella San Luci)
  • Pine Nuts
  • Fresh Parmigiano Reggiano
  • Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper, as needed

This is a fairly common combination of ingredients and I never grow tired of it.  I start by sauteing the garlic and pine nuts in a small pan with a bit of the oil or some butter.   It mellows out the garlic and releases the nut oils.   If you skip this step, be sure to toast the pine nuts in the oven.  You always want the nuts toasted when making pesto.  If you’re not using sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, soak them in hot water for several minutes first.  Then I throw everything into the food processor, pulse a few times and then let it go while adding olive oil.   I taste test periodically to make adjustments.  This pesto doesn’t typically need salt because of the parmigiano but you be the judge.  I also love taking all of these ingredients and leaving them whole so you get more of the texture and bits while eating.

Parsley and Pistachio Pesto

  • Shelled Pistachios, toasted
  • Garlic
  • Fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • Feta Cheese, preferably good quality
  • Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt & Pepper, as needed

This is another great recipe.  Toast the pistachio nuts in the oven for awhile until they’re golden brown and fragrant.  Saute the garlic (unless you want more of a kick).  Then follow the same steps as above.  I recommend going heavy on the parsley; it really adds a great flavor.

So tell me… what are some of your favorite pesto recipes?

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