Less Waste, More Flavor

This may seem like a "duh" thing, but after years of throwing away unusable vegetable scraps, I have finally seen the (green) light! Here's what you need to start doing TODAY: 

Get a gallon-size zipper bag and keep it in your vegetable drawer. Just keep it there. Every time you slice some celery, peel a carrot, chop the stalk off your broccoli crowns, loose the green leaves of your leeks, have a sad little Charlie-Brown like stalk left from harvesting your herb leaves ... (make sure it's washed and) toss it in that bag! Once you reach a critical mass, which for us does not take very long at all, you've got the makings of an exquisite broth! You can fill up a pot with just water and vegetables, or the next time you have meat bones of any kind, throw them in a pot with your scraps, simmer for an hour or so, and you've got broth! 

"Why do I want broth?" you may be asking yourself. Because it tastes better than water, idiot. Boil your rice in it, wilt your greens with it, make sauce out of pan-drippings, use it as a soup base, anything you can think of. I keep an old sport water bottle in my fridge door full of broth so I have it on hand whenever I want to pop the top and squeeze a little broth into the party. 

One thing to note: vegetable broth will last longer in the fridge than meat-based broths will. So if you have an immediate plan for your broth, great! If not, invest in some freezer bags, measure out 1- or 2-cups at a time, and freeze them until you need them. Never buy a can or box-o-broth again! 

Homemade pizza in 20 minutes (no yeast required!)

Tonight we discovered a good, last minute stand-in for pizza crust if you don't feel like (or secretly fear the awesome and inexplicable power of) yeasted crust made from scratch. Instead of yeast, it uses a combination of baking powder and beer, which also adds a nice kick. It cooks on the stovetop, right in your hot pan. Could not be simpler.

Except that there's a food processor involved. As usual, you can absolutely make this recipe processor-less, just do some stretches before hand.

Pizza night (like salad night and pasta night) is usually my excuse to clean out the vegetable drawer and dump it on a tomato-ey round of dough. Tonight was no exception. Take yesterday's leftover barbecue pork, throw on some cabbage, green onions, sliced zucchini, and sprinkle it all with zesty jalapeno monterey jack. Maybe your leftovers don't sound like mine, but rest assured, a jarred tomato sauce and cheese will do you just fine. But let this be a lesson, you can put anything on a pizza. This crust recipe makes 2 individual-size pizzas (or one big mother if you have the badass, 80-lb. griddle/grill we do).

Speedy Stovetop Pizza Crust

(c/o Cook's Country)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup beer (a nice, light lager)

1 Tbsp olive oil

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, powder, sugar, and salt. With the motor running, add the beer and olive oil. Let run until it starts to clear sides and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Take it out, wrap it in plastic, let it rest 10 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat with a little bit of oil. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and roll each into a 9-inch circle. Place one circle at a time into the pan and cook 3-4 minutes, popping any bubbles that might appear with a fork. Flip 'er and layer your toppings, then cover with foil or a lid to the pan. In a mere 5 minutes, you will have delicious pizza! (Then you have to do it all over again with the second one, but it'll be just as good, promise!)

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg (or) Eat Your Vegetables! ... for Breakfast

It's high time I let the secret out...David pretty much makes the best soft-boiled egg you've ever nestled your fork into. What I love about his eggs are that you get the experience of a poached egg without all the fuss of chasing little tails of egg white through a pot of just-simmering water using a spoon that's slotted but not-too-slotted and gauging exactly when to take it out so it's runny but not raw... I'm getting worn out just thinking about it. David's eggs are perfect every time. Get your pencils, people, he's agreed to share his method.

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg

1. Start with a small pot of water. You want to bring it to a nice rolling boil with enough water to cover the egg.

2. Once you hit the "roll" (his term--for translation, insert "ing boil"), turn off the heat, wait for the big bubbles to settle, and carefully set your egg in the water using a spoon. Cover with lid.

3. Set a timer for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath with cold water and a couple of ice cubes in a small bowl. When the timer goes off, scoop your egg out and carefully place it in the bath for less than a minute--just to shock it to stop cooking. (David says you can run cold water over it, though the bath works better. The idea is that the shock of cold shrinks the egg, separating it from the shell.

4. Take the now-boiled egg and turn it fat-side-up. Gently tap in a circle around the fat end, then pry the shell off. Using either a knife or a spoon, slip your utensil between the shell and the white, gently loosening the shell. Once a decent bit of the shell is off, you can slip a spoon in there and scoop the egg out.

5. Voila! A sprinkle of salt, a piece of toast, and you've got breakfast!

Part 2: Eat your vegetables FOR BREAKFAST

As you'll notice, there's a hefty dose of spinach in my breakfast, pictured above. We've been trying to incorporate veggies into more of our meals lately, and I discovered this 5-minute breakfast technique that I genuinely look forward to. It's great with David's soft-boiled eggs, but if you've only got 5 minutes and one pan, this will do ya:

1. Take a generous handful of raw spinach and wash it. With the rinsing water still clinging to the leaves, toss them in a hot pan. Cover with a lid and allow to steam 1-2 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Once spinach is sufficiently wilted, take it out and put it on a plate.

2. With a wet paper towel, swipe the pan and spray it with pam or drop a small pad of butter in it. Crack and fry an egg to your liking. Place on top of spinach, season with salt and pepper--and my personal favorite--grate parmesan cheese over top.

Cauliflower + Blue Cheese Soup

BEFORE you write this post off because you don't care for either of the ingredients listed prominently in its title, let me assure you that this tastes strongly of NEITHER cauli or blue cheese. Rather, it is a rich, creamy marriage of the two that belongs in a fondue pot, not your soup bowl. But wait! It's not just a vat of cheese! You can eat it! 

Because I have recently developed a taste for blue cheese in small quantities and because Whole Foods recently had their Amish blue cheese on sale (wagons right there on the label and everything), I picked up a hunk and promptly started trolling the interweb for ways to use it. 

Thankfully, I quickly came upon this recipe on Epicurious (basically the online database for Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, plus some others). Their recipe serves four, this one will make about 2 hefty mugs-full: 

Cauliflower and Blue Cheese Soup

1/2 lb. cauliflower florets

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 small leek, chopped (white and light green parts only)

1/3 cup chopped celery

2 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 oz blue cheese

1 Tbsp white wine, sherry, or worcestershire 

First, you need to cook the cauliflower, which can be done in several ways. Either dump them in a pot of boiling water for about 8 minutes, until they're tender and drain. Or put them in a microwave-safe bowl with a little bit of water, cover with plastic and zap for about 4 minutes. Drain well. 

In a medium-large pot, melt the butter over medium heat, and add the onions, leeks, celery, and drained cauliflower. Saute until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the flour and cook 2 minutes. 

Slowly introduce the chicken broth in 3 additions, stirring to incorporate each time and scraping the bottom to get all that good brown stuff (*vocabulary alert = this is called the fond*) off the pot and into your soup. Add the milk and reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes. 

Transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and puree about a minute, until creamy. Return to pot and add blue cheese, whisking to melt. Add the wine or worcestershire, whatever you have around.

Serve with toasted bread. You'll be mentally whisked to a Swiss chalet where a man named Georg (pronounced 'gay-org')  is wearing a cable knit sweater and a pair of skis, yodeling instructions on how to put your money in an anonymous, tax-free account. It's that good. 

Canada, in cake form

Although I am a fan of Canada, I never really equate delicious cuisine with our nondescript brothers to the north. That is, of course, except for that sweet nectar of the lumberjack gods: maple syrup. I mean, who can't love a food product that is brought to your stack of pancakes via a spigot shoved into the side of a tree? It's ingenuity at its finest.

On a recent trip to Quebec, David and I quickly discovered that maple was their claim to culinary fame, and it made the menu rounds. I still vividly remember the melting maple candy I savored at one of many candy shops that received our patronage during our 2-day stay. That thing alone was worth the 14-hour round trip drive.

So the accidental cake I made this evening was a surprising throwback. Remember that maple applesauce I told you about recently? It's still sitting in the fridge. I know people like to sub out applesauce for butter in their baking sometimes, so I decided to join the party. I used a spice cake recipe from BH&G, and decided to also follow their recommendation to top it with browned butter frosting. Holy crap, people. The woodsy flavor of the browned butter plus the mapley sweetness of the spice cake??? Wrap me in flannel and ship me across the border, eh?

Maple-Applesauce Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

(makes 5 x 5 -- or equivalent -- size cake)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp baking powder

pinch baking soda

1/8 tsp each ginger and cloves

1-2 shakes of nutmeg

2 Tbsp butter, soft

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk, preferably room temp (or 2 Tbsp substitute)

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup maple applesauce

For the cake: preheat oven to 350º. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy, 20 seconds. Add sugar and beat until well combined and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add yolk and vanilla, beating until incorporated. Alternately add flour and applesauce until it's all in.

Pour into a greased and floured 5 x 5 (or other very small) baking receptacle. Bake about 20 minutes, checking the last 5 to make sure you don't overdo it. Cool on a rack.

Browned Butter Frosting

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp milk

Place butter in a small pan over low heat. Slowly cook until butter turns a "delicate brown". It will foam and you will smell it. Keep the heat low and your eye on it--I can't really give you a time on this one. It will take a couple of minutes.

In a bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Pour in browned butter and beat (electric mixers again) until a spreadable consistency that you like. If it seems dry, add milk 1 tsp at a time. If it seems wet, add powdered sugar 2 Tbsp at a time.

Pasta for Uno (or Due)

If I told you that you could have fresh, homemade pasta in LESS TIME than it takes to cook those wooden, dried skewers you're used to eating, would you believe me? Since dried pasta usually takes up to 10 minutes to cook, fresh pasta kicks its butt, with a mere minute-or-two cook time. And you can do all the prep while your water is coming to a boil. Well, there are a few caveats....you must have a pasta rolling machine and a little bit of counter space, and if you have a second pair of hands to help you, that's even better--it will cut your prep time (mathematically unsurprisingly) in half.

You just need some proportions is all. We're BIG fans of freshly rolled pasta up here, so much so that we do it probably once a week. It's so good all you need is a little butter and parm cheese and you've got a delicious (read: kissing my fingertips in exaggerated Italian gesticulations) meal.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Use whatever flour you want. Durum/semolina is traditional; all purpose works great; we like to go halfsies with some whole grain flours (spelt, barley, whole wheat, and kamut flours have all worked for us in the past). Just be sure to use about half regular white flour and half grain flour.
2. Throw in other stuff too. As you can (or maybe you can't because I'm a saaaad photographer) tell, we had lots of fresh thyme in the fridge, so I chopped it up and threw it in the dough. This is your chance to un-bland one of the blankest canvases in the food universe.
3. This multiplies pretty well (so just double to serve 2-3).
4. Speaking of which, it will also last up to 2 days in a zipper baggie in the fridge. So if you feel like pasta 3 days in a row, double up.

Homemade Egg Pasta

(Serves 1, generously)

1 egg

2/3 cup flour

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Throw all ingredients in a bowl and beat with a fork until combined (dough will be very shaggy and dry). Turn out onto the counter and knead 5 or 6 times, until you can form a pretty solid ball. It will be dense. If it's just absolutely too dry, sprinkle a little water (say, up to 1 Tbsp) on the dough while you knead. DO NOT over-water your dough. You'll end up with chewing gum instead of pasta.

Meanwhile, fill a small pot with water and put on stove to boil.

If you have time, let the dough hang out for about 20 minutes. If not, proceed to divide your ball into 4 chunks. Flatten slightly with your hand and begin running through pasta roller. You want to do it 7-8 times on the largest setting, folding dough in half between each run. It will seem like a tragically lost cause at first, but eventually you will end up with lovely sheets of dough. Once you've completed 8 rounds on the largest setting, turn the dial to the next-narrowest setting, running dough sheet through once on each number. If your machine is numbered like mine (1-7, 7 being the widest and 1 the most narrow), stop at 3. We found that when we went all the way to the end our pasta was almost nonexistently thin. Repeat with all four dough chunks.

If you do not have a pasta roller, break out the rolling pin. If you have the patience to roll that dough out into a super thin sheet (1/8-in), more power to you.

Finally, run the sheets through the cutter--we like the wide fettucini noodles--or cut sheets with a knife, you non machine-owning reader.

By now, your water is probably boiling. Drop your pasta into the water and push it around a little. Cook for 1-2 minutes (seriously, that's all!), then drain. Toss with a little olive oil and parmesan cheese -- not the powder, for the love of pete -- salt and pepper.

---

If you need a little more than just the noodles, get creative with what's in your fridge or pantry. We happened to have some brussels sprouts and leeks, which I sauteed, and some ground turkey, which I made delightful little meatballs out of (but this is another post for another day). Beans work nicely, leftover meats cut bite-size, you see where I'm going with this...

For a fuller meal, chop up some veggies and saute them until soft. Don't forget the garlic, people. Save that water your pasta cooked in, dip some out with a ladle and throw it in to your veggie saute pan. Instant sauce!

Coffee Cake Muffins

Ever woken up on a snowy morning with about 8 inches of powdery goodness on the ground outside and immediately thought "I must have something freshly baked, warm, and delicious for breakfast!" ? Today is just such a day, and I went straight to one of my favorite coffee cake recipes from Cooks Illustrated. Their recipe makes 12 delicious muffins; mine makes just 4.

Here's some tips on the recipe: (1) It calls for a food processor, which makes this easier, but is not necessary. I happen to have a mini prep machine, but you can chop those pecans with a big ole knife and mix the rest by hand. (2) It calls for 1 Tbsp (or about 1/4th) of an egg. You can beat an egg and dip out a Tbsp, or ---HERE'S A BIG SECRET ALERT -- buy some egg substitute and keep it on hand. I wouldn't use it for gooey stuff like cookies and custards, but it really makes no difference in cakes, breads, and other fluffy baked items. If you're doing a lot of dividing, egg substitute is a great thing, because eggs themselves are hard to split up.

Coffee Cake Muffins (care of Cook's Illustrated)

Makes 4

2 Tbsp pecans

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter, soft

1/3 tsp baking powder

pinch baking soda

3 Tbsp sour cream

1 Tbsp beaten egg or egg substitute

1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. In a food processor, blend pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon until nuts are about the size of sesame seeds. Remove from bowl of processor and set aside. (Alternately, finely chop pecans by hand and mix with brown sugar and cinn.)

In now-empty processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed. Add butter and process until incorporated, about 4 1-second pulses. (Alternately, cut butter into mixture.) Take out 1/4 cup of this flour-butter mixture and and add it to the pecan-brown sugar mixture. To the remaining flour-butter mixture, add baking powder and soda, pulsing to mix.

Stir together sour cream, egg and vanilla. Add to flour-butter mixture and pulse just until flour is moistened, 5 or 6 1-second pulses. Add streusel (pecan-brown sugar-flour mixture) to batter, RESERVING 3 Tbsp to sprinkle on top of muffins. Mix with a gentle hand.

Divide batter between 4 paper-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with reserved streusel. Bake for 15–18 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 7ish minutes.