Hey bees and bears
I just downloaded Paul Deens new cookbook to my kindle and tried to make a popover. The recipe said I wouldget these light airy pillows that were hollow inside. What I got were these very eggy dense muffin looking things.I am not particulary pleased at this moment in time with Ms.Deen or her recipe :/
Oh well...win some and throw some right down the incinerator.
Off for now.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
the southern madness continues
I couldn't let the southern series pass everyone by without sharing a recipe for biscuits. So I picked a recipe that I really like. This is a Paula Deen recipe and you can't get more southern than Ms.Deen.The reason why I like it so much is because its super easy. I need to share though that these biscuits are super flakey and crumbly. So if you try to eat one right out of the oven I guarantee when you pick them up they will fall apart. They definately benefit from a rest. Since there is a lot of butter in this recipe (like an obscene amount) I suggest making them a mini-muffin size.
Ingredients
2 cups self rising flour
1 cup sour cream
2 sticks of melted butter (yea..I know what your thinking..but this type of stuff you don't eat everyday so lighten up)
Make a well in the center of the flour and add your wet ingredients and mix until combined. Don't overmix.
bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Try not to gobble these when they come out of the oven. They are better when they cool down. Hope you enjoy...next up cornbread!
Stay tuned :)
Ingredients
2 cups self rising flour
1 cup sour cream
2 sticks of melted butter (yea..I know what your thinking..but this type of stuff you don't eat everyday so lighten up)
Make a well in the center of the flour and add your wet ingredients and mix until combined. Don't overmix.
bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden.
Try not to gobble these when they come out of the oven. They are better when they cool down. Hope you enjoy...next up cornbread!
Stay tuned :)
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Monday, December 19, 2011
my southern table
Hello bees and bears..thanks for tuning in today. I'm so excited to present to you the second recipe in the southern series. Mac-n-cheese often graces many southern tables. I decided today to do a lighter version. I'm doing a cauliflower mac-n-cheese. By replacing half the pasta with cauliflower we can save some calories for our desert.
Ingredients
2 cups of cauliflower florettes
2 cups or macaroni or baby rigatoni. ( I personally like pasta with ridges..I think it holds the sauce better)
1 cup shredded chedder cheese
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
2 cups whole milk
Ground nutmeg or mace
Salt and black pepper
I personally like to roast my cauliflower under the broiler so it gets some nice charring on it. It adds some really good flavor to an otherwise bland vegetable. But if you want to boil it until tender go right ahead. Your choice. If you want to roast it, cut your florettes into same size bites, drizzle with olive oil and season with a good size pinch of salt and pepper. Roast under the broiler at 400 for 20 minutes..but make sure you keep an eye on it. You don't want it burnt. You just want some nice toasty charred goodness
Make about 2 cups worth. Boil your pasta and undercook by 2 minutes. Set both to the side
melt your butter in a medium saucepan and add the flour. Whisk together. Its going to look pastey. This is normal. Continue to whisk for a few minutes. You want to get rid of that uncooked flour taste but don't overcook. You don't want the flour mixture to be anything darker than a pale blonde. While still whisking add your whole milk slowly. They key to this is to keep whisking. Whisk the living daylights out of it until all the milk is incorporated. It will thicken up and when it does add a teaspoon of salt. 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1/2 tsp of mace or nutmeg. I like using mace which is actually the hard outer covering of the nutmeg. I think the flavor is better. You can swap mace for nutmeg in any recipe,just cut the measurement in half. Add your shredded cheese and whisk until melted. Now make sure you taste and adjust the seasoning as you go. Take a casserole dish and just give it a little spritz of fat free cooling spray. Take a half a cup of your cheese sauce and spread on the bottom of your dish. Put half the cauliflower and half the pasta down over the sace and pour more sauce on top. Layer the rest and pour the remainder of the sauce on top. Top with some extra shredded chedder and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until nice and melty. You can do toasty breadcrumbs on top or those french fried onions in the can as well if you want some added texture. But I think the roasted cauliflower adds enough. If you choose to use boiled cauliflower definately add a crunchy element on top. If your not fond of chedder than by all means use a good shredded pecorino romano cheese in your sauce. I always have a big block of romano in my fridge for shredding. Don't use the pre-grated one. A fresh block lasts longer and just tastes better.
So I hope your inspired to try my new take on a southern classic!
Off for now my lovelies!
Ingredients
2 cups of cauliflower florettes
2 cups or macaroni or baby rigatoni. ( I personally like pasta with ridges..I think it holds the sauce better)
1 cup shredded chedder cheese
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
2 cups whole milk
Ground nutmeg or mace
Salt and black pepper
I personally like to roast my cauliflower under the broiler so it gets some nice charring on it. It adds some really good flavor to an otherwise bland vegetable. But if you want to boil it until tender go right ahead. Your choice. If you want to roast it, cut your florettes into same size bites, drizzle with olive oil and season with a good size pinch of salt and pepper. Roast under the broiler at 400 for 20 minutes..but make sure you keep an eye on it. You don't want it burnt. You just want some nice toasty charred goodness
Make about 2 cups worth. Boil your pasta and undercook by 2 minutes. Set both to the side
melt your butter in a medium saucepan and add the flour. Whisk together. Its going to look pastey. This is normal. Continue to whisk for a few minutes. You want to get rid of that uncooked flour taste but don't overcook. You don't want the flour mixture to be anything darker than a pale blonde. While still whisking add your whole milk slowly. They key to this is to keep whisking. Whisk the living daylights out of it until all the milk is incorporated. It will thicken up and when it does add a teaspoon of salt. 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1/2 tsp of mace or nutmeg. I like using mace which is actually the hard outer covering of the nutmeg. I think the flavor is better. You can swap mace for nutmeg in any recipe,just cut the measurement in half. Add your shredded cheese and whisk until melted. Now make sure you taste and adjust the seasoning as you go. Take a casserole dish and just give it a little spritz of fat free cooling spray. Take a half a cup of your cheese sauce and spread on the bottom of your dish. Put half the cauliflower and half the pasta down over the sace and pour more sauce on top. Layer the rest and pour the remainder of the sauce on top. Top with some extra shredded chedder and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until nice and melty. You can do toasty breadcrumbs on top or those french fried onions in the can as well if you want some added texture. But I think the roasted cauliflower adds enough. If you choose to use boiled cauliflower definately add a crunchy element on top. If your not fond of chedder than by all means use a good shredded pecorino romano cheese in your sauce. I always have a big block of romano in my fridge for shredding. Don't use the pre-grated one. A fresh block lasts longer and just tastes better.
So I hope your inspired to try my new take on a southern classic!
Off for now my lovelies!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Saturday, December 10, 2011
can a jewish girl from forest hills cook southern food?
..and make it vegetarian? When I
think about southern cooking, visions of ham hocks, man-n-cheese and bacon dance in my head. But 10 years ago I swore off eating all things that had legs, or made a sound. It certainly limits me sometimes. This is probably why I lean more towards ethnic cuisines such as indian or tai. Even chinese caters more towards a plant based diet.
However I love the homey-ness of southern comfort food. So its my mission (at least todays mission) to prepare a menu stellar enough to be served on any southern table. Of course mac-n-cheese always comes to my mind..but I'm trying to eat a little healthier these days. So I'm not sure exactly how much mac-n-cheese Ill be eating lol. Visions of Paula Deen saying "I looove my butter yaul" dance in my head as I read through her recipes. What's a struggling weight watcher member to do. I'm going to try to focus on the vegetables and healthy grains. (But of course splurge on desert)
The first course in my southern series is an appetizer of fried green tomatoes with a chipotle dipping sauce. This is so stereotypically southern I couldn't resist. It even has a movie named after it. And they are easy. I don't have a deep fryer so I do mine in. A regular frying pan. I guess it makes me feel a little better about eating something fried if its done in a shallow pan lol
Fried green tomatoes
4 medium green tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Self rising flour
Buttermilk
Slice your tomatoes about an 1/8th of an inch thick. Salt them and let them sit for about 30 minutes. This will allow for the salt to pull the water out of them. Nothing worse than soggy tomatoes. After you've drained them. Pat them dry and sprinkle with black pepper. At this point you'll want to start getting your oil hot. I like vegetable or canola. Just remember you don't want to put too many in your pan at one time. Too many tomatoes in your pan will bring down the temperature considerably. They will take forever to get GBD (golden brown and deliscious), thus resulting in oily tomatoes. Oily tomatoes do not kick ass. So make a note...NO OVERCROWDING. Tomatoes need room.
Ok...when your oil is nice and hot, take a tomato and dip it in the buttermilk and then dredge it in the self rising flour and into the hot pan. Fry until Golden.
Chipotle dipping sauce
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt (not vanilla..I said plain!)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce chopped. Remove seeds and ribs to tone down the heat
1 tbs of adoba sauce from peppers
2 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
Mix everything together and put in the fridge. This sauce tastes better when you let the flavors marry.
I hope you like and try this recipe..and please stay tuned for my next southern recipe. Off for now boys and girls!!
think about southern cooking, visions of ham hocks, man-n-cheese and bacon dance in my head. But 10 years ago I swore off eating all things that had legs, or made a sound. It certainly limits me sometimes. This is probably why I lean more towards ethnic cuisines such as indian or tai. Even chinese caters more towards a plant based diet.
However I love the homey-ness of southern comfort food. So its my mission (at least todays mission) to prepare a menu stellar enough to be served on any southern table. Of course mac-n-cheese always comes to my mind..but I'm trying to eat a little healthier these days. So I'm not sure exactly how much mac-n-cheese Ill be eating lol. Visions of Paula Deen saying "I looove my butter yaul" dance in my head as I read through her recipes. What's a struggling weight watcher member to do. I'm going to try to focus on the vegetables and healthy grains. (But of course splurge on desert)
The first course in my southern series is an appetizer of fried green tomatoes with a chipotle dipping sauce. This is so stereotypically southern I couldn't resist. It even has a movie named after it. And they are easy. I don't have a deep fryer so I do mine in. A regular frying pan. I guess it makes me feel a little better about eating something fried if its done in a shallow pan lol
Fried green tomatoes
4 medium green tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Self rising flour
Buttermilk
Slice your tomatoes about an 1/8th of an inch thick. Salt them and let them sit for about 30 minutes. This will allow for the salt to pull the water out of them. Nothing worse than soggy tomatoes. After you've drained them. Pat them dry and sprinkle with black pepper. At this point you'll want to start getting your oil hot. I like vegetable or canola. Just remember you don't want to put too many in your pan at one time. Too many tomatoes in your pan will bring down the temperature considerably. They will take forever to get GBD (golden brown and deliscious), thus resulting in oily tomatoes. Oily tomatoes do not kick ass. So make a note...NO OVERCROWDING. Tomatoes need room.
Ok...when your oil is nice and hot, take a tomato and dip it in the buttermilk and then dredge it in the self rising flour and into the hot pan. Fry until Golden.
Chipotle dipping sauce
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt (not vanilla..I said plain!)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce chopped. Remove seeds and ribs to tone down the heat
1 tbs of adoba sauce from peppers
2 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
Mix everything together and put in the fridge. This sauce tastes better when you let the flavors marry.
I hope you like and try this recipe..and please stay tuned for my next southern recipe. Off for now boys and girls!!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Monday, December 5, 2011
tip of the moment #4
You're probably wondering why there's a hard boiled egg in my collards. If you place an egg in your collards and hard boil it their it will draw out the bitterness. It also works when your making scratch tomato sauce as that tends to be a bit bitter too. So when your makin greens or sauce..throw an egg in there..you can eat it the next day or have a snack while your cooking :)
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Friday, December 2, 2011
the best soup ever
...has to be the tomato pesto quinoa soup from Wholefoods. For those of you who don't know, quinoa is the only grain that is also a complete protein. It looks like little tiny round seeds. Comes in red or white and cooks up just like rice. When cooked the seed pops open and exposes a little tiny curlyque thingamajiggy. (That's a technicle term you know). You can add things to it to make it a little interesting and it will take on the flavors that you put with it. I decided to make my own version of this soup. What really makes this soup pop is the pecorino cheese in it. I would probably substitute pecorino because that's what I have on hand. Pecorino is saltier than parmesan so I could probably get away with much less and get maximun flavor.
Ingredients
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (san marzano if possible)
1 can of tomatoe puree
1/2 vidalia finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped spinich
4 cups of water
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/4 cup prepared pesto
1/2 cup finely grated pecorino
Salt and pepper to taste
This is super easy to do and I recomend you do it in a slow cooker. Sautee your onions and spinich in a bit of olive oil until onions are translucent. Transfet to your slow cooker and add all your ingredients except the pecorino. That I would add at the end. Serve this soup with either garlic bread or a grilled cheese sammy. Or eat it alone...of course I would never eat this alone..lol
I don't have my own pics of this soup but this is the wholefoods soup that inspired me to try to re-create it
Hope your inspired to try this soup!
Off for now!
Ingredients
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (san marzano if possible)
1 can of tomatoe puree
1/2 vidalia finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped spinich
4 cups of water
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/4 cup prepared pesto
1/2 cup finely grated pecorino
Salt and pepper to taste
This is super easy to do and I recomend you do it in a slow cooker. Sautee your onions and spinich in a bit of olive oil until onions are translucent. Transfet to your slow cooker and add all your ingredients except the pecorino. That I would add at the end. Serve this soup with either garlic bread or a grilled cheese sammy. Or eat it alone...of course I would never eat this alone..lol
I don't have my own pics of this soup but this is the wholefoods soup that inspired me to try to re-create it
Hope your inspired to try this soup!
Off for now!
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)