Banana Bread for my Bro

One morning, at the suggestion of my mom, I decided to quickly throw together a loaf of banana bread to send to Brother John in Seattle (Funnily, my brother’s middle name really is John.) There really isn’t too much to tell. Naturally, the recipe came from The New Best Recipe, with one slight tweak, which was that I added to the top, prior to baking, for the purpose of creating a sugary, crispy crusty component, a whole bunch of brown sugar and some extra toasted walnuts. The recipe was pretty straightforward. It did include plain yogurt, which I had never used in banana bread before. A very snappy baking delight. But I actually don’t know just how delightful, as I’ve not yet heard how it was from dear Caleb. Soon, though, we shall make a determination as to its status… will it be on the menu?? We’ll just have to wait and see.

An Evening of Thai!

As I mentioned earlier, I was recently asked to cook a simple supper for a book club gathering, and it was requested that the food be Thai. With the help of Mrs. Kelly, who is an exceptionally good cook and organizer, I found a recipe online for Spicy Curry Noodle Soup with Sweet Potato and Chicken, which seemed like it would be suitable. Sheila also suggested a good salad dressing with Thai flavors for a wilted baby spinach salad. And, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, I decided on a Fallen Chocolate Cake for dessert. Pictured above is the spread at the dinner table, which I had no part in setting, but which I think is quite lovely.

Unfortunately, I didn’t stick around long enough to take any pictures of the soup after it was served and garnished, but I do have a few of the process. The recipe can be found at epicurious.com, and a lovely picture of a bowl of soup not mine, but probably quite similar in appearance to that which these ladies ate.

Because it was such a production, and because it was my first real catering job, I shall give you the blow by blow. The soup was relatively simple to make. I began by cooking in oil garlic, shallots, a little each of ginger and galanga root, lemongrass, curry powder, green Thai curry paste (I didn’t have the yellow the recipe called for), and spicy red chili paste in the bottom of a large pot until fragrant. I then added a lot of coconut milk and chicken broth, and some fish sauce, and brought it all to a boil. This was done a day ahead and refrigerated overnight.

Separately, and also a day ahead, I blanched snow peas and cooked cubed sweet potatoes and rice vermicelli noodles, which I then refrigerated along with the vegetables for garnish: red onion, sliced thin, green onion, and cilantro.

The day of book club, I boiled the broth and added the sweet potatoes and thinly sliced chicken thigh which cooked quickly. This was a new experience for me– I am a vegetarian and haven’t cooked much meat before, but this went pretty smoothly despite my worries.

Now for the salad. I dressed the baby spinach leaves fairly early in the day in order to let them wilt a bit– they seem to be easier to eat when they’ve had a chance to soften some. The dressing was of Sheila’s invention, and contained canola oil, natural peanut butter, ginger, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, and later after tasting it post-food processing, a couple handfuls of peanuts and some soy sauce. Although at first it tasted too citrus-y, when eaten with the spinach it turned out very well. I later added to the salad some mango, cucumber, and red onion, which looked very pretty pre-tossing.

Because the cake is meant to be eaten warm or at the very least, fresh, I timed it to be removed from the oven at the last possible moment. The soup too is designed for last minute assembly, so my mom helped me pack the peas, noodles, and garnish items in Ziplocs, and we put them with the salad and whipped cream (for the cake) in a large box to be transported to the party house. The cake remained in its springform pan, to be unmolded and dressed up later. The soup remained in my lap during the car ride, which proved tricky and a bit messy, since snowy roads do in no way make for a bump-free trip. But all arrived safely!

I later received word that the food was enthusiastically received and that there were recipe requests. I’ve been thinking it could be an outstanding summer job, if I organized well and could muster enough courage, and enough customers. Here’s hoping the next job goes as well as this one did.

Oh, and I can say for myself that the soup turned out well, because I did set some aside with no chicken so that Sheila, my dear consultant, could try some, and I got a bite as well. A winning recipe. Definitely Red Kettle material.

These ravioli were balanced perilously on the boring-exciting divide…

Luckily, we fixed them just before they fell into that deep and dark abyss…

On a couple of occasions, it has been decided that store-bought ravioli and tortellini can make an excellent meal, with only a little bit of sprucing. My take on the sprucing this time around(which you can see pictured here)was the addition of as much basil as I could get my hands on, chopped up, a whole bunch of Parmesan cheese (or goat cheese, which I’ve pretty much decided is good on everything) and some kind of soft-ish nut, like pine nuts, walnuts, or I suppose pecans, though I’ve not yet tried that (all toasted). And be sure to use plenty of butter. I do not stand for this leaving-out-the-grease business. No sirree.

This picture (which I couldn’t rotate, though I gave it my best effort… don’t hurt your neck, please, I just could never forgive myself) and that of the ravioli are from the dinner my mom and I had with a friend of ours who happens to be a graduate of Oberlin College, and who because she knew I was going there brought along her old co-op cookbook. It holds some recipes certainly representative of another era. Helen pointed out a hamburger and cheese casserole-ish dish, which I decided not to read.

Tapas!

This particular cooking endeavor I can take very little credit for– I was merely one of several contributors to this evening of good food. My mother and Mrs. Kelly and I decided one day that some night we should experiment in Spanish cooking, and so sure enough, soon we were making tapas! Sheila taught me all about how to make Tortilla Espagnol, which will certainly be on the Red Kettle menu, among many other things from the other night. The list of menu items on this particular evening included: Crostini of numerous varieties, the Tortilla Espagnol, broiled green beans with sea salt, stuffed mushrooms, several experimental appetizers involving cheese, and of course, olives (because what would any evening of good food be without olives??)

Featured above, top, then left to right:

Tortilla Espagnol: potatoes and onions cooked in a ton of olive oil, with beaten eggs poured over, in a casserole dish and popped in the oven.

Very thinly sliced Parmesan, topped with really high quality, syrupy balsamic vinegar.

Mushrooms, stuffed with Parmesan, garlic, and something else (I took no part in this– mushrooms are not my fave.)

A Spanish raw sheep’s milk cheese the name of which eludes me, topped with roasted red pepper and thyme.

In the upper photograph are some of the several renditions of Crostini we made using ciabatta, including some with winter squash-goat cheese-smoked sea salt-red pepper flake-roasted garlic-paste and topped with sliced figs, some with anchovies, capers, and roasted red peppers, some with pear-mustard jam, some with olive tapenade, and some with pesto and goat cheese.

Not pictured here, prosciutto and spicy pickled red pepper-wrapped mozzarella, and the broiled green beans with sea salt and tons of olive oil, which I, personally, think give French fries a run for their money. You know those money-laden French fries.

Things I learned (which I’d heard, but which it is important to experience for oneself):

1. Presentation ought to be high on the list of priorities, because who’d have thought cheese and balsamic vinegar could look so tasty — so much tastier — all lined up?

2. Tortilla Espagnol is perfect for a college-girl’s budget: potatoes, eggs, onions, and olive oil– a cheap and tasty meal that can look truly fab (see number 1).

3. (I kind of already knew this, but…) I want to go to SPAIN.

I’m done.

Quiche, take 2.

I decided to have another go at the quiche, but to change it up a bit, I made it with a potato crust, which I think should definitely be an option in the case of savory pie-like items at the restaurant. My mom has been making potato crust for a long time, but I’ve never made this quiche using her technique, so I thought I’d give it a try. It is very simple; if you’re interested, have a look below:

1 baking potato, grated (in the Cuisinart is easiest)

EVOO

Salt

After buzzing the potato in the food processor, use your hands to squeeze as much water as possible out of the potatoes, into the sink, and mix in some olive oil and salt, and anything else you think should be in the crust. Smash into the pie plate, and bake for about 5 minutes at something like 400 degrees to allow some more of the water to evaporate. After this step, add your filling as you would with a normal pie or quiche. Certainly different from the traditional flour crust, but equally yummy, and much less time consuming (and with much less potential for screw-up.)

Fallen Chocolate Cake

I have now made this cake twice, once for my mother’s book club, and once for the book club of a friend of hers, who hired me to cook for one of their gatherings, and it has worked nearly perfectly both times— it will definitely be on the Red Kettle menu. The recipe comes from, that’s right, the AMAZING New Best Recipe cookbook. This was my first time making a non-cheesecake cake using a springform pan, which we bought specially for it, for to try to remove it from a regular cake pan would be rawther difficult. My only hurtle came when I accidentally bought, for the second cake, unsweetened baking chocolate, rather than bittersweet. Luckily, I tasted a tiny piece of the chocolate I was chopping, and upon gagging discovered my mistake, at which time I promptly returned to the grocery store to make things right.

On both occasions, the cake was a hit. I strongly recommend it to all who enjoy chocolate. Simple and scrumptious.

Shopping in Seattle

Last weekend, I rode the 12 hours in the car to Seattle with my brother, Caleb, and mother to deliver Caleb back to school. While we were there, it was determined that we should do some shopping, particularly because I have been charged with the task of catering a party for some friends. The food is to be Thai and just hors d’oeuvres. I have been negligent with my photography, so there are fewer pictures than I would like.

My first foody experience was in a wee little place on Capitol Hill called Glo’s, very near where my brother lives, which serves only breakfast. They have really excellent Hollandaise, and truly supERB scrambled eggs and hash browns. High on MY list of favorite breakfast places, I’ll tell YOU.

Later, we walked down to the Pike Place Market, where we didn’t buy anything, but where it is so much fun to walk around because it is such a feasty for the EYES. Above and below are some pictures.

Pictured below, a great bakery, and close by, Sur Le Table, a famoose kitchen supply store:

Our last, and most important stop was at Uwajimaya market, which is like the Whole Foods of Asian food. I had a list of ingredients that can’t be found in Great Falls: lemongrass, kaffir leaves, Thai (Red) basil, galanga root, palm sugar, tamarind, Thai chilies, and glass noodles. We also bought spring roll wrappers and coconut milk for the better prices and selection. There were many rawther exotic-looking things that we didn’t find, like these really long mountain potatoes that a woman explained grow horizontally, three feet below ground, and these fruits that look like oranges from the top, but if you turn them sideways you’ll see that they are many-fingered and kind-of octopus-esque. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera for this. It was a great outing, especially after having gone out for really good Thai food the previous evening with my uncle in Bellevue.

I’m hoping I can get the Thai basil to last until I start making the food for the party, which isn’t ’til the end of the month. So far the menu is as follows: Thai corn cakes, spring rolls, grilled shrimp with some kind of Thai garlic-y sauce, these great things called Thai toasts, which usually involve pork but which I was taught to make with this meat-substitute called Smart Ground, which is very good, and for the meat eaters, some kind of skewer item involving chicken. I’m also planning on making several other Thai sauces and maybe a curry. Wish me luck!

What Quandary Cannot Quiche Quell?

Vanilla Cream Pudding

Welllll, I set out to make Vanilla Cream Pie two days ago, but soon realized that my granny would be over for and finished with supper long before the pie would have a chance to set up in the fridge, so I modified my plan. I would freeze the crust, save it for another day, and we would have pudding alone for dessert. And that, by gosh by golly, is what we did.

This was my debut at making pudding from scratch all on my lonesome (though I have helped my Grandmother Hill with her butterscotch pudding many a time), and I would say it was most certainly a success. My biggest concern as I started out was that it would lack the smoothness that I have come to expect from pudding, and that is easy to achieve with the Jell-O Packs. This was apparently unfounded, for my mother, who has become intent upon my quoting her on this blog of mine, remarked after tasting it, “Smooth, smooth, smooth,” and then, “I could eat this ’til I die.” Its nearly perfect texture I credit entirely to the magic cookbook whence came the recipe, fast becoming my standby, The New Best Recipe, which hasn’t failed me yet. I HIGHLY recommend.

But it must be said that however deliciously this pudding turned out (however far this pud from dud… hohoho), I think it would be greatly improved by a crust, and the one in the magic book, I can vouch is a very tasty one– but be sure to start on it early and watch your clock because unlike most crust recipes I’ve tried, this one involves a lot of fridge and freezer time (to prevent shrinkage in the oven).

The End.

New Year’s Mousse

Though it pains me to say it, I neglected to take any pictures of the chocolate mousse I made for our New Year’s Eve celebration, but I figure it still deserves an entry on the ol’ bloggerama.

Last summer, I had occasion to spend some time with a French family, the mother of which was famous for her exceptional chocolate mousse, which, it turns out, was very basic: eggs and chocolate. She inspired me to try the task myself. The recipe I used was quite a bit more complicated and came from my newest cookbook acquisition, The New Best Recipe, which some friends gave me to help with this project. From the editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, this book is the result of truly extensive testing and tasting. Their goal: to find the very best recipes of American home cooking, even if it takes them fifty tries on every dish to get there. The stories accompanying each recipe are a culinary education in themselves and have been of real interest to me in my cooking undertakings.

Based on these readings and my faint memory of Sylvie’s mousse, the inclusion of more ingredients such as butter or cream tends to make the mousse more buttery or creamy. SURPRISE! Although I suppose this complicates the palate’s experience and could distract from the choco-focus, I have always been a fan of the extreamely creamy. In any case, it seems it is a personal choice.

My other big question on the chocolate mousse front was about the use of raw eggs. According to The New Best Recipe, to heat the eggs to a high enough temperature as to kill the potentially dangerous bacteria would be to cook them, and thus, they suggest that if you are really worried, you should avoid any situation in which you might be required to make chocolate mousse at all. It was a risk I decided I was willing to take.

The mousse was a big hit, although for me, and a couple others, a full serving of it was a bit more than my stomach could handle after an already big meal. That may have been timing more than anything else, but I did consider the possibility of next time involving more whipped cream in the equation, as the book suggested. This would definitely make it creamier, and a bit less chocolaty. But whether easier for the stomach or not, I can’t yet tell.

And that’s the news from Lake Woebegone.