My favorite recipes
When we went to Cheesetique the other day, AKT found a new Camembert that we’ve not tried: Camembert du Bocage. At least, the box lid was not in our collection so we had to get it. It was very good, of course. ‘Fabrique en Normandie’!
We also got Fontinella, a Wisconsin cheese similar to fontina, Grand Pardo Parmesean, and to fill the blue category, Gorgonzola a very nice blue cheese from Italian cows.
We were in Arlington, so stopped by Cheesetique, of course. We got a very nice sheep’s milk blue from Wisconsin named Little Boy Blue, because the girls liked the name. It is from Tony and Julie’s Hook’s Cheese Company.
Ok, it was from a box. But it was my first “homemade” king cake. I bought the mix for $6 at World Market. I was handy because all the purple, gold and green sugars came in the box. I mixed up the yeast dough in the food processor. You did have to wait for the yeast to rise 2 times, but otherwise it was easyish. I did have to make more glaze (powdered sugar, water and perhaps almond extract if I had it). It was much like a big cinnamon roll. We went to Ray’s Hell Burger in Rosslyn before. Michelle was in from San Francisco, and Mike from Norfolk. W, N, C and me, too. Mike got the baby. Next year, maybe I will try it really homemade–without the mix.
I stopped by Cornucopia in Bethesda and picked up some Italian cheeses
Buffalo Mozzarella – a very nice, full-flavored mozzarella, is very nice when drizzled with maple syrup
Cantala (sp?) – an aged Italian sheep cheese, rubbed with herbs. very nice
Asiago – very nice, but not as good as the one ‘imported’ from Italy by someone we know
I picked up a load of bread, which led to a bread “crisis” (we have too much bread here).
On the Food Network’s American website, I couldn’t find the recipe I remembered with Alton Brown making hollandaise in the blender. I did find it on the UK site as Basic hollandaise–perhaps because it has raw eggs? Since you soft boil the eggs anyway, you could probably get salmonella from them any way.
We didn’t even use half the sauce, and that dramatically cuts down on the fat / calories. If it keeps, we may use it on veggies for dinner.
For Eggs Benedict Florentine, add cooked spinach–my favorite.
Eggs Benedict adopted from Alton Brown
Recipe By : Alton Brown
Serving Size 4 Categories : Breakfast & Brunch
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
Eggs Benedict adopted from Alton Brown
Recipe By :Alton Brown
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breakfast & Brunch
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———– ——————————-
Hollandaise Sauce
2 large eggs — fresh, preferably organic or pasteurized
3 teaspoons lemon juice — fresh
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 dash salt
Poached Eggs
4 large eggs — fresh, prefer organic or pasteurized
4 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 whole English muffins, whole-wheat
2 slices Canadian bacon — julienned; or proscuitto
8 tablespoons spinach — chopped
ground pepper to taste
Put the egg yolk, lemon juice, and cayenne in a blender. Pulse a couple times to combine.
Put the butter in a small microwave safe bowl and melt in a microwave until just melted.
With the blender running, gradually add the melted butter into the egg to make a smooth frothy sauce. If the sauce is very thick, blend in a teaspoon of lukewarm water loosen it up.
Taste and add more lemon juice, as desired. Move immediately to a short, wide-mouthed thermos to hold for up to 2 hours. Reheat over low heat for 45 seconds.
Poached Eggs: Put 2-4 (4-ounce) custard cups in a 4-quart deep, straight-sided saute pan. Add 6 cups water or enough to cover the cups by at least 1/4-inch. Add the vinegar and salt to the water and put the pan over high heat. Heat just until the water begins to boil and the cups clatter against the bottom of the pan, 20 to 25 minutes.
Break the eggs, 1 at a time, into another custard cup. Pour the eggs slowly into each of the cups, timing them about 10 seconds apart. Cook for 5 minutes each.
Serve immediately or remove eggs from cups and transfer to an ice bath to stop cooking. Refrigerate for up to 6 hours in the ice bath. To reheat, bring water to a simmer, turn off the heat and add the eggs. WaIt 1 to 2 minutes or until warmed through.
Put the julienned Canadian bacon in 10-inch saute pan set over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through and beginning to turn lightly brown around the edges, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the bacon in the pan to keep warm until serving.
For each serving, put 2 small dollops of hollandaise on a plate and set 1/2 an English muffin on top of each dollop, plus 2 tablespoons for cooked spinach. Put a small amount of Canadian bacon on top of each half and top with 1 warm poached egg and drizzle with hollandaise. Repeat with remaining ingredients and serve immediately.
The newest gadget in our cheese arsenal: the Slicester™. Made by chef’n, and you can adjust the slice size. I got it at TJMax for $3.99.
We went across town to Wegman’s, a very large grocery store in/near Lanham. It’s only 12 miles away, but with no easy way to get there, it takes a good 40-50 minutes from DC. It’s in a megamall area with a Costco, Best Buy, Petco and more. They had 28 checkouts, a cafe, live music, a bakery and more — but we particularly went for cheese. We’d also read the Washington Post article, “‘Club Wegmans’ in Pr. George’s: Smooth jazz and smoother pickup lines” and seen a special on TV (and then we ended up meeting the chef, Joe Serock, there). We didn’t eat there, though, we went to the nearby Levis Restaurant for BBQ.
Anyway, while we were at the cheese counter AKT turned her back on me and I was unsupervised for a while (probably not a good idea). I found 5 very nice Italian cheese for tonight’s tasting. Wegman’s has a huge cheese selection, including some of the biggest wheels we’ve seen. They have a tasting table, but don’t seem to let you taste the cheese like the Calvert Woodley cheesemonger. However, they did cut several of the large pieces into smaller pieces for us.
We had so many cheeses, we invited neighbor L, who we discovered was also with NC Stat’s Wolfpack. L is a goat cheese fan, and she likes the goat cheese brie from Brookville that AKT likes. She isn’t as much into hard, aged cheeses–we will need to get her a triple-cream next time.
Vento d’estate, a cow’s milk cheese from Monfenera, a historical mountain in Treviso, Italy. Rolled in hay and aged in oak barrels buried in hay and herbs. The name means “summer wind”.
Pecorino Toscano oro Antico, a semi-hard pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheese brushed with olive oil during aging. From the Tuscany region of Italy. Aged one year.
Pecorino Ginepro, made from unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Aged for 4 to 6 months and rubbed with juniper berries and basalmic vinegar during aging.
Quadrello di Buffala, a washed-rind (stinky) buffalo milk cheese from Lombardia, Italy. Said to be like tallegio. We found it wasn’t that strong. It was good with the Olive Fougasse.
Gorgonzola mountain piccante is a cow’s milk blue produced in the Piedmonte and Lombardy regions of Italy. D.O.P Mountain Gorgonzola comes in two styles, the younger sweet, creamy Dolce, and the elder, stronger Piccante with its thicker, drier rind and punchier flavor.
Dreamy DressingBefore Christmas, we visited the Rockville, MD Penzeys to buy spices for gifts. Instead of their packaged sets, we made up sets of our own, and bought some fun bottles at World Market. We ended up with enough spice left that we got to keep some ourselves, including the Arizona Dreaming. It’s salt-free. Penzeys has some good spices, but some of their blends have too much salt and some of the soup mixes you may want to watch. The spices aren’t organic, but they are high quality. It’s fun to go into the shop and smell them all — oh, if they only had cooking classes…
This dreamy dressing was good, but we ended up more oil and vinegar–it was a bit thick.
Dreamy Dressing
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Salads & Dressings
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 tablespoon arizona dreaming spice
1 tablespoon water
1 whole jalapeno — finely minced
1/4 cup lime juice — fresh, 2 limes
1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup canola oil — mixed with olive good, too
Seed and chop the jalapeno roughly; put in blender. Cover with spiece, water, lime juice and honey.
Mince in blender; slowly add the canola oil.
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 114 Calories; 12g Fat (92.8% calories from fat); trace Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; trace Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
NOTES : A fresh and zesty salt-free dressing for all your favorite salads. For a creamy dressing, add 1-2 tablespoons sour cream. Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming spice has ancho chili pepper, black pepper, minced onion, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, cilanto, oregano, lemon peel, chipotle, coriander, fennel, anise seed, cayenne pepper, jalepeno, crushed red peppers, cocoa powder, korintje connamon, nutmeg, ginger, fenugreek, white pepper, cardamom seeds.
Each Valentine’s Day, WWT makes an entire meal–from appetizers to dessert–using carrots. This year he kept my classic carrot pudding, but there were many new recipes, too. The celebration wouldn’t have been the same without N.The cocktail was a mistic orange-carrot cocktail with vodka. Secret recipe, I guess, but what a pretty color. Not too sweet, but just right.
The Creamy Carrot Soup with Scallions and Poppy Seeds from Food and Wine 2010 was such a lovely shade of orange, too. He had it made up in advance, and we just re-heated and added some cream. (But it was fine without the cream, and I even made some chicken black bean soup with the leftovers later in the week).
NC N suggested the Prosciutto and Carrot Bundles, and oh, the basil and the marinated carrots were so fresh.
The main event: Carrot Macaroni and Cheese (also Food & Wine), with some changes: turkey sausage (about 1 cup) and gorgonzola and gruyere.
Carrot Pudding
Serving Size : 6
Categories : Desserts & Puddings
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
2 whole eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups carrots — finely shredded
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Beat eggs. Add sugar and milk and blend. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Pour into buttered baking dish and bake at 325 degrees for one hour or until firm.
If you use a bigger pan, it does change the texture.
Source: “Beth Tartan’s Cook Book 1964″
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 166 Calories; 9g Fat (47.8% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 92mg Cholesterol; 295mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
NOTES : W made for Valentine’s Day 2008. Continued 2009, 2010, 2011.