Savory Inspired Plated Dessert

The basil and candied pine nut ice cream was very good, but as with any ice cream it is better as an accompaniment to dessert. In this case I used white cake I'd had in the freezer (I toasted it slightly to refresh it) and just a drizzle of really good extra virgin olive oil. If I'd been planning this I'd have made Thomas Keller's madeline cake (I really must post about that, it is delicious) and some sort of citrus olive sauce, probably thickened with xanthan gum. Still, it was a delicious dessert--and not just for something thrown together on a whim.

Homemade Tortilla Chips ~ With Recipe

Here's something that would go nicely with the spring pea guacamole (or salsa, or sour cream, or plain...): fresh tortilla chips. These are so simple to make and so worth it!

Spring Pea Guacamole

A few weeks ago, the Internet, to use a technical term, freaked out over a New York Times recipe for guacamole with green peas in it. Apparently President Obama doesn't like the prospect of peas in his guacamole--and things spiraled from there. If you'd like to hear the whole story, you can check it out here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/dining/defenders-of-peacamole-step-up.html?_r=0.

Savory Palmiers

I've made plenty of sweet palmiers before but savory ones may actually be more enjoyable. They are extraordinarily simple to make; especially if you use store bought puff pastry. If you have the option, make sure you get all butter puff. This, I find, is really only an issue in the UK, but I suppose you never know. Speaking of British puff pastry, I find the store brand all butter puff sold at either sainsbury or waitrose (sorry, I don't quite remember which, though in a pinch I'd say waitrose) is brilliant. It's what I used to make the batch pictured above. It just puffs better than either brand (dalfour and pepperidge farm) that I've tried in the states. Plus it comes as a block rather than a sheet so you can roll it out to the right shape and thickness and you don't have to worry about the cracks you get with the sheets of puff.

Tomato Chickpea Dip

Since I just posted my Thai food, I figured I'd keep on the savory roll and post this. It's from ages ago, so I don't really have much to say, but here goes:

This is sort of like hummus, but fresher. It's lighter tasting but still somehow thicker than traditional hummus; I think the fresh tomatos make that possible. It's great with the fresh pita--light and healthy--but I wouldn't say no to having tortilla or pita chips with this. Alright, that's all I've got for you. I promise I'll be back with desserts and slightly more comprehensive posts soon!

Asian Cuisine

Have I mentioned that from time to time at work I teach cooking classes? Well I do! And I'm meant to be doing some Asian cooking (using premade sauces, thank goodness--I can make a soufle that doesn't fall, but don't ask me to make a curry sauce from scratch!)

Quinoa with Cranberries and Pecans

I like quinoa. It's delicious, with its slightly nutty flavor. The texture is good. And it happens to be a berry (or something of that nature) and therefore fits almost any dietary requirements. Also, I can never get non boil in a bag rice to come out properly, but I've never had a problem with quinoa. Finally, I find it more versatile than other grains. It works nicely with basil, a bit of lemon zest, and pine nuts; or black olives with a bit of crumbled feta; or as a base for grilled vegetables and falafel. But it can also be more on the sweet side, as with this recipe. In this case, all I did was toss in dried cranberries and toasted, chopped pecan after the quinoa was cooked. It makes a great side for a protein like turkey--perhaps a healthy addition to Thanksgiving dinner?--or, cold, a hearty addition to a baby spinach salad.

I feel as though I rambled through this a bit, apologies--I'm tired but determined to get this posted!

Mexican Food

I like Mexican food. It's fun and much of it is surprisingly healthy. Plus, as it turns out, it's much easier to make than I'd anticipated. I got to try out a couple Mexican recipes from Tyler Florance's new book, From the Test Kitchen, for work.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was just my mom and I for Thanksgiving this year so we made a relatively small meal. I say relatively because it's not a small meal by most people' standards but for us at Thanksgiving, it was practically minuscule. We had turkey--just the breast, no dark meat--stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, green bean casserole with porcini mushrooms and crispy onions, and biscuits. See? Only turkey breast, one potato, one bread, and no carrots or brussel sprouts. Not as bad as we could have been, right? Of course we had to save room of dessert. But only two desserts. Again, not as bad as we could have been. I'll write about them tomorrow-ish.

Almost-Healthy Breakfast Sandwich

I like breakfast for dinner--waffles, pancakes, french toast, etc. But of course one can't (or rather shouldn't) eat those things for dinner very often. So this is breakfast for dinner in a healthier fashion.

This is toasted Pullman bread with Dijon mustard and Parmesan spread (I made that), some crumbled cheddar (because you can't have too much cheese), crispy bacon, egg, and spinach. By the way, I fried the egg and, just before it was done, I broke the yoke so that it was still soft but not runny. It wasn't really as filling as it could have been for dinner, but I'd definitely do this for lunch in the future.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Cream Sauce

I have no kitchen at the moment. Well I have a kitchen, but it's terrible and only a few weeks from being gutted so I don't really want to use it very much. Hence my featuring pasta on here. It's good pasta, don't get me wrong. It's fresh pumpkin ravioli (store-bought not homemade), topped with chicken, and a nice (homemade) sage cream sauce. Sage and pumpkin go together so well. Yum!

Happy Bastille Day!

Yes, I know Bastille Day is in July. I completely forgot to post this...whoops.

I'm not French and, while I like France and speak a bit of French, I'm by no means a Francophile. But I really can't pass up celebrating a holiday that screams for French food (plus in London's Borough Market they have snail races and a full size guillotine slicing watermelons...how can you not get into the holiday?)

Passover Dinner

For those of you who don't know, on Passover you can't eat any leavened food. This includes any food made with flour that isn't prepared in a special way to ensure that it doesn't rise at all (that's why matzo is perferated like a cars cracker). There's all sorts of other categories of things you can't eat--legumes, for example--but generally if I can stick to unleavened food for the whole holiday, I'm happy.

Afternoon Tea for my Birthday

I love afternoon tea at the Berkeley in London. As tea goes, it not traditional and it's probably not the best taste-wise (not that it's not tastey, but sometimes they get so fancy they sacrifice taste just a bit), but it's still my favorite. It's the girliest tea ever and it's just so much fun! They base all their desserts off the latest runway styles and it's a hoot!

Two Pies for Pi Day

I'm sure I've mentioned that Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. If you haven't heard of it, Pi Day is so called because March 14th or 3.14 is, of course, the begining of pi. This year (since it is pi month--March 2014--and we get those so rarely) I made two pies, one savory and one sweet.

Wedding Reception Tea

Remember that wedding cake tasting we did? This afternoon tea was for that couple. Instead of the one cake, we catered an afternoon tea wedding reception for 30 people. For this afternoon tea, we served tea sandwiches and assorted desserts.

New Year's Eve "Party"

I was invited to New Year's parties, but I don't do New Year's parties. Ever. My family has a rule that you must wear stretch waist pants on New Year's Eve. We eat snacks and party food and go to bed at 12:01 (which is earlier than we normally go to bed, but that's not the point...) The point is, this year my mom, my friend Adriana, and myself stayed in and ate our way into the new year.

Thanksgivukkah

As I'm sure you heard, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlapped this year (on the 28th of November), a rare occurrence that (apparently) complicated things for American Jews who had to have celebrations two nights in a row. Since I'm currently studying in the UK, I had class on Thursday until 6:00pm, so no chance of a proper Thanksgiving regardless of the timing of Hanukkah. So we combined both celebrations and pushed them until Saturday so that our British family (who had to work Friday) could come over, enjoy the day, celebrate Hanukkah and, of course, eat lots of turkey.

Pumpkin, Sage, Brown Butter Loaf Cakes

As I mentioned, I have a new eCookbook. Since the orange yogurt cake and fig olive oil cake both came out so well I decided to try another recipe. Pumpkin, sage, brown butter loaf cakes seemed sufficiently autumnal for the end of September and I love any recipe that has "butter" right in the name.

There is something very dignified about these cakes that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it's the sophisticated flavor profile or maybe it's how perfectly these miniature loaves came out. It could possibly be the lack of glaze. I'm not sure. But whatever it was it made me feel as though these cakes (possibly sliced nicely) would be fit for a proper, English afternoon tea at a fancy hotel--you know, like the ones in the US that do traditional afternoon tea but with a distinctively American take on sweets.

Savory Onion Tart, the remake

Remember this? I first made this in culinary school and loved it so much I made it at home a couple times. One of those times happened to be for Sophie. That may have been a mistake. Ever since, she's been asking (nagging...begging...) me to make it again. If you don't remember it, basically it's a flakey, tender, buttery tart crust topped with sauteed onions, heirloom tomatoes, walnuts, and stilton.