Egg salad

As you read this, I'm riding a train to Leukerbad, in the Western side of Switzerland, where I'll spend a couple of days skiing and hanging out at the beautiful thermal baths. In case you are wondering, no, I'm not always on vacation, as one of my friends said the other day. It's just a little weekend getaway, which will make the coldest days of the year easier to bear. I know it may sounds a little crazy to go to the mountains during the chilliest week of them all, but I'd rather be cold ina place where nbeing in cold weather is fun, rather than freezing my ass off by the lake, with the humidity killing me and making me shiver to bone.

Before leaving I didn't bothered going grocery shopping, so I had to get a little creative with my lunches. Egg salad sandwich sounded like a good idea - I hadn't had the stuff since I left the U.S. in April of '10 - so I improvised with what I had in the fridge. It turned out great, exactly what I had in mind: to make it low fat, I used yogurt instead of mayo, added some paprika for flavor and capers and for saltiness.

EGG SALAD:

1 hard boiled egg, minced
1 tablespoon of capers, minced
2 small pickles, minced
2 tablespoons minced onion
Salt and paprika, to taste
3 tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt (or more if you need it)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.

Asian lettuce wraps

                   

Happy Dragon year everyone!

I thought I'd take a little break from posting travel pictures and post a recipe, just to remind myself 8and all of you) that this still is a cooking blog after all. Travels are cool, but unfortunately I don't travel every day. On the other hand, I do tend to cook on a daily basis, especially in the winter, especially when I'm trying to get back in shape after over two months of food and drink orgies.

Since the world is celbrating the Chinese new year, I thought I'd cook one of my favorite Asian recipes, one that I used to eat at PF Cheng's when I lived in Florida. I know, Cheng's isn't exactly a real Chinese joint, but their lettuce wraps rocked and they are light enough and veggie packed enough to satisfy both my weight loss challenge and my healthy habits- eat more veggies! challenge.

So here it is. Maybe not the most adventurous Chinese recipe, but a good, solid one.

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

1 pound ground chicken

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon siracha

1 tablespoon sweet and sour sauce

To serve:

Lettuce leaves

Bean sprouts

Shredded carrot

Shredded cabbage

Cooked brown rice

Heat a non stick skillet or a wok. Mix soy sauce and next 4 ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken to skillet and stir to crumble. Pour sauce over it and cook for about ten minutes, until chicken is done. If the meat should get dry, add a little more sauce. I added siracha because I love the heat it gives to the dish!

When chicken is done, cover and remove from stove.

Serve with lettuce leaves.



My famous homemade pate'

Ok, so my homemade pate' is not actually that famous, the only thing that it's famous for is that it disappears at the speed of light every time I make it. At some parties I didn't even get to try a bite of it because it was gone so fast. Not joking. What's the secret? Easy. First of all I don't tell anyone that it's made with chicken livers. At least not until they have tried it and loved it. I'm not sure why, but most people seem to have a big problem with chicken livers, so why tell them? Second, I use a lot of butter. I can't stress this enough: if you are going to make pate' you have to use tons of butter. There's no other way around it. No making it "light". Unless you want your pate' to suck, that is.

So here's the recipe. I usually serve it along with cranberry sauce or some other type of berry jam, but it's also good on its own, with a slice of bread.

HOMEMADE PATE'

One onion
1 pound chicken livers
1 spoon of capers
Butter at room temperature

A shot of brandy
1 glass of broth
Salt and pepper
Fresh thyme

In a pan, sauté the finely cut onions in butter until soft and add thyme and the liver ready cleaned and washed. Sauté them until browned. Add brandy and cook for 20 minutes on low heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Let everything cool. Add capers and place in a food processor. 

Process, adding butter one tablespoon at the time until you reach a smooth consistency. Pour in a loaf pan, cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.  

Eat your Brussels sprouts!

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was great, filled with amazing food and even more amazing friends. It's hard to cook for 19 people, especially in a tiny kitchen, but with my mom's help and two days worth the cooking we managed to serve a turkey meal that everyone enjoyed. Company, of course, was lovely too and it was a pleasure to see everyone loving the food so much. 

The turkey is all gone. All of it. And so are most of the side dishes, except for the stuffings (but that's not a problem. I love stuffing.) I was afraid Brussels sprouts were not going to be overly popular because, let's be honest, they usually aren't. But dressed up with pancetta, shallots and garlic they were much better than usual... they actually had flavor, which isn't their strong suit. Pancetta makes everything better in my opinion, kind of like butter. So if you are wondering how to make Brussels sprouts that don't suck... here's the recipe, adapted from Cooking Light, the November issue.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PANCETTA AND SHALLOTS

• 6 slices center-cut bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced shallot (about 1 large)
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and sauté for 5 minutes or until bacon begins to brown. Stir in shallot, and Brussels sprouts; sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic, and saute for 4 minutes or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes or until the broth mostly evaporates and the sprouts are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in salt and pepper.

Cornbread stuffing with sausage, apples and fennel

 It's almost 5 pm now and I have made some progress. I'm actually proud of myself, since I have baked two batches of cornbread, made homemade pate', cranberry sauce and, last but not least, this wonderful stuffing. 

Making this was actually one of the easiest tasks today. I mean, between finding the freaking turkey - which is hard to come by whole in Switzerland - and making the cornbread, I'm already exhausted. It's a lot of cooking, I'll tell you. And right now I'm baking a pumpkin cheesecake, which is particularly stressful for me because I hate baking and I hate making dessert. So you can figure how much I hate BAKING DESSERT. 

Anyhow, here's the recipe for the stuffing, which I have tried and is delicious. Trust me, it doesn't get much better than this!

CORNBREAD STUFFING


Cooking spray
2 links hot Italian sausage
10 ounces frozen pearl onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 small red Michigan apples, skin on, chopped
1/2 large fennel bulb, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 loaf cubed cornbread (about 8 cups)
2 eggs
1 cup chicken broth

In a large skillet brown the sausage in its own fat, crumbling with a wooden spoon. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add frozen pearl onions and sprinkle with brown sugar. Cool until the onions are tender and sugar has dissolved, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add celery, fennel and apple (I left the skins on for color, but you can remove them if you like.) Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with thyme and cook for about ten minutes.

Spray a 10x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Mix vegetable mixture and bread cubes in it. In a small bowl beat the eggs into the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over bread and veggie mixture, toss to coat. Bake in a 400F oven for 45 minutes.

Skillet cornbread

Here I am, on Thanksgiving Eve (does that even exist?), trying to make stuff ahead so I don't lose my mind tomorrow like I did in 2008, break my knee like I did in 2009 or end up with food even in my hair like I did in 2010. You live, you learn, they say. We'll see. 

As of now, it's 11 am on Wednesday and I've already baked cornbread for my gluten-free stuffing. That's all folks. It's not like I'm crazy ahead, but in the next few hours I'm going to crank out some serious food... at least the appetizers, the stuffing and the cranberry sauce.

I'll keep you all posted. Hope you are having a great almost-holiday weekend =)

A funny note: buttermilk doesn't exist in Switzerland. Or if it does they hide it so well I couldn't find. So my day started by having to make buttermilk, which is not complicated, you just mix a scant cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice... but it kind of makes you think about the challenges ahead.

SKILLET CORNBREAD

• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil 
• 2 cups buttermilk 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 
  

• Coat bottom and sides of a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with bacon drippings; heat in a 450° oven for 10 minutes.
• Whisk together buttermilk and egg. Add cornmeal, stirring well.
• Stir in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour batter into hot skillet.
• Bake at 450° for 15 minutes.

Goat cheese appetizer balls

It seems like yesterday that I was thinking about Thanksgiving being two months away. And now it's here. Only two days away. Of course I havn't even started cooking or prepearing for it, mostly because this working full time thing has kind of gotten in the way ;-) Since Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Europe I had to take the day off and, while I was at it, I also took tomorrow off, so I have two days to prepare the feast! I have to say that I'm super excited about cooking. I hadn't really noticed it, but since I've started working I have been cooking less than I used to and I really, really miss it.

It sounds a little crazy, but it's true.

So tonight I'm baking cornbread that I will use for the stuffing, so that my celiac friend can eat it too. Tomorrow I'll make what can be made ahead: my famous homemade patê, a pumpkin spread for my vegetarian friend and, most likely, the pumpkin cheesecake I intend to serve as dessert. Thanks to Debbie at Feast for the eyes I will also make the gravy ahead. That way on Thursday I only have to make the turkey and the side dishes. Sounds like a good plan, right? We'll see if I actually follow it through. I'm famous for not following through, so chaos and disorder are always around the corner...

Anyhow... if you are looking for an easy to make and cool to look at appetizer, here's a recipe for you!

GOAT CHEESE APPETIZER BALLS

2 goat cheese packages

2 tablespoons ground almonds

EVOO, 1 tablespoon

2 teaspoons honey

Salt and pepper

Mix cheese, oil, honey in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Place in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Using your hands make balls out of cheese mixture. Dredge them into ground almonds.

Serve with a honey drizzle over it.

A guest post: gluten free carrot cake

I'm proud to announce a guest post for today. Last week, I was checking out Facebook while at work and saw that my coworker Samantha had posted a picture of a gorgeous looking carrot cake on her profile. Later that day, she showed up in the newsroom with a generous amount of it and she put it on the meeting room table for us to try while we discussed news and pages. It was delicious. And, to my amazement, it was gluten and butter free. So I asked her to write a post on my blog and she graciously accepted. So here she is and here's her recipe:

"As soon as I found out I couldn’t eat any wheat anymore I felt desperate. I thought it was a complete nightmare, also because I love every kind of baked sweets. Ok, after a few months I have to admit it’s not actually nice, but from that day I tried to cook my own dishes a little more and discovered that gluten-free food can be delicious as well. I tried many carrot cake recipes but this is my favorite, both because it’s really simple to make and because the result is great. That’s why I’m writing this post for my new colleague and I’m really honored to!"

Ingredients

300 gr (10 ounces) carrots 

300 gr (10 ounces) grated almonds

300 (10 ounces) gr sugar

80-100 gr (3.5 ounces) gluten-free flour (or simply white flour)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

grated lemon rind

Eventually, to decorate:

icing sugar

marzipan carrots

Peel and grate the carrots. Mix them with the grated almonds, the sugar and the lemon rind. Add the eggs and stir. Finally add the flour and the baking powder and keep mixing for a couple of minutes. That’s it, you can now put the mixture in an oiled  baking pan (no matter what shape, I actually like ring shaped cake). Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes at 175° (aria calda). When the cake got cold, you can decorate it with icing sugar and marzipan carrots or with a lemon frost made with water, lemon juice and icing sugar. Enjoy!

Vegetarian pad thai

I've recently became a tofu eating freak. Don't get me wrong, thre's nothing wrong with eating tofu, or with being a freak for that matter. The wierd thing about my tofu eating habit is that I have loathed tofu for so long, I was actually famous for campaining against "that cardboard-like crap". I would tell to everyone that listened to me that never would I dream of ruining a perfectly good dish by putting tofu in it. And so on.

The problem, if you are wondering what my problem was, is that the only way I had ever had tofu was in miso soup and, let's be honest, when you eat it like that it doen't taste like much. And I find that the broth makes it kind of slimey too, which is not my favorite consistency in the world.

I had to go to a Japanese restaurant in Milano to change my mind. There, because of a mistake, they brought me a noodle dish with tofu instead of chicken. What a revelation. Because it was sauteed in spices and condiments, it was actually yummy. There and then I decided that tofu would become part of my diet. I bought it shortly afterward and tried my first tofu recipe at home, adapting a Cooking Light pad thai recipe. Success!

VEGETARIAN PAD THAI

Sauce:

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons apple vinegar

1 to 2 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon honey

Noodles:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (about 5 ounces)

1 cup matchstick cut zucchini 

1 garlic clove, minced

8 ounces extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup light coconut milk  

1 cup (1-inch) sliced green onion tops

1 cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 cup dry-roasted peanuts

8 ounces uncooked wide rice stick noodles (Banh Pho), cooked and drained

5 lime wedges

To prepare sauce, combine first 4 ingredients, stirring with a whisk.

To prepare noodles, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add sauce and tofu; cook 1 minute. Stir in coconut milk; cook 2 minutes. Stir in green onions and next 3 ingredients (lettuce through noodles); cook 1 minute.

Serve with lime wedges.

Homemade tomato sauce

There's tomatoes and then there's Tomatoes, with a capital T. The Tomatoes one of my coworkers brought to work yesterday definitely belong to the latter category. Fresh, plump, pretty much just-off-the-plant. My coworker's father grows them (along with other vegetables) in his garden and they are absolutely delicious. They were extremely ripe so I decided to turn them into tomato sauce right away, before it was too late. Making tomato sauce is not something I do very often, but when I do I enjoy every second of it, mostly because the whole house smells amazing five minutes into it.

Fresh tomatoes, onions, extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, salt and a little crushed red pepper. That's it. That's my recipe for perfect tomato sauce. Of course there's a gazillion different ways to make sauce, as many as there are Italian (and non-Italian) cooks. But this is the way I made it. And, believe me, it was amazing. I'm looking forward to using it all week long to cook several dishes I already have in mind.

Note: I don't peel my tomatoes to make sauce because I actually like the way the sauce stays thicker that way, but you are free to peel them if you prefer.

HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE

10 large tomatoes

2 onions, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt, to taste

Crushed red pepper, to taste

A bunch of fresh basil

Place whole tomatoes and chopped tomatoes in a large dutch oven, pour some olive oil on top, season with salt and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, breaking the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as they become soft. 

When tomatoes have cooked for about half hour, season with crushed red pepper, torn basil and toss it in the sauce. Cook for ten more minutes. Turn the heat off and let cool. Use sauce for pasta, pizza or whatever other dish calls for tomato sauce.

Herbed roasted chicken with root vegetables

There's something in the air. Mornings are brisk, and so are nights. Alas, the end of summer is near. The days are still bright, sunny and warm, yet you can tell that in a month or so, it will be over. It will be time for coats and socks and autumn ingredients.

When I was little, I used to be kind of glad when summer was over. It meant going back to school, but it also meant that my birthday was coming up, that I would be able to play with my best friend again, that ski season was approaching fast.

Last year I was even more excited. It was my first "real" fall after nine years of Florida. I was thrilled to see the leaves going yellow and reddish and brown. I couldn't wait to put on my winter clothes and spend evenings reading in front of the fire.

This year, things are a little different. I've found myself more than once wishing summer could last a little longer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that while last year I traveled a lot between June and Spetember, this year I only went to Greece for a week. Which was fabulous, of course, but didn't last long enough.

Enough with the whining, though.

To get ready for the change of season I'm slowly incorporating "fall" recipes in my diet, so that when tomatoes and basil are no longer tasty and delicious it won't be too much of a shock.
Which brings me to today's recipe: an easy, simple roasted chicken with root vegetables, with a kick: the bird is smothered in fresh herbs. Just to make summer last a little longer ;)

HERBED ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ROOT VEGETABLES

1 whole chicken
1 lemon, quartered
Salt and pepper
1/2 stick of butter
Fresh herbs, such as basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 glass dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400F.

Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper, then place quartered lemon into it. Truss chicken.

In a food processor pulse butter and herbs until you obtain a smooth paste. Being careful not to rip the skin, place a little herbed butter between the skin and the breast, then use rest to rub chicken all over. Season with salt and pepper.

Place chicken in a oven safe baking dish. Scatter chopped vegetables around it. Pour wine and broth into baking dish.

Cook for 45 minutes in preheated oven. Should the top of the chicken brown too fast, cover with foil.