Archive for the 'one dish' Category
Dinner was lunch today, as I ate before heading to CBC and then went more or less straight to Julliard to celebrate my brother in law’s graduation, where we had drinks and snacks and cake, not really dinner per se, so again I’m falling back on what was technically my last meal of the day. It was hot enough this afternoon to turn my baggie of chocolate covered pretzels into a bag of pretzels in chocolate sauce in the car, so there was no actual cooking. Fortunately I just came up with this new salad - a cross between pan bagnat (pan ban-YAH) - a sandwich from the south of France made with tuna, olives, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs - and a panzanella salad, which is based on torn up chunks of bread, rather than lettuce, potatoes or other vegetables or grains. The bread soaks up the dressing, and creates a more substantial base; it’s kind of like tearing up your sandwich into chunks and eating it with a fork.
If you want to drizzle the torn bread chunks with oil and toast them they will turn out more like croutons; Jamie Oliver has a similar salad onto which he sets a softly poached egg, whose yolk then dribbles over the greens and mingles with the lemony dressing. That’s definitely on my to-eat list for next week.
Pan Bagnat Panzanella (Salad)
1/2 loaf crusty bread or baguette, cut or torn into chunks
1 ripe tomato, chopped
1/2 purple onion, chopped
1 can tuna in oil, drained
1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and chopped
a handful of torn fresh basil or Italian parsley
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
Parmesano-Reggiano
a couple spoonfuls of capers, drained
Dressing:
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
lots of pepper
Make a salad using chunks of bread, chopped tomato, onion, flaked tuna, egg, basil or parsley and olives. Using a vegetable peeler, peel strips of Parmesano-Reggiano cheese over top, and sprinkle with capers. Toss with dressing and serve immediately.
Serves 2-4.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
June 20 2008 | one dish and salads | 1 Comment »
Yes, I know, I am an extraordinarily boring person this week. Sorry about that. Sorry too for the hideously blue bowl I decided in haste to dish my boring chili up in, not even thinking (after 170 days) that I would be required to take a photo of it. I’m particularly proud of my buttered sliced bread garnish - it reminds me of dinnertime images of the 50s when they’d put out a section of Wonder Bread slices in a serving bowl on the kitchen table. (This is not Wonder Bread. It is grocery store sliced bread, but at least it’s whole wheat. Honest. When I see Wonder Bread I can’t not think about Clarissa Dickson Wright’s reference to “slimy white slice”.) Tomorrow promises to get more interesting, as I’m cooking for my Dad’s birthday on Saturday and Ramsay Rocks on Sunday, an event I’m emceeing (and cooking for the volunteers - there will be plenty of food for everyone else though). You should come.
I do have a confession to make: I love anything tomato-saucy with buttered bread. I have been known to make a spaghetti sandwich, just to create a vehicle for the tomato sauce. Sometimes I just scoop up chunky tomato sauce leftovers with bread. W tried to mimic me tonight and made quite a mess of the patio. Lou was happy though. (I mean John Cusack.)
Again, chili isn’t even particularly summery. But it is cowboyish, and Stampede is coming up faster than I care to acknowledge. When I was 12, I won the Calgary Stampede Chili Cook-off. (The adult one, not a special cook-off for kids; let me tell you, there were some mighty unhappy contestants who took their chili very seriously and were not at all pleased to be whupped by a 12 year old girl who sort of threw a bit of this and that in the pot and then didn’t even particularly remember her recipe.) This year, I’m hosting the second annual kids’ chili cook-off at the Stampede on Kids’ Day. We don’t have enough contestants yet, so if you have kids under 14 who are interested in entering their chili - the winner then gets to make their recipe on the ATCO cooking stage and be on TV, if they want to - email me!
I have never used a recipe for chili. There is no reason to. I cook up some lean ground beef or bison with a chopped onion, maybe a red pepper, in a drizzle of canola oil, then add a couple cans of beans, drained to get rid of the salty bean sludge (I like things beany - red kidney beans for sure, sometimes baked beans in tomato sauce, sometimes white kidney or black beans) a big can or two of diced tomatoes (whole is fine too), and about a cup of salsa if I have some. A good heaping tablespoon or so of chili powder - which is really high in fiber, being simply ground up dried chiles - and sometimes a small spoonful of cocoa and/or instant coffee or espresso, just to give it some depth and colour. Coffee is the cowboy way, after all. Decaf works just as well. Simmer it all for about an hour to break down the tomatoes. That’s pretty much it. If you want to add a can of tomato paste, that’s always a good idea - tomato paste is such a great source of lypocene - much higher than fresh tomatoes, as they have been cooked down and condensed. Tomato paste is also great as pizza sauce. It’s nice and thick, and quite sweet tasting, being just pure tomatoes. Kids love it.
The biggest flavour factor when it comes to chili is time - I always let it sit in the fridge for a day or two before we eat it. It’s edible of course the day you make it, but always better after a day or so. It also freezes very well.
For some reason, yesterday’s spaghetti and today’s chili tasted fantastic. No thanks to any particularly stellar culinary skills, but more likely due to the fact that I spent a good 4 hours completely secluded from anything edible in the CBC newsroom beforehand. They are really onto something with this concept of bon appetit.
Share on Facebook
June 19 2008 | beans and bison and freezable and one dish | 6 Comments »
If this wet, grey, hail-y weather continues, we are in for a whole year’s worth of cold weather comfort food. The smell of this shepherd’s pie bubbling made me crave crunchy leaves and Halloween.
To be honest shepherd’s pie isn’t normally in my repertoire, but as I was pondering what to do with this leftover roast lamb (hash was my first thought… my mom used to make the crispiest hash with leftover roast beef, potatoes and onions - like a wedge of burger and fries all crisped up and smothered in ketchup) I was simultaneously working on an article on meals you can freeze ahead. Shepherd’s pie is traditionally made with lamb, and I saw it as another opportunity to chip away at my stash of sweet potatoes while making it healthier in the process. Typically SP is made with raw ground meat, but it can just as easily be done with finely chopped leftover roast. Honestly, you could make a shepherd’s pie out of anything - a panful of veggies, even, or robust mushrooms with onions and garlic - then sprinkle a spoonful of flour overtop and add a cup of stock; bring it to a simmer to thicken and scrape up the browned bits from the pan, and pour into a baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. You really don’t need a recipe here, just a basic formula.
Come to think of it - a vegetarian version made with meaty portobello mushrooms, onions and garlic, and Guinness in place of the stock, would be just fab. More appropriate in October though, I think. Under normal circumstances, anyway.
Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potatoes
2 largeish sweet potatoes or 3 largeish russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
a drizzle of canola or olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 lb. ground lamb, lean beef or bison (or 2-3 cups chopped leftover roast)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. chopped fresh or dry rosemary (optional)
1 cup beef, veggie, onion or chicken broth
2 Tbsp. tomato paste or ketchup
1 cup frozen peas
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup(ish) milk
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 375°F. To cook the potatoes you can either roast them in their skins in the oven for about an hour, microwave them whole in their skins (poke them with a fork first) or peel, chop and boil them until soft.
In a large pan, heat a drizzle of oil and sauté the onion and carrot over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until soft; add the garlic and meat and cook for another 5 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the veg are starting to brown a little.
If you want to add mushrooms, set the meat mixture aside (transfer it to a bowl or something), heat a little more oil and sauté the mushrooms until they release their moisture and then the moisture cooks off and they start to brown. Return the meat mixture to the pan. Sprinkle the flour overtop and stir it around until it coats the meat a little, then add the rosemary, stock and tomato paste and stir until the mixture bubbles and thickens, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the peas.
Pour into a baking dish, making sure it only fills it half full, so there is room for the potatoes.
Peel (if necessary) and mash the potatoes with the butter, milk and salt and pepper. Spread over the meat mixture and bake for about 45 minutes, until bubbly.
Serves 6.
Per serving: 270 calories, 9.6 g total fat (2.8 g saturated fat, 4.4 g monounsaturated fat, 1 g polyunsaturated fat), 27.8 g protein, 17.9 g carbohydrate, 74.8 mg cholesterol, 2.5 g fiber. 32% calories from fat.
Share on Facebook
June 11 2008 | freezable and lamb and leftovers and one dish | 2 Comments »
Otsu is a cold soba (buckwheat) noodle salad named, I believe, for a city in Japan. I had seen a couple references to it, and so when I saw fresh buckwheat noodles at the Asian market, I picked up a package, thinking it would make a nice summery dinner. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any sign of summer since then.
Once in awhile, maybe a few times a year, I crave tofu. Identifiable tofu, that is - not blended into a smoothie or peanut sauce. Done right, marinated perhaps but always well crisped - caramelized, even - in a hot pan, tofu can be delicious. The key to giving your tofu a nice outer crust is to start with a firm variety, then press as much excess liquid out as you can. To do this, sandwich it between a couple layers of good paper towel (not the wussy stuff) and put a skillet or something heavy on top to weigh it down for awhile. The longer you press it, the drier it will become, which will allow it to crisp up nicely.
The dressing is a melange of a bunch of recipes I looked up; as I was shaking it together in its jar it occurred to me that it could do double duty as a marinade for the tofu. So I poured some over my slab of tofu and stuck it in the fridge. (As it turned out, it marinated for more than a day, due to our spontaneous shawarma yesterday.)
This is one of those meals that can be classified as real fast food. (Hey - perhaps that should be a recipe category?) The noodles boil in 3-4 minutes, as long as it takes to fry the tofu, which since it’s already cooked only needs to brown on the outside. Slice some cucumber and shake up your dressing, and you’re good to go.
To quote Mike: “I really liked it. I’m not kidding, that was the first time I sort of actually enjoyed tofu.”
Otsu
Dressing:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. sugar or honey
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
a squirt of hot chile sauce (the red stuff in the squeeze bottle) - optional
Salad:
about 1/2 lb. (8 oz.) fresh or dried soba (buckwheat) noodles, or as much as you think you’ll need
about a third of a cucumber, halved and sliced
a green onion or two, chopped
half a package of firm tofu
canola or sesame oil, for cooking
as much chopped fresh cilantro as you like
sesame seeds, toasted
To make the dressing, shake all the ingredients up in a jar. If you like, pour some over your slab of tofu and let it sit for a couple hours or up to a couple days. If you want to press it, do it after it comes out of the marinade.
Cook the soba noodles according to package directions, then run them under cold water to cool them down and drain them well. Add the cucumber and green onion, drizzle with about half the dressing, toss and divide among your bowls.
Cut the tofu into about 1″ squares (or bite-sized pieces) and heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and brown on both (or all) sides. Divide the crispy tofu among the bowls, top with cilantro and sesame seeds, and drizzle with extra dressing. Serve immediately.
Serves 2-4(ish).
Print Post
Share on Facebook
June 08 2008 | one dish and pasta and salads and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I take back yesterday’s comment about Lou being deserving of homemade peanut butter and cheese treats - this morning, his first order of business was to completely chew up Mike’s glasses. Silly me, here I was worried about our shoes.
The fantastic thing about soup is that it can start from anything. I never would have thought to combine these ingredients in soup, but I looked in my fridge tonight, still full from a late lunch at Aida’s with A (please feel free to hate me for eating so well this week. I would) and found the better half of a can of black beans (leftover from the quesadillas) and two mild Italian Spolumbos sausages that needed cooking. And the storage compartment in the seat of the bench at the kitchen table is beginning to get difficult to close - every time I go to the market I pick up sweet potatoes and add them to the stash, which hasn’t been depleted lately, so I figured sausage, black beans and sweet potatoes might make a fine soup.
Because my other favorite black bean soup is made so much better with a fresh jalapeno pepper (and I say this as someone who is not a particular fan of jalapenos), I minced one (they cost about 3 cents each and last forever in the fridge, so I happen to have a couple) and cooked it along with the sausage. Unlike onions and garlic, a hot pepper’s heat will not be tamed by cooking; if you’re a wuss like me, get rid of the seeds and membranes, which contain the majority of a pepper’s capsaicin. Then I threw in a diced sweet potato, the black beans, a 1L tetra pack of chicken stock, a shake of cumin and about a third of a can of leftover tomato sauce that was also in the fridge. I thought this soup would benefit from a hit of tomato - a bit of tomato sauce or spoonful of tomato paste gives it a far richer and deeper flavour, and the starch in the potato thickens the broth slightly.
Some of you in warmer climates may think such a soup is the exact opposite of what one might want to eat on a June evening. Honestly, Calgary does have its share of 30 degree days, but today it’s damp and chilly; we all huddled into kangaroo jackets in order to go outside and see how the garden is recovering from the hailstorm A and I watched out the window at Aida’s while we finished our ricotta-rosewater cheesecake and baklava. When the forecast calls for a week of rain, I’ll be glad to have a pot of leftover soup in the fridge. Besides, Mike is suffering from a hangover, and I can’t think of much more reviving than a warm bowl of spicy black beans, sweet potatoes and sausage.
Sausage, Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
a drizzle of canola or olive oil
1-2 mild or hot Italian sausages
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can black beans, drained
1 tsp. cumin
1 L chicken or vegetable stock
about a cup of tomato sauce or a big spoonful of tomato paste
In your soup pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium heat. Squeeze the sausage out of its casing into the pot and cook it, breaking it up as you stir it around, until it’s no longer pink. Add the jalapeno pepper, then the sweet potato, beans, cumin, stock and tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer for about half an hour, until the potatoes are tender and the broth has thickened a bit.
Serves 4-6.
Per serving, based on 4 servings: 416 calories, 7.7 g total fat (1.5 g saturated fat, 3.8 g monounsaturated fat, 1.8 g polyunsaturated fat), 27.8 g protein, 60.5 g carbohydrate, 30 mg cholesterol, 14 g fiber. 16% calories from fat.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
June 06 2008 | beans and freezable and one dish and soup | 6 Comments »
No meat today, please. We’re still digesting.
A conversation with Barbara Kingsolver last week has me thinking more than usual about eating locally. She made a good point - that rather than ponder what we feel like eating for dinner, we should consider what’s local and in season, and plan our meals around those ingredients.
With that in mind, I picked up a few bunches of asparagus over the weekend at the farmers’ market, and read a bit of Jamie Oliver’s advice on growing your own - I don’t often hear about people growing asparagus in their back yards, but I know it’s possible in our climate. Serendipitously, my friend A called on Saturday afternoon and asked if I wanted the small gathering of asparagus that was popping up through her lawn and being trampled by her three boys. Did I! From what I know, it takes 3 years for planting to picking asparagus, and I haven’t yet found a garden centre that sells asparagus plants (although, admittedly, I don’t frequent garden centres… my tomatoes, zucchini and pea seeds came from the Superstore).
I went over and dug it up; it was a monster. A mess of roots and an unseen giant tuber of sorts that supported my weight on the shovel (we gave up before digging that deep) with about 6 stalks emerging from it. I replanted what we could salvage beside the fence in my back yard, about five minutes before W and L conspired to snap off the shoots and throw them over the fence.
So today I still have the asparagus from the market. It’s cold and wet, and so dark I could hardly take photos. I didn’t much feel like cooking, so I threw a pot of pasta on - long squiggly pasta I picked up somewhere - I have vowed not to buy any more pasta until I use up all the half bags of assorted shapes on my shelf. While at the market I also picked up a package of peppered Boursin cheese (decidedly not local, I realize, but on sale), a soft, incredibly decadent cheese that my sister and I sometimes set on the table and spread on crackers while we work on our laptops at the dining room table. I thought I’d crumble it into the hot pasta and toss about until it melts, lubricating it a bit with some reserved pasta water. I imagine any sort of soft cheese would work; goat, ricotta (with lemon!) or even flavoured cream cheese.
While the pasta cooked I snapped the tough ends off the asparagus and cut them into pieces. When the pasta was a couple minutes from being done, I threw the asparagus in with it so that it would be tender but still crisp, and all done at the same time.
For dessert, leftovers from BT this morning. I made gluten free brownies for Jill, who has celiac disease, and they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself! I made them with brown rice flour and millet flour, but I imagine you could use any number of gluten free flours. Because brownies are so dense and fudgy (or should be) and call for very little flour, they are fairly easy to make gluten-free. Next time, I’m trying quinoa flour.
Gluten Free Brownies
Try quinoa or other gluten-free flours such as buckwheat or tapioca in these dense brownies.
½ cup butter, softened
4 oz. semi sweet or dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. instant coffee or espresso, dissolved in 1 tsp. water
¼ cup cocoa
¼ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
pinch salt
a handful of chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips or more chopped chocolate (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray an 8”x8” baking pan with nonstick spray.
Set the butter and chocolate in a stainless steel or glass bowl set over simmering water and let it melt, stirring occasionally, or melt it in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly. Stir in the sugar, and if it’s not too hot, the eggs, vanilla and coffee.
Add the cocoa, flours and salt, and stir until blended. Stir in some nuts or chocolate chips, if you like. Pour into the pan and bake for 25 minutes, until the edges pull slightly from the pan but the middle is still soft. Set on a wire rack to cool.
Makes 16 brownies.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
June 02 2008 | cookies & squares and dessert and one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 6 Comments »
I had to go to the Jully Black concert tonight, so wanted to ensure our houseguests were properly subdued on the couch before I left, so that I didn’t miss anything. Remembering how easy it is to make risotto, and with a bag of near-wilted spinach in the fridge, I thought I’d stir up a pot. Their reaction: “risotto?!! That’s so hard to make!” Not really - it requires about the same level of skill as making oatmeal, only you use rice and stock. You don’t need to attend to it religiously; contrary to popular belief, you can walk away from it once in awhile. And it takes on all sorts of additions beautifully.
So I made the same lemon Parmesan risotto I’ve made before, stirring in a few handfuls of torn spinach after the cheese, and then threw in some thawed frozen raw tail-on shrimp, stirred them into the hot risotto and put the lid on the pot until they turned pink. Finish it with the juice of a lemon, and that’s it.
Unfortunately, I forgot that R is allergic to shrimp. (I’m not the greatest host.)As we stood by the pot and stirred, we daydreamed all sorts of risotto possibilities, including a sweet version with caramelized pears and mascarpone, and another with crumbled blue cheese, swirled through so that it only partially melts, served with thinly sliced steak on top.
After the concert, I came home and we assembled the pavlova we made yesterday but were too full to eat. A big one this time, that we cut into crunchy wedges that were filled with sweet whipped cream and topped, again, with tangy passionfruit. (I know, once I do something that works so well, I tend to repeat myself.) And because passionfruit isn’t all that common, people are always interested in trying it out, even though the insides look like something that might be used in a low-budget sci-fi movie.
R summed up the passionfruit perfectly: “it looks like you killed it by cutting it open.”
Print Post
Share on Facebook
May 15 2008 | one dish and seafood and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I had planned to test my roast chicken stuffed with falafel theory, but after getting slowed down by a blizzard en route home from Cochrane today, then navigating through hail and lightning once I got back to the city, by the time I made it home I figured it was too late to roast the considerably large (for a chicken) chicken I had in the fridge. So I made jambalaya instead, something I had orchestrated to make use of the lone farmers’ sausage left in the freezer.
Jambalaya is typically made with chicken, sausage or ham, and shrimp. Since I always have a bag of shrimp in the freezer, that part was easy - and it’s a great way to use cheaper chicken thighs. You can make it as gutsy or mild-mannered as you like with (or without) hot sausage, spices and hot sauce. I left the hot stuff out on account of W, who gobbled it up. Truthfully, it didn’t thrill me, but the boys liked it, and it did make for a warming rainy/snowy/sleety/hail-y day dinner.
Chicken, Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya
a drizzle of canola or olive oil
4-6 chicken thighs, with bones but no skin
1/2 lb. kielbasa, andouille, farmers’ or Italian sausage, or leftover roast ham, sliced or coarsely chopped
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
2-5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. - 1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
A few shakes of Tabasco sauce
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 14 oz. (398 mL) can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained
Salt and pepper
1/2 lb. (250 g) raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, with or without the tails on
Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken thighs for a few minutes, turning as necessary until browned on all sides. Remove them from the pot and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the sausage to the pot and cook, stirring frequently, for a few minutes or until browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.
Add the onion, pepper, celery, and garlic to the pot and sauté for about 5 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and cook for a minute, stirring well. Add the cooked sausage, bay leaf, chili powder, thyme, salt and Tabasco.
Add the stock and diced tomatoes and stir everything together. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the chicken thighs to the pot, meat side down, on top of the rice. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Remove the lid and stir the jambalaya, keeping the chicken pieces more or less on top. Replace the lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed, the rice is tender and the chicken is cooked through. Remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper. Scatter the shrimp over the jambalaya, cover, and cook for 5-10 minutes, just until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Serve it while it’s hot.
Serves 6. (Makes great leftovers.)
Print Post
Share on Facebook
May 08 2008 | one dish | 1 Comment »
It is a good day when I realize it’s 5:45, I have no idea what’s for dinner, and there’s a bowl of leftover rice and peas in the fridge.
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, my favorite 5 minute dinner is fried rice. You can make it out of anything. (So long as you have rice.)
Here’s what you do:
Heat up a skillet with a drizzle of canola oil (and sesame oil, if you have some).
Throw in the cold rice, some frozen peas if they aren’t already in with the rice, and a little blob of curry paste or powder. Break in an egg and scramble it up off to one side. Toss in some raw or cooked shrimp - I keep a bag in the freezer and run a handful under the tap to thaw. Pork, chicken or tofu also work well (I wish I had a bit of that tenderloin from last night), but the shrimp-curry combo is a good one.
Season with soy sauce or salt (soy sauce is salty) and pepper. Done.
W is not yet a curry fan, so he ate some chicken tortellini I had boiled at lunchtime, tossed with pesto. Hey, at least it’s green.
I had a few bites of each of their dinners to tide me over until 8, when I’m meeting my friend J for cider and wings.
In other news: the Empty Bowl Benefit Online Auction has begun!
Last week I was one of many who had the opportunity to paint a bowl to auction off to benefit the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank. All the bowls are being auctioned off at the Food Bank website, and can be viewed in all their glory at various downtown locations.
You can bid on my fabulous hand-painted fish bowl here! (I’ll deliver it myself if you live anywhere near Calgary, along with a bag of CBC swag, and of course filled with bacon caramel corn!)
It took me about 4 hours to paint. Seriously. (There are little fish swimming around the base of the bowl too, but you can’t see them at this angle!)
Share on Facebook
April 30 2008 | leftovers and one dish and seafood and vegetarian | 1 Comment »
Let me clarify: chocolate-dipped cheesecake pops are not something I would typically make for dessert on a plain old Monday night. I made them for the Eyeopener because tomorrow I’m going to chat about food blogs. Thinking I’d choose a recipe from one of my favorite sites, I hopped around a few and found that Cream Puffs in Venice, Tartelette, and another blog I stumbled through were all posting cheesecake pops. As I was perusing them my friend S emailed from Whistler, where she is apparently hooked on something from the local chocolate shop called cheesecake bombs. I took this as an unmistakable sign that I should make some. What a hero I’m going to be in the studio tomorrow morning!
The pie was to make use of leftover spaghetti; I did a few segments debunking common cooking myths on BT this morning, and as a result had plenty of leftover cooked pasta that was used to demonstrate the myth that adding oil to the cooking water prevents it from sticking together. (It’s a large volume of water, kept at a rolling boil with space for the spaghetti to move around, that keeps it from sticking. In fact, adding oil to your water will result in an oil slick on your pasta once you drain it, and your sauce won’t stick very well.)
Spaghetti Pie.
I’ve seen many versions of spaghetti pie, some in which the pasta is tossed with the sauce and cheese, then baked, others that have the crust par-baked first to crisp it up, and others with layers of cottage cheese between the noodles and sauce.
So I improvised: tossed the leftover spaghetti with some egg white (I had some whose yolks had been used to make lemon curd), a bit of grated Parmesan, a grinding of pepper and a big spoonful of pesto, just because there was some open in the fridge and W is such a fan, then spread the spaghetti into an oiled pie plate, pushing it up the sides a bit.
I had requests for spinach sauce, but had hastily crumbled and cooked a couple lean Italian sausages, a red pepper, a few fresh tomatoes that had gone too wrinkly for anything but cooking with and a can of tomatoes before remembering this, and pureed sausage, I imagine, is not a Good Thing. So I decided to proceed as if it were a lasagna - I crumbled some ricotta and thawed, squeezed-out spinach over the crust,
topped it with the sauce…
and some grated part-skim mozzarella, and baked it at 350F for about half an hour, until all was golden, crsipy-edged and bubbly. Yum.
The cheesecake pops were simple, really, mostly because I didn’t make the cheesecake from scratch like the others did. Some advised making a cheesecake and then scooping up balls of it with your hands, freezing them and then dipping the frozen wads in chocolate. Because I couldn’t envision blaspheming a cheesecake that way, nor attempting to cut one into teeny fancy shapes using a cookie cutter (too thick for any in my collection) I decided to buy one of those small plain frozen Safeway cheeesecakes and cut it into wedges. It worked perfectly.
After inserting the sticks (bamboo skewers, although popsicle sticks or the 4″ lollipop sticks you can buy at Michael’s would work brilliantly), I put them back in the freezer to solidify while I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave, then half dipped, half spread the melted chocolate onto the frozen wedges. Some sprinkles or other decoration would have worked out well, but I didn’t really have anything. That’s the beauty of radio; you don’t really need to accessorize.
Share on Facebook
April 28 2008 | cake and dessert and freezable and one dish and pasta and sweet stuff | 6 Comments »
Next »
