Cooking

Cumin Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Fresh Peach Salsa

Posted by Aimee on October 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

Until this weekend, our summer weather hasn’t really broken, yet the urge to cook more fall-like foods is there for me. This seemed like the perfect not-quite-fall recipe to me, but it would be really great anytime in the summer or fall as long as you can still find fresh peaches at the market. I love savory meats with fruity salsa — I think it’s a terrific combination.

I was not able to find 2 tenderloins that were 1 pound each, so I opted for 3 that totaled about 2 pounds together. Because I had 3 to cover with the rub mixture, I upped the cumin from the original recipe’s 2 teaspoons to 4 teaspoons, but kept the salt and pepper quantities the same.

You might also like my Fruit and Veggie Salsa for Chicken or Fish

Cumin-Rubbed Pork Tenderloins with Fresh Peach Salsa

From the book Sunday Roasts by Betty Rosbottom, adapted slightly by Crafty Farm Girl, October, 2011.

Serves 4 to 5

4 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each, (or 3 slightly smaller ones), trimmed of excess fat
Olive oil for sautéing
Fleur de sel (optional)
Fresh Peach Salsa

Arrange a rack at center position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the cumin, salt, and pepper. Rub this mixture over als the surfaces of the tenderloins. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of a large, heavy, oven-proof frying pan and set it over medium-high heat until the oil is hot. Add the tenderloins and brown on all sides, for 5 minutes.

Roast the pork until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat registers 150 degrees, for about 20 minutes (less for smaller tenderloins). Remove the tenderloins to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes.

To serve, slice the pork into ½-inch thick pieces and arrange, slightly overlapping, on a platter or individual plates. If desired, sprinkle the slices lightly with the fleur de sel. Spoon some peach salsa over the slices and pass any extra salsa in a bowl.

Fresh Peach Salsa

Makes about 1-3/4 cups

3 medium yellow peaches, ripe but not too soft
1/3 cup chopped red onion
3 tablespoons minced cilantro
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lime zest and 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 to 2 teaspoons minced jalapeno pepper, seeds & membranes removed
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Peel the peaches and cut into ½-inch or smaller dice. Put in a medium, nonreactive bowl with the onion, cilantro, lime zest and juice, garlic, jalapeno, and ¼ teaspoon each salt & pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and stir to combine. Taste and, if desired, add additional salt and black pepper and up to 1 teaspoon more lime juice for a sharper taste. Marinate the salsa for at least 30 minutes.

Salsa can be prepared 2 hours ahead, leave at cool room temperature.

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French Crullers

Posted by Aimee on September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment

My kids have been bugging me lately to make fresh donuts again, since I haven’t made any in months. For a while I was on a roll, making glazed, chocolate & strawberry frosted donuts, Dinner Party Donut Holes, and New Orlean’s Style Beignets. I really wanted to try and make French crullers. I’m not generally a huge donut fan, but a good cruller is so light that it’s hard to feel too guilty about eating one.

I found two promising recipes on the internet for them. Both were based on a basic pate a choux recipe, but one had orange zest and used shortening rather than butter in it. While generally I would opt for the butter over shortening, the shortening recipe seemed to be rated higher, so I decided to go with that one. The one thing I did take away from the other recipe that did seem important, was to freeze the donuts once they were piped out for 30 minutes. I tried this recipe twice; once without freezing and once with, and the freezing is key to keeping the soft batter from completely losing it’s shape when trying to transfer them into the fryer.

French Crullers

Original recipes from AllRecipes.com and Foodnetwork.com. Adapted and combined by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon orange zest
4 tablespoons shortening
1 cup hot water
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons shortening
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Put 4 tablespoons sugar, salt, shortening and orange rind in saucepan with 1 cup hot water. Bring to a boil. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Reduce heat to low and, with a wooden spoon, stir in the flour until the mixture forms a ball, working out any lumps of flour from dough as you go. Remove from heat, and cool slightly.

Beat in one egg at a time, beating each one in thoroughly before adding another. Working the eggs into pate a choux dough is a good arm workout, but doing it by hand, and always with a wooden spoon, is the way I grew up making it. You can transfer the dough to a heavy-duty mixer at this point and work the eggs in, still one at a time, with the beater attachment, working each egg into the batter individually and just until combined.

Using a star tip, press dough through pastry bag, in desired shape, onto a well-greased square of heavy paper. (Note: I used parchment paper, and next time I will try cutting up a brown grocery bag and greasing that, as I think it might release the donut batter into the oil easier than the parchment did.) Place the piped donut batter into the freezer for 30 minutes.

The donut batter in the pastry bag ready to pipe.

pipe into circles on squares of greased heavy paper and freeze for 30 minutes.

While your donuts are in the freezer you can bring your oil up to the proper temperature. Turn paper upside down and let crullers drop into deep, hot fat (375 degrees F – 190 degrees C). Fry until well puffed up and golden brown in color, about 6 to 7 minutes. Drain on unglazed paper. Ice with confectioners’ frosting.

Using a knife, carefully scrape the batter off of the paper and into the hot oil.

Fry until well puffed and golden brown on each side.

When brown on both sides, remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and drain on unglazed paper.

Prepare icing and drizzle on with a spoon or smear on with a knife.

To Make Frosting: Cream 1 1/2 tablespoons shortening and continue creaming while slowly adding sugar. Add cream, salt, and vanilla and mix smooth.

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Apple Hand Pies

Posted by Aimee on September 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

I absolutely love these pies. You can’t leave me alone in the house with them or I swear I will eat them all. They are the perfect individual apple pie. You can pick them up and eat them with your hands. They are a great treat for after school snacks, or as an after dinner treat. And they will be the hit of your school’s fall fundraiser if you show up with them. I’ve even done them in miniature, inserting lollipop sticks in them, and created apple pie pops with this recipe.

Apple Pie Pops

This post really isn’t about this cute little molds I got from Williams Sonoma, but I’ll show you here how easy they are to use. In searching for the link to them, I see that they have added a new one this year. A cute little heart mold.

For this post though I used the apple-shaped one I had bought last year, along with two others that I bought that I would not recommend.The pink and blue ones below are made by Tovolo with the name “Petite Pie Mold”. I personally did not feel that these molds worked nearly as well as the Williams Sonoma ones. They did not seal the crusts together very well, and there was too much crust at the edge and not enough room for filling.

You cut the dough out using the backsides of the mold. One side cuts a plain shape out and the other cuts out one with a decorative steam hole in it. Place the non-vented piece of dough in the mold, brush the edges with water, and fill it with the apple filling (it holds quite a bit of filling too), place the vented pastry top over that and press gently around the edges. Fold over the mold and press to crimp and seal the edges. The pie taps easily out of the mold. Brush with an egg wash if desired and bake as directed. When slightly cooled you can put the apple glaze on.

You don’t need to buy these molds to make hand pies though, you can cut out small rounds of dough, maybe 4″ to 4-1/2″, vent the top piece of dough, fill, and crimp the edges with a fork. These molds do make quick, easy work of the task though.

Apple Hand Pies

Makes 12-16 pies. If you have some apple filling left over you can freeze it to use another day.

Pie crust recipe, below, doubled

Pie Filling

8 Granny Smith apples (about 3 1/2 pounds), peeled, cored, and diced into 1/3” dice
8 Golden Delicious apples (about 3 1/2 pounds), peeled, cored, and diced into 1/3” dice
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
6 tablespoons Minute Tapioca
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg for egg wash

Glaze

1 cup reserved apple juice (from filling)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , softened
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

For the pie: Combine apples, 1 cup sugar, and salt in colander set over large bowl. Let sit, tossing occasionally, until apples release their juices, about 30 minutes. (I have carefully covered the bowls with plastic wrap overnight and it was fine. Just remember if you are going to do this to sprinkle the apples with some lemon juice and toss to coat before covering to prevent browning. Press gently on apples to extract liquid. I helped this along by placing a plate over the apples and weighting it with a large can. Reserve 1 cup juice.

Toss the diced apples with the sugar and salt.

Place apples in a colander with a bowl underneath.

Place apples in a colander set over a large bowl.

I found it helpful to place a plate on top and weight it down with some cans or something heavy for about 30 minutes until apples release their juices.

Place a plate on top and weight it down with some cans or something heavy for about 30 minutes until apples release their juices.

Toss drained apples with tapioca, cinnamon, and lemon juice and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. If you let the apples drain overnight and used lemon juice to keep them from browning, use a little less lemon juice now.

Toss apples with remaining 1/2 cup sugar, melted butter, tapioca, cinnamon and lemon juice.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. If you are using the pocket pie molds above, follow those directions for assembly. If you are making them by hand, roll out dough to about 1/8” thick and cut out pastry into 4” rounds with a cutter. The first time I made these I used a small oak leaf to cut a steam hole on one side of the pastry, but in hindsight the hole was too large and the next time I will use the end of a straw and make a few small round vent holes instead. Stack the circles as you make them. Re-roll the scraps and make as many rounds as you can. Place the stacks of dough rounds on a plate and refrigerate, covered, until you are ready to use them.

Brush edges of dough with water. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the apple mixture onto the plain side of the dough round. Carefully fold over the dough and meet the edges together. Press the edges together with your finger, and adjust filling as necessary to evenly distribute. Carefully Use fork to crimp and seal outside edge of pie. Lay pies on parchment-covered baking sheet about 2” apart. Brush the pies with an egg wash. Bake until pie is golden brown and juices are bubbling, approximately 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

For the glaze: While pie is cooling, simmer reserved apple juice in saucepan over medium heat until syrupy and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners’ sugar. Stir in lemon juice and butter and let cool until it is just warm. Brush glaze evenly over warm pie. Let pie cool completely, at least 1 hour longer. Serve.

Apple juice from the strained apples.

Bring reserved apple juice to a boil and, over medium heat, simmer until juice is syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes.

Whisk in confectioners sugar.

Stir in lemon juice and butter and let cool until it is just warm.

Brush warm glaze over pies.

Make Ahead: The pie can be made up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving or frozen on parchment-covered baking sheets. Once they are frozen you can remove them from the sheets and store in tupperware container or ziploc freezer bags until ready to bake.

The Best Pie Dough – Double Crust 8- or 9-Inch Pie

For a double-crust 8- or 9-inch pie. Published September 1, 1994, Cook’s Illustrated.

In search of the best pie dough recipe, we found that all-butter crusts have good taste, but they are not as flaky and fine-textured as those made with some shortening. All-shortening crusts have great texture but lack flavor. We experimented with a variety of combinations and ultimately settled on a proportion of 3 parts butter to 2 parts shortening as optimal for both flavor and texture. You can make a pie dough recipe by hand, but the food processor is faster and easier and does the best job of cutting the fat into the flour.

The following pie dough is one in a series for different size pies. When rolling out the dough, roll to a thickness of about 1/8-inch thick (about the thickness of two quarters).

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
11 tablespoons unsalted butter , cold, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
7 tablespoons vegetable shortening , chilled
4 -5 tablespoons ice water

Instructions:
Mix flour, salt and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with some flour. cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal with butter bits no larger than small peas, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if dough will not come together. Shape dough into two balls with your hands, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten into 4-inch-wide disks. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.

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Italian Sausage, Bean & Kale Soup

Posted by Aimee on September 21, 2011 1 Comment

Continuing with my soup obsession of late, the most recent soup I made was another one by the folks over at Fine Cooking. This one was also pretty quick to prep and pretty quick to put together. I have to apologize in advance for the lack of photos; a playdate’s mom came to pick up her daughter and got me chatting right in the middle of cooking. Before I even realized what was happening the soup was almost finished. But, this isn’t brain surgery here so I’m pretty sure you can figure it out without my photos.

This hearty Tuscan-style soup is full of flavor. The original recipe called for Lacinato kale (also called dinosaur or black kale) , but I couldn’t find anything like this around (and my local grocers have pretty good produce departments.) It said that any variety of kale will work. The original recipe also said to roll the sausage into bite-sized meatballs. While I’m sure this is a nice touch, I simply didn’t have time to do this and I don’t think the soup suffered any. I also chose not to add the cider vinegar, as none of my family are big vinegar lovers.

This recipe is easily adaptable to serve meat-lovers and vegetarians alike: see the variation to serve one vegetarian, below.

Italian Sausage, Bean & Kale Soup

Original recipe from Fine Cooking, Issue, December 30, 2009. Adapted (slightly) by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

Serves 4

1-1/2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (1-1/2 cups)
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped (3/4 cup)
1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped (3/4 cup)
1-1/2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
2 Tbs. tomato paste
2 large cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
1 quart homemade or lower-salt chicken or vegetable broth
Two 15-oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
6 oz. kale, center ribs removed, leaves chopped (about 4 firmly packed cups)
1 Parmigiano-Reggiano rind (1×3 inches; optional)
2/3 lb. sweet or hot bulk Italian sausage (I used a combination of sweet and hot combined)
1-1/2 tsp. cider vinegar (optional)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Assemble your ingredients before you start cooking. I forgot the cannellini beans in this photo!

Heat 1 Tbs. of the oil in a 4- to 5-quart pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Add the tomato paste and garlic and cook until fragrant, 45 seconds. Add the broth, beans, kale, and Parmigiano rind (if using). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer gently until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1/2 Tbs. oil in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the sausage meatballs, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Add the sausage to the soup and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook 5 minutes more to meld the flavors. Stir the cider vinegar into the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve 1 vegetarian and 3 meat lovers: Use vegetable broth for the soup. Reduce the sausage to 1/2 lb. and cook the meatballs in the same fashion. After stirring the cider vinegar into the soup and seasoning to taste, set aside 1-3/4 cups of the soup for the vegetarian before adding the meatballs.

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Ruby Red Grapefruit & Tangelo Marmalade

Posted by Aimee on September 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but ruby red grapefruits must have just come into season, because they are beautiful at the grocery stores around here. I decided I had to make some marmalade with them, as my marmalade supply for my Free Range Friday’s (when I sell my eggs and other things) is almost gone. They also had some lovely tangelos, so I decided to combine the two, more grapefruit and an accent of tangelo.

Now I’ve made marmalade all kinds of different ways, but I’ve decided the best way, although by far the most time-consuming, is to slice the thinly peeled rind, section the fruits, and put all of the leftovers in cheesecloth for the flavor and the natural pectin, but not to be a part of the actual marmalade. Lots of recipes call for chopping the entire citrus — pith, membranes and all, only removing the seeds. I’ve done it like this, and it is certainly easier, but if you don’t eat it when you’re eating the fruit normally, why would you want it in your marmalade?

Wash the fruit carefully.

Section the fruit from the membrane and roughly chop. Save the membrane.

Peel the rind, section the fruit & chop, and save all of the scraps.

Thinly peel the rind off the fruit and slice thinly. Section the fruit by cutting between the membranes, remove seeds and roughly chop. Save all of the scraps, the white pith under the skin, the membranes holding the sections together, even the seeds. This will be used for the natural pectin in citrus to gel the marmalade.

Fruit, rind, sugar and water is all that goes into marmalade. The ratio is 1:1:1; the weight of the fruit and rind together (in my case I had 3 pounds 4 oz. of rind and fruit), so I added 3 pounds 4 oz. sugar and 3 pounds 4 oz. of water.

Stir to combine and turn the heat on medium.

Stir to combine the ingredients and turn the heat on medium.

Put all of the citrus "scraps" into a double layer of cheesecloth. I had so much I laid the cheesecloth into a bowl and then poured the scraps in.

Put all of the citrus "scraps" into a double layer of cheesecloth. I had so much I laid the cheesecloth into a bowl and then poured the fruit in

Since I had so many scraps, I decided the best way to do this was to roughly sew up the middle section of the scrap bag with a big needle and some embroidery thread, but you could use kitchen twine too. To just gather the ends would have had the scraps falling out of the sides.

Since I had so much, I decided the best way to do this was to roughly sew up the middle section of the pectin bag. To just gather the ends would have had the scraps falling out of the sides.

Twist the ends of the cheesecloth tightly and tie with kitchen twine.

Twist the ends of the cheesecloth bag tightly and tie a knot on each end with kitchen twine. Trim any excess cheesecloth from the ends past the knot.

Stick the pectin bag into the pot. Try to squeeze it over onto one side and push the fruit away from it as you are inserting it into the pot.

Stick the scrap bag into the pot. Try to squeeze it over onto one side and push the fruit away from it as you are inserting it into the pot.

Bring mixture to boil, with lid off, until the peels are soft and cooked through.

Bring mixture to a strong boil on high heat, with lid off, until the peels are soft and cooked through, about 20-25 minutes..

Turn the flame off under the marmalade, remove the pectin bag, letting it drain as much as possible. Place in a large work bowl and allow to cool until it's comfortable to handle.

Turn the flame off under the marmalade, remove the pectin bag, letting it drain as much as possible. Place bag in a large work bowl and allow to cool. Once it's cool enough to handle, lift it above the work bowl and tightly squeeze the bag, starting at the top, allowing the remaining juices and pectic to flow down into the work bowl. Discard the pectin bag when done.

Place the pectin you've gotten from the bag back into the marmalade mixture, return to a medium-high heat and stir often while boiling until it reaches a temperature of 119-220 degrees on a candy thermometer. ladle finished marmalade into clean, sterilized jars, wipe rims clean with a damp cloth, place sterilized lids on, and process in a hot water bath for ten minutes.

3 pounds 4 ounces of rind and fruit, lots of time and effort, and I yielded 8-half pint jars of finished marmalade, But I feel that the flavor of the marmalade made in this traditional fashion, without all of the "extras" in there like pith and membrane, yields a much more traditional and flavorful marmalade.

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Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup with Ginger, Chile & Cilantro

Posted by Aimee on September 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup with Ginger, Chile & Cilantro

When we get our first hint of cooler weather I all of a sudden have an uncontrollable urge to cook like a madwoman. I’ve cooked a bunch of things this week, but soup has been really compelling. First was the curried carrot soup in the previous post, and now is a delicious, and pretty quick, chicken noodle soup with an Asian twist to it. Once the prep work was completed, the soup was cooked, start to finish, in maybe 10 minutes!

My twins were away on a school trip, my husband was away on a bike trip, and Amanda’s back at college, so it was just India and me. A strangely quiet house for a mom used to chaos most of the time. India, however, is by far my pickiest eater, and I thought the fish sauce called for in here might throw her, so I opted to omit it. If you’ve got picky eaters you might do the same, but you will need to compensate by salting the soup. I also thought a good dose of pepper was a necessary addition, although white pepper might be more appropriate than black. Fish sauce varies in its saltiness from brand to brand. So it’s a good idea to prepare the soup with the modest amount specified in this recipe, and then at serving time, pass around the fish sauce so people can season their portions with a touch more if they wish.

The original recipe called for 4 oz. fresh Chinese egg noodles (they said to look in the produce section of your supermarket). While I have seen these in supermarkets many times before, of course there were none to be found at the market I was at today. I substituted a 5 oz. package of Japanese Curly Noodles (Chuka Soba), which looks just like the dried noodles you get in a package of ramen noodles. These seemed to work perfectly well, but I did cook them a little less than the fresh noodles called for.

Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup with Ginger, Chile & Cilantro

From Fine Cooking #77, p. 56, February 1, 2006. Altered (slightly) by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

Yields 7 cups, serves four.

1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. finely grated fresh ginger
2 serrano chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded
6 cups homemade or canned low-salt chicken broth
5 oz. Japanese Curly Noodles (Chuka Soba), or 4 oz. fresh Chinese egg noodles
2 Tbs. fish sauce (preferably Thai Kitchen brand); more to taste (optional, see above)
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (this is easier if the chicken is partially frozen)

Chicken is so much easier to slice thinly if you partially freeze it first.

Finely grate 1 tsp. of zest from the lemon and put in a small dish. Add the cilantro and ginger, and mix together. Cut the zested lemon in half and squeeze it to obtain 3 Tbs. of juice. Thinly slice two of the chile halves crosswise.

In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the lemon juice, fish sauce (if using), and the 2 remaining chile halves to the boiling stock. If you are using fresh Chinese egg noodles then you’ll add those now. If you are using the dried noodles, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer about two minutes. Add the noodles, cover, and cook the soup until the noodles are almost cooked, about 3 minutes.

Bring stock to a boil and add lemon juice,

the noodles, and the fish sauce (if using).

Cook until the noodles are almost cooked.

Remove the chile halves. Stir in the chicken and chile slices and return to a boil. separate the slices with two forks if necessary while they’re cooking. Remove the pan from the heat, making sure the chicken slices are just cooked through. Taste and add a touch more fish sauce, if you like. Divide the soup evenly among four serving bowls. Divide the cilantro mixture among the bowls, stir, and serve. (I did add a bit of the mixture to the pot of soup, and then divided the rest among the bowls of soup.)

I added a little of the cilantro/ginger/lemon mixture to the pot first, and then divided the remainder among the individual bowls.

Chicken Noodle Soup with GInger, Chile & Cilantro

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Lemony Chicken Noodle Soup with Ginger, Chile & Cilantro

From Fine Cooking #77, p. 56, February 1, 2006. Altered (slightly) by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

Yields 7 cups, serves four.

1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. finely grated fresh ginger
2 serrano chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded
6 cups homemade or canned low-salt chicken broth
5 oz. Japanese Curly Noodles (Chuka Soba), or 4 oz. fresh Chinese egg noodles
2 Tbs. fish sauce (preferably Thai Kitchen brand); more to taste
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (this is easier if the chicken is partially frozen)

Filed Under: Appetizers, Cooking, Main Dishes, Miscellaneous | Tagged: Tagged With: chicken, Chile, Cilantro, Easy, Ginger, Lemon, Noodle, Quick, soup

Curried Carrot Soup with Spiced Pepitas

Posted by Aimee on September 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

I am picky about what vegetables I eat readily. I’ll admit it. Carrots are one of them. I love raw carrots, and so does my dog, Bullet. Whenever I eat them he’ll sit next to me and we’ll share it. Don’t worry — I break off pieces for him, we don’t gnaw on the same carrot together. However, I’m not a huge fan of cooked carrots. My friend Justine made some oven roasted carrot fries for me one day that were great, and roasted but not overcooked to the point of being mushy carrots I can eat. Well, you get the point. I’m picky.

I would not order a carrot soup in a restaurant. However, I recently bought Fine Cooking’s Soups & Sandwiches special interest publication, and there are some mighty tasty looking soups in there. One of them is a Curried Carrot Soup with Cilantro. Now this actually looked like a carrot soup I would like. First of all anything curry flavored is good to me, and add cilantro and it’s just about guaranteed I’ll like it. The original recipe called for using 1 teaspoon of sweet curry powder, but I wanted my soup to be a little spicy, so I used a spicy curry powder , and the teaspoon didn’t seem nearly enough, so I ended up using 2 teaspoons. The original recipe also called for using chopped peanuts as an optional garnish. However, in the front of this same publication were some recipes for soup toppers, and one of them was for roasted pepitas. You roasted raw pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) in the oven with olive oil and then toss with ground coriander and dried dill. I thought this sounded like a more interesting garnish for this soup than chopped peanuts. When I made my pepitas though I decided to add a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin as well.

The recipe also called for fresh carrot juice. Normally I can find this in my grocery store but of course when I needed it they didn’t have it. This gave me the perfect opportunity to drag my seldom-used juicer out of the basement which was kind of fun, and the carrot juice was certainly fresh and beautiful. The chickens enjoyed the peelings and juicer leftovers too.

I thought this really came out great. While it’s not a soup that qualifies as a meal, it’s a good lunch soup or a starter soup for a dinner. It was refreshingly different from what one expects of a carrot soup. Hey, even I ate it.

Spiced Roasted Pepitas

Original recipe from Fine Cooking’s Soups & Sandwiches, altered slightly by Crafty Farm Girl, 2011.

Yields 1 cup.

1 cup large raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 tsp. olive oil
1-1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne (optional)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 325°F. Toss the seeds with the olive oil on a baking sheet large enough to hold them in a single layer. Spread in an even layer and roast the seeds in the oven, stirring occasionally, until golden, 13 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and immediately put the pepitas in a bowl and toss the seeds with the coriander, salt, dill, pepper, and cayenne, if using. I put them back onto the baking sheet again and baked for an additional 2 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Transfer to a small serving dish or two and serve. (If you’re working ahead, refresh the pepitas for a minute or two in the oven before serving).

nutrition information (per serving):
Size : per Tbs.; Calories (kcal): 50; Fat (g): 4.5; Fat Calories (kcal): 40; Saturated Fat (g): 1; Protein (g): 2; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 1.5; Carbohydrates (g): 2; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 2; Sodium (mg): 90; Cholesterol (mg): 0; Fiber (g): 0;

Curried Carrot Soup with Spiced Pepitas

Original recipe from Fine Cooking‘s Soups & Sandwiches, altered slightly by Crafty Farm Girl, 2011.

Serves 4 to 6

2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1-1/2 lb. carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 4 cups)
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tsp. spicy curry powder
3 cups lower-salt chicken broth (I ended up using about 3-1/2 cups to get it thin enough)
Kosher salt
1-1/2 cups carrot juice; more as needed
1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a 10- or 11-inch straight-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the carrots and then the onion. Cook, stirring very little at first and more frequently towards the end, until the vegetables are golden brown, 6 to 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and curry and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Add the carrot juice and cilantro.

Add the broth and 1/2 tsp. salt and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Now I messed up here. That’s what happens when you don’t read the recipe carefully. It seemed to have worked out just fine, but I’ll tell you what I did. I added the garlic and curry and cooked for 30 seconds. Then I added the salt and chicken stock. I did not add the carrot juice and cilantro at this point. I didn’t add it until after I pureed it, which was stupid because then in order to not have big cilantro leaves in there I had to re-puree it in the blender after I added the carrot juice and cilantro. What I probably would do next time is add the carrot juice and cilantro after I had simmered the stock and before I pureed it. Lesson learned.

Purée the soup in a blender, working in two batches and making sure to vent the blender by removing the pop-up center or lifting one edge of the top (drape a towel over the top to keep the soup from leaking).

Return the soup to the pan, heat through, and season to taste with salt and pepper. If necessary, add more carrot juice to thin to your liking. Ladle into bowls and serve, sprinkled with the spiced pepitas.

nutrition information (per serving):
Size : based on six servings; Calories (kcal): 140; Fat (g): 6; Fat Calories (kcal): 50; Saturated Fat (g): 1; Protein (g): 4; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 2.5; Carbohydrates (g): 21; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 2.5; Sodium (mg): 230; Cholesterol (mg): 0; Fiber (g): 4;

Filed Under: Cooking, Main Dishes, Miscellaneous | Tagged: Tagged With: carrot, chicken broth, curried, curry, onion, pepitas, pumpkin seeds, soup, spicy

Caramel-Nut Cinnamon Buns

Posted by Aimee on September 13, 2011 Leave a Comment

Here’s another recipe I found on the King Arthur Flour Catalog’s website. They looked so good I had to try them. I wish mine had gotten that big popped up top like there’s did in the picture, but they didn’t and they still tasted amazing.

King Arthur Flour's Carmel-Nut Cinnamon Buns

The only thing I changed in the recipe was to add a little bit of their Sticky Bun Sugar along with the Baker’s Cinnamon Filling. Even though I didn’t add more than 2 tablespoons or so, I did seem to notice the difference in the buns.

caramel-nut cinnamon buns

Ingredients:

dough

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons grape seed flour, optional, for extra antioxidants
3 tablespoons Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor or vanilla extract

filling

1 cup Baker’s Cinnamon Filling* mixed with 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons Sticky Bun Sugar, optional
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1/2 cup caramel bits, optional
*Or substitute 6 tablespoons butter, 1 cup brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon for the Baker’s Cinnamon Filling mix and water (don’t add water if you make this substitution).

glaze

1/2 cup caramel bits, block caramel, or unwrapped vanilla caramel candies
3 tablespoons heavy cream or half & half

Directions:

Combine all of the dough ingredients, and mix and knead them together — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — until you’ve made a soft, smooth dough.

Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until puffy. Note: I very lightly oiled my dough before covering to rise.

Cover dough and let rise 1 hour. I lightly greased my dough with canola oil.

While the dough is rising, lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or a baking sheet.

Gently deflate the dough, and roll it into an 18″ x 18″ square.

Spread with the prepared cinnamon filling, the optional sticky bun sugar, if using, then sprinkle with the chopped nuts and caramel bits, leaving an uncovered strip about 1″ wide along one side.

Roll into a log starting with a filling-covered end opposite the unfilled end. If you want the buns to pop like a corkscrew, as shown in the picture, roll the dough tightly, stretching the dough as you roll it up.

Slice the log into 12 pieces; if your knife sticks, dip it in hot water between cuts. Or use dental floss to cut the dough.

Place the buns in the prepared muffin pan, or space them on a baking sheet.

Cover, and let the buns rise until puffy, about 60 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the buns for 20 to 24 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown.

Remove them from the oven, and place on a rack to cool slightly, while you make the glaze.

Melt the glaze ingredients together over low heat or in a microwave, stirring until smooth. Spoon over the buns.

Serve warm, or at room temperature.

Yield: 12 buns.

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Filed Under: Cooking, Miscellaneous | Tagged: Tagged With: breakfast, brunch, caramel, King Arthur Flour, nuts, Sticky Buns

Apricot Coconut Almond Bars

Posted by Aimee on September 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

I’m so excited to finally have my kids back in school it’s hard for me to pick what to do first. Today I did a little bit of everything, including make these Apricot Coconut Almond Bars. I was in the mood to make some sort of bar cookie thing and had a craving for apricots and coconut. The almonds were an afterthought.

I found two recipes on-line; one from allrecipes.com and the other from foodandwine.com. I pretty much went off of the Allrecipes.com recipe, but the recipe called for walnuts, which I thought was an odd choice. Almonds and apricots go so well together that I could think of no reason not to exchange the walnuts for sliced blanched almonds. I increased the amount of apricots from 2/3 to 3/4 cup and I decided to throw in 1/4 cup of apricot preserves for shits and giggles.

These were easy to throw together and sliced up really nicely. They are not too sweet and would be perfect to bring to one of those class coffee’s or PTO meetings, or would be a great lunchbox snack.

Apricot Coconut Almond Bars

Original recipe from allrecipes.com, altered a bit by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 cup water
2 eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup sliced blanched almonds
1/4 cup apricot preserves
3/4 cup flaked coconut (optional)
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar for decoration (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix together butter, sugar, and 1 cup flour. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan and bake for 25 minutes in preheated oven.

In small saucepan, bring apricots and water to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar.

Stir in 1/3 cup flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice.

Fold in nuts and chopped apricots. Stir in coconut, if desired.

Pour over the prepared crust and spread evenly.

Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm.

Cool, and dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired before cutting into squares.

Print This Recipe

Apricot Coconut Almond Bars

Original recipe from allrecipes.com, altered a bit by Crafty Farm Girl, September, 2011.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 cup water
2 eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup flaked coconut (optional)
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar for decoration (optional)

Directions

In small saucepan, bring apricots and water to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar. Stir in 1/3 cup flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice. Fold in nuts and chopped apricots. Stir in coconut, if desired.

Pour over the prepared crust and bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm.

Cool, and dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired before cutting into squares.

Filed Under: Cooking, Desserts | Tagged:

Swedish Pancakes

Posted by Aimee on September 7, 2011 1 Comment

My mom was born in Finland, but left Finland to live in Sweden when she was around 5 years old. One of my favorite meals as a child, and remains so today, is Swedish pancakes. I’m not a big fan of American pancakes, but these…oh my goodness. Sometimes we would just eat them with butter and some sprinkled sugar, sometimes with maple syrup (the real stuff only), or with homemade blueberry jam.

I’m not really sure if there is any difference at all between Swedish pancakes and French crepes except when they make them in a different country everybody wants to claim them as their own.

Now this, not surprisingly, has become one of my children’s favorite meals, and they particularly like them for dinner. As I’ve mentioned before, my husband cannot stand these for dinner, or any other meal that is ‘supposed to be’ breakfast. Don’t ask me why.

Tonight my husband was going to be away on business, and it was my younger children’s first day of school. I decided to surprise them with these for dinner. When Maia was texting me on the way home from school I told her I was making them for dinner. She said “Am I crazy or are you pulling my leg!?!?!?” To which I said “Why crazy?” and she replied “Because that is a SPECIAL dinner. I LOVE Swedish pancakes! I am so excited! From a hard day is is great to come back to that!”

It’s the little things in life that can make your day.

I wrote this recipe down when I was probably 16 as my mother dictated it to me. It’s stayed pretty clean over the last 32 years! That’s because I take good care of it.

I make it in a blender. I’ve never made it any other way, but I suppose you could just whisk it up in a bowl.

Swedish Pancakes

3 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups flour
2-1/4 cups milk (I used 1% but I think any kind will do)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons oil

Put the eggs, sugar and salt to the blender and blend.

Add the eggs, sugar and salt to the blender and pulse.

Note the difference in the color of the egg yolks. My chicken's eggs are at the bottom and a store-bought egg yolk is at the top left. See how deep orange my chicken's yolks are? Happy chickens.

With blender stopped, add the flour all at one time and blend again, scraping down sides of blender once. The mixture will be quite thick.

Add the milk all at once and blend again.

Add the oil and vanilla and blend one final time to combine.

Pour into a container and refrigerate.

Now there is some debate here. I always make my batter at least several hours before I’m going to make them — preferably I let it sit overnight. My father makes his and uses it right away. I feel that if you let the batter rest the pancakes have a deeper, richer flavor. I don’t know who’s right.

And you always roll your Swedish pancakes. Grab it between the tines of your fork once you’ve put your preferred topping on it, and roll it up.

Filed Under: Cooking, Desserts, Main Dishes | Tagged: