Asparagus Fritatta

 Today I made a recipe from Smitten Kitchen: Asparagus Frittata. The great thing about this recipe is that you don't need to cook or stir fry the asparagus first. It's an all-in-one recipe, and it turned out great. It served three of us for dinner (not 6, as stated in the recipe).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound asparagus, cleaned, not trimmed
• 8 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk or cream
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal [I substituted chives]
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 to 4 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled (to taste)

Prepare the asparagus: No need to snap off the tough ends of your asparagus. Lay a single stalk on its side on a cutting board. Holding onto the tough end, use a vegetable peeler to peel ribbons away from the tough end (and your hand) right through the soft tip. Discard the tough ends once you’re done peeling. [I really liked this method!]

 

Heat your broiler.

Vigorously beat your eggs with the milk or cream, plus salt and pepper until well-combined. Stir in scallions [I used chives]. Gently add asparagus peels, just swishing the egg mixture over them.

 

Heat your skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Let it heat fully, then swish it around so it goes up the sides of the pan. Pour in asparagus and egg mixture, nudging the asparagus around so it mostly stays level with the eggs. Crumble goat cheese over, to taste. Cook gently (lowering the heat to medium-low if needed) for about 5 minutes, until the edges are set and brown but it’s still loose and eggy on top. Transfer skillet to the broiler and cook for another 1 to 3 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, until eggs are set on top.

Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges, or longer if you’d like to eat it at room temperature.

Verdict: Easy to make and delicious. Tastes good hot or lukewarm or even cold. Could easily go into a lunchbox. 10/10

Dumpling making class

We made dumplings tonight! Following a recipe by chef Monique Lu and as part of an anti-hate online event ("Dump the Hate") organized by a local deli and meal kit service.

We got a meal kit with everything we needed and simply followed the Zoom workshop. It all started with using the food processor to prepare the filling (mushrooms, red onion, ginger, spring onions, cilantro, vegan "chick'n"). Then we learned different ways to fold the dumplings. (I liked the crescent shape best.)

As stated in the recipe, we fried the dumplings in a non-stick pan until they were a golden brown at the bottom.

Our mealkit hat everything we needed for a spicy dipping sauce. 

We dipped, we munched, we were very happy. 

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Dinner in One: Pasta with butternut squash and rosemary brown butter

 With the little cooking I do, not to mention my NYT subscription, there is no reason for me to buy a cook book. But recently  I came across Melissa Clark's "Dinner in One. Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals" at the local bookstore and thought that perhaps I'd cook more if I have a book with recipes at hand. 

Attempt #1: Cavatelli (I used different pasta) with butternut squash, ricotta (I used 5% yogurt), and rosemary brown butter.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• thinly slided large shallot (I picked up a packet of diced onions at Trader Joe's, used about 1/3)
• one pound butternut squash, peeled, trimmed, and cut into small cubes (again, I picked up chopped butternut squash at Trader Joe's -- such a time saver)
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 ounces pasta (pasta is cooked with butternut squash, it's best if they both have the same cooking time, so pick some kind of sturdy pasta)
• 1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta (I used 1 container of Fage 5% Greek yogurt instead --  my family finds ricotta grainy)
• 1/2 cup chopped herbs, including mint (I used 1/4 cup of mint only)
• grated lemon zest
• grated parmesan cheese (I think the dish is fine without it)

You cook all of this in a large skillet, ideally one with a lid.

Step one: melt butter over medium heat, cook until foam subsides (3-4 mins)

Step 2: stir in shallots/onions, cook for 2 mins; add squash and rosemary, salt, pepper, cook for another 5-7 minutes (squash begins to soften)

Step 3: add 3 1/4 cups of water and bring to a biol. Stir in pasta and reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook until pasta has absorbed the water (add more if necessary) and is al dente. Recipe says this will take 18-25 minutes, but it took less (perhaps 12-14 minutes). Squash should be soft by the end. I ended up halving some of the cubes to speed up that process.

 Step 4: remove from heat, stir in ricotta (or yogurt), mint, and lemon zest. Serve sprinkled with more herbs and generous heap of grated cheese (which I thought could be left out, but who doesn't like melted cheese?).

Voilà!

Verdict: 8/10

Easy to make (especially if you buy pre-chopped squash, but don't take shortcuts on the mint), quite delicious, and includes a pound of veggies.

Thanksgiving bread pudding with mushrooms (and shortcuts)

Hello! It's been a while. We joined a local food kit service a while ago and that has brought some interesting food into our lives without the need to cook. But here I am, same dilettante, same restricted skill set, same willingness to take shortcuts, same interest in delicious food, same intense dislike of broccoli.

This  Thanksgiving, I made Ina Garten's Thanksgiving bread pudding with mushrooms, which I picked because I was intrigued by the shortcut ingredient of cubed stuffing, which I had never purchased before in my life. 

The link goes to the New York Times cooking section and should not be restricted, I used the new "gift recipe" feature. So, no need to copy the recipe here, just some pictures and impressions.

First things first, the bread pudding was delicious -- cheesy and mushroomy.

The whole recipe was about making things easier for oneself by buying premade ingredients, and I'm a big fan of buying onions already chopped (available at Trader Joe's). We didn't have sherry, so I just left that out. There was no overnight soaking and the whole thing came together in 1.5 hours, including 50 minutes of baking, slicing the mushrooms, and grating the cheese myself. (We ate it with salmon and a deviled eggs appetizer not prepared by me.)

Would I make it again? Absolutely, although there is quite a bit of shopping required and it is a dish much richer than what I normally eat. One thing that was not ideal was that the stuffing I got at Wholefoods (purchased on Thanksgiving, so not much of a selection left) wasn't actually cubed, so the pudding was perhaps a tad softer than I would have liked. But it was nice and firm and sliceable for a late breakfast on Friday, so there's that.

As a bonus, here's a picture of a cookie I glazed at a cookie glazing workshop, not something I'm good at at all, but, unlike the winner of the most recent British Bakeoff show, I know what 'feathering' means.

This is the recipe:

Rolled Sugar Cookies

Total Time: 15 minutes to assemble dough + 1 - 24 hours, including chilling time

Makes about 2 dozen 4-inch cookies

Source: Marthastewart.com

 

INGREDIENTS

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface and more if needed

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

METHOD

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Turn out the dough, and divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

 

Preheat oven to 325℉, with racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to just under 1/4-inch thick, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 30 minutes. Cut out cookies using desired cutters or templates. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets as you work. Roll out scraps, and repeat once. Repeat with the remaining disk of dough. Chill cookies in the freezer until very firm, about 15 minutes.

 

 

Bake cookies, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Decorate with Royal Icing.

 

Glossy Royal Icing

Total Time: 20 mins

Makes 2 -1/2 cups

Source: Allrecipes.com

 

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup warm water

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

¼ teaspoon almond extract, or your favorite extract or flavoring [we used almond in the workshop and it was very nice]

3 cups confectioners' sugar, or more as needed

METHOD

Stir warm water, corn syrup, and almond extract together in a small bowl until corn syrup and extract have dissolved. Place confectioners' sugar into a separate bowl and add liquid ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until royal icing is smooth. Store in a lidded container for up to a week; stir thoroughly before using.

Notes:

For thick icing, which you will need for outlining and details, add more sugar until the icing is quite thick. Icing can be thinned with a few drops of water to make a glaze for filling in outlines or dipping cookies.

Icing hardens into a shiny glaze quickly. Keep stirring your bowl of icing as you work with it.

Easy Mac & Cheese for One

I always wanted to try Smitten Kitchen's easy essential stovetop mac'n'cheese, and tonight I did. I'm happy to confirm that it was indeed easy and delicious and that my daughter loved it. I accidentally used too much milk (1 cup instead of 1/2), but it just made for extra sauce. I also didn't have parmesan or pecorino cheese, so I just used grated cheese from Trader Joe's. My daughter didn't mind. Would be happy to double the ingredients and make this a cozy TV dinner (Downton Abbey!) for two.

For what it is, a quick comfort food fix, 8/10.

Here's the recipe:

• Kosher salt
• 4 ounces (115 grams) dried pasta, such as macaroni or another small twisty shape
• 2 teaspoons (10 grams) salted or unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons (6 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) low-fat or whole milk 
• Many grinds of black pepper
• 1/2 cup (1 ounce or 30 grams) finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Bring a small-to-medium pot of very well-salted water to a boil and add your dried pasta. Cook it until firm tender, then drain. 

Return pot to stove and melt butter in the bottom. Using a spoon or whisk, add flour and mix until it disappears. 

Add milk, a tiny splash at a time [I got this wrong, but it didn't mater), stirring constantly so no lumps form. Season with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and many grinds of black pepper. Bring sauce to a simmer. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese until combined. 

Add drained pasta, stir to evenly coat. 

One-pot Orzo with Spinach and Peas

One-pot recipes are the best. This one has become my go-to recipe. Tonight I tried another one-pot recipe from The New York Times, with some simplifications (I didn't have scallions and I didn't have garlic). 1 cup of orzo didn't seem enough for 3 people, so I added another 1/2 cup. Easy and delicious. I think next time I might try mozzarella instead of feta.

What I want to cook

Some kind of pasta & chickpeas dish.

This one by Melissa Clark is labeled 'easy.'
This one looks a little more indulgent.

Pasta with ricotta, although it's something my family doesn't love.
Pleasant pasta

Smitten Kitchen's cacio e pepe, marked as 'foolproof'.
Smitten Kitchen's stove top mac'n cheese.

Mark Bittman's apple crisp recipe