Archive | Recipes RSS feed for this section

Tastier than a Gold Medal

31 Jul

If you haven’t noticed, the Olympics are on! London being six hours ahead combined with the Internet being the Internet means that I’ve had almost every swimming event spoiled ahead of time, but it’s still fun to watch the races. Sometimes miss those multi-day swim meets. There’s something about sitting around a gym waiting for your race with a bunch of other chlorine-laden people that fosters camaraderie.

The U.S. has already had some pretty shining performances. Most notable to me was Dana Vollmer’s incredible 100 butterfly gold medal finish with a time of 55.98 seconds! She’s got a pretty wild back story too:

In 2003, at the age of 15, Vollmer was training for a chance at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She battled dizzy spells and light-headedness. In addition, her heart rate was abnormally high and would be very slow to return to normal after her training sessions.

Her parents took her to see a doctor, then a cardiologist, and Vollmer was diagnosed with a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia. Without getting into too much medical vernacular, this caused Vollmer’s rapid heart rate.  At the age of 15, Vollmer underwent heart surgery.

However, during the surgery, the doctors found a more daunting issue with her heart. Vollmer had the symptoms of long Q-T Syndrome, which is an abnormality where irregular electrical impulses can be sent to the heart. (From Bleacherreport.com)

Rather than undergo more surgery, she elected instead to have an external defibrillator available during training sessions in case of an emergency. She went on to win a gold medal in the 4×200 freestyle relay at the 2004 games, but failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Here she is in 2012 back with a vengeance swimming butterfly like no woman ever has. What a champion!

So it’s only appropriate that Neen’s Notes shares its own favorite little gold medals this week, and that means buttery, nutty blondies. A good friend (also an excellent photographer whose work you can find here) brought me roasted, salted macadamia nuts back from her recent honeymoon trip to Hawaii and I’ve been putting them in everything. Pretty sure Joe is glad that I’ve now gone through the whole bag because he’s so tired of hearing “Oh my god these are the best thing EVER.” I even stowed a few in my pocket for Sunday’s 5.5 mile Reagan airport-and-back run.

I love any baking recipe that makes very few dishes to wash, so I’ve now made these three times. Lest you think I am gluttonous, the latter two batches were donated to coffee time at work.

Gold Medals: Macadamia Nut Brown-Butter Blondies

  • 4 oz. unsalted butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp. vanilla butter & nut flavoring (vanilla extract works too, but I love this stuff.)
  • 2/3 cup roasted, salted macadamia nuts
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line an 8 in. square pan with parchment paper or buttered foil. Parchment works a lot better for these, so if you have it use it.

Grind the macadamia nuts in a food processor until they resemble a coarse meal. They’ll stick together a little bit, but don’t process them all the way to a paste.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once it begins to foam, swirl the pan every so often and cook just until it begins to brown. Remove the pot from the heat.

Add the brown sugar to the butter and whisk until thoroughly combined. Resist pouring this directly from the pot into your mouth. Mix in the egg and extract/flavoring until smooth, and then stir in the flour just until no dry spots remain. Fold in 2/3 of the macadamia nuts.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan, top with the remaining nuts, and bake for 25 minutes. The top will look shiny and the edges will be lightly golden. These are fudgier and less cake-y, so don’t be afraid of under baking them too much.

Extremely difficult part: Let the blondies cool in the pan on a wire rack for one hour. Using the parchment paper, gently lift them out of the pan and cool for another 15 minutes before cutting into squares. I’ve found that a long knife with a scalloped edge or a very sharp chef’s knife does the best job.

Now you can enjoy your very own gold medals, and while not as shiny, I can almost guarantee that they will be much tastier than the ones Olympians receive.

“I just swam my brains out, can I please have a snack?”

Enjoy the games everyone!

Ciao for now,

Neen

Back to Bohemia

18 Jul

By 8:30 am on Saturday morning, it was already sticky and nearing 80 degrees. As I walked up the enormous hill near my house with a cabbage, lengthy French baguette, two pounds of bacon, a carton of eggs, two rolls of paper towels, a bottle of vinegar, two apples, three peaches, some kielbasa, a latte, and a red-eye (a cup of black coffee with a shot of espresso—the only real way to start a day), I wondered what on earth possessed me to stop for groceries on the way back from my morning run.

Oh yes that’s right, I’d woken up at 7 o’clock in the morning with a wild craving…for braised cabbage. What. The. Hell. This is what pregnant women must feel like, I imagine. For me it was just that since we came back from Prague, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the braised cabbage and smoked pork knuckle I had the first night we were there.

I’m sure that part of it was honeymoon bliss combined with exhaustion, but the food just tasted so good. As we kept cool and had a movie marathon day this past weekend, I put on a big pot of goodness to braise. This doesn’t happen often but it came out so right the first time. It’s a simple recipe too, which makes it even better. One bite and I was back in the Czech Republic. Now if only I could get that beer again…hmm…

Braised Cabbage of Happiness

  • 1 head of cabbage, cored and shredded
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp. butter (I used some bacon fat too!)
  • 1-2 slices of bacon, chopped
  • 1.5 tsp. caraway seeds
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • Black pepper to taste
  • One small apple, grated

Melt the butter in a dutch oven or heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat. Add the onions and sauté very gently for 10 minutes. The onions should be soft, translucent and lightly golden. Add the bacon and cook five minutes more.

Add the cabbage and caraway seeds to the pot and mix well. Cover the pot tightly and cook for five minutes.

Add the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Stir everything together thoroughly and then increase the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes and then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer gently for one hour. Stop by the stove and give it a stir every so often. Near the end, add the grated apple. I like to apple to stay crunchy, but if you like it soft go ahead and add it earlier.

If you want to make this into a meal, here’s a quick protein to go with it. Kielbasa is the most similar thing (that I’ve found) to the kranjska klobása served at the food carts in Prague, so that’s what I used. Making it from scratch is definitely in my future, but I digress.

Cut 3 oz. of kielbasa into half moon shapes and fry until lightly browned. Add 1/3 cup of chicken stock, 1/3 cup of beer, and a squirt of spicy barbecue sauce to the pan. Simmer until the sauce reduces to about 1/3 cup. You can also add a few tbsp. of milk if you like a sauce with a little bit more body. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour yourself a frothy beer and enjoy being in a Bohemian state of mind. Dobrou chut’!

Ciao for now,

Neen

Waffle Makeover!

15 Jun

The Carbo-Queen, as my family used to call me, is serious about waffles.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve tried every waffle mix there is, and have made them completely from scratch about a thousand times. There’s just something about achieving that perfect mix of sweet and savory that makes my mouth really, really happy.

But (there’s always a ‘but,’ isn’t there?) I’m supposed to focus on eating protein first at meals. Sure, a side of wheat toast with some eggs and turkey sausage is fine, but a meal of waffles? Probably not the best option for me, although I do treat myself to the occasional plate of French toast or slice of banana bread.

When I want to slay my waffle cravings without trashing my diet and going into a carb-coma, I turn to this recipe. It turns out crisp, light, and super-flavorful protein-filled waffles. You won’t miss the cups of flour, believe me. The secret to making these really delicious? Use full-fat ricotta to keep the insides rich and moist. Fresh-made would be the very best, but hey, there’s not always time for that.

Because I am usually only cooking these for me, this recipe yields a small amount (4 square waffles), so feel free to double or triple it if you’re feeding a crowd.

Pecan Ricotta Waffles

  • 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 2 tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour (or brown rice flour, almond meal, rolled oats, buckwheat flour…etc.)
  • 1 tbsp. ground pecans
  • 1 tbsp. sugar, honey, or light brown sugar (or less, if you prefer more savory waffles)
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 egg whites and 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, ground pecans, and a pinch of salt.

Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt and beat until soft peaks form.

Fold the ricotta mixture into the dry ingredients. The batter will seem very stiff at this point.

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

Cook in a preheated waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s directions. In my waffle iron, they take about 2-3 minutes to get nice and golden brown. If they seem slightly soft when you remove them from the waffle iron, just put them in a warm oven or toaster for a minute or two to crisp up the outside. Leftovers freeze pretty well and take about 3-4 minutes in the toaster oven to reheat.

Bust out the maple syrup and enjoy. These are already on the lightly sweet side, so go light on the syrup. I barely used a teaspoon on these and it probably didn’t even need it. They’re also good with peanut butter, bananas, berries, jam, and probably whatever other toppings you can dream up. I personally like something crunchy like more chopped nuts or some chopped, crisp bacon on top.

Seriously, writing this post has already made me hungry for more of them! And at under 100 cal. per waffle, why not? Go to it, friends.

P.S. In case some time goes by and you wonder why you’re not getting your fix of food porn, just FYI Neen’s Notes is going on vacation for a little while.

“Why Neen? WHY would you do such a thing?”

Oh, I’ll be busy marrying my best friend, that’s all.

But don’t worry, I’ll write again in a few weeks…maybe about something tasty inspired by our honeymoon abroad. Until then, “mangia bene!”

Ciao for now,

Neen

Unexpected Favorites: Zucchini Lasagna

22 May

Creativity, in my opinion, is one of the most important assets any cook can have. It is always really interesting to me when I have a chance to exchange recipes with other RNY post-ops. Generally they’ve revamped favorite recipes into ones that fit into their new healthy lifestyle. People have come up with really interesting, delicious things like chocolate cakes sweetened and moistened with canned pumpkin, or protein-packed pancakes made from ricotta cheese and nut flour.

It was during one of these exchanges many years ago that someone first brought up the idea of using zucchini squash as a replacement for lasagna noodles. Although skeptical (I love pasta), I gave it a try and LOVED it. If, like me, you are currently being driven crazy by a project and just need something simple to heat up at lunchtime, this is the answer. You can use low-fat cheeses if you wish, but I prefer to use full-fat in this recipe. Even with full-fat cheese, it only works out to 8g of fat per serving.

Zucchini Lasagna

  •  1 lb. ground turkey breast
  • 2 zucchini, sliced thin on a mandoline
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups diced mushrooms
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 16 oz. whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 3 oz. whole-milk mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 1 oz. parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 egg
  • Thyme, salt, onion powder, and cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Brown the turkey in a large saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and minced garlic and saute a minute longer. Add the tomato sauce, herbs, and seasoning and simmer while preparing the filling.

Combine the ricotta, 2 oz. of the mozzarella, and parmesan with thyme, salt and pepper. Taste and re-season as needed, then add the egg and mix well.

Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce mixture in the bottom of an 8×8 in. square baking dish. Top that with a layer of zucchini, and then finally with a layer of the ricotta mixture. Repeat this process until you’ve used up the filling. I usually get about 8 layers.

Top with any remaining small slices of zucchini and mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and cooked through. After removing from the oven, allow it to sit for 15 minutes before cutting into slices. Yield: 9 slices.

Want to get a bunch of meals out of this? Simply refrigerate the leftovers in the baking pan overnight so that they firm up. Then wrap individual servings in several layers of plastic wrap and then freeze. To reheat, either place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees F until warm, or in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.

That’s all for this healthy and happy recipe. But I’ll finish this post off with something even happier. Check out my face as I realize that I’ve just walked into a surprise bridal shower thrown by my wonderful family and friends this past weekend:

Then realized my sister-in-law flew in from New York to be there:

And ended up with a bouquet of bows from generous gifts for Joe and I:

Truly, I am the luckiest.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Ciao for now,

Neen

Return of the Gouda

9 May

Fortunately I did, in fact, remember to save a piece of finished homemade gouda to show you. This is not the wheel that I made in that post. It’s one I made late in the autumn after I had trouble aging the first batch. It turned out that waxing the cheese made all the difference in getting it to age without forming an incredibly hard rind, especially given that the humidity I was able to achieve in my aging space was less than ideal. It stayed in there for three months and I then vacuum sealed pieces after opening. This is the last one:

Very creamy, rich, and soft. Such an amazing contrast to the hard, squeaky mass of curds that came out of the cheese press. It really turned out well. If I make another, I want to try and let it age for a full year!

Ciao for now,
Neen

Easter Bread 101

26 Apr

I consider myself a bread connoisseur. Outside of really good cioppino or bouillabaisse, fresh bread is my favorite thing to eat. When I think about the fact that people have made this one food for centuries, I realize that I cannot possibly be the only one that feels this way.

One of my most beloved varieties is one that only pops up in the spring. It’s lightly sweet and a little bit rich, and for one reason or another only gets made at Easter (oh cruel fate). But you should totally rage against the machine and make it all year.

For most of my life, I’ve almost always seen this bread made with either vegetable shortening or oil, so when Bon Appetit featured an all-butter recipe in one of their recent issues I was very keen to try it. While it was an excellent recipe, I thought that their methodology lacked some important details, and that there were a few ingredients I’d tweak. When I baked up a loaf for our Easter Sunday picnic with the future in-laws, I took some pictures and thought I’d share the experience.

Easter Bread

Adapted from grandma, dad, mom, Bon Appetit…etc.

  • 2/3 cup whole milk
  • 5 tbsp. sugar, divided
  • ¼ oz. envelope of dry active yeast
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for handling dough)
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1-2 tsp. grated orange zest
  • 4 oz. unsalted butter
  • Egg wash: One whole egg mixed with 1 tbsp. water

First of all, get out the eggs and butter and let them get to room temperature. It’s really important for your butter to be soft, so don’t skip this step.

Heat the milk until it reaches about 110 degrees F and then put it in a small bowl and whisk in 1 tbsp. of sugar and the yeast. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until foamy. Add the eggs and orange zest, and whisk thoroughly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, and remaining sugar. With the mixer running on low speed, add the milk mixture. Once it has been thoroughly integrated into the flour, begin adding the butter about 1 tbsp. at a time, blending well between each addition. Slow and steady wins the race here. It’s kind of like making buttercream.

Once all of the butter has been incorporated, fit the mixer with a dough hook and mix on medium-high speed until the dough is very smooth and elastic.

Now, here’s the part where people seem to panic. This dough is sticky, and I mean “I can’t get my hand out of this blob of dough” sticky:

But you have to get the dough out of the mixing bowl and into a clean bowl brushed with melted butter somehow, and the best tool for the job is a bowl scraper. If you don’t have one, a rigid silicone spatula or greased spoon works well. Once you’ve transferred it to a clean, greased bowl, gently brush the top of the dough with melted butter, cover the bowl loosely in plastic wrap, and stash it in the refrigerator.

Letting this dough do an overnight “rise” in the refrigerator makes it infinitely easier to handle, so I highly recommend that. I have the word rise in quotation marks because honestly, the dough doesn’t rise very much at all. In fact the first time I made it I thought something had gone horribly wrong.

The next step is to lightly flour a surface and cut the dough into three equal pieces. Use as little excess flour as possible. You want just enough to keep it from sticking to the surface.

Roll each piece into a long (15-16in) rope and taper at the edges. Place the dough ropes on a piece of parchment paper, pinch them together at one end, and then braid. (Many Easter Bread bakers tuck dyed, boiled eggs in between the braids, but I didn’t make any this year.)

At the end of the braid, pinch the ends together and tuck them under slightly to secure. Let the loaf rest in a warm place for one hour. It will puff a little bit, but not too much.

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

Brush the loaf of bread with the egg wash and bake it for 23-25 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown. The internal temperature will measure about 190 degrees.

Eat every day until it’s gone. Future mom-in-law said she used a few slices for grilled cheese the next day and it was really good. I’m a big fan of Easter bread toast and runny fried eggs. Or you could try using it in this supremely tasty recipe for French toast.

Hope you are all having a beautiful spring. Who else is getting really impatient for summer fruit? Come on berries, get growing already!

Ciao for now,

Neen

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →