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Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Bacon

Posted May 31, 2012

 

There is only one word for this soup, yum!  I have a new cookbook, Weeknights with Giada and this is my first venture.  There is another factor that could be contributing to my Yum factor, the bacon.  I got this at a special outlet store in the Factory in Lebanon.  It is called Early’s dry cured hickory smoked bacon.  We tried this bacon for breakfast and I found it too salty and strong, so I was just going to use it up in this soup.  I believe that the very things I objected to at breakfast contributed to this soup.  They mail order; goggle Early’s Honey Stand, Springhill, TN.  The soup  serves 4, but as usual, it is gone. 
Ingredients:
10-12 strips (about 1#) thick-cut applewood smoked bacon (see above)
3 T unsalted butter
1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (1.5 #) head cauliflower, cut into 1” pieces
1 T chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1 t dried
4 C low-sodium chicken broth (I used Wolfgang Puck roasted chicken stock)
8 oz. store-bought plain croutons (Marcy’s Gourmet garlic and parsley croutons from Costco)
Directions:
1.      Place and oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
2.      Arrange the bacon in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.  I cover the bottom with non-stick aluminum foil for easier cleanup.  Bake for 15-17 minutes, until brown and crispy.  Drain the bacon on paper towels, or I use cheap paper plates.  When cool enough to handle, chop into 1/2 “pieces.
3.      In a large saucepan with high sides, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Add the shallots, celery, 1 t salt, and ¼ t pepper.  Cook until soft, about 4 minutes. 
4.      Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. 
5.      Stir in the cauliflower, thyme, and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers, cover the pan and cook until the vegetables are tender, 20-25 minutes. 
6.      Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.  (This is why you need a pan that is deep, to avoid it blowing all over.)
7.      Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the bacon and croutons. 

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Chicken Risotto with Spring Vegetables

Posted May 29, 2012

 

I made this dish tonight as we are working hard at the new house.   I thought as it said serves 6-8 and there are only 2 of us, we could reheat a couple of nights.  Jim loved this dish.  I have a little left for tomorrow and that is it. 
Ingredients:
4 C chicken broth

½ # fresh asparagus spears

¾ # skinned and boned chicken breasts, cut into 1” strips
½ t herbes de Provence
1 ¼ t salt, divided
3 T butter, divided
2 T EVOO, divided
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced into half moons
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 ½ C uncooked Arborio rice
1 C dry white wine
1 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ C freshly grated fontina cheese
¼ C chopped fresh parsley
½ t pepper.
Directions:
1.      Bring chicken broth and 4 C water to a simmer in a large saucepan over low heat. 
2.      Snap off and discard tough ends of asparagus.  Cut into 2” pieces.
3.      Sprinkle chicken with herbes de Provence and ¾ t salt. 
4.      Melt 2 T butter with 1 T EVOO in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
5.      Add chicken, and sauté 5-6 minutes or until done.  Remove chicken; cover and keep warm. 
6.      Melt remaining 1 T butter in Dutch oven; add zucchini, onion, and asparagus, and sauté 3 minutes or until tender.  Remove vegetables; cover and keep warm. 
7.      Sauté rice in remaining 1 T hot oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat 1 minute.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add wine and remaining ½ t salt, and cook, stirring often, until liquid is absorbed. 
8.      Add 1 C hot broth mixture; cook, stirring often, until liquid is absorbed.  Repeat this procedure stirring often until all the liquid is absorbed.
9.      Add the pepper, Parmesan and fontina cheese stirring to evenly distribute. 
10.  Add back the chicken and vegetables and stir to distribute evenly. 
11.  Add the parsley and top with shaved parmesan if desired.    

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Mini Peppers filled with Goat Cheese and Aspargus and Grilled Steak with Avocado and Red onion Salad

Posted May 28, 2012

 

Yesterday was a busy day.  The painters finished in the new house and “broom clean” all but disappeared.  So we started with windows and floors.  I also cleaned the refrigerator and all the kitchen cabinets.  Jim put diazon granuals on the ground where Max will play, cleaned the patio and then helped inside.  We came home exhausted; showered and grilled tuna.  I made a salad and warmed some biscuits(frozen) that Jim and I drove all over Hendersonville to find a while back.  Having lunch with the ladies golf group, it was mentioned they were as good as homemade.  I’d have to say that the person who said that is not a biscuit maker.  Anyway, we did get a good bottle of wine; Smith & Hook, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005, Central Coast, CA.
Today, Jim played in a tournament and I redrew the house plan and coordinated my art area with existing electrical, telephone, and floor vents.  I’d have to say that whoever laid out the HVAC vents almost 75% made my furniture arrangements difficult. 
Being a holiday, I decided to make a festive meal I found in the May Sunset magazine.  Jim was excited as it involved steak.  He was less than thrilled when he learned that it was kind of a soft taco meal.  This dish serves 4 unless Jim is around.  He mostly ate the steak as steak.  It was really good. 
Ingredients:
2 New York strip steaks (1 ½ # total)
4 T EVOO, divided
1 ½ t each kosher salt and pepper, divided (I used 1 T Chicago seasoning by Penzeys)
1 ½ t sweet smoked Spanish paprika
2 ripe avocados, sliced
½ each thinly sliced red onion and cilantro sprigs ( I used Italian parsley, I like a small amount of cilantro, but this was too much for me)
Juice of 1 lime
½ small jalapeno chile, seeded and very thinly sliced
Warm flour tortillas ( I cut in ¼ wedges) You could just tear as needed, but that would be too hard to explain to Jim.
Directions:    
1.      Heat grill to medium.  Brush steaks with 2T EVOO and season with 1 t each salt and pepper and the paprika.  Grill steaks until done the way you like, turning once for 10-12minutes. 
2.      Toss avocados in a large bowl with onion, cilantro, remaining 2 T EVOO, the lime juice, jalapeno, and remaining ½ t salt and pepper. 
3.      Slice steaks across the grain. 
4.      Serve the steak with salad and tortillas. 
I also made a hors d’orves.  This was also in Sunset magazine.  I think the photo in the magazine did not follow the recipe as written.  Mine were too wimpy and although they were delicious, company would have a hard time with them as they were too limp.  I will note below what I would change to serve this delicious appetizer.    
Ingredients:
8 sweet mini peppers or gypsy peppers, stemmed, cut in half lengthwise, and seeded
8 oz. asparagus spears, ends trimmed, chopped (don’t use thin, get thick ones as you end up with unattractive small pieces.  I also do not think you need a whole 8 oz.  Three half inch pieces per pepper looks good.  That is 48 pieces of asparagus.

2 T EVOO, divided

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t chopped fresh rosemary leaves
½ t each kosher salt and pepper
Pinch of red chile flakes
½ C fresh goat cheese 
Directions: 
1.      Preheat broiler with rack set in top third of oven. 
2.      Toss peppers and asparagus in 1T oil and spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.  Broil, turning often, until starting to soften and brown slightly, 6 minutes. (Just warm the peppers slightly.  This was way too much and made the peppers too soft and they collapsed.  I’d be likely, next time, to just zap the peppers in the microwave for 1 minute.  The asparagus is nice broiled.  You could also just roast them.)
3.      Whirl garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, chile flakes, and goat cheese in a food processor until just combined. 
4.      Spoon about 1T cheese mixture into each pepper half and top with asparagus.  Drizzle with remaining 1T oil. 
Jim served Hindsight, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009 with dinner.  He aerated it as the wine was young.  We are having watermelon and blueberries for dessert.    

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Meat, Mashed Potatoes, Peas, Banana Bread

Posted May 26, 2012

 

Tonight we had a “Jim” meal, meat, potatoes, and peas.  Jim was so excited he pulled out a really good bottle of wine from the cellar.  It was a 2005 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast by Williams Selyem.  He bought it a zillion years ago at the Iron Bridge Wine Company in Warrenton, VA.  I marinated pork tenderloin in onion and pineapple jams.  We grilled it.   For the potatoes I used Idahoan 4 cheese mashed potatoes.  If you have not tried these potatoes, you should.  They are just as good as mashing real potatoes yourself.  The pea recipe comes from Penzeys.
Ingredients:
2 C cooked frozen peas
1 T EVOO
2 T whole brown mustard seeds
¼ onion, thinly shaved into slices and then chopped very small
2 t curry powder
¼ t granulated garlic powder
¼ t powdered ginger
2 t honey
¼ C sour cream
Directions:
1.      Heat the oil over medium heat.  When hot, add the onion.  Stir and cook until translucent/starting to brown, 2-3 minutes. 
2.      Add brown mustard seeds.  When they start to sizzle and pot, add the curry powder, garlic, ginger, and honey.
3.      Stir well, and then add the peas.  Cook for a few minutes until the peas are heated through. 
4.      Turn off the heat, stir in the sour cream and serve. 
These ingredients made the peas sweet as if you had fresh peas.  It is 4- ½ C servings.  I was not real excited by this recipe. 
Finally earlier in the day I made “Best Ever Banana Bread.”  Don’t throw your existing recipe away.  I thought it was greasy and I could taste the corn flour and the pie spice.  In fact you can taste everything but the bananas.  The good thing was I could finish my rice flour that I have had for years.  This was in Meat Free Monday cookbook.      
Ingredients:
9 T butter
½ C sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
1 C rice flour
½ C corn flour
1 t pumpkin pie spice
2 t baking powder
¼ t salt
Directions:
1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and line with parchment paper a 1# loaf pan. 
2.      Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
3.      Beat in the eggs one at a time. 
4.      Gently stir in the bananas.
5.      Stir in the flours, spice baking powder and salt and fold until incorporated. 
6.      Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 ½ hours until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. 
7.      Cool on a wire rack. 





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Fig and Goat Cheese Pizza with Arugula

Posted May 25, 2012

 

Todd English has a wonderful Fig Pizza that I tasted at his restaurant in Las Vegas.  I also had a very good BLT Pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen in Palm Springs, CA.  So I was very surprised when I was not wild about this pizza from Bon Appétit magazine.  It is a specialty of a restaurant called Cucina in Woodstock, NY.  Possibly it is because I did not make the crust and estimated that my pizza pan was the equivalent of 2 10” pies.  So I used ½ the toppings.  It is also possible that because I could not make it beginning to end all in one motion that the time lapse produced a pizza that was tasteless and doughy.  I also do not have a great oven.  All factors considered, I will be out of here soon and should have waited to make this pizza when I had all my toys around me. 
Ingredients:
½ T plus 1 t EVOO, divided
1 T minced shallot
1 C dried figs, stemmed, quartered
½ C Marsala
1 T minced fresh rosemary
1 t kosher salt
Pepper
8 oz. fresh goat cheese
2 C arugula
1 pear
For the dough:
1 ½ C all-purpose flour plus more for rolling

1 ½ C bread flour

8 oz. fresh goat cheese
1 ½ T EVOO
Directions:
1.      Heat ½ T oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. 
2.      Add shallot; stir until soft, about 5 minutes. 
3.      Add figs, Marsala, and rosemary, increase heat.  Bring to a boil.  Add 1 C water, salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring often and adding water by T, if too thick, until figs are soft and jam measures 1 ¼ C.  About 20 minutes. 
4.      If making dough.  Pulse 1 ½ C all purpose flour, bread flour, 1 ½ T oil, 1 t salt, and l C water in a food processor until dough forms.  Divide into 4 pieces.  Wrap each in plastic and let rest until soft, 2-3 hours. 
5.      Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
6.      Roll out each dough piece on a floured surface to a very thin 10” round.  Cover with a kitchen towel. 
7.      Place 1 dough round on each of 2 baking sheets.  Bake for 3-4 minutes to partially cook.  Repeat with remaining dough. 
8.      Spread 3-4 T fig jam over each crust; scatter 2 oz. goat cheese over each.  Bake in batches until crust is crisp, 4-5 min. 
9.      Toss arugula, pear and remaining 1t EVOO in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper.  Top pizzas with salad.    

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