Cake, Batter, and Bowl

Hawaiian Omelet

May 25, 2011

There are a fair number of cooking techniques that I have yet to master, and one that I’m particularly interesting in conquering is how to make the perfect omelet. I feel like it’s always mentioned on Top Chef how cooking eggs is a measure of a chef’s skills and well, my omelet making ability is decent, but I’m glad no one is judging my prowess in the kitchen by how they turn out! Half the time the top of my omelet rips when I attempt to fold it over and the other half of the time I make a mess when I’m coaxing it out of the pan and onto my plate. Any tips?

I actually attempt to whip up omelets pretty regularly and this is an exceptionally tasty version inspired by some leftover caramelized pineapple chunks. They were screaming Hawaii to me, so I went with it, and folded the pineapple into my omelet, along with bacon and gruyere. It’s pretty decent looking, huh? Well, that’s because I covered the rip on the top with some toasted coconut! Haha, it went with my theme and covered my mistake!

Hawaiian Omelet
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 slices turkey bacon, chopped
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup caramelized pineapple chunks
1/3 cup shredded gruyere cheese
2 tablespoons toasted coconut

Directions:
Place turkey bacon in a greased nonstick skillet and heat over medium for 5 to 7 minutes or until crispy. Drain bacon on paper towels.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs, milk, and salt in a small bowl. Pour whisked eggs into a well greased 10-inch nonstick omelet/sauté pan. Use a spatula to push the cooked part of the eggs from the outer edge to the center of pan, until mostly set, then pat semi-cooked eggs down until they cover the entire pan. Let cook an additional minute, as needed, or until set. Spread turkey bacon, pineapple, and gruyere evenly over one side of the eggs so half the circle is covered, then fold the other half circle of eggs on top. Heat an additional minute or until cheese is melted. To serve, sprinkle omelet with toasted coconut. Makes 1 serving.

Nutrition: 586 calories, 40.8g fat, 1.9g fiber, 41.1g protein per serving
Cost: $3.79 per serving

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Sweet Chili Apricot Shrimp Skewers over Israeli Couscous

May 21, 2011

Apolinaras really enjoyed the last Israeli couscous dish I made. In fact, he said it would have been a 10 if I hadn’t included the spinach in the salad, haha. He snuck another box into our cart at Trader Joe’s recently, which I thought was pretty cute, and since he’s completely spoiled, I decided to whip up a dish featuring the couscous and some tasty shrimp for him the very next day.

I basted the skewered shrimp with a sauce mixed up from Thai sweet chili sauce, apricot preserves, and a touch of rice wine vinegar. Then I cooked the shrimp up quickly on my grill pan and served them atop a bed of Israeli couscous with red onion, red pepper, and corn. This was such a lovely light summer meal!

Sweet Chili Apricot Shrimp Skewers over Israeli Couscous
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Shrimp:
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup low sugar apricot preserves
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Israeli Couscous:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 1/3 cups Israeli Couscous (1 8-ounce box from Trader Joe’s)
1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups cooked corn

Directions:
To make the shrimp, soak 6 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes. Thread shrimp onto the skewers. Place sweet chili sauce, apricot preserves, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl and mix well. Brush shrimp evenly with about half the sauce with a pastry brush. Heat a greased grill pan over medium high heat and cook shrimp for 2 minutes on each side, or until pink and cooked through, basting well with the remaining half of the sauce while cooking.

To make the couscous, heat canola oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan; add onion and red pepper and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Add couscous and sauté 2 minutes or until light brown. Add chicken broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, put on lid, and simmer for 8 minutes or until broth is absorbed and couscous is tender. Mix in corn. Serve by evenly distributing couscous on three plate and placing shrimp skewers on top. Makes 3 servings.

Nutrition: 476 calories, 9.3g fat, 6.9g fiber, 38.0g protein per serving
Cost: $4.80 per serving

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Gnocchi with Pancetta, Mushrooms, and Gruyere

May 16, 2011

Apolinaras and I finally checked out Foundry on Elm, a newish hot spot in our neighborhood, on one of our recent date nights. It was packed on the Tuesday evening we went and we could see why after we tried the creative cocktails. Mine was called the Bee’s Knees and was a mix of gin, lemon, and honey syrup – yum! Most of the food was pretty tasty as well, and I especially savored every bite of the spaetzle, which was mixed with ham, exotic mushrooms, hazelnuts, and aged Comté. I actually wanted to recreate this dish at home and couldn’t believe it when Deb from Smitten Kitchen posted about how to make spaetzle the very next day!

Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten around to trying the recipe yet, but I did take inspiration from our meal and used some gnocchi from Trader Joe’s to whip up this super quick weeknight dinner. I mixed the gnocchi with pancetta, mushrooms, garlic, gruyere, and walnuts. This came together in just 20 minutes and we really enjoyed it. In fact, we had a little scuffle over who got the leftovers the next day for lunch!

Gnocchi with Pancetta, Mushrooms, and Gruyere
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 17.6-ounce package whole wheat potato gnocchi from Trader Joe’s
1 4-ounce package pancetta
16 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup freshly grated gruyere cheese
1 cup toasted chopped walnuts
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Prepare gnocchi according to package directions and drain.

Place pancetta in a large nonstick skillet and sauté for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned. Place pancetta in a small bowl and add mushrooms to the pan; sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and sauté 1 additional minute. Add mushrooms to the bowl with the pancetta. Place olive oil and butter in the skillet and sauté gnocchi for 3 minutes. Mix in pancetta and mushrooms, gruyere cheese, walnuts, and salt and stir until cheese is melted. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 728 calories, 44.2g fat, 4.6g fiber, 25.3g protein per serving
Cost: $2.73 per serving

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Ricotta and Goat Cheese Asparagus Tart

May 12, 2011

Of all the specialty baking pans stuffed into my overflowing kitchen cupboards, my tart pan emerges the most often. I often feel sorry for some of my underutilized dishes (ahem, not that I’ve actually never used my year old mini cheesecake or bundt pans or anything like that….), but I really like how a humble recipe can be elevated to something special enough to serve to company simply by using a tart pan. This creation is certainly no exception. I’ve been thinking about making a light ricotta and goat cheese asparagus tart all winter and immediately scooped a huge bunch of asparagus into my shopping cart when it became in season so I could put this plan into action.

The filling of the tart is a lovely mixture of ricotta, goat cheese, lemon zest, and asparagus, but the chickpea crust, an oldie but goodie that I originally created a couple years ago now, is what makes it special. By pulsing chickpeas, whole wheat flour, olive oil, and a bit of lemon zest in the food processor, I made a flavorful soft chickpea dough that bakes up beautifully. It compliments the filling nicely and is pretty healthy too. I can’t wait to serve this at a dinner party!

Ricotta and Goat Cheese Asparagus Tart
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Tart Crust:
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt

Tart Filling:
15 ounces ricotta cheese
8 ounces goat cheese
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces thinly sliced asparagus

Directions:
Heat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease a 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Pulse chickpeas, flour, olive oil, lemon zest, and salt in a food processor until soft dough forms. Spread dough evenly over the greased tart pan. Bake the crust for 20 minutes at 350˚F or until light golden brown.

Meanwhile, mix ricotta cheese, goat cheese, egg, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in asparagus and spread mixture evenly into partially baked crust. Bake an additional 45 minutes at 350˚F or until filling is set. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan, and cut into wedges. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 317 calories, 5.5g fat, 4.6g fiber, 17.7g protein per serving
Cost: $1.24 per serving

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Strawberry Cheesecake Filled Yellow Cake

May 8, 2011

Have you had any baking disasters? I’ve had my fair share, and naturally, they all tend to occur when I’m making a treat to share at a party. One time the pecan crust just fell off the sides of a cheesecake I had made for a lab birthday celebration. Another time a cake I made for a dinner party that was loaded with peach puree, didn’t taste like peaches at all, which would have been ok, except that I had just announced it was a peach cake! And I wince every time I think about the night I was easing a cake out of its pan onto a cooling rack and the pan slipped away from me and fell onto a different cake layer that was already cooling – that cake split into 4 pieces, eeek (I ended up pressing all the chunks together like puzzle pieces and making it the bottom layer and I don’t think anyone noticed, thankfully!). Creating new recipes is just so fun though that I usually can’t bring myself to repeat a dessert that I know always turns out well, so I take a bit of a chance each time and the hope that if anything goes wrong, that I’ll be able to save my dessert with a bit of creativity. Enter this cake.

Jen recently posted a beautiful carrot cake with a cheesecake filling that I thought was just genius. She was inspired to put the cheesecake layer in the center of the cake after seeing Erin’s mouth watering Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake and Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cake. When my undergrad assistant Juliana’s birthday rolled around, she told me her favorite desserts were cheesecake with fruit topping and light yellow cake, so I was inspired by Jen and Erin to combine the two desserts into one marvelous treat. Everything went well at first. I baked up a layer of strawberry cheesecake two days before the celebration and then made the tender yellow cakes the night before. They stacked up nicely, but things quickly went downhill when I began to work on the strawberry cream cheese frosting I had dreamed up. I forgot to put the butter in and when I added some strawberry preserves it became a runny mess. When I realized it was beyond saving and that I was out of powdered sugar, cream cheese, and heavy cream, I started racking my brain for a quick frosting fix since the last thing I wanted to do was head out to the store at 12:30am!

I ended up hesitantly stirring up a box of instant vanilla pudding with a little milk and a few cups of Chobani Strawberry Greek Yogurt. It had a lovely light texture but was still thick enough to adhere to the cake! I added in some strawberry preserves for a little extra strawberry punch, frosted my cake, and fell into bed. Will this experience stop me from attempting new desserts the day before I need them? Nope, of course not!

Strawberry Cheesecake Filled Yellow Cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Cheesecake:
3 cups pureed strawberries (I pulsed 30 ounces strawberries in the food processor)
24 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Yellow Cake:
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Strawberry Frosting and Garnish:
1 3.4-ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/4 cup milk
2 6-ounce containers Chobani Nonfat Strawberry Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup low sugar strawberry preserves
10 ounces strawberries, sliced

Directions:
To make the cheesecake layer, heat oven to 350˚F. Place strawberry puree in a small nonstick pan over medium low heat and heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until reduced to 1 cup. Let cool to room temperature. Combine the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and beat on medium-high speed with a mixer for 3 minutes or until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Blend in vanilla and cooled strawberry puree. Pour into a greased 9-inch springform pan lined with parchment paper and bake at 350˚F for 60 minutes or until edges are set and middle is slightly wobbly. Cool to room temperature, about one hour. Place in the refrigerator for several hours or until chilled.

To make the cake, heat the oven to 350˚F. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt and sift the mixture into a large bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer in a large bowl until creamed. Add in eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly mix in half the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk, until smooth. Repeat with remaining flour and buttermilk. Pour batter into two greased 8-inch cake pans lined with parchment paper. Bake cakes at 350˚F for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean and the tops are light golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then run a knife around the edges of each cake. Flip over onto wire racks and cool cakes completely, about an hour.

To make the strawberry frosting, place vanilla pudding and milk in a large bowl and whisk until well combined. Stir in yogurt and strawberry preserves. Chill in the refrigerator 5 minutes or until thickened.

To assemble the cake, place one layer of the yellow cake on a serving platter. Remove cheesecake from the pan and flip over on top of the yellow cake. Cut around the edges of the cheesecake layer so it fits the cake layer. Place second layer of yellow cake on top. Evenly cover with strawberry frosting and garnish with strawberries. Makes 20 servings.

Nutrition: 438 calories, 23.4g fat, 1.6g fiber, 9.2g protein per serving
Cost: $0.90 per serving

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Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Tartlets with Blue Cheese

May 4, 2011

After submitting all my dessert recipes to the Pillsbury Bake-Off (please cross your fingers for me!), I had a few extra ingredients in the fridge to use – one package of pie crusts and one roll of cookie dough. I had developed so many sweet treats that I stuffed the cookie dough in the back of a drawer and took out the pie crusts instead with an appetizer idea in mind.

I combined caramelized onions, mushrooms, and spinach to make a yummy filling for little mini tarts made with a mini muffin pan. Then I topped the tartlets with blue cheese. These were so cute and perfect for a party, or in our case, dinner!

p.s. Don’t forget to get in your bids for the Bloggers Bake for Hope Bake Sale that benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure!

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Tartlets with Blue Cheese
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
8 ounces sliced mushrooms, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces baby spinach
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 box Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts (15 ounces), softened according to package directions

Directions:
Heat butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add onions, cover pan, and cook for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, or until onions are caramelized.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add mushrooms and sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until tender; add garlic and sauté 1 additional minute. Place cooked mushrooms in a large bowl. Add baby spinach to the same skillet and stir until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add spinach to the large bowl with the mushrooms. Mix in caramelized onions and salt.

Heat oven to 375˚F. Unroll pie crusts and place on a flat work surface. Use a 2 1/2-inch round cutter to cut 12 rounds from each crust. Press each round in the bottom of 24 cups of an ungreased mini-muffin cup pan and press dough up the sides to form cups. Fill evenly with caramelized onion mushroom filling and bake at 375˚F for 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes and remove from mini-muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly with blue cheese. Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition: 138 calories, 10.1g fat, 0.7g fiber, 2.7g protein per serving
Cost: $0.68 per serving

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Bloggers Bake for Hope and Boston Chocolate School Truffle Workshop

April 30, 2011

Whew, things have been busy lately, but I finally have a little extra time to blog about two events that I’ve been meaning to share for awhile now. The first is a fabulous virtual bake sale, being hosted by my blogging buddies Jen and Cara, that will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Being a cancer researcher myself, I understand the importance of raising money for studies, and I encourage you all to head over to the site and make a bid on one of the many mouth watering goodies from Wednesday, May 4 to Friday, May 6 next week. I’m donating a batch of my M&M Cashew Pretzel Bars and plan to bid on the Crusty White Bread with Rosemary and Sea Salt – yum!

I also wanted to tell you about a fantastic chocolate workshop I attended last month with Shannon. It’s run by Boston Chocolate Tours and focuses on tempering chocolate and making truffles. I received two complimentary tickets to the class, but I received no compensation for this post and all opinions are mine, of course!

Our instructor Dorian, who is a retired pastry chef, started by telling us about the history of chocolate while he whisked up some hot chocolate for us to enjoy (which was phenomenal by the way, I’ve made the real deal several times at home now using his suggested ratio of 2-3 ounces of chocolate for every 5 ounces of milk).

He then ran us through the science behind why it’s important to temper chocolate. Basically, chocolate is made up of several types of crystals, but you have to coax them to all be beta crystals in order for the chocolate to be organized perfectly so it snaps nicely when you break it and is nice and shiny. Tempering is essential when you’re dipping truffles in chocolate! He explained how tempering is all about time, motion, and temperature, and we learned how to use a double boiler to temper chocolate properly. You basically heat the chocolate to 110˚F, then cool it by adding additional chocolate (called the seed) to 85˚F, then slightly warm it back to 90˚F, all while stirring well the entire time. Then it’s ready to go!

We got a ton of helpful tips. He suggested getting a milk frothing thermometer because it’s in the range that is needed for tempering. He also suggested using a heating pad to keep the chocolate warm while you’re working with it after it’s been tempered. Also, I didn’t realize this before, but it’s really important to only use high quality chocolate with no added ingredients (which many brands of chocolate chips have) – only cocoa butter, cocoa liquor/paste (sometimes referred to as unsweetened chocolate), sugar, vanilla, and soy lecithin (an emulsifier) should be on the label.

Next, we learned how to make ganache, which was the center of all our truffles. We had four types of ganache to use – dark, milk, raspberry, and caramel – the caramel was my favorite. Then we rolled our ganache into truffles and decorated them. I dipped some in tempered chocolate and coated others with some of the toppings they had, including ground almonds, cocoa nibs, and toasted coconut. I ended up with a huge box of truffles to take home and Apolinaras and I savored each and every one – they were fabulous! If you’re ever visiting Boston, I highly recommend checking out this class or one of their tours. Tickets are $75 and you can register here. Thank you Boston Chocolate Tours for this fun foodie adventure!

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Spinach, Bacon, and Blue Cheese Stuffed Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts

April 26, 2011

I’m often asked how I manage to post original recipes so often while working long hours and hitting the gym the majority of the days of the week. Well, what I usually do is work in bursts. I may perfect three or four recipes in one weekend and then take a break. I feel most comfortable when I have at least six or so recipes ready to go in my “blog” folder on my desktop, which sounds like a lot, but is really only three weeks worth. Then when I’m extra busy at work, on vacation, or spending all my kitchen time developing recipes for a contest, I can go a couple weeks without cooking for my blog. I end up rarely posting recipes right away, because I’d rather take my time editing the photos, writing up the recipe, calculating the nutrition info, etc, but the chicken I made tonight was SO good that I had to make an exception!

I stuffed chicken breasts with a creamy mixture of mascarpone and blue cheese, shallots, spinach, and turkey bacon, and then coated the stuffed breasts with pecans. This recipe does take a bit of time to put together, so I pounded out my chicken, made my stuffing, and assembled my pecan coating yesterday. Then everything came together in about 40 minutes tonight, which is the max amount of time I want to spend cooking on a weeknight. I am already looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

Spinach, Bacon, and Blue Cheese Stuffed Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup chopped shallots (4-5 large shallots)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 strips turkey bacon, chopped
4 cups baby spinach (4 ounces)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecans, pulsed in the food processor until finely ground
1/2 cup panko
1/4 cup flour
4 large boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a medium nonstick pan and sauté shallots for 5 to 7 minutes or until softened; add garlic and sauté 1 additional minute. Remove from heat and place in a medium bowl. Add bacon to the same pan and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until browned. Place bacon in the same bowl with the shallots. Add spinach to the pan and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes or until wilted. Add spinach to the bowl and allow ingredients to cool completely to room temperature. Add blue cheese, mascarpone cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the bowl and mix until well combined.

Meanwhile, place chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/3-inch thickness using a meat mallet. Place filling evenly lengthwise down each chicken breast, roll up the sides, and secure with toothpicks. Mix ground pecans, panko, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a shallow pan. Put the flour in a shallow dish and lightly dredge both sides of the stuffed chicken in the flour. Place the beaten eggs in another shallow dish and dredge both sides of the flour coated chicken in the egg mixture; place chicken in the pecan mixture and coat well on all sides.

Heat oven to 350˚F. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a large nonstick pan and place two chicken breasts in the pan. Use large tongs to rotate the chicken and sear it on all four sides. Place seared chicken breasts seam side up in a large baking pan and repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and two chicken breasts. Bake at 350˚F for 18 to 22 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink in the center. Allow to rest 5 minutes, then remove toothpicks, and cut on a bias. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 415 calories, 24.4g fat, 2.1g fiber, 35.2g protein per serving
Cost: $1.35 per serving

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