Dulce de Leche Apple (and pear) Crisp

The filling for this apple crisp was delicious.  The topping I found a bit dry, but that was because I was trying not to get all Paula Dean on everyone and put in more than a stick of butter, but I think it would have been exceptionally good with, um, more butter.  I was inspired by this food blogger who added dulce de leche to her apple crisp.  Instead of making mine from scratch, I bought Nestle's Dulce de Leche (which comes in a small can).  I eyeballed the entire thing, but here is what I basically did.  The topping is a combination of flour, oats, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and butter.  I peeled and chopped about 6 apples and 2 pears, tossed them with a spoon of flour, some sugar and some cinnamon.  I then topped the fruit mixture with dollops of dulce de leche, and then pressed the topping on, baked at 350 for about 40 minutes.  The dulce de leche adds a creamy caramel gooeyness to the crisp.  I loved it, and it was really good with pumpkin pie gelato.  Shocking, huh?

Magic Cookie Bars

Baking is not one of my favorite past times, but I love a good cookie recipe where I don't need a lot of baking accessories and I can just layer a few ingredients down, throw it in the oven, and cut it up squares. Eagle Brand debuted this recipe in the 60's.  I wonder if Betty Draper would make this?  This recipe is an oldie, but a goodie. 

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
sweetened condensed milk (most recipes call for one 14 oz can, but I used about 2/3 of a can. I love using leftover condensed milk with my coffee, one spoon in place of milk and sugar. Oh, and grocery store brand works fine)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup sweet flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of pan (I used a 9 inch square baking pan). Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over mixture.
Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars.

I covered the baking pan with some parchment paper before layering everything in, with the ends sticking out so that I could lift the entire square out and cut them up on my counter, without scratching my baking dish. I've seen this done on cooking shows, but for some reason a lot of graham cracker crumbs crumbled off while I was cutting up the squares, so I'm not sure if the parchment paper prohibited the crust from setting or not.  Anyway, these are delicious, as I think you can imagine. 

Tomato Soup

Yay, I made homemade tomato soup!  It was very good, but so is Trader Joe's.  I love the roasted red pepper kind.  But this one is delicious and simple and comes with the added satisfaction that you made it.  I found inspiration from my friend over at Salt, Sour, Spicy, Sweet.  She had served some delicious tomato soup at our friend's bridal shower earlier this year and I've actually been wanting to make it since then (if you are entertaining with this soup, serving it in mugs works well).  Since fall has arrived and I'm trying to make healthier meals when I can I thought this was perfect.  I served it with warm, savory cheddar dill scones my father made and they really compliment the soup.  In fact, I can't imagine anything going better with the soup than the scones, they were delicious (yes, my mother still brings me food, a lot, and we happily accept it).  He followed this Barefoot Contessa recipe.  

Tomato Soup
1 15 oz can tomato puree
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
rosemary
salt, pepper
bay leaf
fresh basil or a spoon of pesto
2 tablespoons sour cream

Heat some olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in a dutch oven.  Sautee onions, celery and carrots for a good 20 minutes or so, until softened.  Sprinkle a pinch of rosemary (I think I overdid the rosemary, so be careful with this herb), salt, pepper and toss in garlic.  Then add chicken broth and tomatoes (you could easily use 1 28 oz can of puree or crushed tomatoes), bay leaf.  Let simmer for a while.  Add some freshly chopped basil or a spoon of pesto if you want the flavor.  I then added two spoons of sour cream (you could also add cream).  I used a hand blender to puree some of the chunks up, but I left it quite chunky.  

Butternut Squash Risotto with Morels

This came out really well, and it was the first time I've roasted butternut squash.  I had wanted to add saffron, and I completely forgot.  Drat.  The morels were dried and I rehydrated them in the warm chicken broth that was added to the arborio rice.  This was my first time cooking with dried morels and the flavor is definitely muted when compared to fresh morels.  I think that may be the last and only time I buy the dried stuff and instead I'll stick to buying them locally when in season.  I served this with seared scallops which makes a great pairing (Chef Geoff's gave me the idea).  I made the risotto as I've made it before, sautee onion and garlic, add some fresh herbs (sage and thyme), add white wine, and then pour warm chicken broth and stir as the rice slowly cooks, then season.  I used 4 cups broth for 1 cup rice.  I chopped up the rehydrated morels, tossed them in, as well as the chopped up butternut squash.  I don't have a heavy duty peeler, so I roasted the squash with the skin, just cut it in half, removed the seeds and baked at 400 for about 40 minutes with salt, pepper and olive oil.  When it was tender I sliced off the skin and cubed it.  This really makes a great fall dish, but next time I'll skip the morels and remember to add saffron!

Fish Curry

It isn't much to look at, but it's silky and creamy and delicious.

Nearly all of my Indian/Pakistani food pictures get rejected from Tastespotting, and I joke with my husband that I think I am the victim of discrimination, but I suspect it may be because Indian/Pakistani food isn't all that photogenic.  I suppose it's because you have no idea what it is you are looking at until someone tells you what is in the dish.  I mean, is that fish curry, or butternut squash soup?  Anyway, this is a delicious dish, and you can make it thick enough to eat with naan, or thin it out and have it over basmati rice.  You can use any fish you like, orange roughy and tilapia works well.

1 lb fish (3 tilapia fillets)

turmeric

red chili powder

cumin

coriander

mustard seeds

curry leaves (you can find these fresh at any Indian grocery store)    

fresh green chilis, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 lemon

1/4 cup freshly chopped coriander

salt

The first step is to sear the fish, if you so desire.  It's an extra step that isn't essential.  I did it because my mother does it, but you could also simply allow the fish to cook in the curry as it simmers.  I sprinkled each filet with a few pinches of turmeric, red chili powder and salt.  Sear it for just a minute on each side in a pan with hot oil.  Remove the fish and cut into serving sizes.  In a medium, wide, pan heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil on medium.  Toss in about a teaspoon of mustard seeds and about 8 curry leaves, torn.  Cover the pan and wait to hear everything pop.  Then add your spices in the middle of the pan, 1/2 spoon of turmeric, 2 spoons of ground coriander, 1 spoon of cumin, 1 spoon red chili powder. Allow the spices to mold together, roasting, as their oils are released.  When the spices have finished roasting, add your fresh chilis (as much as you want, with or without seeds), garlic and tomato paste.  Allow this to cook for a minute.  Then pour in coconut milk.  My mother prefers her curry thin, I like mine creamy and heavy on the coconut milk, so I poured in a little over 1/2 cup.  You want to thin it out with water so the coconut milk isn't overpowering.  I added about 1/2 cup of water.  Squeeze in juice from 1 lemon.  Slip fish into the curry, salt, simmer, and then toss in freshly chopped coriander.          

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (with walnuts)

Sometimes I get in the mood to bake. I have no idea why considering I'm terrible at it. No, I really am. I'm so bad at following recipes because I skim through the lines and get them jumbled in my head and pretend I'm intelligent enough that one glance is enough and then all of a sudden wouldn't you know it I added 1 cup of flour instead of 1/2. And there is no going back with baking, I stare down at the bowl, frozen, knowing it's thinking "oh geesh, this girl can't get anything right". I keep trying though, so I'll give myself some credit. I still had all these oats in my pantry from the last time I made oatmeal raisin cookies and I wanted to make some again, but I wanted to make them with chocolate this time. The semi disaster was for some reason I told myself one stick of butter was a cup, and when I was mixing in the flour I thought "my, this batter is dry oh no way I need TWO sticks of butter oh man but it needs to soften oh to heck with it I'll microwave it, beat and toss it in now". So that's what I did. They came out great. The cookies are really tasty, though I was envisioning a Potbelly cookie sweetness, but they aren't quite as sweet. Instead of using semi-sweet chocolate chips I may use sweeter milk chocolate chips next time - do those exist? Do people bake with anything other than semi sweet?

The recipe I followed (or, tried to) can be found here.

1 cup butter, softened (this means two sticks)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugars together until smooth, beat in eggs, then add vanilla.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt and stir into creamed mixture.  Mix in the oats, walnuts and chocolate chips.  Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Braised Kale with Pasta

This was delicious, delicious!  I want to scream out the window "kale is delicious!!"  Who knew such hard core looking roughage could be so sweet, so tender, so savory and so satisfying.  I was completely inspired by the oh so lovely Molly Wizenberg (she's a mini celebrity among food bloggers).  Her column on kale in Bon Appetit's October issue totally enticed me and it was the recipe I had been waiting to make.  You can find the piece here.  She specifies the variety of kale but I'm a newbie to kale so I only know one kind - uh, the kind I found at the farmer's market.

Special thanks to my cousin in-law who gave me the idea to throw in some Italian turkey sausage - I just happened to have two sausages in the freezer and was wondering what on earth I was going to do with them.  I do think the sausage is optional as the kale is really the show stopper, for me at least.  I highly recommend braising some kale and tossing it with pasta, it was absolutely delicious and it's so pleasant to truly enjoy eating a mound of dark greens that are incredibly good for you.

1/2 lb thin spaghetti
1/2 white onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb kale leaves, washed, center ribs removed, loosely chopped
olive oil
salt, pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan (use high quality parmigiano reggiano as considering it's one of only a few ingredients, it should taste great)
2 Italian turkey sausages (optional)

Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven, sautee onions, then toss in garlic.  Squeeze meat out of sausage casings and allow to brown, breaking up meat into small rounds.  Add kale (it will fill up an entire large pot but will drastically shrink).  Drizzle with some olive oil and stir, letting the leaves wilt.  Pour about 1/2 cup of water, cover and allow to cook down for about 20 minutes on medium low. Salt, pepper and add lemon juice. Toss in freshly grated parmesan. Boil pasta, throw in aldente spaghetti into the pot and toss with the kale, allowing to finish cooking (you may want to pour in a ladle of the pasta water).  Garish with parmesan when serving and a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.    

Asparagus and Spinach Pesto

I see pesto made all the time with things other than basil, but I had yet to try this myself. Asparagus was on sale and I decided I wanted to mix things up a bit, so I threw together this pesto with pasta, which turned out marvelously. This seems like a perfect way to get your kids to eat their vegetables because it doesn't have a strong taste of asparagus and everyone loves a big bowl of pasta (and you could use whole wheat pasta for an even healthier dish). The pesto comes out a bit nutty and really creamy, much more creamy than I had imagined (and need I remind you how healthy it is!). The pesto coats the pasta really well, turning each strand bright green, and unlike fresh basil pesto that turns a near brown when tossed with hot pasta, this retains its color. I served this with seared scallops but you could enjoy it by itself or with shrimp, chicken, anything really. I found inspiration through this recipe on epicurious and this talented food blogger (I followed her recipe almost exactly, I just skipped the parsley and spring onions).

1/2 lb thin spaghetti or linguini

1 lb green asparagus

a few handfuls of baby spinach

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

juice of half a lemon

salt, pepper, to taste

olive oil (about 1/4 cup)

Wash and trim the asparagus and cut into 1 inch pieces, cutting the tips together. Boil in salted water for a few minutes, strain and reserve some of the cooking water (you'll use a bit for the pesto, and I ended up leaving some in the pot, adding fresh water and then boiling the pasta in the light green water). In food processor, toss in garlic, pine nuts (you can leave a tablespoon aside to toss with pasta), lemon juice, spinach, salt, pepper and asparagus, keeping a handful of the tips aside. Pulse until combined, then pour in olive oil while smoothing out mixture. Add 1/4 cup or less of cooking water if the pesto is too thick. Spoon out pesto from food processor and fold in parmesan cheese. Boil pasta, drain nearly all of the water, keeping a tablespoon or so in the pot, fold in desired amount of pesto, toss in pine nuts and asparagus tips, serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Chopped Salad with Coconut and Peanuts

I made this salad/salsa last night and served it over some halibut. I adapted the recipe from a modern Indian cookbook I have titled Indian Food Made Easy. In hindsight, it would have made a fabulous fish taco. I was thinking that those shrimp tacos I had made would be really great with this chopped salad as the "salsa". The salad is also delicious on its own, give it a try!

I substituted a bell pepper for a tomato and I think the vinaigrette is optional, you could easily make a simple olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing for the salad, or have it without any dressing.

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

4 tbsp minced cucumber (use a persian or english)

1 green chili, seeded, chopped

1 tbsp minced red onion

1 handful cilantro leaves, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

2 tsp shredded coconut (can be found in the freezer section of an Indian or international grocery store)

3 tbsp salted peanuts, chopped

1/4 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

a few curry leaves

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Mix together bell pepper, cucumber, chili, cilantro, coconut, peanuts and ginger paste.

In small sauce pan heat the oil, add mustard seeds and once they pop, toss in torn curry leaves and remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and toss with salad.