Amuse Bouche Party!

Yes please, I think I will use several of these ideas from Longwood Events. Even if I'm not trying to recreate the recipes, I certainly love the plating. Look out next Iron Chef!
I've seen some of these before - the tomatoes for example, but I love how they cut the tomato in half and made it into like a little burger of caprese almost. So cute! I'd have to add a drizzle of reduced balsamic though. And those desserts, I think they have those at Chili's, but still.

Black Daal

From the family of actor Anil Kapoor (he hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionare in Slumdog Millionaire) comes this yummy lentil recipe. Man I love Indian food. I wonder if Q can make chicken tikka masala for me again soon, and maybe I'll make this one. . . . as soon as I can figure out where to find asafetida and find someone else to touch it so my fingers don't get all stinky.

Serves 4

• 1 cup split urad dal (black lentils)
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 2 green Serrano chiles, halved lengthwise
• Pinch of asafetida
• Coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 1 (2-inch) piece fresh peeled ginger, juilienned
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, whisked
• 2 tablespoons Ghee
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Naan, for serving

1. Place lentils in a large bowl. Cover with water and let stand overnight.
2. Drain lentils and add to a large saucepan along with 3 cups water, 1 sliced onion, chiles, and asafetida; season with salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until lentils are very tender, about 30 minutes.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add remaining onion and cook, stirring, until soft. Add ginger and garlic; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, coriander, ground cumin, and chili powder. Cook, stirring, until tomatoes are softened and mixture is fragrant, about 5 minutes.
4. Drain lentils, reserving cooking water. Add lentils to skillet along with enough of the reserved cooking water to make a thick gravy-like consistency. Let simmer about 10 minutes. Stir in heavy cream until well combined; remove from heat.
5. In a small saucepan, heat ghee until hot. Carefully add cumin seeds and cook until they stop popping. Carefully pour mixture over lentils (it will sizzle) and mix to combine. Serve immediately with naan.

Beignets

I've been having some good ones lately, but I usually think of beignets as sweets. Out here on the east coast, there are plenty of seafood based doughnuts - which totally makes sense, but I still don't really think savory when I think donut. But then I came across these little darlings and I'm all over them!
Thanks to chef April Bloomfield and Martha Stewart.

Makes 60 beignets

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups finely grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 large eggs
• Coarse salt
• Vegetable oil, for frying

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, bring 1 cup water and butter just to a boil. Whisk in flour and stir with a spatula to blend completely. Transfer mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
2. Add cheeses and mix on high speed until well combined. With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition; season with salt. Transfer batter to refrigerator and let chill for 30 minutes.
3. Drop tablespoon-size balls of batter about 1-inch apart onto 12-by-2-inch pieces of parchment paper; refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 3 days. Beignets may also be frozen for up to 1 month.
4. Fill a large heavy-bottomed pot 4 inches high with oil. Heat oil until it reaches 350 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches, carefully place entire piece of parchment into hot oil. Using tongs, carefully remove parchment from oil and discard. Fry beignets until golden and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

LOVE LOVE LOVE that you can be all little Suzy Homemaker and make these in advance and have them in the freezer "for when company drops by." Cocktails and homemade Gruyere and Parmesan Beignets? Hot damn. The parchment trick is cool too.

More frittata madness!!

This time it's healthy!!
123 calories per serving
5.7 g fat (1.8 g saturated)
13.1 g carbs
7 g fiber
5.4 g protein

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons butter
3/4 pound wild mushrooms (such as shiitake), chopped into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
5 egg whites
2 tablespoons each chopped fresh herbs (such as chive, parsley, chervil)
Squeeze of lemon

Heat oven to 350°. Heat oil on high in a 6-inch cast-iron skillet for 2 minutes. Add butter; when it foams, add mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and sauté 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add onions and thyme; sauté 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in egg whites with a heatproof rubber spatula until eggs start to set. Transfer skillet to oven and bake 5 minutes, until golden. Sprinkle with remaining herbs and lemon juice. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sugar cookies - butter cookies - whatever

During my lovely Vermont Christmas holiday this year, Q's mom and I spent an afternoon doing girly bonding things, like gabbing and decorating cookies. We had a lovely time, and while I normally skip the sugar cookies in favor of chocolate chip, I loved the crafty aspect of it.

Until I ate one.

Ho. Lee. Cow. So freaking numtastic.
I'd like to try to make these for Easter, but we'll see if that actually manifests into reality. I have no idea where she got the recipe, but here we have it.

(They're called "All-Purpose Butter Cookies" but really? That's kind of lame. They should be called OHMYGODTHESEAREGOOD Cookies or something.)
1 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg - room temperature
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
2 tbsp oj (or fresh lemon juice)
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add egg and mix well. Add juice and extracts. Beat in flour mixture, careful not to overmix. This toughens the dough and makes it tough to work with.
Divide dough in half. Flatten into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate or freeze. Remove from fridge 10 minutes before rolling on floured surface. Cut out into desired adorable shapes. This may require a trip to Sur la Table or something first.

Wouldn't these be freaking adorable? Seriously - with little cotton candy fluffs for the tails on the buns? I'm dying.

Bake cutouts on ungreased cookie sheets at 360 degrees (seriously? 360?) until edges begin to brown, about 8 minutes, depending on thickness. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and cool on racks.

Frosting:
Mix 1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar with enough light cream to produce a thick spreading consistency. Flavor with desired flavorings (vanilla, yum), and color with food dye to desired colors. Put frostings into plastic bags (or pastry bags if you're fancy; or those cheap little squeeze bottles you can get at kitchen supply stores if you're a perfectionist) and pipe onto cookies.
I think I trust Martha's Royal Icing recipe a bit more, especially since Q-mom used her own recipe too (instead of this one), and I do believe she said hers had (MORE!) butter in it. Yum.

Based on what I learned when this lady was on Martha, you might want to do a slightly thicker version for outlining, and a little looser version for "flooding." She made her icing with meringue powder, water and sugar. Too many recipes!!!!

** Update 02.15.11 **
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
After a frosting failure last Easter (note the lack of photos), this batch turned out perfectly.  Yum!

Cocktails and Infusions

Thanks to Nirvino spoiling me rotten, I've been hard into the fun, new, tasty, cuisine type cocktails lately. Even more so than when Bourbon and Branch first opened, or when I was hanging out at Rye Bar, or when I first got into the classics - Sidecars, Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. I'm still dreaming about the Rio Grande at 15 Romolo.

Anyway, I was at Sasso in Boston last night, and they're a home infusionist's heaven. Not just cucumber in vodka, mint in some rum, pineapple in whatever - forget standard or simple. These guys are doing stuff like vanilla and pear in bourbon (HELLO), pineapple and cinnamon, star anise, apple pie; all in gins, rums, vodkas, bourbons. . . . I'm going to have to try to sneak back and steal their infusion list and give it to Q so he can start making me some new infusions (they had several that were similar to the ones he makes).

I had a drink called The Huntington - the bartender drizzles honey inside a martini glass, shakes up Maker's Mark and pear juice with ice, and pours it into the glass. It might just replace my Manhattan. It's awesome. I'm thinking of carrying pear juice in my purse with me so SF bars can make it for me. I bet it would be awesome with that vanilla cognac Navan, or maybe I'll just infuse some Maker's with vanilla at home OMG I'msoexcited.

In any case, this doesn't look like the latest menu posted online, but here were some others that I might want to recreate:
Spiced Cherry Martini (stoli vanil, spiced cherry puree)

Chilled Apple Cider (Zacapa 23-year rum, spiced apple cider)

Parisian Martini (stoli raspberry, pineapple, raspberry, champagne)

Raspberry Truffle (stoli raspberry, godiva white chocolate, bailey's, chambord)

Blackberry & Brown Sugar Mojito (bacardi, muddled blackberry & mint, brown sugar, soda)

And also, who knew Safeway had hopped on the infusion train?

• 1 liter vodka
• 1 pint blueberries, rinsed and dried
• 1 cup raspberry flavored liqueur
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 twist lime zest, garnish

To make the blueberry vodka: Pour out approximately 1/3 of the bottle of vodka into a holding container; set aside. Score each blueberry with a small nick and place into vodka bottle. With the vodka previously set aside, fill the vodka bottle until just below the neck. Add just enough raspberry liqueur to top off the bottle. Let sit in a dark place for 2 weeks. 

 

To make martinis: In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine 2 parts blueberry vodka, 1 part raspberry liqueur, and a dash of lime juice. Shake vigorously and strain into glass. Garnish with twist of lime zest.

Please post your infusions!!!!!!!!

Hot & Sour Soup

While we're on the topic of soup, I remembered that I really want to try making Hot & Sour soup at home. I LOVE this stuff, but restaurants can be so hit or miss. Some are awesome, some kind of bleh. Cook's Illustrated was taunting me with their recipe but they can FORGET IT if they think they can get me to subscribe to them again just for this. The interwebs and I will defeat you ATK!!


Hot & Sour Soup
5 dried wood ear mushrooms
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
8 dried tiger lily buds
4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup diced bamboo shoots
1/3 cup lean ground pork
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
1/2 (16 ounce) package firm tofu, cubed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

Soak the dried mushrooms and tiger lily buds in warm water for 20 minutes. After trimming off any tough stems, slice the mushrooms. With the fingers, shred the tiger lily stems.
Place the mushrooms, tiger lily buds, stock, bamboo shoots, and shredded pork into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in soy sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, and vinegar. Combine cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water. Add a little of the hot soup to the cornstarch, and then return all to the pan. Heat to boiling, stirring. Add the bean curd, and cook 1 to 2 minutes.
Just before serving, turn off the heat. Stir the egg in gradually. Mix in sesame oil. Sprinkle each serving with scallions.

Several folks mention subbing out shiitakes and other mushrooms for the wood ears and tiger lilly buds, but I have confidence that I'll be able to find them out on Clement. There was also a lot of talk about adding more vinegar, using rice wine vinegar and no sugar, and upping the soy, plus dashes of Sriracha here and there. I'm sure I'll do plenty of doctoring to taste and post my notes here. Word on the street is that the egg makes it cloudy - one clever person waited until it was off the heat for a couple of minutes and then added the beaten egg and she says it makes the difference.