Gazpacho!!

Doesn't gazpacho sound like an exclamation of something good? Like you could use it on a happy occasion? "oh, you're getting married! Gazpacho!" And it sort of makes you feel like that after you have eaten some for lunch. My friend Nancy made some on Friday with fresh tomatoes from her garden, and she shared it with me, as I gave her the recipe from Ina's original Barefoot Contessa book.

I thought it turned out really well, fresh and fabulous. The parmesan croutons topped it off very nicely! Just the perfect thing for a day like today when it is 95F in the shade, in my backyard.

Here's the recipe.

Great job with the gazpacho, Nancy! Gazpacho!!

Chicken Salad Veronique

I made this Chicken Salad for lunch yesterday when a friend came over. It's totally delicious and the grapes really make it. I was a bit hesitant about this recipe at first, because of the grapes, but they are really delicious with the chicken. I had to substitute fresh tarragon for dried, because I couldn't get any fresh, but I think it worked out just fine.

I cooked the split breasts the night before at the same time I made dinner,so it's also an energy efficient lunch!

The recipe is from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa At Home,and the only substitution I made was for dried tarragon for fresh.

4 split chicken breasts,bone in, skin on
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
11/2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 cup small-diced celery (2 stalks)
1 cup green grapes, cut in half.

Roast the chicken breasts as you normally would - about 35-40 mins in a 350 degree oven. Set aside and cool.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the meat form the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4 inch dice. Place the chicken in a bowl; add the mayonnaise, tarragon leaves, celery, grapes 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and toss well.

Barefoot Bloggers: Parmesan Chicken

This delicious dish for Barefoot Bloggers was no hardship at all. My whole family loves this and my 5yr old even asked for seconds, which is practically unheard of!

I've made this once or twice before,but never with the lemon vinaigrette and the arugula salad, and those two things really enhanced the whole dish and made it that extra bit special.

The breading process is one step longer than normal, or at least the way I usually do it, but it's worth it.

Here's the recipe!

Weekend Cooking

This weekend I've made a few things but nothing new. I made Nana's Sponge Cake again, but this time I divided the batter into three 8" pans, because I wanted to see how a tripple layer worked. If you want to make this in 3 layers it only takes about 13-15 mins to cook.

It was sort of a waste of time to do the three layers because it didn't really make it better, only more lopsided - so next time I'm sticking with the two layers. Here's a bad photo:



All the raspberries and cream were slipping off the other side of the cake. It still tasted good. I think I was in a total funk putting the cake together because I had just learned about the demise of Tastespotting.

I also made these chocolate chip cookies for Marc for Fathers Day, and I put together a French Onion Dip from Ina.


It doesn't look much in this picture, but it is really delicious. I usually make and just fry up the onions inside, but this time I used the side burner on the grill and did them in a cast iron skillet and it added a lot of flavour and as a bonus didn't stink up the house.

2 large yellow onions
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Cut up the onions in slices and then halve them, or however you want really - I don't think it makes a difference . Heat the the butter and the oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. Add the onions, cayenne, salt and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes, until the onions are browned and caramelized. Allow to cool.

Place cream cheese, mayonnaise and sour cream in the bowl of an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, and beat until smooth, add the onions and mix well.

This makes a TON of dip. You would have to have 50 people over to eat all this in one session, so I sometimes halve the recipe and it's about the right amount to snack on before dinner.

Barefoot Bloggers

I just joined Barefoot Bloggers and we are going to be posting two Ina recipes per month. I have all the Ina Garten books and love her recipes, so this should be a lot of fun. The members get to choose which recipes we are going to do, so I will be attempting lots of things I probably wouldn't choose to cook normally - which has to be a good thing!!

Orange Pound Cake

Apparently I've become obsessed with orange cake after the last try from the retro recipe box. I decided to try Ina's version (from Barefoot Contessa Family Style) this weekend and see how it turned out. I also happened to have half a bag of oranges and I like to use my juicer attachment on the kitchen aid.

I liked how it turned out - it was a lot more moist than the Orange Velvet Cake, but I still wasn't really sold. The orange is nice, but it's just not as good as a lemon flavour, in my opinion. The bittersweet chocolate buttons that I used on the top gave it a nice lift!!

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has a fantastic orange cake recipe that they would like to share!


½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 ½ cups granulated sugar - divided
4 extra-large eggs (at room temperature)
1/3 cup grated orange zest (6 oranges)
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice - divided
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze
1 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice


Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease two 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ -inch loaf pans. Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and the orange zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine ¼ cup orange juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Combine ½ cup granulated sugar with ½ cup orange juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves and makes a syrup. When the cakes are done, let them cool for 10 minutes, then invert them onto a rack set over a tray, and spoon the orange syrup over the cakes. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the cakes and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.

Retro Recipe Box - Orange Velvet Cake

I whipped up another one from the retro Recipe Box this afternoon. It's a Orange Velvet Cake. My mother assures me it's delicious and has been bugging me to make it (truth: asked me nicely once in an email)

It turned out really nicely. I thought the batter was a bit thick and strange when I made it, but it cooked up well.



This picture with the green icing is a bit off putting, but that's the 70's for you.

Here's the recipe:

6oz butter (stick and a half)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon orange juice (I just squeezed the juice of one orange and used that)
2 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder.

Cream butter with sugar and orange rind. Add eggs, one at a time, then orange juice; beat well. fold in sifted flour and baking powder alternately with the milk. Fill into buttered loaf pan, bake at 350F for 45 mins.

Allow to stand in pan 10 mins than turn out on to a cooling rack.

I put all the batter into one loaf pan,and it came nearly to the top and the cake rose up quite high, but you could get two cakes out of it, but they would not be as high.

Icing.

I made a chocolate icing for this cake, but the original recipe called for a butter icing made with 2oz of butter and then add confections sugar and beating until the right consistency for spreading. This is slightly vague for me, so I did the chocolate one this way:

1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 cup less 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons water

And then you could also do an orange flavoured glaze or lemon flavoured glaze:

1 cup confections sugar sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice or lemon juice.

We had the cake after dinner and it was a bit crumbly for my liking, but the flavour was excellent. Next time I'd probably put in a little bit more milk and a little more orange juice to moisten it up a bit.

These Cookies Never Fail. Ever

Honestly, these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I have made them a zillion times in the last 5 years and they have never let me down once. This go round I used regular semi-sweet choc drops and the Ghirardelli Bittersweet Choc Chips and the flavour is great. The Bakers Choc Chunks also work really well. You can basically use any choc chips or chunks that you like. (The blue thing in the photo is my silicone baking sheets made by Wilton - they work really well and are a quarter of the price of the Silpat ones)

The recipe is from Ina Gartens Barefoot Parties.

1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large eggs at room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/4 lbs choc chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the butter with the mixer on low speed, mixing only until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 ¾ inch diameter ice cream scoop (I got mine at Target for $4.95) or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for EXACTLY 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vegetable Tian

This vegetable recipe is delicious and is from Ina Gartens "Barefoot in Paris". The vegetables sit on a bed of sauteed onions and garlic. It's a little bit fiddly to put it together and there is a lot of prep, but the taste is fantastic and it's totally worth the effort. It tastes even better the next day. The photos are obviously the uncooked version, and I'll update with a "cooked" photo after I've baked it.

Olive Oil
2 large yellow onions, cut in half and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound medium round potatoes (yukon gold work really well in this dish)
2 large zucchini
About 5 large plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus extra sprigs
2 ounces Gruyere cheese grated.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Brush a 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish with olive oil. My dish is actually smaller than this, but you can make this with any sized dish. In a medium saute pan, heat 2 tablespoon of olive oil and cook the onions over medium - low heat for 8-10 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. spread the onion mixture on the bottom of the baking dish.

Slice the potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes in 1/4 inch thick slices. Layer them alternately in the dish on top of the onions, fitting them tightly, making only one layer. Sprinkle with slat, pepper, thyme leaves, and thyme sprigs, and drizzle with 1 more table spoon of olive oil. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Uncover the dish, remover the thyme sprigs, sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake for another 30 minutes, or until browned. Serve Warm.

When I made this dish the first time I also turned on the broiler for about 5 minutes at the end, just to brown it up nicely.

Update:



Totally yummy and makes the kitchen smell great!!!

Meme

SweetRosie tagged me for a Meme a while ago, and I'm just getting around to responding now:

What Were You Cooking/Baking 10 Years Ago

I was baking nothing and cooking a variety of pasta with different toppings. Life was completely different then, with no kids and newly married, so we ate out more and sat in front of the TV to eat our dinner!!

What were you Cooking/Baking 1 year ago

Pretty much what I'm baking and cooking now. Cakes from scratch, making my own pizza dough and trying to cook a vegetable in a way that my kids will eat it.

Five Snacks You Enjoy

Licorice
Peach Mango Salsa and Multigrain Corn Chips
Potato Chips
Cashews

Five Recipes You Know By Heart

I only know two by heart - Ina's Chocolate Chip Cookies and my own Spaghetti Bolognaise recipe

Five Culinary Luxuries You Would Indulge In if You Were A Millionaire

Viking 6 burner range/double oven
French Door Refrigerator with ice maker and TV in the doors
Pump Espresso Machine plumbed to the house so you didn't have to fill it up with water
Personal Chef to come over on the nights I don't feel like cooking.
Maid to clean up!!

Five Foods You Love to Cook/Bake

All kinds of desserts
Cookies
Any thing in Ina Gartens five cookbooks

Five Food You Cannot/Will Not Eat

Brussel Sprouts
Olives
Peppers
Any kind of stinky of Blue Cheese
Anything pickled (except beets and gerkins)

Five Favourite Culinary Toys

I cannot live without my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer.
Marble rolling pin


Five Dishes On Your "Last Meal" Menu

I'm still thinking about this one, but it would have to involve French Fries. I really like French Fries.

Mini Pavlovas!

I made these little plates of heaven this weekend. Individual pavlovas (one of Australia's national dishes) topped with whipped cream, srawberries and raspberries, sitting on some raspberry sauce. I really should have described it as "a raft of meringue, floating in a lagoon of raspberry sauce, topped with an umberella of whipped cream". Hahahah. Back in the day, I was at a restaurant that described one of their desserts that way, except their lagoon was made of chocolate.

It's all dead easy. The pavl0vas are great because you can make them a few days ahead, and you really should because they take 2 hours to bake and then sit in the oven for another four hours as the oven cools down, so it's a good idea to make them first thing in the morning. The pavlovas also keep really well for a few days in an airtight container.

The recipes for the pavlovas and the raspberry sauce are both from Ina Garten's Barefoot In Paris.

6 extra large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 pints assorted berries (I used raspberries and strawberries)

For the Whipped Cream, I just whip up 1 cup of whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Preheat oven to 200 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchement paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachement, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and a large pnch of salt on medium speed until frothy. Add 1 cup of the sugar and raise the speed to high unti the egg whites form very stiff peaks. (I always add the sugar slowly). Whisk in the vanilla. Add the remaining 1/2cup of sugar into the meringue.

Ina uses a pastry bag and pipes her meringue onto the parchment paper. If you don't want to do that or you are totally incapable of getting stuff into a pastry bag like I am, you can just spoon the meringe into as round a shape as you can get it, or put it in a ziploc bag and snip off one of the corners and use that as a makeshift pastry bag. I used that method and it worked pretty well for me. It is supposed to be like a shell, with a hole in the middle for the cream. I can't get mine like that, so I just pile it all on top, and it still looks and tastes fine. You should be able to get about 8 mini pavolovas from this mixture.

Bake for 2 hours, or until the meringes are dry and crisp but not browned. Turn off the heat and allow the meringes to sit in the oven for 4 hours or overnight.

To serve: fill the meringe, or pile on top! whipped cream, berries, and sit the pavlova in the raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Sauce:

1 half-pint fresh raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 tablespoon framboise liqueur (I did not have this liqueur, and I didn't want to buy a whole bottle for this recipe, so I used vodka instead and it came out fine. You could probably not even use a liqueur, you'd never know the difference)

Place the raspberries, sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour the cooked raspberries, the jam and the famboise into the bowl of a food procesor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Chill.

Chunky Guacamole

I had a Tupperware party last night!! Don't laugh, it was a total blast, and cooks need Tupperware!! I'm getting a container that holds a 10lb bag of flour!!. There were about 16 of us and plenty of wine and some snacks. I made Ina ">Ina's Guacamole and served it with blue and yellow corn chips. I also made the Pan Fried Onion dip, which is essentially homemade French Onion. Also delicious.

4 ripe Haas avocados
3 tablespoons lemon juice
8 dashes of Tabasco sauce (it's really important to only do 8 - anymore and it's too much)
1/2 cup small diced red onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 medium tomato, seeded and small diced (I usually use 2, I think it makes it better)

What I usually do it prepare everything but the avocado and lemon juice, and put it in a bowl and mix it around.

Then you cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells. Then I roughly chop the avocado and put it straight in the bowl with the other ingredients. With the avocado sitting on top, pour on the lemon juice and then gently mix it all in together.

Try and make it as close to the time you are going to serve it as possible, but if you have to make it ahead, cover the guacamole with plastic, putting the plastic directly on the guacamole and sealing to the sides of the bowl. This combined with the lemon juice will help stop it going brown. And then refrigerate until you want to serve it.

Gruyere and Parmesan Gougeres

These Gougeres (or cheese puffs) are so easy to make, and taste great. Don't let the fact that they are made with Choux dough turn you off. I always thought that would be really complicated, but it's so easy, just make sure you have all the ingredients out and ready to go, because once the dough comes together, you have to move quickly. This recipe is from Ina Gartens "Barefoot in Paris" book. I have made these a few times and it gets easier and easier.

My Favourite Recipe Books

I thought I'd share some of my favourite books that I've been using for the past couple of years. I also feel that these books have made me into a better cook, and really make me want to make everything from scratch.

Topping the list is Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Herself. I have all five of her books and use them all the time. The best two are The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Barefoot Contessa Parties!. I use recipes from those books over and over again.


I've also recently fallen in love with the Everyday Food: Great Food Fast from the kitchens of Martha Stewart. It's fantastic. I also have a subscription to the magazine. I can hear the groans - not Martha, it's too hard - but this is Martha for dummies. All the recipes I have tried so far have turned out great and are really easy. I swore off Martha for a really long time after the great Buche de Noel debarcle of Christmas 2000. That thing took me about 13 hours to make and everyone 6 mins to eat. I was beside myself, used every pot, pan, bowl, spoon, knife and cutting board that I owned, and had a miserable 4 month old who cried the whole time I was making it. The cake itself was delicious, but I was so mad with Martha for about 4 years after that whole experience.

Nigella Lawson is another favourite. I have Domestic Goddess and Bites. I've very successfully made the Sour Cream Chocolate Cake and the New York Cheese Cake from Domestic Goddess and a few lovely dinners from Bites. Someone even wanted to pay me to make the Sour Cream Chocolate Cake when I made it for Mrs Names' Superbowl party this year!

I also just got Giada De Laurentis' Family Dinner - but I've only made one sauce out of it so far.