Creamy Horseradish Dip

In addition to the Sweet and Salty Pecans, I wanted to make a nice vegetable dip for our friends on Saturday night.  I asked Bret to browse through the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (another gift from the Boston Brunchers' Birthday Brunch) to see if any of the dip recipes looked appealing to him.  He pointed out the Creamy Horseradish Dip recipe, which sounded like it would be pretty flavorful.

First, I gathered the ingredients:

• 3/4 cup light mayonnaise (original recipe calls for regular mayo) 
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 scallions, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup prepared horseradish, squeezed of excess liquid
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

I combined all of the ingredients in a plastic container until the dip was smooth and creamy.

I put the dip in the refrigerator to chill and to let the flavors blend together.  The recipe says that the dip should be chilled for at least one hour but can be refrigerated for up to two days.  I just kept it in the refrigerator for about six hours.

Before our guests arrived, Bret and I cut up some celery sticks and cucumber slices.  I transferred the dip to a serving platter with baby carrots, celery sticks and cucumber slices.

Overall, the dip had a great flavor because of the horseradish.  However, I felt like the mayo flavor was way too strong.  Bret disagreed and our friends seemed to enjoy the dip a lot.  I think I would love to make this creamy horseradish dip again with sour cream and Greek yogurt.

As the holiday season approaches, I'm looking forward to discovering new dip recipes.  Tell me, what is your go-to dip recipe?

"A Visit From the Goon Squad"

As we all know, I think the world of my kindle.  However, when other people use kindles I cannot look to see what they are reading and that drives me nuts!  I love to get new book ideas from seeing what others are reading on the T or on plane rides.  Lucky for me, though, there were a few people on the plane to Greece that had some hard cover books.  One of the books I saw and then heard so much about was A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

cover picture from Amazon.com

To be honest, I finally downloaded the book because I had seen those people reading it, but also because I started to see it on a number of best seller lists and figured it would be good.  While I do not think I am very picky about books, maybe I am (I hated Franzen's Freedom), but I really did not like this book.  

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a series of semi interconnected stories following different characters somehow involved in the music industry.  I did not see the stories working together very well.  Further, some of the stories and the voices I really enjoyed, however, those chapters often finished too quickly and moved onto another voice that may not have been as engaging.  I felt like some of the characters were just left hanging and their lives changed but the reader had no idea how or why.  

After reading some books that I reacted so strongly to, I think I like books that tell complete stories.  I like character development and seeing how things progress.  I need characters that are redeemable in a way that I believe it.  Watching characters fail without much hope of seeing how they get built back up doesn't do it for me. 

Obviously this book has been loved by many readers, I just do not happen to be one of them - not enough of a story for me.

Hassleback Potatoes

This is such and easy and elegant looking side dish.  It's a great alternative to a baked potato or roasted potatoes.  Try adding some chopped herbs of your choice for a little pop of color.

Hasselback Potatoes

Adapted from Sunny Anderson on The Food Network.

Ingredients:

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, pepper and garlic powder 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Using a wooden spoon as a cradle, place each potato in the spoon and make several parallel slits into each potato top making sure not to slice completely through. Toss in a medium bowl with olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and garlic. Bake until tops are crispy and potatoes are cooked through, about 1 hour.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Butternut Coconut Jam

With an abundance of butternut squash thanks to my CSA, I set out to try something different.  A quick perusal of my saved recipes and I found my inspiration.  Butternut coconut jam.  Oh yes.  Grated squash, cooked down to a jam-like consistency?  Awesome.

A unique addition to a cheese plate, this jam goes perfectly well with an assertive cheese.  I tried it with goat cheese, surprising no one :)

crostini w/goat cheese and butternut coconut jam

It also worked well in a pork tenderloin (1lb) that I stuffed with sage (1-2T), butternut coconut jam (1/2c) and gorgonzola (~1/3c).  I didn't write down an exact recipe, but it was similar to this technique.

stuffed pork tenderloin w/roasted brussels, sweet potatoes, onions and cranberries

Some other potential uses for the jam:
     as a cupcake filling
     inside a grilled cheese (w/sage or rosemary, nuts and/or apples)
     stirred into oatmeal
     on top of goat cheese ice cream
     in a fall s'more, between homemade graham crackers and marshmallows

Butternut Coconut Jam
adapted from The Kitch'n
Yield:

1 butternut squash (2-2.5lbs)
2c unsweetened almond milk
1 1/2c evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
1/2c dark brown sugar (mine was unpacked)
1 cinnamon stick
8 whole cloves
2 vanilla beans
1c dried unsweetened coconut

Peel the butternut squash and cut into pieces.  Grate the squash (I used my food processor), or cut into small pieces.  Add squash, milk, sugars and spices into a large, heavy pot.  Split the vanilla beans and scrape out the seeds and add to the squash along with the scraped pods.  Cover and cook over medium heat until the squash is soft and tender (~15min or so).

Once the squash is tender, remove the cover and continue to cook on medium heat, stirring frequently until the mixture is reduced and thick like...  jam :)  Mine took ~1hr or so.  Remove from pan from the heat and stir in the coconut.  Once cool, fish out the cloves, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean pods.  I left the jam as-is as I wanted to retain some texture, but if you prefer a smooth jam mash or puree the mixture.  Store in the refrigerator.



How would you eat this butternut coconut jam?  Check back later this week for another use!

Lean on Lamb - Lamb Pizza!

About two months ago I was contacted by the Tri Lamb Group (a collaborativeinitiative of lamb producer organizations from the U.S., New Zealand andAustralia) about hosting a supper club for 10-12 of my closest friends.  The goal of this group is really to educate American's on lamb.  In general, I think people think of poultry, beef and the other white meat - pork - for meats when cooking dinners, while lamb is not something that typically comes to mind.  This group's goal is to change that.  Turns out, lamb is much leaner and nutritious than beef.

By providing the components for a great meal they are able to provide a group with a fantastic experiencing with lamb to get the ball rolling.  In addition to the ingredients, the group also provides some fun decorations, like lamb jokes that also include lamb facts.  My favorite joke: "What is a lamb's favorite protest?  Flock-upied Wall Street!"

Recipes and Jokes.

Growing up, my mom actually cooked lamb about once every two months for my family, and since moving out it is always my request from her when we have a "fancy" dinner at home.  When I go out to eat, if there is lamb on the menu, I generally order it.  However, I have only cooked lamb once at home.  I think I find the meat intimidating to cook for some reason.  So, when given the chance to put a meal together and get some more experience under my belt in a well-guided atmosphere, I jumped at the opportunity.

Lamb Pizza!

After I agreed to host a Supper Club, they informed me I was going to make a lamb, pepper and arugula pizza - whats not to love about that?!  Even better, even the biggest suspects of lamb could get behind pizza!  So the day before the day of the supper club, the Lean on Lamb group sent us a cooler packed with all the necessities for cooking lamb pizza.  I mean - they even included the olive oil!

Some of the ingredients

To begin, I chopped up a couple of cloves of garlic and the two shallots.

All Chopped Up

I then took the pizza dough and stretched it out on some square baking sheets that had olive oil drizzled over them.  I then popped the baking sheets with the pizza dough on them into a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes.  I loved that the group sent whole wheat pizza dough - it all felt that much more nutritious.  

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

While the dough was cooking and then cooling, I heated a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick skillet and added the garlic, shallots, ground lamb, tomato paste, oregano, salt and pepper until the lamb cooked up and was nice a browned - about 7 minutes.

Cooking the lamb

While the meat was finishing up, I brushed both of the semi-cooked pizza crusts with some olive oil.  I then attempted to evenly distribute the ground lamb over the both pizza crusts.  Somehow I was actually fairly successful and did not dump it all in one area!  Next I topped the meat with the pepperoncini.  I just pulled them directly from the jar rather than measuring it completely.  However, based on some of the feedback, if I were to make this again I would probably add more of the peppers since the tart vinegar flavor went well with the other pizza components.  Finally, I crumbled the goat cheese log and evenly tossed the crumbles over both pizzas.

Ready for the oven

I then put both pizzas back in the 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese started to brown and melt and the crust edges were browning as well.

All done cooking!

The final step included tossing the arugula with a tablespoon of olive oil - I did it in the zip lock bag the arugula came in for easy tossing.  Once coated fully, I placed the greens onto the top of the pizza and allowed it to sit for another two minutes to allow the arugula to wilt a bit.

Ready to Cut and Serve

The pizza came out really well and even the guests who were a little worried about having lamb enjoyed their meal.  The suspicious people were those who just have not had as much exposure to lamb for one reason or another, but mostly because taking that first bite of a lamb meal made then a bit nervous.  This pizza was a great introduction because the lamb was ground and really looked like beef and was not too overwhelming.  Most of the guests loved the contrast between the lamb flavors and the pepperoncini.  The peppers really helped bring out the lamb flavor.

Overall this was a fantastic experience that allowed me to try my hand at another another lamb dish and feel confident about what I was serving to a number of close friends - close enough that they probably would have eaten it anyway, but also close enough that I did not want to let them down.  Completing this night was the wine served - we took this opportunity to serve a number of wines that we were planning on trying out for our wedding.  Getting a good idea of what the wedding guests liked made the night even more festive!

For the supper club, getting to expose a group of people to a good lamb dinner is exactly what they wanted.  For me, getting to serve some delicious food and drink to my nearest and dearest made for a near perfect evening.

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Sweet and Salty Pecans

This past weekend, we had some of Bret's friends over to finally see our new place.  I'm embarrassed to admit that we've been living in Andover since August and that some of our good friends still haven't seen our place!  Since Bret's friends are vegetarians so I thought this was a good opportunity to try out some new meat-free recipes that would still be pretty flavorful!

My plan was to make a few different dishes that would be easy to nibble on.  I browsed through the complimentary Salty Sweets cookbook that I received at the Boston Brunchers' Birthday Brunch and the recipe for Sweet and Salty Pecans quickly caught my eye.

First, I gathered the ingredients.  Since I had about two cups of pecans, I decided to double the recipe:

• 4 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon iodized salt (original recipe calls for fine sea salt)
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 cups pecan pieces

I combined the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and water in a small bowl and whisked to dissolve the sugars.

Since we purchased whole pecans, Bret helped roughly chop the pecans into pecan pieces.

I placed the pecans in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.

I pour the sugar mixture over the pecans and stirred the nuts to make sure they were evenly coated.

I continued stirring as the sugar mixture heated up and started to bubble.  I let the pecans cook until the moisture was almost gone.  This took me about six minutes.  Per the recipe's instructions, I didn't let the water cook off completely.

I removed the pecans from the skillet onto a parchment-lined baking sheet to cool.

The pecans were mostly sweet and had a nice hint of saltiness.  While the cookbook recommends eating these as a snack or as a dessert topping, the sugar coating made the pecans sticky and a bit messy to eat with your hands as a snack.  However, I'm sure they will make a perfect topping for a pumpkin ice cream sundae!

What is your favorite food that incorporates both salty and sweet flavors?

Coq Au Vin Rigatoni

Remember What Would Brian Boitano Make?  I actually enjoyed watching that show but I guess not enough people did.  Give this recipe a try because I know you won't be disappointed...even if the show was a little corny.  You know, sometimes, I like corny and silly and not so serious.  Wish they would bring back this show!










Coq Au Vin Rigatoni


Adapted from Brian Boitano on The Food Network
Ingredients:
 

1/2 cup olive oil, divided

1/4 pound pancetta, chopped

1 large onion, diced

1 large carrot, sliced

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

1 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 bottle medium-bodied Italian red wine

3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 pound rigatoni

Fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until brown and crispy about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with a paper towel.

To the same skillet add the onions and carrots and saute until they are soft and onions are translucent.   While the veggies cook, add the flour to a glass baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken and toss to coat.

To the same skillet add 3 tablespoons olive oil, add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Saute the mushrooms until browned, about 8 minutes and remove to the baking sheet with the onions.

Shake off any excess flour from the chicken and put on a plate. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and add the chicken. Cook the chicken until browned, about 6 minutes and transfer to the baking sheet.

Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes and deglaze the pan with 3/4 of the bottle of wine, making sure to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. While the wine comes to a simmer, add the thyme, chicken, mushrooms and onions and let simmer for 3 minutes. If sauce is too thick add remaining red wine. Add butter, taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

Drain the pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with the chicken and wine sauce. Garnish with the parsley, pancetta and a drizzle of the remaining olive oil.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.