Veggie Risotto

2 T olive oil

2 T butter

1 medium onion, diced

3-4 garlic cloves, minced (Feel free to reduce or omit; I love garlic)

1 c arborio rice

1/2 c white wine

20-25 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

3-4 c chicken stock

3 T shredded parmesan

1 c frozen peas

Heat olive oil and butter in the bottom of a heavy saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat, until butter is melted but not sizzling. Add onion and garlic and saute until onion is soft and translucent (~5 minutes). Add the arborio rice and saute until rice grains just begin to brown. Add a little more oil or butter if needed.

Stir in the halved tomatoes, then the white wine. Scrape bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Continue heating, stirring constantly, until the wine is completely absorbed into the rice.

Begin adding the chicken stock 1/4 c at a time, stirring constantly after each addition until liquid is absorbed. This will take a long time, and requires your attention until it is complete. Once half the stock has been incorporated, stir in the Parmesan cheese. (Adding it now, instead of at the end, will allow the cheese to completely melt into the sauce you are creating, so you don’t end up with strings of cheese in the final dish.

From here on out you can increase the amount of liquid you are adding each time, but still don’t add it all at once. Maybe 1/2 cup at a time.

Once 3 cups of the stock have been absorbed, test one or two grains between your teeth to see if desired toothiness has been achieved. If it is still too firm, add additional stock in small amounts until desired consistency is achieved.

Add the peas and turn the heat down a little. Heat until the peas are cooked through, about 5 more minutes. Season as desired with salt and pepper. I also like a little powdered rosemary. Serve hot.

Onion Soup

You can call this French if you want, but from my reading most onion soups follow the same basic steps. This is mine.

This is variable – make as much or as little as you need.

1-2 onions per person (I typically use either red or yellow, but any type onion will work; red onions purportedly have a high sugar content naturally and caramelize fastest, but this is gonna take a long time no matter which ones you use)

Minced Garlic

Olive Oil

Butter

Salt

Sugar (optional – this will help the caramelization process along, but isn’t necessary)

Sherry (no need to get fancy – I use the $5 stuff)

Water

Bay Leaves

Beef bouillon or Better than Bouillon

Slice your onions thinly. Heat some butter and olive oil over medium heat until butter is melted. (Use around 1/2 T of each per onion, and err on the scant side. You need much less than you think you’ll need.) Add the onions and heat, stirring constantly, until the onions are soft. Add a dab of garlic per onion at this point, a pinch of garlic, and a pinch of sugar. About 1/4 tsp of each per person.

Maintain your heat over medium-low or medium; don’t turn the heat up too high or the onions will begin to burn before they caramelize.

Heat, stirring regularly. This will take a long time. When I made this today, it took nearly 2 hours. If a recipe tells you this will take 10-15 minutes, the recipe writer is either lying, or cooks theirs too fast so that the onions burn rather than caramelize.

You don’t have to stir constantly, but will need to every few minutes to keep things from burning. It just takes a long time to do it right, but it is absolutely worth it.

Once your onions are uniformly golden brown, with some of them browning and nice fonds are developing on the bottom of your pan, add a little sherry to deglaze the pan. Stir to loosen the fonds thoroughly. Then add enough water to cover the onions completely. Add a bay leaf or two. Heat to boiling, then reduce and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Longer if you want.

Stir in a tablespoon or so of bouillon for every 3-4 onions, and heat again to boiling. Taste, and add salt if needed or black pepper if desired.

To serve: place a piece of good bread and a slice of white cheese (swiss, provolone, gruyere, etc.) in a bowl, and ladle soup over it. If you want, put the cheese on top and stick under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown it.

This is a stand-in-the-kitchen-and-listen-to-a-podcast kind of recipe, but it is oh, so satisfying when it’s done.

Chocolate Ice Cream

This is a variation on our family ice cream recipe, passed down from at least my great-grandmother. Our family typically makes vanilla, and serves it with whatever toppings or fresh fruit we’re feeling at the time. There are never leftovers.

4 c whole milk

4 eggs

1 c sugar

1/4 c cocoa powder

1/4 t salt

1 t cornstarch

1 can sweetened, condensed milk

2 t vanilla

In a small mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa, salt, and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a large, heavy saucepan or dutch oven, heat the milk over medium heat. While it is heating, thoroughly beat the eggs in a separate large bowl.

When the milk starts steaming (don’t let it boil), remove it from the heat, and place it next to the bowl with the eggs in it. Remove about 1/4 cup to a separate bowl or cup for later use. Using a ladle or small measuring cup, dribble the milk into the eggs with one hand while whisking constantly with the other. This is known as “tempering”. The idea is to slowly raise the temperature of the eggs using the heat from the milk, which will keep them from curdling. Take your time getting started with this, but once you’ve added a few rounds you can add the rest pretty quickly.

Once all of the milk has been incorporated into the eggs, return it all to the saucepan and place over medium-low heat. (If you did get any curdling, it’s not the end of the world – just pour the mixture through a fine sieve into the saucepan.) Cook, stirring constantly (a silicone spatula works best), until the mixture begins to thicken and smell like custard. The thickening here will be more about feel than look. We’re not trying to get to a pudding consistency, but after a few minutes, you’ll start to feel a little more resistance on your spatula. Take your time at this step as well; this could take 10-15 minutes. The mixture will begin to smell like a rich custard. Which, actually, is what it is.

Once the mixture has started to thicken a little bit, add the chocolate mixture and condensed milk. Keep cooking and stirring constantly until the mixture thickens a little bit more. Again, this will be about the resistance as you stir, though you may notice a visible thickening at this point.

Remove mixture from the heat, and add the vanilla. Let cool at room temperature for an hour. (Or use the method recommended by Jeni, and place the mixture into a ziploc bag and immerse into an ice bath to cool it more quickly.) Cover and place in the refrigerator. Cool at least 2-4 hours, or even overnight. We want the mixture to be thoroughly cold all the way through so that it freezes quickly once we start that process. The faster it freezes, the better the final consistency will be.

Put mixture into your ice cream maker and follow its instructions on freezing. If you can stand it, after it’s frozen place it in the freezer for a few hours. This will make the ice cream harder. (When it’s done in the maker it’ll be a soft-serve consistency, so if you want something firmer you’ll need to harden it in the freezer.)

 

 

Chicken Soup

For the brine:

• 3 T Kosher Salt or 2 T table salt
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• Boiling water
• 2 chicken breasts

For the soup:

• 1 white onion, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 2 large carrots, finely diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t fresh rosemary, minced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups chicken stock

3 hours before starting the soup: Add 3 T kosher salt to 1 cup of boiling water in a large mixing bowl, and stir to dissolve. Add 3 cups of cold/room temperature water, the apple cider vinegar, sprig of rosemary, garlic, and chicken breasts. Make sure the chicken breasts are completely submerged (add more water if needed), cover, and place in the refrigerator. Let the brine sit for 2-3 hours before starting the soup. Don’t brine the chicken for more than 5-6 hours; the vinegar and salt will eventually begin to toughen the meat, but just a few hours in the brine will help it stay tender and juicy as it cooks.

After a few hours, remove the chicken from the brine; discard the brine. Dry the chicken breasts with paper towels. (Drier meat will create a better browned crust as it cooks.)

Heat 1 T olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts, and cook for about 5 minutes on each side, until nicely browned and mostly cooked through. (It’s okay if it’s not totally cooked through; it will finish cooking in the soup. We’re mostly after the browning in this step.) Remove from dutch oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Heat another T olive oil in the same saucepan, and add vegetables.

A note here: the smaller the vegetables are cooked, the better flavor you’ll get. The vegetables will break down as the soup cooks, of course, and the smaller the pieces the more they’ll break down, giving the finished soup a slight sweetness and more complex flavors. If you want some larger pieces of vegetable in the completed soup, cut half of them into larger pieces, and add the larger pieces with the chicken.

Continue to heat the finely-diced vegetables in the dutch oven over medium heat, stirring regularly to keep them from sticking. Try not to let the onions and garlic brown; if they start to, remove the pot from the heat and turn it down some. Stir the veggies off the heat for a minute or two, then return it to the eye. Cook this way until the vegetables are very soft and the onions and celery are translucent. Add the rosemary as the vegetables begin to soften, and cook it with them to begin to release the flavor.

Add the chicken stock and bay leaf (and larger vegetable pieces if desired), and leave over medium heat.  Use two forks to shred the chicken, or a knife to cut it into bite-size pieces, just depending on your preference. Add to the soup. Add more chicken stock if needed to get the ratio of stock to meat/veggies that you like. Increase heat to medium high to obtain a slight boil, then reduce heat to low or medium low to maintain a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Unlike a beef stew, we do not want to cook this for hours. Chicken breast will get tough if it cooks for too long, whereas fatty stew beef gets more tender as its fat breaks down.)

If you like, add some cooked rice or noodles to the soup before serving. (You can add the rice or noodles to the soup with additional stock, too, if you like. Just keep an eye on how much liquid they absorb and top up as needed.)

 

 

 

Browned-Butter Oatmeal

A gloomy, lazy Saturday morning calls for an easy comfort food.

For each serving:

1 T butter

1/4 c oatmeal

1/2-3/4 c hot water

1/4 t cinnamon

1-2 T raisins or craisins, or your favorite fruit

1/2 – 1 T brown sugar

Milk or cream for serving

In a small, heavy saucepan, heat the butter over medium or medium-high heat. Keep an eye on it as it melts and starts to bubble. The fats in the butter will begin to turn darker golden and then brown. Be careful not to let it burn, but the darker it gets the more complex the flavors will be. (The actual melted butter will not darken, just the fats.)

As soon as it hits the color you want, remove it from heat. Stir in the oatmeal until the butter is all absorbed, and return to heat. Heat it, stirring constantly, until the oatmeal begins to toast. Use your nose for this piece – once it starts to smell nutty and toasted, it’s done, even if the color hasn’t changed much. Add 1/2 the water in slowly, and stir constantly until the oatmeal is cooked, adding more water if needed. (Depending on whether you use old-fashioned or quick-cook, this may take just a minute or several minutes.) Add in the raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and add a dash of salt if you’ve used unsalted butter.

Once the oats are cooked and tender, serve with a drizzle of milk or cream.

 

Fall Hash Casserole

1 package diced ham

2 small or 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into pieces about twice the size of the ham

1-2 large or 2-3 small apples (ambrosia, honeycrisp, or granny smith), peeled, cored, andc chop

1/2 T apple cider vinegar

1/2 c apple cider

2 T butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat a little olive oil. Add the ham, and brown all over. Remove to a large bowl. Add a little more oil, and add the sweet potato. Cook until the pieces have picked up a little bit of the brown bits from the bottom of the skillet, but aren’t cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add to bowl, and add the chopped apples to the bowl as well. Toss the ham, sweet potato, and apple chunks together.

Meanwhile, add the apple cider vinegar and cider to the skillet, Use a whisk to stir up the browned bits (“fonds”) from the bottom of the skillet. Add the butter, and cook for a few minutes until the liquid has reduced by a third to a half. Add the liquid to the bowl, and toss with the ham, sweet potatoes, and apples.

Pour mixture into a casserole dish and place in preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, or until sweet potato pieces are cooked through and the top of the casserole has some browned pieces.

Beef stew

If you read enough recipes for a basic, tomato-free beef stew, they all end up looking mostly the same. This recipe started out as one of those, shared by a friend in college. I’ve made it so many times over the years I know it by heart, but have made a few tweaks along the way. This is perfect for those cold, rainy weekend days you don’t want to leave the house, and keeps in the freezer really well.

Vegetable oil

1.5 lb stew beef (sometimes I use less, and more veggies. It doesn’t have to be really exact.)

salt

pepper

2 T flour

1 large onion

3-4 cloves garlic (or more if you are so inclined; it will be a really mellow garlic flavor by the time we’re done)

4 c beef stock

2 t Worcestershire sauce

4-5 medium white potatoes

1 bag frozen carrots, or 3-4 fresh ones, peeled and sliced

1 bag frozen peas

Place the beef in a large bowl, and sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly-ground pepper. (If you have the time, let this sit for an hour or more, up to a couple days covered in the fridge, before moving on to the next steps.)

Add the flour, and toss the beef to coat it as evenly as you can. Set aside while you prepare the vegetables.

Chop the onion and garlic, and place in a bowl together and set aside.

Chop the potatoes and carrots (if not using frozen); cover, and set aside.

In a large Dutch oven or stockpot, heat a tablespoon of the vegetable oil over medium heat until hot. Add the beef a few pieces at a time, and brown all over. (Leave space in between each piece, and between them and the sides of the pot. This will allow the outsides of the meat to brown nicely, rather than turning gray.) As they are done, remove them to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add more oil as needed until all of the meat has been browned.

Turn the heat down and add a little more oil (if needed). Add the onions and garlic, and cook for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Turn up the heat again if needed, but try not to let the onions or garlic brown. Adding them to a cooler pot will help.

Add the meat back in, then add the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce. Heat just until boiling, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover the pot and let cook over low heat for at least 2 hours. This is where you will really develop the flavor, so if you want to and can cook it for 3 or 4 hours, do it. Just stir it occasionally, and add more water or additional stock as needed.

At this point the meat should be starting to fall apart pretty easily if you test it with a fork. Taste the liquid and add more salt, pepper, or Worcestershire if desired. We want it very flavorful; the vegetables, especially the potatoes, will soak up especially the salt, so keep that in mind.

Add the potatoes and carrots, return to a simmer, cover, and cook another hour. Check, and if it’s too thin, let it cook another half hour or so, on low, uncovered. This will let some of the water evaporate off and thicken things up. If it’s too thick, add a tablespoon or two of water, just enough to think it up to your liking.

Taste and adjust the seasonings again as needed. Add the frozen peas, and let sit over low heat, or even with the heat off, for about 10 minutes, just until they are thawed through. The peas are best when they are still pretty fresh and bright green.

Related, like most stews or braises, this will be even better a day later, if you can wait to eat it. If you’re going to do that, don’t add the peas until you’ve reheated the stew, just for better flavor.

Best Broccoli

I’m not sure whether this counts as a recipe, so much as a technique. It works really well with Brussels sprouts as well; just quarter them once thawed.

1 bag frozen broccoli, any size

Olive oil

Powdered garlic

Salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. (You want enough room to spread all of your broccoli in a single layer. If you want to make a large batch, you can use multiple sheets; just be sure to rotate them halfway through cooking.)

Microwave the broccoli according to the package directions; we are only really thawing and starting the cooking here, so if there are still some cold pieces when you’re done, that’s okay.

Place the broccoli on the parchment-lined sheets, being careful not to get any liquid remaining from the cooking on the sheet.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the broccoli is deeply browned and crispy on top. (I like mine ever so slightly charred.)

Remove from the oven. Very carefully pick up the edges of the parchment, and dump the broccoli into a large bowl.

Drizzle olive oil lightly over the broccoli, then sprinkle with salt and a dash of garlic powder. Toss together, taste, and add more seasonings if necessary.

That’s it.

Notes:

*You lose most of the water when you cook this, so be generous in your estimates for how much you’ll need. A standard 14 or 16 oz back will give you 2-3 servings. Although I can easily eat an entire bag myself.

**As I noted at the top, this can also be used with Brussels sprouts. If you don’t quarter them, you may need to roast them longer. Brussels sprouts cooked this way are excellent with some bacon and blue cheese sprinkles instead of the seasonings suggested here.

***Use whatever seasonings you like – you can experiment here, since it really is more technique than true recipe. A pinch of red pepper flakes is one of my favorite additions. A squeeze of lemon would be good, too.

 

Bruschetta

The only thing that makes the summer heat tolerable is what it does to the tomatoes growing in my garden. We are just arriving at peak tomato season, when they have more flavor than any other time of the year. This recipe is for July and August only. If you try to make it with grocery-store tomatoes another time of the year, you will be disappointed. Or at the very least, I will be disappointed for you.

Also, know that one of the worst things you can do to tomatoes is refrigerate them. So buy or pick some fresh tomatoes no more than a day or two before you’ll use them, and make only as much as you’ll eat at once – don’t try to save this, or again, you’ll be disappointed when you come back to it.

Ripe tomatoes – I can typically eat 2-3 Roma tomatoes with this recipe in one go, but use whatever amount you want of whatever tomatoes you can find. The ripeness is the most important thing here.

Salt

Garlic powder or fresh sliced garlic

Oregano, fresh or dried

Balsamic Vinegar (the real vinegar, not the vinaigrette – get the best you can afford*)

Baguette or similar bread

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice the baguette into rounds. (Unlike the tomatoes, you can keep the baguette slices, either as they are or after they’re cooked – they’ll have a crouton-like texture and flavor.) Pour some olive oil onto a small plate. Dip both sides of each slice of bread into the olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove and set aside. (For a little extra flavor, sprinkle lightly with salt and garlic powder immediately after removing from oven.)

Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let sit while the bread cooks.

When you’re ready to serve, mix garlic, oregano, and balsamic vinegar* into the tomatoes to taste. Add more salt if needed.  Go light on the seasonings, though – you don’t want to hide the tomatoes, only enhance them. Spoon the tomatoes onto each piece of bread just as you eat them. (If you put the tomatoes on the bread and then serve it, the bread will go soggy, if you’re using good and ripe tomatoes.)

Make more as needed.

*A note about balsamic vinegar: the really good stuff is think like syrup, and a little bit goes a very long way. Don’t be tempted to buy the cheaper stuff at the grocery; you’ll need more of it and your tomatoes will taste too vinegary. Instead buy a small bottle of more expensive stuff, and only use 1/4 t or so in this recipe, at least to start.