Steak Au Poivre

Sorry I'm a little behind here. I'll get caught up shortly. Anyway, today we go with something a little more classic in preparation. Just make sure you get a decent quality meat or this is probably going to fall a little flat. Hunk o' meat with sauce. Nothing fancy and it shouldn't take more than 30-45 minutes. Seriously. This comes courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.

Menu:
Steak Au Poivre
Farfalle in Wild Mushroom and Browned Shallot Broth
Green Beans with Shallots
Navel orange

Ingredients:
1 Tbls. Cracked Black Pepper

4 Beef Tenderloin steaks (or rib-eye) cut 1 inch thick (~ 1 lb. total)
2 Tbls. Unsalted butter
2 Tbls. Brandy (Beef broth if you want, but I prefer to use the brandy.)
1/3 c. Heavy cream
1/3 c. Beef broth
2 Tsp. Dijon mustard

How to:
1) There are really two ways to crack the peppercorns efficiently. The first is to use a mortar and pestle (My preferred method). The second is to put the peppercorns between two layers of wax paper and do the whack n' bash thing with a saucepan or saute pan. It's up to you. Silly me, I tried to do it with the flat of a knife. I don't recommend it, the peppercorns just kind of fly everywhere, probably to get picked up by little birdies who pass on useful advice.

2) Press the successfully cracked peppercorns into both sides of the steaks with your fingers. Melt the butter in a large skillet/saute pan over medium-high heat and cook the steaks in that. If you're going for medium-rare, it should only be 4-6 minutes per side. If you want medium, it'll be 6-7 minutes on a side. If you want well done, what on earth are you doing using tenderloin?!!??!

3) Transfer the steaks to a serving platter and keep them warm, but keep the dripping that are in the skillet. (Two ways to do this: 1) Cover it with foil, 2) Set the oven for 200 degrees and put the steaks on a cooling rack over a baking pan. Stick them in the oven. They should stay warm without overcooking for quite a while.)

4) Time for the sauce. Stir the brandy into the drippings from the steak. )You did keep those, right?). Stir it up and scrape up all the crusty browned bits of meat from the bottom of the pan. That's where a lot of our flavor is.

5) Stir in the Heavy cream and 1/3 c. Beef broth along with the mustard (if you want it).

6) Cook all of it and keep stirring for 4-5 minutes. There should only be about 1/3 c. of the sauce total. Pour over steaks and serve.

I like to use the mustard in this for the extra tang and kick. Either way though, you really need a good cut of meat because if the meat doesn't hold up, the whole dish will flop and you'll wonder why you bothered. Other than that, it's quick and easy. Just keep an eye on things and make sure the sauce reduces enough. We want it to coat, not run. After all, what's the point if you can't mop it up afterwards with a hunk of bread? After you've tried the base, it might stand up to a little dill or rosemary to season the meat or change some of the textures in the sauce. Not much to fiddle with though.

Tools:
Large skillet/Saute Pan
Mortar and Pestle
Wooden Spoon or wire whisk

Health info:
4 Meat Servings
4 Fat servings (Oh well, can't be perfect all the time)

::Malloreth out::

Pear Tart with Walnuts

Yay! More dessert! This is a pretty basic tart so we have lots of variations available on this one. As some of you know, given a choice between cake and pie, I used to choose pie every single time. Now, it's more of an: I can have a slice of pie if I'm willing to forgo dinner. That just doesn't fly with me. Enter: The Tart. It's like a pie, only it has a thinner crust and only one of them. Hence, not nearly as many carbs. I can live with that. This is coming out of Simple French Cooking.

Ingredients:
Tart:
1 c. All purpose flour
1/2 c. cake or pastry flour (also known as soft flour)
1 Tbls + 1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt (kosher, of course)
1/2 c. Unsalted butter (1 stick), chilled, cut into small cubes
2-3 Tbls. Ice water
3 c. Cold water, or as needed
3 ripe but firm pears (preferably Comice or Bosc. Bartlett pears don't have enough flavor to stand up to the rest of the ingredients), Peeled, halved, cored and tossed in a bowl with the juice of 1 lemon
1/2 c. Apricot Preserves, forced through a sieve
1 c. Walnut pieces

Whipped Cream:
1 c. Heavy Cream
2 Tbls. Sour cream (Yes, I know it's weird. Trust me.)
1 Tbls. Confectioners Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
1 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

4 Mint Sprigs

How to:
Tart
1) For starters, set a rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Then turn the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Mix the 2 kinds of flour in a mixing bowl along with the salt and 1 Tbls. of sugar. Using a pastry blender or pastry knife, cut the butter in to the dry mixture until it looks a little like oatmeal.

3) Start tossing the mixture with a fork (No, I don't want you to make a mess.) and add the ice water until the mixture barely holds together. Don't over-do it. We don't want it to be like a regular dough ball of it won't be flaky enough.

4) Gather the dough into a ball and flatten it into a round. Roll it out between two pieces of plastic wrap, wax paper, or parchment paper. We want the round to be about 12 inches across if you're using a 9-inch pan or 13-14 inches across if you're using an 11 inch pan like I did.

5) Peel off the top layer of wrap from the pastry shell and use a rolling pin to invert it over the tart pan. Make sure your tart pan has a removable bottom. It will make removing the tart easier by an order of magnitude. Remove the second layer of wrap from the pastry and fit the pastry snugly into the pan. The edge of the pan should easily cut off any pastry shell that sticks over the top to give you nice clean edges all the way around. Stick it in the fridge to chill while we work on the next few steps.

6) Now we have fun and kill two birds with one stone. Use a deep frying pan and put it over medium heat. Add the cold water and 1 1/2 c. sugar to the pan and stir them until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil to finish dissolving the sugar.

7) Once it's boiling, add the pears and lemon juice. Return the whole thing to a simmer and add water until it just covers the pears. We're poaching them. They should float just enough to not touch the bottom of the pan.

8) Bring the heat down to medium-low. We want to maintain the simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn the pears over about half way through. They should be almost tender when they're done. Transfer them to a cooling rack over a baking pan and let them cool. DON'T THROW AWAY THE LIQUID! Sorry about that. That liquid is prime pear flavored candy starter. That's our second bird. We'll get back to it later. For now, store it in a container (or two) and stick it in the fridge.

9) Pull the tart crust out of the fridge and spread most of the apricot preserves over the bottom of the pastry shell.

10) Slice each poached pear half crosswise into thin slices but maintain the integrity and shape of the pear. Transfer all six halves into the tart pan and arrange them radially with the stem ends facing the center.

11) Brush the pears with the remaining apricot preserves. Fill the spaces between the pears with walnuts.

12) Bake the tart until that crust turns a beautiful gold. It should be about an hour maybe 1 1/4 hours. Pull it out and move the pan to a cooling rack. Let it cool there until it's just warm. Remove the outer ring form the pan and slide off the base. Top it and garnish. I usually add nutmeg or cinnamon to the top along with the whipped cream and mint. Tart makes 10 servings from an 11 inch pan.

Whipped Cream:
1) Pull out your stand mixer and combine the cream and sour cream. Beat it with the whisk or paddle attachment until it starts to thicken. Add the powdered sugar at that point along with the vanilla extract and continue to beat it until you get to soft peaks. Easy, simple, and nice, full flavor that beats the stuffing out of any bottled whipped cream you care to name. Cover the whipped cream and refrigerate.


Pear Candy:
Remember that poaching liquid from the pears? Well, I'm still ironing out the kinks on this one, but it gives you some good sweets regardless. I've made two batches, the first was too gummy and didn't hold it's form but had a great pear flavor. The second held form better but the pear is significantly less potent. If you give it a shot, let me know. There's got to be a way to get the best of both tries. I'll let you know the next time I try it.

1) Well pull it out of the fridge and add about 1 c. of sugar. Butter the sides of a saucepan. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of a saucepan and pour the liquid in.

2)Heat it over medium high and stir frequently. We need to bring it to a boil . Once it's boiling, reduce the heat to medium and then heat it to the soft-crack stage (~290). It's going to take awhile so be patient and keep an eye on the thermometer.

3) Remove the pan from the heat and stir in whatever food coloring you want very quickly and pour the mixture into a pan that has been covered with foil and thoroughly buttered.

4) Let it cool until a film has formed over the top of the mixture and then use a broad spatula to press a line into the cooling candy. Continue inscribing lines 1/2 inch apart but do not break the film or you'll have to start over.

5) keep going over the lines until the candy has separated and holds it's shape. Once it's completely cool, store it on parchment paper. You should have 1/2 inch squares of candy. Lots of it. But it's goooooood.

So there we go. You can substitute and fruit you like on the tart. If you're using berries I wouldn't poach them, just coat them in sugar first or maybe preserves. Something to seal in the juices at any rate. Any fruit you poach like apples or peaches, make sure you keep the liquid for candy making later. There's no reason to throw out that beautiful liquid.

Tools:
Tart pan
Stand Mixer
Pastry knife
Spatula
Large saute pan
Saucepan
Aluminum Foil
Rolling pin
Parchment paper/plastic wrap
Cooling rack

Health Info:
Tart:
2 Starch servings
1 Fruit serving
1 Fat serving

Candy: (serving size: 5 pieces)
1 Starch serving


::Malloreth out::

Cream of Mushroom Soup

More Veggies! Oh wait, some of you aren't that fond of vegetables, are you. Oh well, you'll live. This comes out of Simple French Cooking but I tend to think of it as a more hobbitish dish. Yup, we're raiding Farmer Maggot's crop for mushrooms. Make sure to get small onions when it says small, otherwise you end up with more of an onion-y taste than is really appetizing. *raises hand* I made that mistake. It only gets stronger as time goes on. If at all possible, use absolutely everything fresh. If you want a really even and smooth texture, put it through a tamis at least once.

The Menu:
Seared Strip Steak with Lemony Couscous Tabboulleh
Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 banana
5 oz. Madeira



Ingredients:
1 lb. Small firm fresh mushrooms, brown works better than white.
1/4 c. unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
2 small shallots, chopped
1 small white onion, chopped. (Small means smaller than a baseball. Anything larger than that, I suggest only using half.)
1 white potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice ( I used a Yukon Gold)
2 c. Chicken broth
Kosher salt
1 c. Heavy cream
2-3 Tbls. Madeira wine, preferably imported (I used this.)
Freshly grated nutmeg
Freshly ground pepper
2 oz. Brie, rind removed and sliced into 10-12 thin pieces
Chopped fresh basil for garnish

How to:
1)Remember to brush off the mushrooms instead of rinsing them. Trim the stems and chop the mushrooms coarsely.

2) Melt the butter in a large saute or sauce pan over medium-low heat. Once melted, add the shallots and onion. Simmer those, stirring now and then, until they are translucent and soft but not browned. It should take 5-6 minutes.

3) Add all the mushrooms to the skillet and bring the heat up to medium. Saute the bunch, stirring and tossing it constantly until the mushrooms start to release their liquid. It should take 8-10 minutes but don't let the onions brown. If they do, it will give the soup a slightly burnt flavor.

4) Now add the potatoes, chicken broth, and some kosher salt until it tastes right to you. Simmer the entire concoction for 15-20 minutes, keeping it partially covered. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain the simmer.

5)Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool somewhat. Pull out the food processor (or blender. That's all we had.) and ladle some of the soup into it. Blend it until you have a smooth puree. Continue to add more of the mushroom mixture and blend until smooth. (At this point, put the puree through a tamis if you want an incredibly smooth and even texture.) Once all of the mixture has been pureed, put it back in the saucepan and add the cream.

6) Bring the heat to medium-low and almost simmer the contents of your saucepan. Don't let it boil though.

7) Add the Madeira until you like the flavor along with a little of the nutmeg and pepper.

8) Ladle into warmed bowls and top it with a few of your slices of Brie along with sprinkling some of the basil.

The Brie absolutely makes this. It adds a really nice counterpoint to the mushrooms and harmonizes beautifully with the Madeira. This was the first time I'd used Madeira and I'm hooked. I love the stuff. If you can, get something from Portugal since that's where it originated. Do yourself a favor and pour about an ounce while you're cooking. That way you know what it tastes like on its own. You might even like it that way.

They say it serves 4. I think we got 6-8 servings out of this. Scale it as you need to. The odds of buying cream of mushroom soup will probably go down considerably. This tastes nothing like the canned counterpart. It's richer and smoother with a lot more body to it.

Tools:
Food processor/blender
Large Saute pan/saucepan
Ladle

Health info:
2 veggie Servings
1 Fat Serving

::Malloreth out::

Seared Strip Steak with Lemony Couscous Tabbouleh

I don't really have a whole lot to say on this one. Make sure most of the herbs are fresh. They're going to form the base of the dish and function much like a salad. I'm pulling it from Fine Cooking again, but they don't have it reproduced on the website. So here we go.

Menu:
Seared Strip Steak with Lemony Couscous Tabbouleh
Mushroom Soup
1/2 banana
5 oz. Madeira

Ingredients:
6 Tbls. Couscous
6 Tbls. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Kosher Salt
2 New York Strip Steaks (1-1 1/2 lbs.), about 1 inch thick
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tsp. Ground Cumin
1 1/2 Tsp. Chopped fresh thyme
3 Tbls. Chopped fresh mint
3 ripe plum tomatoes (aka: Roma tomatoes), cored and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 c. Loosely packed chopped fresh Italian parsley (about 2 bunches)
4 Scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced (about 1/2 c.)
2 Tbls. Fresh lemon juice (more if you need it)
Warmed Pita Bread, cut into wedges

How to:
1) Turn the oven to 400 degrees. Boil 1/2 c. water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it's boiling, remove it from the heat and add the Couscous with 1 Tbls. EVOO and 1/4 Tsp. Kosher salt. This will give the couscous some flavor of it's own. Cover the saucepan and let it sit for 5 minutes. Once the time is up, fluff the couscous with a fork and transfer it to a plate to cool. Spreading it out will help it to cool faster.

2) During the 5 minutes before fluffing the couscous, start seasoning the steaks with 1 1/2 Tsp. of kosher salt and some freshly ground pepper.

3) Use a small mixing bowl to mix the cumin, thyme and 1 Tbls of mint. Rub that into the steaks on all sides.

4) Use a large bowl and add the tomatoes, 1 Tsp. kosher salt, and some freshly ground pepper. Now add the couscous, parsley, scallions, and 1 Tbls. mint to this mix and toss it well.

5) In a separate small mixing bowl, use a whisk to combine the lemon juice and 3 Tbls. EVOO. Add this to the couscous/tomato mixture and toss the whole thing thoroughly. Taste it to make sure you like it and add any lemon juice, salt, or pepper you think it needs.

6) Put a skillet big enough for both steaks over medium-high heat. Make sure it's oven-proof. This whole contraption is going to go in that 400 degree oven eventually. Once the pan is nice and hot, and I mean water-immediately-evaporates-when-sprinkled hot, add the last 2 Tbls. EVOO and the 2 strip steaks. We're just going to sear them here so they only get two minutes per side. We'll finish them in the oven.

7) Move the skillet to the oven for another 5 minutes to finish. This will give you a nice medium-rare. Add another couple minutes if you want them more cooked. Pull them out and transfer the steaks to a cutting board to rest for 5 minutes.

8) Warm the pita bread while you slice the steaks into thin strips. Sprinkle the meat with the remaining mint and serve over the tabbouleh. I put the warmed pita bread on the side but you could arrange it around the bowl if you want.

I really enjoyed this one. The entire meal hung together pretty well. This particular dish tasted light thanks to the lemon and mint. I got away with steaks 2 inches thick and still had a nice medium rare. You really do want to splurge on the higher quality meat here. It's featured on the platter and it will make or break the dish. It also has the benefit of taking care of most of the requirements for a meal. If you're using 1 lb. of meat, I'd say it serves four. 1 1/2 lbs. split it to serve six and add the pita bread accordingly. Generally, 1 piece of pita bread will be 2 starch servings.

Tools:
Whisk
Ovenproof skillet/saute pan
mixing bowls
small sauce pan with lid

Health Info:
4 Meat Servings
3 Starch servings
1 Fat serving
1 Veggie serving

::Malloreth out::

Slow-Sauteed Broccoli with Parmesan

Vegetables are all about cooking them enough but not overdoing it. Too often vegetables get overcooked and then not only are they mush, they start to reek and make the whole house smell bad as well. These will take a little while, but they're pretty good, although not the best for pairing with the shrimp and red chiles. It would go better with pork or beef.

Menu:
Shrimp with Red Chiles, Ginger, Garlic and Scallions
Slow-Sauteed Broccoli with Parmesan
Ultimate Dinner Rolls
Apple Juice

The ingredients and method can be found at Fine Cooking's web site available to anyone.

Once again I find myself with a disturbing lack of pictures. I apologize, I should have more pictures shortly for the dishes I'm talking about. They're taking over my computer anyway.

The dish serves four comfortably and really only consists of 2 veggie servings since the oil and cheese involved are minimal.

That's it for tonight.

::Malloreth out::

Shrimp with Red Chiles, Ginger, Garlic and Scallions

We're bringing back the heat with this shellfish dish. It goes best on a bed of sticky white rice both in terms of look and in terms of helping to put out the fire you'll be starting in your taste buds. But you know me, I like the heat. In fact, I'll probably increase the heat the next time I make it. I mean, it's only got three kinds of heat right now, why not go for a fourth or fifth to keep the flavor round? This comes courtesy of Fine Cooking but they don't have the recipe available online. The 101 Quick and Delicious Recipes issue is likely to leave the news stands as well.

Apparently, I went through a stretch where I forgot to take pictures. Sorry about that. Anyway, the menu:

Sticky white rice
Sauteed broccoli with Parmesan
Shrimp with Red Chiles, Ginger, Garlic & Scallions
Ultimate Dinner Roll
Apple Juice

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Kosher Salt
5 Tbls. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
2 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 fresh red hot chiles (fresno or jalapeno) seeded and thinly sliced
I used serrano chiles since I couldn't find fresnos. Serranos are hotter than jalapenos.
NB: Any time you seed peppers, use gloves. The capsicum will give you a chemical burn after a little while. It's a real pain when some of it gets under your fingernails.........at least so I've been told.......by a little birdie. Really.
1 Tbls Finely chopped fresh ginger
2 Bunches scallions (aka: Green onions) trimmed and sliced on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 Tbls Fresh lemon juice; more if desired


1) Pull out a big saute pan and put it on high heat for 1 minute. While the pan is heating sprinkle 1/2 Tsp. of the kosher salt over the shrimp.

2) Add 2 Tbls. of the EVOO to the heated pan and then immediately add the shrimp, garlic, chiles, and ginger.

3) Saute the whole batch, tossing it frequently. You'll know it's done when the shrimp have browned, or pinked as the case may be. (Uncooked Shrimp are gray to begin with.) Either way, they will no longer be translucent.

4) Move the whole batch to a plate and add another 2 Tbls. EVOO to the skillet along with the scallions and another 1/4 Tsp of kosher salt.

5) Saute those until they've wilted and started to go brown around the edges. It should only take about 2 minutes.

6) Add the shrimp back to the mix for half a minute and toss everything well.

7) Pull it off the heat and stir in the cilantro, lemon juice and that last tablespoon of EVOO.

8) Taste it one last time and make any adjustments to the seasonings that you think it needs.

9) Serve immediately

I sliced the serranos lengthwise for this, I suppose you could slice them crosswise if you wanted smaller chile bits in the mixture. I might try more of an Orange Ginger kind of sauce on this next time by substituting orange juice for the lemon juice here. We're looking at the same acids so it might work. I'll have to try it. The Broccoli with Parmesan didn't really complement here like I was hoping. It was too heavy. This needs a lighter kind of vegetable. Maybe something cold like coleslaw. I think the saute would work, but use a different vegetable. The whole recipe should serve 4.

Health Info:
4 Meat servings.
1 Fat serving.

::Malloreth out::

Cream and Tomato Sauce

Sorry, I missed yesterday folks. We're back to pasta. It's a quick easy sauce from The Encyclopedia of Sauces for Your Pasta that works well with stuffed types of pasta. So if you're a ravioli or tortellini fan, this one's for you.

Ingredients:
4 Tbls Unsalted butter
1 Small onion, minced
1 Stalk celery, finely chopped
1 Carrot, finely chopped
1 16 oz. can tomatoes
1 Tbls. Fresh basil
Pinch of white pepper
1/2 c. Heavy cream
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste

How to:
1) Heat a saute pan with the butter in it over medium heat. Saute the onions, celery, and carrot until the onions are transparent. I should only be 3-5 minutes. Keep an eye on them though.

2) Put the tomatoes into a blender and pulse it. Add the tomatoes, basil and white pepper to the sauteing vegetables.

3) Partially cover the concoction and simmer for about 30 minutes. To partially cover, I put the lid on cock-eyed, one side so the rim is below the rim of the pan and the other side hanging off the edge a bit.

4) Add the cream after the simmering is done and stir to blend the whole thing. Remove it from heat.

5) Pour it over the pasta and sprinkle with as much Parmesan as you like.

I might add Roasted peppers to it next time. The whole has a nice almost pink tone to it. All in all, a pretty good sauce.

Sorry for the lack of pictures this time.

::Malloreth out::

Pork Tenderloin Medallions and Apple Cider Sauce

Well, here's a first. Today we get to make a run to the local liquor store. We'll be cooking with alcohol. You may want to find a good liquor store near you since I'm not sure the local grocery store will carry Calvados (also known as apple brandy). It's a little more specialized than I recall most grocers being. A mid-range vintage will run you about $20-25. It'll last you a while though, so don't worry about it. Ask your local alcohol aficionado what they recommend. Usually, the better qualities will be imported from France.

I tend to go middle of the road. I want something that I can put in a snifter and sip after a meal sometimes rather than have it relegated to only being used for cooking. That's my bias though. I tend to try to do that any time I'm buying a new type of liquor. I can experiment later, but I don't want the worst up front. I know somebody who carries some in a hip flask during the winter in the Northeast. SO it's definitely suitable for drinking if you are so inclined. Please, don't try to treat it like Bud Light, though. It's got significantly more kick. We'll cook most of the alcohol off and be left with the aromatic qualities though. It's a really nice addition to the flavor.

The recipes are coming out of the October 2006 issue of Cook's Illustrated this time. You have to register with them in order to see the whole recipe but they have a 14-day free trial. I think it's worth it for the membership just for these recipes and the dinner rolls. As a result, I don't want to reproduce their recipes since they are available in an online format. Sorry, folks.

The menu:
Thick-cut Pork Tenderloin Medallions
Apple Cider Sauce
Endive and Mushroom Salad
2 Dinner Rolls
4 oz. Orange Juice



Ingredients:
Pork Medallions:
2 pork tenderloin (about 1 lb. each), trimmed of fat and sliver skin, cut crosswise into
1 1/2 inch pieces and tied with butcher's twine
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tbls Vegetable oil



Apple Cider Sauce:
1 1/2 c. Apple cider
1 c. Low sodium chicken broth
2 Tsp. Cider vinegar
1 Cinnamon stick
4 Tbls Unsalted butter (cut into 4 pieces)
2 large shallots, minced
1 tart apple (Granny Smith works well), cored, peeled, and diced small
1/4 c. Calvados
1 Tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
Table salt
Ground black pepper.

It's almost impossible to go wrong with apples and pork. They just complement each other so well. The sauce would work pretty well with beef to, if you wanted to put it elsewhere. The serving size on the tenderloin is about three pieces. It doesn't sound like much, but it's plenty. You'll have enough for about 8 servings with this recipe anyway. It holds up well enough to reheating, but if you wan to use the left-overs elsewhere, feel free.

If you want to up the ante on this, you could also wrap the medallions in bacon and affix them with toothpicks rather than tying them off with butcher's twine. It's really important to keep them tied though as that will keep them tall which in turn keeps them moist on the inside.

Tools:
Large saute pan/skillet
Butcher's twine
Aluminum foil

Health info:
4 Meat Servings
1 Fat serving
1/3 Fruit serving

::Malloreth out::

Endive and Mushroom Salad with Mustard Dressing

Well, after the last couple of dishes, let's try something that doesn't take any heat at all, shall we? This salad has a bit of bite behind it from the mustard dressing and the endive. If you've been getting by on dried spices, this might change your mind, since it's a salad without lettuce. All the green is fresh herbs. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures today. Sorry.

So, out of Simple French Cooking:

Ingredients:
Salad
2 Belgian Endives
4 Green onions
1/2 lb. Small, fresh mushrooms. (probably Baby Bellas or Cremini mushrooms)
1 bunch radishes, trimmed and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick.
1 bunch watercress, carefully rinsed and tough stems removed
1/2 c. coarsely chopped mixed fresh herbs (basil, tarragon, dill, mint, or Italian Parsley. Use any combination you want.)

Dressing:
2 Tbls. Red-wine vinegar
1/8 Tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

How to:
1) Rinse everything except the mushrooms. Brush those off. Go over everything for damaged leaves and remove those as well. We don't want to eat anything that's started to turn. This will work best with everything freshly bought that day. The watercress will turn fairly quickly so keep an eye on it after you buy it.

2) Cut the endives crosswise at about 1/2 inch intervals and discard the solid heart.

3) Trim the green onions and then slice them into 1 inch sections crosswise. Use all of it, the green tops and the white base. Slice each section into slivers lengthwise as well. Add both the endive and green onions to a large bowl.

4) Trim the stems from the mushrooms and then slice into 1/4 inch strips. Throw those in the bowl along with the radishes, watercress, and herbs. Toss everything to mix well.

Next up, the dressing:
5) Use a small bowl to combine the vinegar, salt, and pepper. Keep stirring until the salt dissolves. Adjust seasonings to fit your preferences.

6) Add the mustard and stir the mixture until well blended. Add the olive oil bit by bit while continuing to whisk so the emulsion stays blended. It should thicken a little. Taste it once more and adjust seasonings accordingly with salt and pepper.

7) Drizzle 3/4 of the dressing over the salad and toss the whole thing until well mixed. If you want more dressing, add it until it tastes right to you. This should serve four.

Simple, easy. Vegetarian, even. The watercress and endive bass will give it a different taste from most salads. Any herbs you add will modify the spiciness of the dish. Play with it. Find what works for you and remember the tastes of those herbs for future recipes.

Tools:
Whisk

Health Info:
2 Veggie servings
1 Fat serving

::Malloreth out::

Basque Chicken Stew

Today we're heading into southern France, the Basque region to be specific. Once again, if you're trying to keep your fat intake down, move along. This one is loaded with it. Extremely tasty as a result, but not for those on a serious diet. Moving along, we're once again using Simple French Cooking.

The menu goes something like this:
Basque Chicken Stew
Vegetable Soup
1/2 c. Orange Juice
5 oz. Chardonnay


Ingredients:
1 Red bell pepper
1 Green bell pepper
2 chicken breast halves, 2 thighs, 2 legs
1/4 lb. Thickly sliced bacon (Cut it into pieces 1/2 inch wide, easiest to do while partially frozen)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 yellow onion, cut into thin wedges
1 lb. small white boiling potatoes (Yukon gold or White rose), peeled and cut in halves or quarters, depending on size
1 lb Ripe tomatoes (peeled seeded and chopped)
2-3 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 stalk celery (cut crosswise into 4 equal pieces
1 1/2 Tbls All purpose flour
1/2 c Dry White wine, heated (I used a chardonnay. It was already open)
1/2 c chicken broth, heated
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Ground Cayenne pepper

How to:
1) We'll start with roasting the peppers so we can peel them. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees. Cut both peppers in half and seed them. Place them flat on a baking sheet. Let them cook in the oven until the skin starts to blister and blacken. Pull them out of the oven and cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil for 10-15 minutes. They should be cool enough to handle at that point. Once that happens, the skins should be loose. If you need to get it started, use a paring knife starting at one end to get between the skin and the pulp of the pepper.

2) Cut the peppers into strips about 1/2 inch wide. Set those to one side.

3) Skin the chicken pieces and remove the fat from them. Cut the breast pieces in half crosswise.

4) Heat a large saute pan over medium heat until it's hot. Cook the bacon until it is golden. It shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes. Use a soup spoon to transfer the bacon into a soup pot. After that, turn the heat for the saute pan to medium-low. Add the garlic and onion immediately. Saute the garlic and onion in the juices from the bacon until they're soft, about 6 or 7 minutes.

5) Once again, use the slotted spoon to transfer these to the soup pot with the bacon. Pull the saute pan off the heat (Keep the juices, we'll need them in a little while) and add the roasted peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes to the soup pot as well.

6) Create a bouquet garni using the herbs. We do this by bundling the bay, parsley, and thyme inside the four pieces of celery and tying it off with butcher's string. Make one end of the string long enough to hang over the pot's edge for easy retrieval. Add it to the pot.

7) Bring the saute pan back over medium-high heat. Put the chicken in the saute pan with the bacon grease after it's heated. Saute the chicken until it's started to brown, only 5-6 minutes per side. We're just searing them here. Put the chicken in the soup pot, bones and all.

8) Now we can pour off the fat from the pan, reserving one Tbls which we add to the soup pot.

9) Turn the heat under the soup pot to medium. Add the flour to the pot and stir until it's blended with the juices already there. Cook and stir for 1 minute, then add the heated white wine and heated chicken broth. Keep stirring the mixture and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. These carmelized bits are where a lot of our flavor is hiding out so we want those mixing around with everything else in the pot.

10) Keep cooking until the broth starts to thicken. It should only take about 2 or 3 minutes. Ladle the sauce over the chicken, we still want to mix the flavors up some more.

11) Time to spice. Add Cayenne, black pepper and kosher salt until the taste is where you want it.

12) Cover the pot and bring it up to simmer. Back off on the heat to keep it barely simmering while covered for the next 25 minutes or so. The juices will increase and give us a better broth.

13) We're still not done cooking this beast. Rearrange the chicken and veggies in the pot, cover it again and keep simmering everything until the chicken is tender. It will probably be another 20-25 minutes. You'll know it's done when the chicken is opaque all the way through.

14) Take one final taste and adjust the seasonings to your palate. Remove the bouquet garni and transfer all everything to a warmed serving dish and serve it up.

Other Thoughts:
I love the roasted pepper in this. I might look for some orange peppers to change up the colour scheme a little bit. Maybe find something else green to liven things up. Zucchini pr carrot shouldn't change the hearty nature of the dish too much. The recipe says it serves four, but that must have been a really small chicken. We get 6-8 servings out of it. The serving sizes make it a dish best used with company because it really doesn't keep that well. That lovely broth is, after all, composed of all the juices that have a leaked out of our meats and vegetables with a little bit of wine and yet more chicken broth to fortify the flavors.

Oh, do yourself a favor, order the bacon from a butcher. You want it lean, and you want find that in a pre-packaged batch from the grocery store. Trust me, I've looked. It doesn't matter how good it looks in the part you can see. I might try some sage or rosemary in the bouquet, just to see what it adds to the flavor mix.

Tools:
Soup Pot
Saute Pan/Skillet
Slotted Spoon
Butcher's twine

Health Info (Assuming 6-8 servings):
4 Meat servings
2 Veggie servings
3 Fat servings
2 Starch

::Malloreth out::

Vegetable Soup with Tomato Basil Sauce

Sorry I'm late. We had a thunderstorm last night and unplugged the computer since we had lightning striking a little too close for comfort.

Here's one that looks vegetarian, except that it isn't. The chicken broth takes care of that. If you want to make it vegetarian, use vegetable broth instead, although you'll probably lose some of the richness in the flavor. Simple French Cooking says this serves four. For me, it served eight.

The menu:
Halibut with Hollandaise sauce
Vegetable soup with Tomato Basil Sauce
Ultimate Dinner Roll

Ingredients:
Soup
1 lb. ripe tomatoes
1/2 bunch large leaf spinach (~1/2 lb.)
2 Tbls. Olive oil
1 Yellow onion (1/4 inch dice)
1 lb. Russet potatoes (1/2 inch dice)
3-4 carrots (peeled, cut into 1/2 inch dice)
2 Tbls coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley
Leaves from 3 fresh oregano or marjoram sprigs
6 c. Chicken broth (more if needed)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 small zucchini
1/2 lb. green beans (trim and cut to 2" lengths)

Tomato-Basil Sauce
2 ripe tomatoes (~1/2 lb.)
1/4 Tsp. Salt
2 Cloves garlic
2 c. tightly packed fresh basil leaves
2 Tbls. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Freshly ground pepper

How to:
1) First we have to core, peel, and seed the tomatoes. Coring should be self explanatory, seeding I've gone over before. To peel a tomato, incise an X in the bottom of the tomato. Boil some water and drop each tomato in for about 30 seconds. Remove from water using a slotted spoon and start peeling from the X. The peel should come off easily.

2) Coarsely chop the tomatoes and set them aside.

3) Thoroughly rinse the spinach (this should be done with all fruits and veggies that we don't peel anyway). Peel any of the old or damaged leaves from the bunch; we don't want to eat those anyway. Remove the stems. We really only want the tasty leaves. Yes spinach is tasty, as long as it's not canned. Canned spinach is frequently overcooked and has lost most of it's flavor, anyway. Stack the leaves and cut them crosswise using your chef's knife (yes, that's the big one) into 1/2 inch strips. You should have approximately 2 c. of spinach leaves once you've finished. Set those aside as well.

4) Grab your soup pot and put it on the stove over medium-low heat. Odds are, any saucepan you have isn't big enough. I know mine aren't. Add the olive oil to warm it. Once the olive oil is hot, add the onions. We want to carmelize them a little by sauteing. Stir them occasionally to ensure even cooking until they're translucent. It should only take 6-8 minutes.

5) Add the chopped tomatoes, diced potatoes, carrots, chopped parsley and oregano or marjoram. Just let that steam for 4 or 5 minutes, then add the 6 c. chicken broth and season with salt and pepper.

6) Bring the heat to medium and leave it until the pot starts to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and just let it simmer until the potatoes and carrots are almost tender. It should take 15-20 minutes.

7) While the soup is simmering, make the Tomato-Basil Sauce. Once again, we'll core, peel and seed our tomatoes.. Cut them into small pieces and set them aside. Put salt and garlic cloves into a food processor. (I use one of these since I don't have a real food processor.) Process until the garlic is coarsely chopped, then add the basil leaves. Continue to process it until a coarse puree forms (It shouldn't be completely smooth, but neither should there be any large chunks.). Add the tomatoes to the mix and continue to process, this time taking it all the way to a smooth puree. Add the EVOO and add pepper until it tastes right to you. Continue to process to blend in the pepper and oil. Taste it one more time and adjust the seasonings as desired. Throw it in the fridge while we finish the soup.

8) Once the vegetables are almost tender, add the zucchini and green beans to the pot. If you need to, add some more broth, just enough to cover the vegetables. Bring it back to a simmer and let it simmer for another 8-10 minutes.


9) At this point, we add the spinach and let it simmer for just another minute or 2. We want it to start wilting. Taste the soup and adjust your seasonings.

10) Ladle into warmed bowls and garnish with a spoonful of the tomato-Basil sauce.

You can substitute other vegetables into this as you like, turnips, eggplant, cauliflower. Whatever you happen to like. You'll just have to make sure you add it with similar types of ingredients. Turnips would go in where the potatoes or carrots did, eggplant would be added with the zucchini. That kind of thing.

the tomato-basil sauce really makes the dish. It adds a lot of flavor and kick to the soup. If you're not going to use the sauce, I'd add more in the way of spices to enhance the flavor. The book says this will serve 4. It lasted me about 4 days. So I would say that you'll get about 8 servings out of it.

Keep the sauce in the fridge. You should be good for about 2 days before really starting to check it. It will start to lose some of its potency after that. Try adding it to other things though. Top your eggs with it, put in toast, dip tortilla chips into it. It's not spicy, just has a lot of flavor. No reason to let that go to waste.

Tools:
Food Processor
Soup Pot
Slotted Spoon

Health info:
2 Veggie servings
1 starch serving
1 meat serving (unless using vegetable stock)

::Malloreth out::

Halibut with Hollandaise

Those of you who are looking for something No Fat should look away now. Today, we've got one of the mother sauces of French cooking, Hollandaise. I'd never had a hollandaise sauce before this and it was kind of intimidating. I'd always heard that it was on the harder side. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded in this case. Not only that, but I'm not generally fond of fish. Although I'd discovered a liking for halibut when making a plum-pepper glazed halibut before. (It's not posted because I don't have pictures. I'll post that one up the next time I make it.) Once again, I'm pulling from Simple French Cooking.

The menu for the night:
Halibut with Hollandaise
Vegetable Soup
Ultimate Dinner Roll

Ingredients:
Halibut:
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 lb. Firm, fresh mushrooms
4 Halibut fillets (~ 6oz. and ~ 1 inch thick)
1/4 c. Dry white whine
Salt and Freshly ground pepper

Hollandaise:
3 Egg yolks (Room temp)
1 1/2 Tbls. Fresh lemon juice plus more if desired. (You should only need one lemon if you want it really fresh.)
3/4 c. unsalted butter, cut into slices 1/4 inch thick. (Room Temp.)

Garnish:
Chopped Italian Parsley


How to:
1) Pre-heat the oven to 425 with a rack in the center position.

2) Butter a flame proof rectangular baking dish (I use glass) big enough to hold all 4 fish fillets in one layer. Cover the bottom evenly with the shallots.

3) Brush off the mushrooms to remove dirt. Do not rinse. Rinsing them will reduce their flavor as they absorb some of the water. Slice the mushrooms about 1/4 inch thick and layer those over the shallots in the baking dish.

4) Remove the skin from the fillets. Rinse the halibut fillets and pat them dry. Paper towels are preferable for this task. Now lay those on top of the mushrooms.

5) Add the wine to the baking dish. I used a chardonnay since I had it on hand and I like other whites better for drinking. Add salt and pepper to fit your tastes. As always, I'm using kosher salt.

6) Bake until the fish is opaque all the way through if you prick it with your knife. It should only take about 10 or 15 minutes.

7) While the fish are in the oven, we'll make the hollandaise sauce. Put the egg yolks and lemon juice in a heatproof bowl. I use a stainless steel one. Place the bowl on top of a sauce pan with some simmering water in it. The bowl should not touch the water. Congratulations! You just made your own double boiler without having to spend any extra money. Then whisk the egg yolks continuously until they start to thicken. It should only take about 1 minute. Now add the butter 1 slice at a time while still whisking. Add the next slice once the previous one is melted.

8) Keep whisking the sauce until it thickens. It should only be 2-3 minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK IT. Remove the bowl from the pan of hot water and continue whisking it to cool it down some. We don't want it to overcook from internal heat. Partially cover the sauce to keep it warm. Keep the hot water in the saucepan.

9) When the fish is done, pull it from the oven and drain the liquid into a separate saucepan. That saucepan will go over high heat in order to reduce. Boil it until only half the liquid remains. It should take about 3 minutes.

10) In the meantime, pre-heat your broiler. Once the liquid in the second saucepan has reduced, bring the bowl with the hollandaise back over the simmering water in your first saucepan. Start whisking again and add some of the reduced liquid to the hollandaise 1 Tbls at a time. We only want to thin it out a little bit. It should only take 2 or 3 Tbls. Season the hollandaise to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

11) Drain the baking dish with the fish one more time and spoon some of your hollandaise over the halibut. Throw the baking dish back in the broiler for a minute or two, just until the hollandaise browns a little bit. It should look a little lighter than this:

Use a spatula to transfer a fillet and the mushrooms under it to a plate. Sprinkle with some of the chopped parsley and a little more hollandaise if you want to.

That's it. It's gorgeous, relatively easy and sure to impress company. If you want, you can add some other herbs to the hollandaise for a slightly different flavor. The essence of white wine and halibut flavors the sauce nicely though. It also makes it a great compliment for whatever wine you used in the dish. Just pour a glass for yourself for dinner as well.
Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing.

Health Info.
6 Meat servings
1 Veggie serving
~2 Fat servings

Bon Appetit!!

::Malloreth out::

Honey Wheat Bread

Here's something that everyone buys constantly. It's easy, and because of the long rising times, easy to set up in order to bake while we're all at home. I go through about a loaf a week right now between sandwiches and morning toast. This bread is really a sandwich bread and as a result is a bit denser than most bread that we're used to buying. One thing I realized in starting to make my own is that most of the bagged bread bought at a store is probably two or three days old when you buy it. At least, it isn't until that far along that the bread I make starts to taste like the store bought stuff.

I haven't done anything fancy to it yet, just plain old wheat bread. I'll try something fancier later. I love bread, it was one of the larger adjustments I had to make as a diabetic. I couldn't go to a restaurant and eat half of the crusty loaf they'd put out. In fact, I can't really touch it at all if want to eat most of what I order. Especially at an Italian restaurant. Bummer.

The basic recipe is coming out of How to Cook Everything. I use a stand mixer. He recommends a food processor, but I don't own one. There are a few small changes when using a food processor so don't follow this explicitly if doing so. Don't use a hand mixer. You'll burn it out. It's not worth it; spend the $200.00 on a decent stand mixer in its place.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/4 c Whole wheat flour
2 tsp Kosher salt
1 1/2 Tsp instant yeast (Alternately, one packet. I'm going through it fast enough that I bought a jar though)
2 Tbls Honey (Add more if you so desire. Start with this as a base and then add more to your desired sweetness)
2 Tbls butter (Unsalted, of course, preferably at room temperature)
Butter or non-stick spray for greasing the pan
Scant 1 1/3 c cool milk (Whole or 2%. It makes a difference on the consistency of the bread. Let the milk sit for a little while. You're best off if it's about 70 degrees instead of straight out of the refrigerator)

How to:
1) Mix your flours well. Use a food processor if you want it fast and even or a spoon and clean hands. When using a stand mixer, put in half the flour and reserve the other half. Add all the other ingredients to the mixer and combine on Slow (or the lowest setting you have. On the KitchenAid I use, that's a 2.) using the beater or paddle attachment.

2) Slowly add flour from the other half until it's become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides but still sticks to the bottom. It should still be a little bit tacky to the touch but shouldn't generally stick to your finger.

*Note* Somewhere in the time while you're adding the flour, the tone of the motor will change. This means it's starting to really work and I change out the paddle for the dough hook.

3) Lightly flour the work surface so the dough doesn't adhere to the counter and knead it by hand for one minute.

4)Grease a large bowl and form the dough into a ball. Place it in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel. As the song says, "Store it in a cool, dry place". Make sure there aren't drafts. It should look something like this:









5) Let it rise for at least 2 hours. It should have doubled in size and look something like the following:


6) Now comes the fun part. Punch the dough down. Yes, punch it. Not that hard! It is a glass bowl after all. Do you really want all that glass in your dough? Thought not.

7) Reshape the dough into a ball and just let it rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.
Throw a clean towel over it while it's resting. Grease the loaf pan while you're waiting.

8) Lightly flour the work surface again and spread the dough out into a rectangle. Fold the short sides of the rectangle over until they meet in the center and pinch it closed. Now flip it over and tuck the new short ends in so the loaf fits in your loaf pan. Use the back of your hand to make sure the loaf is seated firmly in the loaf pan.

9) Once again we move it to a cool, dry place, cover it with a towel and let it rise for another 2-3 hours. We want the loaf to rise until the top is even with the top of the loaf pan.

10) Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

11) Brush the top of the loaf with water. This will keep the top form burning and let the whole loaf bake evenly. At this point, I pull out a knife, slit it down the middle lengthwise and drizzle honey down the slit. Bake it about 45 minutes. The bottom should sound hollow when you tap on the pan and have an internal temperature of about 200 degrees.

12)Turn the loaf out of the pan and let it cool on the cooling rack.

Always take the first slice while it's still warm. Bread is never better than fresh from the oven. I generally slice it about half an inch thick. You can go thicker if you want, but I find that to work well.

From here, you're options are virtually limitless. Add chilies, or fennel, oats, or rye. Keep in mind the consistency you'll want the dough at after the first loaf and try to keep it there when adding ingredients. There's a lot of things I want to try with this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. But hey, at a loaf a week, I've got lots of chances to experiment.

Health Info:
1 slice = 15 carbs or 1 starch.

::Malloreth out::

Broiled Ham Steak with a Sweet & Spicy Rosemary Glaze

Hey all. Sorry I missed yesterday. I'll try to get 2 up today to make up for it. This dish should be really quick to prepare. I used it to go with various leftovers that we had.

The full meal:
Broiled Ham Steak with a Sweet and Spicy Rosemary Glaze
Raw veggies from our Vegetables with 3 Sauces dish
Pasta with Butter Garlic Sauce

They say this serves two. I say it serves four. Definition of serving sizes and all. This is going to cook really fast, so make sure you have all your prep done early. That shouldn't take above 10 minutes though. We're working out of Fine Cooking again. Unfortunately, this recipe isn't available on their site.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ham Steak (1/2-3/4" thick) If it's thicker, just slice it in half through the side.
1/3 c. Orange marmalade
1 Tbls Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 Tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 Tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp. Soy sauce
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes (Cayenne)

Fresh rosemary will help her, but the biggest effect will be in the quality of cider vinegar that you use. America's Test Kitchen recommends Spectrum Naturals unfiltered cider vinegar based on taste and aroma. Not the cheapest thing on the market, but reasonably priced. Trust them, you don't want the cheapest one on the market. Especially not when it's only a buck or two.

How to:
1) Turn on the broiler, if you have an electric oven, make sure the rack is only about 2-3 inches from the heating element.

2) Make sure you pat the ham dry with a paper towel. Any excess moisture will slow the cooking time and reduce our finish on the glaze. We want this one as dry as we can get it, initially. The ham will release some of it's juices and the glaze will carmelize to seal them in so don't worry about ending up with a bone dry piece of meat. Put the ham on the broiler pan

3) Before it goes in the broiler/on the grill, heat a saucepan. Combine the marmalade, vinegar, rosemary, mustard, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. Heat them until you get a simmer going over medium heat. Cook them there while whisking for about 2 or 3 minutes. Keep it warm and brush the ham on one side.

4) Toss it in the broiler for about 5 minutes. Really, just until the blaze starts to bubble and brown. That's your Done symbol. We're going to pull it out, flip it over, brush the other side and throw it back in for another 4-5 minutes.

That's it. It's done. Stick it on a plate (preferably warmed) and serve. There's a lot of flavor in this and the fresh rosemary makes more difference than you would think (At least, it does if you don't generally cook with fresh herbs). This makes for a great weeknight meal because it's so fast. The glaze would probably work really well on a chicken too. With the orange flavor coming through on the marmalade, you'll want a white like a gewurtztraminer of a riesling if you drink wine. The dish is kind of sweet so you'll likely want the veggies to be more on the savory side with this. Round out the palate and really make all the flavors work for you.

Tools:
Pastry brush
Whisk

Health info:
4 Meat servings
1 Fruit serving


::Malloreth out::

In Which I Examine What Is Meant By "Healthy"

Those who have been reading this have probably noticed the Health Info section at the bottom of each post. I'm not real big on calorie counting or counting grams of fat, but I have to watch the carbohydrate intake. It's just the curse of being diabetic. I received the information I'm using from a registered dietician at the hospital I was at. If anything doesn't match what your doctor is telling you, always go with your doctor. Everyone is different, these are what works for me and how my body responds.

One of the crazy things about this diet is that I'm losing weight. Not that there's much to lose, but still. Before I went into the hospital, I was 5'9 1/2" and 155 lbs. Now, I weigh 139.5. So I'm pretty trim. Part of that is that I walk for 20-45 minutes a day. Doing my grocery shopping can qualify, so it's not like I have to go way out of my way for the exercise, it's just a matter of consistency. The other side is that I dance, not as much as I'd like, but I'll talk about that later. All of which gives the lie to the American Fad Diet industry, doesn't it? You've seen how much butter and cream I use in cooking. I still lose weight, so maybe fat isn't the only issue.

I'm beginning to think the issue has more to do with serving size and the amount of carbohydrates we take in is a more of a problem than the fat content. The body has too much fuel. SO what does it do; store it for a rainy day, of course. Check out this book for some scary numbers. When was the last time you had fastfood? Here's a pretty basic breakdown for a typical McDonald's meal (I use them only because they are ubiquitous. They aren't alone):

	Carbs	Fat
Quarter-pounder	40	18
Medium French Fries	46	17
Medium Soda	58	0

Now here's the kicker: That was 2.5 meals right there. The soda alone was a full meal unto itself in terms of carbohydrates. To eat healthy on a 2000 calorie diet, we're supposed to have 60g of carbohydrates per meal, split between Starches, Fruits, and Milk. Here's it's all starch and we're waaaaaay over budget.

What about Subway? The so-called "healthy choice?

6" Subway Club

47

6

The soda will be the same as above and potato chips aren't that different from french fries. It didn't get a whole lot different, did it?

Like I said at the beginning of this experiment, I felt like I couldn't eat anything. For obvious reasons, it would appear. Much of what I had thought of as "healthy" really wasn't.

So what should a healthy diet look like? I tall goes back to the Food Pyramid most of us learned about in grade school. It breaks down about like this:

	Starch	Fruit	Meat	Milk	Fat	Veggies
Breakfast	30g	15	0	12g	5g	0
Lunch	30g	15g	2 oz	12g	10g	10g
Snack	15g	0	0	0	0	0
Dinner	45g	15g	4 oz	0	10g	10g
Evening snack	15g	15g	0	12g	0	0

I know it doesn't look like much, but you've seen the full meal plates I have. They're pretty full and I don't usually want more. A couple of other notes:

1 Starch serving = 15g
1 Meat serving = 1 oz
1 Fruit serving = 15g
1 Milk serving = 12g
1 Veggie serving = 5g
1 Fat serving = 5g

That should help with reading most labels. My meals usually look something like the following:

Breakfast: English Muffin or Scone, 4 oz. juice or a piece of fruit, 1c. milk, 1 oz. Ham or 1 egg.

*Yes, I added a meat serving. The nutritionist said it was a good idea to have something other than carbohydrates with breakfast because it helps the body to regulate the release of the broken down sugars.

Lunch: Sandwich, 1 piece of fruit, carrots, celery or broccoli (usually raw), 1c. milk, 1 Tbls. salad dressing

Snack: 1/2 granola bar, 1 fig newton or 1/4c. granola

Dinner: These you're seen several examples of.

Evening Snack: Fruit, 1/4c. granola, 1/2c. Yogurt. (unless I've made a dessert)

Again, all of this is based around a 2000 calorie diet. However, you should begin to see why I can eat what I can for dinner. As long as I stay within the overall guidelines in terms of how much I intake, I'll be okay. It's all about portion control here. Nothing is off the menu as long as it's in proper quantities. That's where my freedom lies. There are some games you can play around holidays. Combine lunch and dinner since I'll only eat once at about 3 o'clock. Split the insulin dosage to before the meal and once halfway through it. That sort of thing. I've already talked with my doctor about how to approach that hurdle. But I'm not worried about it.

There are a couple tricky points. Some vegetables count as starch, not as veggies. Things like Potatoes, corn, peas, beans, and winter squash. Alternately, cheese counts as a meat, not a milk. Most fruit comes conveniently packaged so that 1 piece of fruit = 1 serving. Except bananas. 1 banana = 2 servings. Strawberries, I get a whole 1 1/4 c. of whole berries. Good times.

Unfortunately, I've never had a smoothie. Never will now. Can you even imagine what one of those things would do to me? *shudder*

As for the dancing, I love it, it's fantastic. It drops my blood sugar by 100 pts. within 1/2 hour of stopping. This means I have to be careful, because I can crash and burn really fast. At that activity level, my body processes insulin and sugar like most everyone else. Seriously. It's a wonderful thing. But all of my adjustments for medication go out the window. Normally, I'm supposed to adjust for every 50 points over a 150 reading. Not when I'm dancing. A healthy reading is between 70 and 110 before meals and around 140 after meals. My doctor is comfortable as long as I'm below 180 after meals. To give you some idea, my reading in the middle of a 3 hour stretch of low energy dancing (Scottish Country) was over 200. 1 hour after we stopped, I was just over 100. Not too bad.

A healthy diet for me isn't really any different from a healthy diet for anyone else, I just have less room to splurge and the consequences are little more severe. I don't mind. You've seen how I eat. *grin*

::Malloreth out::

Orange Yellow Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Two full meals down, time for another dessert. We're going back to Better Homes & Gardens for the cake. The frosting comes out of How to Cook Everything. Right out of the chute, I made some changes to this recipe. The recipe is for a double layer cake cut into 12 slices, but that is way too many carbs for my comfort. So I reduced it to a single layer and cut it into 8 or 10 pieces. I made some other changes too, but I'll get to those a little later. The orange and lemon complement each other really well here. I topped it with strawberries since I had them on hand. Just trying to give it some visual panache.


Ingredients:
Cake:
2 1/2 c. All-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2/3 c. Butter or Margarine
1 3/4 c. Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 1/4 c. Milk
2 Tsp. Orange Peel


Frosting:
8 Tbls. Unsalted butter (softened)
4 c. Confectioners Sugar (aka: Powdered Sugar)
1 Egg yolk
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp. Lemon juice
1 Tsp. Lemon zest

You remember the Vanilla Sugar I told you that you could set up in the Vanilla Bean Syrup recipe? It's a good thing I did that because I was halfway through mixing the batter when I discovered that I didn't have any Vanilla. So I substituted the Vanilla sugar for the regular sugar and omitted the vanilla extract altogether. It worked beautifully. The cake was still moist and flavorful without having an overpowering vanilla taste. Then I ran to the store while the cake was in the oven to pick some up in order to make the frosting.

How to:
Cake:
1) Grease your 8 1/2 - 9/1/2 inch cake pan. Use a wrapper from the butter or spray on Pam. Your call. Flour the cake pans as well. We don't want the cake to stick. It should fall right out if we do this right. Set the pan(s) aside. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

*If you want a sheet cake, use a 13x9x2 inch baking pan.


2) Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. If you want to make it fast, use a food processor, otherwise, a bowl and wooden spoon work just fine.

3) Now we get to beat the butter. No, put away the stick. Pull out the handheld mixer or stand-mixer. Turn it on to medium or high and just beat the butter for about 1/2 a minute. Continue beating while you add the sugar and vanilla (or vanilla sugar) until well combined

4) Next we add the eggs one at a time and beat the mixture for 1 minute after each egg is added. Now we're going to take the dry mixture that we set up earlier and alternate adding that and milk to the butter/sugar mixture while continuing to beat it on a low setting. Only beat it until just barely combined after each addition. Stir in the Orange peel.

5)Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s).

6) Bake at 375 F for 30-35 minutes. You'll know it's done when you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean again.

*Every time you open the oven door to check on it, you'll add about 5 minutes to the cooking time. So let it be for the at least the first 30 minutes.

7) Put the pan(s) on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Tip the cake out of the pan. It should fall out easily. Let them cool all the way. Otherwise, it's just going to wreak havoc on your frosting and the cake will overcook. The frosting will just seal in the heat. Not good.

Frosting:
1) We're going to cream the butter. Again, use an electric mixer, either handheld or standing. I usually clean the bowl I used for the batter and then make the frosting while waiting for the cakes to cool.

2) A little bit at a time, add sugar while continuing to cream the butter between additions.

3) Stir in the Vanilla. lemon juice, lemon zest and the egg yolk. On the off chance that it's thin, stick it in the refrigerator to thicken. Add food coloring, one drop at a time if you want something other than white frosting.

4) Frost the cake once cooled. Decorate as desired.

*On the off chance that you have any frosting left over, use a pastry bag and tips to put frosting on a Nilla Wafer. Stack a second one on top. They are entirely too good. Rich, but the lemon gives it some pop. Probably something I'll use for a potluck at some point.

As you can see in the picture I tried to decorate it with strawberries. If you do this, try coating them with gelatin since they will continue to give off liquid and destroy your hard work in the decorating. In addition, the gelatin should help prevent the berries from molding. If you don't coat them, you only have about 3 days to eat the whole cake. We ended up tossing more than half of it because I didn't know to do any of those things. *wince*

Tools:
Handheld or Standing Mixer
Cake pans
Cooling rack
Pastry bags
Piping tips
Frosting spreader (usually longer than a butter knife with no edge)

Health Info:
2 Fat (at least)
~ 3 carbs (starch)

*There's not enough fruit here to count towards the health info on one slice.

::Malloreth out::

Pasta with Butter Garlic Sauce

One last time on this meal. This time, we're doing something that will take you as long as it takes the pasta to cook. Seriously. 10-15 minutes from nothing to the table. Quick, easy, must be carb based.

So the meal goes:

Chicken Breasts with Mustard Sauce
Pasta with Garlic and Butter Sauce
Vegetables with 3 Sauces
Chardonnay

This sauce will work best with ribbon or string forms of pasta. You know: farfalle (bowtie), linguini, angel hair, spaghetti, you get the idea. Pretty much everything here is staples so you can do this whenever you want to.

Now, some of you are probably thinking, "Wait, pasta?!? I didn't think that was allowed for a diabetic." At the very least, some of my family members have told me they couldn't deal with diabetes because they couldn't give up pasta. Who said anything about giving up anything? As I've said before, it's all a matter of quantity. I still have pasta, quite regularly in fact. It's an easy starch that you can change the taste of in a heartbeat with a decent sauce. On that note, this sauce comes courtesy of The Encyclopedia of Sauces for Your Pasta. If you love pasta, you'll want this one. It's got close to 100 sauce recipes, many of them extremely quick, some of them needing nothing more than a food processor or blender.

Ingredients:
1 Clove of garlic (More if you want. How much do you like garlic again?)
3/4 c. of butter (Yes, that's a stick and a half. You can use salted butter if you want here. I don't, but you can.)
1 Tsp chopped parsley (I used Italian parsley. I had it on hand)
Grate Parmesan cheese if you want to.

How to:
1) First, prep everything. Grate your cheese, slice, crush or mince your garlic, and chop the parsley. It depends how much of that garlic flavor you want. The finer you chop the garlic, the more flavor gets released. My recommendation is to slightly crush it. I'll explain why later.

2) Throw the stick and a half of butter into the saucepan to melt it. If you pre-heat the saucepan, keep an eye on it so the butter doesn't burn. As soon as the butter is melted, add the garlic. Let it simmer for just a minute or two so the flavor infuses the butter. WE don't want to fry the butter. If it changes colour, it's gone too long. Overcooked butter turns brown. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Sometimes, I've done it on purpose. Ovecooked butter loses a lot of it's buttery flavor though so there's no point here.

That's it. The sauce is done. Pour it over pasta, add the parsley and toss to mix well. Serve it up, sprinkle the grated cheese over the top if you want to. For a more rustic feel, leave the garlic bits in the sauce. If you want it more refined put the sauce through a strainer as you pour over the pasta.

Notes:
Now for the reason I recommend slightly crushing the garlic. Put the sauce through the strainer and pick up the crushed garlic. See, garlic that's been cooked a little bit gets really soft. We're talking spreadably soft here. So toast some bread, preferably some crunchy French bread and toast it, oven, toaster, it doesn't really matter at this point. Now you've got garlic bread like you wouldn't believe to go with your pasta. *grin*

Pretty simple, huh? Yes, I know, I cheat. Deal.

Tools:
2 Saucepans
Wooden spoon

Health Info:
1c. Pasta usually equals 3 carb servings (starch)
1 Fat serving. (Hey, what did you expect with all that butter?)

Total Meal:
4 meat
3 Starch
2 Veggies
3 Fat

Hmmmm. I lost a fruit in planning the meal, and gained a fat serving. Oh well. Add a glass of orange juice or something. Some people might start thinking, "Oh no, You've gone over on Fat!!!" Meh. So what. The nice thing here is that Even eating like this, I'm losing weight. Walk for 20 minutes and adjust for your metabolism. Even so, every once in a while won't kill you. By once in a while, I mean once or twice a month, not a day. Just trying to be clear.

::Malloreth out::

Vegetables with Three Sauces

Welcome back to Diabetic Gourmet, folks! Thanks for sticking with us through this first week. Today we move back into Veggie Time.

Alright, alright, knock it off with bad 90's dancing. Hammer wasn't all that to begin with anyway.

If you'll remember, the meal we're working on now is as follows:

chicken Breasts with Mustard Sauce
Pasta with Butter Garlic Sauce
Vegetables with 3 Sauces
Chardonnay

Yes, I know that doesn't show the veggies. I'm getting to that. This is going to take you back to being a kid again, so I hope you like eating with your hands. We've got 6 different kinds of veggies and three different sauces so the odds are that everyone will find something they like.

This one also comes out of Simple French Cooking. We'll keep coming back to this until you're sick of it. Er, if you get sick of it. Everything is fairly diverse. I promise.

We've got a long list of ingredients and quite a bit of prep time but very little time on the rangetop for this one. So it's easy to set up ahead of time and just pull out when the time is ripe.

On to our laundry list of
Ingredients:
Pairing 1:
1 Fennel bulb (Stems and Bruised stalks trimmed)
3 Young carrots (about 1/2 lb. total weight, peeled and shredded)
1 Tbls Tarragon white wine vinegar
1/3c. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO, from here forward)
1/8 Tsp Salt (Again, Kosher)
Pepper

Pairing B:
1/2 lb. Young green beans (trimmed and cut in half if long)
1 Small head cauliflower (Cut into florets, large florets halved)
1 Tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbls Red Wine vinegar
1/3c. EVOO
Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground Pepper

Pairing Gamma:
1 slender English (or hothouse) cucumber
1/2 c. Sour cream
2 Tsp. Chopped fresh dill
1/2-1 Tbls fresh lemon juice
1/2 lb. Cherry tomatoes
Salt and Freshly round pepper
3 sprigs each of any 3 of the following fresh herbs: Tarragon, mint, dill, Flat leaf (Italian) Parsley, basil, or lemon thyme

How to:
!) Wash everything. Shouldn't need to be said, I'll say it anyway.

Do all your prep work up front. We'll make the sauces at the end, but they go together quick.

2) Start with the fennel. Cut the bulb lengthwise through the narrow side and then cut each half into 1/8 inch thick slices. Done with the fennel. Set it aside for plating later.

3) Next up, Take those nicely trimmed and halved green beans and stick them in a bowl. Add ice water until they're just covered. This will cause them to crisp nicely and make them crunchy. Now put those aside for about 15 minutes while we keep chopping, cutting, and shredding.

4) Fill a saucepan 3/4 of the way full and bring it to a boil. This is so we can blanch the green beans. Use a pair of tongs to move the green beans to the boiling water but keep that ice water on reserve; you're going to need it later. Boil the green beans for about 3 or 4 minutes, we're really just kind of waiving them near the steam to excite the juices and bring out some their natural flavor. Now, remember that ice water we just set aside? Pick up those tongs and transfer the green beans back to the ice water. We want to stop them cooking as fast as possible so they don't overcook and go soggy on us. Bring the water from the green beans back to boiling and drop the cauliflower into it. We just want them half-tender so it's only going to take 3 or 4 minutes. We like the veggies crunchy this time around. Drain the cauliflower and green beans, preferably not at the exact same time, and set them over by the fennel to cool.

5) Cut that really long cucumber in half the short way. It'll be easier to work with like that. We're supposed to peel it so I take one half and stand it upright, then take a paring knife and slice down the length of cucumber. It should be easy if the knife is sharp. Keep those fingers on the opposite side from the knife! We'd like them to stay attached to the hand, thank you. Quarter the cucumber lengthwise. Use your paring knife to cut out the strip with seeds in it, then cut the cucumber into strips about 2" long. Set those aside with all the other finished veggies.

6) First Sauce: Use a small bowl and whisk together the tarragon white wine vinegar, 1/8 Tsp Salt, and add pepper to fit your palate. A little bit at a time, add 1/3 c. EVOO while still whisking. Once it's well and truly blended, set it aside.

7) Sauce B: Grab a second small bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste, whisking all the while. Once again, add 1/3c. EVOO bit by bit while whisking to combine. Set the second one aside.

8) Sauce Gamma: Get, you guessed it, yet another small bowl. Yet, again whisk the sour cream, chopped dill, and lemon juice, then salt and pepper it to taste.

9) Time to plate and serve. If you want, you can put all the vegetables on a single dish as I did or you can pair the vegetables with the fitting sauces: shredded carrots and fennel with the tarragon vinaigrette, green beans and cauliflower with the mustard vinaigrette and the tomatoes and cucumber strips with the dill cream sauce. Garnish everything with the herb sprigs you picked up.

Notes:
Make sure you got Tarragon White Wine vinegar. It's not the same as adding fresh tarragon to white whine vinegar, at least, not that I'm aware. I'm partial to the dill cream sauce here. Next time, I might add some more dill to it but overall, I like it. I think the mustard vinaigrette needs more mustard. Like I've said before, I like things spicy. It goes for mustards as much as anything else. I might substitute Stone-ground for the Dijon just to see what it does. It might not work so well texture wise. I hadn't had straight fennel before. It's got a faint spiciness that is pleasant. The mix of colours make this a real eyecatcher too.

It's really important here to pull the vegetables out of the boiling water in a timely manner. We really just want to warm them through. Unless, that is, you like soggy vegetables?

*arches eyebrow*

I didn't think so.

Supposedly, this serves 4, but I think we ate from it for about a 3 days, not 2. It's a lot of veggies and 2 cups is more filling than you'd think. I'm pretty sure the yield here is more than eight cups of veggies. The prep is going to take awhile. It's probably beneficial to get quite a bit of it done a day or two ahead (like when you buy the produce) otherwise, this can take you about an hour. That's about how long I took. I've gotten faster since, though.

If you've got the spare cash, I'd recommend getting French Green Beans over the ones you're used to seeing. They're longer and thinner with fuller flavor than their more often found cousins. On the other hand, if you can't find the English cucumber, go ahead and use the more standard variety. It works just fine. Try to get a larger shred on the carrots. They said shred, so I did, very finely. This has the unfortunate effect of making them very hard to dip. But the shred makes for a nice visual and contrast with the rest of the vegetables. Maybe Julienne them if you're feeling contrary or adventuraous. Use any leftovers to top salads or put on sandwiches. Change things up a bit.

One last thing. Do yourself a favor and use fresh herbs; most grocers carry them. I know it's more work but they have quite a bit more flavor than their dried counterparts. Just sayin'.

Tools:
3 small bowls/serving bowls (for the sauces)
Tongs
Saucepan (~3 qt.)
Serving tray/dishes

Health Info:
2 Veggie servings (2 cups)
1 Fat (It's the olive oil and sour cream)

::Malloreth out::

Chicken Breasts with Mustard Sauce

Well, we've made it through one full meal plus a little bit and even a dessert. Time for the next full meal over the next couple of days.

So here we go:

Chicken Breasts with Mustard Sauce
Pasta with a Butter Garlic Sauce
Vegetables with Three Sauces
Chardonnay

This recipe comes out of Simple French Cooking. This was the first time I'd tried French food, It hooked me really fast. But hey, I had a new cookbook, what's the point if you don't try it out? You'll see a lot out of this book in the near future.
It's become more of stand-by than the Better Homes and Gardens or How to cook Everything I've been using. (You don't want to see the shelf of cooking books I've got now. Trust me.)

This dish marks the first time I've ever had a chicken breast that was still moist and juicy all the way through without any hint of overcooking. Definitely guest quality food here. I'm getting spoiled, but I probably shouldn't complain that restaurants don't look as appetizing as they once did. I probably won;t get any pity at all.

Ingredients:
4 Chicken breast halves (5-6 oz. If boned)
1 Tbls. Unsalted butter
1 Tbls Vegetable oil
Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground Pepper
3 Shallots, chopped
2 Tbls Dijon mustard
1/2 c. Heavy (double) cream
Chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

How to:
1) Trim any fat from the chicken breasts. Rinse and pat very dry with paper towels. One at a time, place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, roll across the thickest part of the breast to flatten to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch.

2) In a large, preferably non-stick saute pan or frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter with the oil. When foaming, add the chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Saute, adjusting the heat as needed to keep the breasts from releasing their juices, until golden and just tender, about 5 minutes on each side. To test for doneness, insert the tip of a sharp knife into the center of a breast; the juices should run clear and the meat should no longer be pink at the center. Transfer to a warmed plate and keep warm.

3) Pour off any excess fat from the pan and return the pan to medium-low heat. Add the shallots and saute, stirring, until translucent, 1-2 minutes. Add the mustard and cream, raise the heat to medium, and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the pan bottom. Cook, stirring, until thickened and blended, 2-3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

4) Return the chicken breasts tot the pan and turn the breasts over several times to coat them well with the sauce and to heat them through. Transfer to a warmed platter or individual plates and spoon the sauce over the breasts. Sprinkle with the warm chopped parsley and serve at once.

Notes:
First and foremost here, make sure you roll out the chicken. It's imperative that the thickness is the same all the way through. I know it's a bit of a pain, but the outcome is worth it. You won't believe the flavors here. I honestly can't think of any changes I'd make to this dish. Serve it with a white.

I love wine, but I'm usually a red kind of guy. When it comes to whites, Chardonnay is usually one of my least favorites, but this dish taught me to appreciate a decent chardonnay. It brought out whole other worlds of flavor that I hadn't had in a white before.

Pre-heat the saute pan. Otherwise, the chicken sticks and gets kind of stringy. Pre-heat in general unless something says specifically not to. I t makes things go a lot faster. And hey, if you're doing all the prep ahead of time, you haven't lost any time anyway.

Definitely, definitely heat the serving plates. It's amazing the difference it makes. A cold plate just sucks the heat right out of a dish and drops it from hot to lukewarm. At that point, the best a dish will be is good. And trust me, "Amazing" is soooo much better. It's something I've just taken to doing. Set the oven for 200 and drop some plates in during the last 15 minutes or so of cooking. Easy and doesn't take any time, just a little thought.

If you wanted to, you could mince some garlic and toss it in with the shallots, but I'm not sure that it would really add anything to the flavor. The flavors will generally mesh better if you're chopping is fairly uniform. Everything just cooks more evenly.

My prep time here was about 45 minutes, but most of that was in rolling out the chicken breasts. It was the first time in I don't know how long that I'd used a rolling pin so we had to get reacquainted. You could probably cut it to 20 minutes though and all of it could be done ahead of time. Cooking time is only about 20 minutes, including the sauce.

Tools:
Rolling pin
Wax Paper
Large skillet/saute pan

Health Info:
4 Meat servings
1 fat serving

::Malloreth out::

Mixed Berries with Vanilla Bean Syrup

Dessert time!

This one is coming from Fine Cooking. It's quick, easy, and sure to please. I know some of you might wince at the price of a Vanilla bean when you try to pick one up, but it's worth it. Yes, they're $7.00 per bean, but take whatever is left of the bean after the recipe, in this case, half a bean and the husk of the half you pulled the seeds out of and bury it in a separate tub of sugar.

Voila! You've got Vanilla sugar. (Thanks to Alton Brown for the tip) I'm a big fan of Good Eats on Food Network. In a later recipe I'll talk about using Vanilla sugar when I found I didn't have any Vanilla Extract in the house like I thought I did. That's what happens when you don't check for ingredients prior to actually starting cooking. Teach me not to do my mise en place. Oh well. That one turned out well too.

I used to think that being a diabetic meant that I couldn't have dessert anymore. Going back to that talk with the dietician, though; a healthy diet includes a fairly large evening snack. The result being that, in addition to this lovely dessert, I also got to have Hot Chocolate, slightly modified.

As far as ways to modify this go, Any fruit you want to use would probably work very well, from peaches to pears, apples, plums, or any combination thereof. Top it with homemade whipped cream and a sprig of mint if you want to spruce things up a bit. I'd just make the whipped cream while the Vanilla syrup is reducing.

They recommend martini glasses for serving and I'd have to agree. I don't have any on hand at this point but it was somewhat difficult to get the fruit our of these highball glasses.

For the Hot Chocolate, I heated 1c. of milk and stirred in 1 1/2 Tbls Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa and 1 1/2 Tbls sucralose (Splenda) in place of the sugar. That way the Hot Chocolate counts as one Milk serving instead of 1 Milk and 1 Starch Serving. I ended up with a balanced, luxurious dessert that still counts as healthy and fits within the recommended "Healthy Diet" (TM). Now I'm happy and the doctor is happy. How cool is that?

One other benefit to making hot chocolate in this way is that the milk gives it a richer flavor than the packaged instant stuff has. The closer you are to whole milk, the richer it's going to be. Eating "healthy" really isn't looking so bad. Once again, it's all about portion size and variety and a lot less about so-called "health food".

This isn't quite having my cake and eating it, too but it's close enough. I made the cake later, along with a tart after that. Things to look forward to.

Tools:
Small Saucepan
Bowl for tossing fruit and syrup

Health Info:
Mixed Berries w/Vanilla Syrup:
15g carbs (1 fruit serving) (about 1 c. of mixed fruit)
15g. carbs (1 starch serving) (from the Vanilla Syrup)

Hot Chocolate (made with Splenda):
12g. Carbs (1 milk serving)

Recommended Evening Snack (According to the handout from the registered nutritionist):
42g. carbs:
15 g. carbs (1 fruit serving)
15g. carbs (1 starch serving)
12g. carbs (1 milk serving)

We're still right on the money.

::Malloreth out::

Corn and Chile Souffle

And now for something completely different:

The Larch.

Oops! Sorry, wrong show.

Remember I said that roast lasts two people 5-6 meals? Well, rolls get boring after awhile, no matter how good they are. So I made a different dish to take care of the carbs. A the time I'd been thinking of this as a vegetable dish, but corn counts as a starchy vegetable. As a result it gets lumped in with breads rather than those vegetables most of us don't like: Brussell sprouts, asparagus, and so forth.

Once again, I'm pulling this from Better Homes & Gardens. What can I say; it's one of my stand-by cookbooks.

Ingredients:
1/4 c. Chopped onion
1/4 c. Finely chopped green or red sweet pepper
1 clove Garlic, minced
3 Tbls Butter or Margarine (I use unsalted butter)
3 Tbls All-purpose flour
1/8 Tsp Ground red pepper
1/4 Tsp. Salt (I used Kosher salt)
3/4 c. Milk
1 c. Shredded sharp cheddar cheese (4 oz. by weight)
1 8 3/4 oz. can Whole kernel corn, drained
1 4 oz. can Diced green chile peppers, drained
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites

How to:

1) In a medium saucepan, cook onion, sweet pepper, and garlic in margarine or butter until tender. Stir in flour, ground red pepper
and 1/4 Tsp salt. Add milk at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Add cheese and stir until melted. Stir in corn and green chili peppers.

2)In a medium mixing bowl beat egg yolks with a fork until combined. Gradually add corn mixture, stirring constantly; set aside.

3) In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites till stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Gently fold about 1 c. of the beaten egg whites into the corn mixture to lighten it. Gradually pour corn mixture over remaining beaten egg whites, folding to combine. Pour into an ungreased 1 1/2-quart souffle dish.

4) Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or till a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

Notes:
If you want it spicy, if you want to up the ante, use hotter peppers. When I made this, my eyes skipped right over the canned, diced hatch chiles in the pantry. So I grabbed the jalepenos that I saw in there. It still works. It's just got a bit more heat. As with any dish that has some kick behind it, the chiles continue to infuse the dish over several days. By the third day, it had a really good burn going.

I'd been planning on topping this with some salsa but decided to taste it before I started to doctor things. Wisely, as it turns out. This doesn't need any help in the heat department. It might be a good idea to make a tomato basil sauce to round out the flavor though.

In California, you'll probably want to use Ortega chiles, in New Mexico or Texas, you can find Hatch chiles. Hatch chiles have a little fuller flavor and tend to stand up on their own a bit better. If you're feeling adventurous and jalapenos just aren't hot enough, find some canned serrano or habenero chiles. Odds are, no one but you will be able to eat it, but in some ways, that's the cooks perogative. *grin*

Technique and Tool Notes:
Folding: Best done with a spatula. Basically, you insert the spatula near the middle of a mixture and turn over part of the mixture. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and do it again. It helps to prevent over-mixing.

Something to be really careful of when beating egg-whites, use a stainless steel bowl! I beat those suckers with a whisk for 45 minutes in a plastic bowl and got precisely nowhere. The only reason I was able to get them to congeal at all was that my lovely wife had the brilliant idea to pull out the stand-mixer and used the whisk attachment to beat the eggs. Lo and Behold! 5 minutes later we had achieved the peaks I was looking for. Make sure that bowl is stainless steel. Plastic or glass will just waste a lot of your time and give you a sore arm. They're great elsewhere, but not when beating egg-whites.

The second tool related issue: As you can see in the first picture, I used a glass pie-plate to bake this. It came out okay, and you can use one if it's all you have on hand, but it probably won't rise like a souffle is supposed to. What you want to have is a souffle dish. I haven't used it yet, but it's just waiting for the next souffle. As a result, this probably came out closer to a quiche but a bit lighter and fluffier. It tasted good regardless.

Tools:
Rubber spatula
Medium Glass mixing bowl
Large Stainless Steel mixing bowl
Souffle dish
Medium saucepan

Health Info:
1 meat serving
1 starch serving
1 Fat serving

::Malloreth out::

Ultimate Dinner Rolls

One more time with the full meal:

Citrus-Mustard Pork Roast
Braised Cauliflower with Curry and Tomatoes
Roasted Potatoes
Ultimate Dinner Rolls

These rolls are going to take a while to make. Most of it is unattended but you'll definitely need to plan ahead if you're making these. By that, I mean you need to start the day before you want to use them, if not two days before.

They're worth it though. Boy are they worth it. Dinner, snack, even breakfast if you want to. They pull apart beautifully and have a rich buttery taste all on their own so don't bother to pull out the butter dish when you serve them.

I mean it.

Put it away.

Okay. If you still want the extra butter after you've tried these, then you can go back for it, but I can pretty much guarantee that you won't need it.


I pulled this recipe from Cooks Illustrated. It's a magazine put out by America's Test Kitchen that I picked up recently and started subscribing to. As a result, the recipe is really easy to find.

It makes 2 9-inch pans worth, or about 16 rolls. Trust them on the refrigeration. It really does make a huge difference on the fluffiness and lightness of the end product.

That beautiful brown color comes from brushing the tops of the rolls with butter before baking. It really comes through in the taste too. It's not something that I'd have thought of although in retrospect, it seems perfectly obvious.

I don't have any changes to possibly make to this. Maybe if you wanted to change the flavors. Add some oregano or citrus peel. 1 Tsp at most though. It would just be experimenting though.

Tack:
Cooling rack
9" cake pans
rubber spatula
metal mixing bowl
glass bowl for rising

Health Info (per roll):
15g Carbs (1 starch)
1 Fat serving

So, comparing this to our healthy meal numbers we end up with:

3 oz. Citrus-Mustard Pork roast 4 Meat Servings (Remember, 4 oz. pre-cooked becomes 3 oz. cooked. I forget this often)
Orange sauce 1 Fruit Serving
1 c. Braised Cauliflower with Curry and Tomatoes 2 Vegetables + 1 Fat
1 full roasted Potato (4 quarters) 2 Starch
1 Dinner Roll 1 Starch + 1 Fat
_____________
4 Meat
1 Fruit
2 Vegetable
3 Starch
2 Fat

That looks an awful lot like:

Balanced Meal:
4 oz. Meat (pre-cooked)
45g carbs (starches)
15g carbs (fruit)
2 servings vegetables (1 c. cooked or 2 c. raw)
2 fat servings (~ 10g of fat)

*All meal numbers are based on a 2k calorie diet

::Malloreth out::

Braised Cauliflower with Curry and Tomatoes

Review of the full meal:

Citrus-Mustard Pork Roast
Braised Cauliflower with Curry and Tomatoes
Roasted Potatoes
Ultimate Dinner Rolls

Here's our first Veggie dish of the run. I don't know about you, but I was never too fond of veggies growing up. A lot of that is probably that my palate has changed, but part of it is also that recently I've found some vegetable dishes that are almost sweet. Those that aren't have enough kick that they hit my "spicy" button. I love things spicy. I'm one of those people that will go into a good Thai restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area (you know: the ones that it's hard to find anyone in that isn't Asian) and order something off the menu that's labeled as spicy and then tell the waiter or waitress that, "Yes, I really do want it spicy. I know what I'm getting myself into." This wasn't spicy enough to bring tears to your eyes, but it definitely fit the "savory" side of the palate spectrum.

I think it's worth a shot even if you don't generally like curries. I usually don't and still found this palatable. The great thing about cooking for yourself is that if you don't like it, you can change it next time!

This recipe is out of the How to Cook Everything cookbook. It's another one of my staples. Hey, I haven't made anything from it yet that I didn't like. That's got to tell me something. It's a curry but you won't find any curry powder in the recipe. No sir, we're making our own here. I used to think that curry was a specific spice. Now I know better and I probably won't buy curry powder again. It takes up precious space on my spice rack. *grin*

Ingredients/Feed:
2 Tbls butter, peanut oil, or other oil (I recommend peanut or sesame oil for Asian bases)
1 Tsp Minced Garlic
1 Tsp peeled and minced or grated ginger (Powdered doesn't touch fresh ginger. I've been missing out for years)
1 Tsp Salt (Again, I use Kosher salt)
1 Tsp Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 Tsp Turmeric
1/4 Tsp Cayenne pepper (add as desired)
1/2 Tsp Ground cinnamon
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1 Tsp Ground coriander
1 Tsp Ground cumin
1 head cauliflower (~1 1/2 lbs. trimmed of green parts and broken into florets)
1 c. Cored, seeded, and chopped tomatoes ( canned if you want, but don't drain them)
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. fresh or thawed frozen peas (Optional)
Minced cilantro for garnish

Trail Guide:
1) Place the butter or oil in a large deep skillet and turn heat to medium. When the butter melts or the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring until the garlic begins to color, about 5 minutes.
2) Add the salt and all the spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds, or until the spices release their aromas. Add the cauliflower, tomatoes, and water. Stir, cover, and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, checking and stirring every 3-4 minutes, until the cauliflower is almost tender, about 10 minutes.
3) Add the peas and adjust the seasoning. Cook until cauliflower is tender, then garnish and serve.

Notes: My prep time here was about 45 minutes, but if you're fast you can probably do it in 15-30. This is one of those dishes where you don't want to pre-heat the skillet. I'd hate to see someone add the oil and have the skillet too hot. By all accounts, this results in the oil bursting into flame. Not generally the best idea, although I'll probably get to some dishes where we get to play with flambeing for all the pyros out there. *big grin*

As you can see to the above, I didn't add the peas this time, maybe next time. I can also see carrots used here to complement the cauliflower and tomato.

I'm not generally fond of yellow curries, red ones being more to my taste. So I'll have to try pulling out the turmeric and using paprika instead. Definitely up the ante on the cayenne pepper. Like I said, I like things spicy.

This is going to make more than it looks like at first glance. It will serve 5-6 fairly comfortably, so if you want to cut it down, go ahead. Just be careful on the spices. We wouldn't want them to overpower the vegetables, after all.



Technique Notes:
Coring and seeding tomatoes: Anytime I saw this in a recipe, it used to scare me. In truth, it's incredibly easy. Cut the tomato in half, take one half and squeeze it over the sink until the seeds start to come out, Turn it 90 degrees and squeeze again. From there, take a paring knife and cut out the inner structure of the tomato. Easy-peasy.

This dish really belongs with something other than the pork roast. It would probably work really well with a lamb dish, probably something from India or China, possibly something Greek. The flavor just clashed a little too much with the orange from the pork.

While I can't say I love curries now, at least I don't dread them like I used to. That's a definite point in favor of this for your vegetable repertoire.

Tools/Tack:
10" skillet (at least. You'll probably want something larger though. Make sure it's got a lid.)
Chef knife
Paring knife
Wooden Spoon

Health info:
1 fat serving (from the oil or butter)
2 veggie servings per 1 c. of cooked veggies.

Balanced Meal:
4 oz. Meat (pre-cooked)
45g carbs (starches)
15g carbs (fruit)
2 servings vegetables (1 c. cooked or 2 c. raw)
2 fat servings (~ 10g of fat)

*All meal numbers are based on a 2k calorie diet

::Malloreth out::

Citrus-Mustard Pork Roast

First, here's the full meal:

Citrus-Mustard Pork Roast
Braised Cauliflower & Tomato with Curry
Roasted potatoes
Ultimate Dinner Rolls


Today I'll go over the main dish and cover the side dishes over the next couple of days. Something that's always bugged me about recipes is that they don't have a section to tell me what tools I need in order to make the dish. So, at the bottom of each post you'll find a list of tools needed for the dish. I'm going to assume you have things like measuring spoons and measuring cups. Something I suggest for every recipe is a set of holding dishes. I use little glass bowls that hold about 2 Tbls and some stainless steel bowls that hold about a 1/3 c. They just make things a lot easier when you need to add a lot of ingredients at once. The culinary folks call doing all the prep beforehand Mise en Place, I call it being prepared and it makes my life so much easier when the heat is on.

The recipe for the Citrus-Mustard Pork Roast is in the 1996 edition of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It's a pretty basic roast that you glaze with mustard, orange peel, pepper and salt.

Ingredients:
Roast:
3-4 pound Boneless Pork Top Loin Roast
2 Tbls Dijon mustard
2 Tsp Finely shredded orange peel
1 Tsp Finely shredded lemon peel (I zest 1 lemon and then juice it)
1/2 Tsp Pepper
1/4 Tsp Salt (I use Kosher salt)

How to:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2) In a bowl, stir together mustard, citrus peels, pepper, and salt
3) Untie the roast (your butcher probably tied it when you bought it), trim the fat. Spread Mustard mixture on roast (cover all sides). Retie roast. Place on rack in a shallow roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer. Roast in a 325 oven for 1 3/4 - 2 1/4 hours or until the thermometer reads 155. Remove from oven and cover with foil. Let the roast rest that way for 15 minutes. (The meat's temperature should rise 5 degrees while it's resting).


Notes:
It took me almost 2 hours on the nose to cook the roast.

As you can see here, I threw in 3-4 red potatoes, quartered. Toss them in 2 Tbls vegetable or olive oil. Throw a sprig or three of Rosemary and Thyme in the bottom of the roast pan and toss the potatoes into the pan. About 1 hour into the roasting process, take some tongs and turn the potatoes over.

This is a lot of food. It's great when you're going to have guests over but if it's just two of you, it will feed you for 5-6 days.

Orange sauce:
1 Tbls Dijon Mustard
2 medium oranges
Orange Juice
2 Tbls Cornstarch
2 Tbls Honey or Brown Sugar
2 Tbls Lemon Juice (Use zest of 1 lemon for the glaze and then juice 1 lemon)
1/4 c. Dry White whine or orange juice (Chardonnay or Suvignon Blanc work well)

How to:
Peel and section oranges over a bowl to catch the juices. Add enough orange juice to equal 1 cup. In a saucepan, stir together mustard, orange juice, cornstarch, honey and lemon juice Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Gently stir in orange sections and wine. Heat through. Serve sauce with meat.

Notes:
I start the sauce in the last 10 minutes of cooking since it only takes 10-15 to make and then it's fresh for topping. The roast will need to rest for 15 minutes anyway, so we've got the time.




Once the roast is done resting and the sauce is warm, carve and top.










I thought the roast itself went over pretty well, but I overcooked it a bit. It's going to need to cook for 2 hours, maybe more. At any rate, make sure you pull it once a thermometer registers 155 degrees. Otherwise it's dry and we don't want that to happen do we.

I recommend serving this with a glass of white wine. Probably the same one used in the orange sauce. It brings a lot of the flavors out of the wine that I don't usually taste giving it a more full-bodied flavor.

The second sauce can be found in the October 2006 issue of Cooks Illustrated.

Optional sauce:
Maple-Mustard Sauce:
2 Tbls Vegetable oil
1 Medium onion, Halved and sliced thin (about 1 cup)
1 c. Low sodium Chicken broth
3 Tbls Balsamic Vinegar
3 Tbls Whole grain mustard
Table salt and fresh ground pepper (I just keep a pepper-mill on hand with peppercorns inside)

How to:
Scrape any browned bits from the roast pan and transfer them to a skillet. Add Oil to a skillet and heat over medium heat until simmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring occaisionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 3-4 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add broth; bring to simmer scraping bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Simmer until liquid is reduced to 1/3 c., 3-4 minutes. Add syrup, vinegar, mustard and any juices from resting meat and cook until thickened and reduced to 1 c., 3-4 minutes longer. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper, pour sauce over pork, and serve.

Notes:
In some ways, I prefer this sauce to the orange sauce. It seemed smoother to me. Try both and make your own decision.

Other thoughts:
I like the orange sauce well enough, but it's almost too sweet. With a little modification it could make a really good pie or tart filling. I'll let you know how that comes out when I try it.

This was simple and gave me a lot of time to make side dishes unlike some of the other projects I've taken on. *grimace* It seems like it doesn't matter what you do, the last 15 minutes are always really hectic. *grin*

Tools:
Roasting Pan
Foil
Roasting Rack
Zester
Small Sauce Pan
Cooking Twine
Meat Thermometer

Health info:
Meat: 4 oz. pre-cooked = proper serving size
Carbs: 2/3 serving (fruit) (1 serving = 15g of carbs)

Roasted Potatoes: 15g carbs (starch) per 1/2 potato.

Balanced meal =
4 oz. meat.
45g carbs (starches)
15g carbs (fruit)
2 servings vegetables (1 c. cooked or 2 c. raw)


::Malloreth out::