Archive | February, 2010

Masha’s Caramelized UpsideDown Pear Pie

26 Feb

I feel very lucky to have gotten to know my friends Masha and Aaron this year. Not only are they fun – they live close by and their dog Henry and Winston are best of pals. After lots of wine with Aaron and Masha – I also have a very tired dog the next day! No complaints here!

Masha brought her delicious Caramelized Upside-down Pear Pie over last Saturday for dinner. So tasty and perfect for a cold night! I highly recommend it!

Caramelized Upside-down Pear Pie

This can be served with whipped cream or ice cream. What you will need: 5-7 firm, ripe pears 6 oz caster (superfine) sugar 8 oz (unsweetened) shortcrust pastry 4oz or 1/2 cup butter 1. Peel, quarter and core the pears. Toss with some of the sugar. (My secret is to add a little bit of lemon zest) 2. Melt butter in heavy, ovenproof tall pan (NO PLASTIC HANDLES!) Add the remaining sugar. When it changes color to brown, arrange pears in the pan (in a flower / rays of the sun pattern). (My secret is to add a slash of rum or something like that) 3. Continue cooking, uncover, for 20 minutes, or until the fruit has completely caramelized. 4. Leave the fit to cool in the pan. Preheat the oven to 400F. Meanwhile, on a lightly flowered surface, roll out the pastry to a round that is slightly larger than the diameter of the pan. Lay the pastry on top of the pears and then carefully tuck it in around the edge. 5. Bake for 15 min, then lower the oven temperature to 350F. Bake for a further 15 min, or until the pastry is golden. 6. Let the pie cool in the pan for a few minutes. To take it out, run a knife around the pan’s edge, then, using oven gloves, invert a plate over the pan and quickly turn the two over together. The pie is best served warm.

Couscous with Pine Nuts and Capers

24 Feb

The other week my friend and coworker Judy asked me what I thought about capers. I told her I loved capers but the more I thought about them the fewer dishes with capers I could come up with. Since then, I’ve been searching for new recipes that include capers – like this quick and tasty side dish of couscous. There is no quicker side dish than couscous. I suggest making it right when your guests arrive and fluffing it before you sit down!

Couscous with Pine Nuts and Capers

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups couscous
  • 2 and a half cups chicken broth (you can also use water or veggie stock)
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cups pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup capers
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
  • 2 or 3 tomatoes, chopped

Assembly: Toast pine nuts in a dry pan on low to bring out flavors then set aside. Bring chicken broth to a boil with butter – add couscous and stir. Cover and remove from heat. Meanwhile, saute the tomatoes and thyme in a splash of olive oil. Fluff the couscous with a fork (it takes about five minutes to cook) and add tomatoes, capers, and pine nuts.

Herb Marinated Pork Tenderloin & Casualties of Food Blogging

23 Feb

"FREEZE"

 

Recently I’ve run into two casualties of having a food blog (actually there are more than two but I’m not willing to go into those publically). 

1. I run into people I know in the grocery store all the time. Friday, I saw three people while shopping who all stopped, asked what I was cooking this weekend and gazed into my shopping basket. This is all fun and games until you are sneaking a frozen pizza home or you just want to write about food anonymously on the internet and not talk about it face to face. At some point, it is just a little weird when your eating habits are so public. A minor casualty. 

2. Lately, I’ve been making really simple and quick dishes (like today’s post on Herb Marinated Pork Tenderloin). I obviously want to serve my food hot and don’t want to finish cooking until my guests have arrived (the opposite situation is having the food luke warm and staged like they are walking into a movie set). So, when I’m putting the food out I have to scream ”FREEZE” and be a crazy person while I take photos for my nerdy food blog. Funny enough, the new Bon Appetit magazine brushes this subject in the BA Foodist advice section (confession: I find the BA Foodist Andrew Knowlton very attractive).  The subject of the question from Sarah in Philadelphia is more around people taking photos of their food at restaurants which I find even more awkward. He suggests not using flash?  Attractive never equates to helpful. Again, another minor casualty. 

I’m offering these issues for humor and not as a solicitation for advice. 

Aside from these issues, today I offer an excellent and easy recipe for pork tenderloin. This was super simple and easy to prepare right before my guests arrived on Saturday night. I highly recommend it especially when pork tenderloin is half off at Harris Teeter! 

Ina Garten’s Herb-Marinated Pork Tenderloins 

Ingredients 

 

  • 1 lemon, zest grated
  • 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4 to 6 lemons)
  • Good olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Kosher salt
  • 3 pork tenderloins (about 1 pound each)
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Directions 

Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, mustard, and 2 teaspoons salt in a sturdy 1-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add the pork tenderloins and turn to coat with the marinade. Squeeze out the air and seal the bag. Marinate the pork in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours but preferably overnight. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 

Remove the tenderloins from the marinade and discard the marinade but leave the herbs that cling to the meat. Sprinkle the tenderloins generously with salt and pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large oven-proof saute pan over medium-high heat. Sear the pork tenderloins on all sides until golden brown. Place the saute pan in the oven and roast the tenderloins for 10 to 15 minutes or until the meat registers 137 degrees F at the thickest part. Transfer the tenderloins to a platter and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Carve in 1/2-inch-thick diagonal slices. The thickest part of the tenderloin will be quite pink (it’s just fine!) and the thinnest part will be well done. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm, or at room temperature with the juices that collect in the platter. 

Spring Fever Dinner Party

22 Feb

We did something right in Greensboro this week to deserve some really beautiful weather this weekend. For the first time in what feels like months, the sun came out and the skies were blue. I took advantage of every moment to be outside. Visiting the Greensboro Curb Market with my friend Kathryn, hosting a small dinner party with my friends Masha, Aaron and Jeb and completing things with an outdoor working brunch (hungover) on Sunday with my fellow board members and staff from Elsewhere Artist Collaborative.

Saturday night almost felt like springtime with tulips on the table although we did have to break out the firewood later in the evening. I think we were all in need of a little (a lot) of wine to celebrate the weather. Dinner couldnt have been easier – herb marinated pork tenderloin, couscous with pine nuts and capers, garlicy sautéed broccolini and Masha’s delicious pear tart for dessert. Stay tuned for the recipes this week.

My Quest for Homemade Spicy Ramen

18 Feb

If you have been wondering why I havent posted much this week it is because I’ve been eating the same thing every night – Spicy Ramen. I probably should have taken the same amount of time to monitor my sodium intake but life is too short to not invest a too much time into something silly. I put total blame on my friend Tim.

For about a year now I’ve been obsessed with the Spicy Ramen at Don on Tate Street in Greensboro, NC. It is nothing like the ramen that you heated up in your college microfridge (we’ve come along way since the days of the microfridge). Their spicy ramen includes shiitake mushrooms, beef and chilies and is so spicy it practically makes you sweat. I’ve taken many of friends to Don to enjoy the spicy ramen and promised that it would be “life changing.” 

Spicy Ramen at Don has been a life changing experience for all my friends – except Tim.  Tim is more of an expert on Asian cuisine than any of my friends so I had inquire. He told me that I could easily make this dish at home using ingredients from the Super G Mart and I took him up on the challenge. It has been quite the adventure. Since that day at lunch I’ve been annoying him with emails, texts, and phone calls. I even interrupted his Sunday supper a couple weeks ago while I was wondering the aisles of the Super G.

There are many varieties of Spicy Ramen at Super G Mart – Yeul Ramyon, Nong Shim Neoguri (highly recommended by Tim’s mom), Jin Ramen (Tim uses this kind although it isnt as spicy) and many more. I tried both Yeul Ramyon and Jin Ramen and preferred Yuel Ramyon for the spice. I also tried several techniques of rehydrating the shiitake mushrooms and cooking the beef. To be honest, I don’t remember the exact taste of Don’s Life Changing Spicy Ramen anymore. It has been confused along the way – and I warn you –  this process may have ruined the real deal. In any case, here is my best attempt.

Tim, don’t judge.

Mendenhall’s Best Attempt of Life Changing Spicy Ramen  (serves one)

Ingredients:

  • Spicy Ramen Mix (Yeul Ramyon, Nong Shim Neoguri or Jin Ramen)
  • 5 or 6 dehydrated shiitake Mushrooms
  • scallions, chopped
  • bean sprouts, small handful
  • small bit of flank steak, very thinly sliced
  • teriyaki sauce, a splash
  • Chinese five spice powder, one pinch

Assembly: Cover shiitake mushrooms with very hot water and let sit for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cut flank steak into very thin slices (I freeze mine a few minutes to make this easier). Cover the meat with a splash of teriyaki sauce (I’m sure you could use soy) and a pinch of Chinese five spice powder (I’m sure this isn’t authentic). After meat has marinated and mushrooms have rehydrated about 20 minutes (I took the dog for a walk), add the meat to a dry very hot skillet and cook until very quickly on both sides to sear. Slice hydrated mushrooms. Bring designated amount of water to boil (2 and 3/4 cup for mine) and add ramen spice mix and noodles. Cook for about 3 minutes or until noodles are just tender. Pour broth and noodles into a bowl and add scallions, meat, mushrooms, and bean sprouts. Enjoy!

Mardi Gras on Mendenhall

16 Feb

I beg for forgiveness.

I keep asking myself and others what the difference between spring fever and seasonal depression is. I’m concerned that I may have one – or both. I found myself hopelessly reaching out for some sort of occasion to celebrate this weekend. Valentine’s Day was not a contender this year so I had to choose between Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras. I’m still trying to master stir fry so I opted for my Mom’s red beans and rice recipe which was more fitting for a cold (and bitter?) weekend. This recipe was also a good project for Saturday morning as Winston and I watching more snow fall on our already icy street.

Little did I know that my Mom’s recipe for red beans and rice comes from the September 1988 edition of Esquire Magazine. The article titled “Righteous Beans” by Nicholas Lemann is under the theme of “Man at His Best; A Gentleman’s Guide to Quality Style.” Lemann narrates the best steps in making New Orleans style red beans and rice. Hilariously, an article on cummerbunds follows his piece. I wondered why my mother was perusing Esquire Magazine in 1988 when she was probably at home raising me at the age of 6. Out of curiosity, I went to Esquire’s website to determine their content and readership and found only busty photos of Scarlett Johansson and tips on how to manscape eyebrows. Still, I wonder. Perhaps she picked it up at the dentist’s office?

I invited two of the most gentlemanlike friends I have over for a Mardi Gras dinner on Sunday night – my friends Ivan and Andrew. I changed the recipe a bit using ham hocks instead of a ham bone (I couldn’t find a ham bone in the TashmaTeeter) and used olive oil instead of bacon fat to saute my vegetables in. I’m guessing we are all probably still paying for their 1988 bacon fat recommendations in Lipitor tablets today. Depending on your cholesterol levels, please feel free to as much pork product as you’d like. In any case, this is a delicious and simple recipe. I highly recommend it for your Mardi Gras party this year!

 

They are good the second day solo too!

Mardi Gras Red Beans and Rice

Ingredients:

  • olive oil
  • 2 green peppers
  • 1 large onion
  • 3-4 stalks celery
  • 1 pound red  beans
  • 2 ham hocks
  • 2-3 springs fresh thyme
  • 1 large bay leaf
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 large pinch cayenne pepper
  • andouille sausage
  • 1 splash vinegar
  • Tabasco sauce (optional)

Assembly: The night before, cover the dried beans with water (about 2 to three inches) and leave overnight. The next day, finely mince pepper, onion and celery in a food processor. Saute the vegetables in olive oil until translucent. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables are soft, add the beans (with water), ham hocks, thyme, and bay leaf. If the beans arent totally submerged in water, add more until covered. Bring to a boil, turn to low and cover to simmer for three hours. Stir occasionally to prevent from burning the bottom. After three hours, the beans should be tender. Taste for seasoning – add more salt, pepper and cayenne. Then add sausage and a splash of vinegar. Serve over white rice with Tabasco on the side.

Tommy’s Red Velvet Cake

12 Feb

Tommy made Michael his grandmother’s Red Velvet Cake for his birthday dinner. I received a gift too – he gave me permission to post the recipe! I had to leave it in its original form. I love the funny language in recipes sometimes – for instance when it says “Last step. Be ready for this one.” I’m not sure if those are Tommy’s words or his grandmothers but they are what makes cooking and sharing recipes so fun. Thanks Tommy!

Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake  -  Edith Everett

½  cup shortening        2 ¼  cups flour               
1 ½   cups sugar         2 tbsp. cocoa    (level)                   
2 eggs                1  tsp salt
2 oz. red food coloring    1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour milk    * To sour milk add 1 tbsp lemon juice to milk.
Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs.  Add food coloring and vanilla.
Sift together: 2 ¼ cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, and 2 level tbsp of cocoa    .
Add sifted ingredients alternately with 1 cup of sour milk to the creamed mixture.    

* Last step. Be ready for this one.  Mix 1 tbsp of vinegar and 1 tsp baking soda in a small
                    bowl. This mixture will bubble. When it stops bubbling, fold it into the cake
                batter by hand. Do Not Beat. 

Bake at 350* for 30 – 35 minutes.    
Icing
   
½ cups shortening        1 tsp vanilla       
½ cup margarine or butter    1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk – heated warm ahead of time and then let it cool to room temperature.
 
Beat the shortening, sugar, margarine, and vanilla for ten minutes until fluffy.
Slowly add ¾ cup cooled milk.
* Icing will melt if left out at room temperature. Keep cake refrigerated.

Sweet Potato Chips

11 Feb

Deep frying is not something you want to do everyday but it is a lot of fun on special occasions – like Puppy Bowl VI and Michael’s 27th Birthday. While anything that results from this process is delicious and tasty – there are a few consequences. These consequences are - but are not limited to: your home will smell like a fry daddy, you will have to figure out a way to dispose of the used grease (I don’t recommend putting it anywhere but back into the bottle and into the trashcan) and your heart beat could slow down a bit.

There are more pieces of equipment needed than ingredients in this recipe (a 4 to 3 ratio). Only three ingredients are in homemade sweet potato chips – sweet potatoes, oil and salt (one out of three are healthy?). For equipment, I recommend using a dutch oven, a deep fat thermometer, a mandolin and either a spider skimmer or tongs. Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil in the dutch oven to 350 degrees. Cut the unpeeled sweet potatoes in 1/8 inch chips with the mandolin. Fry the sweet potatoes for about 3 minutes or until starting to brown and crisp.You will need to watch the temperature of the oil as you add the potatoes and adjust the heat as necessary. Once done, place on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to remove extra oil. Sprinkle with good salt.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

10 Feb

One request Michael made while I was visiting was that we use his new KitchenAid stand-up mixer. I don’t use my mixer regularly but it is one of those things you aboslutely love when you need it. Since I’m not typically inclined to make sweets, I thought we could try to make hamburger buns to go with the pulled pork BBQ. We used Gourmet magazine’s recipe for Hamburger Buns and it worked very well! They did not rise exactly the way I expected but they turned out to be just the right thing for our pulled pork sandwiches. In my opinion, there isnt anything worse than having too much bread with a sandwich. We added poppy seeds on the top of these buns at Michael’s request and they turned out to be very pretty. I’m jealous that Tommy and Michael are probably eating them as toast this week! 

The Easiest Homemade BBQ Pulled Pork

9 Feb

a great spice rub

Pulled pork is probably the easiest thing to make for a crowd (well, at least my crowd since I don’t know too many vegetarians). Depending on what you want to serve, you can doctor a pork shoulder or Boston butt to your liking from pulled pork tacos, BBQ pulled pork or anything else you can imagine. This weekend we made Tyler Florence’s recipe for BBQ Pulled Pork for our Puppy Bowl IV Party. I will warn you this is not is not NC style BBQ but it is very tasty. My sister taught me the best trick to making pulled pork – set the oven very low and let the pork cook while you sleep. Tyler recommends cooking the pork for 6 hours at 300 degrees – we cut corners and set the oven for 250 and went to sleep (about eight hours). The next morning the pork was fall off the bone tender. We let it cool down and put it in the fridge for the day and heated it back up right before dinner. We didn’t make the coleslaw with his recipe but we did make the BBQ sauce. Like I said, it isn’t the eastern NC style BBQ that I grew up with but it is finger licking good! I doubled the brown sugar in the sauce recipe to cut some of the vinegar – so taste as you go and adjust to your liking. I highly recommend this for a crowd!

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