Miso Shrimp Stir-Fry and Asian Spinach Salad

Fire up the wok! This is a fabulous meal inspired by a mix of Asian flavors, from fresh ginger, tangy soy and miso, to sweet baby corn and sesame-toasted almonds.  The shrimp are tossed with vibrant and crunchy vegetables in a savory garlic, red pepper, miso sauce over high heat until tender — then served over cilantro brown rice.  On the side, a fresh baby spinach salad dressed with zesty rice vinegar-soy is kicked up with crispy toasted ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds.

Stir fry sauce: 3 tablespoons of canola oil, a drizzle of aromatic sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of brown miso, 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger, 3 garlic cloves minced, 2 teaspoons sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes to taste

Salad dressing: 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, cracked black pepper, dash of salt

Cookies and Cream Cake

This cake — itself a take on the Oreo cookie — is so much fun to make and utterly amazing to eat. Layers of rich, moist chocolate cake sandwich creamy vanilla filling that’s blended with crumbles of Oreo cookies. A thick and decadent dark chocolate frosting made of butter, confectioners sugar and ghirardelli cocoa podwer coats the entire cake. Kudos to fellow food blog Annie’s Eats for the recipe!

Beef Gulasch with Pumpkin Seed Spaetzle

Warm, hearty, salty and flavorful, this slow-braised beef shank atop a bed of homemade pumpkin seed spaetzle is the perfect winter weekend dinner.  The recipes – from the January issue of Bon Appetit — are a unique take on a classic Austro-Hungarian dish. I love the rich, complex, vinegary flavor of the tender beef and the unique nutty component in the spaetzle. Departing from the recipe, I cooked the dumplings in the beef stew liquid instead of in a separate pot of water.  Also, since I like my spaetzle slightly larger than the size produced by a potato ricer, I used my fingers to create the nuggets. (Roasted carrots and brussel sprouts make a great side!)

Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks and Coconut Drizzle

This cake was my baptism into the world of Bon Appetit magazine. And as I’m sure any of its devourers can attest, the surviving sister of Gourmet Magazine offers up some pretty sweet stuff (no pun intended). The January issue names this recipe among its “top desserts of the year,” and while I might not go that far, it is indeed wonderfully decadent and delicious. The cake is moist, fluffy and coconutty, laden with scattered, irregular fragments of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate.  The top of the cake is an amazing minefield of toasted coconut, gooey chocolate and a creamy coconut glaze. I served it as a coffeecake for a brunch but it could easily have been a dessert course for a fancy dinner party.

Turkey Chili Verde

Maybe its the “Minnesota” in me, but in the midst of a winter deep freeze there’s nothing I like more than a hot bowl of homemade chili or soup. But in this latest plunge of cold air, I’ve decided to deviate from my old standby’s of a tomato-based chili or a variation on chicken vegetable soup and instead decided to Go Green.   Enter fresh tomatillos, poblano peppers, cilantro, celery…. and a frozen leftover half of Thanksgiving turkey (no, it wasn’t green).

The recipe is an adaptation of Joy of Cooking’s “Chicken Chili Verde” with homemade diced, roasted poblano peppers and homemade turkey stock/diced turkey meat instead of chicken. The result is a zesty and flavorful chili packing a little heat from the jalepeno and poblano peppers.  The medley of cilantro, lime, tomatillos, garlic and cumin cries out for some salty tortilla chips or a bed of steamy white rice. Incredibly delicious and healthy too.

Turkey Chili Verde

1 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

6 medium fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and diced

1 bunch of cilantro chopped

3 poblano peppers roasted, peeled and diced

1 finely chopped jalepeno pepper

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 cups turkey or chicken stock

3 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey

(1) Saute onion, celery and garlic in olive oil over medium heat in a dutch oven or soup pot until tender. Add dry spices and cook an additional minute.

(2) Add tomatillos, peppers and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes uncovered.

(3) Add chicken, cilantro leaves and fresh lime juice. Simmer for 5 to 10 more minutes until heated through.  Add salt to taste.

(4) Serve over tortilla chips or white rice or eat alone.

If you want to get extra fancy, try making your own chicken/turkey stock at the outset using the carcass of your frozen or freshly leftover bird.  And also try roasting your poblano peppers directly over open flame on your gas range if you have one!

“Award-Winning” Almond Florentines

The revered judges of the annual Washington bureau holiday bake-off have spoken…. and they’ve crowned these almond florentines as king in 2009!  Sources tell me it was the “ooooh” factor that tipped the scale vis a vis some of the formidable competition.  And that reaction is not all that surprising, since these are indeed surprisingly tasty (read: addictive) cookie-candies.

The florentine is not quite a “brittle” or a “bark”:  it’s a thin, carmel-sugary crisp with a hint of chewiness and a light layer of bittersweet chocolate on the outside. It’s virtually all sliced almonds held together by a honey-butter-sugar mixture that gets golden brown when baked for 10 minutes.

Almond Florentines

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup whipping cream

4 cups sliced almonds

1 cup semisweet chocolate

6 foil pans

(1) Preheat the oven to 375. Grease the aluminum pans.

(2) Over medium heat, combine the butter, sugar, honey and cream. Cook until boiling — stirring constantly for 1 1/2 mins at boiling.

(3) Remove from heat and add almonds.  Then, divide the mixture between the 6 pans. The layer should be very, very thin.

(4) Bake at 10-14 minutes until bubbling around the edges and a rich golden brown. Watch closely so as not to burn!

(5) Cool the florentines completely in the pans, even refrigerating or freezing if needed. After 5-10 minutes, pop them out onto wax paper.

(6) Melt the chocolate over low heat and then spread a thin layer atop the florentine discs. Allow chocolate to cool and harden completely.

(7) Slice using a sharp, long knife and serve!

Stuffed “Holiday” Bell Peppers

Bell peppers stuffed with rice, beef and fresh herbs are a nutritious and delicious “classic American” weeknight meal that also make great leftovers.  But don’t interpret “classic” and “nutritious” to mean old school, boring and tasteless. These are packed with flavor and interesting textures.  A half cup of white and wild rice mix is steamed in chicken stock and then combined with a pound of browned, organic beef, onion, garlic, and worcestershire sauce.  Add in an 8 oz can of Italian seasoned tomato sauce and a hearty helping of fresh chopped parsley. Fill up the pepper hulls and top off with some shredded cheese, bake for 30-45 minutes at 350 and voila!

A Cook-Along With Friends

What do you get when you give a bunch of professional journalists sharp knives, a couple bottles of champagne, and instructions to work together to prepare a gourmet meal?  An incredibly lively — and dangerously unpredictable! — dinner party that you’ll never forget. Some of the best times among friends are spent in the kitchen, and this night proved that once again.  Check out this rockin’ menu we compiled and prepared with help from our friends at the DC-based cooking school “Company’s Coming:”

Appetizers: Portuguese Tuna and Beans; Goat Cheese Spread; Sizzling Lemon Shrimp with Garlic; Selection of Grilled Gourmet Sausages

Entree: Flat Iron Steak with Shallot Confit; Rissotto with Red Wine, Pancetta, and Parmesan; Boston Lettuce Salad with Pine Nuts

Dessert: Molten Chocolate Cake with Raspberries

Wines: Montelliana, Prosecco, ‘Montello e Colli Asolani’; 2007 La Carraia, ‘Orvieto,’ Classico; 2007 Banfi, ‘Chianti Classico’

And now the winning take-away recipe from the evening….Molten Chocolate Cake!  ( This is not, repeat not, a healthy dessert, but it’s a divine re-creation of a classic steakhouse favorite that I love to order when I’m out.)

Molten Chocolate Cake from Ed and Jinny Fleischman

1 cup butter

8 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 eggs

4 egg yolks (in addition to the 4 whole eggs!)

1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons of flour

(1) Prepare ceramic ramekins or other small baking cups by buttering the inside and dusting with flour.  Repeat twice for each cup – this is key so the cake will pop out.

(2) Melt butter over low heat in saucepan. Add chocolate and stir until just melted.

(3) Beat eggs, yolks and sugar until light and thick. Stir the butter and chocolate together and add in the egg mixture. Quickly beat in the flour.

(4) Divide mixture evenly between ramekins. Either refrigerate for later baking or continue by baking.

(5) Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes at 450 degrees. (Note: the center will not be firm but the sides will be set.)

(6) Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 seconds before flipping out of the mold.

Stoia “Morning Glory” Bread

In the wonderful world of breakfast bread baking, rarely have I strayed so far into unfamiliar territory as the amalgamation of ingredients in this recipe.  Grated zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, banana, nuts, raisins, olive oil…. What on earth was all-star New York Front Runner Chris Stoia thinking when he first folded the entire kitchen garden into a sweet bread batter?!

The result, ladies and gentlemen, is an incredible — and healthy — treat packed with moist, hearty flavor.  Slices of the warm “morning glory” goodness are irresistible!

Chris tells me you can tweak the fruit and veggie ingredients as long as you keep the ratio to around 2 cups.  With the 3 cups of flour, feel free to swap in a cup of oats or flaxseed meal or whole wheat flour.

Stoia “Morning Glory” Bread

2 cups sugar — I used 1 cup white, 1 cup brown sugar in the raw

3 eggs

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups grated zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, bananas, etc.

3 cups flour — I used 1 cup flaxseed meal

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup raisins or dried fruit

(1) Cream together eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil in a large bowl.  Add grated veggies and fruits.

(2) In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Gradually stir into the wet mixture to create a batter.

(3) Add nuts and dried fruit and combine lightly.

(4) Divide the batter between two greased, floured loaf pans.

(5) Bake at 350 for one hour, or until a knife comes out clean and top is golden brown.

Roasted Turkey With Butter, White Wine, Orange Glaze

Turkey is celebration food. And this weekend I had much to celebrate, including a new kitchen!  Beautiful granite countertops, stainless appliances, a gas range — and a dishwasher! — make this a wonderful place to cook a Thanksgiving meal.  And my 12-pound, free-range turkey from Whole Foods did not disappoint: the meat was flavorful and moist, the skin golden crisp.

I stuffed my bird with two whole lemons, garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs, green onion, and parsley.  For beneath the skin, I created a rub of sea salt, cracked pepper, sage, oregano, thyme and garlic.  And in an unusual twist, I took a page out of my mother’s cookbook and covered the bird in cheesecloth soaked in a butter, white wine, orange juice glaze.

The cloth kept the skin infused with flavor as I continued to moisten/baste it every 30 minutes or so. Parts of it did turn dark brown, and I was concerned about it burning, but it didn’t matter.  About 2 hours into the roasting, I removed the cloth and let the skin get crispy. The result was amazing.