I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
What is this? Well, this is a new feature that will appear from time to time here on lisa is cooking. I’ve been open about my obsession with books and food publications, and I thought it might be fun to ask around and find out what other people are reading. I want to know what people have read lately that was interesting or inspiring. So instead of asking what’s your favorite book ever, I’m asking what are you reading?
Last Saturday, I attended a food blogger workshop here in Austin which was organized by Babette Pepaj and Jaden Hair and co-produced by Natanya Anderson. The talks and presentations at the workshop were very informative, and it was a great opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers while learning new things. I cooked up the idea for this new feature over the weekend and since I’d just met Jaden, I wanted to ask this question of her first. Although Jaden requires no introduction, I’ll go ahead and mention that she’s the award-winning food blogger behind Steamy Kitchen, appears twice a month on the Daytime Show, and is a columnist for Discovery’s TLC and for Tampa Tribune. Her book is The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. So, with no further ado, Jaden Hair, what are you reading?
Jaden: The book I'm currently reading is Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck. I was lucky enough to have met him in Austin on Monday, and he is every bit as energetic, passionate and caring in person as he is in his book. I actually bought his book via audible.com the day before I flew to South by Southwest and downloaded it to my iphone to listen to while driving. Even though it's not about cooking or food, Gary is a fellow blogger, social media expert, and he totally gets it about the future of small business, entrepreneurship, and marketing. I highly recommend it!
Thank you for participating, Jaden! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
My blue theme for snacks on Oscar night only went so far. I made a blueberry crumble tart that I really enjoyed, and I tried a blue cheese and apple hors d’oeuvre that I ended up not loving. The third item I made completely abandoned that theme but was delicious. These manchego cheese crackers with marcona almonds are from The New Spanish Table. I just finished the book after reading it off and on since November when I tried a few tapas from it. There’s a lot of information in there. Anya von Bremzen covers regional preferences, historical facts, and modern takes on Spanish cuisine. There are many interesting side notes with explanations about ingredients and origins of dishes. Some of the recipes are very traditional, some are chefs’ contemporary twists on classics, some are more involved than others, and a few, like these cheese crackers, are simple ideas that she learned from friends. This recipe was given to her by Melissa Clark, and the intro note about how hard the crackers are to resist is definitely true.
To make the dough, softened butter and grated manchego cheese were creamed together in the bowl of a mixer. Flour and salt were added, and the dough was supposed to form itself after a bit more mixing. Mine remained very crumbly and wasn’t sticking together at all, so I dribbled in just a tablespoon or so of milk and let the mixer turn a few more times until it seemed like dough. It was then formed into a log, and I flattened that into more of a long, square-ish shape which was wrapped in plastic and left to rest in the refrigerator for an hour. One quarter inch thick pieces were cut from the dough, and each was brushed with egg wash and topped with a marcona almond before being baked for 15 minutes.
The crackers were crunchy on the edges and a little tender in the middle and full of great manchego flavor. Marcona almonds are pretty addictive all by themselves, and they made the crackers even better than they already were. This was a very basic cracker with just butter, cheese, and almonds for flavor, and I’m not complaining about that at all, but I was thinking about how it might be fun to add a little smoked paprika or a pinch of cayenne next time.
I always bring a few snacks to an annual Oscars party we attend, and for last Sunday’s party, I wanted to sort of work with a theme. I was certain it was going to be an Avatar-dominated Oscars so I was thinking ‘blue.’ I couldn’t have been more wrong, and obviously, I didn’t do so well with my Oscars betting this year, but at least this blueberry crumble tart was tasty. The recipe is from The Modern Baker, where it’s called a blueberry crumble pie. I wanted the cut pieces to be a simple, square form that would be easy to pick up at the party, so I baked it in a rectangular tart pan. I was also a little worried about how runny and gooey the filling would be, and to make it firmer and easier to handle, I used a little extra cornstarch. That part of my plan came together well. The pieces were easy to cut and easy to pick up without the filling running all over the place. At least that prediction worked out for me.
The tart crust was made from the sweet tart dough recipe in the same book. That dough includes an egg, an egg yolk, and baking powder in addition to the butter, flour, and sugar. It was mixed in a food processor and then wrapped in plastic and left to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so. It was more dough than I needed for my rectangular tart pan, so I also made a small, free-form rustic tart to leave at home. The filling was made with frozen blueberries, sugar, a tablespoon more of cornstarch than the four tablespoon suggested, and nutmeg. After cooking and thickening, cold butter was stirred into the blueberry filling mixture. The ample crumb topping was made by combining flour, baking powder, cinnamon, brown sugar, and melted butter. Once folded together, it was left to sit while prepping the tart shell and filling. Often it’s tempting to double the quantity of a crumb topping, but I can tell you this recipe made plenty and doubling it would have been way too much. Once the filling was spooned into the shell and the crumble topping was sprinkled on top, the assembled tart baked for 40 minutes.
The crust was flaky and golden and lovely, and the filling was just firm enough and full of blueberry goodness, but the crumble topping was my favorite part. Those nuggets of buttery, crunchy, fun were a delight on top of the tart. It could have been almost any fruit in the filling because in the end, the blueness of it didn’t matter at all, but I’m glad that concept led me to this tart anyway.
In the December Food and Wine, there was a story about Boston chef Ken Oringer and the tailgate party he hosts on the day he cuts down his Christmas tree. The picnic menu for this party was a really good one, and I have to keep the pages I cut from the magazine because I’d like to recreate the entire thing some day. It included cubano sandwiches, this black bean and quinoa salad, mulled cider, an avocado, grapefruit, and hearts of palm salad, artichoke and spinach dip with spiced pita chips, and caramel pecan bars. Reading that list again just now made me a little hungry. Last week, I wasn’t ready to throw a picnic party and prepare all of that, but I had a plan for jibaritos and thought this salad would fit well with them. As usual, when I cook dried beans, I cook a lot of them at once. I planned ahead, cooked a lot of beans, set aside the amount needed for this recipe, and stored the extra beans in the freezer for future uses. With the black beans already cooked, prepping the salad was quick and easy.
First, the quinoa was cooked and then spread on a sheet pan to cool quickly. A dressing was made by whisking together sherry vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, and a chopped chipotle chile, and then olive oil was incorporated. Sliced scallions, minced red onion, finely diced yellow pepper, and chopped cilantro were combined with the cooked and cooled black beans and quinoa. The dressing was poured over the mixture, it was tossed to combine, seasoning was checked, and that was it.
The salad is so full of flavor and varied textures you won’t even pause to think about how healthy it is. The chipotle added a little spiciness, and you could increase that and taste as you go while making the dressing. Obviously, you could change the vegetables in the salad, but the ones suggested were a nice mix of colors with the yellow pepper against the black beans and flecks of green cilantro and scallions here and there. This makes a very large quantity of salad, but it stores well in the refrigerator. It’s also great on a bed of arugula and topped with some crumbled feta, so I didn’t mind having a big bowl of it in the refrigerator for a few days.
When you’ve just roasted a whole, double turkey breast for a household of two people, odds are good that meals for the next several days will involve sandwiches. That’s not a bad thing considering how versatile a turkey sandwich can be, and it’s even better when you’ve just read the recipe for jibaritos in Daisy: Morning, Noon, and Night. A jibarito is a sandwich in which the bread has been replaced by slices of fried plantains. Apparently, the original jibarito was made with beef, but Daisy suggested leftover turkey breast pavochon. This sandwich is usually built like a cubano with a primary meat (turkey in this case but it's often roast pork), ham, swiss cheese, mustard, and sliced pickles, but I omitted the ham and used all leftover turkey. Once assembled, just like a cubano, it’s toasted in a panini press. It sounded delicious but maybe a little on the heavy side considering the ‘bread’ is fried plantains, but I had to give it a try.
Plantains were peeled and sliced lengthwise. Since the plantains I was using were large, I cut each piece in half crosswise as well. They were fried in canola oil for a total of five minutes and were turned at the halfway point. After this initial frying, they were drained on paper towels and allowed to cool just a little. While still warm, they needed to be pounded down to a thickness of one quarter inch. I used a meat tenderizer for this fun task, and they easily flattened out to an even height. After smooshing the plantains down to size, they were fried a second time to crisp them, and again, the frying time was five minutes total with a flip after two and a half minutes. I used firm, green plantains, and they held their shape very well, crisped nicely, and didn’t seem to absorb the oil. The sandwiches were built with slices of the roast turkey, swiss cheese, sliced dill pickles, and mustard. They spent about six minutes in the panini press, and came out looking toasted, golden, and just gooey enough in the middle.
I have to mention again that I was really happy with the texture of the plantain ‘bread.’ It wasn’t mushy or greasy at all, and it delivered a satisfying crunch. Of course, the melted cheese, pickles, and well-flavored turkey were great on the inside too. As I had guessed, this was a filling sandwich. One small portion was enough for a meal for me, but it was a lip-smackingly good meal.
I can finally put into words one of the reasons why I’m addicted to cookbooks. I seem to imagine that the world of cooking is one big puzzle, and each time I learn something new, another piece is fit into place. And, I quite enjoy adding more and more pieces to that puzzle. I have an example. Last summer, I was cooking from Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking, and I attempted to make pique which is a spicy, Puerto Rican condiment. It didn’t work out so well, and I searched and asked around for more information about it and came up with nothing. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was sent a review copy of Daisy: Morning, Noon, and Night, and while reading that book, I found a recipe for vinagre or vinagre de piña which was very similar to that for pique. I then learned that they are indeed the same thing. Seven months later, that piece of the puzzle was set into place. The process for making vinagre or pique was slightly different in this book, and it worked great this time. This new book is by Daisy Martinez from the Food Network’s Viva Daisy. I’ve never seen the show, so I wasn’t familiar with her cooking style. The book is a collection of her family’s favorite dishes experienced while traveling through different Spanish-speaking regions of the world. It’s an interesting culinary tour with lots of tips for advance preparation and piecing together menus. As the title implies, there are dishes for every meal in the day as well as food for parties and snacks. Bold flavors are found throughout from the shrimp ceviche xni pec to chimichurri sauce, Spanish coca which is like pizza, and Peruvian yellow pepper puree. There are desserts too like guava shells filled with cream cheese mousse, banana and dulce de leche strudel, and strawberry delicia.
So, when I finally figured out that pique goes by another name, I had to try it again. In this version, pineapple rinds were boiled for 30 minutes, and the liquid was then strained and added to a jar with sliced onion, smashed garlic cloves, habanero chiles, cider vinegar, fresh oregano leaves, black peppercorns, and some salt. It was left to cool and then refrigerated. In the previous version I tried, the mixture was left to ferment at room temperature, and it transformed into a questionable brew. This time, the hot liquid got the flavors mixing right away, and by going right into the refrigerator once cool, nothing bad had a chance to happen. The onion and garlic gave the acidic mixture big flavor, and the habaneros gave it a good kick. I used the vinagre in Daisy’s boricua slaw. The slaw was suggested as a side dish for anything served at a barbeque. It’s a crunchy mix of red cabbage, carrots, cider vinegar, cilantro, scallions, and vinagre to taste. I was so thrilled with the flavor of the vinagre, I continued to sprinkle more and more on the slaw at the table. The cabbage can definitely stand up to a good amount of spiciness. Since the slaw was mentioned as a side dish for meats, I also wanted to try the turkey breast pavochon from the book.
The name for this turkey dish is a mix of pavo meaning turkey and lechon which is roasted suckling pig. In this case, the turkey is roasted and seasoned in the same way as a lechon is prepared in Puerto Rico. A double, boneless turkey breast was seasoned with a wet adobo rub made from garlic, salt, black peppercorns, dried oregano, olive oil, and white vinegar. The adobo rub was placed under the skin and on the back side of the double breast, and then the meat was rolled and tied into a compact roast. I left it to marinate in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, I roasted the turkey first at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes, and then at 375 degrees F for an additional hour or so. The roasting time depends on the size of the turkey breast, so it’s important to start checking the internal temperature after about an hour and 15 minutes. The internal temperature should reach at least 150 degrees F before removing the turkey from the oven, covering it with foil, and letting it rest for 20 minutes.
I can tell you that this turkey smelled so good as it roasted that I may never cook another bird without some adobo sauce on it. The skin browned nicely, the meat was delicious and tender, and Kurt nodded with definite approval declaring it very good turkey. I had a lot of fun perusing this book and trying a few of the Latin-inspired dishes, and I look forward to trying more. Next time, I’ll tell you about how the turkey leftovers were used.
I went on and on about my lemon trees the other day, and when I have a good year for lemons like I just did, I love getting to make limoncello. Limoncello is a simple liqueur involving lemon peels, vodka, and simple syrup. Every recipe I’ve seen seems to suggest a different number of days for the lemon peels to sit in the vodka (three days to 10) and then a different quantity of simple syrup to add at the end (two-thirds cup to three cups for 750 ml vodka). Whichever recipe you use, once it’s ready it can be mixed into all kinds of cocktails, and my favorite is a simple combination of limoncello and club soda over ice. Limoncello can also be used in all kinds of desserts. As I was waiting for my lemon peels to steep in the vodka, I was busy trying to locate a recipe I had seen before for some kind of limoncello cheesecake. It was a year ago if not longer that I had seen this, and I have no idea where I first saw it. In my search, I came upon Giada’s recipe for limoncello cheesecake squares, and that may even have been what I was remembering in the first place but I don’t think so, and I ended giving them a try.
In Giada’s recipe, biscotti are used to form the crust, but I used graham crackers in their place since I had some handy. The graham cracker crust was formed with melted butter and lemon zest, and it baked until golden and was allowed to cool. The filling was made from ricotta, cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, limoncello, vanilla, and eggs which were combined in a food processor. The filling was poured over the cooled crust, and it baked in a water bath for about an hour. After cooling on a rack for an hour, it was refrigerated overnight. It was very simple to prepare, and since it baked in a nine inch square pan, there was no need to wrap foil on the bottom to prevent water from entering.
The square pan was easier for baking, but I was unsure how easily the cut pieces would be to remove from it. Actually, it was one of the easiest desserts ever to cut and serve from the pan. The crust held together well, and there was no sticking at all. The limoncello flavor was delightful but was not at all overpowering. This was a rich and creamy cheesecake that wasn’t as dense as others. I’ll have to try it again someday with the biscotti crust, or maybe I’ll eventually figure out which recipe I was looking for in the first place.
Last Saturday, I attended a food blogger workshop here in Austin which was organized by Babette Pepaj and Jaden Hair and co-produced by Natanya Anderson. The talks and presentations at the workshop were very informative, and it was a great opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers while learning new things. I cooked up the idea for this new feature over the weekend and since I’d just met Jaden, I wanted to ask this question of her first. Although Jaden requires no introduction, I’ll go ahead and mention that she’s the award-winning food blogger behind Steamy Kitchen, appears twice a month on the Daytime Show, and is a columnist for Discovery’s TLC and for Tampa Tribune. Her book is The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
. So, with no further ado, Jaden Hair, what are you reading?
Jaden: The book I'm currently reading is Crush It
Last Saturday, I attended a food blogger workshop here in Austin which was organized by Babette Pepaj and Jaden Hair and co-produced by Natanya Anderson. The talks and presentations at the workshop were very informative, and it was a great opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers while learning new things. I cooked up the idea for this new feature over the weekend and since I’d just met Jaden, I wanted to ask this question of her first. Although Jaden requires no introduction, I’ll go ahead and mention that she’s the award-winning food blogger behind Steamy Kitchen, appears twice a month on the Daytime Show, and is a columnist for Discovery’s TLC and for Tampa Tribune. Her book is The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
Jaden: The book I'm currently reading is Crush It
