Beef Noodle Soup

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Beef Noodle Soup, Beef Soup, Broth, Cooking, CSA, Food52, recipes, Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

This may not be a very appropriate post as the weather is warming up but I made this soup several weeks ago and it was so good. I had a small head of napa cabbage left from my CSA that I was looking for a new recipe for. This recipe showed up in my inbox from one of my favorites, Food52. Most of the other ingredients I had in my kitchen. I left out the tomato and the star anise but simmered the broth with the beef bones from the shank. From the start is smelled so good. It was amazing how much the flavors changed throughout cooking. The broth turned out amazing! Rich and meaty!

 

My only complaint was that there was not enough broth! You can find the original recipe here.

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Mushroom Fettuccine

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Cooking, fettuccine, homemade pasta, Mushroom, Pasta

I love mushrooms! Two nights ago I was inspired to make mushroom pizza and luckily I had some dough in the freezer. I picked up a few ingredients and made mushroom pizza with thyme, garlic, ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella. It was so good that I wanted more. Yesterday I decided to make homemade pasta with a mushroom cream sauce. The farmer’s market has a great mushroom vendor, which I visit most times I go, so I picked up some criminis and shitakes. I used to make pasta pretty often but I hadn’t made it in a very long time. I really enjoy it and it tastes delicious.

I made this dish with mushrooms, thyme, garlic, cream and parmesan. The fettuccine  recipe can be found here. The KitchenAid really helps with rolling out the dough.

You roll it through various thicknesses until you reach the desired thickness. This is the final pass through the roller.

Fresh cut pasta!

Winter CSA Week #6

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Brooklyn, Community-supported agriculture, Crown Heights CSA, CSA, Gueros

Tonight was the final pickup of the season and boy was it a good one. Farmer Fred teased us with greenhouse Spring veggies. I am definitely ready for some leafy greens. We got a bag of baby spinach, a couple small heads of lettuce and a bag of baby kale which I can not wait to use to make my famous massaged kale salad. In addition to 6 pounds of potatoes we got 5 heads of cabbage. Luckily, I had planned to make a big cole slaw this weekend.

This week’s share:
1 bunch Scallions
8 oz. bag Baby Kale
5 lbs. Mixed Beets
2 heads Red Cabbage
3 lbs. Fingerling Potatoes
2 stalks Brussels Sprouts
1 bunch Greenhouse Lettuce
5 lbs. Mixed Carrots
2 heads Savoy Cabbage
8 oz. Baby Spinach
1 head Napa Cabbage
3 lbs. Northern Red Potatoes
1 Korean Moo Radish

The Korean Moo is still a mystery to me.

On the way home we stopped at a little taco place, Gueros, for some delicious and inventive tacos, guacamole and margaritas. I’ve been wanting to try this place since it opened, it was well worth the wait! It is usually packed so when we saw an empty table, we jumped at the opportunity. So good, we’ll definitely be stopping in again!

Croissants

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Baking, Bread, Croissants, Tartine Bread

I made these croissants almost 2 months ago and I am just now getting around to posting it. I was quite amazed and impressed with how these turned out. Professional bakery quality! These bad boys are in the same cookbook as the sourdough bread I recently made. After my success with that, I could not get them out of my head. Tartine Bread is a great cookbook. It’s very informative and yields great results.

I used the same starter that I used with the sourdough bread. After you make the dough, you incorporate a massive amount of butter into it. I think it weighed 6 pounds at the end.

Look at all those layers!

 

I made them smaller than the recipe called for so I ended up with lots. I can’t imagine how big they would be if I followed the recipe.

Delicious flakey layers!

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Winter CSA Week #5

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Cabo San Lucas, Community-supported agriculture, Crown Heights CSA, CSA, Mexican Coffee, Mexico, Patagonia Restaurant

Tonight was the second to last winter CSA pickup. You can definitely tell we are nearing the end. The variety is definitely dwindling. It’s the first week we haven’t gotten lettuce which I always love seeing in the middle of winter. That said, we received a new variety of squash this week, which I think is a red kuri squash.

This week’s share:
1 bunch Italian Parsley  
4 lbs. Mixed Beets
2 heads Red Cabbage
2 lbs. Red Fingerling Potatoes
1 Stalk of Brussels Sprouts
4 lbs. Orange Carrots
1 mixed Squash
1 head Napa Cabbage
2 pcs. Jester Fall Squash
2 lbs. Northern Red Potatoes
1 pc. Daikon Radish

I also just got back from my winter vacation to Cabo, Mexico. It was great to get away from the cold and snow for the sun, sand and whales! A couple culinary highlights: all the meat at Patagonia restaurant in Cabo San Lucas. The Vacio is to die for!

 

And the flaming Mexican coffee. A delicious combination of tequila, kalhua and coffee.

 

With a cherry on top.

 

Winter CSA Week #4

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Brussels sprout, Brussels Sprouts Pasta, Crown Heights CSA, CSA, Pasta, recipes

You can tell we are getting into the colder winter months. Each week has a little less variety than previous week’s share. Having said that there are a couple of new items this week. We’ve never received snow pea shoots before and I don’t really know how to use them. Dumpling squash is new although I think we’ve gotten it once before but I just thought it was delicata which looks very similar. And has anyone heard of Korean moo??

This week’s share:
1 head Cauliflower
1 bunch Mixed Lettuce
1 bag Snow Pea Shoots
4lbs. Mixed Beets
1 head Savoy Cabbage
2 head Broccoli
1 Stalk Brussels Sprouts
4 lbs. Mixed Carrots
2 pcs. of Acorn Squash
1 Napa Cabbage
2 pcs. Dumpling Squash
2 lbs. Kenebec White Potatoes
1 pc. Korean Moo

Tonight for dinner I made some pasta with Brussels sprouts, the ones pictured and some more from the farmer’s market. I quartered the Brussels sprouts and sauteed them with garlic and olive oil. After they were tender I added enough cream to coat the bottom of the pan. Let that cook down a bit then toss with penne pasta and parmesan cheese.

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Country Bread

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Baking, Bread, Country Bread, Tartine Bread

I finally made bread with great success! After my failed attempt at making a sourdough starter, I wanted to really learn how to make bread. I was searching for a good cookbook to teach me and decided on Tartine Bread. When I got the book and read the steps to make the starter and bread I was a little intimidated by it. That probably explains why it has taken me 8 months to try it. It is a pretty involved process so I am glad I waited until I had time to focus on it.

You start by making the starter. The cookbook doesn’t give timing for this step, you just have to watch your starter and learn. I used mine after 12 days. After that you make the leaven the night before you plan to bake. The next morning it should be ready to use. The way you test it is to drop a spoonful into a bowl of water and it will float when if it is ready. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I saw mine float! The leftover leaven is now your starter for future loaves.

I should note that all the measurements in this cookbook are in grams so a digital scale is necessary. After mixing all the ingredients, the dough rests for 3-4 hours in a bowl. In this first rest you have to knead every 30 minutes. It’s a very needy dough. (No pun intended!) All kneading is done in the bowl which is nice. You shape it, let it rest some more, shape again and rest.

You bake in a preheated dutch oven with the lid on to keep the steam in for the first half and then remove the lid for the second half. The hardest part was removing the dough from the bowl into the dutch oven. The dough stuck to the dish towels, more flour next time. I also had a hard time scoring it.

This turned out amazing! Look at those air bubbles. I am shocked and impressed that this came out of my kitchen. It tastes like really good, professionally baked bread. I see a lot of bread in my future! If you are serious about making great bread, get yourself a Tartine Bread cookbook!

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Cabbage, Tomato and Rice Bake

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Cabbage, Cooking, CSA, recipes, Rice, Tomato

I’ve set a goal for myself this week. I want to cook dinner (or eat the leftovers) everyday this week. No takeout or eating out this week. I have been too lazy when it comes to cooking dinner lately and I hope this will help me get back to it. The week is off to a good start. I started out with this dish and it made enough for several meals. A few things inspired this dish; chicken and rice soup, baked risotto and a leftover half of green cabbage. This came out really good. The arborio rice made it creamy and the tomato added a nice acidic note. It was a nice hearty meal for a dreary day.

Cabbage, Tomato and Rice Bake

Ingredients:
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 head green cabbage thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic minced
2/3 cup arborio rice
15oz can of tomatoes (I used a jar of tomatoes I canned over the summer)
2-3 cups chicken stock

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven or other ovenproof pot over medium heat. Saute the onions until they are translucent. Add cabbage and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the cabbage starts to wilt. Stir in garlic and cook for a minute. Add arborio rice and stir to coat with oil. Add the tomatoes and their liquid and enough chicken stock to cover most of the cabbage.

Cover and move to the oven. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir a couple times while it is cooking.

You could change this and add different vegetables to suit your tastes. A wonderful addition would be grated parmesan.

Winter CSA Week #3

Tags

Cabbage, Community-supported agriculture, Crown Heights CSA, CSA, Pasta, Pasta with Caramelized Cabbage, recipes

Happy New Year!

We are halfway through the winter CSA. It has been a great run so far! I missed posting  the last pickup with the hectic holiday schedule. It was equally as good as this week’s. I am impressed with the veggies Farmer Fred keeps sending.

This week’s share:

2 lbs. Sweet Potatoes 

2 lbs. Fingerling Potatoes  

3 lbs. Mixed Beets

1 head Red Cabbage

1 head Broccoli

4 lbs. Orange Carrots

1 Stalk Brussels Sprouts

3 lbs. Mixed Carrots

1 pc of Acorn Squash

1 head Green Boston Lettuce

1 Napa Cabbage (I missed this)

1 pc Delicata Squash

3 pcs. Baby Bok Choy

1 head Red Boston Lettuce

1 Japanese Daikon Radish 

1 small bulb Garlic

It’s good to see all these colors in the middle of winter.

Shh…don’t tell my boyfriend but I served him anchovies! Actually, it was anchovy paste. If he knew, he would be totally grossed out. You can’t taste any fishiness and it just adds an extra depth to the dish. I had a head of green cabbage left from the last pickup and I was craving pasta, as always. One of the first recipes to come up was this one from the NY Times. I didn’t follow the recipe but it was the inspiration. I made the sauce with the anchovy paste, garlic and butter. The cabbage was seasoned with salt and pepper and sauteed with garlic, and oil until caramelized. Tossed the sauce, cabbage and pasta together and topped with parmesan cheese.

Holiday Cookies!

Tags

Baking, Cookie, Dorie Greenspan, Holiday Cookies, recipes

I spent all last weekend baking my holiday cookies. I want to quickly share them with you before I jet out of town. They are all delish and I hope you find inspiration to make your own!

The first cookie is not actually a cookie but a bar. I made peanut butter bars from my Baked cookbook. These are great however the rice crispy bottom layer was too gooey and wouldn’t hold together. Also, they melt like crazy so you have to keep them in the fridge and eat them quick. But very tasty!

Then onto another recipe from another great cookbook. I received the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook as a birthday gift. I was really looking forward to making a recipe from it since they are all so unique. This recipe was very involved and I am not sure how much I like them but they got good reviews from the crowd. This is the cornflake marshmallow peppermint, for a little holiday flair, cookie.

The third cookie I found in my Bon Appetit, I get the iPad version through my sister, and is from one of my favs, Dorie Greenspan. She recently opened a bakery here in New York called Beurre & Sel that sells her wonderful cookies. I haven’t made it there yet but I tried this recipe for “Jammers”. These were nice and buttery and jammy.

 

The next one holds a special place in my heart. I also found this recipe in Bon Appetit. These speculoos I first came across in Belgium on my trip. Every time you order a coffee in Belgium it is served with one of these cookies. It’s a nice touch. They are spiced but it’s not too overwhelming which I enjoy.

 

And finally a nice change from typical holiday cookies. A light and fresh lemon ricotta cookie by Giada De Laurentiis. The ricotta made the cookie very soft and fluffy and I love  lemon flavor.

 

Happy Holidays to all my fantastic readers!

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