Goat Cheese Spread with Herb Oil

Adapted from Giada's book. This makes a killer dip for parties or potlucks, and it is amazingly easy!

Chop herbs in a food processor:
1/4 C parsley
1/4 C mint
1/4 C basil
1/4 tea salt
pepper
(I didn't have any basil but it still was great)

Turn on food processor and add 1/4 C olive oil in a stream to emulsify. Then pour out herb oil into a container.

Stick in food processor and whir until creamy:
8 0z goat cheese (Trader Joe's has some good prices)
1/4 C cream or half and half

Spread the goat cheese on a serving plate, then drizzle herb oil over the top. You can add sliced tomatoes or toasted walnut pieces for garnish.

Chocolate Brioche

This was killer bread. I like it even better than cinnamon rolls! It makes a great gift or for a potluck/party. The dough mixes up really fast, most of the time comes from shaping, rising and baking the loaves. Adapted from this book on Artisan Breads.

Brioche Dough

Mix in a large bowl:
3/4 C (1.5 sticks) butter, melted
3/4 C warm water
1/4 C honey
3/4 tea yeast
3/4 tea salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix in without kneading until combined:
3.75 C unbleached all purpose flour (or combine regular flour with 1 C whole wheat bread flour. Whatever you do, don't use "pastry" flour, it doesn't have enough gluten for breadmaking)

Don't add additional flour, the dough will be "wet" compared to traditional bread dough. This is ok.

Cover and let rise for 2 hours at room temp. Chill in refrigerator.

Chocolate filling
Melt in pyrex cup in the microwave, about 60 seconds:
1 C chocolate chips or diced bittersweet chocolate
2 TB butter

Add and mix until spreadable:
2 TB honey or corn syrup
1/3 C cocoa powder
1 tea vanilla extract

Cut prepared, chilled dough (above) in half into two balls. Roll out each on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate mixture in a uniformly thin layer. Roll up dough into a loaf shape.

Grease a loaf pan or other pan and drop the dough into the pan.

Cover and let bread rest 1 hour 40 minutes.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Wait until bread is cooled to slice, otherwise the chocolate oozes out all over the knife.

Gramma's Grainola

This is the grainola my gramma always makes for us. Gramma always calls it "grainola" but you could say "granola". Each batch is slightly different from the next but always delicious and better than any store bought cereal.

If you buy the ingredients in bulk at Winco it is pretty cheap compared to the packaged breakfast cereals. This is a "clean out the pantry" recipe because you can use up any grains and nuts you have around (just make sure they're not rancid!)

This recipe makes quite a bit of grainola, you can double-- you'll just need a huge mixing bowl and multiple rimmed cookie sheets.

Delicious with rice/almond milk by itself, or with banana slices and blueberries. Or sprinkle over greek yogurt as a parfait.

Grainola Recipe:
Mix in large bowl the dry ingredients:
5 C old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 C flax meal or wheat germ or oat bran
1/4 C millet (optional) 
2 C unsweetened coconut (I like mixing shredded coconut and flake coconut)
1 C raw sunflower seeds
1/2 - 1 C sesame seeds
1 C pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 C chopped nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashew etc.)


Stir over low heat until dissolved, but not boiling:
3/4 C water
3/4 C brown sugar or approx 9 medjool dates (approx 3/4 C), pitted and blended with the water
3/4 C vegetable oil (avocado works great, olive oil also ok)  
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
1 TB molasses

1/2 - 3/4 tea salt
1.5 tea cinnamon

Pull off heat and stir in 2 tea vanilla extract (or grind up whole vanilla beans). Optional add a few drops of almond extract. Stir.

Pour over dry mixture in batches, stirring in between. Spread into rimmed baking sheets and bake at 275 degrees F, checking and stirring every 20 minutes until the grainola reaches the desired crunchiness. We typically do this 2 times, then turn the oven off and let the grainola cool in the turned off oven. 

Make sure it is totally dry before storing (or you could develop mold!!). 

Makes great travel food and gifts.

Coconut Roasted Almonds

I discovered these from a snack vendor at the Saturday Market.

Preheat oven to 225-250 degrees F. (don't go higher, your nuts will burn, yuck!)

Beat 1 egg white, add 1 tea water, and beat some more until frothy.

Add 4 C almonds, stir to coat. Now you can add the seasonings.

At this point, you could add spices from a garam masala mix, BBQ spices, or plain old cinnamon sugar. I like to sprinkle in:
1/4 tea salt
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C ground coconut

Spread on a baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Creamy Mushroom & Pea Curry (Vegan)

This is a really light/fresh tasting curry that doesn't require hours of cooking or a pressure cooker- very tasty over basmati rice.

1. Prep Ahead:

• Food process 3 gloves garlic & 1 TB grated ginger. Dump into a little pile on cutting board to reserve.
• Food process 1 small white/yellow onion until in chunks with 3-4 dried red chilies (I used a combination of dundicut and regular Mexican-food-aisle chilies)
  
• Quarter or slice 2 C mushrooms
• Open cans for pureed tomatoes & coconut milk
  

2. Heat 1-2TB olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tea cumin seeds and cook until they brown a little.
3. Add the garlic & ginger paste, saute until starting to turn golden.
4. Add chopped onion & chilies, stir and cook until golden. Then remove pan from heat and let rest 1-2 minutes.

5. Scoop fried onion mix into food processor and grind until smooth.
6. Add more oil to the pan and sprinkle a 1/4 tea more cumin seeds. Let cook 1-2 minutes. then add back the ground fried onion mix and stir.
7. Add 3/4 tea garam masala, 1/4 tea cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg, stir.
8. Add mushroom, stir. Cook covered 2 minutes.

9. Add 1 C pureed tomatoes, 1/2 C rice milk, 2-4 TB lite coconut milk, 1 C frozen peas, 1/4 tea salt, 1/2 tea brown sugar and 1/4 amchur or dried mango powder. Stir, and cook covered for 10 minutes.
10. Serve over basmati rice.

Asparagus & Shrimp Risotto

This is a really good early spring recipe, and the shrimp and asparagus pair well. I adapted my recipe from here:http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1873423

You'll need a bit of broth- I used some homemade chicken broth I had leftover from a Costco chicken.

Set up 5 or so cups of broth (or add water if you don't have enough) on the back burner and bring it up to simmering. Basically, you just want to keep it warm for using in the rice.

Heat 1 TB olive oil and 2 TB butter in a large pan. Meanwhile, mince 1/2 a white onion and 3 cloves garlic. Add the garlic & onion and cook until translucent.

Add 1.25 C arborio rice and stir to coat. Don't burn your rice while toasting like I did :P, so watch it closely.

Pour 1/3 C dry white wine and 1 TB lemon juice into the pan carefully, deglaze pan and stir. Once the wine has evaporated, add a scoop of the hot broth and 1/4 tea salt and stir, cover.

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Check the covered rice every couple minutes and add scoops of broth as it absorbs the previous additions. Meanwhile, clean and chop asparagus, peel shrimp.

At the 15 minute timer mark, add about 1 C chopped asparagus and 1-2 C peeled shrimp and stir. Cover pan and let cook 4-6 minutes until shrimp is pink/cooked.

Now add garnishes:
2-4 TB grated hard cheese (parmesan) 1 TB chopped parsley salt & pepper to taste

Serve with extra cheese and parsley.

Chicken Broth (Pressure Cooker)

I'm totally hooked on the Costco Rotisserie chickens- and what better way to make my $5 chicken stretch but to make broth! I've never actually made broth the old fashioned way-- I like using the pressure cooker since it is faster, and I have a hunch that the flavor is more concentrated. The nice thing about making broth is you can use up all of those leftover veggie bits like celery tops.

 Stick in pressure cooker: 

2 carrots

chopped 1/2 onion

chopped 2 sticks celery

chopped 4 cloves garlic 

crushed 5-6 black peppercorns 

2-4 bay leaves 

Chicken bones and whatever's left in the rotisserie chicken container 

4-5 C water 

sprigs parsley (optional) 

crushed red pepper flakes (optional) 

Start heating the filled pressure cooker over medium/high heat with the cover and bobble top on (I have an old school pressure cooker). 

Cook for 20 minutes, then pull off heat and let it drop in pressure (slow release method). When you open it, strain out the spices, veggie and chicken chunks. I usually stick the broth in the fridge so it is ready to use later, but you could also freeze it in mini portions in a silicone muffin pan.

Raspberry Cream Roll Cake

It is a shame I didn't get pictures of this in the end, it looked really nice cut into slices. I fell in love with roll cakes ("ro- ru kei-ki" in native Japanese!) in Japan- you can find any manner of these cakes in the depachika stores under department stores at the train station hubs.

Make sure you have the right size pan (rectangular enough to facilitate rolling from one side), I used a 12x 17 inch pan, Joy of Cooking states a 10.5 x 15.5 pan works too. Also, make sure you have wax paper/parchment or foil, otherwise I think this would be impossible.

Since you need to beat the yolks and whites separately, plan for separate bowls and mixers/beaters so you don't contaminate the whites with fat from the yolks.

1. Crack and separate 4 eggs- it is easiest to do this when cold, so I did this first and then waited to beat them (book says to wait until they are 70 degrees). As usual when working with egg whites, make sure none of the yolk gets into your egg white bowl. I stuck the whites in my stand mixer (in preparation for beating them into peaks), and the yolks into a pyrex measuring cup.

2. Find and measure pan- grease, line with foil overhanging edges, grease again (believe me on this). Preheat oven to 375 F.

3. Beak the 4 egg yolks from step 1 until light yellow
4. Gradually add 3/4 C granulated sugar and keep beating until gets thick and creamy- it will change consistency
5. Add 1 tea vanilla and mix
6. In a medium bowl, sift or break up the clumps in 3/4 C cake flour, 3/4 tea baking powder, and 1/2 tea salt.
7. Add the egg yolk/sugar mixture with the flour mixture and beat until "smooth", mine was quite thick.

8. In separate clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry
9. Carefully fold egg whites into other mixture in two batches
10. Pour into prepared pan, bake 12 minutes

11. Remove from oven, pull foil and cake out of pan. Cut off hard/crunchy ends from the cake and use a knife to peel cake off of foil. I flipped the cake over for the shiny top would be on the outside of the cake.

12. Use foil to carefully roll cake into the shape, so when it cools you can re-roll with the filling.

13. Beat 1 small container of whipping cream until thick. Add 1/2 C of raspberry jam and 1/2 tea vanilla.

14. Spread raspberry cream inside cake, carefully re-roll with seam at bottom.

15. Move cake to final plate or serving dish, frost with additional raspberry cream. Refrigerate before serving.

Really Good Guacamole

I've never had much luck with homemade guacamole until reading this book. The trick is to rinse the minced onion before adding it to the guac- rinsing removes that bitter onion taste that has historically taken over any of my aspiring guacs or salsas.

Gently chop into large bits in food processor:
1 large tomato
1 serrano or jalapeno chile
1-2 garlic cloves
3 TB chopped cilantro

Scoop into a serving dish and set aside.

Mince ½ a white onion in clean food processor. Dump minced onion into strainer and rinse under water. Add ½ C of the rinsed minced onion into serving dish with the tomato mixture.

Halve 3 large ripe avocados, remove pits. Using dull table knife, cut a checkerboard pattern into cut side of guac, then use spoon to scoop out into serving dish.

Use back of spoon to coarsely mash avocado. Stir in 2-3 tea of lime or lemon juice and up to 1 teaspoon of salt.

Serve with tortilla chips!

Coconut Panna Cotta (Vegan)

I got my inspiration for this from Heidi's cookbook, but since we don't keep milk in the house I used rice milk, which makes it vegan. This is very fast to make, since it uses Japanese kanten or agar-agar flakes instead of gelatin. You can buy them in either the seaweed/gelatin aisle at an Asian grocery. As a bonus, it is a really light dessert and looks beautiful. I can't wait to serve these with fresh Oregon berries after a BBQ!

Stir in a small saucepan and let sit for 10 minutes to dissolve the kanten:
1 can coconut milk
1.25 C rice milk
1/3 C organic sugar
1.5 kanten (agar-agar) flakes (or use 3/4 tea if you have agar powder)

Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer for a few minutes, stirring until kanten is incorporated. Pour into lightly greased individual ramkeins. Chill until set (40 min to an hour).

When ready to serve, carefully remove panna cotta from ramekins and invert onto serving plates. Top with macerated berries.