Simply Recipes

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:47:52 -0800

This is one righteous pumpkin cheesecake. (Hmm, now that I think about it, what does that mean? I have visions of Alvin the Chipmunk taking a bite of this cake and squeeking "Righteous!") It's tall, it's proud, it's creamy. It loves being bathed in caramel sauce and whipped cream. It's what happens when a New York cheesecake decides to dress up for Halloween. For years my mother has been asking me to make a cheesecake for her (she is a "cake girl" and cheesecake her favorite cake), and for years I've declined (until now), because the whole process just seemed too complicated. Well frankly, it is a little complicated. You do need a springform pan, and you do need to cook the cake in a water bath. But it is entirely doable. I think you could even halve the filling recipe and make it in a standard pie tin, if you don't have a springform pan (reduce the cooking time). And if you are a fan of cheesecake and pumpkin pie, this cake is so worth doing. Just be warned that it serves a small army, which might be just what you need for the holidays.

Continue reading "Pumpkin Cheesecake" �

Turnip Gratin

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:46:45 -0800

I'm guessing that you are either a turnip lover or not. Turnips aren't one of those happy-go-lucky neutral vegetables, like green beans for example, that seem to get along with everyone. No, turnips have a bit more "I dare you to eat me" attitude, that unfortunately ends up keeping too many people away from them. Well, if you are a turnip lover, you should be drooling right now, just with the very concept of this turnip gratin, a casserole layered with thinly sliced, tender turnips, onions, bread, and bubbly browned Gruyere cheese. You will not be disappointed (at least I hope you won't). If you fall in the "uh, maybe not, no, no thank you" camp, if there is one recipe that could possibly change your mind, this is it. We have made it 4 times in the last 2 weeks and will likely find its way to our Thanksgiving table this year. So, if you're on the fence, give it a shot!

Continue reading "Turnip Gratin" �

Pasta with Butternut Parmesan Sauce

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:34:59 -0800

One of the best things about fall is the abundance of pumpkins and hardy winter squash. Ever wonder why winter squash is called "winter" squash when it first makes its appearance in the fall? Perhaps because if stored in a cool place, they'll last several months, well into winter. Anyway, butternut squash is the queen of winter squashes. The taste is so good, and so consistent, that from what I understand, most "canned pumpkin" that we use to make pumpkin pie is actually made with a variety of pumpkin more akin to butternut squash than to the pumpkins we use for jack-o-lanterns. (See Canned pumpkin is it really pumpkin?)

The ever fabulous Garrett came over recently with a pint of roasted butternut squash pur�e and a mission to create a pasta sauce with it. We often find butternut squash inside of ravioli, why not on the outside? It just needed to be thinned a bit with cream, made savory with Parmesan, and brightened with some acid (from lemon juice) and parsley. The result was absolutely delicious; I ate the leftover sauce with a spoon straight out the fridge for days. The way we made it was chunky, with a little crunch from the shallots, but if you wanted it smooth, you could easily pur�e it some more or pass it through a food mill.

Continue reading "Pasta with Butternut Parmesan Sauce" �

Sloppy Joes

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:35 -0800

From the recipe archive, a warm dish for a chilly day! ~Elise

Just hearing the words "sloppy joe" from my mother used to send us kids into a tizzy. There was something wonderfully fun about getting to eat a burger/sandwich that was messy by design. I've been waiting to make this when my nephew was in town because sloppy joes really are a quintessential kid food. Well the kid is here, and after he explained to me that he didn't like tomatoes with his hamburger and he wanted his onions on top, and I explained to him that sloppy joes are made with the onions mixed in with the beef, and he eats spaghetti so what's wrong with tomatoes, anyway?, he relented. And when called to dinner he ate the whole thing (with high praise), even though he had been making and eating s'mores all day. (Wouldn't touch the coleslaw though. Kids. Lest you think we are the ones feeding him s'mores, he knows how to make them himself and sneaks into the kitchen when we aren't looking.)

Continue reading "Sloppy Joes" �

Brussels Sprouts with Black Bean Garlic Sauce

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:22:05 -0800

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic as he shares one of his favorite quick and easy brussels sprouts recipes. ~Elise

"It's funky. Abrasive. It's not afraid to get in your face and call your mama ugly."

That's how black bean garlic sauce was first described to me. I was one of the RA's in the dorms way-back-when in college and some of my freshmen residents were teaching me how to use a wok. One of them tossed the sauce in with some cooked chicken and greens and as the steam and smoke rose the air became salty and pungent. The aroma was so thick you could suck it in and roll it around on your tongue. A flip of the wok and suddenly lunch was served. A quick taste and I could see that the sauce was an ingredient that demanded your attention and could only be tamed by other brassy ingredients.

Continue reading "Brussels Sprouts with Black Bean Garlic Sauce" �

Pasta with Cauliflower

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:11:05 -0800

Okay, so I'm weird. I'm one of those people to whom you can say "cauliflower" and "anchovies" and I'll start salivating. I'll take cauliflower any which way (though IMHO roasted is best) and anchovies? Well anchovies are one childhood prejudice ("hold the anchovies!") I've happily outgrown. (Thankfully, along with my childhood anti-opera and country music sentiments, too. What is it with kids not liking things before they've ever tried them?) No, the anchovies will not make this dish taste like fish, they will however give it an indescribable savoriness (umami) that will make you want to eat the whole bowl. This pasta with cauliflower recipe I've adapted from a recipe from my dear friend Pam in Napa who adapted it from a Sicilian recipe by Vincent Schiavelli that appeared in Saveur. It's outrageously good; I've been eating the leftovers for days, which just seem to get better as the flavors have more time to meld.

Continue reading "Pasta with Cauliflower" �

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatillos

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:38:22 -0800

Every few days, for the last month, I've gone out to my garden in the morning and gathered enough tomatillos to cook up with some eggs for breakfast. Here it is November, and the leaves are all turning, but we're in Northern California and we still have yet to get a frost, so the tomatillos are still growing, albeit more slowly. We grew up with my mother making huevos a la Mexicana, or scrambled eggs cooked in a tomato and jalapeno salsa. This recipe is a salsa verde version of my mom's huevos. Add some chorizo and you'll have a Mexican version of Green Eggs and Ham! Yes, the eggs are green, but if you, like me, love salsa verde, this is a good thing.

Continue reading "Scrambled Eggs with Tomatillos" �

Cranberry Applesauce

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:52:09 -0800

Every fall we await the arrival of fresh cranberries in the grocery aisles. "Have you seen them yet?" "Are they in?" We compare notes for cranberry sightings at the local stores. When the cranberries do finally come in, we load up, so we have plenty of frozen cranberries to last us the year. Then we start cooking with them. Cranberry relish, cranberry sorbet, even cranberry salsa. We even have three different recipes for apple cranberry pie. One of my father's favorite things to make is applesauce with cranberries added in for tartness, flavor, and color. We'll eat it for breakfast, as a side for pork, or with ice cream for dessert.

Continue reading "Cranberry Applesauce" �

Marc's Cashew Chicken

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:46:19 -0800

Updated. Originally posted in 2006.

This cashew chicken recipe is one of my favorites on the site, and not just because it hails from my friend Marc Canter who I don't see nearly enough. I first posted it several years ago after a raucous and memorable dinner that Marc prepared, accompanied by his wife Lisa and their kids Mimi and Lucy (any dinner with little kids tends to be raucous and memorable, don't you agree?) Marc had been serenading me with stories of his famous cashew chicken, his trademark dish, tested and perfected over decades of crashing at the homes of old and new friends in exchange for his cooking. One of the things I like so much about Marc's cashew chicken is that it is a good base recipe from which one can easily expand. Several people suggested the addition of some ginger and onion greens, which I agree works well and I've added in this updated version as an option. I've also enjoyed it with some fresh chopped pineapple thrown in, giving it some sweetness. Others have added vegetables such as broccoli or snow peas. Note that the amounts are all approximate. Marc doesn't really measure; like most natural cooks I know, he "eyeballs" it. But with these ingredients, in approximately the right proportions, it's hard to go wrong.

Continue reading "Marc's Cashew Chicken" �

Asian Coleslaw

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:54:58 -0800

We eat a lot of cabbage around here. Could be my father's Minnesota German roots, but for whatever reason, coleslaw is on the menu several times a week. I recently had a lovely Asian coleslaw at a local grill, that was served with an ahi tuna burger. This is my attempt to recreate that coleslaw, and I think I've come pretty close (may try my hand at the burger sometime too). It's super easy to put together; the defining ingredients are cabbage, rice vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. This version also has some peanut butter in the dressing and some twice toasted peanuts. So good! We had to stop eating it after our "test kitchen" tasting, just to save enough for dinner.

Continue reading "Asian Coleslaw" �

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:29:19 -0800

From the recipe archive, for Halloween pumpkin carving.

Fall has arrived and with it, the pumpkin season. There are always plenty of pumpkins to carve up around Halloween time and a great way to make use of the pumpkin seeds is eat them, salted and toasted. Our preference is with the shells on - if they are toasted properly they are wonderfully crunchy and easy to eat. It helps if you are going to eat them with the shells on that you use seeds from sugar pumpkins, somewhat smaller than the mega-sized carving pumpkins (not really pumpkins but large squash). The trick? Boil the seeds in salted water first, and then toast them in the oven.

Continue reading "Toasted Pumpkin Seeds" �

Book Review: Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:03:58 -0800

Like sunshine on a cloudy day. That is my friend Jaden Hair, and that is the spirit that dances throughout her just released The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. If you are not familiar with Jaden, she is the wacky and wonderful woman behind the ever-so-steamy Steamy Kitchen blog and a frequent contributor to Simply Recipes.

Do you like Chinese food? Thai food? Vietnamese food? Have you, like me, shied away from attempting Asian dishes because they sometimes seem just a little too intimidating? Enter Jaden. The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook is filled with accessible recipes for the American home cook, with plenty of "how to" step-by-step photographs for techniques. Learn how to make potsticker dumplings, how to assemble rice paper summer rolls, and the best tips for buying Chinese broccoli. Jaden has descriptions of the basic pantry ingredients most used in Asian cooking, though there are plenty of recipes that you can likely put together today with pantry items you have on hand (like the steak with sweet tomato onion sauce and her coconut shrimp).

Continue reading "Book Review: Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair" �

Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Rustic Tart

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:33:25 -0800

Every fall we are blessed with a bounty of apples and walnuts. I grew up in what used to be a walnut orchard. At one time our home had 5 huge trees, covering both front and back yards, and yielding 500 pounds of walnuts a year (which sounds great unless you are the teenager chain-ganged into spending your afternoons and weekends raking mountains of dank leaves and stooping to pick those hundreds of pounds of nuts.) The trees are old now. We've lost 2 of the 5 trees (commercial orchard trees don't last forever and these were planted at least 50 years ago), and the remaining trees are just sputtering. It's only a matter of time before they're gone too. So we enjoy the bounty while we have it (and leave a bunch for the crows and squirrels.) This tart is a riff on an apple walnut turnover I made this summer. Same idea, an outstanding combination by the way, just this time with maple syrup instead of honey, and in a dead-easy-to-assemble rustic tart form. It's savory, and a little sweet. I ate a big slice for lunch; my father had his for dessert. Would be great for a brunch too.

Continue reading "Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Rustic Tart" �

Spicy Vegetarian Chili

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:24:36 -0800

Those of you who have been reading Simply Recipes for a while probably sense (rightly) that my father is a committed carnivore. Thus you may appreciate that dad, spending an afternoon making this vegetarian chili with vegetables that he had bought at the farmers market that morning, would only put so much care into a meat-free chili, his dinner, if that chili were darn good. This vegetable chili is that good. It's excellent. Spicy, flavorful, delicious. Of course my mother did have to convince dad that no, we didn't need steak in addition to the chili, the beans were full of protein. And no, neither did we need potatoes. We served the chili with French bread.

Continue reading "Spicy Vegetarian Chili" �

Pear Butter

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:16:45 -0800

Every year during apple season I spend days hovering over a large copper pot, slowly stirring a thick, bubbling mixture that will become our year's supply of apple butter. And every fall for the last several seasons I've wondered how I would work the same magic on pears. I've seen plenty of recipes for pear butter, but most of them look like apple butter to me, heavily spiced with cinnamon and cloves. Pears are more floral than apples. I wanted to see them with ginger, and nutmeg, and maybe some cardamom. So when my pal Hank offered me a a bagful of Bartletts freshly picked from his backyard tree, I was all over it. This pear butter is similar to apple butter in that it is a spicy, sweet, tangy spread, great over buttered toast (there is no "butter" in apple butter or pear butter), but with a distinctly different taste coming from the pears (obviously) and the seasonings of star anise, ginger, lemon, cardamom, and nutmeg.

Continue reading "Pear Butter" �