Simply Recipes

Shrimp Cocktail

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:08:45 -0800

Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of the oh-so-steamy SteamyKitchen.com as she shares an oh-so-spicy shrimp cocktail recipe she found on a trip to Asheville, North Carolina. ~Elise

I�ll be honest with you, I never order shrimp cocktail at a restaurant. Why? Because almost always the shrimp is too cold, the sauce is jarred and the dish is way overpriced.

But for some reason, a couple of weeks ago while on a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, I was possessed. It might have been the shock of the fresh mountain air (in Florida, the largest mountain we have is a speed bump)

With the waitress hovering over me, my finger stopped at the �Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail with Fresh Homemade Cocktail Sauce.�

The finger paused a little too long at the word �Sauce� and she took it as a sign of my order and zoomed off to make it happen.

Woooaaahhh.... $18.00 for a shrimp cocktail, are you kidding me? I was too embarrassed to change my order, because really, it was my own lingering finger fault.

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Quinoa Pilaf

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:58:55 -0800

Have you ever cooked with quinoa? It's a South American grain-like seed that one prepares in a fashion similar to rice, simmered in water until the liquid is all absorbed. I first started cooking with quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa) when I lived in San Francisco years ago. It has this wonderful nutty flavor, that actually doesn't need much added to it; I used to make a quick batch, pour on some flax seed oil, sprinkle with a little salt, and gobble it up. If you have never tried it, I encourage you to track some down. It's inexpensive, easy to make, tastes great, and is surprisingly high in protein. For those of us who are sensitive to the gluten in wheat or barley, it's entirely gluten-free. You can find it at Trader Joe's or at Whole Foods.

The following is a quinoa pilaf recipe based on one given to me by my friend Steve. The first time I made it I thought I would improve upon it by using chicken stock in place of the water. Bad idea. The pilaf ended up tasting like chicken stock, not quinoa. All of the lovely nuttiness of the quinoa was drowned out by the chicken flavor. This time I stayed with water, and instead added fresh herbs from our garden, and a just-picked lemon cucumber. I served it cold, more like a pilaf salad, though it would work warm too.

Do you have a favorite quinoa recipe? If so, I would love to hear about it.

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Happy Fourth!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:01:20 -0800

Happy Fourth! If you are still thinking of what to bring to the BBQ, consider one of our grill recipes, or picnic salads. Strawberry shortcake is still my all-time favorite Fourth of July dessert, or a freshly baked fruit cobbler. For a quick tour of what some of the other food bloggers might be preparing this weekend, check out the Food Blog Search results for Fourth of July recipes.

Speaking of potlucks and picnic salads, I'm always on the lookout for good ideas. What's your favorite dish to bring to a summer potluck? Let us know in the comments.

Have a safe, fun, and well supervised (for the kids out there) Fourth of July this weekend!

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Apricot Berry Cobbler

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:40:07 -0800

My friend Suzanne has been coming over a lot recently, helping my mother and me raid my next door neighbor Pat's Blenheim apricot tree (with Pat's blessing of course). Suzanne has 3 growing teenagers to feed, so she can put those apricots to work! This week she walked me through her steps of making a fruit cobbler, using blackberries and Pat's apricots. What I love about cobbler recipes is that they are so forgiving. If they end up runny, that's okay because you aren't trying to contain them in a pie shell. If they're a little too tart, just serve them with some vanilla ice cream. Cobblers travel well for potlucks and you just serve them with a spoon. Best of all, they're a wonderful way to enjoy the fruit of the season.

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Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:47:57 -0800

"I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill..." While I'm pretty sure this song isn't about blueberries, every time I hear it all that comes to mind is a huge mound of them waiting for me to dig in. (Like Rock Candy Mountain, but made of blueberries.) During the summer when they're in season, I can't get enough of them. I'll buy baskets of blueberries just for me to eat, all by myself. No guilt. No justification needed (though if you do need a reason, they're great for your brain and are considered a superfood). Half a basket gets dumped into the morning's cereal, the rest nibbled throughout the day. We keep bags of frozen blueberries around for pancakes or smoothies; fresh ones are usually just eaten straight. With this blueberry frozen yogurt recipe, you can use either fresh or frozen blueberries, though you might want to lean to the frozen as you are going to freeze them anyway, and the frozen berries are usually cheaper. The tartness of the yogurt seems to just intensify the flavor of the blueberries, and a little cinnamon adds a touch of spice.

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Easy Grilled Salmon

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:04:17 -0800

Well, summer has finally come to Sacramento. After weeks of remarkably pleasant 80-degree weather, the hundreds have arrived. Yesterday 108�F. Today, 104�F. And when the mercury goes up, the grill comes out. Who wants to heat up the kitchen when the AC is barely hanging in there? My friend Suzanne cooks outdoors on her grill all summer long. A few days ago we got together to cook some salmon, and she showed me her favorite method of grilling salmon, quick and easy. There are lots of marinades you can use with salmon; I've included four here. Suzanne usually just uses a simple soy sauce and minced garlic marinade. I tend to get a little fancier with the addition of mirin rice wine, ginger, and sugar.

Do you have a favorite way to prepare grilled salmon? A favorite salmon marinade? If so, please let us know about it in the comments.

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Novella Carpenter - Farm City

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:43:09 -0800

Move over Martha. There's a new high priestess of growing your own food in town, and her name is Novella Carpenter. Who needs a palatial estate in suburban New York when you have a run-down apartment in the middle of a city with an empty lot behind you? If you have ever read Michael Pollan's seminal Omnivore's Dilemma and wondered if maybe you too could raise chickens (and perhaps kill them for dinner), take a look at Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter, a former student of Pollan's who set up her own urban farm on a gritty dead-end street in Oakland.

I first met Novella Carpenter at the Taste3 conference in Napa where she gave a rousing and hilarious talk and slide show about her urban farm adventures. Clearly, this is a woman obsessed. (At Taste 3 Michael Ruhlman introduced her as insane; after reading her book I would have to agree.) Not content to just raise her own chickens, keep bees, and garden in her limited urban space, she moved on to ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, and even the more challenging, pigs. Who the heck raises two red Duroc pigs in a postage stamp-sized backyard in the city? They may be cute to start, but as Novella and her boyfriend were soon to find out, they have voracious appetites and they quickly grow very, very big.

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Rhubarb Crumble

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:16:07 -0800

When my father was a kid growing up in Minnesota, in the summer he used to love to chew on rhubarb that grew like a weed around there, RAW. That's right. Raw. (The stalks, not the leaves which are poisonous.) Have you ever tried biting into a piece of raw rhubarb stalk? I dare you. It's like a hundred times more sour than a lemon (okay maybe a little exaggeration here). It's screaming tart. It's "what was I thinking?" tart. Anyway, rhubarb is not safe around this house. The refrigerator half life for rhubarb is a couple hours at best. This last bunch we put to work into a lovely rhubarb crumble, based on a recipe dad found in Oprah magazine (yes, I had to get over the shock of that too, my dad, reading Oprah? then again she does have good recipes). Taking a tip from The Flavor Bible, I added a touch of cardamom to the vanilla and rhubarb in the filling, rhubarb+cardamom+vanilla being one of those match-made-in-heaven flavor combinations.

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Salmon Macaroni Salad

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:45:15 -0800

I distinctly remember the tall cans of dark pink salmon that used to be in our pantry when I was a kid. Although we could any time open a can of tuna or sardines and eat to our hearts content without permission, the canned salmon was off limits. Although the excuse my dad gave was, "it's special" (followed by "keep your hands off"), I think the real reason was that he loved the stuff and always wanted to make sure there was a can or two in the pantry when he wanted it. Nothing lasted that long in the pantry of a family with six kids.

One of my favorite things to do with canned salmon is to make a simple salmon macaroni salad with it, a riff off our family favorite tuna macaroni salad. You can choose to add sliced lettuce (iceberg works best) to the salad, but it works best as is, without lettuce, if you are planning to bring it to a picnic or have it last for leftovers.

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Introducing Good Bite

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:51:32 -0800

For the last few months, I and several other food bloggers have been working away on a nifty video project which launched today, Good Bite, produced by Deca TV, the same folks who are behind Momversation. The idea is simple. Just get a bunch of passionate food bloggers to talk about, well, FOOD, cookware, recipes, and cooking. It's sort of a no-brainer. Get any of us together and that's all we talk about anyway. Then, have talented professional chefs cook the food we talk about, and prepare the foods with how-to videos in a gorgeous studio kitchen. The idea is "Delicious Made Easy", making good cooking accessible to all.

I'm absolutely tickled to be talking food and recipes with some of my favorite food bloggers on the planet. The blogger team includes:

Shauna and Daniel Ahern, glutenfreegirl.com
Matt Armendariz, mattbites.com
Diane Cu and Todd Porter, whiteonricecouple.com
Jaden Hair, steamykitchen.com
Jeanne Kelley, jeannekelleykitchen.com
David Lebovitz, davidlebovitz.com
Catherine McCord, weelicious.com
Deb Perelman, smittenkitchen.com
Julie Van Rosendaal, dinnerwithjulie.com
(And me) Elise Bauer, simplyrecipes.com

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Beef Wellington

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:33:10 -0800

A few months ago my father got an inkling to make Beef Wellington, beef tenderloin smothered with mushroom duxelles, wrapped in puff pastry and baked. Who knows where he got the idea, maybe just curiosity. Beef Wellington is one of those dishes that was a lot more popular 40 years ago than it is now. But once my dad decides he wants to make something, come hell or high water, it will be made. It also helps that Chef Gordon Ramsey has a video online on how to make his version of Beef Wellington, using Parma ham wrapped around the fillet instead of the more traditional p�t� de foie gras. So, we recently set out to make it, dad channelling Chef Ramsey, albeit without the yelling and swearing (though I'm guessing that if dad thought he could get away with acting like Chef Ramsey around the rest of us, he would). It's actually a lot easier to make than it looks, assuming you are using ready-made puff pastry, and the result is fantastic. A great idea for a father's day dinner for the beef-loving dads out there.

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Quesadilla Pie

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:09:52 -0800

In our house, quesadillas are the ultimate quick comfort food. If you aren't familiar with quesadillas, think Mexican version of a grilled cheese sandwich�toasted flour tortillas with melty cheese filling. I am the quesadilla queen (at least in my own mind), having held that title since college where I regularly cooked up massive quesadillas on burrito sized tortillas with tons of add-ins for myself and friends. So when a friend recently mentioned the idea of a quesadilla pie, I didn't even wait for the recipe, I knew what to do. The two basic ingredients of a quesadilla are cheese (queso is cheese in Spanish) and tortillas, either flour or corn, though usually in the U.S. quesadillas are made with flour tortillas. My version of a quesadilla pie is a casserole made in a pie dish with stacked flour tortillas and layers of cheesy filling, baked until browned and crispy. The beauty of quesadilla pie is that it's a great way to use up leftovers and odds and ends. The essentials are the tortillas and the cheese; after that it's up to you as to the variety and type of filling you want. Black beans are good, as are onions, chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, or summer squash. All can be layered in with the cheese. Add as much chile as you want for heat and flavor.

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Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Turnovers

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:51:51 -0800

Yes yes I know it's June and it's not apple season here yet, but we make cooked apples every year and freeze them, we grow our own walnuts and thyme, and this was just plain good, so there. Remarkably it is the middle of June in Sacramento and we haven't had a day over 90 degrees in weeks, in fact, it's barely been getting up to the 80s. So, the oven is still in use. Ever have one ingredient that you have left over from something so you devise an entire recipe around it? I had some gorgonzola cheese begging to be eaten, some puff pastry in the freezer, and my mother's book club potluck event at our house coming up. Apples and walnuts we always have on hand. Apples, walnuts, gorgonzola, thyme, and honey make up the filling of these mini-turnovers and let me tell you, this is a great combination. Put the filling on a pizza, keep the apples fresh and make a gorgonzola version of Waldorf salad, or place it on a flour tortilla and roll it up and eat it as a wrap, whatever you do these ingredients belong together. Big hit at the book club too, nary a turnover was left.

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Cherry Clafouti

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:19:15 -0800

Guest author Garrett McCord made this cherry clafouti for my mother and me using freshly picked cherries from our neighbor Pat's tree. So good! And incredibly easy. ~Elise

I've been making clafoutis for years now and it's become a regular spring and summer dessert staple. The reason being is during these seasons I often find myself with too many cherries, blackberries, or Italian plums around on the verge of turning bad on me which is where the clafoutis comes in. Since it requires only a small amount of the most basic baking ingredients I can whip it up in a flash, use the neglected fruit, and impress the friends I feed it to. ("Oh this?! It's just a simple French clafoutis I bammed out. Nothing fancy.")

There are dozens of different clafoutis recipes, each unique to their owner and this particular one is my own. I find it has just the right texture between custard and cake. A smidge of brown sugar gives it a slightly darker flavor, and a small smattering of slivered almonds along with splash of Amaretto give the clafoutis a certain je ne sais quoi. If you're a fan of desserts with little work and a lot of payoff, then clafoutis is the way to go.

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Circassian Chicken

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:49:43 -0800

Please welcome guest author Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook who shares one of his favorite chicken salads with us. ~Elise

Not sure where I first heard of this variant on chicken salad, but I�ve been making it for years. Presumably it originated in the Caucasus Mountains, which is where the Circassians live. I�ve net yet met a Circassian, although I suspect they may be something like an Armenian. Or not. Who knows? What I do know is that there are plenty of recipes for this dish out there, but what ties them all together are walnuts, garlic, paprika and poached chicken or pheasant.

I�ve tended to make this with pheasant, but a good chicken breast is just as good. Try to use an older bird, like a stewing hen or rooster. If none are available, use a roasting chicken of about 3-5 pounds, not the smaller fryers. The reason is because this is a bold salad, and I think young birds lack the flavor to stand up to it.

This recipe is a great way to get away from typical mayo-based chicken salads, and is wonderful either as a sandwich, or simply served with crusty bread and a pickle or two. Once made, it keeps well in the fridge for at least 3-4 days.

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