broccoli parmesan gratin

I make at least one vegetable side with every meal. A lot of the time, the effort goes into the main dish meat, and I have no time or inspiration leftover for the side. (We eat a lot of steamed asparagus and steamed broccoli around here.) I saw this recipe in February 2009 Gourmet and wanted to try it. I don't know if it's worth the extra calories for an everyday vegetable side, but it's definitely a good choice for dinner parties.

Grocery list: 1 bunch broccoli, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup cream, 1 cup grated parmesan, 2 eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, olive oil.



Wash the broccoli and cut into bite-size pieces. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain.



Whisk together the milk, cream, parmesan and eggs, and season with salt and pepper.



Place the broccoli in a baking dish, then pour the milk-cheese mixture over top. In a shallow pan, toss the breadcrumbs with a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes, until they start to toast. Pour over top of the broccoli. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (the custard should jiggle when the dish is gently moved; if it still acts liquid-y in the middle, it needs to cook a few more minutes). Broil for a few more minutes to get the top as golden as you like.

beef and barley soup

As promised last week, I'm going to share a couple of our favorite soups that you can make with homemade beef stock. And like any of the good soups I've made recently, this one is adapted from a recipe in the oh-so-amazing New England Soup Factory cookbook.

As a side note, I had no idea barley was so healthy. This soup is actually really well balanced, with a lot of fiber and even more protein. If you substitute a leaner cut of meat for the generic "stew beef" called for in the recipe, you further reduce the fat content (not to mention the meat isn't too chewy or sinewy that way).

Grocery list: 3 pounds stew beef (cut into bite size pieces), red wine vinegar, olive oil, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 large onion (peeled and diced), 2 ribs diced celery, 6 carrots peeled and diced, 1/2 pound pearl barley, 1 cup burgundy wine, 1 8-oz can tomato paste, 8 cups beef stock, 2 bay leaves, 5 dashes worcestershire, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley.



To start, cook the meat. Cut the meat into whatever you consider to be "bite size", and place in a stock pot with 1/2 cup red wine vinegar and 12 cups water, plus a generous pinch of salt. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 1.5 hours. Drain and reserve the meat.



Next, chop the carrots, celery and onions, and mince the garlic cloves. Heat a couple of turns of olive oil over medium high heat in the same stock pot you used for the beef.



Saute the onion, celery, carrots and garlic in olive oil for about 7 minutes.



Add the cooked beef, wine, tomato paste, stock and bay leaves. Stir in the barley.



It surprised me how much water such a small amount of barley could absorb. Don't worry if it seems like it's not enough barley; it's not like pasta or orzo, as it will double in volume, at least.



Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes (stirring occasionally).



Remove from heat and stir in worcestershire and parsley. Remove bay leaves. Season w/salt and pepper and serve.

pork tenderloin with roasted winter vegetables

This healthy one-dish meal was inspired by a recipe I found in February's Gourmet magazine (the "quick meals" section is surprisingly helpful). Instead of limiting this to roasted fennel wedges, I added some carrots and parsnips, which I roasted separately for 15 minutes before adding to the pot with the tenderloin. I also skipped the fennel seeds - thought I had them in the pantry but they were carraway. Delicious and honestly ready in less than 30 minutes.

Grocery list: 1 tsp fennel seeds (left out), 1-2 pounds pork tenderloin, 2 fennel bulbs, olive oil, 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup white wine, 1/2 cup chicken stock, 2T butter, 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice. Also added: 3 parsnips, 2 carrots.



If you're going to add the winter vegetables, clean them first, then slice them into spears.



Roast parsnips and carrots at 425 degrees, turning every 5 minutes, for 15 minutes.



To prep a fennel bulb, first cut off the fronds, then cut it in half. There's a really tough little inner core that you want to remove, because it won't soften up like the rest of the fennel slices when they cook.



Thinly slice the fennel, then smash and thinly slice the garlic. Season the tenderloin with salt and pepper on all sides.



Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the tenderloin in olive oil to brown it on all sides, about 5-6 minutes total. Remove to a plate.



Cook the fennel and garlic for 5-6 minutes. Deglaze the pan with white wine, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Stir in the chicken stock and butter.



Transfer the roasted parsnips and carrots from the baking sheet into the dutch oven.



Return the tenderloin to the dutch oven, nestling it right into the vegetables. Place everything in the oven, uncovered, and immediately set the temperature down to 375 degrees. Roast until the internal temperature of the pork is 145 degrees.



Allow it to rest, then slice. While it's resting, if the vegetables still contain a lot of juice, move the pan to a medium flame on the stove and cook until the liquid reduces down to a thick consistency. I like to return the pork to the main dish, along with any meat juices that collect on the carving board, so everything stays warm.



I served this alongside the buttermilk fantail rolls that I learned how to make in this same issue of Gourmet. I've actually been baking a lot lately, but am waiting till I perfect a few of these bread recipes before blogging them.

butternut squash soup

I hope it doesn't do injustice to this recipe to start a post with another apology, but I feel it's due. Sorry for 2 soup posts in a row. But this one is so good you won't mind, I promise.

Butternut squash soup is one of those things, like risotto; you order it in a restaurant and love it, but assume it's too complicated to make at home. But, like most vegetable-cream soups, it's simply a matter of vegetables cooked in broth until tender, blended, with some cream stirred in at the end. This recipe, another one adapted from The New England Soup Factory cookbook (working my way through one page at a time), is stunning. It adds apple and parsnip to the butternut base, and it's served with a little bit of gorgonzola cheese to counter the sweetness.

Grocery list: 4 T butter, 2 garlic cloves, 1 large onion, 2 apples, 3 carrots, 2 parsnips, 1-2 stalks celery, 1 2-pound butternut squash, 8 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade, covered before here), 1 T worcestershire sauce, 3 T brown sugar, 1.5 c cream (I used half-and-half and it was perfect and still plenty guilty enough), gorgonzola cheese for garnish.



Start by prepping all the vegetables: peel, remove seeds if applicable, dice.



Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium high heat, and add all the vegetables. Saute for 10 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium so it's just simmering, and cook until the vegetables are soft (about 35 minutes more).



Turn off the heat, and stir in the worcestershire and the brown sugar. Season the soup with salt and pepper.



Like all cream soups, you want to blend it *before* you add the cream, which is last. So, either with an immersion blender, or by moving batches of the soup to a blender (carefully - and only fill up the blender half way with each batch, so you don't splatter boiling hot soup all over yourself - the things I learned before having a stick blender).



Finally, return the soup to the pot if you've used a blender, and stir in the cream. You might need to turn the soup back on low heat, depending on how hot you like your soup.



To serve, place a spoonful or two of gorgonzola cheese crumbles in the bottom of a bowl, and spoon the soup on top. The book actually calls for an even more impressive garnish (crispy prosciutto and sauteed apple slices), but I skipped it.

garlicky kale with roasted onion rings

There's a popular breakfast spot in Atlanta called the Flying Biscuit, and one of their signature plates is a turkey bacon and collard green scramble. For whatever reason, I started craving this the other day. But who's going to get up and start cooking greens at 6am? I needed leftovers for this... So instead of making old school fat-back collards (more bacon grease than greens, mmm), I tried this recipe from March 2008 F&W that I'd set aside. It was perfect: the kale wasn't greasy and still had bite (unlike southern collards), and the onion rings were a sweet contrast to the salt and garlic. I'll blog about the scramble tomorrow morning.

Grocery list: 2 pounds kale (washed, trimmed, cut crosswise into strips), 2 shallots, 3 (or 5!) garlic cloves, 1 large sweet onion, olive oil.



Start by cutting the onion into thick rounds (about 1/3 inch), like you're making onion rings. Separate the rings and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast on a large baking sheet at 425 for about 20 minutes, turning several times, until the rings are golden. Set aside.



Next, boil a large pot of water and add the kale. Cook for 4-5 minutes, then drain. This pre-cooking will help so the garlic won't burn in the next step, so don't skip it.



Mince the shallot and garlic and saute in olive oil over medium high heat. After a couple minutes, add the drained kale and stir well. I added a pinch of crushed red pepper at this stage too, deviating from the recipe just a little.



After about 5-7 minutes, add the onion rings to the kale. You might need to drizzle a little more olive oil over them too, and season with salt and pepper.

grilled steak with arugula, fennel and orange salad

This recipe ended up only being "inspired by" the original in Food & Wine magazine. I fully intended to try it unadulterated, but ended up finding a good deal on NY strip (as opposed to skirt steak) while at the same time NOT being able to find fregola. (Side note: while I couldn't find fregola at whole foods, I discovered they finally started carrying farro, which I've wanted to try in a risotto for a long time, so I consider it a wash.) For the original, you can read it online here, but I'll cover my variations on the recipe below. It would probably feed 4 normal non-bear appetites.

Grocery list: one pound strip steak, 1 T ancho chile powder, 1 red onion, 1 lemon, 1 fennel bulb, 1 navel orange, 2 radishes, 5oz baby arugula, black olive tapenade (fresh at the olive bar at our local WF).



Allow the steak to rest on the counter to bring it to room temperature while you prep the vegetables. Cut the stems off the fennel bulb, cut it in half, core it, then thinly slice. Peel the orange, quarter it to remove the center pith, then thinly slice crosswise. Wash and thinly slice the radishes. Juice the lemon.



Sprinkle the chile powder on both sides of the steak (pressing to adhere the seasoning).



Peel the onion and cut into 1/4 inch slabs. Grill both the steak and the onion slabs over direct heat. For the steak, it's a matter of preference and steak thickness to determine how long to cook (this one was thick, and took 12-14 minutes to get to medium). The onions should become tender and charred in spots - I put down a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil first so the onions couldn't fall through the grates, and they still achieved that charred effect.



When the steak is done, allow it to rest under a tent of aluminum foil while you assemble the salad.



Toss the arugula with several tablespoons of good quality olive oil and the lemon juice. Let the onions cool, then chop them. Add the onions, fennel, orange and radishes to the salad and toss well.



Spread about 1/4 cup of tapenade across the steak, and slice on the diagonal. Mound the salad on each plate, then serve several steak slices on the top.

swiss chard with goat cheese walnuts & cranberries

I've been serving swiss chard with slivered garlic, fresh lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil for a while, and wanted to mix it up. Turns out you can use a popular salad combination of goat cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries - who knew?

Grocery list: rainbow or red swiss chard, goat cheese, handful of chopped walnuts, handful of dried cranberries, olive oil.



Chop and toast the walnuts over medium flame, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for a few minutes. Remove from heat.



Remove the stems from the chard and cut into bite size pieces. Saute in olive oil over medium high heat until they just begin to soften, then add the cranberries.



Chop the chard leaves then add to the pan with about 1/4 cup water (pan will be overflowing, but the chard will cook down significantly). Keep moving the chard around so the uncooked leaves on top get moved to the bottom. The water will evaporate as well.



Sprinkle a little fresh goat cheese on top, followed by the toasted walnuts, then stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper.

pan roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta

I fell in love with brussel sprouts because of Food 101 in Atlanta. Why am I surprised though? If you put bacon on it, it will be good right? I decided to try and replicate at home, and it was as simple as it was tasty. You just have to get over the knee-jerk reaction to brussel sprouts (most people who hate them have never tried them).

Grocery list: brussel sprouts, a couple of thick slices of pancetta (3 oz would be plenty for a pound of sprouts - serves 4-6?), olive oil, salt.



Wash the sprouts and cut in half. Chop the pancetta into 1/4- 1/2 inch cubes. In a large bowl, toss with olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Pour onto a rimmed baking sheet (single layer), and roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, turning once or twice, or until the sprouts are brown and a little crispy on the outside.

chicken pot pie

It would be really unfair to judge this chicken pot pie by the photos. Here's what happened: I saw some great pictures of a chicken pot pie in Bon Appetit, then did some research in my New Best Recipe book. I made a sort of hybrid of both recipes, a full batch - but split it into 2 smaller baking dishes, and froze one of them. All the photos were from prepping them in the original batch, but then the first one was so delicious and I was so starving that I just forgot completely to take a final picture. So a couple weeks later, I bake the second one (great to have a backup for the photo-op, so I thought), and while it was just as delicious, something weird happened with the inside bubbling up over the crust, so it was ugly as sin. Anyway, that's why you shouldn't judge. Try this, okay? It's amazing.

Grocery list: (topping) 1.5 cups AP flour, 4 T shortening, 8 T butter, 3-4 T ice water; (filling) 1.5 pounds chicken, 1.5 c chicken broth, 1 onion, 3 carrots, 1 celery ribs, 4 T butter, 1/2 flour, 1.5 c milk, thyme, 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup white wine, 3/4 frozen peas (thawed), fresh parsley.



Start by making the crust in a food processor. Note - the butter and shortening should be really cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces, before putting into the processor. Mix the flour and a pinch of salt in the processor, then cut the shortening in with short pulses. Then add the butter and keep pulsing until it has a cornmeal consistency, and dump everything into a bowl.



Mash 3 T of ice water into the crust with a spatula (add another T if it doesn't stick together).



For a ball and flatten into a disk; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll it out on a floured surface until it's a little bigger than the size of your baking dish.



You can make your own chicken broth by poaching the chicken in water over a slow boil (throw in salt, peppercorns, garlic cloves, some thyme, some extra chunks of celery or carrot if you have them) for about 20 minutes. Set aside 1.5 cups of the broth and shred the chicken. Prep all the vegetables by chopping into small 1/4 inch pieces.



In a large dutch oven, saute the carrots, onions and celery (I added mushrooms too) in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.



Add a few sprigs of chopped thyme. Then, stir in the white wine, and season well with salt and pepper.



Stir in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. It should reduce down by about half within 5 minutes.



Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave, then stir in 1/2 cup flour to make a paste. This will help thicken the filling.



Stir in the heavy cream and bring back to a simmer, then stir in the chicken pieces. Mix in the flour/butter mixture one spoonful at a time, stirring well, so the filling thickens.



Pour the filling into 1 or 2 baking dishes, then cut your crust to cover it. Poke a few holes through the top to allow the steam to escape. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling (or in my case, till the filling bubbles all the way over and looks terrible but still tastes delicious).