Cold Tofu Noodle Salad May 23, 2011

As a vegetarian cook, I regularly work with tofu to create Asian food at home. A lot of non-vegetarians get freaked out by tofu, but I truly believe more people would like it if they had properly prepared tofu. Over the past year I’ve discovered that baking tofu with a little sesame oil and soy sauce marinade is a fool-proof way to season tofu and create the right texture. From there you can toss the tofu in with any stir-fry or noodle dish and complete your meal.

The other week, as the Texas heat started to kick into high gear, I wanted to create a cold Asian dish with tons of flavor and just a little spice for dinner. I started with this recipe for curried udon noodles and added a jalapeno and chili sauce instead of a red chile. For the noodles, it’s always worth a special trip to an Asian market if you can make it happen. The texture and thickness of the noodles is so much better than what you often find in the Asian section of your grocery store. I saved back some of the sauce in step 4 to add when combining the noodles with the baked tofu. I chilled the tofu and noodles for about an hour and let it come almost to room temperature before serving.

A simple, flavorful dish that was great that night and even better later in the week for a lunch leftover meal.

Updated Tuna Noodle Casserole May 13, 2011

As someone who loves a ‘one-pot-wonder’ meal, as well as cheese paired with any sort of carb, it’s surprising that I’ve not made many casseroles. That all changed this week. Even though I work from home and have my kitchen close by all day, I understand that having a Rolodex of make ahead meals can be an asset for any cook.

As a tribute to classic Americana dinners, I thought make ahead meal #1 should be the hated/loved tuna noodle casserole. I searched and found this recipe from The Cooking Channel sounded like a great foundation for an updated take on this standard. Now, this isn’t a Top Chef-style complete revamp of a recipe, but just some tips on making the dish more flavorful and fresh.

Here are the swaps:

• Butter, onion, sherry,soy sauce, egg noodles — just leave as is
• Just say no to white button mushrooms. They have minimal flavor and add little to the dish. I used portabellos instead
• Vegetable stock instead of Chicken
• Cream instead of whole milk (because that’s what I had in the fridge)
• More frozen peas than suggested. No reason why you shouldn’t have a full serving of veggies in the casserole
• Canned tuna has never looked good to me, but I’ve always been a fan of the tuna packets. I chose a Yellowfin tuna in olive oil – not drained
• Aged white cheddar, not yellow
• Top with the recommended Panko breadcrumbs

The casserole was full of flavor but not terrible rich or saucy. The Panko added a great crunch and using soy sauce to flavor the mushrooms helped keep everything from getting too salty. I forgot to snap a photo when it came out of the oven, but I decided to capture the leftovers after having it again for lunch today. You can tell there isn’t too much left. Yum!

Oh, and if you have any other casserole or make ahead meal ideas, send them my way!

Desserts from the heart, not a box May 3, 2011

My love for baking as a kid is really what got me interested in cooking as an adult. The satisfaction of creating a meal is only topped by smiles from friends and family after their first bite of your dessert. After a long, yet fruitful (and fruit-filled to fight sweets cravings) Lent, I was ready for some non-stop dessert making. I tried four new recipes in the span of 10 days and learned a good bit about what makes a dessert really good and a baker really crazy. I forgot to take a photo of my fourth dessert, brownies, but I promise they looked as good as they tasted.

Dessert 1: Lemon Angel Pie (for Passover/Seder) – Vanilla meringue crust, lemon curd filling, whipped cream top

Lessons learned:

• There are a lot of good ideas for dessert that can easily accommodate diet restrictions without tasting like a dessert of affliction.
• Fresh, homemade whipped cream always tastes better and is worth the effort.
• People forget how much they love lemon.
• It never hurts to try to make a boring-looking dessert more attractive

Dessert 2: Flourless Chocolate Torte (Passover/Seder and Chocolate Lovers) – dark chocolate, eggs, sugar, magic

Lessons Learned:

• Always buy the best ingredients (read chocolate) you can find. Just do it. It’s worth the money.
• Know your audience. Not everyone appreciates dark chocolate, so be sure to add some sweet whipped cream on the side.
• I wish I had two ovens.
• If you have to transport it, keep it in the spring-form pan.

Dessert 3: Blueberry Pie (My Jeffrey’s Birthday) – fresh blueberries, old-fashioned crust, more corn starch than you think

Lessons Learned:

• Pay attention to the rack position in the oven, even if the recipe doesn’t make a suggestion.
• Try the fruit first before deciding how much sugar to use. That way the filling isn’t too sweet.
• Don’t multi-task when rolling out your dough for the crust. You will just create more work.
• Let go of perfectionist tendencies and realize that a crisper crust authenticates a homemade pie.

Dessert 4: Fudge Brownies – unsweetened chocolate, coffee, chocolate chips

Lessons Learned:

• Everybody likes brownies, so go ahead and bake them.
• Use big chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in the brownie batter. A crunch of chocolate in a fudgey brownie is sublime.
• Don’t have coffee ice cream? Shame on you.
• No need to feel like you must eat all the brownies at once, stick them in the freezer and pull one out as you need them.

Homemade Marinara April 18, 2011

After 9 months of working from home, I believe I’ve uncovered all the pros and cons of not going to an office everyday and always being in the same room as your latest work project.

The cons are fairly limited (wishing people would call instead of email for one-off questions, being the only one of the phone for brainstorming sessions, losing my fashion edge to yoga pants…). The pros, on the other hand, continue to expand. I’ve discovered that my brain works better from 7am – 10am than it ever could after 4pm. Also, work drama for me is often caused by a temporarily slow Internet connection. However, the best part of working from home has to be that I have the time, opportunity and energy to do more cooking.

Over the past several months I’ve been able to prepare soups, beans, and bread from scratch during the week — something that is only possible because my ‘lunch break’ can occur whenever I need it to be. After several round of beans I realized that I could (and should) do more slow-cooked dishes since I can keep my eye on the oven/stove all day.

A few weeks ago, a good friend and fellow remote office worker shared with me her basic recipe for pasta sauce she liked making from scratch. She made it sound simple enough that I was eager to try it. My first attempt went well since I was able to simmer the sauce for several hours before serving, adjusting the seasoning as needed. Round two was even better as I refined the recipe and added veggie sausage to create a vegetarian bolognese that could fool some meat eaters (according to my Jeffery).

I first browned the ‘meat’ in my dutch oven and set aside. From there I sautéed the garlic and onions in olive oil, deglazing the pan with a little wine. Next, two cans of Italian style whole peeled tomatoes, tomato paste and a variety of dried Italian seasonings. As the sauce thickened, I tasted and adjusted seasoning. Towards the end I incorporated the ‘sausage’ into the sauce and added some vegetable stock to thin the sauce to the right consistency.

I used about 3/4 of the sauce for dinner that night and saved the rest. Below are some photos of the leftover sauce and the delicious cheese and rigatoni dish.

Healthy Crab Cakes March 30, 2011

Ok, maybe ‘not terrible for you’ crab cakes would be more accurate, but who cares!

The other week I bought some lump crab meat at the HEB for a great price and immediately started brainstorming how I could use it. Perhaps I’ve seen too many Olive Garden and Red Lobster commercials lately because I convinced myself that crab stuffed shells was the best use for this fresh meat.

Well, unfortunately, that dish didn’t turn out so well. My fear of bland ricotta caused me to over-season the stuffing to the point that you couldn’t even tell that there was any crab meat. Ooops. I was so disappointed in the dish that no photographic evidence was taken. The dinner wasn’t as bad as the time I undercooked beans (I will never live that down) and thankfully my Jeffrey still wanted the leftovers. He did say that the dish improved upon sitting in the fridge for a few days and reheating.

So, my great deal on crab meat wasn’t turning out so well. However, I was determined to save it. The answer? Crab cakes. *Why didn’t I just start with that idea?* I was thrilled to find a delicious sounding crab cake recipe from my new The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2011 that only needed a few adjustments (sour cream instead of mayo and panko over saltine crumbs). The only other time I made crab cakes I pan-fried them. Super tasty, but quite messy. For this recipe the cakes were broiled making them crispy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. I served them with some sauteed greens and tomatoes to complete a light and flavorful Sunday night dinner.

Take a look.

Chocolate Souffle, because it’s time February 23, 2011

In all of my years of baking, I’ve never made a soufflé. Why? I have no idea. I guess no one ever requested one, and I only think about it when I see it on a dessert menu after a fancy meal. As I planned my Valentine’s Day menu (so much better than dealing with the crowds, prix-fixe menus and cheesy decor), I thought it would be a perfect time to try to make some soufflé.

I’ve read a lot about baking soufflé over the years, so I knew this would be a delicate process. The good news? I found a recipe that sounded delicious (thanks Giada) and discovered that I could do all the prep work the day before and just refrigerate the mixture. I made a few mistakes, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

Towards the end of the VDay meal, I placed the soufflé (with their ‘warm water bath’) into the oven and tried my best to not watch it too much. Not gonna lie, after 20 minutes of baking and minimal rising, I started to freak out. However, just like clockwork, after 40 minutes they looked perfect — except for the messiness.

Since I swapped dark chocolate for the milk chocolate suggested in the recipe, they were über rich. And, after a meal that consisted of brie and apple salad, grilled fish with brown butter, asparagus and three cheese risotto — neither one of us could finish the dessert. But, I think that was for the best. Oh, and here are photos of the rest of the meal for all who are interested.

Completely Homemade Mac-n-Cheese February 14, 2011

My need for comfort food continued for another week; therefore, it was time for a round of mac-n-cheese. Since I had some extra time before dinner time, I decided to make homemade macaroni noodles. Something I learned from the lasagna adventure was the benefit of  using fresh, uncooked noodles to make sure the dish wouldn’t turn into mush during baking. Unfortunately, I only made it about halfway through the pasta making process before getting distracted and the dough dried out. Thankfully, I just needed to grab another extra large egg and flour to make another round of dough. The noodles were far from perfect but definitely looked homemade.

For the cheese sauce, I made a mornay sauce with white cheddar cheese and just a some Dubliner cheese shreds for a little bite.

I added some panko and regular bread crumbs for a crisp top. I baked the mac-n-cheese for about 20 min to melt the cheese and cook the pasta. Below is the final product (which was super delicious). I paired it with a mixed green salad dressed with a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette to help cut the richness.

Spaghetti with Vegetarian Meatballs February 7, 2011

Texas Winters are something to behold. Freezing temps, ice, snow during the week and then 65 degrees and sunny on the weekends. Planning meals during this season can be a bit challenging because a warm soup may be perfect for a chilly Tuesday night, but if you wait until Thursday — no one will eat it with you. However, the solution can be pretty simple: comfort food. If it’s cold or even just mild outside, a warm bowl of love will always fit the bill.

My ‘Jeffrey’ will happily eat almost every type of food, as long as it is prepared well. Over the past 6 months he has really fixated on one particular dish when we go out for dinner, spaghetti bolognese. Now, for most cooks, this wouldn’t be a hard thing to try to replicate at home. But, as a vegetarian I really wanted to create something we both could enjoy. Mission vegetarian meatballs.

One of my new favorite meat substitutes is LightLife (in the produce section, near the tofu). Since it is refrigerated instead of frozen, you can do a lot more seasoning and cooking rather than just warming up the veggie protein. I used Gimme Lean Beef as my base for the meatballs and added one egg, panko bread crumbs, Italian herbs, red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese. After forming them, I pan-fried the meatballs in a little butter and set aside in the pan.

When it was time to boil the pasta, I added some spicy tomato sauce to the meatballs and heated.

The whole process was quite easy to do at the end of a work day. And, with a simple mixed green salad, it was the perfect, filling meal. Of course I loved it, but more importantly my non-vegetarian dinner companion was impressed with the flavor of the ‘meatballs’ and took home all the leftovers.

Behold the bowl of yum.

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes January 17, 2011

After an extended business trip to NYC (thanks, snow), I was super excited to have a relaxed weekend at home and get back in my kitchen. Sunday afternoon I decided it was time to get moving on the perfect chocolate cupcake.

From one of my new cookbooks, The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2011, I was immediately drawn to their ultimate chocolate cupcakes. Bittersweet chocolate, fresh coffee, ganache and vegetable oil caught my eye as key ingredients for a flavorful, moist cupcake. And, wow, I was right. I was stunned at how great they turned out.

However, I didn’t stop there. I used the ‘cupcake plunger’ my mother gave me for Christmas to remove a part of the center of the cake and fill it with ganache. Also, there was a recipe for vanilla Swiss buttercream that I couldn’t pass up. Unlike traditional buttercream, you warm the egg whites and sugar while whipping them to prevent a grainy texture and create a lighter icing. Oh, and a little natural vanilla bean gave it an additional punch oh flavor and authentic vanilla look.

Now I just need to find some folks to share them with before I eat them all!

More Focused In the Kitchen for 2011 January 5, 2011

Looking back on all my blogs from 2010, it’s clear that my cooking strategy was more about experimentation rather than refinement. So for 2011, my goal is to be more focused in the kitchen and get better at preparing the following:

• Cupcakes: As far as desserts go, cookies have always been my forte. I’ve done a few rounds of different kinds of cakes and icing but still haven’t found the best go to recipe. I got some great advice last year about weighing my dry ingredients and I got an awesomely retro kitchen scale.
• Artisan bread: Last year was a good start to this, but I realized that I need a real broiler pan. Most of my bread was good yet a little dense. When baking some ciabatta bread in my mother’s kitchen (with a real broiler pan) the difference was staggering. My makeshift broiler pan couldn’t hold enough water to really steam the dough.
• Grilling: Apartment living makes this a challenge, but I got a new Le Creuset grill pan for Christmas to make indoor grilling more of a reality. Below is a photo of my first go at it.

I found some delicious-looking swordfish fillets at the HEB which appeared to a perfect protein to grill with my new pan. The fish was amazing looking and tasting. There is nothing better than real grill marks.