Today's Recipe: Lasagna Roll Ups!

Lasagna is one of those meals that you occasionally want to enjoy but the process of making lasagna on a weeknight is arduous after a long day at work. What I do is to make lasagna rolls and freeze them to make a quick and easy dinner later. Just pop a couple of these into a casserole, top with some of your marinara (that you have made previously and keep in the freezer too) and bake for an hour. Here's how I do it and the recipe follows...

Simmer your lasagna noodles in salted water with 2 tablespoons of oil. Cook for 7 minutes or so until they are rollable. Do not overcook as they will cook more in the oven. Fish them out of the water and into a cold water bath to cool. Lay them out on greased sheet pans. Prepare your fillings. Mise en place...

Put a schmear of your ricotta filling onto the lasagna noodles almost to the end

Then divide your sausage filling on top of the cheese

Roll up the noodles finishing with the "un-topped" end and place seam down on a sheet pan lined with parchment that has been sprayed with vegetable oil spray. Don't let them touch or when they freeze they will stick together. You may also spray the rolls lightly with vegetable oil spray to keep them from sticking together. As you can see I decided to put some together with sauce for this evening's meal. Cover the sheet pan tightly with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and pop into the freezer until they are solidly frozen. 

This is what they look like when they come out of the freezer the next day. 

Pop them into a freezer bag, label and return to the freezer for later

To finish, take a casserole dish, spray with vegetable oil spray and spoon some of your sauce into the bottom of the casserole. Put your lasagna rolls into the casserole and top with more sauce. I cover them with parchment (to keep the tomato sauce from touching the aluminum and getting a metallic taste) and then wrap tightly with foil before I pop them into a 375f oven for 45 minutes. 

Take them out of the oven, uncover and sprinkle some grated cheese on top and return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and bubbly 

Spoon some of the sauce from the casserole on top and enjoy! 

Here is the recipe, as promised. Before I left for work today I took some of these out of the freezer and prepared them with sauce and wrapped them up, ready to go into the oven. they will thaw a little in the fridge and will be ready to go when I get home. MMM-mmm!

Sunday Night Dinner: Easy Sesame Chicken

I needed something easy to make for dinner tonight. Last week Stop and Shop had chicken thighs for $0.39/pound so I got a whole bunch of them. I decided to make this recipe that I found at Budgetbytes.com (click on the link for the recipe). It's a terrific recipe and now I have some nice leftover Chinese for luncheon tomorrow. Mmm.

Get your rice cooker out and make some rice for this dish. 

If you have leftover cold rice (this is brown rice),
a nice dish of fried rice is moments away

Testing new product: Progresso Bistro Cup Soups

This product comes in two parts, an envelope
of soup mix and a K-Cup of broth

I joined a program at Shaws Market called MyMixx which sends me an email every Saturday with a coupon offering 2 for 1 items or freebies, etc.  and last weekend it was a coupon for a free box of these Progresso Bistro Cups Soups. They come in 3 flavors, Southwestern Style Creamy White Bean and Corn, Broccoli and Cheese and Creamy Tomato and Parmesan. The soups come in 2 parts; an envelope of soup mix and a Keurig K-Cup of (I think) broth. You dump the contents of the envelope into a mug, place the K-Cup into your Keurig machine and before you can say "Haute Cuisine" you have soup!  Now I normally do my shopping at Market Basket but as Shaws had eggs at 2 dozen for $3 and since the soup was free I thought that I'd shop a little at Shaws and give one these a try, fully expecting it to be too salty and probably a little weird. I gave the Southwestern Style Creamy White Bean and Corn flavor a try yesterday at work. 

What I discovered was that the soup was very thick and not at all salty as I had expected. It had a nice "southwestern" flavor from cumin, some sort of chili pepper and a little sweetness from the corn. I'd rate it as "not bad" on the FHP Processed Food Scale. It was very easy to make and although it says to use the 8oz setting on your Keurig I might add a little more water to it just to thin it out a little. All in all, if you occasionally like soup for lunch and you cannot get away from the office for lunch, these are a good thing to keep in your desk for a soup emergency. I will probably give the other varieties a try as well, however at 3 cups of soup for $3.99 they do seem like I probably wouldn't buy them on a regular basis. 

(Full Disclosure: I did experience a case of "wind" about an hour after eating this soup, so you may want to try this at home first to see if you experience the same effect, especially if you work in close quarters. This may be endemic only to the white bean flavor. If you have your own office and/or a good vent system at your workplace, then go for it!)

Dump the contents of the envelope into a large mug (they recommend a 16oz mug)

Pop the K-Cup into the Keurig machine and set the dispenser for 8 ounces,  although for the Southwestern Bean Soup you could probably use the 10oz for a less thick soup. 

After the machine finishes "brewing", give the soup a vigorous stir and then let it sit for at least a minute before eating

As you can see the soup gets really thick. It could be thinned out by using the 10oz setting on the machine or if you have a water cooler in your office that dispenses boiling water, add a little from there. It's a good product, in a pinch, when you want some soup and can't get away from the office to enjoy some. 

I think these will be a project very soon...

Courtesan au Chocolat - See how they're made

This Weekends Recipe: Queen Pudding

Yummy cake. Get recipe here

I know just what some of you are going to say so don't bother. What do you do if you've made a delicious cake and you have some left over going stale very quickly? You make Queen Pudding. We used to do this in cooking school. While working in the pastry shop, if there were any leftover danish, croissants, or cake, we would dry them a little and then chop them up, add a custard to them and bake it off. You can also add some defrosted frozen cherries, nuts,  or blueberries to the mix. Use your imagination. Here's what I did with some leftover French Yogurt Cherry Cake, made last weekend. There is no recipe here, this is a "technique" post.

I had about 1/3 of this cake left, so I trimmed off the "crust", the browned edges of the cake, cut it into cubes and tossed it into a well-buttered baking dish

For this size dish and that amount of cake, I figured six whole eggs would do the trick. I added a little more than 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (to your taste, that is), a couple of teaspoons of my homemade vanilla extract and about 1 3/4 cups of whole milk. Add a pinch of salt as well. Whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk together until well blended

Pour the egg mixture over the cake, dot with butter and bake in a 325 degree oven about 40 minutes.

Test by sticking a knife into the middle and it should come out clean

I served it warm with a little drizzle of some delicious Vermont maple syrup given to me by our Vermont political reporter, MaryKaye. Try whipped cream, or just a little heavy cream. Yum!

Today's Recipe Challenge: French Yogurt Cake

I came across a recipe for French Yogurt Cake, described as a cake in every French housewife's repertoire. It sounded pretty easy. No creaming of butter and sugar, no separating eggs... Sounds too good to be true. I did a little more digging and sure enough I found a number of variations on this simple theme. Most, if not all required 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, plain greek-style yogurt (any fat content), 1 cup sugar, 2-3 eggs, some sort of fat and a flavoring such as lemon zest, orange oil, vanilla, etc. Very easy. I decided to make this cake for our office meeting this week. I didn't have any greek yogurt so I substituted sour cream for the yogurt. I also didn't have any lemons, but I did have some frozen cherries so I decided to use some of them. Here's my recipe:

French Yogurt (or Sour Cream) Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain greek-style yogurt or sour cream
3 eggs (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup frozen pitted cherries, defrosted and chopped
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter for greasing a pan

• Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, set aside
• In another bowl, whisk together the sugar and yogurt or sour cream and then add eggs, one at a time, whisking vigorously between each added egg. Add vanilla and almond extracts
• Add chopped cherries to flour mixture and toss with the flour mixture (this helps the cherry pieces "float" in the batter rather than sinking)
• Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients (not the oil yet) and whisk until the ingredients are fully incorporated
• Using a rubber spatula, add the oil in 3 or 4 "glugs", beating with the spatula to incorporate fully before adding more
• Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean 
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then tip the cake out and cool completely

Here are some photos of the process: 

First things first... get those cherries out of the freezer to defrost. I put them on paper towels and cut them in half to facilitate the defrosting

Once defrosted, I used a sharp knife to chop the cherries and put them, again, on paper towels to dry a little. You don't want a lot of extra juice making the cake heavy

Whisk your flour baking powder and salt together. Add the sour cream or yogurt and whisk together

Whisk each egg vigorously into the sour cream/sugar mixture. 

Toss the chopped cherries into the flour mixture and stir to coat the chopped cherries

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients until well combined. Using a rubber spatula add the oil in several additions mixing it in thoroughly before adding more. 

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes or until your cake tester comes our clean

Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then tip out of the pan and let sit until completely cool. 

Here it is. A really nice, favorful cake that was really easy and infinitely variable. Try lemon, orange, rosewater, anise.. any flavoring your like

Today's Recipe: Butternut Squash, Bacon, Feta and Arugula Quiche

I found this recipe online (afraid I don't remember where, oops!) and gave it a try today. I made it with feta although the recipe calls for Bleu or Gorgonzola. It's very tasty but I thought it was under seasoned for me. I left the recipe alone so you can adjust the seasoning as you like.

Butternut Squash, Arugula and Bacon Quiche

Ingredients

1 pie crust

3 slices bacon, diced 

2 cups chopped butternut squash 

1 small white onion, chopped 

1 clove garlic, minced 

6 eggs, whisked 

3/4 cup milk 

3 Tbsp. flour 

1/2 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1/8 tsp. black pepper 

3 handfuls fresh arugula, whole or roughly chopped 

4 ounces crumbled gorgonzola, blue or feta cheese (or any cheese you'd like)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Lay prepared pie crust in an ungreased pie plate. Bake for 5 minutes, then set aside. 

Cook bacon in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until crispy, stirring occasionally. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving grease in pan. Add butternut squash and onion and sauté for 8-10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the squash is tender. Add garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Remove from heat. 

In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, flour, baking powder, milk, salt, and black pepper. Stir in the sautéed vegetables, arugula, cheese, and cooked bacon, and stir until well combined. 

Transfer the quiche filling into crust, and use a spoon to smooth the surface. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Quiche will rise while baking, but should settle back down once you remove it from the oven. Remove from the oven and allow the quiche to rest for at least 5 minutes. Slice and serve warm.

Today's Recipe Experiment: Foolproof Pan Pizza

You're gonna love this!

Everyone who knows me knows I am a big fan of these two things; America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country and Pizza. I have tried a number of ATK's recipes and methods of making pizza and have had success in most, if not all of their ideas. One of the folks who used to work at ATK, Kenji Lopez-Alt has his own blog now called 'Serious Eats' which is terrific. There are always well thought-out methods and recipes on that site and it is really a must-read for cooks. I highly recommend it. 

Palmieri's slice

While thinking about this recipe I was reminded of when we were kids growing up in Providence, RI we would get pizza strips at most convenience stores, from a bakery called Palmieri's on Federal Hill. These pizza strips would be about 8 inches long and about 3 inches wide, wrapped in olive oil-soaked waxed paper. I think they were about $0.10/each in those days. They were a deep dish style pizza with nothing but olive oil flavored tomatoes on top. No cheese, no veggies, no meats, no nothing except bread and tomatoes and they were the best! I saw on Facebook that they have developed a method for 'Foolproof Pan Pizza' and as I am a fan of a nice pan pizza I thought I'd give it a try. As Kenji was telling us about how his recipe produces a similar crust to Palmieri's I figured if this works out, this will be my new go-to recipe for pizza. 

Anyway, after dinner on Friday night I decided to whip up this dough recipe and make pizza on Saturday as the dough needs to proof for 8-24 hours. It was really easy to make although they warn you to weigh all of the ingredients with a digital scale that reads grams as well as ounces. I mixed it up, covered it up and let it sit. On Saturday afternoon, I got to work on making the pie and sure enough it was very similar to Palmieri's except I put some toppings on the tomatoes as well as cheese. Boy, was it delicious. Following are some photos of the process and the recipe courtesy of Serious Eats. It does take some time but most of it is 'inactive' time, i.e. letting the dough proof for the 8-24 hours. Plan ahead and make this yummy pizza if you like a deep dish pizza. You'll love it! 

Weigh your ingredients carefully using a digital scale.  I did increase the water in the recipe just a bit as they said that the dough's science involves the dough being well hydrated, 60-65% of the weight of the flour. It seemed just a little dry at 275gms of water, so I added about a little less than 2 tablespoons more.

After mixing the dough (by hand with a wooden spoon.. no kneading required!) you'll be left with a very shaggy looking dough. It's OK though, the extra water in the recipe will take care of that. 

AI let the dough sit overnight and by 8am-ish and it had increased in volume, certainly, but not the 4-6 times the volume it's supposed to so I let it go for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon. The dough above proofed for about 18-19 hours. 

The method says that this recipe makes 2 10-inch pizzas so you need 2 cast iron frying pans or 2 10-inch cake pans. I have 1 10-inch cast iron frying pan and my smaller Le Creuset braiser is 10 inches so I figured I'd use that as well. Looks like a lot of oil, but it's supposed to glide across the pan easily. 

After the dough has risen, dump out onto a floured board and shape into rounds with well floured hands, stretching the dough to make it smooth on top. Pop it into the frying pans, flip over to coat both sides with oil and move around the pan to coat the pan as well. Cover with plastic and let proof for another 2 hours. After 1 hour of proofing, turn your oven onto 550 or as high as it will go, with the rack in the upper middle. If you have a pizza stone, put the stone on the rack now to heat up with the oven. 

One of the beauties of this dough is that in addition to no kneading, the dough spreads out in the greased pan so there is not a lot of stretching to do. Assemble your toppings at this point. 

More below the fold...

Kitchen Memories: Chef Ruth Eames' Nantucket Oatmeal Spice Cake

Not my photo. (Haven't made the cake yet)

Well, after doing some digging I was able to reconnect with the Pastry Chef at High Brewster, a restaurant where I used to work, who made the most delicious cake called Nantucket  Oatmeal Spice Cake served with Caramel Sauce. Her name is Ruth Eames and through the miracle of Facebook I was able to contact her and get the recipe which I am including below. Let me just say that you will adore this cake so make it right away. Don't wait! And 'Thank You' again to Ruth for sharing this great recipe.

Stuffed Peppers: Appetizer or Main Course

I didn't have enough peppers for the amount of stuffing I made so I decided to stuff some of those little red, yellow and orange peppers you see in bags in the market now. If you cut off the tops and a bit of the bottom (enough to let the air inside the pepper escape when stuffing it) and use a small measuring spoon to clean out the seeds you can stuff them nicely. They'd be great for a 1st course in an Italian dinner, maybe on a little bit of olive oil mashed potatoes. Here are a few photos and  the recipe. Enjoy!

Get your stuffing, cleaned peppers and red gravy together and have fun stuffing peppers!

I was making the appetizer size, so the big ones in the back are for homemade TV dinners. 

Let them sit for a few minutes to relax a bit

As an appetizer with olive oil mashed potatoes. 

What's for dinner: Braised Chicken Thighs

I love braised cabbage and I love chicken, so when I saw this I thought that I'd save the recipe for later. This is one of those 'technique' things where you could, I suppose, sub in pancetta, peppers and onions for the cabbage, or even some pancetta, fennel and dried cranberries. Use your imagination here folks. Here it is for you to try too. 

From the nice folks at Serious Eats: 

Market Basket Love

 is one of the reasons I love Market Basket. This week avocados are on sale for $0.89/each! That means a delicious breakfast of Avocado Toast. Just whole grain bread toasted, mashed avocado, kosher salt and a squirt of lemon juice. Doesn't get better than that! 

Pulled Pork For The Playoffs

Over the summer Shaw's had a terrific buy on country style pork ribs, cut from the shoulder. They were normally $2.19/pound but if you bought 4 pounds or more they were $0.89/pound! A bargain! I bought two 5-pound + packages and popped them in my freezer for future use.

A few weeks ago I was bitching to myself that my freezer was jammed and I needed to get rid of some stuff so I pulled out one of those packages of pork, thawed them out and decided to make a nice French pork stew. Pork, aromatics, white beans, tomatoes,.. you get the idea. Turned out delicious but I was still left with a huge block of frozen pork taking up valuable space in my freezer. I decided to take them out of the freezer and smoke them in the BBQ kettle and make pulled pork for the big game next Saturday.

The ribs needed serious trimming (for $0.89/pound, I expected as much), but they were meaty, had some serious collagen and marbling and would make great pulled pork. What I did is below. No recipe on this one, kids. This is a 'technique' post, not a recipe. Give it a shot.

Pulled Pork using country style pork ribs

Season the ribs with your favorite rub and let sit overnight in the fridge. Build a 2-stage fire in your barbecue (one hot side, one cold side), add some soaked wood chunks to the fire (I use applewood for pork) and add the pork to the grill over the cold side. Put aluminum foil over the ribs while they are cooking. Cover the grille, adjust the vent on top to 2/3 open over the ribs and cook for 1.5 hrs. without opening the cover.  

Once the ribs have been smoked, put them into a heavy pan or casserole. I used my big Le Creuset braiser for this. 

I painted a bit of my favorite bottled barbecue sauce (KC Masterpiece) over the ribs. Not too much! 

Cover tightly with foil. If the foil is going to touch the ribs, put a piece of parchment paper on the ribs to keep the foil from touching the acidic sauce. We don't want a metallic flavor. 

I also added the lid from the braiser so it would be a really good seal. Cook in a 265-270 degree oven for 2-3 hours or until the ribs are 'fall-off-the-bone' tender. 

Use a fork to test that the ribs a falling off the bone. Looks yummy doesn't it? My house smelled fabulous all afternoon too! (New fragrance for an air freshener maybe?) Let cool covered until they are easy to handle but not cold. 

Take a pair of forks and 'pull' the meat from the bones, discarding any fat blobs and cartilage. Don't make the chunks too small. You're not looking for cat food here. 

Once done, add some of your favorite sauce (heated) to this and serve on white bread (traditional) or a nice roll with coleslaw on top and some dill pickles and chips. I took this, before saucing, and put it into 2 zipper lock storage bags, squeezed the air out and froze them until I use one of the packages this weekend for the playoffs. The other one will be a treat to be discovered later. Just remember to let it thaw gently before reheating and don't mix it too much. Again, you want nice chunks of meaty porkishness. Enjoy!