Recipes

Celebrating summer with blueberry pancakes

Bueberry pancakesMy favorite blueberry memory isn’t a special dish or preparation, but eating blueberries straight from the bush. When I was growing up, we would always visit Sweden in the summer, and picking fresh blueberries was one of my favorite activities. We had these special blueberry pickers that you were supposed to use to collect the berries. Except somehow, mine would never end up full, and my face and mouth would end up blue.   

 
Picking blueberries in Sweden, 1986
Caught red-handed, or blue-lipped, in this case

It’s a little easier for me to contain myself when I’ve got a plastic container full of blueberries from the supermarket (sadly, too hot for them to grow here). And while I still enjoy them plain, I also love making cakes and muffins with them. Without baking, pancakes are the quickest way to enjoy them for breakfast. I’ve added them to my mom’s pancake recipe, which incorporates oat bran for pancakes that feel both simultaneously lighter and heartier than your standard buttermilk pancake. 

Basic pancake recipe 

 print recipe

1 cup flour  

1/2 cup oat bran  

1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder  

2 egg whites  

3 tablespoons cooking oil  

1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups milk  

Bluberry pancakes cooking
Ready to flip

Directions 

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. Mix together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the dry ingredients. Cook pancakes over an oiled pan or griddle on medium heat. For blueberry pancakes, drop blueberries onto the pancakes just after ladling onto the pan. Flip when bubbles cover the surface of the pancake. Serve with butter, plain or vanilla yogurt, and maple syrup.  

Danger! Ice Cream Machine in the House

For a while, people have been asking me if I would like an ice cream machine. Perhaps they were in search of finding a kitchen-gadget-gift for Jan and me that we didn’t already own, or they sensed my great love for all things sinfully sweet, frozen, and unhealthy. In any case, I always responded with a polite no. An ice cream maker was the last thing we needed, creating containers full of fresh, homemade goodness only to tempt me into overindulging. Well, all this changed when I recently watched an episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown made the most delicious looking banana ice cream I’d ever seen. I quickly decided to throw all rules out the window and commandeer the ice cream machine of Jan’s younger brother Adam, which I determined he was using far too infrequently to miss.

For a few weeks, I stashed perfectly ripe bananas into the freezer one at a time. When I had collected about six of them, it was finally time. After letting them thaw for a while at room temperature, it was time to begin the process outlined in recipe below. The end result was an amazingly creamy and rich ice cream. While the color was more subtle than I’d expected (more the color of vanilla bean ice cream than the bright yellow I’d anticipated), the flavor was bold and delicious. With one successful ice cream experiment under my belt, now I’m ready to branch out and try some other flavors. I even purchased a half-gallon container of Half and Half at Costco in preparation, though I think my next attempt will replace some of the cream with low-fat milk for some slightly healthier varieties. I hear that the less fat added to the ice cream, the less creamy and smooth it will be, though I’ll probably make up for it with all the crumbled Oreos and marshmallows when I experiment with cookies & cream and rocky road.

Creamy Banana Ice Cream

6 ripe bananas

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions

Place bananas in the freezer ahead of time, at least overnight. Remove bananas and let thaw for about 45 minutes to an hour. Peel bananas and place into food processor, along with lemon juice. Pulse for about 15 seconds. Add corn syrup and vanilla and turn the food processor on. Slowly add the cream and process until smooth. Place in a container in the freezer and allow the temperature to get to 40 degrees F. Put the mixture into an ice cream maker and process for about 20 minutes. Place into an airtight container in the freezer and allow to harden several hours before serving.

One step closer to a pasta machine

Jan is always looking for the next gadget to assist him in making the perfect meal. I, however, am perpetually concerned about the increasing amount of small, countertop kitchen appliances we accumulate in our linen closet/overflow pantry. It’s not exactly a good combination. It’s the same battle we experience with the condiments (An abundance of condiments, May 2010), but on a larger scale, as appliances are a bigger investment, both in money and space.

I hate being a spoil-sport who always says no, but regardless of what Jan will tell you, I do compromise. I still don’t think we need a pizza oven or a Margaritaville triple Frozen Concoction Maker. But, I’ll admit that the immersion blender is definitely a keeper as is the Williams-Sonoma Vegetable Chop & Measure we’ve recently been using to make quick and easy Pico de Gallo.

We recently made stuffed pasta shells and I realized, in making this meal, we were getting dangerously close to another kitchen gadget I have been putting off — the dreaded pasta maker. After the success of the stuffed shells, Jan’s thinking big: ravioli, tortellini, and–I know it’s coming. But, as we’ve yet to try the ravioli or tortellini with prepared dough, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Stuffed pasta shells

print recipe

  • 1 23 oz. container of ricotta cheese
  • 3 cups spinach
  • 1 egg
  • Shredded mozarella or Italian-blend cheese
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Homemade or jar of favorite pasta sauce
Stuffing shells with cheese mixture

Directions

  • Boil the shells according to package directions, about 4-5 shells per serving
  • While the pasta is cooking, wash the spinach and chop roughly
  • Saute spinach in a pan with olive oil until just wilted
  • In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, egg, parmesan, parsley, salt, and pepper
  • After draining pasta shells, stuff them with the cheese mixture and place in a baking dish filled about 1/4 inch high with pasta sauce
  • Cover shells with the remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle with mozarella or Italian-blend cheese
  • Bake in oven at 350 degrees F for 45-60 minutes, until cheese is beginning to set
Ready to eat

All Problems Solved with a Bit of Fried Cheese

Smažený sýr (I attempt to pronounce it like the Czechs as smah-jeh-knee seer) is a dish that Jan and I ate every day that we were in the Czech Republic. This probably doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that it is basically a steak-sized portion of breaded and deep-fried cheese, often served with french fries, braised cabbage, and a tartar-type sauce. I had never experienced this cheesy goodness until visiting the Czech Republic, and it didn’t sound appealing to me when Jan described it to me beforehand. But, it was so amazing, whenever we sat down at a restaurant to eat there, that had to be one of the dishes we ordered.

Upon our return, Jan assured me that we were safe from continuing our overindulgence in smažený sýr at home, since he’d tried multiple times to make it and it never turned out right.

Well, we were safe for a while. Some time later we ate at San Francisco’s Cafe Prague, and Jan got to talking to one of the chefs there. The two began speaking in Czech so rapidly that I couldn’t even pick out the five Czech words I knew (which include the essentials: beer, ice cream, good, bad, and cheese = syr). Later, Jan reported to me the most important part of their conversation: the secret to making smažený sýr, or fried cheese. Continue reading →

Ribs and Champagne

Ribs and Champagne might not be a traditional combination, but it ought to be. When paired with Jan’s version of brussels sprouts and Czech potato salad, all the components came together surprisingly well. I found brussels sprouts too bitter before I tried Jan’s take on them, which he sautéd in chicken broth and bacon.

Bacon Brussels Sprouts

print recipe

1 lb Brussels sprouts

2-3 slices of bacon

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chicken broth

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Wash Brussels sprouts, trim the ends, cut them in half, and set aside. Cut bacon into 1/2 inch strips and saute over medium-high heat until crispy. Remove bacon and the fat from the pan, leaving about 1 teaspoon worth of bacon fat. Add olive oil to pan and add the Brussells sprouts to begin cooking. (Option to keep all the bacon fat and use instead of the olive oil, or remove all the bacon fat and use only olive oil). Add chicken broth, and cover pan with lid. Let cook until Brussels sprouts are tender and the broth is mostly absorbed. Uncover, add bacon, salt and pepper, and stir together for another few minutes.

For a bacon-free version, simply sauté the Brussels sprouts in the olive oil, then add the chicken broth.

Lessons in fattoush

I love the fattoush salad served in Mediterranean restaurants, but have never been able to perfect the combination of ingredients to get the right flavor at home. My dad recommended this recipe to me and sent me home with the ingredients I was missing. He really wanted me to try it.

I tried it that night, and followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except I added Feta cheese (the recipe didn’t call for cheese of any kind). When I was putting in the mint, Jan looked over my shoulder and said, “that’s a lot of mint,” to which I repied, “It’s in the recipe!”

Well, when it was time to eat the salad, he was right. The salad probably would have been much better with less mint, or, without any of it, which I think I’ll probably do next time.

The dressing, however, was amazing, and I had never used Sumac before (Dad sent me home with a little bag of it). I’m now convinced it must be the secret ingredient to get the authentic taste I was missing in earlier attempts.

Here’s the recipe for the dressing:

Sumac salad dressing

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Sumac

1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Use a garlic press or finely chop the garlic, then mash with the salt in a bowl with the back of a spoon. Add the lemon juice, Sumac, and olive oil and whisk together. Store until ready to serve.

Cupcakes and vodka

Birthday sunflowers
Setting the scene with happy sunflowers

And tri tip, and saffron-infused rice, and cheesy bread, and Louisiana hot links, and grilled zucchini, and taquitos, and fresh watermelon, and… You get the picture. It was a night of overindulgence. I hear that’s allowed for your birthday. However, my birthday is on the 22nd, and we celebrated early due to Jan’s work schedule. Now, I’ve got a week of using the birthday excuse and I hope I make it!

In addition to the treats I listed before, Kristi made Santa Maria beans and may be persuaded to share the recipe on her blog or as a guest contributor. I made the Czech potato salad using Jan’s recipe, which I will be posting in the near future, along with the recipe for the warm spinach artichoke dip we also enjoyed.

Birthday barbeque plate
Attempting to make room on the plate

Since Jan and I collaborated on the coleslaw, we called it Swedish-Czech coleslaw, but I realize that’s probably a lot more confusing of a name than it needs to be and we’ll have to work on coming up with a new one. We made it for the first time using the food processor, which worked well for the carrots, but I think it cut the cabbage into too small pieces. We combined green cabbage, carrots, and a fuji apple, then mixed with mayo, milk, white vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.

We also had ooey, goey, warm out-of-the-oven brownies made by Amy. I was impressed with Ken’s homemade German chocolate cupcakes, and his firefighting-in-the-backwoods-while-eating-gourmet-Spam recipes were intriguing (another guest contributor perhaps?) I was very happy to hang out on the patio with family and friends, listening to my own CD of happy music (thank you Jessica!) with so many thoughtful wishes from everyone. I felt very happy indeed.

Rocky road ice cream pie
The rocky road ice cream pie got a little messy

I made ice cream pies for dessert, and was a little embarrassed to reveal the recipe, as it was incredibly simple. It should be made ahead of time because there are few steps that involve allowing time for things to set in the freezer.

Rocky Road Ice Cream Pie

Chocolate graham crackers

½ stick butter, melted

Ice cream (you will use about ½ of a 1.5 quart container for one pie)

Whipping cream

Directions

The crust is made from chocolate graham crackers. Other cookies work well too, and I’m currently developing new crust/ice cream combinations using 1.) Animal crackers and 2.) Ginger snaps as the cookie crust base.

Crush cookies by hand or in a food processor. This time I used a food processor to grind the cookies for the first time, but I felt like I was missing out on half the fun. My usual technique is putting the cookies in a bag and beating with a meat grinder. I guess you could choose your method depending on whether you’re in a hurry or you need to let out some steam! Combine with melted butter until the mixture can be pressed into the bottom of a cake pan. I used about ½ stick of butter to one package of the chocolate grahams (about 13 whole crackers, or 26 squares.)

Adding whipped cream
Adding whipped cream

 Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven and let cool completely. Set out your ice cream on the countertop to soften, about 30 minutes. Fill crust with the ice cream. I made one pie with rocky road and the other with strawberry, but you could use your favorite flavor of ice cream, or get creative and mix things in with chocolate or vanilla. I mixed vanilla with strawberry once, which was tasty, but the strawberries stayed more frozen than everything else, prompting my friend Chanel to call the creation “popsicle pie,” which could be considered a good or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about popsicles.

Cover the ice cream with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 2 hours. Add a little bit of powdered sugar to whipping cream to taste, whip the cream, then remove plastic wrap and top the cake. Cover again and freeze for at least 2 hours.

When you’re about ready to enjoy, remove from the freezer and set out on the counter for about 20 minutes or so before serving.

A glorious truce with eggplant

I knew it wasn’t fair. I just didn’t like eggplant. I couldn’t even remember a specific time when I ate it and didn’t like it, we clearly just didn’t understand each other.

Then one day, Jan said he was going to make eggplant parmesan. “I don’t like eggplant,” I warned him, shaking my head. I sat at the countertop/bar overlooking our kitchen, pulled out a crossword puzzle, and sipped some red wine. A little bit later, Jan presented me with a disc, breaded and deep-fried, for me to try. I was skeptical, but instantly amazed. It was good. (This is not to say that the deep-frying technique will resolve conflicts with any vegetable I’m prejudiced against, as it did not work for mushrooms, Jan tried.)

Jan said that the trick with eggplant was slicing it horizontally, placing each medallion out on a tray, and sprinkling the eggplant with salt on both sides. Then the tray should be placed in the refrigerator for half and hour, letting the salt leach out the bitterness of the eggplant. Before cooking, the eggplant must be thoroughly rinsed of the salt water.

I was already amazed by the eggplant by itself, and the finished eggplant parmesan was even better. It was like lasagna, just with fried eggplant instead of the noodles and ricotta.

Now I request eggplant parmesan. The dish has opened up so many doors for me, this last time I decided it would open a new one. It was time for me to get over my fear of deep-frying. The last time I attempted to do so, I almost burned off my eyebrows a week before my wedding, setting a small but instantaneously out stove top fire in our apartment. Three and a half years later, my friend Heidi (who I was attempting to cook french fries for) still won’t let me live it down. This is also the reason a fire extinguisher now resides on our countertop, though it probably should have been there all along knowing firefighters’ propensities for starting fires.

So, when Jan began frying the eggplant slices for eggplant parmesan and asked me if I’d like to do the rest, I decided, why not? The fried eggplant is an amazing appetizer on its own, and one eggplant provides plenty of slices for constructing the layers of eggplant parmesan and for snacking on while you’re cooking the dish. And not an eyebrow or eyelash was harmed.

Here’s our simplified recipe:

Slice one eggplant and set out slices on a tray. Sprinkle both sides with salt and let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly and place in a colander to drain.

Set up a breading station with three shallow dishes. Fill one with flour, another with egg and milk, and the last with seasoned bread crumbs. Pat eggplant slice dry with a paper towel, coat with flour, then dip in the egg wash, and last, cover with breadcrumbs.

Fill a saucepan with about 3/4″ of oil and heat. Then fry about 4-5 of the breaded eggplant slices at a time, flipping over to brown both sides. Remove from oil and let drain over paper towels.

In a baking or casserole dish, layer red sauce (this time Jan made his own with Italian stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste, and I messily completed the final step with the immersion blender), eggplant, sauce, cheese (we used an Italian blend of shredded cheeses), eggplant, sauce, cheese, etc., just like you were making lasagna.

Bake, covered, in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes (remove the lid for the last 10 minutes or so).  Remove from the oven and let rest for about 20 minutes before serving. Then enjoy! I am still enjoying the leftovers.

Will work for carrot cake

I’ve had a few requests for the carrot cake I made for St. Patrick’s Day (I didn’t know what an appropriate Irish dessert would be, and carrot cake seemed festive enough at the time). Jan’s coworker Ken loved it so much I decided to make it for a yard clean-up party/barbeque he was hosting, hoping that would get me out of doing any yard work. Besides, I was arriving with Jan, chainsaw and chaps in tow, so I think that together, we were covered.

This recipe is adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, and it turns out so moist and carrot-ey. I’ve toned down the sweetness of the cake, and the frosting tastes like pure cheesecake.

Favorite Carrot Cake

4 eggs (let sit at room temperature for half-an-hour)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups finely shredded carrots, lightly packed (make sure carrot is finely grated or it will sink to the bottom during baking)

3/4 cup cooking oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour a 13x9x2 pan. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, combine beaten eggs, carrots, and oil, then add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Pour into a pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, keep in the pan. While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting.

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

1.5 cups powdered sugar

Combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Gradually add the powdered sugar. When the cake is cool, frost (don’t do this too soon while the cake is still warm or the frosting will melt). Top with chopped pecans. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.