gingerbread therapy

Quick and Spicy Tomato Soup

2010-02-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's definitely winter here in Pittsburgh. There's perpetually snow on the ground, we haven't seen the sun in days, and all the CMU children are huddling in for the winter to keep warm around the glow of their computer monitors.

This soup is great because it's ridiculously easy and unlike other tomato soups, is actually filling. It's got beans, carrots and pasta in it to add heartiness, and it has a nice kick from the red pepper flakes. I've been living off of this stuff this winter. Also, making it is a good excuse to use my awesome new enameled cast iron pot I got for christmas!

Quick and Spicy Tomato Soup

from Giada DeLaurentis

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce (recommended: San Marzano brand)

2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth

1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup pastina pasta (or any small pasta)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and saute until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the jar of marinara sauce, chicken broth, cannellini beans, red pepper flakes, pasta, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls and serve.

holiday recap

2010-01-17T09:32:00.001-08:00

Hey, wow, it's been a while. I started class this week and I've been spending this morning trying to organize my life and catch up with things. I did a lot of baking over the break but didn't get the chance to write any posts about it! So I'm just going to post some eye-candy style photos of delicious things my mom and I made over break and hopefully I'll get back to some real recipe posts soon.

Egg Nog- The real stuff with heavy cream, eggs, and rum.

Apple-Gingerbread upside-down cake with sugared cranberries

These are the "Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever" from Cook's Illustrated. Pretty fancy.

snowed in

2009-12-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

I had plans to travel back to my parents house for the holidays today, but several inches of snow foiled those plans.

Instead, I was forced to stay inside, drink hot chocolate, listen to soma.fm's "x-mas in frisko" station, and bake gingerbread cookies all day.

They're not the prettiest cookies since I didn't have a piping bag to put on the frosting. However, they are very delicious, if I do say so myself. I've been on a fresh ginger kick lately and happened to have some in the refrigerator left over from some other cooking project-it really amped up the flavor in these cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. grated fresh ginger (I used a microplane)

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

about 1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, soda, spices, salt.) Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and combine.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, working with half the dough at a time, roll 1/8 inch thick. With floured cookie cutters, cut dough into shapes. Using a metal spatula, place cookies 1/2 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Royal Icing

Recipe from Alton Brown

Note: I used only about 2 cups of sugar and 2 egg whites and still had a lot more than I needed to frost the cookies.

3 ounces pasteurized egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar

In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. If using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

thanksgiving: shoo fly pie.

2009-12-13T14:55:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this pie I made at thanksgiving because I just finished all of my work for the semester and had zero time to do anything since thanksgiving except for frantically design stuff, eat ramen, and get very little sleep. It was nice to take a break on Thanksgiving day, even though I didn't have enough time to go home and visit my family. I made this pie to bring to a Pittsburgh thanksgiving gathering with some friends, and it was a good night with good people.

I chose to represent my home area of Pennsylvania by bringing a traditional wet bottom shoo fly pie. These can be a little tricky to make and I ended up having to bake two pies from different recipes to get one that worked. It ended up being delicious even if it's not as beautiful as the ones I've seen back home. This pie has an intense, sweet molasses flavor with a nice crunchy crumb topping.

Shoo Fly Pie

1.2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. molasses
3/4 c. boiling water
9" unbaked pie shell
Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and combine with molasses and pour into pie shell.
Crumbs:
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. shortening (or butter)
1/2 tsp. salt
Combine dry ingredients with shortening. Use hands to make into crumbs. Put over top of liquid. Bake pie at 400 degrees until crust starts to brown, reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake until firm, make sure to watch the pie and test it with a toothpick to see when it's firm.

sake marinated tofu in shitake broth

2009-11-04T07:18:00.000-08:00

This semester has kept me incredibly busy at CMU, and (lucky me!) all that stress reacted badly on my immune system a week or two ago. I wanted a flavorful, gingery soup to take care of my sore throat and help me feel better, and this did the trick. Since I haven't seen my kitchen much this fall to do any real cooking, it was very nice to take the time to make a fiery soup on a cold fall afternoon.
I used instant bonito shavings for the dashi stock (I'm no expert in this field, but I read that this is what many Asian households use since it is very easy to prepare.) And it was easy to make with the individual packet of Bonito, all you need to do is boil it for a minute or two in water and then strain though a cheesecloth.

As for the shitake mushrooms, I'm normally not a fan of eating members of the Fungi kingdom, but I have to say these were pretty delicious. I got these at Whole Foods, they have a pretty nice selection of mushrooms.

I could see this soup being good with the addition of some soba-type noodles.

Sake-Marinated Tofu in Shitake Broth
Recipe from Gourmet Traveller.

250g medium-firm tofu
8 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 small carrot, julienned
50g baby spinach

sake marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
1/4 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 garlic clove, minced

broth:
500ml dashi, vegetable stock or water
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp mirin
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
shichimi togarashi (japanese 7 spice powder), to serve (I didn't have this, I used a little hot sauce instead)

Pat the tofu with a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture, then cut into 1-cm thick slices. Combine the marinade ingredients in a small bowl and marinade the tofu pieces for at least 2 hours (or overnight).

Lift the tofu pieces from the marinade and place on a heatproof dish. Steam on a medium heat for 6-8 minutes, until heated through. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Place all the broth ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the shitake and carrots then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 4 minutes. Add spinach and cook for a further minute, until the leaves have wilted. Taste and season.

Arrange the warm tofu in large flat bowls, then pour over the broth. Serve with a dash of togarashi for a little heat.

Cure for a bad day

2009-10-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Caramel-apple cupcake from Dozen and coffee.

molasses cookies

2009-10-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

It's getting chilly out. I've had to pull out my sweaters and scarves and started thinking about apple cider and butternut squash soup. I also start thinking about spiced baked goods around this time of year. I made these cookies for our october student AIGA meeting.

They're a great, basic cookie, and remind me a lot of my nana's "molasses tongues" cookies (although not quite that good, I don't know how she does it.) These also come together really quickly and easily. Take a few minutes' break from classes/projects and bake some cookies! It will make you happier.

Note: I doubled this batch and used about a half-cup less butter than the recipe called for, and the cookies turned out fine. Also, I used half white sugar and half brown sugar.

Molasses Cookies
reprinted from Framed

3/4 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon each of ground cloves, ginger and salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Extra sugar for rolling

1. Combine butter, sugar, molasses and egg in large mixing bowl
2. Combine flour, baking soda and spices in medium bowl
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until well combined
4. Put in refrigerator until dough has hardened.
5. Scoop out dough (I find an ice cream scoop works well for this) and roll into 1 inch balls
6. Roll balls in sugar and place on cookie sheet, well-spaced apart
7. Press down slightly on cookie dough with the bottom of a glass or jar
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Cool on rack.

butternut squash and spinach risotto.

2009-09-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

You'll have to excuse the gross picture above, I couldn't get an attractive shot of this risotto. You can check out the nice picture of beautiful roasted squash below to make up for it. Nonetheless, it was probably the best thing I've cooked/eaten in a while (ah, college..) and was definitely a welcome comfort food and got me thinking about autumn.

I think one of the few times that I am truly happy is when I'm sauteeing onions and garlic in olive oil with a glass of wine nearby. Oh, you say that most people's idea of relaxing doesn't involve standing over a hot stove? So weird.

I adapted the recipe from this recipe here. I'll reprint with the changes I made included.

Butternut squash risotto

3-4 cups vegetable broth (I used Rapunzel vegetable boullion and added smoked paprika)
1 small butternut squash
a couple handfuls of washed baby spinach
some olive oil
about a tablespoon of butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 small shallot, diced
salt and pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
a handful of finely grated parmesan cheese
nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)

Halve the squash lengthwise and cut into rings. Arrange on a cookie sheet and season with salt. Roast in a 450 degree oven until soft and golden brown, about 40-50 minutes. When it's cooled a bit, remove the skin and cut into small cubes.

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and keep the broth hot.

In a large frying pan (one with high sides would work nicely) saute onion and shallot until glassy. Add the rice and stir, allowing the rice to toast and become translucent. Throw in a splash of white wine.

Add a small amount of the cubed squash and stir until a puree forms, then add about a cup of stock. Stir continuously, and add more broth in small increments (about half a cup or so) as the rice absorbs the broth. You want most of the broth to be absorbed before you add more stock.

When you are down to the last few ladles full of broth, throw in a large handful of parmesan, the cubed squash (you want to have chunks in the finished risotto) and stir in more broth. Add spinach just before all the broth is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper, nutmeg, and remove from heat when the last of the broth is absorbed.

Serve with more freshly grated parmesan.

Pickled Beets

2009-09-13T21:10:00.001-07:00

I've been interested in making pickles lately, and my current obsession is pickled beets. Beets always seem to be the "unpopular kid" of vegetables, always getting made fun of (I'm thinking of The Office here.) The truth is, beets are awesome. They're quite healthy, they have a natural sweetness, and come with the all the fun of pretending you're violently chopping up some sort of body parts with that bright red color (I don't know, handling cooked ones feels like I'm handling some sort of internal organs)

Pickled Beets

some beets (I used three really big ones)
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
about a tablespoon of caraway seeds

Boil washed beets in salted water until soft enough to stick a fork in them easily, about 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, bring sugar and vinegar to a boil in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add caraway seeds.
When finished cooking, dip the beets in an ice bath and then work off the skins with your hands, they should slip off easily. Put the beets in a canning jar and fill with enough vinegar mixture to cover the beets. Keep in fridge for about 24 hours before serving any.

Bonus: put peeled hard boiled eggs in the pickling liquid with the beets for red pickled eggs.

Grilled Chipotle Tomatoes

2009-08-24T20:34:00.001-07:00

We need to have a word about these tomatoes.

These have to be the best thing I've ever eaten that came off of a grill. As a vegetarian, I can't get too excited about grilled meats, but I do get excited about smoky, spicy grilled vegetables.

I made these with my parents last week while visiting home. They may look a bit messy or gross from the picture above, but it's easy to forgive them.

Start off with however many tomatoes you'd want (we used plum tomatoes—they're meatier), sliced in half. Squeeze out the tomato gel and salt each open side. Stack cut side down on a plate to drain for 20 minutes or so.

In the meantime, mix an amount of creme fraiche (maybe about a half a cup?) with a diced chipotle pepper and some adobo sauce. You can pick up the canned chipotles and just freeze the rest in small portions for later use. Use your judgement, these can get really spicy.

Grill the tomatoes, cut side down, until they begin to turn black, then flip over and fill the cavity with some of the chipotle sauce. Keep on the grill until they look bubbly and soft.

I had these for dinner with my mom and dad last week, served on grilled slices of italian bread that's been drizzled with olive oil and scraped with garlic. You could put the tomato on the bread and mush it up since they're already very soft from the roasting. They don't taste at all like raw tomatoes (which is a good thing, in my opinion) and they are all you need for a light summer meal.

Recipe originally from Bobby Flay.

Rosemary Shortbread

2009-08-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the west coast, and after a long red-eye flight I jumped right into baking and cooking during my week visiting home.

I had a rosemary shortbread cookie last week at a coffee shop in Berkeley (I think it was called 1 2 3 local? It was really nice.) My mom and I gave it a shot here using fresh rosemary from the garden.

It's amazing what the rosemary flavor and aroma does to complement shortbread. This would be great with a cup of black tea. It was also really easy to make.

Recipe originally from Gourmet Magazine.

Best Sandwich

2009-07-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

So this is what this blog has become. Sandwiches. Anyway, this one was really good.

Toasted grainy bread, scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, chipotle salsa, avocado, and cilantro.

Updates

2009-06-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Best after work snack: Strawberry Guacamole.

Oh hey food blog, it's been a while. I'm sure the three people that read this occasionally wouldn't be too upset if I abandoned this page, but that's not the case. I've been busy with life for the past few weeks but I still want to maintain this page over the summer and update you on all the glorious food I'm experiencing.

So, if you do not know, I'm currently in the Bay Area in California, doing a summer internship. What this means: I'm around a ton of awesome food and produce, but nothing near a proper kitchen (my definition of a proper kitchen might be a bit insane, however). I'll continue to post whatever I manage to cook (if it looks interesting at all) and also maybe throw in some shots of great things I get out. Which is what I'm going to do now!
Strawberry Margarita. Ok, so no lime, so it was really more of an alcoholic slushie. Still, it was nice to sit down with this after a long afternoon of walking in San Francisco.
Great Indian take-out from some place in the Haight.

And a burrito! One of the foods I've really been looking forward to. This one was HUGE, and stuffed with lots of beans, rice, cheese, guacamole, and cilantro. I couldn't finish it— definitely bigger than Chipotle burritos!

Roasted Vegetables + Berry Strata

2009-05-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on here. I've finished my junior year of college with a pretty taxing finals week; since I finished classes I've been decompressing and doing a lot of cooking. Eamae and I had a great dinner last night—salad with strawberries, feta, romaine, and a balsamic vinaigrette; roasted vegetables, and a berry "strata" for dessert.

The vegetables are easy, this is my favorite way to make vegetables recently. I soaked a chopped clove of garlic in olive oil while I cut up some carrots, parsnips, and brussels sprouts and tossed them in the oil with pepper and sea salt. I also did some small potatoes (I think they were called butter potatoes?) with just oil, salt and pepper. Then I threw them all on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for maybe a half an hour, or until they got browned and soft.
The berry strata is a result of my addiction to food network, which I don't get at school so whenever I visit my parents I watch a lot of cooking shows. I saw the recipe for this on Giada's Everyday Italian. It's such an easy dessert and it's really delicious!

Berry Strata
adapted from Everyday Italian

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it was fine)
Splash of vanilla
4 slices of bread, torn into 1-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
1 (10-ounce) bag frozen mixed berries, thawed and drained

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Turn off the heat, add the honey, and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the eggs, ricotta, and sugar. Using a fork, mix to combine and beat the eggs. Add the milk, vanilla, butter and honey mixture, and bread. Stir to combine. Gently fold in the berries.

Place the ingredients in a 10-inch round (2-quart) baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the strata until golden on top and baked through, about 40 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon into dishes and serve.

Banana-Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-04-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

I don't eat bananas. For one thing, raw, they make me physically ill. And, (coincidence?) I've just never enjoyed the taste or texture.

For some reason the other day, I decided I wanted banana cupcakes. Blame it on some photo I saw on Tastespotting. I made this batch in anticipation of a great backyard party/barbeque last Friday.Banana cupcakes, recipe from Orangette, which can be found here.

As for the frosting, it had to be cream cheese based, because of course, that's the best kind. I was a little skeptical about chocolate cream cheese frosting, but it turned out amazing! And also really dark because of the extra dark cocoa I used.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

about 3 cups confectioner's sugar
8 oz block cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup dark cocoa
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Beat in cocoa, then confectioner's sugar in 1 cup portions until icing is as thick as you want. I only used about 2.5 cups of sugar.

Makes more icing than you need. Which isn't really a bad thing.

Overall, I was surprised at how well the flavors balanced out. One element didn't overpower the other, and these turned out to be a nice cupcake version of a chocolate covered banana.

Calzones

2009-03-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting on this post since spring break, two weeks ago. While I was home I made calzones with my mom and Eamae.

Homemade calzones are way better than anything you can get in a pizza shop. This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated. I don't have the recipe with me, but you can see the process here, taking place in a much nicer kitchen than what normally appears in this blog.

The filling had lots of garlic, fresh ricotta, and mozzerella.These photos are making me hungry.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-03-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted. Things have really picked up here at CMU, and I've been often too busy fretting about various projects to cook or eat anything vaguely healthy.

I made these cookies a few weeks ago for a Valentine's Day gift (I snuck one or two before wrapping them up). They were awesome! I've been wanting to make another batch to keep in my desk drawer for those times you just need a cookie (alas, I haven't done it yet! And I'm currently eating bargain brand Oreo's knockoffs)

I adapted this recipe from The Bon Appetit Cookbook, which was a totally sweet gift I got from my brother last Christmas. The recipe calls for normal size chips, which I didn't have, but instead I made half a batch, used mini chips, and made the cookies smaller than normal. I still ended up with a lot of cookies!

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
reprinted from the Bon Appetit Cookbook

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add sugar and brown sugar; beat until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until mixture is creamy and well blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Working in batches, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a prepared baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. Bake cookies until pale brown, about 15 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheet. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Garlic Tofu Broccoli Stir Fry

2009-02-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

Being in college, I'm always on a quest to find quick/easy/cheap/somewhat healthy meals to prepare when I get home from a long day in studio. Especially this month, after rather expensive series of events.

Stir-fry is a great answer to this problem— and this one turned out awesome!

Start by cooking the tofu. Add firm or extra firm tofu, cut up, into a dry nonstick pan and fry while pressing down until you get a nice browned color. Remove and set aside.

Fry up some onion and garlic (two big cloves) on low heat in olive oil. Add some red pepper flakes (I made this one pretty spicy.)

When the onions are clearish add a bunch of broccoli, cut into florets. Add some water to the pan and cover with a lid for a minute or two to steam them. They should turn bright green.

When the water's gone, add the tofu and lightly brown everything. Add some more olive oil if you need to. Finish it off with a bit of soy sauce and sesame seeds. Serve with rice, or maybe pasta?

Cupcake Experiment

2009-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make cupcakes the other night after reading the recipe for Smitten Kitchen's new chocolate whiskey and beer cupcakes but found that I was missing the ingredients. Still, I decided to improvise on the recipe and make chocolate espresso cupcakes with Kahlua-flavored icing.

I substituted soymilk for regular milk, margarine for some of the butter, and yogurt for sour cream. The original recipe called for melting stout and butter together on the stove and then whisking in cocoa powder; I mixed a good amount of instant espresso powder with soymilk and used that instead of stout— it worked well enough but the whole mixture didn't stay together and kind of turned into lumps. Still, everything whipped up into a pretty good batter.

For the buttercream, I just used Kahlua and some instant espresso instead of the Bailey's.

The cupcakes turned out delicious, but a little dense. Clearly I should just stick to the recipes for a little longer until I can really improvise with baking.

Simple White Cake.

2009-01-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ever since I went on this "allergy discovery diet" I've been intensely missing the things I need to exclude from my diet— vanilla, chocolate, spices, tomatoes, curry, wine, gin, hot sauce. I'll be able to eat them soon but for now I had to find something to fill in the void of sweets that I can't have.

I found this white cake recipe on Allrecipes.com, and I just substituted coconut extract for the vanilla. It came out perfect— soft and tender, with just a hint of coconut flavor. I got the chance to break out my pure cane sugar from Whole Foods and that really made the difference; cane sugar tastes so much better than regular refined white sugar.

The best part was that it was so easy. I got the ingredients together and got it in the oven in 5 or 10 minutes, and was able to keep doing homework while it was baking!

Simple White Cake
Recipe courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or coconut)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Cilantro Pesto Pasta

2009-01-19T18:57:00.001-08:00

I want to mention the awesome cilantro-flavored pasta I had for dinner. It's very easy and used up lots of things that were sitting around in my refrigerator. I basically followed Heidi Swanson's recipe with a few adjustments: I had a bunch of kale so I chopped that up for the greens in the dish, adding it to the boiling pasta water; also I practiced trying to make my tofu more flavorful by dry-toasting it in a nonstick skillet and pressing down to let the water cook off before putting sauce on it.

The result was delicious- though I wouldn't put so much garlic in next time (I used around twice what was called for). I also topped it with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese which was a great addition.
Boiling the noodles and kale together. I used rotini instead of soba noodles because it's what I had on hand. Quick and easy.
Cilantro "pesto"- it's pretty awesome.

First post & my favorite hummus recipe

2009-01-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

I've decided to dork out and create a food blog. I spend enough time on Tastespotting nowadays that I catch myself writing posts in my head as I'm cooking or deciding what the best way to photograph my cooking would be.

Besides doing this, I am a design student at Carnegie Mellon University and I've discovered that if I'm frustrated and tired of working on visual projects, the only thing I can do to clear my mind is cook.

I cook a lot.

So here is my first post— a recipe for a variation on Hummus. Hummus has always been one of my favorite foods, since I was a little kid. Everyone has their version. Since I have a citrus allergy, I use white wine vinegar in place of lemon juice, and I think it works out pretty well.
I enjoyed some here with the crusty bread I baked yesterday.

Makes a good amount. (I'm not one for exact measurements)
Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas, drained (organic, if you can find them)
2-3 tbs. tahini
extra virgin olive oil
white wine or champagne vinegar, a few splashes
a small handful cilantro
5 or 6 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
smoked paprika, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor— either grate or press garlic cloves so you don't get lumps. This recipe is super flexible, so I usually just start out with a small amount of olive oil and vinegar and keep adding things until it is the consistency I like. Process until smooth and fluffy.

I've found that I love the flavor of fresh cilantro in this, and you'll end up with a green-flecked hummus that's so much nicer than the beige stuff you get from the store.