LouieNep Food

(by Lorraine) During a recent trip to the local deli, I came upon the Asian Home Gourmet collection of “spice pastes”. Since I’m always willing to try convenience ingredients such as this, I purchased a pack of their Indian Vindaloo Curry spice paste. From the package:

A famous hot curry from Goa, South-west India. It is well spiced with red chillies, garlic and vinegar.

Instructions on the packet said to stir fry the paste with chopped onions, add bite-sized deboned chicken, some chopped up tomatoes, and simmer in broth for about 20 minutes. But because we had some leftover roast lamb from the night before, and because we were out of tomatoes, here’s what I did:

Stir fry the paste with about half a cup of chopped white onions, add in bite-sized chunks of deboned chicken and lamb, add about a cup of coconut cream (we used the tinned type, but you can reconstitute some from powder as well, just make sure to make it thick), a few tablespoons of olive oil, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Served with some mango chutney and a cucumber-sesame seed salad, t was absolutely delicious. Louie would have preferred it a little hotter, so maybe next time we’ll add some fresh chilies. In any case, we can’t wait to try out Asian Home Gourmet’s other spice pastes.. and writing about our results here!

I love how the simple word “tiramisu” conjures up anticipation. When people ask me what’s for dessert and I answer tiramisu, their faces light up, their eyes widen, and they invariably state that they must leave room for dessert. It’s just that kind of thing, tiramisu.

Today I’m featuring one of my favorite ways to have tiramisu- as sundaes, served in parfait glasses. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it always, always gets raves reviews:

Tiramisu Sundaes
Whisk 1 cup heavy cream in a medium bowl until stiff peaks form; cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups strong espresso (cooled to room temp) and 3 tablespoons brandy (optional).

Break 4 store-bought ladyfingers in half, dip into coffee mixture until soaked but not falling apart (several seconds). Arrange two halves in a layer at the bottom of each parfait glass. Top with a scoop of coffee-flavored ice cream. Garnish each glass with a dollop of your chilled whipped cream, and sprinkle with chocolate shavings. Serve immediately.

I got this recipe from a Martha Stewart Living magazine. Say what you will about Martha, I’ve got a whole stack of recipes from her magazines that I love.

Alexandra Stoddard’s Tea Celebrations: The Way to Serenity, from which today’s recipe hails, is not a cookbook. It’s a celebration of tea, a little book dedicated to the art and rituals of tea.

But is tea drinking really the way to serenity? I know Lorraine wouldn’t agree: every time I offer to make a pot, she gives me one of her sunny smiles, shakes her head, and says “Can I have coffee instead?” For her, it’s the scent of brewing coffee that lulls her into the best of moods on even the worst of days.

I, on the other hand, am a self-confessed tea lover- the fifteen or so tins and boxes of tea leaves at my bedside are testament to that. I’ve also been called a very serene person a multitude of times. Coincidence? Perhaps not.

Today’s recipe is one of my favorite “tea foods”: perfect, especially, with a cup of steaming Irish Breakfast with lots of milk and sugar:

Watercress and Egg Tea Sandwiches
In a mixing bowl, combine 6 peeled and mashed hard-boiled eggs, 2 bunches chopped watercress, and 1/2 cup chopped chives. Add half a cup of mayonnaise, some salt and pepper, a dash of Tabasco, and mix well. Cut crusts from your sliced bread of choice (they recommend pumpernickel, sourdough or whole-wheat bread. The latter is our favorite). Spread the egg and watercress mixture onto half the slices, and top with the other half. Lightly spread the outside edge of each sandwich with mayonnaise, roll it in some chopped fresh parsley, and serve.

I like to chill this before serving; the coolness of the sandwich seems to go better with the warmth of a cup of tea.

(by Lorraine) Louie’s love of ice cream and frozen delights is something I don’t share. Blame it on my super sensitive teeth, my aversion to brain freeze, or my macrobiotic diet as an infant- the fact is that I’d rather have a slice of chocolate cake for dessert any day than a scoop of ice cream.

But it’s the peak of summer here. Stepping outside is like stepping into a pizza oven, and the only highlight of being in the kitchen is that I’m able to stand in front of the freezer for a few seconds. The thought of lighting up our hotter than hot oven in this weather to bake a cake or one of my famous desserts is plain crazy, and yesterday I decided that it was definitely time for something COLD:

Espresso Granita
Brew 4 cups strong espresso coffee. While it’s still hot, stir in 6 tablespoons granulated sugar until sugar dissolves. Let cool to room temp. Pour coffee mixture into a metal baking pan (I used my trusty square brownie pan), and place in freezer. Freeze until ice crystals begin to form (about 30 mins)- once they do, stir with a fork and return to freezer. Do this for a few hours, freezing then stirring every 30 minutes, until mixture is very thick and scoopable. Serve in chilled glasses, topped with chocolate shavings or chocolate chips.

Brain freeze time! But I’ll admit, the reason I, a coffeeholic, liked this is that it’s basically frozen coffee. Non-coffee lovers should try out this recipe for Lemon Granita. Enjoy!

Rose Elliot’s The Zodiac Cookbook is one of those rare cookbooks that we keep not in the kitchen, but in the bedroom. It’s just that kind of a cookbook- which makes for interesting reading during times of leisure. According to the book’s introduction,

“Each sign has its own clearly defined personality, strong and weak points, likes and dislikes. These extend to the types of food preferred, how it is cooked and how and when it is eaten.”

Each chapter in the book corresponds to -you guessed it- a zodiac sign, and features several recipes that are meant to appeal to people of that particular sign.

Sound far-fetched? I thought so too.

My fiance is a Libran, so I thought I would try out the so-called “Libran Canapes”:

Stuffed cherry tomatoes. Cut the tops off cherry tomatoes and level the bases to enable them to stand upright. Carefully scoop out seeds. Spoon or pipe curd cheese into the tomato cavities (I used cream cheese mixed with some chopped chives).
Cream cheese balls. Form cream cheese into even-sized balls about the size of large marbles. Roll 1/3 of the balls in crushed roasted peanuts, another 1/3 in chopped chives, and the rest in very finely chopped red pepper.

They were a hit. Okay, so Raine does love cream cheese- I didn’t need a book to tell me that. But what appealed to her about these was how small and dainty and “poppable-in-the-mouth” they were. Apparently, she loves canapes- especially when she can have as many as she likes- and that’s something I didn’t know about her.

I do realize that one hit does not prove this cookbook’s claim, so we’ll be trying out other recipes in the future- and featuring them here as well. I must admit that the recipes under Taurus (my sign) look very appetizing to me…

A croque monsieur is a french style grilled ham and cheese sandwich; a croque madame is a croque monsieur topped with a fried egg; a croque marie is what we invented for dinner tonight:

Butter two slices of thick-sliced white bread. Make a sandwich with a slice of American Cheddar cheese, a slice of Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced jalapeno peppers, and some thinly sliced white onion (warning: if you hate raw onions, you might want to fry them up a bit before making the sandwich.) Butter the outsides of the sandwich as well.

In a large frying pan, melt two tablespoons of butter in one tablespoon of cooking oil. When the pan is nice and hot, carefully place sandwich in. Fry for about a minute on one side, or until bread is golden brown; turn over and fry other side. Serve immediately.

The bread will be toasty, the cheeses will melt, and the jalapeno and onion are cooked just the right amount- not too raw, not overcooked. It was rich, delicious, and something we know we’ll be having again.

(by Lorraine) After using a tabletop electric oven for so long, we were excited to finally get a huge gas-heated oven a few days ago. How to break it in? The first thing I thought of was pizza. Specifically, a simple but elegant Margherita- thinly sliced ripe tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, a hearty chunk of mozzarella cheese on a thin and crispy crust. Meat-free, and perfect for Lent.

Now I knew the oven had the capacity to be very hot, much hotter than I was used to with our little electric model. But I didn’t realize just how hot. To make a long story short, after five minutes of baking, my “perfect” pizza was burnt to a black-bottomed crisp. I had ruined our dinner.

I did, however, have some fresh basil left over. There was a nice chunk of parmesan cheese in the chiller, half a pack of shelled walnuts left over from last week’s Baklava bake, and some uncooked penne pasta in the pantry.

So, to dinner:

Quick Pesto Penne
While penne is cooking, throw the following in a blender: 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 cups fresh basil leaves, � cup shelled walnuts, 4 cloves chopped garlic, salt & pepper. Blend for a few seconds, or until the pesto is well-mixed. It will be thick and creamy, but still pourable. Once pasta is cooked, drain in a colander, transfer to a large bowl, and pour on pesto sauce. Mix well. Serve.

Had I found some pine nuts in our pantry, the pesto would have been more traditional- but the walnuts worked out very well. The penne was delicious with a glass of chilled fruity red wine, but best of all, the pizza was forgotten.

One of the things my fiance inherited when her parents moved away was the cookbook Recipes on Parade: Meats (including seafood and poultry), apparently the first of a series called 2000 World Wide Favorites of Military Officers’ Wives.

The recipes are plentiful and feature dishes such as “Mrs. John F. Kennedy’s Recipe for Beef Stroganoff”, but it’s the casserole section that does it for me. In particular, the Konkee Doodle Casserole:

Saute 1 clove of chopped garlic in butter or oil; add 2 pounds ground sirloin and 1 pound pork sausage. Cook for ten minutes. Skim off fat, add in 1 large chopped onion, 1 pound cooked shell-type macaroni, 1 can of mushrooms, 1 large can of tomatoes, 2 small cans of tomato soup, 1 pound cubed cheese, and 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well, and turn into a greased casserole. Bake at 300 degrees for an hour and a half.

Now, there are several things I like about this dish, not least of which is its name. I like that ground beef and sausage are usually lurking in the deep dark recesses of our freezer and the other ingredients are always in our pantry. I like its “chuck everything together and bake it” method of preparation. But most of all, it tastes great. The melted cheese holds everything together perfectly, and the Worcestershire gives it just the right kick.

The Spice of Life

Fresh basil gives this an Italianesque feel. Also try some chopped zucchini or thinly sliced eggplant.