So...it's been a bit over a year and a half in this house, and I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I found a bottle of rice vinegar and a bottle of red wine vinegar in the back of my pantry that I am relatively certain moved in with me. Oops. I'm nearly done with everything--packing, consuming the last bits of my pantry and fridgestuffs and to be honest, I'm about done with things leftover or made from non-perishable goods. This morning I reached the end of my patience with that, so I made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some fresh veggies and a little fruit to make the last few days a little easier. Not that the huge batch of mujadara I made has gone over badly, but sometimes you just need something that hasn't been processed, dried, stored or in any other way preserved. As I've also been craving ratatouille for about two weeks now, I opted to make a quick-ish version of that to have for lunch today while finishing up my packing. It doesn't require much, just a little forethought in gathering ingredients, and I'm in no way claiming this is totally true to the provencal dish, but it is good, it's not bad for you in any way, it can be eaten at just about any temperature and for those of you that can eat bread, it goes very well with some good baguette or toast. I've also heard of it used for an omelet filling, topped with a poached egg for breakfast, stuffed into crepes, topping rice, couscous and pasta and my personal favorite, topped with a little goat cheese, which really sets it off. Today I lack the goat cheese, having used the last of it at my last dinner party, but it's perfectly serviceable served simply in a bowl with a spoon. I like it a little brothy, even though I can't dip bread in it, so if you are planning on using it as a stuffing, just reduce the liquid and make it a bit drier so it doesn't make your omelet or crepes or whatever soggy. If you're going to couscous/rice route, this version will work just fine.
Ratatouille
Ingredients:
-3 Tbsp olive oil
-1 small/medium onion, diced
-1 Tbsp chopped garlic, or 3-4 cloves chopped (feel free to add more if you like a lot of garlic)
-1 red or green pepper, diced
-1 Tbsp tomato paste
-3/4 cup broth, stock or tomato juice
-1 italian eggplant, quartered and cut into 1/2 inch or so chunks OR about 2 cups eggplant chunks
-1 medium zucchini, quartered and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
-1 medium yellow squash, quartered and chunked
-1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained (regular fine too, just no seasoned ones--get the plain kind) OR 2-3 good sized ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
-2/3 to 1 Tbsp dried herbes de provence OR italian seasoning mix OR 2 Tbsp of a mix of chopped fresh basil, thyme and parsley
Directions:
Heat the onion, garlic and pepper in the oil in a medium or large saucepan until soft and starting to brown. Stir in the tomato paste, working it in with a spoon or spatula until the veggies are coated. Add the broth or juice and stir to lift any browned bits of paste or onion that remain on the bottom of the pan. Stir in the eggplant and simmer for a few minutes to allow it to start to release it's liquid into the pan. After five or ten minutes, add the zucchini and yellow squash and stir to coat thoroughly. Simmer for another five minutes or so and add the tomatoes and whatever herbs you've chosen if they are dried. Put a lid on the pan and allow to simmer for a few minutes more, until zucchini and squash are tender but not disintegrating (eggplant falling apart is ok). If using fresh herbs, stir in for the last two or three minutes of cooking to keep them from completely melting into the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ratatouille should resemble stew when you're done, serve warm or allow to cool as you please. As with many stew-ish recipes, this will improve overnight in the fridge, so don't worry about not finishing it all in one meal. This quantity makes about enough for three or so dinner servings, and four to six as a side depending on whether or not anyone wants to stop at one serving.
Notes:
-Alter components as needed. As long as you have eggplant of some kind and some tomatoes and squash (yellow or zucchini) you're pretty much set. Peppers can be any color depending on your taste or available stock. As for liquid, just about anything up to and possibly including water can be used, though I wouldn't use as much water if you go that route.
-Goat cheese, feta, parmesan--try topping it with one of these at least once. Mmmm...
-This is best in summer when all of these veggies are in season. Technically, it's a bit early for this, but if you happen to grow zucchini and just can't stand another batch of zucchini bread at the end of the season, this is one way to do something different with the excesses.
-Bonus--This one is vegan, gluten free, and lowfat/good fat as long as you don't overdo the additional cheese at the end. Therefore, enjoy as often as you like :)
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Refined Unrefined
David Lebovitz, I love you.
No, I've never met David, and likely never will, but he has earned my undying affection for writing this lovely book. Buy it. Even if you never think you'll ever make ice cream on your own, even if the thought of eggs and milk coming together to make custard is just too damn hard. Your mind will be changed, you will want to rush out and buy an ice cream machine as soon as you read through the second chapter. The Perfect Scoop is just one of those cookbooks that you must have on your shelf for instruction and more importantly, inspiration to make the kinds of desserts you have always wanted to try and never had the guts to attempt. Ice cream has to be one of the easiest foods on the planet that everyone likes and almost no one makes at home. We'd rather give another few bucks for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Daz or some other random commercial kind and not bother with the "monumental" effort that making our own would involve. My memories of homemade ice cream revolve almost exclusively around Ohio and summer visits to my grandparents and a huge bucket filled with rock salt and ice and a huge mess to deal with afterwards. No more. The smaller no ice/salt countertop ice cream makers mean never having to try to get the dasher out without getting salt in the freshly churned ice cream and relatively little forethought needed to make a much smaller quantity of simply wonderful ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet or whatever else you want to make. I picked up this model which has a 1.5 quart capacity and only needs to have the core frozen overnight to be ready for whatever I do to it. I chose Linens n' Things simply because I know they always have a 20% off coupon floating around somewhere, and since I could purchase online but pickup in store, I was able to use the coupon, go through fatwallet for that rebate and still not pay shipping. The recipe below was the one I made up to christen the machine. Inspiration and guidance came from David Lebovitz's recipe for frozen yogurt (page 49) and the contents of my fridge. I've been eating a lot of greek yogurt of late, and have just about totally given up on the dannon/regular kind as I find I really don't like it all that much, so greek was the base for this frozen one. I picked up some meyer lemons in New York not too long ago and they've been living in the crisper since while I tried to figure out what I could do with them that would make the most of their bright flavor. As nearly everyone I know is trying to reduce their consumption of refined sugars, myself included, I decided to use honey instead of sugar (it was also on my counter instead of in a drawer, so it volunteered for the job). I wanted a VERY lemony, tangy result, and I got exactly what I wanted with this one. I'm fairly certain it will work with plain old everyday lemons, but as with all things, taste before you freeze to make sure the balance of acid/sweet is to your liking. If you're not using meyer lemons, you could add some orange zest to help bring it back from the edge of lemony oblivion. Check the notes for some other variations I'm going to try soon.
Meyer Lemon Frozen Yogurt
(makes a little over a quart, so make sure your machine's capacity is at least 1.5 quarts to be safe)
Ingredients:
-4 cups greek yogurt (see notes)
-juice of 2 meyer lemons
-zest of 2 meyer lemons, chopped as fine as you can
-1/2 to 2/3 cup honey (or equal amounts of agave syrup, or 1/2 cup sugar)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, see notes)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine, making sure sugar is dissolved if you're using granulated. If you do this quickly and the ingredients are still cold when you're done, assemble your machine and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. If you are making this ahead, stick the mix back in the fridge for up to two days, but you won't want to wait that long.
Eat. You do not have to wait for it to freeze more in the freezer, though you can if you want to. Do keep in mind that since home machines do not introduce nearly as much overrun (air) into the mix while churning the ice cream will be harder than usual when you pull it out of the freezer. Either let it sit on the counter for a few to soften up a bit, or if their's room in your container and you lack the patients, jam a butter knife into it to break it into liftable chunks. Don't worry if this one starts to melt, it's just going to melt back into soft yogurt instead of the usual watery, sticky mess. Eat it anyway :)
Notes:
-I didn't use the vanilla for this round, but it would tame some of the sharpness of the lemon and add a lovely creamy flavor to the whole thing. Citrus and vanilla go quite well together, so don't have any fear of using it, especially if you opt to make this orange instead of lemon. Creamsicles are popular for a reason.
-To convert this to orange, use about 1/3-1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice from the best tasting oranges you've got, or a Tablespoon or two of frozen concentrate and the zest of two oranges. To make a lime version, zest and juice two to three limes (depending on size/potency of your limes) and sub them for the lemons and follow the rest of the directions.
-Chop the zest into tiny bits if you can, rather than just long skinny ribbons. The reason I do this is that in my machine, the long bits can get stuck around the dasher, while the little nibbets go whizzing merrily by. If you do get a clump of zest, just stir it back into the rest of the yogurt when you put it out of the machine.
-If you can get citrus fruit that hasn't been sprayed, use it. I like a lot of zest in my citrus glaze, yogurt and all that, so use as much as you like, but definitely use some.
-If you can't use zest or can't abide the little bits in your yogurt, try to find some citrus oil and use about 1/8 tsp to start, adding just a drop or two at a time if you want more since it is potent stuff. It won't be the same, but it will still be good.
-Greek yogurt--I love this stuff. It's richer than the regular kind, even for the 0% versions. I'm a huge fan of Fage brand, but trader joe's carries a perfectly acceptable version that is cheaper. For this batch I used 2 cups 0% and 2 cups 2% because that's what I had in my fridge. I may try to use all 0% soon, but the creaminess that comes from the 2% just makes the yogurt that much better. For all out decadence, use the whole milk version. If you don't have access to any greek yogurt, you could use strained yogurt. For that, put double the amount of yogurt you need into a colander lined with cheesecloth (paper towels work in a pinch, but be VERY careful scooping out the finished product). Put the colander over a larger bowl and leave in the fridge to drain for about six hours. So for this recipe, you'd need 8 cups of regular yogurt to yield 4 cups of strained. If you're going to strain it, use whole milk yogurt, or at the very least use the lowfat. Fat free just tastes odd when you do this to it. Ok, if you don't want to strain it, you can just use whole milk yogurt and be done with it, but in my opinion it won't be as good. The heft that comes from greek/strained is worth the extra effort or few extra bucks.
-Yes, I did tag this as breakfast. If you eat yogurt with honey for breakfast, then what's wrong with eating the frozen version with some added lemon for breakfast as well? This would probably be wonderful stuffed into crepes for brunch too. Or dessert. Whatever floats your boat.
-Check back soon for my continued experiments with this thing as I clean out my pantry. And go read The Perfect Scoop. You'll thank me when summer rolls around, and you'll worship David when you reach the bottom of your bowl.
No, I've never met David, and likely never will, but he has earned my undying affection for writing this lovely book. Buy it. Even if you never think you'll ever make ice cream on your own, even if the thought of eggs and milk coming together to make custard is just too damn hard. Your mind will be changed, you will want to rush out and buy an ice cream machine as soon as you read through the second chapter. The Perfect Scoop is just one of those cookbooks that you must have on your shelf for instruction and more importantly, inspiration to make the kinds of desserts you have always wanted to try and never had the guts to attempt. Ice cream has to be one of the easiest foods on the planet that everyone likes and almost no one makes at home. We'd rather give another few bucks for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Daz or some other random commercial kind and not bother with the "monumental" effort that making our own would involve. My memories of homemade ice cream revolve almost exclusively around Ohio and summer visits to my grandparents and a huge bucket filled with rock salt and ice and a huge mess to deal with afterwards. No more. The smaller no ice/salt countertop ice cream makers mean never having to try to get the dasher out without getting salt in the freshly churned ice cream and relatively little forethought needed to make a much smaller quantity of simply wonderful ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet or whatever else you want to make. I picked up this model which has a 1.5 quart capacity and only needs to have the core frozen overnight to be ready for whatever I do to it. I chose Linens n' Things simply because I know they always have a 20% off coupon floating around somewhere, and since I could purchase online but pickup in store, I was able to use the coupon, go through fatwallet for that rebate and still not pay shipping. The recipe below was the one I made up to christen the machine. Inspiration and guidance came from David Lebovitz's recipe for frozen yogurt (page 49) and the contents of my fridge. I've been eating a lot of greek yogurt of late, and have just about totally given up on the dannon/regular kind as I find I really don't like it all that much, so greek was the base for this frozen one. I picked up some meyer lemons in New York not too long ago and they've been living in the crisper since while I tried to figure out what I could do with them that would make the most of their bright flavor. As nearly everyone I know is trying to reduce their consumption of refined sugars, myself included, I decided to use honey instead of sugar (it was also on my counter instead of in a drawer, so it volunteered for the job). I wanted a VERY lemony, tangy result, and I got exactly what I wanted with this one. I'm fairly certain it will work with plain old everyday lemons, but as with all things, taste before you freeze to make sure the balance of acid/sweet is to your liking. If you're not using meyer lemons, you could add some orange zest to help bring it back from the edge of lemony oblivion. Check the notes for some other variations I'm going to try soon.
Meyer Lemon Frozen Yogurt
(makes a little over a quart, so make sure your machine's capacity is at least 1.5 quarts to be safe)
Ingredients:
-4 cups greek yogurt (see notes)
-juice of 2 meyer lemons
-zest of 2 meyer lemons, chopped as fine as you can
-1/2 to 2/3 cup honey (or equal amounts of agave syrup, or 1/2 cup sugar)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, see notes)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine, making sure sugar is dissolved if you're using granulated. If you do this quickly and the ingredients are still cold when you're done, assemble your machine and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. If you are making this ahead, stick the mix back in the fridge for up to two days, but you won't want to wait that long.
Eat. You do not have to wait for it to freeze more in the freezer, though you can if you want to. Do keep in mind that since home machines do not introduce nearly as much overrun (air) into the mix while churning the ice cream will be harder than usual when you pull it out of the freezer. Either let it sit on the counter for a few to soften up a bit, or if their's room in your container and you lack the patients, jam a butter knife into it to break it into liftable chunks. Don't worry if this one starts to melt, it's just going to melt back into soft yogurt instead of the usual watery, sticky mess. Eat it anyway :)
Notes:
-I didn't use the vanilla for this round, but it would tame some of the sharpness of the lemon and add a lovely creamy flavor to the whole thing. Citrus and vanilla go quite well together, so don't have any fear of using it, especially if you opt to make this orange instead of lemon. Creamsicles are popular for a reason.
-To convert this to orange, use about 1/3-1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice from the best tasting oranges you've got, or a Tablespoon or two of frozen concentrate and the zest of two oranges. To make a lime version, zest and juice two to three limes (depending on size/potency of your limes) and sub them for the lemons and follow the rest of the directions.
-Chop the zest into tiny bits if you can, rather than just long skinny ribbons. The reason I do this is that in my machine, the long bits can get stuck around the dasher, while the little nibbets go whizzing merrily by. If you do get a clump of zest, just stir it back into the rest of the yogurt when you put it out of the machine.
-If you can get citrus fruit that hasn't been sprayed, use it. I like a lot of zest in my citrus glaze, yogurt and all that, so use as much as you like, but definitely use some.
-If you can't use zest or can't abide the little bits in your yogurt, try to find some citrus oil and use about 1/8 tsp to start, adding just a drop or two at a time if you want more since it is potent stuff. It won't be the same, but it will still be good.
-Greek yogurt--I love this stuff. It's richer than the regular kind, even for the 0% versions. I'm a huge fan of Fage brand, but trader joe's carries a perfectly acceptable version that is cheaper. For this batch I used 2 cups 0% and 2 cups 2% because that's what I had in my fridge. I may try to use all 0% soon, but the creaminess that comes from the 2% just makes the yogurt that much better. For all out decadence, use the whole milk version. If you don't have access to any greek yogurt, you could use strained yogurt. For that, put double the amount of yogurt you need into a colander lined with cheesecloth (paper towels work in a pinch, but be VERY careful scooping out the finished product). Put the colander over a larger bowl and leave in the fridge to drain for about six hours. So for this recipe, you'd need 8 cups of regular yogurt to yield 4 cups of strained. If you're going to strain it, use whole milk yogurt, or at the very least use the lowfat. Fat free just tastes odd when you do this to it. Ok, if you don't want to strain it, you can just use whole milk yogurt and be done with it, but in my opinion it won't be as good. The heft that comes from greek/strained is worth the extra effort or few extra bucks.
-Yes, I did tag this as breakfast. If you eat yogurt with honey for breakfast, then what's wrong with eating the frozen version with some added lemon for breakfast as well? This would probably be wonderful stuffed into crepes for brunch too. Or dessert. Whatever floats your boat.
-Check back soon for my continued experiments with this thing as I clean out my pantry. And go read The Perfect Scoop. You'll thank me when summer rolls around, and you'll worship David when you reach the bottom of your bowl.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
