cream of broccoli soup

lest you begin to think i’m undefeated in the kitchen…

the challenge i was facing was broccoli up to the eyeballs (blame the box). and although i have come around a little as an adult, broccoli has never been one of my favorite vegetables. certainly not enough so that i relished the idea of eating three bunches.

rifting on a (successful!!) corn chowder recipe, i decided to try my hand at cream of broccoli soup. needless to say, while i ate it (because i refuse to waste food), i shan’t be making it again and i’d never serve it to a guest.

so. let’s see where i went wrong, shall we?

i started with 3 cups of broccoli, both florets and chopped stalks.

(don’t be afraid of broccoli stalks. make sure to peel them well before chopping, but other than that, they are actually tastier than the florets. i used to get them in my lunch along with carrot sticks.)

i dumped the broccoli in a large soup pot with 2 cups water, brought it to a boil and cooked until tender. (for me, this meant almost right when it started boiling.)

then i used a strainer spoon to remove the broccoli to a blender or food processor, but kept the water.

i blended (blent? why does blended sound weird to me? where’s my editor when i need him?) up the broccoli, adding half a cup of chicken broth to lubricate.

the mush then went back into the pot with the cooking liquid (on low heat), to which i added the rest of the cup of chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups instant mashed potato flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, freshly ground pepper, a few splashes of worchestershire and 1/8 teaspoon of allspice. (this just rounds out the flavor, so if you don’t have it, substitute ground nutmeg or leave it out all together.)

finish with 1/2 cup milk (or water, if you’re anti-lactose).

as i said, i wasn’t totally impressed… too watery and not great flavor. and although i liked the texture of the broccoli (a little chunky), it kept settling to the bottom of your bowl… probably (again) because the soup was too watery.

maybe you could share your blue-ribbon, never-fail, tastiest-ever cream of broccoli soup recipe with me? on the other hand, if i never eat cream of broccoli soup again, i’ll probably continue to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

foodborne illnesses

i didn’t share these links with you last week because we were baking, but now that we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming, you need to check both out if you haven’t yet:

e. coli expose in the new york times. horrible. disgusting. but somehow not shocking.

not to be left out, the washington post would like to ruin your lunch as well with “healthy foods – hidden dangers.”

i may never eat again…

turkey and mushroom cream sauce

start by wiping your mushrooms with a damp paper towel. (never, ever wash mushrooms. they will just soak up the water and that ruins them!)

i used 2 portobello caps, but any kind will do. about a cup/cup and a half, sliced.

brown your mushies in a large skillet with a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil, salt and pepper. remove.

then brown half an onion, chopped, and two cloves of garlic, minced, in olive oil in the same skillet.

add ground turkey, season and cook until almost done.

drain the fat and return to skillet to brown.

deglaze your pan with a splash or two of red wine. (the wine unsticks the yummy browned bits that stick to the pan.)

remove the turkey and start your pasta water. when it’s boiling, add salt and pasta. i used pappardelle.

make a roux of three tablespoons of milk and flour in the same skillet, now with the heat turned to low. once you have cooked away the flour flavor (5ish mins), add a little more milk and a scoop of starchy pasta water. this is a trick that will help your sauce stick to the pasta.

now add your seasonings – i used dried thyme, a hint of nutmeg and salt and pepper – and your meat and mushrooms back to the skillet. drain the pasta and add to the skillet. mix well.

toss to coat well and serve with shaved parm.

this light and creamy sauce can be recreated with infinite variations when you get the basic idea.

i served it with a pear salad also with parmesan shavings (use a veggie pealer) and a balsamic drizzle.

columbus day

as we take a break monday to honor mr. columbus, let’s think for a moment about what he was eating:

from wiki

that’s called “hardtack” or “ship’s biscuit” and i think the name says it all.

“…baked hard, it would stay intact for years as long as it was kept dry. for long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing.”

mmmmm!

currant pound cake

lately i had been jonesing for pound cake – don’t ask me why.

what you may not know is that the name “pound cake” comes from hannah glasse’s original eighteenth century recipe: one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of currants. but since i don’t burn nearly as many calories each day as my foremothers did, and i didn’t know how to convert all those pounds into cups that i could half or quarter, instead i went with my good old standby, the fannie farmer cookbook.

(the currants were my own addition to stay true to the original pound cake recipe.)

fannie farmer’s pound cake

1/2 pound butter
1 2/3 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 cups flour (calls for cake flour, i used regular)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (or more!) currants

preheat oven to 350 degrees. butter and flour a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan (i used a bundt pan and several smaller ones). dump a tablespoon or so of flour in the pan and shake it around until it coats the butter, then tap the excess out.

cream the butter, slowly add the sugar and beat until light.

add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each one. it’s always safer to crack your eggs into a separate little bowl (or measuring cup!) before adding them to the mixer so you make sure not to get shells or a bad egg.

stir in the flour, salt and vanilla, and combine well. when i’m doing serious baking like this, i generally take the time to shift my dry ingredients together, which also helps you get an accurate measure.

spoon batter into pan(s) and bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean (without batter sticking to it). cool in the pan before turning out onto a rack.

as you see, i baked one large and three small cakes with this recipe, so next time i may halve it. (although she kind of looks like a mama with her chicks…! aaww)

this is really much easier than it sounds, and i encourage you to be brave and give it a try! it was a huge hit with my coworkers (although they were under extreme stress when they ate it, so maybe they just needed sugar…), but then, who doesn’t like pound cake? fannie suggests you serve it in “very thin slices,” but i dare you to try.

cake, tart, frittata?

mark bittman is simplifying baking this week, too!

from the times online

turns out this cake/tart/frittata is an awful lot like an impossible pie…

chocolate banana cake

this recipe, from nigella lawson (the queen of kitchen cleavage), is a one-bowl wonder and was a huge hit with my coworkers. in fact, it’s almost as easy as a cake mix, so why not bake from scratch?!

chocolate banana cake

3/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cocoa
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 4 whole bananas. easiest if you use ones that have gone brown)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
pinch of salt

preheat oven to 325 degrees. oil or spray a 9-inch spring form cake pan (see note).

in a large sauce pan over low heat, melt butter and olive oil. remove from heat.

add flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar, mixing well. add sour cream and mashed bananas, stir to combine.

in a smaller bowl, whisk together vanilla extract, eggs and salt. add to sauce pan and whisk until smooth. or… as smooth as you can get it with chunks of banana in there…

pour into cake pan and bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the comes out clean, without any gooey batter on it. let cool completely before icing.

chocolate icing

1/2 heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (it’s clear…)

in a medium sauce pan over low heat, combine cream, chocolate and syrup, stirring gently until mixture is very smooth. spread over cooled cake!

note: a spring form pan (as seen below) has a buckle-like piece and a removable bottom (see picture above) to let you get the cake out of the pan without flipping it. most commonly used for cheesecakes.

however, last time i made this recipe, i doubled it, and since i only have one spring form pan, i made the second cake in a regular cake pan and it worked out just fine. don’t let equipment stop you from making this tasty cake.

mandarin cake

a fabulous and thoughtful friend-of-a-friend made this cake for a recent office birthday. the reviews were outstanding, so i was thrilled when she agreed to share her secret recipe with icf. she notes that this recipe is super easy and quick enough to make on a work night. how perfect for baking week?!

mandarin cake

1 box yellow cake mix (duncan hines works best)
eggs according to instructions on box (usually 3 large)
vegetable oil according to instructions on box (usually 1/3 cup)
1 11 oz can of mandarin oranges in juice

icing

1 large container of cool whip (thawed in refrigerator, larger than 8 oz if available)
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple
1 box vanilla instant pudding

prepare cake batter according to instructions on box but do not add water. open can of oranges and reserve juice. pour orange slices into large measuring cup. roughly crush oranges with a fork. add juice to measuring cup until the level of liquid reaches the amount of water called for in the recipe on the box. add oranges and juice to other ingredients and beat at medium speed for two minutes. bake according to instructions on box. my recipe says to use three 9-inch pans but I only use two because i prefer high fluffy layers.

once the cake layers have cooled, combine cool whip, can of pineapple with juice and pudding mix in a large bowl. mix at medium speed until combined. fill and frost cake. refrigerate for at least three hours before serving. enjoy!

a note about cutting big round cakes. i picked up the technique at a recent wedding and test-drove it on this cake. first, cut a square in the middle of the cake. next, cut the outside into slices… and then cut the inside square into slices. that way you don’t get huge unwieldy wedges. it worked like a dream!

coconut impossible pie

when i first saw this recipe, i have to say i was intrigued. impossible pie?! try me!

that and the fact that i would eat a shingle if there was enough coconut on it, meant i had to give it a whirl.

the recipe calls for bisquick and sounds so totally retro that i had to do a little research. turns out, when my mom was a young bride in the ’70s, she had an impossible pie in her repertoire – a zuccini and cheese impossible pie. and the new mrs. b apparently made bacon impossible pies as a child, as well (by now we’re in the ’80s).

moreover, bisquick still promotes recipes for impossible pies on their website (of every flavor! shrimp! cheeseburger! french apple! taco! 45 in all!) but some p.r. guy must have told them that “impossibly easy pie” sells better. has our country completely lost its sense of irony?!

because how much easier can you get? one bowl, eight ingredients…

start by dumping everything into a medium bowl: 2 eggs (beaten), 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup milk, 5 tablespoons bisquick, 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut and half a teaspoon of salt. mix well.

then pour it into your buttered 9-inch glass pie plate.

talk about easy… i even baked it in the toaster oven! (350 degrees for 30 minutes)

the original recipe wants you to then throw your pie under the broiler now for 5 minutes to brown the top, but i think the toaster totally took care of that for me, don’t you?

the poster of this recipe swore the pie would make its own crust. now, maybe i did something wrong… or maybe my definition of crust is different than her’s… but i would describe the result more as a thick coconut custard than a pie with a crust.

needless to say, whichever way you slice it, it was very very tasty (with a pleasing browned, chewy top like a giant macaroon) and even a guy who doesn’t like sweets had seconds!

[editor’s note: this recipe was adapted from tasty kitchen.]

easy cheesy rolls

as we all know, i am obsessed with trader joe’s 99-cent pizza crusts, so i’m on a mission to find more uses for them. (watch out – i have some scary ideas. i’ll start out easy on you.)

first, i am pleased to report that the dough freezes royally.

just before leaving for vacation i tossed an extra bag of whole wheat dough and half a bag of left-over shredded mozzarella in the freezer. i figured i could either throw it away then, or throw it away later if freezing didn’t work…

well, IT DID. but instead of pizza, this time i wanted something to serve with my soup. like rolls.

i started by rolling out the dough.

then i brushed it with a little olive oil and sprinkled a layer of mozzarella and random dried herbs.

roll up the dough (i know, it doesn’t look at all appetizing yet… hang in there)

slice it about an inch thick, and lay each on a cookie sheet. (i have to line mine with parchment because it’s old and it sucks.) then bake until the cheese is all browned and dough looks done. i think it took mine about 20 minutes? i should get better at watching the clock, huh? since i’m writing a COOKING BLOG here!! (sorry)

great with soup, also fabulous served to friends with marinara dipping sauce and a football game.