Mac and Cheese

Okay, okay, okay. Super fattening, I know. But there's something about being in a blizzard that makes you want pasta and cheese and a warm oven. This Christmas, my family (well, me and my parents) cooked a mean mac and cheese. A very anti-Southern California holiday feast of swordfish, corn souffle, and steamed broccoli (which happened to be the delight for this Christmas eve), mac and cheese = joy. So why not on Christmas?

While waiting for my dad to shovel the way to the cabin door, I looked up some recipes. The one from Gourmet magazine looked simple and relatively fast, without a ton of ingredients (which gave it 20 extra points considering I'd have to lug it up the icy driveway later that night). We ended up eating it at 9:30 and immediately fell asleep. It was a cheese coma.

So here's the recipe. It has a great crust on top that's light and buttery, with just the right blend of parmesan and cheddar. And just so you know...it doesn't really serve 20. We finished it off after 8 servings. Ha!

Macaroni and Cheese
From Gourmet Magazine
serves "20", depending on how much you eat

For topping
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/4 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
6 Tb all-purpose flour
5 cups whole milk
1 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar (about 6 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 lb elbow macaroni

Making the topping:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
2. Melt butter, then stir together with the bread crumbs and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined.

Making the sauce:
1. Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour.
2. Cook and stir for 3 minutes, then whisk in milk.
3. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes.
4. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth.
5. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Making Macaroni:
1. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water until al dente. (You can reserve 1 cup cooking water when you drain the macaroni, but I didn't need it. If you want it, feel free to stir it in during the next step.)
2. Stir together macaroni and sauce in a large bowl or one of the pots you've been using. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes. Keep in mind that this will bubble in the oven, so make sure the dish has at least 1/2" or more at the top.
3. Sprinkle the topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

So Easy! Tortilla Soup

It's pretty cold up at the family cabin, and with a mom that twisted her knee while sledding tonight is about simple eating. So...the famous tortilla soup from our good friend Carmen. In total, it takes about 2 hours to make but probably only 20 minutes worth of work. Niiice.

Tortilla Soup
serves 6

3 chicken breasts with bones
1/2 onion, chopped
water
1 can corn
1 small can of chipotle peppers in juice
handful of rice (optional)
3 chopped zucchini (optional)
salt and pepper
corn tortillas - approx. 1 tortilla per person, cut into 1/2" wide strips
olive or vegetable oil
cilantro, chopped
sour cream
avocado

1. In a large Dutch oven, cover the chicken and onion with water (possibly half an inch about the top breast). Cook over high heat until boiling, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.
2. Remove cooked chicken and shred the meat (easiest way to do it: take two forks and use the one on the right to shred/pull at the meat while the left hand keeps the bird in place).
3. Stir in 3+ teaspoons of the chipotle juice. (Feel free to add more if you like some spice.) Add corn and rice and zucchini and whatever you like in your soup. Keep it simple.
4. Put the shredded chicken back in the pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. With about 5 minutes until the soup is ready to serve, heat a large skillet with about a tablespoon of oil and put the tortilla strips in. Flip once they are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Cook on the other side until crispy. Place on a paper towel to drain off the extra oil.
6. Serve up the soup with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkle of cilantro, and a good amount of sliced avocado. Throw a handful of tortilla strips on top and enjoy.

What To Do with Lots of Fresh Stuff: Pesto

So with all these posts about recipes and whatnot, I don't know if I've had the chance to communicate how much I love fresh fruits and vegetables. Forget all the other stuff that's here; just eat a tomato and enjoy the extra time on your hands. Seriously, that's the best cooking advice I have - don't cook if you don't need to.

And right now's the time that no one should cook. Everything's too fresh and perfect as is.

This morning's jaunt to the farmer's market was a wonderful disaster. I came home with more stuff than any Mormon-sized family could handle...and it's just me and Mariana. But how can you resist buying three baskets full of fruit, instead of one, when the opportunity of saving $3 is being yelled at you by the farmer's beautifully broken English? Yes, I want to support you, sir, and I will buy this entire table of fruit from you. May God bless your crops forever.

But once you've got all 3 feet of your counters covered in fresh food, it's time to think about how to go about eating it all - and fast.

Over the next week I'll post a few different ways to make it all taste super summery and good.

Today: Pesto

3 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, coursely grated (2/3 cup)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 - 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. With food processor (or blender), drop in garlic and finely chop.
2. Stop motor and add nuts, cheese, salt, pepper and basil and finely chop.
3. Then, with motor running, add oil until it's all combined (err on the side of less oil if you want)

**Keeps for 3-4 days, refrigerated.


In the end, you'll end up with a lot of pesto.

Now, what to do with the pesto....

1. Cook some pasta and add a few tablespoons to it, mixing completely. Serve with fresh vegetables on top like tomatoes, cucumbers, raw or cooked zucchini/broccoli/string beans, red onion, whatever you want. Garnish with a little more basil, add salt if you need it, and it's a summer salad.

2. Make a veggie sandwich with pesto on the bread instead of mayo/mustard. You can put swiss cheese, tomato, red onion, sprouts, lotsa lettuce, cucumber, avocado, the works on it.

3. Make pesto potato salad with string beans

4 lbs small yukon gold/red potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 lb string beans, cut into 1 inch pieces (and snap off the hard end that was attached to the vine)
1 cup pesto
1/4 cup chopped green onions
4 tbs white balsamic/white wine vinegar

1. Cook potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes, just until tender.
2. Add beans, cook 3-4 minutes longer.
3. Drain and transfer to a large bowl and cool slightly, 10 minutes.
4. Mix in pesto and green onions and coat well.
5. Cool for 30 minutes to 2 hours more.
6. Add vinegar right before you serve it.
(this makes enough for about 10 people)

Banana Bread - "John" is Better than Bon Appetit

I've come to realize the importance of eating everything you buy, including old bananas. With a salary that rivals a minimum-wage kid at Wal-Mart, I know that I can't just throw away bananas that are less than perfect. Whoever created banana bread was a smart cookie. Though it's not the same as peeling a nice banana, banana bread packs its punch (and a healthy dose of potassium and protein. Check out these people that make them for the troops: Banana Bread for the Troops).

So, a few weeks ago, I realized that it was high time to use up those black things sitting by the microwave. But what's a good recipe? I'm sure everyone has one, but I didn't really feel like putting more than a few ingredients in it. Epicurious had a few that sounded ritzy. In fact, people were totally slamming this one Bon Appetit recipe for this other guy's, John. The message board has become a place to put this guy, John, on the map.

Wait...who is this guy?

Well, ends up John = Kona Inn Banana Bread, a classic recipe from back during WWII. Simple and quick, it was a good solution for old bananas while using stuff that's usually on hand. Ends up, all those reviews were right - this bread's amazing.

Kona Inn Banana Bread

1 c sugar
1/2 c butter
3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Optional: walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips (I like bittersweet)

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add bananas and eggs.
3. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients.
4. Stir in dry ingredients and any optional additions, but don't overmix.
5. Bake in a 20-oz loaf pan for 45 minutes at 350.

Like a Rhinestone Cowboy

I'm a morning person. Coffee + puttering are my kind of thing.

In fact, I feel like I actually own the entire hour between 7 and 8 am (and anytime before noon on weekends). I think that the morning sun is legally owned by me somehow and I'm just gracefully letting the rest of the world enjoy it. Whenever someone's actually awake during my morning hour, I consider it an owner's responsibility. It's as if I'm giving a tour of my house, making sure to point out all the small little nooks. But instead of being in a place, I'm in a time of the day and it seems so silly, in the end, when I ask myself how can I show the rest of the world that this is the best hour out of the 24?

Here enters breakfast.

Pancakes, waffles, French toast, cereal, cream of wheat, grits, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, you name it. All of it is wonderful. I was lucky to grow up with a mom that makes the best breakfast, even on a random day in the middle of the week.

But it wasn't until I moved to San Diego that I discovered huevos rancheros, or cowboy eggs. The combination of eggs (with a runny middle), tomatoes, beans and avocados is genius. I recently tried to do it myself (thanks to a really wonderful egg poaching pan), going off of a recipe from the Joy of Cooking and Epicurious. Here's the recipe I came up with. It's really good, so enjoy.

Huevos Rancheros de Carolina
serves 4 (if you want 2 eggs each)

1/4 c olive oil (maybe a little less)
2 crushed cloves garlic
1 medium-sized chopped onion
1/2 finely chopped green pepper
1 cup seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes (seeded = taking out the juicy, seedy center)
1 15-oz can black beans, juice and all
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp powdered cumin
8 eggs, either poached or cooked over easy
8 corn tortillas, warmed in a small pan
2 avocados, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 c cilantro, chopped

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over low to medium heat (let's say a 3.5 out of 10). Saute the garlic for 5 minutes and then remove from the pan.
2. Add onion and green pepper and saute until soft, about 7 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, black beans and seasoning and let it simmer until thick and well blended, about 15 minutes (at the most).
4. Layer your breakfast like so: warm tortilla + cooked egg + the sauce + avocado + green onions + cilantro.

What's Good, Son? Roasted Vegetables!!

The way to describe how my brain works is that it's a five-lane highway, with each lane running on its own internal monologue. Lane one is generally the one I'm talking about, but there are four other things driving between 65 and 90+ at any given moment. When I wake up in the morning or when I get off from work, each of these lanes is competing at stellar speeds like it's battling for the last spot in NASCAR. I consider it cognitive multitasking, but it can be exhausting. Cooking is one of the only ways to keep them all under control. Waiting patiently beside the oven is like a spiritual discipline.

"There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good." - Ecc. 2:24.

I agree.

January marks the one-year anniversary that food changed my life.

I grew up on steamed cauliflower. Not bad, not great. I'd consider it a lukewarm affection. But, oh, the joy in first tasting roasted cauliflower! You would think it's an entirely different species - the refreshing salt, the soft olive oil, the crispy outside and the dreamy inside. I saw food differently from there on out because it always existed on one of my five lanes.

During my epiphany, I also learned that each vegetable has its own distinct ways of being cooked. For example, string beans are great steamed, but brussel sprouts taste like a disaster when they're steamed. To put it into a life lesson: you've gotta think a bit before you pull out the pan. Otherwise, you'll regret your rash and lazy decision.

Here is the recipe for roasted cauliflower from Cook's Illustrated, January-February 2007. Feel free to change the vegetables. I like throwing in brussel sprouts (see picture above) - just cut off the bottom, take off any tough/rogue leaves and cut right down the middle - or broccoli or carrots. I end up cooking about 1/3 of the cauliflower head at a time for 2 people, but I always want more.

Roasted Cauliflower!!!!
serves 4-6

1 medium head cauliflower (about 2 pounds)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt (I like my salt grinder the best)

*If I've given you this recipe before, it's probably a little on the vague side ("a little of this, a little of that...") so go by this before you have it roughly memorized like me.

1. Turn on the oven to 475 degrees.
2. Trim outer leaves of the cauliflower and cut stem flush with the bottom. Cut head into 8 equal wedges so that core and florets remain intact. They should each be about the length of a no. 2 pencil.
**If you are making less and don't have much time, just cut out individual florets and reduce the baking time about 4-6 minutes on each step.
3. Place wedges cut side down on foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (or large casserole dish). Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with salt; gently rub to evenly distribute oil. Gently flip cauliflower and season other cut side with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and salt.
4. Cover tightly with foil and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Remove foil and continue to roast until bottoms of cauliflower pieces are golden, 8 to 12 minutes.
6. Remove sheet from oven, and, using spatula or fork, carefully flip wedges. Return to the oven and continue to roast until cauliflower is golden all over, 8 to 12 minutes.
7. Serve immediately.