My favorite salad and pretty much the only one I ever bother to make.
Ingredients (for 1 serving, multiply out for the number of servings you want):
1 cup Baby spinach
1/2 cup Sliced strawberries
1/4 cup Walnuts
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp organic sugar or light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
Dash cinnamon
1/2 tbsp olive oil or walnut oil
1 tsp vinegar, either red wine or balsamic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sweetener, such as sugar or Ideal or Splenda
1/2 tbsp minced shallot
To prepare walnuts, melt the butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Stir in the walnuts and sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until the coating seems crispy/crumbly, or until it begins to smell a little like popcorn or generally "toasty." If it begins to brown, REMOVE FROM THE PAN at once or it will burn.
To prepare dressing, just whisk the oil, salt, sweetener, and vinegar together until smooth. Stir in the shallots.
Place the spinach on individual plates or in a salad bowl and top with the strawberries, then the walnuts. Allow people to pour the vinaigrette on themselves, since the liquid will make the walnuts not crisp anymore if it sits on them too long. Delish!
For extra fanciness, you can cook the walnuts with maple syrup, and/or use maple syrup as the sweetener in the vinaigrette. It's extremely delicious. Honey works, too, for the dressing but not for the walnuts.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Herbed Oven Roast with Gravy
Here's a super simple fall favorite: an herbed roast. The herbs are all "to taste" but I will put how much we use.
Ingredients:
1 eye round roast
Salt, I use 1/3 tsp
Ground rosemary, I use 1 tsp
Garlic powder, I use 1 tsp
Ancho chili pepper powder, or paprika, I use 1 tsp
Ground black pepper, I use 1/4 tsp
Ground coriander, I use 1/4 tsp
Preheat the oven to 400.
Trim the majority of the fat off the roast, then place fat-side-up in a skillet or baking pan. Sprinkle the roast with half of the herbs and spices. Turn the roast over, fat-side-down, and sprinkle with remaining spices.
Place pan in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 and turn the roast over, fat-side-up. Bake for an additional 1 1/2 hours, or until a meat thermometer indicates the correct internal temperature has been reached - this will depend on the roast size.
When it's done, remove it to a cutting board and let it rest for 15 minutes. When it's rested, slice it, being careful to collect all the juice that runs out and pour into the pan.
Stir about 2 tbsp flour into the juice until it forms a paste, then place over medium heat on the stove and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Slowly add milk, broth or water to the paste until it's the thickness you prefer. How much you need will depend on how thick you like your gravy and how much juice your roast yields. Season the gravy with more salt or bouillon, to taste, and if you have Penzey's Bavarian seasoning mix, add a few dashes.
Ingredients:
1 eye round roast
Salt, I use 1/3 tsp
Ground rosemary, I use 1 tsp
Garlic powder, I use 1 tsp
Ancho chili pepper powder, or paprika, I use 1 tsp
Ground black pepper, I use 1/4 tsp
Ground coriander, I use 1/4 tsp
Preheat the oven to 400.
Trim the majority of the fat off the roast, then place fat-side-up in a skillet or baking pan. Sprinkle the roast with half of the herbs and spices. Turn the roast over, fat-side-down, and sprinkle with remaining spices.
Place pan in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 and turn the roast over, fat-side-up. Bake for an additional 1 1/2 hours, or until a meat thermometer indicates the correct internal temperature has been reached - this will depend on the roast size.
When it's done, remove it to a cutting board and let it rest for 15 minutes. When it's rested, slice it, being careful to collect all the juice that runs out and pour into the pan.
Stir about 2 tbsp flour into the juice until it forms a paste, then place over medium heat on the stove and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Slowly add milk, broth or water to the paste until it's the thickness you prefer. How much you need will depend on how thick you like your gravy and how much juice your roast yields. Season the gravy with more salt or bouillon, to taste, and if you have Penzey's Bavarian seasoning mix, add a few dashes.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Delicious Hamburgers
It still amazes me that there is room in this world for more kinds of hamburger. It amazes me even more that most people make BAD hamburgers. It's not hard! Here's my current recipe.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef - ground sirloin is tastiest, but regular is good, too, and cheaper. I use low fat, like 93%. Don't listen to people who tell you that lean meat makes bad burgers cuz it just ain't so! Lean meat is very flavorful and can be juicy too.
1 tsp ground ancho chili pepper, or paprika if you don't have ancho
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp reduced-sodium tamari, which is like soy sauce but more flavorful - soy sauce is an acceptable substitute, or 1/2 tsp salt if you don't have either
Ground black pepper if you like that sort of thing - I don't, but Ariel does, so I let him put it on his burger after cooking
Gently stir the ingredients together. Be careful not to mash up the meat, since that will make it tough. A pastry cutter can work, but NEVER a food processor.
Form the meat gently but firmly into patties with your hands. You can wear gloves but don't use a press or anything, hamburgers need love.
I like to cook on a Foreman grill machine at 380 for 5 minutes, but you can do whatever you like. The important thing to remember is that you want to use a reasonably high temperature so that the meat sears a little, which enhances flavor.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JUICE? I hear you ask! If you love your burgers dripping with juice, here is what you do: You mix in breadcrumbs, an egg, or both. You want to use about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs per pound of meat, and/or 1 egg per 2 pounds of meat. That's why I don't usually use an egg unless I'm making a large batch, since my recipe is for only 1 pound and a whole egg is too much for that.
The breadcrumbs soak up the juice to prevent it from leaking out during cooking. The egg works differently - it makes a sort of meat-juice custard inside the burger. It sounds gross but it's good. Eggs and breadcrumbs are the reason why meat loaf is always so juicy (good meatloaf, that is).
The most fun part of a burger is what you put on top! I like to pile mine with mushrooms and onions with cheese and ketchup. I hate American cheese so usually use mild cheddar or Colby-Jack, but that's a personal idiosyncrasy. Here's my mushroom-onion topping recipe, which makes enough to top 6 burgers:
1 large white onion
2 portobello mushroom caps
1/4 cup cooking sherry (optional - use broth if you don't want sherry)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
Butter or oil
Chop the mushrooms into pieces no bigger than about half an inch, since otherwise they are hard to eat. Slice the onion lengthwise, then cut the slices once widthwise to make them shorter.
Grease a skillet with a little butter or oil and heat over medium-high. Saute the onion and mushrooms until soft, then add the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Then add the broth or sherry and scrape up any stuck browned bits, for flavor. Simmer until the liquid is almost gone.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef - ground sirloin is tastiest, but regular is good, too, and cheaper. I use low fat, like 93%. Don't listen to people who tell you that lean meat makes bad burgers cuz it just ain't so! Lean meat is very flavorful and can be juicy too.
1 tsp ground ancho chili pepper, or paprika if you don't have ancho
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp reduced-sodium tamari, which is like soy sauce but more flavorful - soy sauce is an acceptable substitute, or 1/2 tsp salt if you don't have either
Ground black pepper if you like that sort of thing - I don't, but Ariel does, so I let him put it on his burger after cooking
Gently stir the ingredients together. Be careful not to mash up the meat, since that will make it tough. A pastry cutter can work, but NEVER a food processor.
Form the meat gently but firmly into patties with your hands. You can wear gloves but don't use a press or anything, hamburgers need love.
I like to cook on a Foreman grill machine at 380 for 5 minutes, but you can do whatever you like. The important thing to remember is that you want to use a reasonably high temperature so that the meat sears a little, which enhances flavor.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JUICE? I hear you ask! If you love your burgers dripping with juice, here is what you do: You mix in breadcrumbs, an egg, or both. You want to use about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs per pound of meat, and/or 1 egg per 2 pounds of meat. That's why I don't usually use an egg unless I'm making a large batch, since my recipe is for only 1 pound and a whole egg is too much for that.
The breadcrumbs soak up the juice to prevent it from leaking out during cooking. The egg works differently - it makes a sort of meat-juice custard inside the burger. It sounds gross but it's good. Eggs and breadcrumbs are the reason why meat loaf is always so juicy (good meatloaf, that is).
Burger Toppings
The most fun part of a burger is what you put on top! I like to pile mine with mushrooms and onions with cheese and ketchup. I hate American cheese so usually use mild cheddar or Colby-Jack, but that's a personal idiosyncrasy. Here's my mushroom-onion topping recipe, which makes enough to top 6 burgers:
1 large white onion
2 portobello mushroom caps
1/4 cup cooking sherry (optional - use broth if you don't want sherry)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
Butter or oil
Chop the mushrooms into pieces no bigger than about half an inch, since otherwise they are hard to eat. Slice the onion lengthwise, then cut the slices once widthwise to make them shorter.
Grease a skillet with a little butter or oil and heat over medium-high. Saute the onion and mushrooms until soft, then add the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Then add the broth or sherry and scrape up any stuck browned bits, for flavor. Simmer until the liquid is almost gone.
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