Baby's First Panini

I suspect this sudden surge in posts will last about as long as the rest of my New Year's Resolutions do, in which case, we must be nearing the end. It's been about a week. But maybe not - maybe I've changed...


No. I don't think so, not for some things anyway. Consistency's just not my strong suit. But I can live with that. Consistently.

In the meanwhile, I'm still intoxicated by the heady elixir of food aesthetics (new discovery of food blogs + new chef-y gadgets to play with + experimentation with my darling D60 >> all food, all the time), so I'm going to make the most of it.

Here is the documentation of my first panini. I love panini(s?). Love. and lo and behold, my sister bought me a panini maker for Christmas with only the slightest bit of hinting. ("You there, I want a panini maker for Christmas. Write it down.") It was warm and delicious and everything that its humdrum cousin the Sandwich wishes it could be.


Ingredients:
Italian herb flatbread
Roasted bell peppers, zucchini, and onions (sliced, drizzled with olive oil, 325 degrees)
Slices of buffalo mozzerella
Baby greens
Sun-dried tomatoes
Peppered salami and pepperoni
Garlic pesto (store-bought, but I'm working my way towards making my own pesto. And by "working my way", I mean that I plan to buy a basil plant soon-ish.)

Directions:
...Assemble.

Cranberry Crumble Bars

This was originally a recipe for blueberry bars, and while I would much prefer them that way, luck would have it that I decided to begin self-imposed culinary school in the winter rather than the summer. I guess my distaste for summer school trumps my distaste for cranberries. Well, distaste is too strong a word - more like indifference. I was hugely disappointed in my fresh Cranberry-Pear Relish for Thanksgiving dinner (It's such an unpleasantly sour berry. My teeth hurt just thinking about it), so I decided to give them another go. I refuse to be beaten by this pygmy of an opponent.

The crumble bars turned out far better than the relish (read: I was actually able to eat them). Still a bit tart for me, but I prefer sweet fruits and berries, which of course, means that using cranberries not once but twice was a painfully stupid idea. My family appeared to really enjoy them though, but I think that's just because they like to eat. For those who are not fond of pucker, I would probably up the amount of brown sugar, maybe add some maple syrup. The ice cream also helps enormously. I ate a lot of it that way. A lot.


(adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Blueberry Crumb Bars)

Ingredients:

Crust and crumble:
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
zest of 1 small navel orange
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:
juice of one small navel orange
3 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan.

Using a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients for the crust, and add in orange zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the 1/2 cups of white and brown sugar, cornstarch and orange juice. Gently mix in the cranberries. Sprinkle the cranberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Makes 24 small squares. Serve hot with vanilla bean ice cream, or at room temperature.

Honey Apple and Clementine Tart with Whipped Mascarpone

Ingredients:
2 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
2 small Golden Delicious apple, halved, cored, thinly sliced
3 small clementines, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup of orange juice
2 tbsp and 1 tsp orange liqueur
2 tbsp sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 teaspoons sugar
8 teaspoons honey
1 cup mascarpone cheese
Flour, for dusting


Thaw the puff pastry according to directions (approximately 40 minutes). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into 9 even squares. Separate the squares and leave some room between them on a lightly floured baking sheet. Create a border around the inside of each square by scoring about 1/2-inch around the inside the square, and folding over the edges. Prick the dough inside the small square. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime, place the clementine slices in a small saucepan with the orange juice, 2 tbsp liqueur, and 2 tbsp of sugar over medium heat until the liquid evaporates or the rind is soft and sweet (15 minutes). Remove the clementine slices from the pan and place to the side.

On each pastry square, fill with slices of apple and a slice of the candied clementine within the border.

Brush fruit on each tart with the melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake tarts until pastry is golden and apples are tender, about 20 minutes. Drizzle each tart with 1 teaspoon honey. While tarts are cooling, whisk the mascarpone with orange liqueur. Top each cooled tart with a dollop of flavored mascarpone.


If you're short on time or want to go for a simpler route, you can opt out of the clementines entirely and make an apple tart. Alternately, you could make it an apple and nectarine tart, which is what the recipe originally called for. No candying. I, however, got confused while at the market, and ended up with a different fruit that also had lots of consonants and vowels.

三杯雞 (Three Cup Chicken)

This is my mom's take on San-Bei-Ji, which is a traditional Taiwanese dish. The three cups called for are sesame oil, rice wine, and soy sauce. Limited resources means this recipe is a little less traditional, but definitely just as delicious.

Ingredients:
12-14 chicken legs (Chop large ones into smaller pieces as necessary)
10 large shiitake mushrooms, stems off and halved
3 stalks green onions
6 cloves of garlic, minced
4-5 thin slices of ginger, skin off and julienned
1/8 cup vegetable oil, 1/8 cup sesame oil
1/2 a beer
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp sugar


Chop off the base the green onion; julienne the white section of the green onion, and chop the green section into large pieces, about 1 inch long.


Heat both oils over medium high in a large pan. Once the oil is hot, add in the green onion whites, garlic, and ginger.


When the spices have released their flavor, add in the chicken. After letting cook for a minute, add in the soy sauce, beer, and sugar. Stir thoroughly, and reduce heat to medium low.


Stew for fifteen minutes.


Bring the heat back up to high, and wait for the liquid to reduce (approximately ten minutes). Add in the mushrooms and the green onion greens, and let sit for an additional 2 minutes. Serve with steamed white rice. (Serves 6-8.)

Fish Ball Soup

It's a new year.
Weighing in everything (everything) in my life, this is my most hopeful year.
Hope-filled, rather.
My only resolution and prayer: Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Alternately, I could also do with the strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference.*

(*I sincerely believe that Calvin and Hobbes holds the answers to most of life's mysteries if we just look hard enough.)

As of January 26th, 2009, it will be the year of the Ox. It's never been a personal favorite, since it entails quiet suffering, and I prefer to suffer loudly. But here we are: the year of prosperity through hard work, the year that rewards patience, tireless effort, and the capacity to endure any hardship without complaint. And this year, I'm hoping with all that I have that it's true. Ox, don't fail me now.

In the vein of vain Chinese superstitions, I'm ushering in the new year with a lucky food: fish. (If you don't really understand the concept of lucky food, we're in the same boat, but this should help a bit.) But because I desperately need the new year to start now and because I'm afraid of fish heads, we're going to have a recipe for fish ball soup on the second day of January instead of a recipe for whole fish when Chinese New Year's rolls around. Fish (魚) symbolizes both success and abundance. It can't hurt, right? Right.


Fish Ball Soup
(sounds off-putting, but really, when you think about it: meatballs?)

Ingredients:
5 cups water
1/2 pound fish balls, cut into quarters
1/2 pound shrimp balls, cut into quarters
1/2 tsp granulated chicken bouillon
1 large stalk celery, diced
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
4 sprigs cilantro, chopped


In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Add in cut fish and shrimp balls, and let stew for a minute to bring out the flavor. Add in the soy sauce (mostly for color), bouillon, salt, white pepper, and sesame oil, and let sit for another minute.

With the soup still at a boil, slowly pour in the egg over the surface of the soup. The boiling should break up the egg as it cooks so that it becomes the light and delicate texture of egg flower. (Do not stir the soup as the egg cooks, or you will end up with an unpleasantly opaque-ish soup, and no egg.) For heartier eggs, reduce the heat to medium before pouring the egg in, so that the egg doesn't break up as it cooks.)


Add the celery and cilantro last so that they retain their distinct individual flavors and so that the celery still retains some of its crunch. Serve immediately. (Serves 4-6).




Simplest soup ever. And still so tasty.