V-Day Poached Pears

For Valentine's Day Blake was supposed to make me dinner, but he was so busy all week I ended up making him dinner. We didn't have much so I made a risotto with goat cheese and some vegetables. We had some pears so I was going to make a dessert out of them. I decided to finally use the wine from France that I got at the cooking school. I had been saving it for nothing in particular for over 4 years and since it was Valentine's Day and we're engaged and in the process of moving in together, I thought it was a good time. We drank the bottle from the winery and used the house wine from the cooking school for poaching the pears. I dissolved some sugar in water with lemon juice and then added the wine with the peeled and cored pears.

Dinner was kind of heavy so we weren't ready for dessert right away. Instead we did one more run over to my townhouse to move things. By the time we got done with that we were exhausted and didn't feel like eating the pears. I tried them and they were delicious, but unfortunately my wine I was saving for so long wasn't properly appreciated. Oh well.

Indian Chicken with Spinach

I saved this recipe on foodgawker and made it for myself for dinner because Blake wasn't hungry. He ended up eating a little and then I had some more to take for my lunch that week. It was better the next day.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic
1 inch knob of ginger, peeled
2 jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
ground cinammon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 14.5 ounce can tomatoes, crushed
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks (each thigh into about 3 or 4 pieces)
1 cup yogurt
6 oz bag baby spinach (two bags if you want a lot of spinach)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro.

Directions:
Mince garlic, jalapeno and ginger in a food processor. Chop onion and cook in olive oil over medium high heat. Season with the cinammon and cook until softened. Add the food processor mixture and cook a few more minutes. Add chicken and cook a couple more minutes until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, remaining seasonings, and salt. Cover pan and let cook for about 10 minutes. Then remove lid and cook a few more minutes until liquids thicken. Add yogurt and spinach leaves and stir in until spinach has wilted. Serve over rice.

Kale Chips

This was another attempt to make a healthy snack for myself to eat during the super bowl.

Wash the kale thoroughly, cut the stems out and chop into bite sized pieces. Make sure they are totally dry. Place them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes or until crispy.

I dipped these in a mixture of greek yogurt, garlic, lemon zest and juice, and salt and pepper.

Stuffed Eggplant Parmesan

I think I made this to use up ingredients I had in the fridge. I found a recipe to help me by searching the internet for a recipe with beef and eggplant. We had this for Shabbat dinner with my new challah recipe and the corn and bell pepper soup. This came out really tasty. I think Blake likes anything prepared with a stuffing.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, about 2 pounds
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound ground beef, lean
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (approximately 15 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups fresh soft bread crumbs, about 3 slices
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese, about 1 cup shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Trim ends from eggplant and halve lengthwise. Hollow out inside of eggplant and reserve, leaving a sturdy shell for stuffing. Place shells in baking pan, season with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a large skillet. Add ground beef to skillet; cook while breaking up. Add garlic to pan and sauté until softened. Add cubed eggplant and sauté until soft. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes. Stir in bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese Stuff eggplant shells with hot meat and bread crumb mixture and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake stuffed eggplant Parmesan at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Red Pepper and Corn Soup

I saw a recipe for this soup on foodgawker and decided to make it for Shabbat. It was pretty easy and very tasty. Mine came out much more red than the one on the blog, so I'm sure if I had used a yellow bell pepper it would have been different.

Ingredients:
2 Tbs olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups frozen corn
4 cups vegetable stock
4 sprigs thyme (additional to garnish)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

Instructions:
Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium high. When it shimmers, add red onion, bell pepper and garlic. Stir to coat and cook 3-5 minutes until softened. Add frozen corn and stir again, let cook another 3 minutes.
Add vegetable stock and thyme and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer 10 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender. Add red pepper flakes, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to the puree.

Ultimate Challah

I tried another challah recipe. This one is a Joan Nathan recipe and she is supposed to be the authority. I loved the texture of the dough this time. I forgot salt, but I think this might be the recipe I use from now on. It makes a ton of dough, so next time I will freeze some instead of making 2 gigantic loaves at the same time. I practiced a 4 strand braid, and tried a 6 strand braid, which I thought was really pretty. This recipe also looked the best of the ones I've made so far because of the double egg wash.

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 large eggs
5 cups bread flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
approximately 1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the sugar and the oil and mix well with a whisk or a wooden spoon. Beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time; then gradually stir in the bread flour, 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, and the salt. When you have a dough that holds together, it is ready for kneading.

2. To knead by hand, place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead well, using the heels of your hands to press the dough away and your fingers to bring it back. Continue, turning the dough, for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding the remaining 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour or as needed.

3. After kneading, place all the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size.

4. When the dough is almost doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and punch it down -- the rougher you are, the more the dough likes it. Return it to the bowl, cover it again and let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes more. Or, if you have to go out, let the dough rise slowly in the refrigerator several hours or overnight and bring it to room temperature when ready to continue.

5. Braid the challah. Then, let the challah loaves rise another hour, uncovered. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Fifteen minutes before putting the loaves in the oven, beat the remaining egg and brush it gently over them. Five minutes later, lightly brush them again.

6. Bake the loaves on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 30 minutes more. Turn off the oven and leave the loaves in 5 minutes longer to get a dark-golden crust. Tent with foil if browning too quickly. Remove and cool on a rack.

The 6 strand Challah braid
To make a 6-braided challah, take half the dough and form into 6 balls. Roll each ball with your hands into a strand about 14 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Pinch the strands together at one end and then gently spread them into 2 groups of 3.

Next, take the outside right strand over 2 to the middle empty space. Then, take the second strand from the left to the far right. Regroup to 3 on each side. Take the outside left strand over 2 to the middle and the second strand from the right over to the far left. Continue this method until all the strands are braided. The key is to always have 3 strands on each side so that you can keep your braid balanced. Make a second loaf the same way. Place the braided loaves in greased 10- by 4-inch loaf pans or on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.

Apple Chips

I saw this recipe on foodgawker and was really excited to make a healthy snack for the super bowl. These were super easy to make, but took a while, and made far less than I would have liked.

Ingredients:
Lemon and water
3 medium apples
Cinnamon sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and core the apples using an apple corer. Slice off a 1/4″ of the top and bottom of the apple and discard. Slice the remaining apple using a mandolin set to 1/8″ thick. Drop in lemon water to prevent browning.
Spread the apple rings out onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Try to avoid overlapping the rings. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for approximately 3 hours, rotating once after 2 hours. They may be slightly pliable out of the oven, but should crisp up when cool.
Serve or store in an airtight container at room temperature.