Toad in the Hole

Keeping up with our Anglophile menu in honor of the Downton Abbey marathon today, I decided to make Toad in the Hole.

I had to laugh this morning as we were eating breakfast.  Rick Santorum was on Face the Nation and I could only imagine what he would have to say about something called "toad in the hole".  It seems Senator Santorum thinks more about perverted sexual acts more than anyone else in our nation.  I can't WAIT until he is president.  Not.

Anyway, Toad in The Hole is basically Yorkshire Pudding with sausage and bacon.  Its very easy to prepare and is incredibly dramatic when it comes out of the oven.  It puffs up and rises out of the pan almost like a popover.  A delicious, sausage popover.  Sorry Senator Santorum, sausage popover isn't a euphemism for anything.

This is wonderful for brunch or even for dinner.  Serve it with some coarse grained mustard for added deliciousness!

One last thing:  Google Santorum.   LOL

Toad in the Hole
serves 4-6

5 slices bacon
1 lb pork breakfast sausage links (I used Johnsonville maple sausage)
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large skillet cook bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan and reserve.  Add sausage links to pan and cook until well-browned.

Meanwhile, combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to combine.  Add Milk and eggs and whisk until smooth.

Pour cooked sausages and any pan drippings into a 10x6 baking pan.  Pour egg batter over sausage and top with bacon.

This unappealing pan of glop will be transformed in the oven

Bake 30-35 minutes until puffed and golden.  Serve immediately.

Cheddar Apple Scones with Cinnamon

Yesterday Doug was working on trying to finish the cedar shingles on the Tiki rennovation project.  Things are starting to look great and we cant wait to unveil the new Tiki Lounge this summer.

Sure it's not Grantham Hall, but the Tiki Lounge is looking good!

Unfortunately Doug kind of over did it yesterday and now is flat on his back with a heating pad.  I have forbidden him to do anything but watch TV and eat (OK and maybe a couple bathroom breaks).  Luckily for us, WUNC, our local PBS station, is running an all-day marathon of Downton Abbey!  The weather today is cold and grey and rainy so I am cooking all English food today.  I have decided that today Doug has to play the role of wheelchair-bound Matthew Crawley, the semi-invalid heir to the Earl of Grantham, and the role of Mrs. Patmore, the bossy opinionated cook on Downton Abbey, will be played by Mama Ozzy.

 

For breakfast this morning I made "Toad in the Hole" and these cheddar apple scones.  I love the sharpness of English white cheddar paired with sweet apple chunks in a cinnamon spiced scone.  Serve the warm from the oven slathered with sweet cream butter and a mug of Earl Grey tea.  YUM!  Mrs. Patmore would be proud.

Cheddar Apple Scones with Cinnamon
makes 8 large wedge-shaped scones

2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 lb. extra sharp white cheddar, grated
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 additional egg, beaten for egg wash
coarse granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 425 F.  In bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter.  Pulse until butter is incorporated.  Transfer flour to a large bowl.

Add cheese and apples and toss to coat well.  Combine milk and one egg in a small bowl and mix with a fork,  Add liquid ingredients to dry and stir until just moistened.  Do not overmix.

Pat scone dough onto a greased baking sheet forming a 12-inch disc.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  With a sharp knife score into 8 wedges.

Before Baking...

Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven, cool 10 minutes before re-cutting wedges.  Serve with lots of butter!

Piping hot from the oven!

Chicken Spaetzle Soup

Happy Valentine's day!  Unfortunately I have to work this evening, and even though I won't be here when he gets home, I still want Doug to be greeted by something that smells wonderful when he walks through the door (not that I smell particularly wonderful)... but you know what I mean.

Recently we stopped at a local bagel shop for lunch and they had a chicken spaetzle soup on the menu.  Now I LOVE spaetzle, little homemade noodles/dumplings dropped into boiling water and usually served as a side dish.  Of course I had to try it.  The soup at the bagel shop was disappointing, but had clear potential to be wonderful.  I decided then and there I would recreate it!

As with any soup, the quality of stock you use vastly affects the final product.  Luckily, I have a freezer full of homemade chicken stock just waiting to be thawed.  You can do the same!  Whenever you pick up a rotisserie chicken from the market, simply toss the carcass and any drippings in a large pot with some carrots, onion and celery, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for a couple hours.  Then let it cool, and pack it away in your freezer for days you want to make soup!  So easy, so economical and so incredibly delicious.

A word about making spaetzle.  It's a messy process.  A sticky dough must be forced through a colander with holes about the size of the diameter of a pencil.  This must be done over a pot of hot soup so the spaetzle fall directly into the hot liquid.  I find that a flexible rubber spatula is the perfect tool to push the dough through the colander.  However, if you love spaetzle as much as I do then it might be worth investing in a spaetzle maker.

Spaetzle maker (click picture to buy online)

Yes I know its a uni-tasker, but this little beauty makes life so much easier.  They are not terribly expensive and can just be tossed into the dishwasher for clean up.

Chicken Spaetzle Soup
Serves 8

4 large chicken breasts, bone in, skin on.
4 large cloves garlic
salt and pepper

4 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion diced
3 stalks celery diced
1 cup chopped carrots
1 tsp dried Thyme
1 tsp dried sage
1/4 cup flour
12 cups chicken stock
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Spaetzle
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Place chicken breasts, skin side up in a 9x 13 baking pan.  Season skin with salt and pepper.  Tuck one garlic clove under each chicken breast.  Bake for one hour until browned.  Remove chicken from oven and cool completely.  Chop cooled chicken into bite sized pieces.

In a large pot melt butter.  Add onion, celery and carrot.  Cook over medium high heat 10 minutes until vegetables are soft.  Add sage and thyme and flour and stir to coat.  Add chicken stock and stir.

Remove garlic from roasting pan, it will be very soft.  Chop roasted garlic finely and add to pot with rosemary sprigs, honey salt and pepper.  Bring soup just to a boil, then reduce heat to medium.  Cover pot and simmer one hour.

Meanwhile prepare spaetzle.  In a large bowl combine flour, parsley and salt.  In a separate bowl combine milk and eggs.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.  Return soup to a boil and place a colander with large holes (or spaetzle maker) over the pot.  Press the sticky dough through the colander or spaetzle maker allowing dough to fall into boiling soup.  Spaetzle are done when they float to surface.  Add chicken to pot and heat for 10 minutes.  Serve hot.

Pork Stew with Pearl Onions and Wine

Valentines day is coming!  Usually we have to work on Valentine's day and I HATE going out to eat on this "holiday".  Restaurants are packed, service is rushed and the entire experience is just...blech.  I ALWAYS prefer to cook at home for Valentine's day, and since this a holiday about romance that means one thing: French food.

We went to see a matinee of Martin Scorcese's Oscar-nominated film Hugo today and since it takes place in Paris, through the entire film I was craving french food.  So after the movie we ran to the grocery and grabbed the ingredients to make this hearty and fragrant pork stew.  To me it is the essence of Parisian bistro food.  Simple and elegant, yet still rustic and non-pretentious.  I love to eat this stew over steamed tiny baby potatoes and with a hunk of crispy french bread slathered with butter.

This stew comes together in a couple hours and is pretty easy to make.  It's the ideal thing for you and your sweetie to prepare together on Valentine's day, then cuddle up with a bowl of stew, a glass of wine in front of a romantic foreign film (may I suggest Amelie ?) and get to the business of romance.

Pork Stew with Pearl Onions and Wine
serves 8

1/2 lb bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
8 Tbsp butter
3 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup celery, finely diced
1 lb baby carrots
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup flour
3 cups white wine
4 cups water
1 lb pearl onions, peeled (I use frozen pearl onions)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Bay leaves
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 lb baby potatoes, unpeeled, steamed
1 cup Chopped fresh parsley

In a large heavy pot brown the bacon over medium heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp.  Remove bacon with slotted spoon, reserve.  Add 4Tbsp butter to bacon fat and melt.  Increase heat to medium high, and brown pork in three batches until well-browned. Remove pork from pan after each addition is browned and reserve.

Add  remaining 4 Tbsp butter and melt.  Add celery and carrots to pot and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until celery is soft and carrots just begin to brown.  Add flour and thyme, and stir to coat vegetables.  Add wine and water and stir until well mixed.  Return pork and bacon to pot, add onions, garlic, bay leaves, salt, sugar and black pepper.  Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low and cook covered for one hour.

Immediately before serving, stir 3/4 cup chopped parsley into the stew.

Serve stew over steamed potatoes and sprinkled with additional parsley.  A hunk of crusty french bread and butter is magical with this.

Jess Potatoes

I have made and eaten potatoes in almost every conceivable form.  Mashed, baked, boiled, riced, gnocchi, pancakes, gratineed, escalloped etc.  So you can imagine my delight when I was first presented with this incredibly easy and tasty way to prepare potatoes.

I first had these potatoes at the home of a friend named Jess.  Her family owns a large organic strawberry and vegetable farm in central North Carolina and I like to imagine this recipe comes from her mom, preparing a large pan of these for everyone after a long day of work on the farm.  They are a cross between crispy hash browns and a baked potato and are incredibly delicious.


I love how gorgeous these potatoes look on a plate.  They make you just want to dive in.  That's why we call them Jess Potatoes (because it sounds like "just potatoes" until the time you see your plate).

Q:  "What's for dinner?"

A: "Jess potatoes, beef and some spinach"

Translation:  Blue cheese-stuffed steak with creamed spinach and Jess Potatoes

Jess Potatoes
serves 4

4 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled and washed
1/4 cup olive oil
4 Tbsp butter
sea salt, pepper and garlic powder

Pre heat oven to 375 F.

Cut potatoes in half.  With a large knife score deeply into the potato to make a grid pattern (do not cut completely through.

Line a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and coat with olive oil.  Place potatoes face down in the oil, then turn over and season with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Turn potatoes face down again.  place pats of butter around potatoes.

Bake 45 minutes until cut face of potatoes are golden brown.  Let rest 10 minutes before carefully removing potatoes from baking sheet.

Sea Salt Caramel Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chips

So last weekend we had the "fun" task of trying to use up a lot of our leftovers from the holidays.  Not that these things had been sitting around decaying and getting nasty, but my freezer space was filling up and it was time to "use or lose" a few things.  We made a delicious Jambalaya with Portuguese linguica sausage and the last container of Turkey Gumbo from Thanksgiving, and I used the frozen leftover sourdough bread and croissants from Christmas to make this really tasty bread pudding.

The original recipe came from a Williams Sonoma catalog a couple years ago.  This dessert is perfect for January, rich and sticky but not cloyingly sweet.  It is actually a fairly elegant bread pudding and is the perfect foil for a scoop of ice cream.  I particularly like to serve this with a good coffee ice cream because I love the combination of coffee and caramel.

This is a messy recipe.  It uses a lot of bowls and pots and pans, but is really worth the effort.  It is also a very exciting (if not terrifying) recipe to make.  When the hot milk is added to the molten caramel, the resulting release of steam is a lot like when a river of lava meets the ocean!  If you use proper caution and work methodically, this can be done without injury!  Make sure to cook the caramel to a very deep amber or the caramel flavor will not be detectable.

Amazingly this recipe has no booze in it!  It certainly tastes like it is loaded with good bourbon or rum, but there is none in the cooking.  I however would not be averse to pouring a little Kahlua or Baileys over this to make a perfect companion sauce.  I usually like to serve this with a good coffee ice cream because I love the combination of coffee and caramel.  If you want to make your own coffee ice cream, here is my recipe: coffee ice cream.

Sea Salt Caramel Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chips
serves 8

4- 5 cups leftover stale bread (challah, croissant, pannetone, sourdough etc) cut into 1/2 -inch cubes
1 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 cups whole milk
8 Tbsp butter (1 stick)
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place Bread cubes on a baking sheet and dry in 350 F oven for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Remove from oven and cool.

 In a large glass bowl combine milk and butter and microwave on high until milk is hot and butter is melted. 

In a large heavy pot (a dutch oven is perfect), combine sugar, water and corn syrup and salt.  Place over high heat and stir just to combine.  Bring to a boil and continue to cook over high heat until sugar has caramelized and is a deep amber color.  Remove from heat.

VERY CAREFULLY add the hot milk mixture to the caramel, a little at a time.  This will VIOLENTLY  bubble and froth!  Stir continuously, adding milk a little at a time until all the milk has been added an the mixture has stopped violently boiling.  The milk solids will curdle slightly, but don't worry this is normal.  Let cool for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla until well mixed.  Add caramel mixture to eggs, a little at a time, whisking constantly to prevent cooking the eggs, until all the caramel and eggs have been combined.  Add the dried bread cubes and toss to coat.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Transfer  1/3 of the bread pudding to a well-buttered 3 quart baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 of the chocolate chips.  Add another third of the pudding on top and sprinkle with remaining chocolate.  Cover with remaining bread mixture.

Transfer baking dish to a large baking pan with high sides and pour hot water around baking dish until it reaches half-way up the sides.  Bake, uncovered at 350F for one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.   Serve hot or warm with fresh fruit, or ice cream (I love coffee ice cream with this).

Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup

Happy New Year!  We had a wonderful holiday here, lots of friends, family, food and fun!  I received a lot of really amazing food gifts for Christmas including fig balsamic vinegar, porcini olive oil, artisinal chocolates,a grown your own oyster mushroom kit, spice infused sea salt and beautiful handmade Portuguese chorizo and linguica sausage from Chave's market in Fall River, Massachusetts.

When we moved Emma to Fall River in the fall, I took some time to peak in Chave's, the local Portuguese market around the corner from Emma's apartment.  What an amazing store!  An incredible selection of fresh and frozen seafood, an entire aisle dedicated to Port, and a meat counter that made me weak in the knees.  All the aisle signs are in both English and Portuguese.  I begged Emma to bring me either some of their hand-made chourico or linguica, and for Christmas Emma surprised me with both!

So today I decided to make something with the chorizo.  Since Fall River is the hometown of chef Emeril Lagasse, I decided to make his Kale and Andouille soup.  In the prologue to this recipe, Emeril waxes poetically over the portuguese chorizo from Fall River and how this soup was his favorite childhood food.

Beautiful local organic kale and Chave's Portuguese chourico from Fall River, Massachusetts!

I have made a few minor modifications, but here it is, the ultimate January food.  Simple and earthy and rustic.  The chorizo makes a beautifully red-hued broth which looks incredible with the deep green kale and, and chunks of pale potato.  We sopped this delicious soup up with bug chunks of crusty sourdough bread for a satisfying winter meal.

My Portuguese friend Maria, who lives in Asheville, NC tells me that she orders excellent Portuguese chourico from Gaspar's, a Portuguese online market in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, just up the road from Fall River!  Thanks Maria!

OMG look at this AMAZING chorizo!

Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup
serves 8

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lbs portuguese chorizo, skin removed and cut in 1/2 inch slices (or andouille)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
2 large potatoes, scrubbed, unpeeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
12 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
3 large bunches kale, rinsed, stemmed and leaves hand-torn into pieces
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-cracked black pepper
6 Tbsp chopped fresh mint.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over high heat.  Add chorizo and onions and saute for 5 minutes until onions are tender and chorizo sweats.  Add garlic, parsley and potatoes and toss with onion mixture.  Cook for 3 minutes, tossing occasionaly.

Add stock, bay leaves, thyme, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Add kale and stir into hot broth to wilt kale.  Return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low, cover pot and simmer until potatoes are extremely tender and falling apart, about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Serve hot, garnished with minced mint in large soup bowls with chunks of crusty bread.