Winter Delights: Food

[Daniel]

Zerbie's craving for sustenance had me sending her the following recipie, which she suggested might make an excellent start to a thread about all things nurturing. Comfort food, if you will.

This recipie is great for cold winter nights- and lends itself to a good bottle of red wine along with a salad with a mustard vinaigrette. Speaking of which- the recipie utilizes dry mustard. One gets a wonderful flavor by grinding it fresh from mustard seed (have a little faith while you're at work with your mortal & pestle). That, and the sharpest cheddar you can find.

The nice thing about this recipie? You don't have to boil the pasta. And I don't bother with the blender- mixing by hand seems to work just fine.


Creamy Macaroni and Cheese


Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup cottage cheese (not lowfat)
2 cups milk (not skim)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch cayenne
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
½ pound elbow pasta, uncooked.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and position an oven rack in upper third of oven. Use 1 tablespoon butter to butter a 9-inch round or square baking pan.

2. In a blender, purée cottage cheese, milk, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper together. Reserve ¼ cup grated cheese for topping. In a large bowl, combine remaining grated cheese, milk mixture and uncooked pasta. Pour into prepared pan, cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes.

3. Uncover pan, stir gently, sprinkle with reserved cheese and dot with remaining tablespoon butter. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes more, until browned. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Credit is due to the NYtimes, where I came upon this delcious dish this past fall.

[Zerbie]

Well, taking a different track, here's one I got a LONG time ago out of someone's veggie cookbook, so I can't take credit for invention. It's a light salad, makes a fantastic first course and it's my regular contribution to our friends' annual Thanksgiving day menu. Going off the top of my head here for memory, sort of guessing on the quantities, but it's a salad - so just look at how much you're putting in the bowl and decide for yourself!! :D

Avocado-Kiwi Salad

head Boston lettuce
large cucumber
3 large ripe avocados
4 or 5 ripe kiwi fruit
1 or 2 celery stalks

Wash/rinse all ingredients. Line a serving bowl or platter with the lettuce as a bed (nice to cut it into bite-size.) If you are into attractive presentation, clear glass serving trays play up the light green color scheme nicely - everything will look light green and white.

Peel cucumber. Julienne the cucumber and celery. Peel and slice the kiwi fruit into round slices. Peel the avocado and slice it in thin pieces as close to julienne strips as you can get (I always make a bit of mess with this :p ). Arrange fruits and vegetables over the lettuce on your serving platter.

Dressing:

Choose compatible light oil and vinaigre combination. I recently discovered a Champagne Citrus Vinegar that is PERFECT on this salad, but the extra virgin olive oil I paired it with was too strong for the vinegar. So try a light flavored oil if you decide to use a champagne citrus vinegar (which is what I will do next time.)

Or just use:
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
minced garlic clove
salt & pepper to taste

Oh - I have fresh chives growing outside and find that a few strands of finely chopped fresh chives added to the dressing really makes it!

Mix it all up, shake well, and drizzle it over the salad immediately before serving.

I have yet for this to NOT be a big hit.

[keltic63]

mmmm, last night I made a big pan of baked ziti. it is a kid weekend, and well, it looks like the Brady bunch around here: 5 boys spend the night (my older 2 kids skip the overnight stuff as 1 is a freshman in college and the other a sr. in HS)

here's a link to the recipe, and it's the print version, so if you like, just hit the print button....

Baked Ziti at Allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=17098&servings=8&Format=Full)

hearty stuff, and delicious too! oh, and add some garlic while you're browning the groud beef! what kind of italian pasta recipe forgoes the garlic????

[Daniel]

Red Velvet Cake for Valentine's Day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/dining/14velv.html?ref=dining


February 14, 2007
Recipe: Red Velvet Cake

Adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, to be published in May).

Time: 90 minutes, plus cooling

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3½ cups cake flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1½ teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2¼ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2½ teaspoons white vinegar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.

2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Yield: 3 cake layers.


Here's the icing!

Recipe: Red Velvet Cake Icing

Adapted from “The Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook,” by John Doherty with John Harrisson (Bulfinch, 2006) Time: 15 minutes
2 cups heavy cream, cold

12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

12 ounces mascarpone

½ teaspoon vanilla

1½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted.

1. Softly whip cream by hand, in electric mixer or in food processor. Cover in bowl and refrigerate.

2. Blend cream cheese and mascarpone in food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, pulse briefly, and add confectioners’ sugar. Blend well.

3. Transfer cream cheese mixture to bowl; fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until needed.

Yield: Icing for top and sides of 3-layer cake.

[u-dog]

I'm on a diet and that Red Velvet Cake (which is INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS) is like a kind of pornography. This is a family website! Behave yourself.

[Zerbie]

Bumpin' for Antony - some recipes already posted here.

Yummy!!!! :D

[Alecto]

(have a little faith while you're at work with your mortal & pestle).

I swear, I'm the furthest one from the spelling police, but this made me giggle a little. Because that does take faith. :)

[Daniel]

I swear, I'm the furthest one from the spelling police, but this made me giggle a little. Because that does take faith. :)

Conversely....

Let all mortar flesh keep silent.

[antonyh]

Thanks Zerbie. That salad looks delicious!!!