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Spaetzle is the German equivalent of pasta – minus all the tedious kneading, rolling and shaping. This Bavarian staple has been consumed in quantity since Medieval Europe, and possibly even earlier. Simply put, spaetzle are noodles that are made with a thick, eggy batter that is then pressed through holes into boiling water. They cook in mere seconds and when they float to the top they are done.
A million years ago when I was in Germany I ate these in mass quantities, ordering them whenever they were on the menu. I never tired of them due to their versatility. Topped with a thick, meaty ragu or toasted in a pan with butter and garlic, or better yet onion and bacon, I still don’t tire of these little noodley gems.
Apparently I’m not alone; commercially prepared spaetzle are gaining in popularity and can be found in a dried form in many larger supermarkets. Some specialty shops may even sell them ready to heat and serve in a vacuum sealed pack.
RESIST!! I say! These are so ridiculously easy to make with ingredients you have on hand that it is a shame to buy the prepackaged ones. All you need is a device to shape the tiny noodles, and even for that you don’t need a fancy uni-tasker made specifically for the job. I got this tip from the food network – take an aluminum pie pan and poke holes through it with a thick wooden skewer, or some other round implement. Poke the holes through from the pie side out the bottom of the pan. Then just place the pan over your pot of boiling water and using a spatula, press the dough through! And to think I scoured the internet years ago looking for my now nearly worn out spaetzle press…
Spaetzle
(makes enough for 4 side dish servings, well 3 in this family  )
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp cold water (or so)
1. Combine the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg and mix well with a spatula to remove any lumps. Slowly add the water until you have a thick, sludgy batter than oozes slowly toward the rim of the bowl if you invert it. Let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes to relax the gluten.
2. Heat a pot of water to boiling and salt it. Press the batter through the sieve letting the noodles drop into the water. Do this in 2 batches.
3. Remove the noodles several seconds after they float to the top.
Enjoy the spaetzle with gravy, plain, toasted with bacon or let your imagination soar. I told you they were easy!
Oh ya, and they’re even better the next day so make a double batch!
I’m not entirely sure how this particular cookbook ended up in my VAST collection. It must have been some time during the turmoil of my catering days, but it has sat for some time, neglected, on my shelf and I decided to take it down, dust it off and give it a good once over.
There he is on the cover, arms crossed and imposing look on his face. I would have liked to have seen a more welcoming mug shot on the cover of this cookbook especially considering that these recipes are not for the novice chef. Oh he tells you pleasantly enough in the introduction, to not be a slave to the directions but I tell ya, even this seasoned and practiced chef would be pouring over the directions to his recipe for Braised Pork in a Rich Glaze (page 68) which involves cutting the meat from the back of pork ribs then tying them into a roast before caramelizing, braising then reducing followed by sauteing and pureeing the suggested side dishes. I tell ya, there are more advanced techniques in this one recipe than I’ve seen in a long time!
Not only is this not a book for novice cooks, it is also going to be a stretch for the home cook. Butcher’s twine, guinea hens, quail, pasta roller, caviar, duck eggs…well you get the picture. These are certainly not items found in the average home cook’s kitchen, nor are these specialty ingredients found in Small Town USA or in your local supermarket. And this brings me to the my next point about the recipes themselves.
I find the choice of included recipes to be somewhat arrogant. Ramsay is trying to market this book in tandem with his Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen programming as evidenced by the large notice on the cover of the book stating: As seen on the hit FOX TV show HELL’S KITCHEN, so why would he select recipes that are for the most part, oh so very British? Fondue of Lettuce (page 126), Calf’s Liver with Fried Polenta (page 81) and Confit of Duck in Savoy Cabbage (page65) are a few that come to mind. These are not recipes that are going to appeal to the average American Joe, and this book is full of recipes like this.
What I DO like about the book is the little sidebar tips and techniques. Most pages are adorned with some bit of kitchen wisdom that either extrapolates on a technique used in the recipe, ideas about how to present or what to serve alongside or tips such as scoring the fish skin to allow the marinade to set in better.
I also like the pictures. My mother swore to never buy a cookbook without pictures and I guess this kind of stuck with me as well. There’s not a picture on every page but there are enough full color pictures to show you the true beauty of his dishes. Plus, it is useful to have pictures of the process of making a ballotine and the finished product for those who’ve never done technique before.
Finally, each recipe is prefaced by a brief blurb in authentic Ramsay voice. He briefly touches on the history of an ingredient in the dish, the story behind the recipe, the explanation of a word in the recipe title, or myriad other little curiosities that lend the book a distinct personality.
In general this is a great book and I would recommend it be added to any cookbook library. Like I said though, this is a book that novices would fear and while there are some recipes in there such as Veal and Foie Gras Meat Loaf with Tomato Relish (page 79) that would remain untested, there are others like Saffron Shellfish Risotto that would be eagerly tried by many. For that reason alone I’m not sure I’d pay the full $29.99 value as stated on the back cover, but find it in a garage sale on in the used bookstore and I’d pick it up for sure.
Last spring there was a very damaging hail storm in our area that not only polka dotted our cars but put an end to the barbeque that I had been lovingly using for close to ten years. Granted, it was a cheap BBQ to begin with and the flames were huge due to the gas pipes corroding and the entire thing was probably an accident waiting to happen, but I LOVED dancing with those flames in an intricate dance of trying to cook and not char our dinner.
So it was with some sadness and trepidation that we set out in search of the replacement grill. We found the grill of our dreams at a reasonable price and dear hubby spend the better part of the afternoon assembling it.
Sure, there are 12 million different barbeques out there but I wanted one with a rotisserie burner and that SIGNIFICANTLY lowered the playing field. We went from hundreds of options down to perhaps a fifth.
Can I just say that I LOVE my rotisserie? We had to buy the long metal rotisserie shaft and a separate engine to turn the shaft, but that was a minor inconvenience in order to take full advantage of the rotisserie burner that was alongside the back of the BBQ.
Rotissering is foolproof, and a shame that more home cooks don’t use this technique. It’s all about the marinade. Remember there are a few essential components to a good marinade and they are as follows:
- fat, like olive oil or butter or some other liquid to disperse the marinade to cover the meat
- acid, good choices are wine, balsamic vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, other flavored vinegars
- aromatics, like garlic, onion, fennel, carrot, celery etc
- spices, dried or fresh
Some great marinade ideas are:
- Oriental – olive oil, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, onion and cilantro
- Southwestern – olive oil, garlic, chipotle, cilantro, onion, lime juice, cumin
- Continental – olive oil, fines herbes, shallots, white wine, garlic
- German – olive oil, fennel, garlic, onion, red wine
It is a common misconception that marinades need to have salt in them. In fact, the marinades you buy from the supermarket are loaded with that EVIL sodium nonsense. Make your own, it’s so much healthier.
So then, with marinade in hand, you just need meat. Beef, chicken, pork, whole fish…something substantial that will hold up on the rotisserie skewer. So now just marinade your protein, let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours or better yet, overnight, then skewer it and let it cook, baby!
Mmm, I’m hungry already!
So I love watching Gordon Ramsay. I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon that claims he’s the greatest chef to have ever lived, but I will say that the guy has a certain harsh, take-no-crap kind of attitude that I can relate to and love watching.
Kitchen Nightmares has begun their new season and the first episode was Ramsay rescuing this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Hot Potato Cafe. I won’t go into all the details about how he gets this tiny, family run establishment back on their feet but I will say that all that talk about potato dishes got me craving some hot and creamy soup made with my favorite tuber.
A quick google search revealed a bevvy of recipes using everything from horseradish to beets and back again. I wanted a simple yet delicious potato soup to really highlight the last few Yukon gold taters I had in the fridge. So this is what I did:
Cream of Yukon Gold Potato Soup
1 cup diced yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cups chicken stock or broth (low sodium, preferably homemade!)
2 lbs Yukon gold
1/2 cup heavy cream
tiny pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper
crumbled bacon, sliced green onion and sharp cheddar cheese for a garnish
1. Sweat the onions and garlic in the oil until tender and translucent. Don’t let them get brown.
2. Add the chicken broth and chunk up your potatoes and add them to the liquid. Let them simmer until the potatoes are VERY soft.
3. Using a food processor or immersion blender, blend the broth and potato mixture until thick and creamy. Pour it back into the pot and bring it up to a bare simmer.
4. Check the consistency of your soup. If it is not thick enough let the soup simmer a few more minutes to reduce to desired thickness. If it is too thick you can add a splash of milk to thin it out. Add the cream when you have reached desired consistency.
5. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. You don’t want your soup to be spicy but the cayenne adds a nice subtle layer of flavor that enhances the taters. Trust me!
6. Garnish with the bacon, onion and cheese - the best part!! – and enjoy!
I tell ya, as the working-from-home mother of two, the end of my day is punctuated with my knitting, my carefully chosen and DVR’d show on the TV and my pomegranate martini. And I also tell ya, some days it seems like this is the ONLY formula of elements that allows me to retain my fragile sanity. So, for all you over-worked and under rested moms who need a simple to make yet uber delicious (and healthy!!!) drink to end your day, this one is for you:
Pomegranate Martini
1 ounce citrus vodka
1 ounce pomegranate liqueur
1 ounce cranberry juice
ice
1. Combine the liquids in a drink shaker that contains about 1 cup of ice cubes (this isn’t science, don’t go crazy trying to measure one cup of ice cubes, guestimate already!)
2. Secure the lid on the shaker and take your frustrations out on that baddie, shaking until the liquid looks frothy. About 1 minute should do it. Longer if you’ve had a particularly bad day. DO not do this if your kids are light sleepers. If they are step out into the backyard then shake like crazy.
3. Pour into a martini glass, take a deep breath, and relax!
Well the cold has once again returned to central Texas and when that happens I start craving hearty, warm and cheesy dishes for dinner. My quest for healthy low fat meals got temporarily set aside last night when I made this fabulous dish.
Who doesn’t love cheesy, beefy, pasta-y yumminess? But I get so BORED with the usual jar of marinara sauce tossed in with noodles and covered with cheese. Sure, it can be tasty but it is so … well… pedestrian. The following recipe is for a layered pasta dish that, while it does have a few steps to it, is well worth the effort. It is less about masking everything in ubiquitous tomato sauce and more about layering flavors. The result is a casserole that heats great, eats great and freezes great. Oh, it also makes a good size dish so be prepared to freeze some for another time.
Layered Pasta Casserole
2 lbs very lean ground beef
1 lb penne pasta (cooked according to package directions, then cooled and set aside)
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small cans tomato paste (4.5oz cans)
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese or Italian cheese blend
2 cups bechamel sauce, recipe follows
1. Cook your pasta, run cold water over it and set it aside to drain.
2. Brown the beef in a skillet over medium high heat. When about halfway cooked, add the onion, garlic and green peppers. Continue to brown the beef until it is cooked through. Turn off the heat.
3. Add the two cans of tomato paste and combine well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Put the beef and tomato mixture into the bottom of a deep, oven safe casserole dish. On top of the beef layer add your noodles. All the noodles may not fit. Use your best judgment.
5. Pour the bechamel sauce over the top of the noodles in an even layer. Add all of it. Then top with the cheese.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes at 375 or until hot and bubbly.
Bechamel Sauce
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
salt and pepper to taste
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Turn off the heat. Add the flour and using a whisk stir until combined. Turn the heat back on to medium and cook the paste until it starts to bubble around the edges and starts smelling nutty. Do NOT let it brown. This takes just a few minutes.
2. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the hot milk in a slow stream, while whisking. Once all the milk is in turn the heat back to medium and continue whisking until thick and bubbly. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes while stirring.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
Readers of this blog will know that this household is on a quest for low fat but highly flavorful dishes that don’t require the stocking of tofu or birdseed in our pantry. I don’t want to change the kinds of foods we eat (ok, minus the cream and butter) but I do want to change how much and how it is prepared.
So the other day I had grilled some zucchini and marinated chicken for our dinner. I had both leftover and wanted to turn it into something else. Readers may also know that I HATE leftovers. If I cook it and eat it I don’t want to see it again, at least not in its original form. So I was pondering what to do with this leftover chicken and zucchini when inspiration smacked me upside the head…(this would, by the way, work equally well with leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)
Pasta with Grilled Chicken, Zucchini and Stuff
1 lb fresh pasta ( I used angel hair)
3 small zucchini, cut into 1/2″ planks, marinated and grilled, then cut into chunks
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, marinated and grilled, then cut into strips
1 small bunch of fresh spinach, stems removed, washed really well and cut into strips
1 shallot, julienned
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
6-8 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonaded (cut into very fine strips or ribbons)
1/4 cup sliced sun dried tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
salt and pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1. In a large sautee pan add the olive oil, garlic and shallot. Cook over medium heat until the shallot is tender and the garlic is aromatic. Add the spinach, parsley and basil. Cook until the spinach has just wilted. Add the chicken, tomatoes, zucchini and lemon juice and heat through. Turn off the heat.
2. Cook the pasta as per directions on the package. Reserve 1 cup of the water and add it to spinach mixture, drain the rest and add the noodles to the spinach mixture. Add the pine nuts and season with salt and pepper.
3. Toss it all together then serve with fresh parmesan cheese.
*You could use just about any mixture of veggies in this dish. Other good choices would be eggplant, roasted peppers, chard, grilled mushrooms and onions…whatever is leftover in the fridge!
Seeing how I’ve been asked twice in as many weeks for my Baked Spanish Rice recipe I figured that I’d better post it.
At least in central Texas, Spanish rice is ubiquitous. It comes with everything, from everywhere, and ranges from limp, pale tasteless concoctions to dried out and overly spiced disasters. Personally, I don’t know why some people have such difficulty with rice. Rice is one of the planet’s oldest cultivated crops and if it truly were so darn difficult to cook then I don’t imagine that entire civilizations would have been able to sustain themselves on it.
That being said, there are a few general rules to cooking the perfect rice.
1) Buy a quality rice. My brand of choice is Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice. I’ve never yet had this rice fail me.
2) Rinse your rice first. Rice, especially the stuff imported in the burlap or fabric bags, is dusted with everything from talc to cornstarch to keep the grains from absorbing liquid. So if you don’t rinse the rice and just cook it you’re bound for a gluey, sticky, disgusting mess.
3) Know the ratio. Generally, you cook rice with two parts water to one part rice. That’s for the on top of the stove with a lid on it. And it takes 20 minutes at a low, bare simmer. This is the formula for white rice. Other rices can take more or less time, more or less water.
4) Steaming is rice’s best friend. The last few minutes of cooking time should be with the heat turned off and the lid left on. This will encourage the rice to absorb the last of the liquid without overcooking the grains.
That being said, there are rice dishes and then there are RICE dishes. The following is one of my family’s all time favorite rice dishes.
Baked Spanish Rice
4 slices low sodium bacon, chopped fine
1 cup yellow onion, diced
½ cup green pepper diced
1 28oz can diced tomatoes, drained well. Save tomato liquid and combine with enough water to make 2 1/3 cups total
1 1/3 cup Uncle Ben’s rice, NOT minute rice
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1. Add your bacon and onion to a large frying pan and cook until the bacon is slightly crunchy and the onion is translucent. Turn off heat and remove most of the bacon fat from the pan.
2. Add the drained tomatoes to the onion bacon mixture, as well as the rice. Combine the reserved tomato liquid with enough water to come to 2 1/3 cups, then add to the rice mixture. Add the green pepper and turn the heat on and bring the mixture to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Pour the rice mixture into an oven proof dish and bake, covered with foil, at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until the rice is tender. Stir half way through cooking time. For the last five minutes remove the foil and top with the cheese. Let the cheese melt and serve!
This dish reheats like a dream, and freezes wonderfully. Enjoy!
So the quest for high flavor, low fat foods is ongoing in this household. Enter an old favorite of mine: Souvlaki with Tzatziki. I first fell in love with this Greek dish when I lived in Montreal, of all places. There was this tiny skiing village north of where I lived (I actually lived about 40 mins north of Montreal), and we’d go up there from time to time to ski and eat, eat and ski, oh, and drink plenty too. This is a link to the wiki page if you’re interested in that town.
Anyhow, this tiny restaurant served the most delicious Greek meals and I fell in love. I also fell into a culinary quagmire because I had had no previous experience either eating or cooking Greek flavors and was forced by necessity, to learn to recreate these flavors in a pre-internet era.
Of course the protein of choice for souvlaki is lamb, but pork with do in a pinch. Ahh pork…who doesn’t love it? Well, my hips don’t, as a matter of fact. So chicken is going to be our protein of choice for the slimmed down version. Try this dish out, it is ridiculously FULL of flavor and virtually no fat to speak of.
Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce
1 32oz container fat free, PLAIN (no sugar added, not vanilla flavor) yogurt
2 lbs chicken breast meat, cut into 2 inch cubes
1 lemon
2 tbsp dried oregano
pinch of salt and ground pepper
Tzatziki Sauce:
Remainder of yogurt
1 cucumber, seeds removed
1 large clove garlic
2 tbsp very finely chopped or grated sweet onion or green onion
2 tsp oregano
1. Mix your chicken cubes with 1/2 cup of the yogurt. Squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon, and add the oregano. Season with salt and pepper, mix well and refrigerate for several hours to marinate.
2. For the tzatziki, line a strainer with 2 layers of paper towels. Put the remainder of the yogurt into the strainer and let drain for about 1 hour. This will thicken the yogurt to the consistency of the much more expensive, Greek Yogurt.
3. Grate the peeled and seeded cucumber and set in a strainer. Add about 1 tsp of salt and combine. The salt will sweat the cucumbers removing excess liquid. Let sit for about an hour, then squeeze to remove excess liquid before using.
4. Combine the thickened yogurt with the drained cucumbers, add minced garlic and onion. Combine and season with oregano, salt and pepper. Tzatziki is done. Refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Grill your cubes of chicken over moderate heat until cooked, then serve with the tzatziki sauce.
This dish is so easy and delicious you won’t believe it is so healthy. I like to serve it with rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes and a nice crisp salad. Enjoy!
Hands down, this is the best apple coffee cake I’ve ever had the pleasure of baking. I made mine in a pretty bundt pan and it turned out just wonderfully and got gobbled up. It is so moist that it held really well at room temperature for several days AND it froze just perfectly as well. The original recipe calls for a crumb and sugar topping but I did mine without and the cake was still just wonderful. As you’ll see from the additional ingredients in the crumb and glaze, the caloric count of this cake rises significantly with those added and would I think detract from the wonderful spicy earthiness of the cake. But you decide.
Apple Coffee Cake
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups peeled, cored and finely chopped apples (choose slightly tart, firm apples like gala or granny smith)
Topping
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
Glaze
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan well with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale in color and light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients, alternating with the sour cream then add the vanilla. Mix well then add the apples. Pour into the prepared baking dish, and tap the bottom of the pan gently on the counter to even the batter.
To make the topping, in a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter, and mix until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the cake and bake until golden, about 50 minutes. Check with a toothpick or wooden skewer, when it comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it then it is done.
To make the glaze, in a bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, and water and combine. Drizzle the cake with the glaze.
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