Brooklyn Ale Fish and Chips in the New York Times

 

Okay, so I made this not so much for the “health” factor, but rather for the “new to me” factor in that I’ve never made fish and chips before.  In fact, I’ve always been intimidated by deep frying.  Before attempting this recipe by Alton Brown, I used to have visions of horrendous oil fires and 3rd degree burns if I were to try deep frying.   But it actually turned out quite well, no flash fires or singed eyebrows,  and now I can cross off deep frying off my cooking bucket list. I also learned a little trick on how to tell if oil has reached 350 degrees without a deep fry thermometer.  Put in a single kernel of popcorn in the oil while it is heating. When it reaches 350-360 degrees, the kernel will pop. Thank you, Cooks Illustrated!

We added a “New York” twist to this British favorite by using Brooklyn Brown Ale in the batter, and wrapping it up in the New York Times.  And to make up for the deep fried battered fish, I opted to make oven “chips” as opposed to frying them in oil, using the recipe below.  Overall everything came out quite tasty.  Perhaps next time we’ll stay true to our roots use New Jersey Beer Company beer and wrap it up in the Jersey Journal?

 

Fish and Chips

I followed Alton Brown’s recipe for the fish.  And then healthified the chips by making them in the oven like this:

Oven “Chips” for fish and chips

Ingredients

• 3 medium sized russet potatoes, scrubbed (leave the skins on if you like)
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs finely chopped fresh oregano or other herb (Optional)

Preheat oven at 425 degrees.  Slice potatoes lengthwise into 8 wedges each.  Place in roasting pan in a single layer.  Drizzle oil, salt, pepper, and herbs and toss potatoes to coat.  Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, flipping potatoes once halfway through the cooking time. 

Pumpkin Curry Soup

 

Week 2 of my “new recipe” New Year’s resolution and going strong! When I told J. about my resolution, he made one request – to use up ingredients in our cabinets and fridge! Since we have about half a dozen cans of pumpkin stocked up in our cabinets, I knew I had to do something with them.  And since one of the requirements of the new recipe resolution was that it had to be “healthy,” pumpkin pie was out of the question.  (Plus, who eats pumpkin pie in January?  That is a dessert I personally reserve for Thanksgiving.) 

So after some google searching, I found this recipe for this Thai pumpkin soup, which was perfect for the cold single-digit weather we had this week!  But since it calls for ingredients that I usually have in my pantry and is ready in minutes, I would make this any time of the year.

Pumpkin Curry Soup

Adapted from Foodie Crush

Ingredients:

• 2  14.5 oz cans pureed pumpkin
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1  14.5 oz light coconut milk
• 2 Tbs red curry paste
• 1-2 tsp fish sauce (to taste)
• A few dashes of sriracha sauce (to taste)

Method:

• In a medium sized pot, toast the curry paste for about a minute over medium high heat.
• Add chicken broth and pumpkin, stir until smooth and cook until it reaches a boil, about five minutes.
• Stir in coconut milk, and cook until heated through, about another three minutes
• Season with fish sauce and sriracha to taste and serve.

New Year’s Resolutions 2013

 

New Year’s resolutions sometimes get a bad rep. Sure, you can point and laugh at the people who sign up for a gym membership on January 1, and then stop going by Valentine’s Day. But I don’t laugh at those people.  After all, I made a New Year’s resolution in 2012 that actually stuck.  So when I see the unfamiliar faces at the gym at the beginning of January, I give them a nod of encouragement. You can do it!

What I do find makes keeping a healthy resolution is falling into a rut.  In trying to cook healthy all the time, I have a tendency to fall back to the same half dozen or so go-to recipes because I know that the taste good and are good for me too. But then my taste buds get bored after a while, making eating out and indulging all the more appealing. So to break from the routine (but not my resolutions), my resolution this year is to cook a new healthy recipe once a week.

First up – slow cooker chicken in chipotle sauce!

I had this recipe from Best Ever Recipes For Your Slow Cooker for years, but never made it because it called for dried chipotle peppers, which I never have on hand.  So last weekend, I trekked out in the pouring rain to my local Key Food supermarket, where I found the peppers quite easily.  (One of the advantages of living in such a diverse neighborhood – makes me wonder why it took me so long to make this!)

Though I had to laugh at the delightfully vague instructions:

Use to enhance the flavor of your favorite dish, eh? But how?

I reduced the amount of chicken and peppers the recipe called for, but forgot to reduce the amount of liquid, which made for a watery thin sauce as you can see in the picture above.  But that actually turned out to be a happy accident when I took the leftovers with me to work for lunch. The following morning, in my haste to get to work and not have to carry a lot of containers, I dumped about a half cup of brown rice into the broth and chicken mixture.  At the office, I reheated the stuff in the microwave.  Since I didn’t have a knife, I shredded the chicken with a fork, voila! I had an even tastier stew. 

 

I actually liked this better in stew form, so next time, I may just make it as a stew from the get-go. Sometimes, cooking mistakes mean making an even better recipe!

Slow Cooker Chicken in Chipotle Sauce (or Chipotle Chicken stew)

Adapted from Best Ever Recipes for Your Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

• 4 dried chipotle chilies (If you don’t want it to be too spicy, you can probably tone it down to 2-3 chilies)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 Tbs grapeseed oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh oregano for garnish
• Cooked Brown rice (optional for stew)

Method:

1. Boil water and pour boiling water over dried chilies.  Allow to sit for about 45 minutes or until soft.  Remove chilies, but save the soaking water.  Cut off the stem from each pepper and cut it open to remove the seeds with a knife. 
2. Chop the chilies and put in food processor or blender, along with soaking water. Process until smooth.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan.  Add onions and cook over medium heat until soft, about five minutes. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the onions.
4. Place onions in the stoneware insert of the slow cooker.  Layer chicken breasts on top. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the chicken.  Pour chili puree on top of chicken, making sure all the chicken is coated.  (I had to do this in layers because I have a small, 3 quart slow cooker.).  Cook on high for 3-4 hours.
5. Once fully cooked, you can serve the chicken breasts whole topped with generous spoonfuls of the sauce and oregano leaves.  To make the stew, simple shred the chicken into bite sized pieces with two forks.  Add brown rice, if desired.

Lobster Rolls from a Naked Lobster

 

Earlier readers may remember my Quest for the Best Lobster Roll in Maine a couple years ago.  Since then, I’ve been meaning to recreate my own lobster roll at home.  But the idea of buying and cooking a live lobster still freaks me out.  Then J. sent me this article about a company that has special equipment that can shell lobsters, while keeping the body of the lobster intact! They call it the “naked” lobster.  (The article has a picture of the naked lobster – it’s a little disturbing and intriguing at the same time).  The company uses steam pressure to extract the meat without breaking the meat.  This makes it so it is cheaper to freeze and transport Maine lobster.

Coincidentally, the day after J. sent me the article, we went shopping at BJ’s, and found this intriguing product.

It cost about $20 at BJ’s and since we were intrigued to try it out, we bought a box to try to recreate Maine lobster rolls.

Inside the box, there were two plastic packages of lobster meat.  These were cut up into pieces and not whole as described in the article. (They do sell the “naked” lobster, though).

But you can see that there are two claws, legs and knuckles

To make the lobster rolls, I made sure to keep it simple – I chopped up the meat into bite size pieces, mixed it up with some mayo and a squeeze of lemon juice in a bowl.

I toasted hot dog buns and slathered the mixture into the buns.  I served them here with a salad.

The lobster meat still isn’t quite the same as a fresh lobster.  It was a bit fishier and not quite as firm as a freshly cooked lobster.  But I really liked the convenience of not having to cook the lobster myself.  Yes, I know you can ask your seafood department at many supermarkets to steam cook the lobster for you, but I liked being able to just pull these out of the freezer, defrost, and eat. And by my estimation, one $20 box of lobster makes about 4 lobster rolls, plus hot dog buns, and mayo = about $5.25 for a lobster roll! Not a bad price. 

Incidentally, J. and I will be going to Maine in about two weeks, so we’ll be able to have some fresh lobster rolls soon!

Note: I was not compensated for this review.  I just really like lobster.

Maine Lobster Rolls

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 package Shucks Maine Lobster meat (or about 3.5 ounces of cooked lobster), defrosted and chopped into small pieces
• 1 Tbs mayonnaise
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 hot dog buns

Method:

Mix mayonnaise, lobster meat, and lemon juice in a bowl.  Lightly toast hot dog buns in a toaster oven.  Spoon lobster mixture into buns. 

So Long, Summer: Almond Butter Ice Cream Bread

 

Do you have leftover ice cream in your freezer that you don’t know what to do with now that summer is ending? Do you have five gallons of custom-made almond butter ice cream that your significant other gifted you?  Well, have I got the recipe for you. 

You can make bread out of ice cream!

I first learned about this from Rasa Malaysia’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bread.  The recipe calls for two ingredients: ice cream and self-raising flour, so I was a little skeptical at first.  Wouldn’t it just out to just become a puddle of warm melted ice cream? How would this work?  But since I had tons of almond butter ice cream left, I didn’t have much to lose.  I didn’t have self-rising flour, so I followed the tips from the recipe and used a mixture of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Turns out ice cream makes great bread!  This bread was so moist and rich, you could never tell that it was made out of ice cream. I sliced up the bread and brought it to book club, where it was a hit.  (Here’s a tip, when bringing a loaf of bread or cake, or other dessert that involves slicing, to a party, slice it up at home and arrange it aesthetically on a plate, preferably a disposable one, cover it in foil, and bring it to the party.  This way, no one will notice that the slice you ate to “test” it, is gone!) Next time, I’m going to make these into muffins – who says you can’t have ice cream for breakfast?

Almond Butter Ice Cream Bread

Adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 cups almond butter ice cream (or any flavor), softened* See note
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix softened ice cream and flour mixture until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into an 8” x 4” loaf pan.  Bake for about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Note:

I did not wait long enough to soften the ice cream.  (What can I say, I’m impatient.)  So when I mixed the 2 cups of ice cream  the recipe called for, I found the batter was dry and crumbly.  So I kept adding more and more ice cream.  Then the ice cream melted a little, and the batter was probably too wet, which might be why it took so long to bake.  So I recommend starting with two cups of softened ice cream, and adding more bit by bit until you get the sticky bread batter consistency. 

So Long, Summer: Roasted Summer Vegetables “Ratatouille” style

 

I’ve mentioned how much adored Ratatouille (the movie, not the dish) – I mean, it’s a movie that appeals to my love of adorable cartoon animals and cooking.  I had been meaning to re-create the beautiful layered ratatouille dish (spoiler alert!) that won over the die hard food critic’s heart since the movie came out in 2007, and since I found this interpretation of it on smitten kitchen. But life, laziness, and lack of all the ingredients kept me from doing so. 

Until tonight. Tonight, I came home and found the eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash that J. brought home from the farmer’s market.  Tonight, no lack of ingredient, overripe tomatoes, or shortage of time was going to stop me. I didn’t bother to consult Deb’s recipe, for fear that I would find I was missing something and would be discouraged.  Instead, I turned up the oven, sliced the vegetables, and got to work.

It turns out that my version is actually not too far off from Deb’s recipe. I roasted the vegetables at a higher temperature in the hope that they would cook faster, which they did. I completely forgot about the tomato puree, which made this dish more simply roasted vegetables rather than ratatouille.  It came out a bit dry, but I didn’t mind.  The tomatoes provided the extra juice that it needed for me.  I also used fresh oregano and basil, which are decidedly more Italian than French.  But I still enjoyed the chance to cook with summer vegetables while they were still in their peak season.

Roasted Vegetables “Ratatouille-style”

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4 as a side

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant, cut in half lengthwise, and then sliced in 1/4 inch slices
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• 1 yellow squash, sliced
• 1 Italian pepper, sliced (can substitute with bell pepper)
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 3 Tbs olive oil, divided in half
• 2 Tbs finely chopped oregano, divided
• 1 Tbs fresh basil, torn
• dash of red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice vegetables into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Drizzle half the olive on the bottom of a roasting pan.  Layer vegetables in the pan.  Drizzle with the rest of the olive oil, and sprinkle 1 Tbs oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.  Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Sprinkle tomato and remaining herbs.  Drizzle a little extra olive oil and adjust seasonings, if desired. 

So Long Summer: Watermelon and Feta Salad

 

 

From now until the end of the summer, I have started a “So Long Summer” series, in which I will be highlighting my favorite summer fruits and vegetables, so we can all enjoy them one last time (or three or four more times, as the case may be), before they’re gone for the season.  First up, Watermelon and Feta salad!

I first learned this salad from reading Peanut Butter Fingers, one of my favorite healthy living blogs.  At first, I will admit it seemed kind of weird, but intriguing to me.  At the time I read about it, I happen to have half a watermelon and feta cheese in the fridge,  so I decided to give it a whirl.  Turns out, watermelon and feta are a winning combination! Something about the tangy salty creaminess of the feta makes it the perfect contrast to the cold and sweet of the watermelon.  J. and I have made it several times since then, and even brought to a party where it was a big hit. 

Watermelon and Feta Salad

Adapted from Peanut Butter Fingers

Ingredients:

Note: The measurements are very fluid and you can use as much or as little as you want – I just eyeballed these measurements

• 2 cups seedless watermelon, cubed
• 2 cups arugula or any mixed salad greens you have (the peppery arugula goes great with the watermelon, but really any mix of greens will do)
• Pinch of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• A drizzle of olive (probably about 2-3 tsp)

Method:

Place a layer of salad greens into a bowl.  Layer the watermelon and feta on top.  Sprinkle salt and pepper.  Just before serving, drizzle olive oil on top.  Serves 2.