stuffed roasted portobellinis with pine nuts and breadcrumbs

so here is the continuation of my previous post called, .... of things to come. for information about portobellini mushrooms (which are the size of the palm of your hand), please see the links in that blog entry.

these stuffed mushrooms make a perfect appetizer and are very simple to make. the combination of garlic, red pepper flakes and pine nuts adds a lot of flavour to mushroom caps.

don't omit using the lemon juice as it adds an incredible boost to the portobellinis. i've tried it without and it's just not the same. you can use fresh bread crumbs, too — just grind up a good bread in the food processor or blender.

roasted portobellini mushrooms with pine nuts

ingredients:

4 portobellini mushrooms (or 2 large portobellos)
1/3 c. olive oil
juice of one lemon

2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. pine nuts
1/3 - 1/2 c. breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

sometimes i add 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley & dried sweetened cranberries

method:

clean mushrooms with a paper towel and remove the stems. with one tablespoon of the oil, coat a pyrex dish. put juice of the lemon into a plastic ziploc bag and add mushroom caps and shake to coat mushrooms with lemon juice (do not skip this step). place mushrooms in the pyrex dish stem side up.

dice mushroom stems. sauté them in the rest of the olive oil with the garlic until the garlic turns golden brown. it will seem like a lot of oil but it's not — you need it to sauté the breadcrumbs. it will get absorbed right away as you add them.

stir in the pine nuts and bread crumbs. add red pepper flakes, lots of black pepper and some salt to taste. cook for 30 sec to 1 minute and remove from the heat.

spoon the sautéed mixture into the mushroom caps. bake uncovered in 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. serve hot.

enjoy!

call the fire department!

this zippy little hot sauce can be used in a number of ways and is simple to make. it is great used in salad dressings, marinades or dips and actually gets better as it ages. it can be stored for well up to a year or longer in the fridge.

the heat level can be tailored to your taste by choosing the appropriate peppers. usually the larger the pepper, the less hot it is (sometimes!). i use the small green indian/thai ones that can set your mouth aflame. if you're daring enough, you could use habanero or scotch bonnets. removing the white veins and seeds will reduce the heat considerably. but why? this is hot sauce!!

hot green chili pepper sauce

ingredients:

1/4 c sliced peppers
1 tbsp salt

1/2 c white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dried mint (not fresh)
1 tsp cracked black pepper (dry roasted)

method:

use caution when cutting the peppers by either using disposable kitchen gloves or by greasing your hands well with vegetable oil.

stem the peppers by snapping off the tops. they should come off easily.

slice the peppers and measure out 1/4 c.

in a bowl, add the salt and mix the peppers to coat them all. let them sit for 3 hours.

after 3 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. place the sauce in a non reactive container or bottle and let it sit for 24 hours. shake it a few times in between.

after 24 hours, you can use the sauce alone or the peppers. the longer it ages, the better it gets. keep refrigerated.

enjoy!
(in small doses, of course)

.... of things to come

one of my favourite vegetables is mushrooms. i especially like portobello ones, the overgrown agaricus bisporus, and their smaller version, the portobellini.


why are mushrooms so damned expensive? well, as the former site link says .....

Portobellini, a form of the white button mushroom Agaricus bisporus, is grown on compost made of straw, either alone or with an added natural fertilizer. Supplemented with nitrogen in the form of various agricultural wastes such as cottonseed, the compost undergoes physical and chemical changes as organic matter is consumed and heat is released. A considerable amount of straw is needed to create the heat for reactions to occur resulting in the growth of mushrooms. A fairly technical growing process, specific requirements must be met in order to pasteurize and condition the compost that includes specially designed rooms with controlled temperature, humidity and fresh air. Portobellini, portobello, open cap and brown cap mushrooms are all, in fact, the same species, Agaricus bisporus, but different strains and growing times allow the mushroom's distinguishing and differing variations.

so what am i making? details to be added soon ......

pink memories

well, it's that day again.

a day which is happy for some and not so happy for others. i guess it's all a matter of perspective. i've never been big on a "holiday" that could potentially crush your heart like a bug if you didn't receive flowers, chocolates or a card telling you that you were the pivotal of someone's universe.

february 14th always reminds me of miniature cinnamon hearts [candies] and old cards. being a packrat, i still have mine — okay, i have a few of them — the cards, not the candies! thinking back on elementary school, i remember the excitement and buzz of the kids in my classroom wondering who'd they would get a card from or some little attached candies, too, if they were lucky. ultimately, you ended up counting the number of cards you received and that indicated how popular you were. looking back it seems cruel as there were always a few kids who got next to nothing and went home feeling like crap. i don't think those kids ever forgot that. on the other side of it, you were only too happy to run home and mill over the cards you did get and giggle over who gave you one.

well, it's no wonder that today is the best day of the year for card shops, flower vendors, chocolatiers and confectioners.

for a good laugh, check out this, this and this [my fave]. i love the anti valentine's day movement!

npr's Xgen picks for the "sounds of love" [you can listen to the songs posted though it's last year's article; see the links at the bottom too]. this year's picks and songs for the dumped (oh, my! lol).

if you need to whip up something in a hurry, take a look here for some ideas. for you chocolate lovers, look at this or try these amazingly good things (i love them!). definitely on the list of must tries from baker dorie greenspan.

how many ways can you say, i love you?

* * * * * * *

H A P P Y

V A L E N T I N E S

D A Y

straight to the heart with these

with valentine's day around the corner, something for two seems appropriate. nothing says valentine's more than chocolate and a ruby red strawberry sauce. while the "molten chocolate cake" has been done a million times before, i'm adding it here because it's one of my favourites.

i like these because the batter for these little cakes can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to bake. be careful though, the batter is just as good (if not better!) than the finished cakes. be sure to use a dark cocoa like valrhona, if you can, and a good dark chocolate — it makes it all the better.

if it's just you for valentine's day, then it's one more cake for you to devour! bake one for dessert and refrigerate the batter for the other one [in the ramekin] to have for a gooey and sinful midnight snack :)

cupid's cakes for two

cake ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 c sugar
2 oz [56 g] either bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup [1/2 stick] unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
2 teaspoons all purpose flour

(you can also add 1 - 2 tsp melted instant coffee)

sauce ingredients:

2 c frozen strawberries
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

garnish:

icing sugar
fresh mint

method:

to make the sauce:

combine frozen strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp lemon juice in a microwavable bowl.

microwave the mixture on high for 2 1/2 minutes.

stir and put it back in the microwave and repeat again but only for about 2 minutes. take care to watch the second time to make sure it does not overflow.

remove and mash or puree the mixture in a blender or processor. let cool. it will thicken up when cooled.

to make the cakes:

butter two 3/4-cup ramekins or custard cups.

whisk the cocoa [make sure you sift the cocoa!] and 1/4 cup sugar in small bowl.

microwave on medium heat the chocolate and butter in small bowl until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth.

whisk in cocoa mixture right away.

blend in egg yolks, then whole egg and flour.

divide the batter between prepared ramekins.

note that both sauce and cake batter can be made 1 day ahead. just cover separately and chill. bake cakes before serving.

preheat oven to 350°F and bake cakes until edges are set but center is still shiny and tester inserted into center comes out with some wet batter attached, about 18 to 20 minutes. keep an eye on them and be careful not to overcook them!

mine overcooked a little lot because the phone rang (grrrr)!
the center should be "wetter" than in my photo

to serve:

cut around cakes to loosen and turn them out onto serving plates. spoon the sauce around and/or over the cakes. sift icing sugar over them and garnish with mint leaves. can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

enjoy!

cookies that crack!

this cookie is one i remember well for its cracked look and its texture — it was sandy on the outside and harder in the center and i always needed a plate or a napkin to eat it. invariably, i always lost part of it, usually on the floor, when i didn't use something to catch any pieces that didn't make it into my mouth.

the following delicate cookies are generically called ghorabeya or ghoreyba [גורייבה] and are, more or less just flour of some sort, sugar and an oil or fat like butter. they bake into a shortbread-like texture and are very, very good, especially since they can be made extremely quickly. there are different kinds of ghorabeya, depending upon which country they originate. these are a sephardic turkish kind. they can be made with ground walnuts or almonds or just plain. cocoa powder is usually added also — though i haven't done it here.


ghorabeya "kon muez" אוגיות גורייבה

ingredients:

1 c cake and pastry flour
1/2 c AP flour (all purpose)
1/3 c sugar
1/8 tsp salt

3 tbsp finely ground almonds or walnuts
1 tbsp coarsely ground almonds or walnuts

1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 tsp almond extract [optional]
1 tbsp cocoa powder [optional]

2 tsp orange flower water can replace the cocoa and almond extract

method:

preheat the oven to 350F.

add the dry ingredients together in a bowl and blend.

if using the the cocoa and almond extract, add them to a small bowl first and add a little of the oil to make a paste. then add the rest of the oil.

if only using the oil, then proceed by adding it to the dry mixture and stir well.

once it is well mixed you will have a very thick textured dough.

using a tablespoon, measure out 18 or so portions and roll them tightly into balls.

place the balls on the baking sheet. you don't need to grease it.

bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. the bottoms should be lightly browned and not dark. the outsides will be a pale tan colour.

let them rest until almost cooled. this is important. don't move them or you'll wreck the cookies as they are much more delicate when warm. use a knife or spatula to move them. these can be sprinkled with powdered sugar before serving, too.

enjoy!

one tough banana

click on me!

believe it or not, there are supposedly over 500 different kinds of bananas and it's no surprise that not all of them are the same. the long and short of it is that they can be either eating ones [fruit] or cooking ones [vegetable], the latter belonging to the group called plantains [this site goes into the differences].

plantains are very popular in the caribbean, latin america, africa and india and, as a result, there are myriad ways of preparing them.

they come in three states of readiness:

• green
• yellow [often with dark spots or patches]
• blackened

each of these states is an indication of how sweet the plantain will be and a measure of, or benchmark for, how much of its starch has turned to sugars. it also dictates how they will be cooked. they can be mashed, used in soups, fried or baked. there are endless possibilities.

so does it taste like a banana? not really. it is more a dense starchy "vegetable" much like a cooked potato even though it does have a telltale faint fruity flavour. it should be noted that there is also a bit of a sweet-sour flavour to them the riper they get. they are also glutinous which makes it easy to cook with them without using eggs as a binder.

for more information and recipes, look here.

how easy it is to prepare a plantain depends upon the state it is in. the unripe green ones can be a bit trickier, as the skin will stick more to the plantain itself at this stage than when it is in its yellow or black state [at which point, they can more or less actually be peeled like a banana].

in the following recipes, you can see how both the green and yellow one is peeled and can be prepared to give amazingly delicious and different results and textures. the first recipe results in a crispy item and is one from my cuban friends who make it at both hanukkah and passover. the second is an indian version which gives a totally different texture which is potato like and delectably savoury and sweet at the same time.


latkes de plátano

nothing could be simpler — a thin, crispy side dish or snack easily made from the plantain itself and a few seasonings.

ingredients:

1 large unripe (very green) plantain
1/4 tsp salt, heaped
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground cumin, optional

method:

to prepare the green plantain, take note that it will exude minute amounts of a sticky liquid so don't be alarmed. my friend's method is to moisten her hands and salt them to cut down on the initial tackiness when peeling the green plantain.

first, cut off the ends of the plantain and make a long horizontal cut through the skin all the way to the flesh but don't cut through it.

place the plantain in very, very hot water for 10 to 15 minutes to soak. this is to help loosen the skin.

after 10 to 15 minutes, the skin may have darkened. that is fine. remove the plantain from the water.

moisten your hands and put salt on them. now cut horizontally through the plantain in several places and peel back the skin. you may need a knife to help with this.

once that has been done, take the plantain and put it is salted cold water for another 10 to 15 minutes. discard the peels.

drain the plantain and grate it on the large holes of a grater. don't use the thin one. you'll notice the mixture will be a bit gluey.

place the grated plantain in a bowl and add the seasonings.

heat a pan with some oil over medium heat. divide your plantain mixture into 7 or 8 portions. place 4 portions in the oil when hot and fry until they are golden brown on one side. flatten them a bit as they fry; they should not be thick.

flip them over carefully and fry again until golden. remove to paper towel and drain.

serve these as a side dish or a snack. they are great with a splash of fresh lime! if you love crispy, you'll love these.

enjoy!

gingered plantain in a coconut and cashew sauce

this south indian recipe combines semi ripe plantains with cashews, coconut and yogurt to make a bright sweet and spicy side dish you won't regret making. its buttery flavour enhances the starchy potato like texture. using ghee adds a nutty flavour that regular butter just does not.


ingredients:

1 or 2 large semi ripe (yellow) plantain
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter or ghee
2 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger

3 tbsp dried coconut
2 tbsp raw cashews

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, heaped
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp brown sugar or jaggery
1/3 c yogurt

1 tbsp melted butter or ghee

1/2 heaped tsp roasted and coarsely crushed cumin seeds
1/2 heaped tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp chopped coriander

method:

heat the oven to 375 F.

cut both ends off and peel the plantain. at this stage of ripeness, it does not need to be soaked like the green one.

cut the plantain in half and then cut the sections in half horizontally.

cut each section into one inch pieces and then in half again.

place the plantain in a bowl and add the first 1 1/2 tbsp of butter or ghee and coat well. place these on a piece of well greased foil and then sprinkle the chopped crystallized ginger over the plaintain. seal the package well and place it in the oven. while the plantain is cooking, prepare the yogurt masala.

after 35 minutes, remove the plantain package and carefully open it.

in a blender or processor, grind the raw cashews and the coconut.

add the cayenne, turmeric, sugar and the yogurt. remove and place aside.

in a nonstick fry pan, add the 1 tspn of butter or ghee and fry the plantain and ginger over medium heat for about 3 minutes, it will brown a bit.

lower the heat and add the yogurt mixture and mix well. don't let it boil. you will notice that it thickens up considerably.

remove from the heat and add the salt, cumin and coriander and mix again.

enjoy!