Cookbook # 69 I Heart Trader Joe's Cookbook

I'd once commented that none of my cookbooks had any of those nice and easy recipes that begins with "open a jar of pasta sauce".....until now.  And while I'm all for opening a jar and using premade items in cooking, I just don't purchase cookbooks that tell me how to do so.

I received this cookbook as a birthday gift from a coworker and didn't crack it open until recently.  I don't know why--obviously I'm a huge fan of anything that says "Trader Joe's" anywhere on it.  And shame on me, because I never would have considered opening up all of these premade items and putting them together myself.  Maybe those kinds of cookbooks can be useful. If only they didn't advocate adding Cool Whip to everything, I might actually be converted.

The I Heart Trader Joe's Cookbook has "more than 150 delicious recipes using only foods from the world's greates grocery store."  You can't really argue with that. And even though it limits itself to only using items from a somewhat small store, the variety of the recipes is pretty impressive: Sweet Potato, Pecan and Cranberry Salad, Asparagus Tart, Champagne-Safferon Risotto, Hot Toddy Chicken and Raspberry Caramel Turnovers to name just a few.

The recipe I chose was for Roasted Mushroom Polenta Stacks.  Granted, this recipe does center around one of those "love 'em or hate 'em" foods.  If you are not a mushroom fan, you might not love this so much.  I happened to adore this recipe. And sooooo easy! Aside from roasting mushrooms in the toaster oven for 10 minutes, this was all about opening packages, warming everything up and stacking them.  While cooking is fun, sometimes great food after only 15 minutes in the kitchen is pretty amazing.

Roasted Mushroom Polenta Stacks
adapted from the I Heart Trader Joe's Cookbook

1 18 ounce roll Organic Polenta
4 Stuffing Portabella Mushrooms
1 tbsp olive oil
4 ounces fress mozzarella cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 jar Pasta Sauce (warmed)
1 jar roasted red peppers cut into strips
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450. 
Place polenta rounds on parchment-line baking tray. 
Toss mushrooms with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 
Place on baking tray with polenta and bake all for 10 minutes.
Slice mushrooms into strips
Place warmed polenta round on each plate and top with mozarella and dallop of pasta sauce.  Drape mushrooms and roasted red pepper strips across the top.

Blueberry Kefir Pancakes and Tomato Peach Salad

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  Hope everyone had a blessed and safe holiday!

Yeah, the title of the post is a bit odd but I'm not actually advocating that these two dishes go together.  Promise.

I love the Edible Communities magazine series.  Edible has a series of food magazines catering to local foods, recipes and food articles.  And it's usually free in the foodie shops--can't beat that.   While I can easily grab the latest Edible Front Range copy right at Whole Foods, I hadn't had much opportunity to browse through any of the other community copies.  Edible Aspen?  How did I not pick one of those up on my last trip up there?  Edible Manhattan or Edible Brooklyn?  How fun.  Edible Cape Cod?  Yes please.  Edible Hudson Valley?  Hey I know that place.  And Edible Bozeman?  I wish I had known it existed prior to one of my many business trips up there.

I did however pick up Edible Santa Fe on our Labor Day trip down there.    Seriously read this cover to to cover--I'm now well versed on "Honey: the art of the bee."  Thank goodness. 

I tried two recipes and loved them both so much that I felt it was a bit unfair to choose which to post....hence the two recipe post.  Try and pick...it's not easy. 

First off was the recipe for Kefir pancakes.  I happened to have blueberry kefir and fresh blueberries but these can be adjusted for whatever flavor of kefir you buy.

What is kefir? According to Edible Santa Fe, "Kefir, like yogurt, is a cultured, enzyme-rich food filled with friendly microorganisms that help balance your inner ecosystem.  More nutritious and therapeutic than yogurt, it supplies complete protein, essential minerals and valuable B vitamins."  I don't know how therapeutic I actually find yogurt to be, but it sure is tasty--as is kefir.  Aside from kefir being a bit "tangier" than yogurt, I'm not sure I could tell them apart in a taste test.

The extra tang in kefir lends itself perfectly to pancakes...think buttermilk pancakes.  And between the kefir and the baking powder and baking soda, this batter makes a super light and fluffy pancake despite the fact that I used whole wheat flour.  The batter itself rises right in the bowl before I'd even made half of the pancakes.  Imagine the fluffiness that would result from all purpose flour. Definite keeper recipe in this house.

The second recipe was for a Tomato Peach Salad.  Even more exciting was trying out the orange mucat champagne vinegar I'd found at Trader Joes.  Ohh, such an exciting salad if you are a tomato and peach fan.  Tangy, sweet and with a bite from the onions and dressing. Another keeper recipe--yay Edible!

Blueberry Kefir Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups kefir
1 cup frozen blueberries

1. Preheat a griddle or skillet to just under medium heat.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the kefir. Add the melted butter and whisk together.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix just until moistened. If you overmix the batter, it will not be light and fluffy
5. Lightly grease preheated pan with canola oil. Drop about 1/4-1/3 cup onto the hot griddle to form each pancake. Sprinkle blueberries over each pancake. When numerous bubbles have risen to the top of the pancakes (about three minutes), turn and cook for about one minute on the other side, until nicely browned. Remove from heat and continue until all of the batter is used up.
6. Serve hot, topped with additional thawed blueberries and warm maple syrup.

Heirloom Tomato and Peach Salad

2 lbs heirloom tomatoes
1 lb ripe peaches
1/2 smal red onion finely diced.
2 tbsp extra virgin oive oil
2 tbsp freshly squeezed OJ
2 tbsp vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
dask of salt
1/4 cup fresh basil, torn or sliced

Cut tomatoes and peaches into relatively similar sized pieces. Add onions. Whisk together oil, oj, vinegar, lemon zest and salt to make dressing.  Pour dressing over tomato and peaches.  Add basil, toss and serve.

She's Chill

I't's often so bittersweet to see my sister's pics of my youngest niece. I get to see Peanut somewhat regularly, and it saddens me that the little Chipmunk lives so far away. My sister has no compassion when I tell her to move home. Something about my brother in law's job and not filming many movies, commercials and TV shows here. To tell you the truth, I just hear "blah, blah, blah." I mean, I know for a fact that the Dynasty opening credits theme song was filmed here in Denver.

But alas, apparently my brother in law would like to work more than once a decade, so Vegas it is and I have to settle for photos across the miles. When your daddy has a production company, you get to star in your first commercial at 6 months so that your auntie can gush and gush and gush to everyone about how super duper cute you are.  You'll see--check out her debut....

Chipmunk's Pepsi Max commercial

Way cute right? 


Chilling in between takes.

Making the Broth

Sometimes when you are in the kitchen, there comes a time to raise the sails and move into foreign waters.  For some it's baking, for others it's an ethnic cuisine or souffle.  One of mine is definitely broth.  In fact the whole idea of why anyone would want to boil bones and carcass baffles me when there is plenty of perfectly fine broth to be purchased.  That being said, I adore almost any broth based soup, even beef, hold the flesh please.  And I especially adore a fabulous beef pho with a strong salty, tangy and sweet anise flavored broth. Surely that is worth trying to recreate at home, if only to know you've tried.

I'm not going to lie and pretend I was brave here.  I once divulged my strong anti-lymph node sentiments.  That feeling can only be trumped exponentially by marrow.  I find marrow seriously creepy. It makes me think of cancer, and really why would anyone want to eat cancer? On one of my trips to Paris, our meal somehow included a surprise bone marrow course.  It was served right in the bone with a little demitasse spoon. I can still see the waiter presenting it to us like it was only yesterday. Cultural adventurousness out the door--neither of us could bring ourselves to even try it. I'm quite confident I could never be a guest judge on Iron Chef. 

Bones in cold water--these must be parboiled for about 10 minutes to release the "impurities."

Parboiled bones kindly releasing their scum.

Oh, but look at this.  Rinse and clean them off, add them to cold water with some spices, onion and ginger and leave them in the crockpot for 3-4 hours on high and you magically have broth. Yay.  I cooled it overnight at this point so that the fat would harden and skim off easily but many like the broth better without skimming.  

One of the essential ingredients in Beef Pho is the anise.  I think it's one of the first flavors you taste in that initial bite.  These can be found rather cheaply at the asian grocer, moderately cheaply at a place that has bulk spices like Vitamin Cottage, or rather expensively at Whole Foods.  While $27/lb seems shocking at first, just remember these hardly weigh anything at all.  I was able to purchase this small bag with more than enough for this and future use for under a $1.

Add the necessary Pho accessories and you are ready to go.  Essential are: bean sprouts, Thai basil, cilantro, green onion and lime wedges. 

While the broth recipe was respectable and soup gave my favorite Pho place a small run for the money, I sadly can't say it was worth the effort.  There is quite a bit of time involved in traveling to the speciality stores for bones and Thai basil along with the hours required to make the broth.  And having done a little cost comparison, I calculated that Pho Saigon costs me $3.75 a serving while homemade Pho is $3.25 a serving--figure in estimated labor costs for homemade pho and Pho Saigon is not only much cheaper but also tastier.  Who knew it pays to be lazy sometimes?

 

Vietnamese Pho
adapted from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen

THE BROTH
2 onions, halved
4" nub of ginger, halved lengthwise
5-6 lbs of good beef bones, preferably leg and knuckle
1 lb of beef meat - chuck, brisket, rump, cut into large slices (optional)
8 cups of water
1 cinnamon stick,

4 whole star anise,
6 whole cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 inch chunk of yellow rock sugar (about 1 oz) - or 1oz of regular sugar

THE BOWLS
1 package dried rice noodles
cooked beef from the broth
1/2 lb flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round, sliced as thin as possible.
big handful of each: mint, cilantro, Thai basil
2 limes, cut into wedges
2-3 chili peppers, sliced
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha hot sauce

Directions:

Char: Turn your broiler on high and move rack to the highest spot. Place ginger and onions on baking sheet. Brush just a bit of cooking oil on the cut side of each. Broil on high until ginger and onions begin to char. Turn over and continue to char. This should take a total of 10-15 minutes.
Parboil the bones: Fill large pot (12-qt capacity) with cool water. Boil water, and then add the bones, keeping the heat on high. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones and rinse out the pot. Refill pot with bones and 6 qts of cool water. Bring to boil over high heat and lower to simmer. Using a ladle or a fine mesh strainer, remove any scum that rises to the top.
Boil broth: Add ginger, onion, spices, beef, sugar, fish sauce, salt and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the beef meat and set aside (you'll be eating this meat later in the bowls) Continue simmering for another 1 1/2 hours. Strain broth and return the broth to the pot. Taste broth and adjust seasoning - this is a crucial step. If the broth's flavor doesn't quite shine yet, add 2 teaspoons more of fish sauce, large pinch of salt and a small nugget of rock sugar (or 1 teaspoon of regular sugar). Keep doing this until the broth tastes perfect.
Prepare noodles & meat: Slice your flank/london broil/sirloin as thin as possible - try freezing for 15 minutes prior to slicing to make it easier. Remember the cooked beef meat that was part of your broth? Cut or shred the meat and set aside. Arrange all other ingredients on a platter for the table. Your guests will "assemble" their own bowls. Follow the directions on your package of noodles - there are many different sizes and widths of rice noodles, so make sure you read the directions. For some fresh rice noodles, just a quick 5 second blanch in hot water is all that's needed. The package that I purchased (above) - needed about 45 seconds in boiling water.
Ladling: Bring your broth back to a boil. Line up your soup bowls next to the stove. Fill each bowl with rice noodles, shredded cooked beef and raw meat slices. As soon as the broth comes back to a boil, ladle into each bowl. the hot broth will cook your raw beef slices. Serve immediately. Guests can garnish their own bowls as they wish.

All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake

What started out as a plan to cook from a new cookbook, changed to thumbing through Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours....yet again.  It's quickly becoming my go-to baking cookbook.   I'm not sure it's just because Dorie is a genius, or if because it's such a HUGE cookbook, it has every baked good you could possibly want to bake.

I was looking for a new pumpkin bread recipe and while Martha had one that involved molasses, and other cookbooks had some new takes on that fall favorite, Dorie trumped it all by throwing apples and cranberries in hers.  Okay, so it was technically a bundt cake and not a quick bread--but aren't they really the same?

 Are apples or pumpkins the greater baking joy of fall?  I love that Dorie doesn't make you pick. Cinnamon, check.  Nutmeg, check.  Ginger, check.

This was such a moist cake even though I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for half of the all purpose flour--I guess that's what pumpkin, apples and cranberries can do for a cake.  Add those spices and this is very appropriately named the All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake.

All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 sticks (10 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1  cup chopped cranberries

Maple Glaze
6 tbsp powdered sugar
maple syrup

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9 to 10 inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. Don't place the pan on a baking sheet - you want the oven's heat to circulate freely through the Bundt's inner tube.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and ground ginger.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition. Beat int he vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the pumpkin and chopped apple - don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Still on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. With a rubber spatula, stir in the cranberries and pecans. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding, then cool to room temperature on the rack before glazing.

For Glaze: add two tsp of maple syrup to powdered sugar and stir to blend.  Continue to add maple syrup in half teaspoon increments until glaze is thin enough to drizzle across cake.

Amaretto Pumpkin Pie with Almond Praline

I found a turkey in my freezer a few weeks back--I think I bought it last Christmas to cook up sometime in the spring.  Sadly, even 12 lb turkeys can get lost in my freezer.  As the supply of Stella and Chewy's dog food continues to take over the freezer, I knew the turkey had to come out.  In this house, we have priorities people. 

I actually really enjoy roasting a turkey.  I think it's the long hours it's in the oven while the scent permeates every corner of the house. And of course, if you are going to bake a turkey, you have to make all of the fixings.  Is turkey only for Thanksgiving?

All of this intro is really only to justify my choosing to bake a pumpkin pie the first week of November.  It felt kind of wrong--as if pumpkin pie is a Thanksgiving dinner exclusive. But alas, just a flip through this month's Food Network magazine, and I was convinced I absolutely, positive had to make a pumpkin pie. The magazine had a feature highlighting a "classic" Thanksgiving dessert (pecan, pumpkin and apple pies) and then a "twist" on that classic.  Throwing amaretto into a dessert is just good thinking.

The best part of this recipe is that no where is there any mention of "rolling out" the pie crust.  It's a crumb crust--genius. 

And the verdict?  The crust was fabulous.  The praline topping was definitely a fun sugary, crunchy twist. The pie itself was eh. The amaretto was so subtle that I think I only imagined it there.  And unlike a traditional pumpkin pie with all those fabulous spices, this one ended up just tasting like straight up pumpkin. Not bad in any way, I was just thinking a bit of cinnamon and cloves would have been a perfect addition.  I would definitely try this again in a sort of morphed form-with the amaretto cookie crumb crust and almond praline topping but with perhaps a bit of a more classic pumpkin pie filling.

Does this mean that theoretically, Thanksgiving is over for me and I can start on Christmas? Sadly, I am not jesting.

Amaretto Pumpkin Pie with Almond Praline
from Food Network Magazine November 2010
For the Dough:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup crumbled amaretto cookies (about 10 cookies)
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

For the Filling:
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Praline:
Vegetable oil, for brushing
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Make the dough: Pulse the flour, cookies and salt in a food processor until the cookies are finely ground. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal with pea-size bits of butter. Drizzle in 1/4 cup ice water and pulse until the dough begins to come together. Turn out into a 9-inch glass pie plate (not deep dish) and press into the bottom and up the sides about 1/4 inch above the rim. Pierce all over with a fork and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the crust with foil, then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until the edges are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and continue baking until the crust is golden all over, 10 to 15 more minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

Make the filling: Whisk the pumpkin, cream, sugar, eggs, liqueur, nutmeg, vanilla and salt in a bowl. Pour into the crust and bake until the edges are set but the center still quivers, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

Meanwhile, make the praline: Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and brush with vegetable oil. Stir the sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, swirling the pan but not stirring, until amber, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in the almonds and salt. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, spreading it as thinly as possible with a rubber spatula. Cool completely.

Coarsely chop or break the praline and sprinkle over the pie right before serving.