Cheese Souffle

Another great recipe from this book! And just when I'm getting into this eat local, eat free range, etc. mode, my eldest came to me tonight and said "What would you think if I became a vegetarian?" I said I was fine with that and could certainly keep her well fed, but wanted to know to know her thoughts behind this. She said she hated the thought of the animals being penned up, living their whole lives in cages. I said I hated that thought too, but I wasn't sure I was ready to give up meat...but I would certainly be happy to eat far less and commit to eating free range, grazing meat. She thought that was great, because she does like meat but didn't like what she'd read about mass production meat methods. So we agreed I could use up what was in my freezer and then we'd take a shot, as a family, of eating more mindfully.

Given that I'd already decided on a cheese souffle for dinner, with good local eggs from the farmer's market, with some yellow summer squash on the side, it made a great meal. I am not a "fancy" cook, as I've said before, so I'd never made a souffle before. I've done great stratas and quiches and many similar "low brow" things though. This was quite good!
And will definitely be repeated.

I used to be afraid of souffles, with all the fuss made about them. But if you've made a white sauce, and whipped up egg whites, you can do this with no problem. This serves 4.

3 Tbs butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cups milk, warmed with a slice of onion and a bay leaf
3 Tbs flour
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of cayenne pepper
5 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) grated or crumbled cheese (Cheddar, goat cheese, Gruyere, etc.)
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a 2 quart souffle dish, then sprinkle some of the grated Parmesan cheese on the bottom, saving the rest to mix in with egg mixture.

Warm the milk with a slice of onion and a bay leaf.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan (3 quart or so), then whisk in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Take the onion and the bay leaf out of the milk and discard, then mix the warmed milk into the flour whisking again, until incorporated. Cook over low heat, stirring slowly but nearly constantly, for 8 minutes.

During this time whip up the egg yolks until stiff.

Season the butter/flour/milk mix with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste, plus a pinch of cayenne.

Stir in the cheese(s). Mix in the egg yolks one at a time. Fold in the egg whites.

Spread the batter into the buttered souffle dish. Bake about 50 minutes, until you get that dramatic looking top that's golden brown. Serve immediately.

Apple Cake

I followed my niece's lead in this recipe from my mom and used applesauce rather than oil. I have a batch of home canned applesauce that is a bit cinnamon heavy. I'm thinking I'll use it all up in baking treats like this since I'm the only that likes it plain!

4 cups chopped apples
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup applesauce (or oil)
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped nuts, optional
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients together, in order. Pour into a 9x13" pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Optional glaze:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp soda

Combine the glaze ingredients together and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Pour over slightly cooled cake.

Note: I didn't have any buttermilk so added 1 Tbs of vinegar to 1/2 cup milk and let it sit while the cake baked.

Salt Potatoes

In addition to the raspberries for the raspberry tart, I picked up a bag of small different colored potatoes, including Yukon Gold, some red potato, and a purplish one. I cooked a handful of them in this method that Madison recommends, basically boiling them in heavily salted water, then tossing with a bit of butter and some herbs.

The recipe called for sea salt, which I didn't have. But I guessed that kosher salt would be okay so used that. And according to this Food Network article, I guessed correctly.

2 pounds small potatoes
2 cups salt
3 quarts water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup fresh herbs - I used parsley
pepper to taste

Heat the water to boiling and stir to dissolve the salt and add the potatoes. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are done. Stab them with a fork to check. The time depends on how big your potatoes are. Small ones will take 15 minutes or so, larger ones up to 30.

Drain and put the potatoes in a bowl. Either melt the butter or just cut it in chunks and mix with the potatoes until they're coated. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, if you'd like. She suggests marjoram, chives, lemon basil, etc. I have lots of parsley in the garden so used that.

These were quite good and not salty. I'm not sure they're any better than my usual "nuke covered in the microwave until tender then add butter" non-recipe.

I chopped up the leftover potatoes this morning for breakfast and fried them in a bit of olive oil until crispy.

Raspberry Tart

Gifts from friends that know you well are the best. A shining example is this fantastic cookbook that one of my oldest friends sent me "just because." Coincidentally, I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, which mentions Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets. I love noting synchronicity.

Yesterday at our local farmer's market, I picked up some gorgeous raspberries and made the tart from Local Flavors. It was quite easy and delicious. The recipe calls for creme fraiche but I just used a light sour cream. It also called for unsalted butter and then adding a bit of salt. I just used regular butter, as that's what I keep on hand.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar plus 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla, divided
3 eggs
7/8 cup flour
3/4 cup sour cream
1 heaping pint raspberries (about 2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 375.

Put the butter in your mixing bowl and use the wrapper to lightly grease an 11-inch tart pan. Add the 1/2 cup to the butter and cream it together. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and 2 whole eggs plus 1 egg white, saving the other yolk to mix with the sour cream. Beat together, scraping the sides of the bowl down periodically. Add the flour and mix in but don't overmix. Pour the batter into the tart pan and spread it around and up the sides of the pan a bit.

Mix the egg yolk and sour cream with 1/2 tsp vanilla. Pour over the batter and spread it out to the edges.

Drop the berries onto the custard so it's as covered as possible. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over the top.

Bake about 40 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and custard is set in the middle.

Coffee and Books

You know I love both. Just wanted to give a shout out to a friend's new site. Check out CoffeeAndBookReviews.com. Some good stuff here... but I'll have to point out that rather than dumping bad coffee down the drain you can at least pour it near any roses you have growing. They're sure to appreciate that PLUS the grounds you dump near them as well. I had an aunt that would regularly put her coffee grounds, filter and all, near the roses, and then dig them in to the ground once a week or so. And she had the best looking roses! So I've been following in her footsteps. At the least, dump the grounds (and paper filter if you use one) into your compost pile!

Chicken and Drop Dumplings

So first, the confession. My mother never made chicken and dumplings. I read about them but have never actually eaten them prepared by anyone who knew what they were doing. Years ago when I was first learning to cook I tried some other recipe out of curiosity and it was so-so. Nothing to think about repeating for sure. But I kept seeing the recipe crop up here and there and the idea stuck with me that perhaps I was missing something.

Tonight I had a whole chicken to fix for dinner and was debating about whether to roast it whole, (I hadn't marinated it so could do my favorite marinated roast chicken), cut it in pieces and bake it this way or use my Grandma's old recipe or fry it . We've had 100+ degree weather the past week but today the clouds came in and a breeze came up. I'm not sure what the temperature was but I left the windows open all day and it was just perfect. It's been a while since I've felt like I could cook "cool weather" food (I know it's not COLD!). I hit upon trying chicken and dumpings again somehow because it's been ages since we had soup.

Skimming recipes I saw a few patterns. First, there's "noodle-like" dumplings (dough rolled out and cut in 1" strips) or "drop" dumplings. Some of the dumplings were just flour and water; others added baking powder and/or broth and/or parsley. Some had eggs and milk. I settled on one nearly like the one from The Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah. This is the second recipe I've tried from this book, which I just picked up over the holiday weekend. I'm not a big fan of cooking shows and rarely watch them but I tend to like "Southern" cooking so thought I'd try this. (Must be that Tennessee grandfather I heard about but never met who made his way to California, met my Grandma and the rest is history!)

1 whole chicken, 3-4 pounds
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 boullion cubes (or start with broth)
1-2 bay leaves
2 quarts water or so, enough to cover the chicken well
1 tsp Paula Deen's House Seasoning if not too salty already

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs dried parsley
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3/4 cup milk

1 10.5 can cream of chicken or celery soup or your own homemade white sauce

Cut up the chicken if you want, but you don't have to. On the other hand, if you bought a tray of chicken parts, go for it. Rinse and put in a stockpot and add at least 2 quarts water, enough to cover the chicken. Add the celery, onion, buillon and/or house seasoning, and bay leaves. Bring to boil, lower to a medium bowl, cover mostly, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, until chicken is done. Remove the chicken from the pot and put it on a plate to cool a bit. Stir in the cream of whatever soup or your own white sauce to thicken up the broth a bit. Turn down the heat and leave it simmering.

When you can handle the chicken, pull off the meat and cut or tear into large chunks. Remove the bay leaves at this point too. Discard the skin and bones. (I actually had started some broth from the neck and gizzard when I started the rest so I just added the bones to that pot and simmered through dinner to make a decent couple of cups of broth to freeze. That's why the site is called CheapCooking! )

Mix the cream of whatever soup in and add the chicken chunks. Let the soup continue to simmer.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, parsley, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Add the milk and blend. Drop the dough by small spoonfulls into the simmering broth. Do NOT stir at this point, they say, or the dumplings will break apart. Just tilt the pot and move it in a circular motion to get the broth around all the dumplings so they cook as separate pieces. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or so. I suspect the timing is not crucial.

My girls gave this a 5 star rating (and we usually only go up to 3 stars: one for each of us!).