Alton Brown's Blueberry Buckle

I saw a post that said this recipe was Alton Brown's best recipe ever. As a lover of superlatives, I had to try it. Everyone here raved about it! I might even try buying cake flour to try that with it next time! This time I used 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 cornstarch mixed together as a substitute and it came out well.

Blueberry Buckle

From Alton Brown

FOR THE TOPPING

• 3 1/2 ounces sugar
• 1 1/2 ounces cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cubed and chilled)

FOR THE CAKE

• 9 ounces cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (left at room temperature for 30 minutes (or until instant-read thermometer stuck into the middle reads about 60 degrees F))
• 5 1/4 ounces sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 15 ounces fresh blueberries

MAKE THE TOPPING

1. Combine the sugar, flour and nutmeg in a small bowl then work in the butter, using a fork to combine. Keep “forking” until the mixture has a crumb-like texture. Set aside. (Note: If you have a pastry cutter, now’s the time to use it.)

MAKE THE CAKE

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch square GLASS baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Beat together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Reduce the speed a bit and thoroughly incorporate the egg. Reduce the speed to low (or “stir” on a Kitchenaid) and add one-third of the flour mixture. Once incorporated, add one-third of the milk then repeat alternating until all ingredients are combined.
4. Gently stir in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle on the topping mixture.
5. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes, or until golden. Cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Makes: 1 (9-inch) Cake

Ottolenghi and Tami's baby spinach salad with Dates and Almonds

This salad came highly recommended and it uses many things we already have, plus we had some leftover pita to use up. It is good! Worth even purchasing pita bread for!

Ottolenghi and Tami's baby spinach salad with Dates and Almonds

From Ottolenghi

Ingredients

1 tablespoon wine vinegar

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

3 1/2 ounces dates (100 grams), preferably Medjool, pitted and quartered lengthwise (add more if you're so inclined)

Salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (30 grams)

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 small pitas (about 3 1/2 ounces, or 100 grams), roughly torn into 1 1/2 -inch pieces

1/2 cup whole unsalted almonds (75 grams), coarsely chopped (I used slivered almonds and added them to the pan with the pita for about 1 minute.)

2 teaspoons sumac

1/2 teaspoon chile flakes

5 to 6 ounces baby spinach leaves (150 grams) (I substituted arugula for this and it was good)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

 

Preparation

•      Put vinegar, onion and dates in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and mix well with your hands. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes, then drain any residual vinegar and discard. (It didn't have any residual liquid.)


•     Meanwhile, heat butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add pita and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring all the time, until pita is golden. Add almonds and continue cooking until pita is crunchy and browned and almonds are toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and mix in sumac, chile flakes and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside to cool.
•     When ready to serve, toss spinach leaves with pita mix in a large mixing bowl. Add dates and red onion, remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, the lemon juice and another pinch of salt. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.

 

Sugar Cookies

We made these for Easter and they were pretty good, I made sure to leave them thick and they stayed soft in the middle. I didn't have meringue powder and don't like to use raw eggs in royal icing so I just mixed powdered sugar and water together and we iced the cookies with that.


Sugar Cookies

From A Touch of Thyme

Ingredients:

For the sugar cookie:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

For the icing:

- Powdered Sugar and Water

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Turn the mixer to low and add the baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.
3. Form dough into a ball and wrap dough tightly in plastic cling wrap and freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate until firm (at least 1 hour or overnight).
4. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
5. Remove dough from fridge and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
6. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼-inch thick. Cut out shapes using egg-shaped cookie cutters.
7. Transfer your cookies onto the cookie sheet, placing them 1 inch apart.
8. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
9. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes depending on thickness. Let it cool for 1 minute on the pan and then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Minestrone Soup

Like most people, I have been doing a lot more cooking than usual and our regular recipes have become tiresome. So I have started making new ones. This minestrone soup is pretty good! Just make sure the soup is otherwise done before adding in the pasta as it is better not overcooked.

Minestrone Soup

From Food Network

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1/3 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 28-ounce can no-salt-added diced tomatoes

1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I used water and 2-3 t. of veggie bullion for this)

1 15-ounce can low-sodium kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used white beans)

1 cup elbow pasta

1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (I forgot to add this in)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (I did not have this so omitted it)

Instructions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the celery and carrot and cook until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the green beans, dried oregano and basil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste; cook 3 more minutes.  
2. Add the diced and crushed tomatoes and the broth or water to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer 10 minutes or until veggies are almost tender and tomatoes seem cooked enough. Stir in the beans and pasta and cook until the pasta and vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt. Ladle into bowls and top with the parmesan and chopped basil.

Hakka Noodles

This is an Indo-Chinese dish we have enjoyed from time to time when visiting India. I tried to make it last night, I didn't have the right noodles, and also didn't get the frying right. When we've had it in restaurants, even the noodles were stir fried with a bit of black on them. Anyway it was OK and fairly easy to make, Mahesh liked it and the kids ate some.

Vegetable Hakka Noodless

From Cook with Manali

Ingredients

• 300 grams noodles -- I will look in the India store to find "Ching Hakka" noodles as the recipe requires, if I can't find those I might try to substitute angel hair pasta.
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 green chili, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium red onion, 100 grams, sliced
• 1 large carrot, 100 grams, sliced
• 1 large red pepper, 200 grams, sliced, can use mix of green and red
• 3 stalks green onion, chopped + more to garnish
• 2.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, or white vinegar
• 1 teapoon hot sauce, like sriracha
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar, optional
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• pinch white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon chili oil, optional 
•  
• INSTRUCTIONS:
• 1. Chop all the veggies before you start making the noodles.
  2. Boil the noodles according to instructions on the package. I was supposed to cook my noodles for 2 minutes only.
     
     
  3. Drain the noodles and wash under cold running water, this stops the cooking process. Add 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the noodles and toss so that the noodles get lightly coated with the oil and don’t stick to each other. Set it aside.
     
     
  4. In a wok heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot add the minced garlic and ginger, sliced green chili and chopped celery.
     
     
  5. Saute for few seconds until the ginger garlic starts to change color.
  6. Add sliced onions and saute for a minute or two until the sides of the onion starts turning light golden brown.
     
     
  7. Add in the sliced carrots, bell pepper, green onion and cook for 1 minute on high heat. The veggies should remain crunchy.
     
     
  8. Push veggies to the side, lower the heat and add soy sauce, rice vinegar, hot sauce (like sriracha) and sugar (if using).
     
     
  9. Toss the veggies to combine well with the sauce. Add in the black pepper, salt and white pepper.
  10. Stir in the boiled noodles. Using a pair of tongs, mix it well so that the noodles are well coated with the sauce.
      
      
  11. As a final touch, stir in a teaspoon of chili oil. This is totally optional. Toss the noodles well and garnish with more spring onion greens.
  12. Serve hakka noodles as such or with your favorite Indo chinese dishes! I love mine with chili paneer.
   

Ratatouille

This is a very good recipe!! But greasy. And it took a long time to cook. It was the first time I made ratatouille, I have barely even eaten it in the past. But we saw the movie and I wanted to try making it. I served it on pasta and all the kids ate it and liked it OK. I saw many other recipes online that were healthier but I wanted to make sure and make one the kids will eat for the first time. Next time I will try and cut back on oil and see how that goes.

Ratatouille

From the New York Times

Ingredients

• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 medium white onions
• 3 medium zucchini
• 2 medium eggplant
• 3 sweet red peppers, such as bell peppers, red cubanelle or any other sweet variety
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary (I used dried and fresh would have been better)
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup olive oil, more as needed
• 2 large heirloom or beefsteak tomatoes (I used a can of whole tomatoes and it worked fine)
• 2 small bay leaves, ripped in half
• 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt, more as needed
• Freshly ground black pepper 

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare the vegetables: Smash and peel 3 garlic cloves, reserving the 4th. Halve onions through their roots, and slice halves into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Slice zucchini into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Cut eggplant into 1-inch cubes or spears. Seed peppers, and cut them into 1/4-inch-thick strips.
3. Spread each vegetable on a separate rimmed baking sheet (use extra sheets as necessary). Add the 3 cloves of smashed garlic to the onion pan. Add 1 sprig rosemary and 2 sprigs thyme to each of the pepper, eggplant and zucchini pans. Sprinkle salt lightly over vegetables. Drizzle 3 tablespoons olive oil on each of the pans.
4. Place all the pans in the oven (or work in batches if they don’t fit at once). Cook until vegetables are very tender and lightly browned at the edges. This will take about 35 to 40 minutes for the peppers (their skins should shrivel), 40 to 45 minutes for the eggplant and zucchini (the eggplant should crisp slightly and the zucchini should be well cooked, so let them go 3 to 5 minutes longer than you normally might), and 60 to 65 minutes for the onions. Don’t worry about the vegetables being pretty; they will meld into the ratatouille. Shake or stir the pans every 15 to 20 minutes or so, especially the onions.
5. In the meantime, prepare the tomatoes: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add tomatoes and blanch until the skins split, about 10 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to quickly transfer the tomatoes to a bowl filled with ice water.
6. Using a paring knife, peel the cooled tomatoes (the skins should slip right off). Halve tomatoes across their equators. Set a sieve over a bowl. Working over the bowl, use your fingers to seed the tomatoes, letting the seeds catch in the sieve and the juice run into the bowl. Discard seeds but save juices. Dice tomatoes and add to the reserved juices in bowl.
7. Finely grate or mince remaining garlic clove. Add garlic to tomatoes along with bay leaves and a large pinch of salt. Set aside.
8. Once vegetables are done cooking, combine them on one baking sheet or a large shallow baking dish and add ingredients from tomato bowl. Toss well. Vegetables will be stacked, and that’s O.K. Cover generously with olive oil, using remaining ¼ cup oil or more, and sprinkle with salt. Everything should have a good coat of oil, but should not be drowning in it. Cook at least 1 hour, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes, until vegetables are very tender and imbued with juices and oil. Add salt and pepper to taste, then serve warm, or let cool.