Everyday Dorie: Warm Squid Salad
February 2, 2024 at 4:45 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, salads, savory things | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
I eat a big salad most days; usually that means a hastily hacked up heap of lettuce, cuckes, tomatoes, and whatever other veggies I find rummaging through the fridge. This Warm Squid Salad is a little more refined and prepared with a bit more intention than those…a “weekend salad,” perhaps I’d say. I enjoyed making a pretty plate of quick-cooked squid, boiled baby potatoes, slices of avocado, celery and red onion, cherry tomato and bell pepper in a citrus dressing. I enjoyed eating it, too. I don’t cook squid often, but it was super easy to just give it a quick simmer. Also, it required basically no preparation since my fish guy sells it already cleaned. I like the tentacles the best (is that gross?), so I asked for extras. With the light dressing, this felt very fresh and healthy.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays (this is a make-up recipe for me) to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives
January 26, 2024 at 7:28 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
This Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives isn’t the most photogenic dish I’ve made, but I guess not everything needs to wind up on my IG feed. Sometimes it’s nice to not sweat the photo and just enjoy what you’ve made, especially when it’s so tasty.
The “real” version of this dish is made with lamb shanks, but I modified it for my own dietary preferences (aka weirdnesses) by using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I first browned them off and then removed the skin for the braising portion of the cooking, which also included onions, carrots and oil-cured black olives, a head of garlic and a can of tomatoes. I flavored my braise with rosemary like the recipe said, but I can see lots of different herbs, spices or blends working well here, depending on what you have or what cuisine/culture you feel like “visiting.” I only oven-braised the chicken thighs for about 45 minutes, as I didn’t think they needed the full time the lamb shanks would have. Lifting the lid off the braiser, I had moist chicken, soft carrots and a nice stewy mix…a perfect winter dinner. I’m looking forward to giving the leftovers the treatment Dorie suggests– shredding the meat and serving it and the sauce over pasta. Or maybe over polenta?
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Spinach-Mozzarella Pie with Parm Crumble
January 23, 2024 at 5:31 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, pies & tarts, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
If you’re wondering how to get cheese and custard and green stuff and pastry all in one dish, the answer is a Spinach-Mozzarella Pie with Parm Crumble! What we have here is basically a spinach quiche dotted with cubes of mozzarella and topped off with a Parmesan-loaded crumble. It’s salty and cheesy and textured and great warm or room temp for any meal of the day.
Last year, I tested the recipes for an upcoming savory baking cookbook and I’ve had an empty par-baked pie shell sitting in the freezer ever since. I almost never bake a full-sized pie for the two of us, but I’ve been itching to reclaim that freezer space (and that pie plate), so when this recipe was nominated, I decided to use the crust here. It’s different than Dorie’s flaky crust, in that it’s a press-in situation with a shortcrust texture, and it’s also in a standard-sized plate instead of a deep dish, but it worked out well in this pie by slightly scaling back the custard amount. Another thing I had in the freezer from those testing days was an almost-full bag of frozen spinach, so I pulled that out, too. Rather than wilting down and squeezing fresh spinach, I thawed the frozen stuff and squeezed the heck out of it before adding it to my sautéed aromatics. Technically, my spinach-to-custard ratio was a bit higher than Dorie’s because I wanted to use up all the spinach that was in the bag. My filling was more like creamy greens and lacked a separate quiche-like layer, but more green stuff is always fine with me. Also, I like a bit of heat, so I added some pepper flake to the filling.
After the spinach mixture and the creamy custard are inside the par-baked shell, on went cubes of mozzarella and lots of parm crumble, and then it was into the oven. I only made 3/4 of the crumble and it still seemed plenty to cover the pie. We’ve had this with a salad the last couple of nights for dinner, and since I made a full-sizer, we can have it for a couple of lunches, too.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Chunky Citrus Cornmeal Cake
January 9, 2024 at 10:42 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Dorie’s Chunky Lemon Cornmeal Cake is a sunny loaf, getting color and flavor from cornmeal, lemon zest, chopped up lemon segments and sumac. I happened to notice a few bags of cute, tiny, bright orange calamansi at my neighborhood grocer. I’ve only ever come across calamansi here as frozen juice at some of the Asian grocery stores, so I snapped up a bag. Even though I didn’t have any plans for them, I like to be sure to buy things that I don’t normally see on the shelves so my store knows people are interested.
I sat on the calamansi in the fridge for a few days and then thought I could use them in this cake. Prep was super easy, since you can eat the whole fruit…they have thin, sweet skins with almost no pith and puckery, tart insides. I simply quartered each calamansi, popped out any seeds or membrane I found and used them in the simple one-bowl cake batter just like that. I left out the sumac, but I had about a tablespoon and a half of spiced sugar left from some holiday cookies and I sprinkled that on top of the cake batter before I put it in the oven for a little crust.
This was so tasty with the little pops of calamansi and it stayed fresh for several days. I loved the color and the texture (just a bit gritty from the cornmeal) and was super pleased when I cut into the cake.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Everyday Dorie: Honey-Mustard Salmon Rillettes
January 5, 2024 at 4:14 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, snacks | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
Up next in my Cook the Book Fridays catch-up series is a fairly recent recipe that I’m not sure why I skipped– Honey-Mustard Salmon Rillettes. Laziness is the likely answer. Rillettes are a spread, traditionally made with shedded pork confit. I don’t eat pork, but a salmon twist is right up my alley. This concoction uses both poached fresh and smoked salmon, mayo, mustard, honey and herbs, as well as a few other flavorings, smushed up till spreadable, but still with some texture. What to spread my rillettes on? Toasted bread or crackers would do, but bagel chips seemed to be a natural fit for this version. I made this recipe as part of our new year’s snackathon. Happy new year!
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Umami Burgers
December 29, 2023 at 4:08 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: burger, burgers, everyday dorie, savory
Cook the Book Fridays is closing the cover on Everyday Dorie at the end of February. I’d say I can’t believe there are only four recipes left, but really, I have another handful that I skipped along the way but would still like to make before I put the book on the shelf. I’m going to try and cover these on our group “off weeks.” One is the Umami Burger, which I actually made and photographed in time for the October 2021 posting, but then I just never wrote about it. Sometimes the hardest part about being a flood blogger is the actual blogging.
I don’t eat beef so I made this one with ground turkey instead. The meat is mixed up with sautéed chopped mushrooms and onions (plus breadcrumbs in my case, because I find turkey always needs a bit of binder) and seasoned with oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and gochujang. Giving ground turkey this flavor-packed treatment is actually perfect, since it can use an umami-boost to make it taste more burgery. I rarely have hamburger buns at home, and actually often just eat my burgers as dressed patties sans bread, but I put these between sourdough slathered with gochujang mayo. Yum- one to be repeated, especially now that I’ve been reminded of it.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to go back in time and see how the group liked these.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Free-Style Mushroom, Herb and Ricotta Tart
December 26, 2023 at 4:02 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Having “free-style” in the name of this Free-Style Mushroom, Herb and Ricotta Tart, to me, implies a certain ease… something that can just be tossed together on a whim. Turns out “free-style” is more about the amorphous shape of the crust and the casual-looking fashion with which it is topped than it is about throwing together a tart from this or that in like five minutes. The base of this tart, which is called a Raggedy-Edged Almond-Herb Crust is actually a large format cracker that can be whatever shape it rolls out to be. Bake the crust and you can turn off the oven. After it cools, it’s topped with made in advance components: an herby ricotta spread, sautéed mushrooms with more herbs and a poof of seasoned micro greens. The crust has the delicate, buttery crumb of a shortbread, and, although it cut nicely for me with a sharp knife, I had to turn my “slice” into smaller pieces to eat as snacky finger food…it didn’t seem like a fork was right utensil for the job. All of these things were delicious and flavorful, so I enjoyed this, although I’d also be totally happy to free-style the ricotta and mushrooms on just a thick slice of toasted sourdough.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Seafood Pasta
December 22, 2023 at 5:17 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, pasta, savory things | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, pasta, savory
Our Christmas Eve dinner tradition is to go to the Feast of the Seven Fishes at my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, Romans. You’ll find me there this Sunday, but if I wanted to tackle the feast at home, I’d surely make this Seafood Pasta…it knocks out three of seven right off the bat (maybe four if clam juice counts, but I’m not sure it does). This pasta is dressed in a tomato sauce enriched with slow-braised squid, wine and the aforementioned clam juice, which actually I didn’t feel like buying. I added a couple of anchovies and a bit of their oil to the sautéed onion and garlic at the beginning stages of sauce-building for a bit of extra salty fishiness. Then I used a some water later in the game to make up for the missing liquid the clam juice would have provided. Chunks of a firm fish (I went with opah) and shrimp are added at the end of the braise, just to cook through, before tossing with the pasta. Another Italian place in my neighborhood has a retail counter up front where they sell various freshly-made pasta shapes, one of them being the long, curly noodles called mafaldine that Dorie used, so I picked up a packet to boil here. Wow- this was so flavorful and all the seafood was cooked perfectly. It’s a totally luxurious pasta dish for holiday season.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Iced, Spiced Hermits
December 12, 2023 at 10:57 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, holiday
What’s hiding inside the cookie tin? Hermits! These Iced, Spiced Hermits are old fashioned, chewy molasses-spice cookies with raisins (or another dried fruit), baked as a log and then sliced up. You can actually hide them away because they’re good keepers, but if people know they’re in the tin, they’ll disappear fast. I brought them to my college’s NYC alum holiday party, and there weren’t any left to bring back home. Very satisfying.
I made the hermits a couple of years ago as well (the below photo). Both times I soaked the raisins in a bit of rum for a few hours before making the dough and set aside the strained-off booze to use in the glaze drizzle. Both times I also added festive sprinkles…who knew a hermit could be so charming?
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Christiane’s Dinner-Party Terrine
December 8, 2023 at 9:50 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
When I think of a terrine, I think of chunks of pork or duck and pistachios held together in aspic jelly…not my speed. Imagine my delight to discover that Christiane’s Dinner Party Terrine is a veggie and egg situation, more like a crustless quiche than a meat and nut terrazzo floor. Here, an egg custard with bits of scallion, red pepper and herbs gets baked in a loaf pan and sliced terrine-style.
The recipe uses nine eggs and calls for an amount of heavy cream that, for me, is reserved pretty much only for sweet treats like ice cream or eggnog. I decided to cut it back to five eggs (and use a smaller pan) and replace about two-thirds of the cream with milk. The finished custard, baked in a water bath, was still plenty silky, and the smaller loaf took less time in the oven to set.
With no plans to throw a dinner party this week, I enjoyed slices of terrine with the suggested raw tomato and herb sauce and some salad for lunch during the week.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Baked Fresh Weekly
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.
a whisk and a spoon 