Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Garam Grahams
March 17, 2020 at 10:29 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Boy– a lot has happened in a week! The restaurant I cook for in the now-ghost town of NYC is closed, and while my job is 86’d for the time being, I am thankful to be healthy and will try to put my self-isolated energy into some long-neglected household organization projects, as well as some more fun cooking and baking stuff. I’ll start here….with cinnamon and honey and earthy notes of cumin and coriander, these Garam Grahams ride the line between sweet and savory and are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book. Like the last time we made graham crackers, these are speedily whizzed together in the food processor. Unlike the last time we made them, though these have garam masala and black pepper for a funky Indian-ish twist. Sounds weird, but tastes good.
They’re finished off with a dusting of sugar, salt and pepper before going into the oven. I don’t know if you can really tell from the photo, but I used a coarse gold sanding sugar to give them a bit of Bollywood sparkle. I think they go as well with wine or beer as they do with a cup of chai or coffee…whichever best helps calm anxious nerves.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us anytime!
Everyday Dorie: Ginger Fried Rice
March 13, 2020 at 4:03 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 7 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory
This Ginger Fried Rice is a quick and tasty homemade version of a favorite take-out treat. In fact it’s better, because it’s fresher, less greasy and has more veggies. If you have some leftover cooked rice, this is a great way to use it up, along with those stray bits of this and that you might like to clear out of the icebox. Dorie says it’s a good recipe for fridge-raiders, a group I normally belong to, although in this particular case I did need to go out and get some stuff.
I went with Dorie’s suggestions for onions, garlic, baby bok choy and shrimp. I took a total cheat on the cabbage and carrots and bought a bag of coleslaw mix, which contained both and saved me the step of having to thinly slice them. Egg is a must in my fried rice (in fact if I order it out, I usually ask for extra egg), so I pre-scrambled a couple of them before getting along with the rest or the stir fry.
There’s a kick of fresh grated ginger, of course, to flavor the dish, but also a sweet and spicy sauce of ponzu, gochujang and honey. I don’t have any poznu in the fridge, but I do have soy and bottled yuzu juice, so I used a mix of that. I actually have to admit that I never measure anything for a sauce like this. I just get the general idea and then add the ingredients to taste. My taste buds told me this needed some sesame oil, so I added that to my sauce, too.
This is one I’ll make over and over again. 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: Balsamic Chicken with Baby Potatoes and Mushrooms (Sheet-Pan Supper)
February 28, 2020 at 8:45 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 6 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
Balsamic Chicken with Baby Potatoes and Mushrooms is a recipe that’s right up my alley. I make some sort of sheet pan supper or tray bake with chicken thighs or sausages and veg quite often. It’s easy (basically hands off after you toss everything together), there’s little to wash up and, my gosh, is roasted stuff good.
Here, you toss together little potatoes, mushrooms, garlic cloves and a shallot with thyme, rosemary, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and s&p. Scatter that stuff over a sheet tray and then do the same with some chicken legs, nestling them among the veggies. Then it’s everyone in the oven for 45 minutes while you have a glass of red wine and a snack. I actually just used chicken thighs and not legs (with drumsticks attached) for this. And I didn’t oil the thighs before I put them on the tray. I simply seasoned them and coated them in the vinegar, because I feel like chicken thighs render out quite a lot of fat on their own. I did go into the oven at the halfway point to turn the mushrooms and potatoes, but I put the chicken on the tray skin side up and left it that way for the whole bake to get a sweet and crispy skin.
This was really good. I’m glad my husband isn’t into noticeable garlic pieces because, to me, the whole roasted cloves were a prize. I squeezed them out onto my plate and mixed the sweet garlic goo into everything else. Yum.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Chickpea-Tahini Salad
February 14, 2020 at 8:08 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, salads, savory things | 9 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, salad, savory
Happy Valentine’s Day– nothing says “I love you” like a salad! I’m really not kidding, especially if it’s a super-tasty one, like this Chickpea-Tahini Salad. Quick and easy to make (if you use canned chickpeas like I did) and really flavorful, this is my kind of lunch. Just take chickpeas, red onion, red pepper and herbs and mix them up in a lemony, garlicky tahini dressing with all the good spices. Grab a fork and enjoy.
I scaled back the recipe to use just one can of chickpeas. Even so, I had leftovers, and the next day I mixed in some canned tuna, celery and cherry tomatoes. Also yum, and my extra dressing was great drizzled all over a shawarma-ish chicken and Israeli salad pita sandwich thingie I made for dinner the other night.
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: Pasta with Cabbage, Winter Squash and Walnuts
January 24, 2020 at 9:49 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, pasta, savory things, veggies | 5 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, pasta, savory
The first bowl of pasta we made this month from Everyday Dorie was a bright, fresh, herbaceous thing. Our second– this Pasta with Cabbage, Winter Squash and Walnuts– is the cozy kind that begs for a glass of red wine by the fire. It’s vegetarian (although I couldn’t help but think some crispy bacon sprinkles would be a pretty good addition), and not heavy, but the flavors and ingredients definitely have the cold weather vibe. I used delicata squash and swapped out the green cabbage for a small bunch of lacinato kale.
Like the first pasta, this one is glazed rather than sauced. Here, the glaze is a sweet and sour agrodolce that’s simply made with honey and cider vinegar in the pan the veggies are cooked in. Dried cranberries give the dish another sweet-tart dimension and toasted walnuts at the finish give it some crunch. I liked this very much, and appreciate that the strong veggie to pasta ratio…just enough spaghetti to twirl around your fork, but the focus is really on the squash and cabbage.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Pasta with Shrimp, Squash, Lemon and Lots of Herbs
January 10, 2020 at 8:25 pm | Posted in everyday dorie, groups, pasta, savory things | 7 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, pasta, savory
Some nights after work I come home and do a throw-together pasta situation for dinner. Not a long-simmered Sunday sauce, but quickly cooked odds and ends from the fridge that will all taste good together mixed up with with some noodles. This Pasta with Shrimp, Squash, Lemon and Lots of Herbs is along those lines. I had to go out and get a zucchini to make it, but I had all the other stuff on hand…some shrimp in the freezer, lemon, herbs and butter in the fridge and cherry tomatoes on the counter. I actually had some homemade pappardelle in the freezer that I was looking to use up, but if I hadn’t, I would have just grabbed a box of dried pasta from the cupboard.
I’m always scheming to save steps and (especially) save cleaning a dish or two. Rather than cooking off the shrimp and zucchini separately as the recipe calls for, I started with the squash and then added the shrimp in with it near the end of cooking, just before finishing the “sauce” (really more of a buttery glaze) with the rest of the ingredients and marrying it with the cooked pasta. This was delicious–fresh and not heavy. It will be great in the summer when the squash, tomatoes and herbs are at their peak but it was a nice, bright winter surprise, too.
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 DC: Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies
January 7, 2020 at 8:26 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
I buy rice cakes on the regular and usually use them as a vehicle for hummus, nut butter or smashed avo, but it had never really occurred to me that I could make my own version, with add-ins so tasty I could enjoy them just on their own. To be fair, these are Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies, not merely rice cakes, and they have a lot going on, even though they come together in a snap once you have all the ingredients. I was sort of hemming and hawing about having to buy both a bag of puffed rice and a bag of puffed barley, as the recipe calls for…then I spotted a box of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs, decided seven grains would be even better than two, and went with that instead. I stirred in sesame seeds, cashews (instead of peanuts) and a mix of dries berries and raisins, along with the miso, brown rice syrup and sesame and olive oils. They bake in muffin cups into light, crispy-chewy, sweet-salty little rounds. No bland or stale rice cakes here!
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Sweet and Smoky Roasted Carrots
December 27, 2019 at 9:12 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, veggies | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, vegetables
I’m always looking for easy and tasty side dishes to go along with something simple like roasted chicken thighs. Turn the oven on and I’m basically done with dinner. Haha. These Sweet and Smoky Roasted Carrots fit that bill nicely. Take carrots, toss them in a smoky-spicy cider vin dressing with paprika, cumin, cayenne and a drizzle of honey. Roast ’em up and pile them on a plate with a swoop of Greek yogurt and any extra dressing. Veggies and sauce all set!
These carrots would make a great side dish, but this batch I had for lunch. My greenmarket had some small rainbow carrots and I thought they’d be cute and colorful here. I sprinkled them with some smoked almonds (which I’m kind of addicted to) for a bit of extra toasty oomph. Something I really like about this recipe is that you can take the technique and play around with the dressing ingredients/flavorings to suit your tastes or to suit your particular meal.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Gingered-Turkey Meatball Soup
December 13, 2019 at 5:09 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, soups | 6 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, soup
Gingered-Turkey Meatball Soup is just right for the cold, grey, rainy stuff that’s going on where I live right now. It’s not quite as speedy as some of these “everyday” recipes we’ve been making, but if you have a bit of extra time, or if you can make the meatballs in advance, you’ll wind up with a pot full of super satisfying soup– healthy, filling and warm.
I had read comments that the recipe calls for more broth than is really needed, but I was only cooking up two portions’ worth, so I just eyeballed what I needed to cook and serve everything up for that smaller amount. I did make the full recipe of the meatballs though, which are cooked right in the broth, and what I didn’t use for soup, I used in a rice and veg bowl with Korean BBQ sauce another night.
I added lots of veggies to my soup…baby bok choy, choy sum, sweet potatoes and shimeji mushrooms, plus green chili and cilantro. Rather than the rice noodles called for in the recipe, I sliced into noodle-ish strips some egg wonton wrappers I’d had in the freezer for longer than I can remember. I liked a big glug of rice vinegar and sesame oil at the end.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Smoky, Cheesy Cookies
November 19, 2019 at 8:50 pm | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cheese, cookies, savory
I’m really enjoying the “cocktail cookies” section of Dorie’s Cookies. Not that I could ever OD on sweets or anything, but it’s also nice to have a salty snack to go with a glass of wine or a green salad. These Smoky, Cheesy Cookies are like cheese and crackers in one. They have sharp cheddar and smoked gouda (or smoked mozzarella, in my case) and some cayenne pepper to give them a little zip. Similar to the Parmesan Galettes we made last month, this dough is made in the food processor. These are roll-out cookies rather than slice-and-bake, though, and they seem a bit sturdier…more crispy and flaky than delicate and sandy.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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