Roasted Sweet Pepper Rolls with Caper-Pinenut Stuffing

June 10, 2013 by Mackenzie

Indonesia cooking marathon #2 occurred Sunday! We cooked and baked all afternoon, in their hot, unair-conditioned kitchen – and had a blast! The menu was a bit of everything and it turned into a delicious meal!

The main dish was roasted sweet pepper rolls with caper-pinenut stuffing, served with a garlic cream sauce, lemon risotto and sugar snaps. These sweet peppers were QUITE a process but I really enjoyed them in the end – and I always love a good cooking challenge! The lemon risotto has a separate post because it was quite outstanding and thus, deserves its own post! On the other hand, the garlic cream sauce wasn’t all that great – and the dish would have been fine without it – so I’m not even going to include it here. The sugar snaps were just barely steamed, but added a great crunchy texture to the dish. Overall, recipe #1 of this marathon was a success!

Roasted Sweet Pepper Rolls with Caper-Pinenut Stuffing
Recipe from The Cafe Paradiso Cookbook
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup capers
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
fresh parsley, chopped
Black pepper, to taste
6 red or yellow peppers

Serve with risotto and sugar snaps

Directions:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion has softened, about 5 minutes. Add cream and mustard and bring mixture to a boil, the reduce the heat and let simmer for about five minutes to thicken. Allow sauce to cool, then stir in pine nuts, capers, breadcrumbs, and parsley. Season with black pepper.

2. Meanwhile, roast the peppers in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until blistered. Remove from oven and place in a large bowl and cover with a plate to allow them to steam and the skins to begin to peel off. After 5 minutes, remove the rest of the peel and slice peppers in half.

3. To stuff the peppers, place a few teaspoons of filling on the edge of each pepper and carefully roll it up. Place the pepper, seam side down, on a baking dish and repeat with all the peppers. Brush lightly with olive oil and bake at 350 for ten minutes.

4. While peppers are baking, steam the sugar snaps for 3-4 minutes, just barely cooking them. Serve the peppers with lemon risotto (next post) and sugar snaps!

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

June 10, 2013 by Mackenzie

Although there are some amazing restaurants here in Jakarta, Mexican food is a rare find. I find this is quite tragic because I love Mexican food – ah, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Well, to solve this dilemma, we made enchiladas for dinner last Friday and boy, were they good! We combined several recipes to make these – an old enchilada sauce recipe that Tom had, a Rick Bayless enchilada recipe, Grandma Olga’s enchiladas and our own creative whims 😉 They turned out exactly how we wanted them and our Mexican cravings were satisfied.

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas
Recipe adapted mostly from Rick Bayless
Makes one 9×13, serving 8-10

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:
4 14oz cans tomatoes, drained
2 green chilies
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cups vegetable stock

Directions:

In a small skillet, char 2 green chilies until black over medium heat. Place in a blender, whole, with the drained canned tomatoes and blend until smooth. Transfer to a large pot, add spices and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer and reduce for 30-40 minutes, until it reaches a soupy consistency. Then, add 1-2 cups vegetable stock and again, simmer for 30 minutes or so, until it reaches a pizza sauce consistency.

Black Beans

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups black beans, soaked overnight and cooked for 2 hours in water
Same spices as above

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a medium fry pan and add onion and garlic. Cook for five minutes until onions are softened. Add spices in same proportions as enchilada sauce. Add black beans and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 recipe for enchilada sauce, above
1 recipe for black beans, above
1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded
16 flour or corn tortillas, 8-inch, warmed in the microwave so they are more pliable
Mexican cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 1/4 of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 glass baking dish. Then mix in some of the enchilada sauce with the chicken.

2. Take one tortilla, spoon a couple tablespoons of sauce down the middle, then some black beans, some chicken and some cheese. Roll one side over the filling and tuck it under then roll it up and place seam side down in the pan. Repeat with all tortillas or as many as you can fit in the baking dish.

3. When all the enchiladas are prepared, spread the remaining enchilada sauce over the top and cover with cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Deep Dish Apple Pie

May 26, 2013 by Mackenzie

Sunday was quite the day in the kitchen! Not only did we make this gnocchi in tomato vegetable sauce, this roasted beets and root vegetable salad with quinoa, homemade granola, and focaccia bread – but we also made this deep dish apple pie! And my oh my, what a pie!

I’ve made quite a few apple pies in my time. Apple pie is a staple at our Thanksgiving and it’s probably one of my favorite desserts – so I’ve made a fair amount of apple pies! However, I believe this pie has easily defeated any of its other competitors – in sheer size and of course, deliciousness.

This pie is made in a springform pan instead of a regular pie dish, which allows this pie to be deep and the filling to be almost double a normal-sized pie. Because it is such a large pie, it takes quite a while to bake – about an hour and a half – but the wait is more than worth it!

Although it is quite the pie, it isn’t too heavy since the top is just a streusel crumble rather than a second layer of pie crust. I added rolled oats to the streusel because one, I love oats, and two, it gave it an apple crisp twist – which is another apple dessert that I love.

Deep Dish Apple Pie
Serves 12-16
Recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Pie dough:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and diced
1/2 cup ice cold water

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add the diced butter and pulse just until you have pea-sized pieces of dough. Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Drizzle the water over the dry mixture and work it together with your hands. Knead briefly then form into a large disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for two hours.

Apple pie:

Ingredients:

1 recipe of above pie crust

Filing:
4 lbs apples, 1/2 green apples and 1/2 Fuji apples
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Streusel topping:
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoon butter, melted

Vanilla ice cream

Directions:

1. Prepare crust: coat a 9-inch springform pan with oil. On a floured surface, roll out chilled pie crust into a 16-inch round – 1/4 inch think. My trick to getting a rolled out pie crust into the pan is to roll it back over the rolling pin and then slide your arm under it and then you should be able to lift the whole thing up and transfer it to the springform pan! Trim the overhang to one inch, crimp edges and then place the dish into the fridge while you prepare the apples.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core and chop apples into bite-sized pieces. Place them all into a large bowl and drizzle with the lemon juice. In a separate small bowl, whisk the sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and then mix into apples.

3. Spoon apples into prepared crust and spread them as flat and evenly as possible. Bake pie for 30 minutes (if the tips of the apples begin to brown and burn, cover the top with foil).

4. While pie is baking, make the streusel topping. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, cinnamon, salt, flour, oats and baking powder. Pour in the melted butter and mix to combine. Stick in freezer until pie has baked for 30 minutes.

5. After 30 minutes, remove the pie from the oven, decrease the oven temperature to 325 and then spoon the streusel onto the top of the pie – pressing gently into apples. Return to the oven and bake for an additional hour. Cover with foil if the streusel begins to brown too quickly.

6. When the pie has finished baking, remove it from the oven and let cool to lukewarm. Run a knife around the crust to loosen the edges from the pan. Carefully loosen the clamp on the springform and slide it over the top and off the pie. The pie slices best when chilled in the fridge, but warm pie and ice cream just can’t be beat. Take your pick and enjoy this tall and proud creation!

Roasted Beet and Root Vegetable Salad with Quinoa

May 26, 2013 by Mackenzie

We made this salad to accompany the Gnocchi in Tomato Vegetable Sauce from the other night. This recipe was also from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and again, she gave us another great recipe!

The highlight of this salad are the beets – as you can see, their brilliant color makes this dish both eye-catching and mouth-watering! The one significant change we made was doubling the quinoa so there was a more even ratio of vegetables to quinoa, which made it more of a salad than purely a vegetable side dish. In the end, that was a great choice and we loved every bit of it!

Beet and Root Vegetable Salad with Quinoa
Serves 4-5
Recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients:

Salad:
1 cup uncooked plain quinoa, rinsed
Coarse salt
3 small shallots
Olive oil
1 1/2 lbs mixed root vegetables (radishes, turnips, parsnips, mixed beets, carrots…), as small as you can find them, scrubbed, trimmed and halved to be one to one and a half-inch cubes or so
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 big pinches of coarse salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Prepare quinoa: bring the quinoa and 2 cups salted water to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until quinoa has absorbed water – may be longer with more quinoa. Set aside.

3. Roast vegetables: while quinoa cooks, prepare the vegetables. Peel shallots and separate cloves. Make a small foil packet and place the shallots inside, drizzling them with olive oil. Place on a rack in the oven to begin roasting them.

Meanwhile, coat a baking sheet with olive oil and place the root vegetables in a single layer on the sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the lemon juice all over and sprinkle generously with salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes in oven, then flip the vegetables and roast for an additionally 10 minutes.

4. Prepare vinaigrette: when vegetables are done, remove them from the oven and set aside. Remove the shallots from the foil packet and place in a blender with the sherry and balsamic vinegars and two pinches of salt and some pepper. Drizzle in some olive oil and blend.

5. To assemble: spoon the quinoa onto a platter and arrange the beets on top. Drizzle entire dish with vinaigrette and serve immediately.

Gnocchi in Tomato Vegetable Sauce

May 26, 2013 by Mackenzie

Well, here I am in Indonesia! I’m spending six weeks living with my aunt and uncle, doing an internship with Standard Chartered Bank and experiencing the rich culture of this country! I’ve been here just over a week and have had a phenomenal time thus far – but that explains my absence from posting recipes: I’ve been too busy trying indonesian food, working long days and playing golf in some pretty intense heat and humidity.

But, tonight – Uncle Tom and I made quite a feast and I’ll have plenty to post over the next couple of days. First, the main dish – gnocchi in tomato vegetable sauce.

I’ve never made gnocchi before but have enjoyed it when I have ordered it at restaurants. We found the recipe in the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, which I brought with me to give to my aunt and uncle because I enjoy the book so much! The recipe was is bit time consuming but not too difficult, didn’t require any special tools and turned out FANTASTIC!

We made a couple changes to the original recipe, the most significant being that we did not strain out the vegetables from the tomato broth but rather, left them in to make the broth more of a pasta sauce. That was definitely a key decision and took this dish to the next level.

It was fantastic and will definitely be made again soon!

Gnocchi in Tomato Vegetable Broth
Serves 4-5
Recipe adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients:

Tomato sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 medium carrots, halved and diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine
One 28oz can of stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped plus more for garnish
2 cups vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Parmesan, shredded for garnish

Gnocchi:
2 lbs russet potatoes, about three
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 to 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Bake potatoes: preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash, scrub, and pierce each potato several times. Bake for about one hour – until a thin knife can slide through potato easily. Meanwhile, prepare tomato sauce.

2. Tomato sauce: heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add carrots and onions and cook for five minutes, reducing heat if they begin to brown. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Next, add the wine and cook until it has reduced by half – about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, basil and stock and let simmer for about 45 minutes, to reduce and thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. Gnocchi: let potatoes cool for 30 minutes or so, after baking. Then, peel and grate them over the large holes of a grater. Let cool to lukewarm then add the egg and salt, mixing to combine. Next, add the flour, a half cup at a time, until the dough comes together and does not stick easily to your hands. (We had to add quite a bit of flour, but we also had used four potatoes – which could have made the difference) Knead the dough briefly for about a minute then divide into quarters.

4. On a floured surface, take one quarter of the dough and begin to roll it into a long rope. The rope got quite long, so it was easier for us to use two sets of hands to roll it out – see if someone can help you here! Roll it to about 3/4 inches thick and then cut into 3/4 inch pieces, little pillows 🙂 Place the pillows onto a cookie sheet and repeat the rolling and cutting until all the dough is prepared. If you have time, place the cookie sheet with the pillows in the refrigerator for about an hour to firm up. You can also freeze them at this point.

5. To cook: bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, begin reheating the tomato sauce at a low temperature on the stove. Place about 20 gnocchi into the boiling water and cook for 2-4 minutes, supposedly until they float but ours never did (and turned out fine – I don’t think you can over cook them so letting them cook an extra minute is fine). Drain the gnocchi in a strainer.

6. Assemble: using a ladle, pour one to one and a half cups of tomato sauce into a wide, individual bowls. Place 10-15 gnocchi on top and garnish with basil and shredded parmesan. Serve immediately.

Lemon Couscous Salad with Asparagus and Tomatoes

May 15, 2013 by Mackenzie

I made this salad to go along with the caprese grilled chicken on Saturday night from my last post. My family and I love asparagus so this was a fun, new way to serve it. The lemon juice made it light and summery and the fresh asparagus and tomatoes helped cap off this healthy side dish.

Ingredients:
6 oz whole wheat pearl couscous
3/4 lb thin asparagus spears, tough ends snapped off
1 tomato, diced
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1 large lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Boil a large pot of salted water. Add asparagus and cook until tender, 3-4 minutes. Using tongs, remove the asparagus from the water and in a strainer, run cold water over them to stop them from cooking.

2. Cook couscous according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water when finished cooking.

3. While couscous is cooking, chop the asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces. Add the tomatoes. Add the cooked couscous, red onion, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley and salt and pepper. Mix it up and then refrigerate for 15 minutes or until chilled. You can serve it room temperature, but I liked it best chilled.

« Previous Page

Mackenzie

A Look Back