A Light Supper

 Sometimes you don;t feel like eating a big dinner or supper. What do you eat then? A very light meal is always helpful.

As much as you want a  Ramen - which is good every now and then - you can always go with a fresh soup. It;s easy t create a veggie broth and then freeze it for the week. it starts with sauteing an onion and then adding tomatoes, green beans carrots, and garlic. it can be strained through a fine mesh to produce a clear broth . During the week add some pasta or rice to fill it out. Mini ravioli or tortellini can also be added too , just to vary it. A quick pasta is also a good and light meal. Nix the heavy tomato sauce and think pasta con burro, This is just pouring melted butter over pasta and then tossing it. A squirt of lemon would add some zing to it. A cold pasta salad would also work as a light dinner or supper. Stores like Acme sell turkey and ham chunks from their  deli counters. Add these to it along with grape tomatoes, olives, broccoli and cauliflower florets.Mix in olive oil, red wine vinegar and some oregano for a tasty dressing.

Eggs are also the perfect base for a light supper. The famed British chef Nigella Lawson is a big fan of these and has created several interesting ones. You could just have a simple one without anything added but you can also add interesting cheeses like cubes of Bries which would melt nicely or Gouda which would give the eggs a nicely salted flavor. You could also make the French classic omelet aux fine herbes. Add finely chopped parsley , chives and tarragon in in along with butter for a silky , smooth texture and rich buttery flavor. Scrambled eggs are also good too,. You can add  chopped tomatoes or shredded spinach or even leftover ham or bacon. Pile on buttered toast for a satisfying sandwich . Poached eggs or eggs Sunnyside up make for another easy light supper. This breakfast for dinner vibe is an easy cook and perfect with some buttered toast. Add a few slices of turkey bacon if you want something more substantial.

Too tired for a big meal? Then think a light supper or dinner after a hard day.It';s an easy cook and an easy eat.

New Year New Treats

 How better than to start a New Year than with new and fun recipes. You don't have to look far. It's right at your fingertips .

Yesterday's New York Times Food section had some great ideas for parties and the morning after  for this weekend.One of the highlights and it should be the highlight of  any New Year's dessert table is the Paris Brest- Claire Saffitz a regular contributor and author of may a baking cookbook gave the recipe. This is a grand choux pastry filled with a complicated pudding like creme of hazelnuts  almond butter , vanilla, eggs milk and butter. The sweet was created in honor fo the famed Paris-Brest bike race back in 1910 by Louis Durand.It's a spectacular choux pastry cake which is both light and filling along with being an elegant end . Serve it after a dinner of lobster, oysters and filet mignon.It will require a lot of work which should begin on New Year's Eve. For something a little less intensive J Kenji Lopex-Alt goes the Nigella Lawson route  wiht a comforting  and simple chestnut risotto followed by gaily colored cream cheese pound cake.The rice is topped with cremini mushrooms and cut onions and celery.Arborio or carnaroli rice is cooked with chestnuts and white miso. Sour cream is surprisingly added as a topping. dessert is moist pound cake topped with raspberry preserves and whipped cream. Freeze dried raspberries give the bright pop of color.

There's even a dish for the day after. start 2023 with Melissa Clark's mushroom butternut squash strata. Squash seems like an unusual ingredient to add to a breakfast dish , usually laden with bacon toast, eggs and cheese. Yet it works. She also adds a mix of different muishrooms such as cremini, white shiitake and oyster cut into chunks along with one and three quarter pounds of butternut squash (this has a lovely sweet flavor.)There are also eight large eggs for richness as well as  three quarters of a cup of heavy cream or two and three quarters cups of  half and half . Shallots and sage give it a burst of green along with flavor.Yes there is a cheese. Ms Calrk adds in three quarters of a cup fo Parmesan and two cups of shreded mozzarella. There is no meat in this. You can add red pepper flakes for some bite.Stratas require bread and there is a  cubed French bagutte , added for testure and flavor. The mushrooms, and shallots are cooked first . The liquids are mixed together  with the veggies being added to it. The last is the bread cubes and the whole batter is poured into a prepared pan to be baked at 350 degrees Farenheit for an hour. It's then set under the broiler for a few minutes for a crispy top,

Start 2023 with new recipes. They could be for an elegant dinner , a cozy supper or a restorative brunch. All are perfect with their flavors.

NIgella's Chocolate Christmas Cookies

 Nigella Lawson is a worldwide respected cook and cookbook author. You'd think her recipes were perfect. Unfortunately that was not the case with her chocolate Christmas cookies.

I had high hopes for this recipe. It came to me in her daily newsletter. It looked simple and yummy. 

These are some of the ingredients along with my new super big cookie spatula from Wilton. It was an easy enough recipe.I followed it to the letter.They're a chocolate shortbread, made with two and a quarter sticks of butter, two cups of flour , 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa and1/2 teaspoon baking soda and one teaspoon baking powder.  I made them vegan and I wonder if this could have been the factor in them not turning out the way they recipe had them?

I used my beloved Melt plant butter , not thinking that it would make a difference but maybe the cookies needed animal fat to get that finished cracked look.

                                                       The dough looked OK, when I was making it.

The texture was how she described it , slightly sticky. I took off walnut sized pieces of dough , roilled them and then flattened them.

To me they baked , well- OK  Maybe I made them too big -  my fault , maybe they needed more time in the oven .

The tasted pretty perfect - sort of like Nabisco's once famed chocollate snap cookies. It was time to make the e icing for them.

 This was a mix of confectioner's sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla  cooked with already boiled water.

It was supposed to be a thick glaze with two tablespoons of the cocoa, 1 and a half cups of the confectioner's sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract mixed with 1/4 boiling water. It turned out to be a chocolate syrup.

It was a runny mess on the cookies. however I now have the recipe for a great homemade chocolate syrup(which was mixed with Bubly strawberry seltzer and almond milk for an over the top strawberry egg cream. YUM!!!!)

This is the end result.A syrupy mess that slid off the cookies and puddled underneath them.The Wilton decorations just rolled off. Some hardier ones stayed , fortunately.

And a day later 

It's funny I followed everything to the letter and they came out wrong. Tasty but wrong. 

Is it worth following  a Nigella Lawson recipe again? It's an iffy answer. 

I think I'll stick with American recipes now instead of going with the British - sorry to say.


 

Korean Home Cooking

 This last year has certainly brought families closer together . In a way it was no different for Eric Kim and his mother Jean. Together they cooked traditional Korean dishes and learned a thing or two about each other as well.

Mr. Kim, a cooking writer at the New York Times food section wrote about going home to Atlanta, Georgia in yesterday's section. They worked on a cookbook together, one that featured dishes from Korea. Yet he leaned so much more just being with her. He saw how she blanched pork ribs first with ginger to remove any gaminess. He noticed how she bloomed gochugaru, Korean chili peppers, in a little fat before adding it to red pepper based stews. Pine nuts were always a staple in her kim chi recipe. Mr. Kim thought of the great chef and cookbook writer, Nigella Lawson's words that she wrote in her 2008 article for The New York Times: "quite often you cook something the way your mother did before you." This idea has been dubbed the Pot Roast Principle.We want to cook exactly the same way our mothers and grandmothers did but we all want to tinker with the recipes and make them our own. Mr Kim saw this and put his spin on such classic recipes as bimbimbap, turning it into a sheet pan recipe.

It was this recipe along with his kimchi jiggae with ribs. Mr Kim's bimbimbap is an easy cook. It's two sheet pans in one oven. The first contains sweet potatoes,oyster mushrooms, red onion and kale.  Don't crowd them. You want them to brown not steam. Roast them on your oven's top rack until the sweet potatoes are tender while the mushrooms and onions are caramelized. The kale should be crisp. The second sheet pan should be slightly oiled and filled with the rice and eggs that will be baked sunnyside up. after they've been cooked, It's layering the veggies over the rice and then adding the eggs. Sesame oil and a teaspoon of the Korean chili paste or gochujang is layered on top. The ribs with kimchi are another good cook. The ribs are cooked first with the ginger . After they're drained in a colander and rinsed with cold water. The kimchi or fermented cabbage is cooked in a mix of butter and garlic Water is also added. The ribs are added and nestled in the kimchi.It's brought to a boil with over a high heat and then simmered. A medium yellow onion is sliced and layered on top of this. Fish sauce and maisi cheong, green plum syrup finish it off. All the Korean products can be found at Korean markets.

Mr. Kim embraced his mom's recipes yet added his own spins. This is what Korean home or cooking or any cooking really is. Taking the traditional and making it his own. It's what every home chef does.

Nigella's Panzanella's Recipe

 Nigella Lawson has a slew of interesting recipes sent to her fans and foodies every day. One caught my eye - her panzanella recipe. This is Neopolitan bread salad, chewy and dense,a flavorful throwback to summer. I had to make it. I gave it some tweaks and made it my own.

It starts with a dense chewy bread like Italian or sourdough. I chose a chunky Italian loaf.

This was perfect for ripping into thick pieces, sort of like stuffing. Use half a loaf for an average sized salad.

It was then time for the tomatoes.

While Nigella uses beefsteak ones, I like the deep rich taste of the vine ripes. I cut up six tomatoes 

It was then mixing the two with a good half cup of olive oil and a fraction of a capful of red wine vinegar. Ms. Lawson also throws in a pinch of sugar but I don't like the taste or the idea of it. I omitted it as I did the chopped onion and garlic. Instead I used the powdered versions which gave the salad a lighter taste.

Everything was mixed and then placed in the fridge for a couple of hours. Nigella's panzanella is chilled overnight in the fridge which is great for summer. This is winter and a few hours did it. The bread and tomatoes were nicely soaked, and still chewy.

I added a sprinkle of oregano for some color and a dash of more flavor.

                                             it worked perfectly and there was very little left - unlike other salads.

                                   It's good as is but you can add in anchovies, olives, or shrimp if you want. it's a salad that can be customized.

 This panzanella salad is the perfect cure for those suffering from the winter blues. Try this version of Nigella Lawson's summery dish.It's a kiss of warm weather during chilly times.

And Then There's Plan B

Most of the times the best of holiday plans get messed up. That's kind of what happened to me when I just didn't have the time to bake, frost and decorate my Winterscape Cake. What happens when the best of menu plans go awry? Quickly leap to Plan B.

Every home chef should have an alternative plan ready to be deployed. I did, with this

Aldi's dessert saving panettone trio which has three minis : Classic, Tiramisu and Cranberry.  These can easily be toasted and served with marscapone or butter. If I didn't have these I might have tried Nigella Lawson's no churn salted caramel ice cream. This is just mixing dulce de leche with whole cream and flavoring with bourbon and flaky sea salt (think Malden's).I could also whip up a quick chocolate mousse using Cool Whip and Instant chocolate pudding. It's an easy dinner - penne with crockpot sauce so the meal in itself is flavorful. Dessert would only be gilding the lily. Just remember that whatever sweet you have  around can be made into some kind of dessert. Trifle is the easiest. You probably have most of the ingredients. Just add a good slug of brandy and it's a boozy fun end to a Christmas meal.

The same philosophy goes for the main meal. There are ways to fix a holiday cooking mistake. Those hams or beef roasts sometimes get burned. Cut away the burned part , cut up the roast into pieces and continue cooking. If the entire thing is completely charred then first put the pot into a larger pan than it. Fill this with ice cold water  to cool it and after a while taste the meat. If it's still bad, then emphasize the sides as the main meal. Rummage through the freezer quick or ask a guests (Namely family and friends who will help out in a pinch) what they have. You may have to cobble together frozen burgers and nuggets but at least it's something. If you still want to serve the main dish, then cut away as much as the burnt  roast as possible then stir fry it with veggies such as tomatoes from the salad or the Brussels sprouts. Add a dash of some flavorful spice like turmeric or cumin to minimize the burn taste. If your holiday turkey  is too dry then boil up some chicken bouillon with butter and pour over the bird to moisten up the meat. If the gravy is horrible add chicken broth to give it more flavor. Sides nor up to par? Sprinkle with Parmesan to make  them more palatable. Another idea just serve more salad with the along with plenty of bread.

There always has to be a Plan B when it comes to holiday baking and cooking. Just be prepared for whatever your kitchen and fate throws you. You can get through it and still have a pretty tasty holiday dinner.