Brussels Sprout Chips

We've all had a potato chip, of this I'm sure.  Who doesn't love a salty, crispy handful of Lays with a delicious sandwich?  I sure do.  And I'm guessing the majority of you have experienced the phenomenon of the Kale Chip trend too.  This is when you bake kale leaves until they are as crispy as a potato chip, but it's a leafy green instead of a starchy root.  Kale, something that is usually cooked down or steamed to tenderness, is now in your mouth with a crunch, and yet oh-so delicate snap.  It plays with your mind, and it's awesome.

What I want to tell you though is that this phenomenon is not just limited to kale.  Oh no, you shall be restricted no more!  You can also use the outer leaves of Brussels Sprouts and still follow the same exact method for making kale chips.  When I roast Brussels sprouts I always remove the looser, outer leaves to maintain a tight head of the sprout to stay intact when roasting.  Not to go to waste, one day I roasted the leftover leaves in the style of a kale chip and they worked out fantastically.  Plus, they are a great appetizer to munch on while you wait for your Brussels sprouts to finish roasting.  Crispy, light, flavorful...these chips are arguably better than anything you can find in bag.  

Brussels Sprout Chips

To roast the remaining whole Brussels sprouts after taking off the outer leaves, trim the stems and cut each sprout in half.  Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet, placing them cut-side down.  Roast in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until they are done to your liking (in my opinion, the browner and crispier the outer leaves and cut-side, the better!)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Brussels Sprouts

Olive oil

Salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Peel off the outer, loose leaves from each Brussels sprout.  Keep the whole Brussels sprouts to halve and roast for later (directions above).  

Toss the leaves on a baking sheet with about a tablespoon of the oil.  Sprinkle with a good pinch of kosher salt.  Bake in oven for 15 minutes, then watch closely until the chips reach your desired doneness.  Dont be afraid of the browning, the more a leaf is brown and curled, the crispier and more delicious it will be! 

Happy Munching

Rice Hippie Treats

I confess, I have an inner hippie.  I mean, I lived in Vermont for four years, what can you expect?  She loves to frolic around in nature, talk to plants, and, such as in this case, likes to put a twist on certain recipes to make them a little more mind/body/soul friendly.


She surfaced recently when I wanted to make Rice Crispie Treats for a potluck dinner.  I knew I had everything to make a batch at home minus the marshmallows; a pivotal ingredient in this childhood treat.  But in both an effort to avoid the store and to improvise, I started thinking about how I could recreate this treat without including the highly processed white puff of an ingredient.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good toasted marshmallow, s'more, or old-fashioned Crispie Treat.  But if we can avoid ingesting things like, say, tetrasodium pyrophosphate when we don't have to, why not see if something else could do the trick as well?


I had been planning to make a peanut butter version of the treats anyway, so I started with that as a base of the binding ingredients to hold these bars together.  To keep with the theme, I used natural peanut butter which contains only ground up peanuts and salt.  Honey came in next, and some butter to pull all of the ingredients together.  For the dry ingredients, I substituted part of the rice crispies with rolled oats, and added dried cranberries for a contrasting tart/sweet taste, and chocolate chips too because, well, who doesn't like the combo of chocolate and peanut butter?  


I had created an almost granola-ish cousin of the Rice Crispie Treat, with all honest ingredients that we can all pronounce and recognize.  My inner hippie was proud.  And you will be too regardless if you have your own inner hippie or not, since at the end of it all these bars are just plain simple, delicious, and worth making no matter what.




Rice Hippie Treats  
My favorite way to eat these is a little cold right from the fridge. Mmmm


Ingredients

4 cups rice crispie cereal

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup dried cranberries 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons unsalted butter


Method
Butter a 9x13 baking dish or spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Combine rice cripsies, oats, cranberries, and chocolate chips in a medium bowl.  Set aside.  


Combine the peanut butter, honey, and butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Stir until all is melted and combined.


Pour peanut butter mixture over rice crispie mixture and stir to evenly coat the dry ingredients.  Pour mixture into the prepared pan and pat down evenly with a buttered or non-stick sprayed spatula (or else the treats will stick and the spreading will not be fun).  


Store bars in the fridge to set.  Cut into squares and enjoy.  In your Birkenstocks.  

Oat Soda Bread

There are some days when I wake up and I think; "today, I want bread".  But this doesn't mean I will walk down the stairs and take a slice of bread out of bag from a store bought loaf...no, no.  These are the days I want bread that I will know from start to finish; that I will make with my own hands.  It's bread that will fill my house with the tantalizing smell of freshly baked goodness, and on which I will promptly smear a slice with butter, only to have the butter melt away from the warm freshness of the dough.  Oh yes, this is the bread I crave when I want bread.  And sometimes, I cant have it fast enough.

This is why I keep recipes like this Oat Soda Bread around.  It is not as time consuming as yeast breads, and the ingredient list is impossibly simple.  It is hearty, nutty and sweet from the oats and seeds, and serves equally well as a breakfast of toast with jam in the morning, or buttered with a bowl of soup later in the day.  But regardless, when you are having those types of Bread Craving days, this can be your quick go-to without any loss of satisfaction.

Oat Soda Bread Recipe

If you don't have oat flour - which I usually don't, but almost always have old-fashioned rolled oats - you can make your own flour by blending oats in a food processor or blender until it forms a fine powder. 

Ingredients

butter, to grease pan
2 cups / 7 oz rolled oats

10 ounces / 285 g / ~2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading

1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt

1 3/4 cups / 415 ml buttermilk, plus more if needed, and 2T. for brushing

mixed seeds - sesame, caraway, poppy, etc.

Method

Preheat the oven to 400°F / 205°C with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan (or one with ~8 cup capacity) with parchment paper and set aside. Alternately, you can bake this bread without a pan on a lightly floured baking sheet.

To make the oat flour, use a food processor to pulse the rolled oats a few times. Then process into a fine powder - another minute or two. If you are buying oat flour, not making your own, measure out 7 oz / scant 2 cups.

Sift the flours, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until everything comes together into a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead for 30 seconds or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, slightly flattened ball without many cracks or fissures. If your dough is on the dry side, add more buttermilk a small splash at a time. Now ease the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan - see photo if you need a bit of guidance.

Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with mixed seeds or flour, 2 tablespoons or so. Slice a few deep slashes across the top of the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes, then quickly (without letting all the hot air out of the oven), move the rack and the bread up a level, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a hard crust forms and the bread is baked through. It will feel very solid and sound hollow when you knock on it. Carefully lift it out of the pan, in a timely fashion, and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with a good slathering of salted butter.

Makes one loaf.

Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 50 min

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Breakfast (or lunch...or dinner) Enchurritos

Enchurrito? Wha?  Well, it’s a creation I just made myself for dinner.  As I pulled it out of the oven, my roommate walked by, stopped, and said: “you better be blogging about that”.  So, here I am.

I was trying to scrounge up something for dinner from my fridge, and once I saw my trusty-always-must-have carton of eggs, I knew it was breakfast-for-dinner time.  I had corn tortillas too, and I knew I wanted them to be involved.  Breakfast burritos?  Yes please.  But wait…then I saw a full jar of peachy green chili made from peaches picked from one of the best places on earth (Excelsior Orchard, which you can read and see more about here) and then I had a smothering sauce that needed to be incorporated.  This meant fork and knife.  Plus, they were corn tortillas and not flour ones.  Yes, this meant enchiladas…and breakfast burritos….as one.  And right then and there, enchurritos were born.  (I thought this was my own crafty creation, but apparently they already exist?  Madness I tell you.  Let me know if you already knew this or have had them before.  That is…before you make these!)

To round them out and make them even more super fantastic, I added a bunch of fresh herbs and cheddar cheese to my scrambled eggs, and layered them with cooked spinach and beans within their tortilla robes.  Hearty, cheesy, eggy, smothered-in-a-chili salsa goodness.  Topped with a whole lot more freshly chopped herbs and a dollop of sour cream, and you’ve got yourself a helluva breakfast…lunch….or dinner. 

Breakfast (or lunch...or dinner) Enchurritos

This recipe is made for one person, but be sure to double, triple, or quadruple to make for as many friends who want in too!

Ingredients

2 eggs

¼ cup (or more) shredded cheese of your choice

½ tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (or use any combination of herbs you like! chives, tarragon, cilantro…)

1/2 cup cooked spinach

1/3 cup black, white, or red beans (optional)

1 cup salsa

2 6-inch corn tortillas

Salt

Pepper

More fresh chopped herbs, shredded cheese, and sour cream

Method

Preheat broiler to high and set a rack to one of the highest rungs in the oven.  Cover bottom of a small, ovenproof casserole dish with half the salsa.  Warm up the two tortillas in the microwave, toaster oven, or in a dry skillet just to make them pliable.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a small skillet over medium high heat.  While it heats, scramble the two eggs in a small bowl and add to the skillet when up to temp.  Move the eggs around with a spatula until just cooked; add cheese, beans, fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir to combine.

Divide spinach and spread in middle of each tortilla.  Divide egg mixture and place on top of spinach.  Fold each side of the tortilla to the center over the filling and place seam-side down in the casserole dish.  Top with remaining salsa and shredded cheese, if desired. 

Place under broiler until salsa is bubbly and cheese is melted. 

Top with herbs, and a dollop of smooth, cool sour cream. 

Devour.    

Grilled Romaine with a Soft Boiled Egg

Lettuce?  Grilled?  Hot?  You may be skeptical.  Maybe even afraid.  But fear not, your world may change forever.

For something that you're so used to having only one way, at only one temperature, with only one texture, it can be scary to do something different with it.  But let me tell you that although high heat and a crisp, fresh head of lettuce seem to be instinctively incompatable, they create something on your plate that is texturally and flavorfully delectable.  

This dish shines with simplicity, and has a list of ingredients that you can count on one hand;  romaine lettuce, an egg, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and olive oil (salt and pepper too...but these are mainstay seasonings, not ingredients).  And with recipes as simple as this, the quality of each ingredient is tremendously important.  

Use a fresh, sturdy head of lettuce, and fresh eggs.  Buy a piece of parmesan cut from a certified wheel of parmesan cheese from Parma, Italy, from your local store's cheesemonger (dear god, not from the green can please).  And for the olive oil - the one you are drizzling on top with the lemon juice - make it extra virgin;  one that actually contains flavor profiles of earthiness and hints of fruit, that finishes with a bite of pepper in the back of your throat.  If you have never tried an olive oil like this before, please do.  It will change your view of what olive oil actually can, and should, taste like.  

From the seared, caramelized marks on the outer leaves, to the steamed, leafy center, to the nutty salty parmesan, the richness and natural sauce of the egg yolk,  the grassiness of the olive oil, and the brightness of the lemon, your taste buds will be blown away with every bite, all the way from the first bite until the last (or until you're licking your plate....not that I'm speaking from experience).  

In fact, get a good loaf of crusty bread to take care of that.  All together you'll have a full and satisfying meal that beats a regular old chopped romaine salad any day.  

Grilled Romaine with a Soft Boiled Egg 


Ingredients

1 head of Romaine Lettuce (Romaine Hearts work best for this since they are sturdier and not as 'leafy' as regular romaine.  It helps maintain texture and structure against the high heat of the grill or skillet)
1 egg, soft boiled (instructions below)
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, to taste
1-2 tablespoons quality Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 tablespoon other oil; either canola, vegetable, or other less-flavorful and high-heat tolerant oil
Juice of a quarter to half of a lemon
Salt
Pepper

Method


Start your method for preparing your soft boiled egg(s) as described below.

In the meantime, heat a grill, grill pan, or saute pan over medium high heat.  Rub the Romaine heart with the high-heat tolerant oil and season all around with salt and pepper.  Have your grated cheese, lemon wedge, and extra virgin olive oil ready next to your plate to assemble the dish easily once the other components are ready.

Once your egg is done cooking in the water, drain the hot water and let the egg sit in cold water to cool down.  Now put your romaine heart on the heat, rotating it with tongs to sear it on all sides.  Remove the lettuce when it has slightly wilted but still holds shape when you pick it up - about 1-2 minutes.

Remove the lettuce to your plate and sprinkle with a generous snowfall of freshly grated parmesan, big squeeze of lemon juice, and healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Peel your soft boiled egg and place it on top, repeating with another layer of cheese, lemon, oil, s&p.

Break the yolk with your fork.  Cut your first bite of wilted-yet-still-crunchy-and-caramelized lettuce, swirl it within the river of cheesy, yolky, olive-oily, lemony heaven, and taste the salad revolution you've been waiting for.  Repeat.




Soft Boiled Eggs


Heat water with a pinch of salt in a saucepot over medium high heat (the right size pot and amount of water for the number of eggs you are cooking to be fully submerged in the water once placed inside.)

Once the water just barely begins to show signs of boiling - beyond a simmer but not at a rolling boil - gently place the egg(s) inside the water, using a spoon to lower them to the bottom of the pan.

Let the eggs cook for 5-6 minutes while never letting the water come to a rolling boil.  Exact timing will depend on elevation, which takes a bit longer the higher up you are, and on desired doneness of the yolk.   It takes a few rounds of cooking soft boiled eggs to learn your stovetop and your water temperatures and your eggs to know your exact rules to make your own perfect soft boiled egg.

Drain the hot water and run cool water over the cooked eggs.  Gently peel off the shells and devour.  Dont forget a sprinkle of salt and pepper on top.

Gingerbread Apple Upside-Down Cake

I am in love with what happens to apples when they're baked.  In it's natural state, an apple is firm, true to it's shape, solid and crisp throughout.  Once baked, however, this persona slowly surrenders to a more mellow and tender self.  It gives away easily under your bite, soft and sweet, instead of fighting back with a crisp crunch.  Its sugars condense and an intense apple flavor remains, that is eager to pair with warm fall flavors like cinnamon, ginger, and molasses.

Still in the spirit of fall, I wanted to use my orchard-picked apples in a different way than in a crisp or in the muffins that I had just written about.  I wanted something more festive, more complex in flavor.  Gingerbread has always been a favorite of mine because of these reasons, and to pair it with baked-in apples made it a dish that I could not pass by.  

It's an easy cake.  It bodes a festive look, yes, but that only equates to its greatness of the flavor, not the level of difficulty to make it.  And, with all gingerbreads, especially this one, whipped cream (homemade, please!) is an absolute must.  It's practically begging to be on your Holiday Table, so go make one and share it with your loved ones who deserve it most.  

Happy Festive Fall!

Gingerbread Apple Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Karen Bates at the Philo Apple Farm via the New York Times
Also on smittenkitchen.com

Serves 12

Topping
4 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing pan
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Pinch of salt
4 apples (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch wedges

Batter
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup honey
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Very softly whipped cream

Make the topping: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 10-inch cake pan. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, four minutes, then swirl in salt. Remove from heat and pour into the bottom of your cake pan. Make circles of overlapping apple slices on top of the caramel. Chop any remaining slices and place them in the gaps.

Make the batter: Using a mixer, blend 1/2 cup butter and the sugar on medium-low speed. Increase the speed to high and cream until light and fluffy.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, molasses, honey and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Alternate mixing the flour and molasses mixtures into the butter mixture, adding the next once the last has been incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake at least 45 to 50 minutes (thanks to commenter klp for reminding me this took a bit longer) or until a wooden tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a platter (one that will catch spills, unlike what you see in the pictures above).

Serve warm or cool with very softly whipped cream.

Apple-Banana Bran Muffins

I wish I could tell you that this recipe came from some free-willed creative vision I had.  That it came to me while standing on top of a snow-capped mountain looking over a breathtaking vista, or while meditating in a peaceful buddhist sanctuary, and suddenly a vision of Apple-Banana Bran Muffins manifested in my third eye and my destiny was found to create them.

No, not so much.  But that sure sounds nice.

In actuality, this recipe came up because of two very common predicaments that home cooks encounter all the time.
The first is this: you bought an ingredient for a certain recipe and have more leftover after you're done that you'll need to use up; What the heck to do with it besides the make the same recipe again?
The second:  There's something in your fridge or on your countertop that has Father Time working against it, and you've gotta use it up.  Or else into the garbage it goes, unused and unloved.  So sad.  Too sad.  So something has to be done.

So this recipe, you could say, came from necessity.  And don't they say that Necessity is the Mother of Invention? (you know, they)  And if I do say, it is very true in this case.  The two culprits in this case were the end of a quart of buttermilk and some very brown bananas.  And we're talking brown bananas, people.  Every day I would come home from work and I would see the bananas hanging sadly from the banana hook in our kitchen.  I would reluctantly glance at them out of the corner of my eye, blocking out their pleas that sounded something like: "Eat me! Use me! Do SOMETHING!  I can barely hold on anymore!"  It got ugly.  So, like I said with what happens in these situations, something had to be done.

And hence the birth of this recipe.  It makes one fantastic batch of muffins, and one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is that is actually makes a hearty, tasty muffin, not a cupcake disguised as a muffin, as so many muffins are these days.  There are not pounds of sugar in it, nor cups of oil - only 3 tablespoons! - so a majority of the sweetness and the moist crumb come from the ripe bananas, with a fun addition of the sweet studs of apples amidst the batter.  The buttermilk adds great flavor and tenderness, and with nutrition-rich additions of whole wheat flour, wheat or oat bran (use either!), and walnuts if you dig 'em, you can eat these muffins and feel super powered.  Breakfast on the go?  No problem.  Do it and rock it.  In fact, make a bunch and throw em in your freezer.  Then they'll be ready for you whenever you need them.

How's that for turning a sour situation into a sweet success?  



Apple-Banana Bran Muffins
Use any level of overripe banana here, from brown speckled to deep, dark doom.  The latter may look ugly, perhaps even dangerous, but these intensely overripe bananas are disguised pieces of gold, with even more flavor from their developed sugars than a just slightly overripe banana.  Waste not want not! 


Also, I found myself without wheat bran in the middle of making this batter - oops - so I improvised and blended some old-fashioned oats into a fine powder and it worked perfectly.  So wheat bran, oat bran, or a Macgyver-ed, on-the-fly oat bran of blended oats will do just fine.  


Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, (2-3 naners)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran or oat bran 
• 3 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup small diced apple
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in bananas, buttermilk, wheat (or oat) bran, oil and vanilla.

Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in apples. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full). Sprinkle with walnuts, if using.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Adapted from EatingWell Magazine