Sunday Supper: Julia's Roast Chicken

Welcome to Sunday Supper at Cayenne & Carob…on the menu tonight is ROAST CHICKEN!

I should probably explain that I don’t cook meat often (read: only a few times a year). TEB normally cooks the meat and if I do venture into the carnivorous cooking zone it is likely something I’m more familiar with like moose meat, moose liver or salmon. But I was looking for a challenge so here we go.

I could not find the original Julia Child’s recipe for roasting a chicken so of course I next turn to my RSS feeder, which is where I found The Amateur Gourmet’s variation of roasting chicken.

Sunday Supper Roast Chicken Twitter Feed:

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2:30p – back from local grocery store w/ organic 4.5 lb roasting chicken, fresh herbs, cheddar & baking potatoes: time to wash dishes!

3:20p – Wow, only 5 min prepping: baking potatoes & corn + husks are ready after getting advice from mom, holding off on chicken since oven is full

4:30p – corn and potatoes are done & only 1 more call to mom- procrastinating on prepping chicken so making herb butter rub (2x recipe)

5:30p – 3^rd call to mom @AKnightingail, NO don’t put le cresset lid in the oven, YES do the foil tent: chicken finally in the oven

5:40p – consultation w/ H&G cookbook/Joy of Cooking via JLR: NO don’t cover roasting chicken, DO use a low-sided pan. Uh yeah, maybe next time!?!

6p – working on making baked potato shells & yummy, cheesy potatoe filling. Thanks to @TillamookCheese extra sharp cheddar

6:40p – Ahh, where do you check to see if chicken done? Pls RT! no browning but smells good. Wonky oven, wonky cook at it again…

7:30p – meat thermometer declares the bird DONE! Finally: Stove off, door open, sandals on…down to the beach for sunset

8:20p – twice-baked potatoes in the oven. Caution broiling is dangerous – almost smoked us out of the apt

8:45p – eating roast chicken, a la Julia Child, inspired by Julie&Julia with roast corn on the cob & (very) golden brown twice-baked potatoes

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What I really loved about roasting chicken was being able to take all the meat off the bones as a lunchtime salad garnish and then to use the leftovers to make chicken stock. What I really objected to was spending some 4 hours cooking at home, when I’m not normally at home. Roasting a chicken was a challenge in many aspects so I’m glad it was my first Sunday Supper at Cayenne & Carob. Guaranteed next weeks Sunday Supper is going to be a lot easier and require a lot less time.

The River Cottage Roast Chicken by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Adapted by The Amateur Gourmet

Recipe meticulously followed slightly altered by Cayenne

1. Pat ~4 lb chicken with paper towels (remove giblets), mine was 4.5 lb

2. Soften 7 tbsp of butter by filling a bowl with hot tab water and plopping in the sticks, wrappers and all

3. Finely chop rosemary, garlic, sage, and thyme

4. Mix the herb chop into the softened butter adding some pepper

5. Now I cannot paraphrase this step from The Amateur Gourmet so I quote:

“Now shmear that all over the chicken, getting it on the back side, the legs, the thighs, in the cavity, and ESPECIALLY all over and under the breast. When I say under the breast, I mean make a little flap in the breast skin using your finger and shove some of the butter under there.”

In all honesty this step was so gross then I just skipped it, explains a lot about how dry the chicken turned out.

6. Mash some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper into the skin.

7. Throw into 400° oven for 20 minutes.

8. Cook another 30 to 40 minutes at 350°, or in my case 60 to 80 minutes

9. When the chicken is dark golden brown, turn off the heat. Open the oven door and leave it for another 20 minutes.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.09.09

Sunday Supper: Fried Eggplant and 3-minute Swiss Egg Tapas

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: Fried Eggplant and 3-minute Swiss Egg Tapas
I had no idea what I was going to make for sunday supper and relied on finding something beautiful and tasty at the La Jolla Farmer's Market. It was the eggplant that spoke to me and later caused me to take every cookbook down off the kitchen shelf to find the perfect, easy recipe. I indeed found a great recipe!

Fried Eggplant and 3-minute Swiss Egg Tapas
By Cayenne and inspired by Fried Eggplant with Garlic and Egg Recipe from Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain by Penelope Casas

1 eggplant, slice four 1/4-inch slices (for 2 people)
coarse salt
white flour for frying eggplant
sunflower oil for frying
2 soft- or hard-boiled eggs
4 garlic cloves
1 onion
handful of cremini, brown, button mushrooms
1 orange bell pepper
handful of fresh parsley
pinch of dried thyme
Eggplant: First slice the eggplant and sprinkle with salt and let sit in colander for 30 minutes (water will seep out). Wrap uncut eggplant in plastic wrap and save for later in the week.

3-minute Swiss Egg: Bring water to a roaring boil, add salt, and gently drop fresh eggs into water. Turn your timer to 3 minutes or if you have my timer 5 minutes. Remove eggs from water and set in a bowl to cool.
Sauteed onions and vegetables: I was very liberal in altering the recipe to use what I already had in my fridge. I actually make this dish again later in the week for another friend and switched things to make it more of a main dish.

If you are making an appetizer just saute the onion for a few minutes and add the orange pepper. When the onion is almost done, add the garlic and mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are nice and shriveled turn off the heat and add the thyme and parsley.

If you are making this as a main dish beef it up by adding Israeli couscous mix from TJ's which I started right after I had the eggplant draining. The mix cooks in about 10 minutes and you can time it to finish at the same time as the eggs. For even more sustenance I sauteed sliced fingerling potatoes and a few leaves of sliced swiss chard with the veggies and onions.

Frying the Eggplant: Set your eggplant slices on a clean towel and blot dry. Heat up about 1/2 to 3/4 inches of oil (I used sunflower oil) until it pops when you flick a bit of water in it (like one drop of water). Place the eggplant on a plate and sift flour over it, turn over and do the same thing to the other side. Gently tap excess flour off and place in hot oil. Fry approximately 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels as you continue frying the rest of the eggplant.

Plating: Start by layering the eggplant slices on your plate and sprinkling with salt. Pile on the veggies and top with the 3-minute Swiss egg. Enjoy immediately.

I really loved this dish and I have to fess up to hating eggplant before this most recent Sunday Supper (seeing a theme here). It was easy, took less than an hour to make, and has a stunning presentation. One of the most important elements is the 3-minute Swiss egg. The recipe called for a hard boiled egg. Due to a fluke of not remembering how to cook a hard boilded egg and the fortuitous advice of my friend who was visiting (yes, she lives in Switzerland) - the 3-minute Swiss found its way to the top of my fried eggplant. The egg white was a touch runny so I made the decision on my second run-through to cook it 1 minute longer. Bad. Idea. Keep the 3-minute Swiss egg because it really makes this dish.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.23.09

Sunday Supper: On Hiatus...

Sunday Supper is on hiatus for a bit. It might come back in an altered form or not at all and I need a few weeks to think about it. I do think that Sunday Supper at Cayenne & Carob has served its purpose; I was in a no-cooking-funk and scheduling one day a week to cook helped me get back to my normal cooking routine.

For now, I leave you with some snapshots of what we ate for Christmas dinner in Alaska (left to right): half-dried salmon (my favorite, reference this post on other ways to prepare salmon), my mom's famous fruit salad, jarred salmon covered with cucumbers (decorated by aunt Dorthy with radishes in the shape of mushrooms and curled celery), macaroni and bacon bake (made by aunt Sister), and muk tuk (whale blubber).

photo credit: Cayenne 12.25.09

{NEW} Sunday Suppers At Cayenne & Carob

I have recently found myself in a cooking funk with no desire to cook anything. Perplexing it is, even to myself. I have pretty much stuck to my tried-and-true Cayenne & Carob quick dinner recipes.Inspired by Sunday Suppers' blog (seriously you should check out the fantastic pictures), I will be making one new dish every Sunday. Who knows where this will go--maybe future Sunday suppers will include friends or even more than one dish--but for now one dish, every Sunday. I hope to expand my recipe box with multi-functional recipes that can be eaten throughout the week.

Please join me every Sunday for supper!

Every Sunday I will be posting my previous week's Sunday supper (time delay in order to give me some time to pull things together). We start TODAY and get ready because I started out big, Julia Child big (hint, hint)!

photo credit: Karen Mordechai and Sunday Suppers Brunch post and A French Dinner

Sunday Supper: Summer Cold Tapas

Sunday Supper Menu:
Freshly Pickled Cucumbers
Watermelon, Mint & Feta Salad
Salmon 'n Avocado Crostini

With the steady high temperatures on the coast, I was in no mood to turn on the stove for anything. So I made an entire Sunday Supper without using heat. Alright, alright. I did toast the herb butter bread for a minute but that was it. Once again I challenged myself by making a food that I normally avoid - white, creamy sauces. The watermelon salad has a feta and mint dressing that is made from a greek yogurt base (lots of white going on there). And the salmon crostini was topped with homemade mayonnaise (I avoid mayonnaise at all costs).

Pickled Cucumbers (prepared a few days ahead of time) by Penelope Casas, Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain

2 kirby (bumpy) cucumbers, peeled and quartered lengthwise
Coarse Salt
Tarragon vinegar
Water
4 peppercorns, crushed
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1 clove 1 small bay leaf 1/2 small onion, slivered

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved

Sprinkle the cucumber quarters with salt and leave in a colander to drain for 1 hour. (Ran to the grocery store during that hour) Cut each quarter into 1-inch chunks. Place in glass jar and cover with vinegar and water in the proportion of 1:2. Season with salt, peppercorns, fennel seed, clove, and bay leaf. Add onion and garlic, cover, and refrigerate for a few days. Cucumbers will last a few months.

N.B. Tarragon vinegar? Good thing I made these on Friday night. Where do buy such a thing when one did not think ahead. No idea. The local grocery store did not have it so I just added some dried tarragon to white wine vinegar.


Chopped Vegetables, Watermelon, Mint & Feta Salad
Adapted by Smitten Kitchen from Bon Appetit

1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
1 1/2 cups diced watermelon, seeded if necessary
1 large green bell pepper, seeded, cubed
2 kirby cucumbers, cubed
1/2 cup very thinly sliced radishes
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 ounces feta cheese crumbled
1 white onion, chopped, divided
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves, divided
1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Combine tomatoes, watermelon, green pepper, cucumbers, radishes, and 2 tbsp EVOO in a medium bowl. Add half each of feta, onions, and mint. Mix remaining feta, onions, mint, and oil in food processor. After mixed well, add yogurt and oregano. Pulse to blend and season with a little pepper. I left the dressing on the side so people could add as much as they wanted. I found that I wanted just a tablespoon but I'm sure that has something to do with my fear-of-white-sauces-thing. Keeps for 3-4 days and makes about four servings.

Salmon 'n Avocado Crostini
Adapted by Cayenne, inspired by Smoked Fish on Avocado Rounds recipe from Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain by Penelope Casas

1 small avocado
1 pint canned salmon
2 stocks celery, small dice
3 dill pickles, small dice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
Hard rye crackers or freshly toasted bread

Homemade Mayonnaise (recipe below)

Drain, flake, and check for bones in the canned salmon. Place into a bowl and add the celery, onion, and pickles. Mix well. Add tablespoon each of Dijon mustard and extra virgin olive oil (may have to adjust depending on how well the salmon is sticking together looking for tuna salad consistency here). Salt and pepper to taste (careful with the salt because canned salmon and the pickles are salty - I rarely have to add salt). Toast bread and layer avocado and then salmon salad on top. Drizzle with homemade mayonnaise and garnish with parsley (optional).

Mayonnaise (makes 1 1/4 cups)

1 egg plus 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup olive oil, or a mixture of olive and another vegetable oil

Place the whole egg, egg yoke, mustard, salt, and lemon juice in a bowl and blend well. Whisk with one hand and drizzle in the oil very gradually. Continue beating unil thick and silky. Takes about 10-15 minutes. Lasts for 2 days in the fridge - of course any raw egg is eaten at your own risk.

N.B. check how fresh your eggs are! fill a bowl with water and gently drop your raw egg into it. If it floats then you better cook the blazes out of that egg, if it sinks fresh off the farm.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.30.09

Sunday Supper: Ina Garten's Wheatberry Salad

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: Wheatberry Salad

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that I did not cook this entire dish on Sunday. In fact, I did not even cook the entire thing myself. TEB cooked the wheatberries on Wednesday night in preparation for making Ina Garten’s wheatberry salad for an outdoor picnic on Thursday evening. Turns out we had plenty of other food so opted not to make the salad. So there was a bowl of cooked wheatberries staring at me Sunday morning and I decided to adapt the recipe to be slightly heavier and suitable for a main dish or lunch.

It took TEB 2 hours of simmering and several additional cups of water to cook these nutty wheatberries. The best technique seems to be to taste-test them every 30 minutes or so. Since we cooked them a day before we were going to use them, TEB left them al dente figuring they would cook the rest of the way when reheated.

I altered this recipe according to what was left in the fridge from my CSA delivery the week before. I added swiss chard and garbanzo beans for some color and to make the dish more filling. I measured nothing, which is how I like to do things. I mixed the ingredients until the proportions looked pretty. This dish is beautiful and tastes good too. If you can split up the cooking, like we did, then wheatberry salad is a perfect leftover. But the otherwise 3-hour cook time for a salad is pretty ridiculous.

Wheatberry Salad
Adapted by Cayenne from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style Cookbook

1 cup hard winter wheatberries
Kosher salt, to taste
1 ½ cup finely diced red onion (1 onion)
6 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 scallions or green onion, minced, white and green parts
1 red bell pepper, small diced
1 carrot (optional), small diced
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 can garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed
5-7 leaves swiss chard, destemmed, chopped, save all parts

Place the wheatberries and 3 cups of boiling salted water in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until they are soft. Check every 30 minutes and I had to cook them approximately 3 hours. Drain. The wheatberries can be made a few days ahead, just reheat after initially cooking to al dente.

Saute the red onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low heat until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Before the onions are done add the chopped chard stems, cook for 2 minutes. Add the garbanzo beans and chopped chard leaves, cook for a few more minutes. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.
In a large bowl, combine the warm wheatberries, red bell pepper, carrot (optional), 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the pepper. Add all the warm sauteed stuff. Allow the salad to sit for at least 30 minutes for the wheatberries to absorb the sauce. Season, to taste, and serve at room temperature.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.16.09

Wake-up: Under-the-weather in Fairbanks, AK

Hello Friends! I had to take a last minute trip north to Alaska last Wednesday. Then I got really sick (no I don't think it was swine flu but I had a fever of 102). I am only now feeling well enough to read my inbox and pop over here to let you know why I did not post Sunday Supper yesterday. I spent most of Sunday sleeping.

TEB, MIA and mom drove out to the Knotty Shop for ice cream and shopping. Grandma and Jimmie even came over for dinner and I slept through it all. I woke up to head over to my sister's house, help TEB put MIA to bed and watch a little TV. I have been using my natural medicine cabinet and feel so much better today. Sunday Supper will be back next week.

photo credit: Winter warmers by H is for Home

Wake-up: Time flies...

...when your having fun. I don't know how a whole week went by without a single post, not even Sunday Supper. The week was crazy busy.

A calm Scorpion Anchorage midday Saturday.

Then we took a long 3 day weekend to celebrate September birthdays with a camping trip to Santa Cruz Island (part of the Channel Islands, CA).

View west from Scorpion Anchorage with 40 MPH winds on Sunday.

Now I'm back in the midst of a busy work week and an over-scheduled weekend. Sunday Supper is back on for next weekend so I'll see you there.

photo credit: Cayenne 10.04.09 & 10.05.09

Sunday Supper: Homemade Pizza

On the Cayenne & Carob Sunday Supper menu today is homemade pizza with Jamie Oliver's The Quickest Tomato Sauce!

Seriously, it tasted as good as it looks!

First get the dough started in your bread machine. That takes a good 1.5 hours before you need to pay attention to it again. In the meantime, make the pizza sauce. Despite the title as the "quickest" pizza sauce, I don't think it lived up to its name. The "Quickest" Tomato Sauce
Slightly adapted by Cayenne from Jamie Oliver at Home

Olive Oil
8 cloves of garlic, peeled, sliced
bunch of fresh basil, destemmed, leaves torn
24 ounces of chopped tomatoes with Italian herbs
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sure, it has a few simple ingredients but the process is a bit more complicated. After an hour of simmering, I had to shove it through a strainer and cook it another 30 minutes to come up a flavorful, bold pizza sauce with the right consistency. By this time the dough should be done. I royally screwed up this next part because I don't like to follow recipes or rather I don't read them carefully. I was suppose to divide the dough into fourths, kneed it, and then set it in a warm spot to rise again (~20 minutes). Then the dough can be shaped, or refrigerated for 24 hours, or frozen for use up to 3 months later.

Instead, I threw the dough, wrapped in plastic, in the fridge (it was early afternoon and I wanted to cook it in the evening). TEB read the dough instructions more carefully and realized my error on that rising-step. He improvised by throwing the dough in the oven on warm for 10 minutes. With no visible rising-action going on and now with crusty dough, I shaped it, threw it in the oven for 8 minutes at the highest temp the oven will go. Get all your pizza toppings ready while the pizza crust is in the oven. We used fresh sliced mozzarella, torn basil, sliced fresh mushrooms, shavings of Parmesan, precooked hot Italian sausage, and a drizzle of olive oil. Cook the pizza for 8-10 minutes until the top is golden and bubbly.

N.B. Crust: the crust turned out just fine, though I do think I have plenty of room to improve. I had a dough ball in the fridge in the fridge that we cooked the next day. It was still good. I also froze a dough ball to test out this whole freezing process. Apparently all I have to do is put the frozen dough in the fridge for 24 hours and then let it sit on the counter for 20 minutes before trying to shape it into a flat pizza crust. I'll let you know how that goes because this homemade pizza has the potential to be a Quick Dinner.

photo credit: Cayenne 09.13.09

Sunday Supper: Sorrel Pesto

Sorrel showed up in my organic CSA food box over the summer. In a pinch and short on time, I blended it up into a wonderful, tangy pesto. You are going to love how quick and easy this is after all that hard Thanksgiving cooking. Sorrel looks like a longer, skinnier spinach and it has a lemony taste. Read more about this magnesium and calcium-rich green here.


Sorrel Pesto
by Cayenne

Serves 2-4, freeze the leftovers

1 bunch sorrel
4 garlic cloves
2 handfuls shaved Parmesan cheese
3-5 tbsp olive oil (your favorite stuff)
1 handful pine nuts
Salt + pepper to taste

Wash sorrel as you would any other leafy green. No need to spin off the water. In a mini cuisinart (or whatever blending tool you have). Add handfuls of leaves, garlic, 1-2 tbsp olive oil. Whiz. Whiz. Whiz. Keep adding sorrel leaves and olive oil until a slightly dry paste is formed. Thin out the paste with a few tbsp of water. Whiz in the pine nuts. Taste. Add salt + pepper and cheese. Whiz. Throw over your favorite pasta. Maybe add some fresh tomatoes, olives, and parsley. I freeze the leftovers in small tuppers, they defrost well in the microwave.

These weeks are flying by, next week's Sunday Supper will be sweet and a bit more festive.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.16.09

Sunday Supper: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds + Mulled Cider

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds + Mulled Cider

There are many things I love about fall but two of my favorites are roasted pumpkin seeds and mulled cider. I have to confess that my most recent attempt at roasting pumpkin seeds has been my one-and-only success. Mulled cider is so easy to make, especially once I tell you my little trick - pre-packaged mulling spices. I keep the pantry stocked because you never know when you need to spice up that old red wine or to warm your insides with some delicious cider. The recipe is very simple: Heat your beverage of choice (red wine or apple juice) with 2-3 tablespoons of mulling spices over the lowest heat setting as possible for 30 minutes. That. is. it. Now keep reading for the easy roasted pumpkin seeds recipe.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
By Cayenne, adapted from NW

Spray oil
Sesame oil
Salt & Pepper
special seasoning (optional)
cookie sheet
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Rinse your pumpkin seeds well and get all the little bits of pumpkin outta there. Spread on a clean kitchen towel and pat dry or let them air out for a bit. Take a cookie sheet and spray with a bit of olive oil (I use the Misto Olive Oil Sprayer).

2. Put the pumpkin seeds into a small bowl and add a drizzle of sesame oil, mix well. Spread seeds in a single layer on the cookie sheet. Give them lots of room. Crank some freshly ground pepper over them.

3. Now comes the part where you can dive into your spice drawer and use just about anything to seasons these guys. I used Denali SP'ICE Alaskan Alder Smoked Sea Salt for one batch and Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning for the other batch. My favorite was the alder smoked salt.

Bake for 5-10 minutes but check them often.

photo credit: Cayenne 10.23.09

Sunday Supper: Jamie Oliver's Cheeky Chili Pepper Chutney

Yup, you guessed it, I finally found something that requires copious amounts of red chili peppers (remember those serranos I've been bragging about). On the Cayenne & Carob Sunday Supper menu today is Jamie Oliver's Cheeky Chili Pepper Chutney!

yum, I topped fresh fish tacos with the chili chutney!

Cheeky Chili Pepper Chutney (halved "test" recipe)
Adapted by Joanna of Joanna's Food from Jamie Oliver at Home


4-6 hot red chillis
4 red, orange, or yellow bell peppers
EVOO
1 chopped white onion
sprig of chopped rosemary leaves
1 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
salt and pepper (optional because I forgot to add)
1/2 cup brown sugar (while converting from the metric system I forgot to halve)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Slowly cook the onion in a bit of oil with the herbs. This takes quite a while and you are looking for some translucent, soft yet golden onions in the end.

Meanwhile, I got out my mini cuisinart chopper and whizzed the bell peppers. Then I donned some rubber gloves and deseeded 'n decored the hot serrano chili peppers.

By this time the onions should be ready and you can add the chillis, peppers, sugar, and vinegar. Once again cook this slowly until there is very little liquid and the texture is goopy, takes about an hour. This halved recipe only makes about 18, or so, ounces of chutney. If you are going to can this chutney get started on sterilizing the jars while you are waiting for the chutney to cook down. Boil a big (HUGE) pot of water. Put your jars and lids into the boiling water for at least 10 minutes. Turn off heat. I left the jars in the water until the chutney was ready.

When you have deemed the chutney done, turn off heat and remove the cinnamon stick, bay leaves, and rosemary twigs. Remove the jars, one at a time (this is where I learned the importance of canning tongs) and carefully spoon the chutney into the hot jars. Leave about 1/4 of an inch room on the top and tighten the lid. Bring the water you used to sterilize the jars to a second roaring boil. Place the chutney jars into the boiling water and let boil for 10-15 minutes. Remove the jars again and let them rest on the counter. At some point, when the lid has sealed, you should hear a PoP! Either my jars did not pop or I did not hear it because I was sleeping. So I am keeping my jars in the fridge instead of on the pantry shelves.

TEB declared the chutney a success and ate it atop fish tacos for two days. In my opinion I was too conservative with the chili:bell pepper ratio - the chutney needed to be spicier. No worries, I am going to try again in an attempt to use all 18 red chillis on my pepper plant.

photo credit: Cayenne 09.06.09

Sunday Supper: Homemade Life's Turkey Meatballs

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: versatile Turkey Meatballs from Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg of Orangette Blog.

I have a fantastic recipe for you today - turkey meatballs. These guys were debuted at a dinner party my friend, and fellow foodie, AA and I threw in celebration of our other friend JLR's super fabulous PhD defense. There were many stars at this shindig including an anise-flavored beet salad and a delicate tres leches cake with blackberries. I am not sure what recipe AA used for the tres leches cake but this one from Sunset/Myrecipes looks similar. Somehow no pictures exist of the beet salad but it definitely worth making again and next time I'll take pictures so I can post the recipe.

Now back to our main course: turkey meatballs. You have just enough time to test this out for the biggest turkey-eating day of the year. I will speak from experience that this recipe is easily doubles (or triples) and transitions into crowd finger food with the addition of toothpicks. Four days after our dinner party TEB and I made a double batch for a gathering in Alaska (more on this later). The only time consuming part was baking 2 batches in the oven. In my sister's normal-sized oven we could only cook 2 cookie sheets worth of meatballs at a time.

I suggest that you brown the meatballs in a cast iron pan on the stove and then freeze the meatballs if you are making them for Thanksgiving. You should be able to make them weeks in advance. Then the day of the party just throw the frozen meatballs in the oven until they are warmed through.

Turkey Meatballs with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts with Lemon-and-cumin Yogurt Sauce
By Molly Wizenberg, Homemade Life, blog post A Man Who Knows Meatballs

3 lb. ground white-meat turkey (or 1:1 light to dark meat)
3 small yellow onion, *FINE* mince
3 eggs (or more depending on how dry the mix is)
¾ cups finely chopped cilantro or parsley
1 ½ cups toasted pine nuts
1 ½ cups golden raisins (chopped)
1 ½ cups fine bread crumbs
A few pinches ground cumin (3-4 pinches)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
A few pinches freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Lemon-and-Cumin Yogurt Sauce
1 cup Nonfat plain yogurt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (save zest)
1-2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
2 pinches ground cumin
1 pinch ground chili
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350-375 degrees.
In a large bowl mix all ingredients except olive oil and yogurt sauce. You need plenty of room for mixing (especially if you double this recipe as we did) with your hands. Depending on how fine you mince the onions will determine how easy it is to form the meatballs. If you go super-fine then you might be able to use two teaspoons to gently roll the meat mix into a ball form. If your onion is in larger chunks then use your hands to make balls approximately 1 inch in diameter. Of course the larger you make them the longer they will take to cook.

Coat cookie sheets with olive oil and place your round meatballs in rows. Don't crowd them or they will not cook evenly. Bake for 25-45 minutes (depends on the size of your meatballs).

Meanwhile, make the Lemon-and-Cumin Yogurt Sauce. Mix ingredients to taste in a bowl, and keep chilled until serving. For large parties have toothpicks handy and make the meatballs small enough to be bite-size. As a main course for our 6 person dinner party the average was about 5 meatballs per person. These make great leftovers and if you get tired of cooking meatballs the meat mix can be freshly cooked the following day.

photo credit: Cayenne 11.01.09 and 11.05.09

Sunday Supper: Vegan Asian-style Lettuce Wrap

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: Vegan Asian-style Lettuce Wraps

I was inspired to create this recipe after envying all the people eating vegan lettuce wraps at my friends' spectacular wedding. Their entire menu was vegan and unfortunately for me the lettuce wraps had cilantro (yes, I am one of those cilantro haters). Everyone raved about the deliciousness of the lettuce wraps and I wanted some too.

Vegan Lettuce Wraps
by Cayenne, sauces from RecipeZaar

1 package veggie ground (I don't have a brand preference just as long as it is plain flavored)
couple cups green cabbage shredded
handful shitake mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced and separated into green portions and white portions
1-2 tablespoons ginger, grated
water chestnuts, canned and sliced
1 head butter lettuce

Stir Fry Sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar

Special Topping Sauce:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp hot mustard
2 tsp water
1-2 tsp garlic and red chile paste

The key to stirfrying all this up is to having prepped before you start cooking and to add spices until it "smells fantastic." Seriously, you want to smell that ginger and garlic as it cooks in the pan. I store the ground filling, lettuce, and sauces all separate in the fridge so it makes a great lunch for the next few days.

1. Prep all stir fry ingredients and mix up the sauces.

2. Heat sesame oil in large frying pan or wok. Dump in the veggie ground and cook until heated all the way through.

3. Add the garlic, onions, water chestnuts, and mushrooms to the pan. After a few minutes throw in the ginger. Now it should start smelling delicious. When almost done add the stir fry sauce. Cook until cabbage is tender and the mushrooms browned.

4. Plate the stir fry into lettuce cups and drizzle with the Special Sauce.
photo credit: Cayenne 10.18.09

Weekend: Goodbye Summer...

Here in La Jolla we are having a heat wave but I'm sure it will end soon and the fact that summer is over will sink in. In the meantime, I'm going to be hitting the beach for some boogie boarding this weekend. Sunday supper can be made without turning on your stove (or oven), perfect for this unforgiving heat.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you for Sunday Supper!

photo credit: Umbrella 2 by One of those Allans'

Sunday Supper: Jamie Oliver's Old Fashioned Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Cayenne & Carob's Sunday Supper: Old Fashioned Sweet Shortcrust Pastry for making Sweet Pies straight from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie at Home, recipe here.

Making pie crust is scary because the results are highly variable, at least in my experience. I was looking for a go-too pie crust that I could count on and I believe Jamie's recipe is just that recipe. I was surprised at both how stressful it was to make this crust and how easy it will be to make it in the future. Just do a little practice before bringing this out for Thanksgiving.

Pie Crust Recipe
makes about 2 pounds

3 1/2 cups organic, all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 cup icing sugar (confectioner's or powdered sugar), sifted
1 cup plus 2 tbsp good quality cold butter, cut into small cubes
zest of 1 lemon
2 large free-range or organic eggs, beaten
a splash of milk (substituted soy)

I really think having cold butter is the key here. You don't want to change the chemistry or consistency of the butter before or while it is combined with the flour. Chill your butter and a large cookie sheet in the fridge before starting.

1. Cube the butter and put it in the freezer while you prep the flour (~5-10 minutes).
2. Sift the flour from a height (12 or so inches high) onto the cold cookie sheet.
3. Quickly, but thoroughly, work the butter into the flour by smooshing it between your thumbs. When the mixture is a fine crumb add the lemon zest (or orange zest, pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa powder, or vanilla seeds)
4. Beat the eggs lightly and add to the flour/butter mixture. Add a splash of milk as you gently work the mixture into a ball.
5. Divide into 2 balls. Flour lightly and pat it into a flat round. Wrap each round with saran wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

That is pretty much it! Mix up your fruit with your favorite spices and maybe some agave syrup (or sugar if that is your preference). Roll out your crust and be inventive with shapes and pans.

I had company over for this pie crust making extravaganza. One friend brought fresh tiny apples from Julian so we used those for the filling. We made 6 muffin-size pies and a regular pie with a bottom and top. In addition I was able to make a regular pie with a lattice top. It really was so easy. Now go make some pie crust!

photo credit: Cayenne 09.20.09