Spinach is one of my favorite foods, and I can only wish that I’d thought of this recipe at Farmgirl Fare myself because it uses it to such great effect. Back in my college days when I barely cooked, sauteed baby spinach and rice, with salt and pepper, was a rather common meal for me; the flavor combination was enough for me to enjoy such an ascetic meal (oh, how my palate has developed). So, this soup builds on that meal and makes it much, much better — it has a small amount of rice cooked into it and a rich background of onions and stock. It’s so easy, and so satisfying.

Susan doesn’t have a picture posted, apparently from soup pic overload, but its color is one of my favorite aspects… Emerald, it is.

I followed the recipe for the most part, except that I substituted 4 out of the 6 cups of chicken stock with vegetable stock because I was reluctant to let chicken flavors dominate my spinach, and I left some chunks of onion and little bits of rice just for some textural contrast. I’m usually a little reluctant to add good olive oil for cooked foods, but I’m glad that I used my Stonehouse Extra Virgin Sevillano Olive Oil that I bought at the SF Ferry Building. I think that its punch of grass and pepper came through very nicely.

As far as variations go, there are many… and by variations, I mean adding one or two elements to it after you’ve had it as is a few times.

It’s fantastic hot, but I’ve also been eating it cold. For me, the chilled quality adds an element of Spring, and the flavor remains quite sprightly. I think that this would make a great simple amuse-bouche at a restaurant. Served in a shot-sized glass, maybe topped with creme fraiche, to get guests excited for a fresh, flavorful meal to come.

When hot, I once added a dollop of homemade mayonnaise, which added a spiciness from dry mustard and cayenne, as well as a creaminess; I used adding aioli to bouillabaisse as a model.

I added chopped sorrel to it once, but it almost overpowered the soup. A conservative garnish of more subtle herbs, like chives or parsley, or maybe a even little roasted fennel, would work better, though.

I also once had it as a backdrop for some Trader Joe’s Thai Shrimp Gyoza, which worked fine, but I think little ravioli or dumplings, like beet or cheese, would be even better.

It’s also a very good snack in the afternoon.

And then, for a variation on a variation, I’d be happy to eat it plain and hot again…

With Chad’s help, I whipped up an Easter lunch yesterday. I found all of the recipes quickly the day before, and started making things on Sunday at about 11am in LA…

Oddly enough, the Glazed Carrots turned out to be the amazing dish of the day. They just burst with good carrot, herb, and butter flavor, with a hint of sweetness (from only 1 added Tbs of sugar to 8 carrots). We couldn’t stop eating them. The recipe, from Fine Cooking, is at the end of this post.

For the ham, we made this Cola Baked Ham with Cherry-Orange Glaze. I’d never baked a ham before, and to pour 2 liters of Coca-Cola into its pan seemed very odd… But it turned it great, juicy and flavorful — with the tinge of cola flavor (and I think that the allspice is the true secret weapon of this dish). I always think, though, that the glaze is a bit wasted on the outside of the meat since the rind can get a little funky, so luckily, we had some extra glaze to serve with the baked ham. The glaze was flavorful (esp w/ the Grand Marnier), but quite sweet — but we made it using the Bonne Maman brand for the preserves, which are usually very sweet.

Ever on the lookout for gravy, Chad explored the possibility of making the mixture of ham juices and cola left from baking into gravy with the addition of cornstarch. After some time on the stove, it did turn into a rather thick cola-flavored gravy, but it was sweeeeeeet.

I made these Gingered Mashed Sweet Potatoes, too, and they were nicely creamy and ginger-y, and not as sweet as many sweet potato recipes. The recipe called for 1.5 c of cream and 6 Tbs of butter to be added to 4 sweet potatoes, but I just couldn’t do that to people that I know. Instead, I used 1/3 c cream and maybe 2 Tbs butter. We also didn’t have a food processor handy, so I just mashed it with the back of a wooden spoon. It was still quite fluffy, and the garlic stayed whole (or halved, as I cut them), which I liked as a textural contrast in the final dish; they were so soft and mellowed from the cream and the cooking that they were nice to eat with the mashed potatoes.

The Haricots Verts in Red Wine Vinegar Cream tasted great, but the cream was a little overwhipped by the time it was mixed with the haricots verts; it should have been runnier. Since we didn’t have red wine vinegar, we used balsamic, which turned out fine. Last time I made this, I didn’t have tomatoes, and I was impressed by how good they taste with the haricots verts, and cream, and chives. Next time, I’m looking forward to making the recipe as is and correctly. The recipe is below; it’s adapted from a Thomas Keller recipe that I found somewhere on the internet last year.

For dessert, we had this Strawberry Shortcake. After what seems like an eternity of making sponge cakes at school, little did I know that I walked myself into another sponge cake recipe here (as opposed to a biscuit-like shortcake which I avoided for lack of a rolling pin and cutter, but I probably should have worked around that since I like that better). The cake turned out fine — slightly dry yet buttery, as usual — but after my success with drastically decreasing the cream and butter in the sweet potato recipe, I tried to decrease the amount of sugar mixed with the strawberries from 2 c to .5 cups. It turned out that not enough syrup was really made from the strawberries as they macerated as a result, but I made up for that by serving it with lots of whipped cream. The berries probably should have soaked for at least an hour or two instead of my 15 mins to get the flavor more even, but the taste was still nice, and I was satisfied. Later, I’m told that the cake got more soaked with syrup, and so was moister.

In all, it wasn’t all that hard to make the meal. The recipes were pretty simple, and I baked the cake before baking the ham. Once the ham was in the oven, I cut up most of what needed to be cut up and would cook once the ham was taken out to rest. Then, at that point, it was mostly just pouring, stirring, and watching… and then eating and eating.
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Note: This is an entry for ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday on April 18, 2006 at Sweetnicks, http://sweetnicks.blogspot.com/ Check out the round-up!

After reading about the smoked salmon pizza that Sweetnicks made, I got a proper craving for it, and decided to make a version for myself. Of course, I monkeyed around with it a little, so I sauteed (and squeezed dry) some chopped baby spinach instead of slicing cucumber, used white onion instead of red because that’s what I had, used creme fraiche instead of sour cream, replaced the dill with chardonnay and oak smoked sea salt b/c I couldn’t get dill, and baked a Trader Joe’s Herb and Garlic Pizza Crust as a base (and also to make up for the missing dill). I wish I had a piece now — a great mix of cool and creamy and sour and salty and chewy and crisp and veggie. I liked it so much that I had it two consecutive nights for dinner.

On the third night, I was out of smoked salmon, but I had just come home from a day in San Francisco with a leftover half of my L’Autostrada sandwich that I’d taken home from Citizen Cake. After a brief hesitation, I thought “This will sandwich become pizza.” So, I removed the meat from inside, chopped it into squares, and used it to top my creme fraiche, sauteed spinach, capers, and avocado. I also sprinkled some Hawaiian red clay sea salt. It was also delicious, and a good thing for me to remember when I have leftovers in the future.

Making this meal was like opening a time capsule to myself.  I’d bought the ingredients in jars and cans about a month ago, in anticipation of one day lacking fresh ingredients, except for garlic and parsley, with which to make a meal.  So, like chicken adobo, it’s another delicous meal that can be made quickly with a minimum of ingredients (especially fresh ones), and is a step up from, say, frozen dinners.  This recipe, too, can be customized however you’d like, adding more or less garlic, capers, anchovies, or olives… or anything else that you may want to add.  My only point of confusion was that the original recipe insinuated that only the plum tomatoes should be used for the sauce, but after cooking down the tomatoes into a loose mass, I decided that I wanted a saucy sauce, so I added in the juices from the can and cooked it down a bit more.  I’ve never ordered this in a restaurant, so I didn’t know exactly how liquid-y the sauce was supposed to be… but I knew what I like.  I also didn’t add nearly as much olive oil as specified… probably more like 3/4 tsp.  The recipe has also been changed around a little to reflect a “mise-en-place” idea.  Rather than chopping tomatoes as you’re sauteing the garlic for such a short time, I think it’s better to have everything ready to go before you start.
Pasta Puttanesca 
adapted from Mark Bittman, NYTimes
3 to 6 servings.

We finished our Pastry Techniques block last week, with Breakfast Pastries and Desserts as our last two subjects; we had focused on Cookies first. It was a survey of working with different doughs, batters, and fillings.

So, here’s the round up of what my three person team made:

Clockwise, Paris Brest, Eclair, Cream Puff, and a Swan. These were all made out of pate a choux, which is started on the stove top and finished in a mixer. We used all milk in our recipe, but half milk/half water or all water would make it a lighter, crispier. Ours were relatively tender and yellow. The Paris Brest was created to commemorate a bike race btw Paris and Brest, and it is meant to resemble a bicycle wheel. It was filled with pastry cream flavored with praline paste.

Our Eclairs had a chocolate pastry cream and a topping made out of melted chocolate, fondant, and simple syrup. The fondant was probably brought above 110 degrees, so the finish is more matted than shiny. It could have also used more melted chocolate to make it darker. We had to eyeball the amounts, which is tricky with melted chocolate and fondant. The double chocolate is a bit too much for me, and my favorite part of eclairs is usually the contrast of the vanilla pastry cream and chocolate top.
The Cream Puff had berries in the bottom and a raspberry whipped cream.

The Swan was made by piping the neck into a shape resembling a “2″ and high, oblong body shape. After baking it, we cut off the top of the body and cut it in half for wings, filled it with whipped cream, and stuck the neck in. We later learned that the “2″ should sit flat in the body, so ours shouldn’t have had that Adam’s apple effect.

This was our Dutch Apple Pie, which we made on the same day as our exploding cherry pies. The filling was a traditional cinnamon apple, but the streusel on top was a bit too sandy for me. It probably needed more moisture in it.

This was my genoise (sponge cake) that was decorated with whipped cream, strawberries, sweet puffed rice for the sides, and simple syrup brushed on the layers. We put the cake on a spinning cake stand to ice it, and angled a straight spatula to smooth the sides and top. Cutting it was a challenge because of the very soft whipped cream and relatively firm strawberries. I broke from the sawing technique at one point, and just pushed the knife down fast to see what would happen… and you can see the two slightly lowered slices that resulted.

We also learned that, generally, the filling and the cake should be about the same density, or else it will disrupt the balance of the finished product. I never thought about that before, and it makes a lot of sense.

I don’t particularly like this frilly style of cake decoration, but it was interesting to see that I could do it ok, for a first try.

We made traditional tiramisu, which turned out with a great mascarpone and marsala flavor. It was one of my favorites of everything we made. The lady fingers are made with the separation foaming method, in which the yolks and whites are whipped separately with sugar, and then folded together before folding in the flour.

This was one of our three angel food cakes, and the one that I prepared 6 ways. The recipe instructed us to lightly sprinkle the sides of the pan with water to produce a more caramelized effect, but maybe I put too much, because the sides were moist for a while after baking.

For our first day of Breakfast Pastries, we made five quick breads: Fig and Cheddar, Sweet Olive Oil, Zucchini, Cumin, and Cumin/Cheddar/Jalapeno.

The Cumin Bread, recipe here, was amazing; it was almost like a cumin biscuit in a loaf shape, and would have been great with chili. We had enough time to make it again, this time adding cheddar and jalapeno, but it tasted virtually the same as the first version, so maybe it’d be best just to top it with those flavorings instead of loading the batter up with so much more cheese.

The Fig and Cheddar was also fantastic, the flavors coming together so well and with a moist texture.

The Sweet Olive Oil Bread, recipe here, was a bit dry and with mundane raisin and lemon flavors. It may have needed small pans to bake it in so that it would all bake evenly and not so much that it dried out in places.

We also made a great Fennel Quiche that was researched by a team mate.

This Cheese Strata is a form of savory bread pudding that I found in Charlie Palmer’s Casual Cooking cookbook — it was fantastic, and similar to a pungent mac & cheese with bread instead of pasta. We cut up two sourdough batards (b/c that’s what we had, but most breads will work) into cubes and sauted them in butter until lightly toasted, and then mixed together 8 eggs, 1 Tbs grated onion, 3.5 c half-and-half, 1 tsp light brown sugar, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 tsp paprika, dash of Tabasco sauce, and coarse salt and pepper. We then combined 3/4 lb grated cheddar cheese and 3/4 lb grated Capricious goat cheese (described here; the original recipe calls for monterey jack). We buttered a 3 qt deep casserole, and layered the bread, cheese, bread, cheese, and bread, and then poured the egg mixture in, and let it soak 15 minutes before baking it at 350 for about 40 minutes, when it was all bubbly and golden brown. And that was my lunch.

And of course, the amazing Blue Cheese and Leek Quiche.

Hot Cross Buns and Panettone. Our Hot Cross Buns had a piped paste on top flavored with lemon peel, and were glazed with thinned fondant. Eh. Fondant, paste, and dough together isn’t my favorite.

The Panettone was very nice, soft and airy. We used currants instead of raisins. They take a very long time to proof–about 1 hr 45 mins even after they’re put into the molds. It’s worth it, though. Before we baked them, we cut a cross on top and put a piece of butter in the center.

This was a Greek Easter Bread called Tsoureki that we researched. It normally has hardboiled eggs stuck into it, but we preferred to make it plain.

On Donut Day, we made yeasted donuts topped with chocolate fondant, cinnamon sugar, or powdered sugar.

We made berliners (jelly donuts) with raspberry jam, and I consider them the miracle donuts– we made a yeasted starter for them the day before, but when I tried to mix it with the rest of the ingredients for the dough, it was extremely dry and would only stay as gummy chunks. Only after a lot of high-powered mixing and fiddling around did it come together. Luckily, they didn’t turn out too tough and gluten-y, but they did taste a bit too yeasty, so maybe they could have proofed longer. To fill them, we used a piping tip that looked like a mosquito’s proboscis.

The apple fritters were the star of the day, though. Perfectly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and in the curls, and with small diced apple pieces. They tasted great, clean and fresh. We used pate a choux to line the dough before rolling it up, which turned out nicely creamy. We should have rolled them tighter, though, because we lost bits of the apple while deep frying.

We melted shortening to deep fry them at 380-400; other groups used canola oil or similar, but they didn’t have quite the right taste for me, so the shortening seemed like a necessary evil. The shortening took about 1 hr to heat up. By putting the dough in clockwise, you can keep track of which donuts should be ready first.

The golden ones were best.

We also piped our extra pate a choux into the pot to make Funnel Cake. It was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, but something was missing flavor-wise. It was also hard to make them round, because the dough preferred to straighten out when piped into the oil so they had to manipulated as best we could.

Next: Cakes!