a few Easter ideas

I hope you find yourself surrounded on Easter with those you love.
If you're in need a little last minute Easter celebration meal inspiration, I submit the following: 

I think these would be quite charming on an Easter table.

It would not be Easter dinner if I wasn't peeling 10 pounds of potatoes to make this.

This has been a regular go-to spring dessert and the tart crust can be made in advance.  

Finally, some bits of leftover ham and Easter dinner veggies could find a new purpose in this dish.

Happy Easter !

vegetable pot pies with puff pastry

 Chicken pot pies were a big deal when I was a little girl. They were generally only served when my parents were going out for the night and we were left in a babysitters care. My mom would pop them out of their individual cardboard boxes and into the oven before she started to get dressed up for the evening. It was actually pretty genius of her because we were so obsessed with them, it distracted us from the fact that our parents were going some where without us. They were of course the premade, frozen kind. But we could not have cared less. We loved the buttery crumbly crust and savory gravy. 

A couple years ago, I attempted a homemade chicken pot pie and it did not turn out so well. It made me pot pie shy and I have not attempted once since. One of the joys of learning to cook is revisiting a recipe that was a previous failure only to see how my own skills have grown. This recipe was such a success I feel that I have to share it. 

The recipe originally is for chicken pot pies but the ones pictured are all vegetable. I have a good friend who showed up at my doorstep the day before with a sack of fresh gorgeous veggies from her garden, including some lovely little turnips (see below- isn't it pretty?) I quite like turnips and they found a nice home in these pies (along with some diced butternut squash, shallot, and peas.) 

 As we move into spring and summer harvest I like to have recipes around that lend themselves to adapting to whatever produce is loveliest now. I think this is one of those recipes.  The original recipe is from Martha Stewart Living.

 

vegetable pot pies with puff pastry

1 shallot, finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small turnip, peeled and diced

1 russet potato, peeled and diced

1/2 cup butternut squash, peeled and diced

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

3 thyme sprigs

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

5 teaspoons cornstarch whisked with 2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 package (14 ounces) puff pastry, cut into four squares

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook shallot in oil in a large pot over medium heat until soft, about 4 minutes. Add turnip, potato, and butternut squash. Cook until soft, about 10 minutes. 

2) Add wine; simmer until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock; bring to a boil. Add thyme and peas. Season with salt and pepper. Add cornstarch mixture and cream. Bring to a simmer; cook until thick, about 5 minutes.

 3) Divide mixture among four 6-ounce ramekins; top with pastry. Brush with egg. Cut a hole into each to vent. Bake on a baking sheet until golden, 12 to 14 minutes.

4) When finished baking, wallow in their delicious adorableness! 

potato leek soup

Some days are better than others. I came to this conclusion recently when, around 4pm, I realized that the day I was currently in was not so great and had little chance of being salvaged. And yet I also realized that I can't have great days (days of bright sparkling fireworks of beauty, love, grace and butter) without crummy days thrown in along the way. Some how this knowledge helps me release the crummy days a bit more easily.
I also thought of this poem by Longfellow:

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the moldering wall,

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark and dreary; 

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the moldering past, 

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast

And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life a little rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

For me, potatoes are my comfort food. Mashed, roasted, baked, fried- I will take it all. This soup is simple to put together and the reward for minimal effort is velvety smooth and savory. Interestingly enough, unlike so many potato soups, there is no cream. I promise you will not miss it.

Note: aside from being great comfort food, this is also great party food. We had a Halloween party one year and I served little tea cups of this soup on the buffet. I loved the moment when I turned to see a couple of gentlemen guests carrying tea cups back into the kitchen for refills (several times.)

The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking.

potato leek soup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 large leeks (white part only), cleaned thoroughly and chopped
2 large baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
5 cups chicken stock

1) Melt the butter in a soup pot over low heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring, until tender but not browned. This will take about 20 minutes.

2) Stir in the potatoes and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.

3) Puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (If feeling fancy, garnish with chives.)

chocolate covered strawberry cake

This is not a humble shy kind of a cake. It is not a quiet restrained kind of a cake. It is a show stopping ta-da! kind of a cake. I like to think that if this cake could talk it would greet me with a "why hello sugar" and a sassy wink. This is not the kind of treat to serve to someone that you are just okay about. This cake a declaration of love, true friendship, and genuine affection.

I think it would be a very appropriate over the top gesture to make this for someone for Valentine's day. See if you get a little "hello sugar" yourself.

chocolate covered strawberry cake
The cake is three main components: north douglas chocolate cake, strawberry buttercream, and chocolate ganache. The creamy light strawberry buttercream frosting is sandwiched between two layers of moist chocolate cake. Then a good dosing of chocolate ganache is poured over all. Each component on it's own is pretty easily done. It is the combination of them together that creates this magical experience.

North Douglas chocolate cake

(link) Follow the recipe for the cake portion only of the North Douglas chocolate cake.

strawberry buttercream frosting
(this recipe is from Martha Stewart)
So, this recipe is a bit fiddly. I will admit to that. It is not particularly tricky or difficult, but it does require some patience to stand in front of a mixer and drop in each little piece of butter and allow it to fully incorporate. But, wow oh wow is it worth it. Friends flip out over this frosting. It is like strawberry cloud heavenly light.

4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, pureed (blitz the strawberries in a food processor)

1) Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.

2) Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition.

3) Switch to a paddle attachment. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

chocolate ganache
(this recipe is from the genius Ina Garten)

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz good semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

1) Cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

2) When smooth, remove from heat and set aside. Let it cool slightly.

cake assembly
1 pint of strawberries

1) Once the cake has cooled completely, take one of the layers and place it top side down on the serving dish.

2) Pile 3 cups of the strawberry buttercream frosting onto this layer and smooth out to the sides. Be a bit gentle with the buttercream because we did spend some time getting it nice and fluffy. It would sad to lose that to spatula smashing.

3) Place the second cake layer on top of the buttercream frosting, top side up. Take the remaining 2 cups of buttercream frosting and fill in the side space between the chocolate cake layers. (Note: do not put any of the buttercream on the top of the final cake layer. This layer will be covered with ganache).

 4) Pour the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake. Gravity will probably pull the gorgeous chocolatey-ness down the edges of the cake, but if not a gentle nudging from a spatula will do the trick. 

5) Wash and cut the tops off the pint of strawberries. Blot the cut top of the strawberry on a paper towel and then arrange cut side down on the chocolate ganache cake.

6) Step back and marvel at the general gorgeous splendor. Share with someone you love.

lemon butter cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and candied lemon peel

I will preface this by saying I realize that lemon cupcakes and November are not a natural fit, but I made these awhile back and have just not gotten around to posting the recipe until now and really they are too scrumptous to wait any longer to share. For a perfect fall recipe, may I suggest apple cardamom cake with caramel frosting? which, ironically, I originally blogged in May.

These cupcakes were made for a friends birthday. Before I make someone a birthday treat, I like to ask what flavor of dessert they would like. A lot of people prefer chocolate (I can not blame them for that). When my friend mentioned that she really loves lemony things, I was excited to try something new.

I have to admit that I have not always loved lemon desserts. Where I grew up, lemons were not easy to come by and so I am afraid that most things were "lemon flavored"- ie the flavor was obtained from one of the small brown glass extract bottles in the cupboard. I always thought those bottles were magical. However, the first time I snuck a sip of vanilla extract (it smells so good! surely it must taste good!) I was sorely disappointed.

Where I live now has lots of lemons. The valley around me was once full of groves of lemons, oranges, and avocados. Neighbors, co-workers, and friends often have lemon trees in their yard. It is not unusual to arrive at work and find a large paper bag filled with lemons sitting out by the coffee. There is no note that accompanies these bags, people just know that their presence is an invitation to take. It is such a happy thing.

For this cupcake I wanted to capture that fresh lemon loveliness. I also love the voluptuous tang of cream cheese with sharper tang of lemon. The cupcake recipe is a variation of a Martha Stewart yellow butter cupcake. The cream cheese frosting is Ina Garten. The candied lemon peel provides that extra hit of concentrated lemon flavor at the end.

Lemon Butter Cupcakes

makes 36 cupcakes
(I almost never get as many cupcakes as a recipe indicates- I think this recipe yielded 30 cupcakes for me. But then I do tend to overfill cupcake tins.)

3 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
9 ounces (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks, room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (rather than add the vanilla, this is where I substituted the zest of 2 small lemons)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

2) Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

3) Reduce speed to low. Mix remaining wet ingredients in a bowl (To make the these cupcakes lemony, this is where I mixed in the lemon zest and omitted the vanilla).

4) Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each full.

5) Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

6) To assemble the cupcakes: take a cooled cupcakes and slather with a generous portion of cream cheese frosting. Place a little pile of candied lemon peel on top. Enjoy! 

Cream Cheese Frosting
(If ever at a loss for what type of frosting to use, this is always the solution.)

1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/ 2 teaspoon pure almond exract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners sugar, sifted

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extracts (for these lemon cupcakes, I omitted the almond extract from the frosting). Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.

Candied Lemon Peel
makes 1/2 cup

4 lemons 
1 cup sugar

1) Using a citrus zester or vegetable peeler, shred long strips of lemon peel. (I found it helpful here to use a vegetable peeler to strip off the peel and then a small knife to julienne it.)

2) Place strips in a medium saucepan. Cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Drain; repeat two more times with fresh water.

3) Place sugar in a clean saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the citrus strips to the boiling syrup; reduce heat and simmer until strips are translucent, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat; let strips cool in syrup, at least 1 hour. Remove from syrup when ready to use.

curry chicken and potatoes

I love when I taste something for the first time and it feels like coming home: warm, inviting, comforting. That is how I feel about this curry.

I have no childhood memories of eating curry. My parents did a wonderful job of introducing my sisters and I to new foods but I do not believe that any type of curry was ever among them.
The summer I was 17, I spent three weeks in India. I was with other kids from all over the states on a short-term missions trip. I was this skinny, wide eyed kid from Alaska. I woke up the first morning saying over and over to myself, "I am in India, I am in India, I am in India." It was amazing.
I always remember my dinner the first night- my brain was still buzzing from the airplanes and the cacophony of sights and sounds during the drive from the airport to where we stayed. At dinner time, we sat down at tables in a dimly lit hall and were served curry potatoes and chipatis. I rolled the potatoes up in the chipati and ate it like a burrito. It was mildly spiced and the potatoes were a soft golden yellow. I felt it filling me up, nourishing me in a new way. For months when I returned back to the states, I dreamed of those curry potatoes.

I did initially made this dish in an attempt to capture some of that early curry love but ended up falling for it for it's own virtues: tender chicken and potatoes soaked through with aromatic broth.

 I have learned that curry powder is really just a mixture of other spices. This original recipe is from the cookbook "The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes" by Judith Finlayson. It does not call for any curry powder, just a blend of spices. However I, very uncharacteristically, did not read the full recipe beforehand. It was only when I started cooking that I realized it called for caradmom pods and not ground cardamom, cumin seeds and not ground cumin. I added what I had of ground spice and in an attempt to salvage the dish, added a few tablespoons of curry powder. It was such a relief when it turned out so well! I love happy mistakes. Below is my adaptation of the recipe and I really love it.

A note about crockpots: This recipe helped usher in a new era of successful crockpot cooking in my household. I say successful because early on in our marriage I had made several valiant attempts at various crockpot dishes but it all ended in such disaster that I gave it up for a few years. It was only after dinner at a friends home, with a delicious roast they made in the crockpot, that I felt sufficiently inspired to give it another try. It really is pretty fantastic at the end of a day to walk into my home and smell a completed dinner.

curry chicken and potatoes

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 lbs chicken pieces (this can be a whole cut up chicken, but I think it's best with bone-in, skin-on chicken breast)
6 medium potatoes (about 2 lbs- red potatoes work well)
3 yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced gingerroot
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon curry powder 
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 bay leaf
3 cups chicken stock

1) In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until softened.

2) Add garlic, gingerroot, coriander, tumeric, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, salt and black pepper, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add lemon juice, bay leaf and 2 cups of chicken stock. Reduce heat to low.

3) While the sauce is on low, scrub and peel potatoes. Cut each potato into half length-wise and then each half into thirds. Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the crockpot and place chicken pieces on top of the potatoes. (You may certainly add more potatoes- it's a great way to stretch this dish for a crowd or for greedy potato eaters.)

4) Pour sauce over chicken, cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

5) Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the pieces from the crockpot and discard the skin and bones. Also, discard the bay leaf. Shred the chicken and add it back to the crockpot, submerging it in the sauce and potatoes. Enjoy!

beer bread

Is there anything better than fresh baked bread? Some of my favorite childhood memories are of opening the front door and smelling yeast, flour, honey. Watching my mom pound down dough and then setting it above the wood fireplace for its second rising. Straight from the oven and slathered in butter, it was heaven.

A few years ago I went through a short lived phase where I was baking all our bread. It was a high caloric dream indulgence of fresh baked slices with butter and jam at night and then piles of french toast every other day (we could not waste any bread!). Oh, and BLTs, lots of BLTs- anything to let the bread shine. It was wonderful but very time consuming.

Now when I want fresh bread from the oven, I make this: beer bread. It is laughably easy but so satisfying: just a quick whisk of dry ingredients then fold in the beer and it is ready to bake. The beer helps serve as the leavening agent for the bread. It is dense and full of nuttiness from the oats and hops from the beer.

I love to have this with soup- it is easily mixed together and while the soup simmers, the bread bakes and is ready to eat for a simple super. I also think it is too perfect for breakfast. I have a real crush on this bread.

It is lovely from the oven and but also very good toasted the next day. I do confess, that by the third day, it is done. But that is okay because there are rarely any leftovers that remain that long. This recipe is from The Joy of Cooking.

Beer Bread

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups light or dark beer (but not stout), cold or at room temperature but not flat

1) Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.

2) Whisk together thoroughly in a large bowl all the dry ingredients

3) Add the beer. Fold just until the dry ingredients are moistened. (please be careful to not over mix). Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center and all the way to the bottom of the pan comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 5 to 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.