This weekend we finally experimented with kale chips. I’d never eaten one but saw them popping up again and again and decided that they were worth a try. I washed the kale, tossed it in grape seed oil (I prefer grape seed to olive oil when cooking because of how each handles high heat.), added a touch of salt and baked them for 15-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I know 15-25 minutes is a huge window. The first batch I made I used a lot less kale. It shrunk down so much that I piled the second batch pretty high. Basically you want the chips to cook until they are crispy but not burnt.
The result: at first we thought they were great, but as Peter and I snacked on the after taste became overwhelmingly kale-y and we got burnt our pretty quickly. The funny thing is that the next day we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. Guess what she brought out for an appetizer?! The difference was that she squeezed lemon on the kale before baking and it really cut down on that kale taste. I think we’re still a bit kaled out, but if we decide to make them again, we’ll definitely be adopting her lemon trick for our recipe.
Have you ever cooked kale chips? Do you love them or hate them? Let us know!
Written on February 19th, 2010 by Peter2 comments
Jamie Lee and I both like spinach and artichoke dip, but we agree that most of the time, the recipe is rather bland. It is one of those dips that tends to hide its mediocrity with an overwhelming richness. Generally, this richness results from a mixture of sour cream, mayonnaise, and cream cheese, all of which have a rather piquant flavor but little depth. So I thought I would make a version that did not skimp on flavor and had richness only when it would have a unique flavor to it. Mine has more actual cheese in it and should be baked in an oven.
You will need:
fresh mozzarella (3 golf ball size pieces)
1/3 cup gouda
1/3 cup good Swiss cheese
1/3 cup feta (we used low fat)
1 cup low fat cream cheese (preferably whipped)
8 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess liquid
12 oz. artichokes (1 can)
3 TB white wine
2 cloves garlic minced
To make:
Heat oven to 375
Puree mozzarella and divide in half
Puree rest of ingredients, except for spinach and artichokes
Fold the mixture in with half of the pureed mozzarella.
Roughly chop artichokes and spinach, then fold in with mixture
Spoon mixture into Pyrex dish
Cover mixture with remaining pureed mozzarella
Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly
This made the best spinach artichoke dip we have ever tasted. Be aware that this recipe makes a fair amount, and once you add bread into the picture, you are looking at a meal in itself, especially if you add a good green salad to the table. The other thing about it is that the presentation is more dramatic with the toasted cheese on top. The different cheeses in the dip itself give it a lot of complexity that you can set off nicely with a crisp white wine. Enjoy!
Written on February 5th, 2010 by Peterno comments
Tonight we decided to make an inexpensive meal that would give us some leftovers to take to work for lunch. Certain things work better as leftovers than others. In my opinion, pasta gets slimy and starchy, fish tends to get rubbery, and ground beef dries out. One option that stays relatively stable is soup, but be careful. Some soups keep better than others. Certain soups will solidify after cooling and no amount of further additions prior to reheating will save them. Also, certain vegetables like leeks, kale, or anything meant to be crispy on the first go will become anything but once the soup is reheated.
With these precautions in mind, good soups to make with leftovers in mind are vegetable based with some, but not tons, of dairy. For example, tonight I made a nice tomato bisque with a few chunks of gouda, some smoked paprika, a splash of half and half, and a spoonful of lowfat cream cheese. One thing that bothers me about most bisques is that the heavy cream used in the dairy addition is rich, but not terribly interesting in terms of how that creaminess tastes. Rich food should be worth the calories and the taste, not just the former! Making a soup with a few different kinds of dairy, in addition to a nice sharp flavor like tomatoes, really makes for a nice meal and one that is lighter than a heavy cream bisque.
After reading that roster of dairy, this may seem like anything but a high cost meal. However, the only thing we had to buy to make the soup were tomatoes, both fresh and canned, and the half and half, which we plan on using in another recipe. We had everything else, which brings me to a good tip on cooking, which is that you should use what you have. We bought a big wedge of gouda a while ago, and we had a chunk of it left. We like bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, so we always have some cream cheese in the fridge. Gouda, cream cheese, and half and half are all dairy, but each one has a certain taste that is nice on its own, but is also easy and fun to combine.
As for the rest of the recipe, it’s easy:
To begin, toss a big spoonful of minced garlic and a medium chopped onion into some hot olive oil. If you have a thin bottom pot, watch this mixture and stir it a lot until the onions are translucent. I then chopped four fresh tomatoes into big slices, about the size of a lemon wedge in a glass of iced tea, and tossed those in. To this I added about a half tablespoon of smoked paprika and some dried basil. While that heated up, I pureed three 14 oz cans of whole tomatoes in a blender and added this to the pot, along with two bouillon cubes (flavor on these varies a lot by brand, so find one you like). To this I added 3 cups of water
Then I let that mixture boil for about an hour, uncovered. I stirred it every now and then, but since there is no dairy in it yet, the soup can pretty much bubble on its own.
Then, add the chunks of gouda, the cream cheese, and the half and half. Lower your heat and wait for it to bubble just a bit, then stir it more frequently, maybe once every five minutes. Once dairy is in the soup there is a far greater chance the soup will scorch to the bottom of the pan, which you want to avoid!
I made some cornbread to go with this soup, but if making the soup is enough of a chore, just buy a nice crusty white or wheat bread. This simple tomato bisque is healthier than its relative which consists of nothing but pureed tomatoes and heavy cream. You could also add some other veggies to it if you wish; soup is nice to experiment with, because unless you do something really extreme, it will still taste pretty good. Just don’t go overboard on spicing it; you can always add more, but subtracting or downplaying a spice is not easy. And you want to preserve the taste of the fresh tomatoes you added.
It was so good that we accidentally dove right in before taking a photo!
Have fun cooking!
Written on January 14th, 2010 by Peterone comment
I do most of the cooking at home and we try to make low cost meals be the rule. Doing so is good for two reasons. First, when we do splurge on something, like fresh tuna steaks, it is extra special. Second, it makes it easier on our budget to have friends over for dinner. Here are some helpful bits of information that can get you started on making low cost meals.
One of the easiest ways to make low cost meals is to invest in fresh herbs that you can grow in your home. Indoors or outdoors, most herbs are hearty and grow quickly. Having your own herbs saves lots of money at the grocery store. Herbs also drastically improve a dish. They don’t just look cool.
Recipes (especially stews and sauces) will often call for dried herbs and the best way to handle this side of cooking is to purchase a set of spices. It is pretty easy to find an eighteen spice set, which often comes with its own rack. It is especially helpful to get one of these if you are beginning to cook, because you will learn pretty quickly which spices you use the most, and can avoid stocking up on spices you will never use. We got one of our first spice racks from Costco. Then as we wanted to try new spices, we bought them in bulk, sometimes with a friend so that we wouldn’t have to worry about using the spices before they went bad and we could share the cost.
Unless you are roasting garlic, buying, storing, and cutting whole cloves of garlic wastes time and money. We bought a large jar of minced garlic and cannot tell the difference between the jar and the chopped garlic I have repeatedly labored over in the kitchen. Having worked in numerous restaurants, I can attest that they have all relied on this method as well, because chefs do not have the time to cut their own garlic for all the dishes they make.
If you are tight on cash, it is tough to get over the fear of cooking something that might taste bad, but you will save money in the long run. Start simply and make one dish repeatedly, and practice until you start to improve. The dish should be relatively cheap, like pasta with fresh tomato sauce, which does not require very many ingredients and can be made in small amounts.
Images courtesy of The English, Garden, The Flying Pig and Eathy Finds.
