sandwich

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup with not low-fat grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

maki — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:22:51 +0100

The theme of the elimination challenge in the most recent Top Chef was to create an adult version of childhood comfort food. The winning combo, created by Betty, was a variation of the classic pairing of cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of just tomatoes, she added roasted red peppers to the soup, and instead of just cheese, she put grilled portobello mushrooms in the sandwich.

It looked like just the thing for lunch, but when I checked out the recipe as demonstrated by Lee Anne, I wasn't too happy with the 2 cups of heavy cream in the soup. Not that I have anything against cream, I just thought it wasn't necessary in this case. So I fiddled around a bit and came up with a much lower fat, but still satisfyingly creamy, version. The creamy texture comes from the pureed peppers and the roasted garlic. The only added butterfat in this version comes from the spoonful of sour cream or crême fraîche that each person adds at the last minute, so the cook can shift any responsibility for the added calories to the eater. The soup is almost as good without the cream, so it can be served to a mixed group (vegetarians and omnivores, dieters and non-dieters, lactose-intolerent folks and Swiss people, etc.)

I've also reduced the number of vegetables used. I think the basil and celery used in the original recipe would bring in minestrone-like overtones, and the cream of tomato soup flavor I was aiming for was much simpler, a combination of sweet with a little sour.

The sandwich is not very low-fat. No real grilled cheese sandwich is. Mine is quite similar to Betty's version, except that I used Gruyère cheese, and added crispy bacon. I also used regular mushrooms instead of Portobellos, since that's what I had on hand and they are way cheaper. I also used plain whole wheat sliced bread, not sourdough (I think sourdough gets rather overused in Caifornia).

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup

4 large red or orange sweet peppers, or a combination (I used 2 red and 2 orange)
1 large can (800g / 28 oz) of crushed tomatoes
5 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 medium onion
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
1 bay leaves
1 Tbs. dried thyme
1 vegetable stock cube
water
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. honey (optional)
2 Tbs. lemon juice
Sour cream or crême fraîche

Equipment needed: stick blender (immersion blender) or blender or food processor

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wrap the unpeeled garlic cloves in aluminum foil.

Cut the peppers in half and de-core, de-stem and de-seed. Put them cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes in the oven until the skins are blackened and blistering. Bake the wrapped garlic cloves with the peppers (just put the package on the edge of the baking sheet)

Take out the baking sheet. Push the peppers towards the center of the sheet, and wrap the peppers completely in the parchment paper. Leave until cool enough to handle. Peel off the skins. (Wrapping them in the paper steams them, which makes the skins come off a little easier.)

In the meantime, chop up the onion and sauté in a heavy bottomed non-reactive pot with the olive oil until transparent and soft. Add the can of tomatoes, stock cube, peeled peppers, bay leaves and thyme. Take the garlic out of the foil pouch and squeeze out the softened insides into the pot.

Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the peppers are completely tender, about 15-20 minutes. Take out the bay leaves.

If you have a stick blender (immersion blender), blend the mixture thoroughly until smooth. Or, put in a blender or food processor in batches and blend. Optionally, strain through a sieve or strainer (I don't bother with this).

Return to the pot, bring back up to heat, and if it's too thick add a little water until it's the desired consistency. Add the lemon juice and stir very well. Taste and if you think it needs to be a bit sweeter, add the honey. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a bowl of the sour cream or crême fraîche on the table, and have the diners put as much of it as they want on their soup.

Grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

The key is to pre-cook the bacon until its crispy. Don't put uncooked or flabby bacon inside a sandwich.

To make 2 sandwiches:

4 slices whole wheat bread
Cheese of your choice (I used Gruyèyere)
4 slices bacon
1 cup or so sliced fresh mushrooms
Butter

Cook the bacon with your preferred method. (I cook them between layers of paper towels in the microwave for uses like this.) Slice your cheese of choice thinly.

Sauté the mushrooms in a little butter until they are brown and a bit crispy on the outside. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the sandwiches by putting two bacon slices each on the bread, topped with cheese and the mushrooms. Melt some more butter on a flat grill or a frying pan, and grill the sandwiches on both sides until the cheese is melting and the bread is crispy-brown.

Serve immediately.

Pesticides, cabbages, and onion sandwiches

maki — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:16:37 +0200

Yesterday's musings on the priciness of at least some organic produce reminded me of a very useful guide to pesticides on popular fruits and vegetables, published by the Environmental Working Group. I've listed it before in my Daily Links, but I'm repeating it here in case you missed it. It's a wallet-sized guide to the produce that has the most pesticides (so worth buying organic) down to the ones that have the least (so perhaps worth buying conventional. Read the page and download the PDF from here.

The list strikes me as rather ironic though in one sense. If you take a look, you'll see that a lot of tropical fruit are listed near the bottom of the list, meaning they have less pesticides. However, tropical fruit have to travel quite a long way to get to most of us, so in terms of food miles / Eat Local thinking they are not very good.

And onions, the 'cleanest' produce of them all, is restricted on low-carb diets! So, the only Good Food to eat in winter is, I suppose, organically produced, locally grown, cabbage.

Hmm, I have a sudden urge for a raw onion sandwich on organic sprouted whole grain bread.

Onion sandwich

Slice a large onion very very thinly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Spread out on slices of a hearty whole grain bread that's been spread with softened butter. Slice into sandwiches. This is best after it's been chilled a bit so the butter hardens.

The late great James Beard used to love onion sandwiches, and served them frequently at cocktail parties.

(Note: I am not actually on a low-carb diet. I don't think I can go there.)

Tapenade with walnuts

maki — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:19:00 +0200

Regular readers of this site may wonder about the lack of recipes recently. Truth is, I haven't been doing much real cooking lately, as in taking out the pots and pans and turning on the heat. While summer here in Switzerland is quite tolerable due to cool mornings and evenings, during the day the temperature does reach the 30s celsius which isn't too nice since, as with most Swiss houses, we don't have air conditioning. Besides, even if you do have air conditioning or cool evenings, there are so many other things to do during the summer that cooking becomes a low priority, doesn't it?

Short of eating out every meal, I like to make things that take minimal preparation that we can just nibble on. Tartines with simple spreads are a perfect example. In case you are unfamiliar with tartines, they are basically just baguettes or French bread or any kind of good bread with a crusty crust, sliced quite thinly and then topped with something tasty. If you prefer to take your culinary vocabulary from Italy you would call them bruschetta.

Here's some just spread with store-bought paté and runny cheese.

And here are some spread with a tapenade with chopped walnuts. The tapenade is the only thing I cooked, if you can call it that. The only heat involved was for roasting the walnuts briefly in a dry pan for a bit. Then it was all just whizzed in the food processor. This particular combination of flavors was inspired by a similar tapenade that we got at the market in Nyons in Provence. When I eat this, I'm transported back there in spirit.

The key to tapenade is to have really good ingredients. If you are in the States or anywhere else where you can get those awful canned olives that taste like burned plastic, please do not use them. Get good cured olives from a reputable source. I prefer crinkly oil-cured olives from Provence, but Italian, Spanish or Greek olives will do too - taste and compare. This is also the time to pull out your best cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.

I have omitted the usual anchovies from this tapenade since I wanted a clean olive and walnut flavor, but you can add anchovies if you really love them. I also grate the garlic so that you don't get little garlic bits.

Black olive tapenade with walnuts

Approximately 2 cups of pitted black olives, oil cured preferred
1/2 cup walnut halves
2 garlic cloves
Approximately 1/2 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. lemon juice

Equipment needed: a food processor

To pit the olives, put them in a plastic bag, spread them over a chopping board and smack them with the side of a heavy kitchen knife. The pits should come out relatively easily. Or, use a cherry/olive pitter.

Toss the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat until they start to smell toasty. Take off the heat and let cool.

Peel the garlic cloves and grate them to a pulp with a fine grater. (Yes, your fingers will smell garlicky afterwards. If you do not love this, you may want a garlic press. I don't own one.)

Place the walnuts in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until they are relatively finely chopped. Take out.

Put the olives in the food processor. Process until finely chopped. Then, with the machine running, add the olive oil slowly through the feed tube until it forms a fairly smooth yet thick paste.

Add the grated garlic and lemon juice, and add the chopped walnuts, and pulse until mixed. You don't want the walnuts to become a powder since the contrast in textures makes it interesting.

Taste and adjust with salt/pepper only if needed. Spread on bread slices, or use as a dip.

Covered, this keeps for about a week in the refrigerator (but it probably won't last that long).

Masterchef challenge day 20: Chicken Liver Paté; Tartines

maki — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:36:31 +0100

I am a week behind in posting this, but here we go. Day 20 of Masterchef brought us these ingredients:

Chicken
Chicken livers
Bread (unspecified, but they showed a baguette)
Walnuts
Raisins
Brandy
Bacon
Pears

This is the second challenge with liver, but chicken liver is a bit easier to deal with than calf's liver in my opinion. This paté is something I have been making since I was in high school. It's always been a reliable hit whenever I've made it for a party. The very first party I served it at was for some church people my father decided to invite to our house. I still remember the pastor enthusiastically munching his way throug the paté on toast that I had carefully arranged on a platter. The flavor is sort of related to chopped liver (though chopped liver has no bacon or cream in it obviously), which is a staple of any good diner menu on Long Island, New York, where I spent my last year of high school before moving on to college in NYC. My father and sister still live on Long Island, and I try to get at least one diner lunch in whenever I go and visit them.

The paté is put into small containers and sealed on top with rendered chicken fat. Rendered chicken fat is called schmaltz in Yiddish, and it's the most delicious yet guilt-inducing fat ever. Duck fat is also as rich, but the fact that it's French seems to somehow reduce the guilt factor a bit since by consuming it you are indicating you are a cultured, worldly individual. Schmaltz has no such cachet, but it should!

This pateé is a snap to make with a food processor. It is very rich, so put it into small containers. The chicken fat on top forms an airtight seal that allows it to keep for several days in the refrigerator. If you don't have enough chicken skin to render enough fat, use melted butter.

Unused ingredients: chicken meat, raisins, pears (out of season!!)

Technorati Tags: liver, liver pate, masterchef

Chicken liver paté with walnuts

200g / 7 oz chicken livers
1 shallot, chopped
4 slices bacon, finely chopped
200ml / 1/2 pint heavy cream
about 450g / 1 lb chicken skins (I save the skins taken off of chicken in the freezer), or butter
3 Tbs. brandy
Pinch dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup walnuts
1 baguette

Chop the chicken skins up roughly, and put in a shallow pan with a little water. Let it cook over a medium-low heat until the chicken pieces are all crispy and the fat has been rendered. Season with a little salt. The rendering takes quite a while, so start it off at the start. Or, just use butter.

Cut off any membranes from the chicken livers, and wash in cold water.

Sauté the shallot in butter or the rendered chicken fat. Add the bacon and cook over medium-low heat. Add the chicken livers and sprinkle with the brandy. Add the cream, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer slowly for 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, slice the baguette on the diagonal, put on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 200°C / 400°F until brown and crispy. Toast the walnuts by putting them in a small frying pan with no added oil, and tossing about until they smell good and get a bit deeper brown in color.

Purée the chicken liver mixture in the food processor until very smooth - about 2 minutes minimum. Pass it through a sieve to make it really smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper, remembering that when it's cool the flavors will be a bit less intense.

Put the still warm liver purée into small containers. Top off with a layer of chicken fat or melted butter. Let cool in the refrigerator (or if you are in a hurry, in the freezer).

To serve, spread the paté on a toast slice, and top with a walnut; or simply put out the toasted slices on the table with the paté in little pots, and the walnuts in a bowl.

Note: You can add a chopped onion to the chicken skins to give the schmaltz even more flavor.

Is my blog burning: tartine edition (with a recipe for hummus)

maki — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 18:09:47 +0100

I wasn't too well prepared for the tartine edition (hosted by Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini) of Is My Blog Burning? (conceived by Alberto of Il Forno). I forgot to buy any special bread, so had to make do with regular toast bread and some pumpernickel. The pumpernickel was not toasted but the sliced white bread was. Then there was the matter of what to put on the bread. We sort of improvised, with mixed results. Therefore, a 2-for-1: choose the one that appeals to you the most!

Tartine 1: Luusesalbi. "I'll make some Luusesalbi" declared Max. Luusesalbi literally means Lice Cream...a somewhat worrisome name. It is made with a very strange Swiss cheese called Schabziger (there is a variety of it called Sapsago which may be more readily available outside of Switzerland). It originates in the canton of Glarus. It's made of skimmed milk, salt, and a mixture of alpine herbs. It is a pale lime green, and comes in little cones wrapped in foil:

Max grated the Schabziger into a bowl, and blended it with about 25 grams (about 2 tablespoons) of softened butter and a tablespoon of milk, with a fork. What emerged was this pale green paste, which was spread on the pumpernickel:

I took a bite - and suddenly remembered why I hadn't had this for more than 5 years. To me, it tastes somewhat like soap. Max however loves it. Maybe it's an acquired (Swiss) taste. If you want to try a very unusual cheese, you may want to give this a go. The ideal bread for this is a rye bread, such as Waliserbrot, lightly toasted. Spread the Luusesalbi on while the toast is still hot for maximum...impact.

Tartine 2: Hummus. Having taken just one bite of the Luusesalbi concoction, I was still hungry. Then it hit me - we still had a bag of hummus in the freezer. We took it out and defrosted it, and spread it on toast. Voila! a delicious hummus tartine.

The red stripe decoration is simply sweet paprika powder. Place two straight knives back to back on the toast, and sprinkle the powder in between. Remove the knives carefully to maintain the clean lines of the stripes. If you are doing a whole party tray full of them, cut long strips of paper and lay them across the whole batch of neatly lined up slices, and sprinkle away. You can use another fairly neutrally flavored powdered herb or spice, such as dried parsley or dill.

Following is my recipe for hummus, to be used as a dip, or as sandwich spread or filling. It is quite garlicky, so beware. This makes a huge batch, which I then freeze: put one cup of hummus into a plastic zip bag, flatten the bag and seal. Take a bag out about an hour before you want to eat it - if you defrost in the microwave it may get a bit watery, but you can just drain that off. Weeks' worth of hummus in one go.

[Update: Clotilde has posted a list of all the Is My Blog Burning participants.]

Hummus

1 kg / about 2 lbs of dried chickpeas
3 lemons
12 large garlic cloves, peeled (more if you can stand it)
1/2 - 1 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup of raw white sesame seeds
Salt to taste

Soak the chickpeas in cold water to cover for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Drain the chickpeas and re-cover with fresh water. Cook for about 3 hours until the peas are completely soft, and can be crushed easily between your fingers.

Drain the cooked chickpeas, reserving the cooking liquid. Mash the peas, with a potato masher, or in batches in the food processor or blender, or with a stick blender. (If you want it to be completely smooth, use the food processor or a blender. I don't mind it being a bit chunky.)

Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan until the seeds start to pop and snap. Remove from the pan as soon as it looks lightly toasted - if you leave them in the pan they will get burned from the residual heat. Let cool, and in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle grind them to a fine powder. Add the tahini and blend to a paste. (Toasted sesame seeds add a nice flavor, but you can omit them and just increase the amount of tahini.)

Crush the garlic cloves to a fine pulp, either with a garlic press, or with the tip of a knife on a cooking board sprinkled with salt. Or you can grate the garlic (your hands will smell like garlic for the next week though).

Juice the lemons, and add the juice to the mashed peas. Add the garlic, tahini and sesame, and olive oil. If it's too thick loosen it up with some of the cooking liquid (which will be rather gelatinous). Season to taste with salt.

If you want the hummus to be a bit more sour, add more lemon juice. If you prefer more sesame taste, increase the sesame seeds or the tahini. You can also try using peanut butter instead of tahini - it should work. Decrease the garlic if you must, but really, try it like this first.

Fishfinger buttie

maki — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:49:42 +0100

I grew up in Japan, England and the U.S., so all the good and bad of the food culture of each country is part of my food vocabulary. While I like to try out new things as much as any enthusiastic cook. "comfort food" to me means things that I used to eat when I was little.

The British have a penchant for the most wonderfully stodgy food. A fishfinger buttie is one such thing. I honestly don't know if this thing would taste good to anyone except someone who's grown up eating it. Jamie Oliver even has a recipe for it in one of his cookbooks (I can't remember which...it could be Happy Days). It's basically a white bread sandwich with yes, fish fingers or fish sticks - those breaded frozen things with dubious fish (they usually say cod) inside, that you either bake in the oven or fry up in a pan - as the filling. Sounds awful? Maybe, but it is a tasty snack sometimes. For some reason I like this only in the cold months...I never get a fishfinger buttie craving in the summer.

My version of a fishfinger buttie

For 1 buttie (sandwich):

4-6 frozen fish fingers (fish sticks)

2 slices of good quality white bread

Iceberg lettuce

Worcestershire sauce or steak sauce

Mayonnaise

Prepare the fish fingers, either by baking in the oven or toaster oven, or frying them in a bit of butter in a frying pan. If you do this drain them well on paper towels. Do not microwave the fish fingers. Sure it's just snack food, but you don't want soggy fingers!

The bread should be fresh and good. A nice crusty bread is nice, but regular loaf bread would do too. The slices should be pretty thick.

Spread each slice of bread with some mayonnaise. Put the fish fingers on one. Drizzle the Worcestershire sauce or (preferred) thick steak sauce over the fish fingers. Cover with a couple of iceberg lettuce leaves, then the other slice of bread.

Eat with milk or a good bottle of beer.