Tag Archives: Homecooking

My First Homemade Lasagna & Our Favorite Garlic Bread

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For as long as I’ve known my husband, I’ve never made lasagna.

I’m the cook of our relationship. I’m guessing you’ve assumed as much by now. He’s easy to please when it comes to food and doesn’t often request certain meals. However, he has requested lasagna and, until now, I’ve never been able to bring myself to make it.

I think it’s because we ate so much lasagna in my household growing up. We ate all types of lasagna from the Stouffer’s variety with the sweet, orange sauce and cottage cheese curds to pans my mom made herself. It probably appeared in our dinner rotation once a week. While I don’t remember not liking it as a child, I haven’t wanted to make it as an adult. Heck, I worked at Broders’ Cucina Italiana, a lovely Italian deli in Minneapolis, MN during my first year out of college and didn’t even eat their lasagna.

The tides began to turn this past winter when I found myself enjoying a version my cousin recently made at family gathering. And finally, when my husband inquired about homemade lasagna at the start of an especially busy work week, I finally decided to honor his request. I adapted Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for Italian-American lasagna and made a few changes so that it was simpler to make.

Now that I’ve embraced lasagna again, it’s earned its rightful place in our dinner rotation. The leftovers were especially welcome at the end of a work day, and they tasted as satisfying as the first day.

A Cook’s Notes
For just the two of us, I divided the recipe in half and baked the lasagna in a 11 X 7 pan. It made six servings that we enjoyed over the busy week. Much of the lasagna-building process is up to your discretion. Build each layer as thick or thin as you’d like. For example, I went lighter on the cheese. Lidia recommends letting the finished lasagna sit on the counter for a few hours and reheating the squares when it’s ready to serve. I found one hour sufficient and served it from the pan with the extra sauce. There’s really no wrong way to build a lasagna. Just do whatever fits best for you.  

I served our lasagna with my favorite garlic bread and a tossed green salad. 

Lasagna With Meat Sauce
Adapted from Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for Italian-American Lasagna.

Ingredients:
11 X 7 baking dish
Lasagna noodles (About 3/4 of a pound)
Salt
Olive oil
1/2 pound ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 lb. mozzarella, thinly sliced (I used one small ball of fresh mozzarella)
Parmesan cheese, grated

Meat Sauce:
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 bay leaves
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
About 1/2 cup of dry red or white wine
35 oz. of crushed tomatoes
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Pinch of sugar

Instructions:

To begin, start the sauce. It will taste better the longer it simmers.

  1. Saute the onion in olive oil with a pinch of salt until the edges start to brown.
  2. Add the ground beef and sausage and saute until browned. Remove any extra fat drippings.
  3. Add the garlic and briefly cook until fragrant but not browned.
  4. Add the tomato paste and cook for a few minutes.
  5. Add the bay leaves and oregano. Try to remember to remove the bay leaves before assembling the lasagna.
  6. Deglaze the pan with wine and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan into the sauce.
  7. Add the crushed tomatoes, salt and black pepper to taste, and a pinch or two of sugar.
  8. Allow the sauce to simmer for as long as you are able, or until it turns rustier in color. This could take 2-3 hours. If you don’t have time to simmer the sauce for hours, it will still be fine. Longer cooking lessens the tinny taste from the canned tomatoes. You could also substitute your favorite jarred tomato sauce.
  9. Keep tasting the sauce while it simmers and adjust the seasonings accordingly. You may want to add more salt, pepper, sugar, and/or wine.
  10. If the sauce becomes too reduced, add water.

To prepare the other layers

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a generous dash of salt and small drizzle of olive oil.
  2. Cook half of the noodles at a time until they are pliable but undercooked (about seven minutes).
  3. Shock the noodles in ice water.
  4. When the noodles are completely cool, place them on a sheet pan and rub with a light coat of olive oil so they don’t stick together. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
  5. Whisk together the ricotta and egg. Season with salt.

To assemble the lasagna:

  1. Heat oven to 350-375 degrees F.
  2. Ladle enough sauce into the bottom of a pan to generously cover the bottom of the dish.
  3. Layer three noodles into the dish, lengthwise. It’s OK if they slightly overlap. Trim a little off the edge for a better fit.
  4. Ladle a thick layer of sauce over the noodles. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
  5. Add a noodle layer.
  6. Spread the noodles with the ricotta-egg mixture. Use your best judgement about how much cheese to spread. You may want to use less than the full amount.
  7. Add a noodle layer.
  8. Add the sliced mozzarella cheese. If it’s fresh mozzarella, sprinkle it with a little salt. Cover with sauce and sprinkle Parmesan cheese.
  9. Add a noodle layer.
  10. Cover with sauce and sprinkle more Parmesan cheese.
  11. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover. If the top looks a little dry, add more sauce and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 more minutes.
  12. Allow the lasagna to sit before cutting into squares. Serve with any extra sauce.

My Favorite Garlic Bread

Ingredients:
French bread, split
Butter
Olive oil
Garlic, minced
Herbs, whatever you have on hand. I used dried basil and marjoram.
Salt
Black pepper
Cayenne

Instructions:

  1. Combine butter and a little olive oil in a small dish. Add minced garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne.
  2. Heat until the mixture is spreadable.
  3. Spread on both cut sides of the bread. Put the bread back together and wrap in foil. Bake at 350 degrees F. until heated through.
  4. Cut and serve.

Spicy Curry Deviled Eggs With Shrimp: Inspired by Amsterdam Bar’s Spicy Seafood Broodjes

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One of my favorite tastes from the past year came from the Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown St. Paul, MN.

Every once in a while, I will eat something so cravable that I plot to return as quickly as possible. This was most certainly the case with Amsterdam Bar’s Spicy Seafood Broodjes. After one bite, I knew I would crave their little Dutch sandwiches filled with a creamy, curried shrimp and calamari. The broodjes buns are always toasted, the curry sauce is spicy enough to induce a sweat, and the seafood is sweet and tender. I dragged Jake back to this bar the day after our wedding.

I was thrilled to run across an adaptation of Amsterdam Hall’s Spicy Seafood Broodjes on The Tasting Table. When my friend invited me to help her make some appetizers for her holiday party this past weekend, the sandwich’s flavors rose to the top of my mind. Her special request was deviled eggs. I flavored half of the eggs in the traditional manner and seasoned the others like those spicy sandwiches I love. I spiced the creamy yolk filling with Sriracha and curry powder. Then, I topped each egg with a poached shrimp. The spicy versions disappeared the most quickly.

The traditional deviled egg were inspired by this recipe from C. Hamster from the Chowhound board “Your best deviled egg recipe please.” Goya Sauzon is a seasoning mix that I found in the ethnic section of the grocery store. It contains MSG so if you are sensitive to this food additive, leave it out completely and just use salt or soy sauce.

If you don’t have a piping bag and tip or do not want to purchase one, you could spoon the filling into the egg whites. I bought a reusable piping bag and star tip from Creative Kitchens located in the West Acres Mall for $10. I’ve also seen plastic piping tips at big box stores.

Spicy Curry Deviled Eggs With Shrimp
Inspired by Amsterdam Bar’s Spicy Seafood Broodjes

Ingredients:

Traditional:
Eggs
Mayonnaise
Miracle Whip
Dijon Mustard
Worcestershire
Grated onion (and the juice)
White Pepper
Soy Sauce
Optional: Goya Sauzon
Garnish: Minced chives and smoked paprika

Spicy Curry With Shrimp Filling:
Egg Yolks
Miracle whip, mayo, or both
Grated onion (and juice)
Sriracha
Hot Madras curry powder
Salt

Instructions:

To hard boil eggs:

  1. Place eggs in a pot in a single layer.
  2. Cover with plenty of cold water.
  3. Bring to a gentle boil. If the water boils too hard or too long, the eggs will crack and leak.
  4. As soon as the water comes to a boil, remove from the heat. Add a splash of vinegar (which supposedly helps the eggs peel easier). Cover and let sit for 12 minutes.
  5. Plunge into ice water until cool and peel.
  6. Cut eggs in half the long way. Cover whites and place in the refrigerator until ready to use. Pop yolks into a separate bowl.

To make the filling:

Traditional:

  1. Hard boil eggs. Separate yolks from whites.
  2. Mash the egg yolks as finely as possible. Adding some mayonnaise will make this process easier.  For the smoothest texture, use an electric mixer, whip attachment, or food processor. Keep adding mayonnaise, Miracle whip (or both) until the filling is your desired consistency. Since I wanted to pipe my filling, I aimed for a texture that wasn’t too stiff.
  3. Season the filling with mustard, Worcestershire sauce, grated onion, soy sauce (or salt), and white pepper (I also added a small sprinkle of the Goya Sauzon seasoning).
  4. Pipe the yolk filling into the egg white halves. Garnish with a sprinkle of chives and smoked or regular paprika.

Spicy Curry With Shrimp:

  1. Hardboil eggs. Separate yolks from whites.
  2. Follow step one, above.
  3. Season the filling with grated onion, curry powder, sriracha, and salt.
  4. To cook the shrimp, gently simmer in broth seasoned with lemon slices until just cooked. The raw shrimp will change from gray to pink.
  5. Plunge the shrimp into ice water until cool and drain.
  6. Pipe the egg yolk filling into the hard boiled eggs.
  7. Top with the shrimp and chives.

Baking Sage Bread For Class

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This week in culinary school, I gave a speech on sage.

We were all assigned to give short speeches on different herbs and spices.  Sage isn’t necessarily my favorite spice and I haven’t used it frequently in the past.  I am more familiar with sage as a medicinal herb with which my teacher successfully treated women for hot flashes.  I learned that sage is native to the Mediterranean Sea and was used medicinally long before it’s role as a culinary herb.  Garden sage’s scientific name is Salvia officinalis and salvia is derived from the Latin word Salvare which means “to heal” or “to save.”

When the teacher informed us that whoever brought in treats containing their assigned herb or spice would get extra credit, class got delicious.  I baked sage bread, while others shared chili dip, braided cardamom bread, thyme biscuits, ginger cookies, citrusy cilantro salsa, and nutmeg-flecked English tea cakes.

I’m new to baking yeast breads and adapted a recipe for Navajo Wild Sage Bread, originally published in the book Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking, republished on the blog Cooking Books.  Instead of baking the bread in a bowl, I created small loaves.  And because I forgot to buy cottage cheese, I added sour cream, instead. I also added chopped walnut toasted in a little oil with salt and sugar.

The bread turned out to be moist.  I may have pulled them out a little too early in effort to race to class, but the bread tasted pleasing anyway.

A little sage goes a long way.

Ingredients:
1 1/4-ounce package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm (but not hot) water
1 Tablespoon of honey or sugar
3 cups unbleached flour (I used mostly unbleached bread flour plus a little whole wheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed dried sage
Chopped nuts, toasted
3 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon oil

Instructions:
Bloom the yeast by combining it with lukewarm water and sugar.  In about 10 minutes, it should be frothy.  Combine dry ingredients in smaller mixing bowl.  In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sour cream until smooth.  Incorporate oil and yeast mixture.  Add the dried sage and nuts. Gradually add the flour mixture until a stiff dough is formed.  I used about 2 1/2 cups of the dry mixture, stopping when the dough became smooth and elastic.

Place dough on a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.  Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, flipping to make sure all exposed surfaces are covered with the oil.  Let the dough rise until about doubled, which should take about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Punch down the dough and knead for 1 minute.

Form the dough into desired shape and bake until the top is golden brown and crusty.  My two small loaves took about 35 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on a rack. 

*I made my dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator, covered.  Before I went to bed, I punched down the dough and re-covered.  The next day, I shaped the dough in the pans and placed on top of the preheating oven, covered, until it rose. Then, I baked the loaves.

Farm to Fork, A CSA Series: If Not For The Grace Of A Good Vinaigrette

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Visit Simple, Good, and Tasty for the latest installment of my Farm to Fork: A CSA Series.

Despite boxes of produce from our Bluebird Gardens CSA share, the past couple of weeks were all about food fails.  A good vinaigrette was the only exception.  I added it to a cold, Cafe Latte-inspired salad and re-purposed it into a warm salad.

I’ll meet you there

Farm to Fork, a CSA Series: Taking the Easy Way Out…Broccoli, Cheese and Quick Pickles

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Join me at Simple, Good, And Tasty where I share a summer update in the Farm to Fork, a CSA Series.

This week I took the easy way out.  I broke down and finally ate my broccoli.  But not without combining it with cheese.  I also experimented with refrigerator pickling.  It’s an easy method to use-up small quantities of vegetables without going through the whole canning process.

I’ll meet you there.

Baked Cream Cheese Wontons With Garlic Scapes & Green Onion

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Earlier this week, I wrote about recreating the mandu eggrolls I remembered from childhood Korean Culture Camp lunches at Simple, Good, and Tasty.

I’m still in a dumpling state of mind. 

In addition to frying mandu, I baked cream cheese wontons flavored with garlic scapes and green onions from our CSA box.  Unfortunately, garlic scapes only appeared in our CSA boxes two weeks, but from what I’m reading from other bloggers, they are still available at farmers markets.

If garlic scape season has passed in your neighborhood, substitute minced or grated garlic (or garlic, powder if you must).

Lisa Lillien may be at the end of many of my jokes, I’m occasionally inspired by some of her ideas.  In true Hungry Girl style, I baked the cream cheese wontons, although I used the full-fat cream cheese.  I find the lower-fat versions unappealingly grainy.  When baked, the wonton wrappers are acceptably crispy, albeit a tad floury on the outside.  Overall, an acceptable substitute for deep frying.

If you want an option that falls between deep-frying and baking, try pan fry-steaming.  Heat a little oil in a pan and fry one side of the wontons.  Flip the wontons and cook until the other side begins to turn golden brown.  Add a small splash of water, quickly cover, and briefly steam.  The wontons should be crispy on the outside.  Drain on paper towels. 

Baked Cream Cheese Wontons Flavored With Garlic Scapes & Green Onion

Ingredients
Cream cheese, softened
Garlic scapes, thinly sliced  (or minced/grated garlic)
Green onion, thinly sliced
Sugar
Pinch of salt
Wonton wrappers
Egg, beaten into egg wash
Cooking spray or your choice or oil, misted

Directions
Preheat oven to about 375 degrees F.

Mix the cream cheese with garlic scapes, green onion, sugar, and a pinch of salt, all to taste.  I like my filling to lean towards sweet. 

For each wonton, place a small spoonful of cream cheese filling into the wrapper.  Smear two edges of the wrapper with egg wash and firmly press to seal.  For extra security, press the sealed edges with the tines of a fork. 

Before baking, cover the wontons with a damp cloth.

Place onto an oiled sheet pan and mist the tops with oil.  Bake until golden brown.

Farm To Fork, A CSA Series: On Turnip Greens And Mandu

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Join me at Simple, Good, And Tasty where I share my favorite recipes made from the produce in our CSA boxes.

Instead of tossing those turnip greens, simmer them with rendered chips of Chinese sausage and hoisen sauce.  I’m also excited to share my adaption of the eggroll-like mandu I cherished from my early days at Korean Culture Camp.  Try alternating bites of crispy mandu with marinated cucumber slices steeped with ginger, garlic, and chili.

I’ll meet you there.

Thai Curry Paste Saved My Week

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The combination of five-day workweeks and a steady supply of CSA vegetables make me scream out for easy dinner ideas.  This week, a tiny jar of Thai curry paste came to my rescue.  Twice.

On a post-work grocery run, I impulsively bought a jar of red Thai curry paste from the grocery store nearest to our residence.  I was looking for an escuse to use the year-old can of coconut milk I had found in my cupboard.  I’m sure you can purchase more potent and flavorful varieties of curry pastes from Asian markets. This Thai Kitchen version was good enough for a quick fix, if a little tame.

I incorporated my CSA vegetables with whatever meat I had on hand.  On the first occasion, I added meat from our freezer, and on the second, leftover rotisserie chicken.  If you don’t have rice to steam, try serving the soupy curry over lightly buttered noodles.  The turnips, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, and onions from our CSA box all went into the curry pot.

Thai curry screams, “everyone in the pool!”  Use whatever you have in your kitchen and make as much or little as you’d like.

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
Meat, cut into bite sized pieces
Chopped vegetables
Optional: Hot chili (I used one red jalapeño, seeds and all)
Meat, cut into bite sized pieces
Thai curry paste, to taste
1 can of coconut milk (Add the whole can. The thicker substance will melt when cooked)
Water
Fish sauce
Brown sugar
Steamed rice or lightly buttered noodles

Directions
Sauté meat (if using raw).  Sauté vegetables until tender.  Add the curry paste and briefly cook.  Then, add the coconut milk and water and incorporate.  I added about 1/3-1/2 cup water for one 12 oz. can of coconut milk.  Add fish sauce and brown sugar to taste.  Simmer until the flavors meld together and the coconut milk begins to look and taste less “raw.”  It will begin to shimmer.

Serve over rice or noodles and garnish with fresh cilantro and sliced cucumber.

*I ended up using more brown sugar than I expected, a lot more curry paste than suggested, and only a few dashes of fish sauce.

Fried Rice Seasoned With Gochujang & Miso

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My heart sank when I realized I had no soy sauce.  I had just chopped a mound of vegetables and de-frosted meat, only to discover an empty soy sauce bottle in my fridge.

With two takeout boxes of leftover steamed rice and a half hour of prep work done, there was no way I was not going to make fried rice.  I reached further into my fridge and pulled out a jar of Korean gouchujang and my trusty tub of year-old miso paste.

Then I proceeded like normal.  I stir fried my vegetables with a little Chinese sausage, chicken breast, and leftover rice.  Then, I flavored the fried rice with a mix of gochujang and miso paste, diluted with water for easier incorporation.  I found Chinese sausage at the Asian & American Market in Fargo.  It provided a subtle sweetness that balanced the miso’s saltiness and gochujang’s heat.

We were satisfied with the result.  So much so, that we polished off the skillet of fried rice.  If you just own a regular kitchen skillet, you probably won’t get any smokey char, but your fried rice will still be a respectable home variation.

My method of cooking fried rice is not an exact science.  Once I choose my vegetables and proteins, it’s basically a process of sautéing and tasting.  You could use soy sauce instead of miso and add additional seasonings like hot peppers and ginger.

Mantra: Homemade fried rice is easy.  Homemade fried rice is an efficient way to use up leftover meat and veggies.  Homemade fried rice puts extra takeout rice to work.

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
Chinese sausage, finely diced
Chopped vegetables (I used lots of onion, green onions, swiss chard stems and greens, and carrots)
Proteins of choice and/or scrambled egg
Leftover rice
1 clove of minced garlic
Miso paste and gochujang, diluted with some water
White pepper
Cracked black pepper

Directions
In a dab of vegetable oil, begin sauteing the Chinese sausage.  When it renders a bit, add the vegetables and stir until softened but al dente.  I add the vegetables that take longer to cook first, such as carrot and onion.  Then, I add the softer vegetables like chard leaves, green onion, and garlic.

As the vegetables are cooking, prepare any additional protein or scrambled egg in a separate pan.  Add a little more oil to the vegetables and then stir in the rice.  As the rice is cooking, flavor with diluted miso paste and gochujang, black pepper, and white pepper.

Add the scrambled egg and/or other cooked meat and combine.  Taste and adjust for seasoning (I used a lot of miso and gochujang).

Cook to your liking.  I prefer my fried rice to develop some crusty bits.

Introducing Farm To Fork: A CSA Series At Simple, Good, And Tasty

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This summer, I am excited to share our first CSA box experience through bi-monthly articles published by Simple, Good, and Tasty.  The first article and recipe was published June 18, 2012.

We chose to receive half-share boxes of produce from Bluebird Gardens, a farm located in Fergus Falls, MN.  Our first CSA box contained lots of early spring goodies and we feasted on Lebanese fattoush-inspired salad for days (and more days to come).

You can find it here.