Category Archives: recipes

mushroom bourguignon

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I knew I had to try this recipe when I stumbled across it.  Mushrooms in a rich broth?  Yes, please.  I modified it a tiny bit: I doubled the amount of broth because I thought it was too dry.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened, divided
  • 2 pounds portobello mushrooms, in 1/4-inch slices (you can use cremini, white, or a mix)
  • 1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thawed if frozen) (or 1 leek, white and light green parts only, finely diced)
  • 1/2 carrot, finely diced
  • 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup full-bodied red wine
  • 2 cups beef or vegetable broth
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • egg noodles, for serving

Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven over high heat. Sear the mushrooms and pearl onions (or leeks) until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid: about three or four minutes. Remove them from the pan.

Lower the flame to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil.  Add the carrots, onions, thyme, salt and pepper to taste, to the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, until fragrant.

Add the wine to the pot, then turn the heat to high and reduce the liquid by half. Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Return the mushrooms and onions to the pan with any juices that have collected.  Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce the temperature to simmer for 20 minutes.  The mushrooms will be very tender.

Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes, or until it has reached the desired consistency.  Season to taste.

chocolate-chip cookies

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I love chocolate-chip cookies.  My current favorite recipe is very slightly adapted from Epicurious: I increased the vanilla, I added a refrigeration step (optional, but please do it: you get such a better depth of flavor for such a small investment), and I make mini-cookies instead.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars, shortening and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours.

Drop dough by scant teaspoonfuls onto heavy large baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to racks; cool 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool completely.

strawberry bars

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My husband has taken up jam-making.  We now are the people who give jam away to anyone who will hold still for a few minutes.  Even with our aggressive gifting efforts, there’s a need to use jam in other ways.

Martha Stewart provided the basic recipe for almond-fruit bars.  They’re like a fruit crumble in cookie form!  I decided that I prefer the bars without the almonds.  Strawberry is my favorite jam for these bars; you can substitute any jam you like.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8-inch square baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg. Mix in the flour mixture a third at a time.

Stir the jam to make it spread easily.  If your jam is difficult to stir, warm it in the microwave for 10-30 seconds.

In the prepared baking dish, press about 1/2 of the dough into the bottom of it.  Spread the jam over the top, leaving about 1/4 inch border so that the jam doesn’t stick to the side of the pan.  Sprinkle the remaining dough over the top.

Bake until top is golden, 25 to 30 minutes (20-25 minutes in a convection oven).  Cool completely in dish. Cut into bars.

Variation

Cherry-almond bars: Mostly as above.  Stir 3/4 cup ground almonds, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract into the dough after you have added the flour mixture.  Spread cherry jam over the dough.

beef tacos

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I love tacos.  How can you not?  They’re small, eaten by hand, and infinitely customizable.  When I was growing up, I thought tacos weren’t very exciting.  My parents would use some kind of pre-made taco seasoning in a packet, and the resulting tacos were just what you’d expect: bland and bland, with a side of bland.  On moving to California, I learned that tacos didn’t have to be like that.  I set out to make great tacos at home, and came to this.  It takes more time than I expected after all those years of quick-but-tasteless tacos, but it’s not a lot of effort, and the end product is definitely worth the wait.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 4-5 white mushrooms, diced (optional)
  • 5 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 3 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/2 onion, chopped finely (reserve other half for another use, or chop it finely for serving)
  • 1/2 bell pepper, chopped finely (reserve other half for another use, or chop it finely for serving)
  • shredded cheese (for serving)
  • chopped tomato (for serving)
  • sour cream (for serving)
  • guacamole (for serving)
  • tortillas or taco shells (for serving)

Directions

Place ground beef, mushrooms, and spices in medium saucepan.  Cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer meat for an hour, breaking up meat into small pieces with a potato masher — the final product should not be lumpy. Add water during the hour if needed. Add the onion and bell pepper to the saucepan, and simmer for another half hour.

Optionally, to lower the fat content, pour into strainer, reserving liquid. Let liquid cool and skim fat off. Stir 1 teaspoon cornstarch into 1/4 cup cold water. In a small saucepan, bring liquid to a boil, then pour in cornstarch. Let simmer for five minutes, then fold into meat.

Serve with tortillas, cheese, and all of the other yumminess.

spicy roasted cauliflower

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This is my current favorite way to prepare cauliflower.  Roasting cauliflower gives it a slight nutty taste, and red pepper gives it a nice edge that makes it anything other than boring.  Finish it off with a bit of good parmesan, and you’ve got an awesome side dish that goes with many main dishes.

Ingredients

  • 1 head cauliflower, cored and cut into florets
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • salt, to taste
  • 2 tbsp parmesan (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F.  In a medium bowl, combine the cauliflower, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and salt.  Toss to combine.  Roast for 30-35 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft and golden brown.  Remove the cauliflower from the oven and place in a bowl.  If you’re using the parmesan, add it to the bowl and toss to coat the cauliflower.

Serving notes

One of our frequent meals includes roasted potatoes, onions, and carrots; spinach bolani; hummus; and this spicy cauliflower.  It’s a great vegetarian meal.  If you’re not feeling like a vegetarian meal, cut up chicken into small chunks, coat in tahini, and fry or grill on skewers.

roasted chicken

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I love roasting a chicken.  You get the wonderful roasted chicken, of course, but then there’s everything that comes afterwards: chicken sandwiches, chicken stock, and so on.  A rancher at the local farmers’ market started bringing in chickens.  We pick up one once a month or so.  They’re expensive ($6.50 per pound), but so flavorful.

My method for roasting chicken is adapted from The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander, which is the bible for Australian cooking.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken, 3-5 pounds
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • 4-5 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
  • 1 sprig rosemary (optional)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp dried rosemary, or a poultry rub (I’m currently using one that I picked up from Dean & Deluca)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Rub chicken inside and out with the lemon halves.  Crush the garlic with the back of a knife, roll in the salt and pepper.  Insert everything but the dried herbs and the olive oil into the cavity of the chicken.  Sprinkle the dried herbs all over the chicken, and then rub the olive oil into the skin of the chicken.

Place the chicken on its side in a baking dish.  Put the baking dish in the center of your oven for 25 minutes.  Turn the chicken onto its other side, then put it back into the oven for another 25 minutes.  Finally, turn the chicken so that it is breast-side up, and bake for a final 25 minutes until golden brown.

Notes

The original recipe has you roasting your vegetables with the chicken, which is fine if that’s what you’re looking for.  I tend to roast mine separately, since the chicken can be rather juicy, and I don’t want the vegetables to taste like the chicken.  If you roast brussels sprouts with this, put the sprouts into the oven with the chicken after the first turn.  If you roast cauliflower with this, put the cauliflower into the oven with the chicken after the second turn.

The sprig of rosemary can be replaced by any number of things.  I somehow killed the rosemary plant that lived on my balcony and haven’t replaced it, so I tend to use whatever I’ve got around (or leave it out entirely).  If I have some fresh parsley or chives in the fridge that aren’t going to be used elsewhere, they’ll go into the chicken.  Half an onion always works, too.

banana bread

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar until just blended.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the mashed bananas and the vanilla extract.  Add the flour mixture in two additions.

Butter a loaf pan, and pour the banana bread dough into it.  Bake for 60-75 minutes.  Let cool in the loaf pan.

Notes

If you were to measure a favorite recipe by how frequently it’s made, then this recipe is probably the top of our list.  We always have a bunch of bananas in the house, since my standard breakfast is a latte and a banana.  But we often don’t eat all of the bananas before they get too ripe.  So the leftover bananas go into a quart-sized freezer bag.  A quart-sized freezer bag holds 4 bananas perfectly, and thus it’s perfect for this recipe.  I peel the bananas, since I only ever use frozen bananas for banana bread; you can leave the peel on if you’re going to use your frozen bananas for smoothies or other purposes.  On the day that I bake the banana bread, I pull the bananas out of the freezer and let defrost for a half-hour or so, and then squish them around in their bag a bit.

The original recipe is based on the one found in Nigella Lawson‘s How To Be a Domestic Goddess.  The only changes that I make is that I don’t bother with the golden raisins or the walnuts.  I like my banana bread plain.

I tried a recipe for banana banana bread from the New York Times, and it’s not half as good as this banana bread.

Szechuan green beans

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Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp peanut oil, divided
  • 1 pound green beans (or Chinese longbeans, if you can find them), trimmed into 2- or 3-inch lengths
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 green onions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced (save the green parts and chop them for garnish, if desired)
  • 4-5 white mushrooms, diced
  • 5 tbsp garlic-chili paste
  • 5 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
  • Szechuan pepper, freshly ground (optional)

Directions

Put a wok on a high flame, and add one 1 tbsp peanut oil.  Add green beans, and stir fry for 8-10 minutes, until green beans are starting to brown and are crisp-tender.  Remove green beans from wok and set aside.

Add 1 tbsp peanut oil to the wok.  Add in the garlic and onions, and stir-fry for a few seconds until aromatic.  Add in the mushrooms and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, until mushrooms have released some of their liquid.  Add in the garlic-chili paste and soy sauce and stir-fry for a minute.  Add the green beans back to the wok, and stir through until thoroughly coated in the sauce.

Serve with steamed rice, and optionally garnish with scallions and Szechuan pepper.

Notes

Chinese long beans are the green bean called for in this dish, but I don’t limit myself to those beans.  The second any variety of green bean shows up at the farmers’ market, I make this.  Thinner fillet-style green bean varieties work best in place of the Chinese long beans, although fatter ones are fine.  They’ll take longer to cook, and you might need a bit more oil to help them along.

This is another easy weeknight dinner.  Like the black bean beef that I have listed elsewhere, I start off by rinsing the rice and getting it started in the rice cooker.  While it’s cooking, I prep the rest of the ingredients, and then start the stir-frying.  It usually ends up that the rice finishes when the beans are about half-done, which is close enough to perfect that I’m happy with it.  All told, it takes about an hour to complete.

We have this as a vegan main course, so it’s usually a generous main dish for two, with enough left over for a lunch or two later in the week.

black bean beef

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ingredients for black bean beefBlack bean beef is one of our regular dinners.  Most of the ingredients are ones that we get at the farmers’ market.  It’s flexible, a great way to use whatever vegetables are on hand.  It freezes well, so I make enough to have a couple of lunches later.

I know that the ingredients list looks long.  I’ve broken it into sections for ease of putting it together.  It’s really pretty quick.

Ingredients

Beef and marinade

  • 1 pound beef roast, sliced into thin strips
  • 2 tbsp beef broth
  • 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp cornstarch

Sauce

  • 1/2 cup beef broth
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp black bean paste
  • 1 tbsp garlic-chili paste (optional)
  • 1 tsp cornstarch

Vegetables

  • 1 large onion, cut into 1″ chunks
  • 2 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 2 bell peppers, cut into 1″ chunks

Aromatics for stir-frying

  • 3 tbsp peanut oil, divided
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, white parts only, sliced thinly (save the green parts and chop them for garnish, if desired)
  • 8 oz white mushrooms, sliced

Directions

First, make the marinade.  In a small bowl, combine the beef and marinade ingredients, adding the cornstarch last.  Let marinate for 20 minutes.

Then, make the sauce.  In a small bowl, combine the broth, soy sauce, black bean paste, and optional garlic-chili paste.  Set it aside.

Next, stir-fry the vegetables.  Pour 2 tbsp of peanut oil into the wok.  Add the onion, bell peppers, and carrots.  Stir-fry 2-3 minutes, until crisp-tender.  Remove the vegetables from the wok and set aside.

black bean beef, in the wokStir-fry the beef.  Pour 1 tbsp of peanut oil into the wok.  When hot, add the garlic and green onions, and stir-fry 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add the beef and stir-fry until mostly cooked, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until the beef is fully cooked.  Create a space in the middle of the wok and add the sauce, then stir together.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the reserved vegetables.  Mix well and remove from heat.

Serve with steamed rice, and garnish with scallions (if desired).

Notes

This comes together pretty quickly.  My steps, in order:

  1. Start the rice cooking in the rice cooker.
  2. Slice the beef, put it in a bowl, pour over the marinade ingredients, stir it together, toss it in the fridge.
  3. Make the sauce, set it aside.
  4. Chop the veggies, set them aside.
  5. Check on the rice.  My rice cooker gives me a time-remaining indication about 10 minutes before it’s done.  Usually, by the time I’ve gotten to this point, the rice is close to done.  If not, then I’ve got a few extra minutes to do something else.  This is also the point that I make sure that we’re actually ready for dinner (that is, is everyone home?).  Since the actual cooking time is so short, and since the rice can stay happily in its rice cooker after it’s done for hours and hours, and since the beef can continue marinating, it’s not a problem if I’m ahead of the game.
  6. Cook the veggies, then cook the beef and mushrooms, and finally stir it all together.

black bean beefLiving in Silicon Valley means that it’s pretty easy to get Asian ingredients.  Black bean paste and chili-garlic paste (sometimes called sambol olek, but it’s got other names too) are available at Whole Foods.

My wok came from the Wok Shop in San Francisco, and it’s so immensely useful.  You can do this in a large skillet, but it takes longer and doesn’t quite taste the same.

I love my rice cooker more than anything.  I’m generally not a fan of special-purpose kitchen appliances, but this is awesome: rinse the rice, put it in the rice-cooker’s bowl, add the water, and hit start.  Nothing more is necessary, and you get absolutely perfect rice every time.  It will keep the rice perfectly steamed if you accidentally start your rice too early, and it’s got a timer too in case you want to set it up to cook in advance.