Cognac and Honey Roasted Spicy Carrots

This time of year everyone is very busy in the kitchen. What do you need when you're busy all week getting a family feast together? You need a quick side dish that you can dress, toss in the oven and forget about. Something that converts even cooked carrot haters into carrot lovers. This incredibly easy to put together vegetarian side dish is sure to wow your guests at Thanksgiving. Even more so if you are as lucky as I was and can find a bag of rainbow carrots. The garnish in the photo is chopped cilantro and crumbled cotija cheese.

Cognac and Honey Roasted Spicy Carrots

2 lbs. carrots (preferably rainbow carrots), scrubbed and sliced into 1/2" pieces
3 Tablespoons spiced cognac (such as benedictine)
1 Tablespoon dark honey (such as wildflower or buckwheat honey)
2 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 Teaspoon sriracha or other chili sauce
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a saucepan over medium low heat, melt butter. Add cognac and stir to incorporate.
3. Add honey and when honey has completely melted take sauce off heat. Add sriracha and stir to combine.
5. Toss carrots with sauce, add salt and pepper to taste, then lay out in a single layer on a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove smallest pieces of carrot and flip larger pieces. Bake for another 10 minutes.
6. Serve warm and toss with minced fresh herbs (optional).

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce and Perfect Mashed Potatoes

It's that time of year again when most everyone in America is called upon to cook. On this occasion I have the opportunity to use this blog for the greater good. Hopefully I can. This post features tips on two dishes that are ubiquitous on Thanksgiving tables. I'll give recipes for each, but think of them as sort of rough guides. For example, my cranberry sauce is on the sweet side, so feel free to use less sugar. Also, the amount of milk to add to your mashed potatoes is highly subjective; use whatever amount you need to get yours to the consistency you like.
As for creating really fluffy mashed potatoes: russet, which are highly starchy are in my opinion the best potato for mashing. They're also large, so less potatoes to scrub equals less work. Cut your potatoes up into very large pieces to boil them. Salt the water. Boil until a little more tender than you would prefer to have them if you were just eating boiled potatoes or making potato salad. Don't skimp on the butter. You'll need slightly less than 1 Tablespoon of butter per medium to large sized russet. When the potatoes are cooked through drain the water, but don't shake the excess water from the bottom. It will help you create fluffier mashed potatoes. When you mash leave the in the boiling pot and push your masher straight down along the outside of the pot circling in toward the center, to loosely break up the potato pieces. Then mash butter in in the same pattern and motion. Then fold milk in as gently as possible to avoid overworking your potatoes. I like to leave the skin on because I like the taste and the mouth feel. Also, I read an article that said the skin is where all the vitamins are.

Next blog post is going to feature another side dish, this one easy yet impressive.

Cranberry Sauce

Serves 4 - 6

1 1/2 cups (by volume) cleaned, picked through cranberries
juice of 1/2 large orange or whole small orange
zest of 1 orange
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
(optional) 2 - 3 Tablespoons orange marmalade*
(optional garnish) 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1. In a saucepan over medium heat combine cranberries, water and sugar and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.
2. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the cranberries soften enough to split open.
3. Add orange zest, orange juice and (optional) marmalade and cook for 2 - 3 minutes more.
4. Remove from heat and serve topped with chopped toasted walnuts

Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

Serves 4 - 6

4 medium to large russet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped roughly (max 6 pieces per potato)
3 1/2 - 4 Tablespoons of butter, separated (cut into Tablespoon pieces)
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, depending on preference

1. Drop potatoes into boiling, salted water and cook for about 30 minutes, or until slightly more than fork tender.
2. Mash potatoes using the method described above.
3. Add butter and continue to mash until incorporated.
4. Slowly fold in milk parts at a time until desired consistency is reached.
5. Adjust for salt and add desired amount of pepper. Fold until just incorporated.

*This will create a thicker sauce, so if that is your preference I highly recommend it

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

Roasted Kobocha Squash and Ginger Autumn Bisque

This dish was inspired by the kobocha squash my coworker gave me to take home. Kobocha is a very sweet Japanese pumpkin. If you prefer the regular pumpkin variety or butternut squash this recipe will work just as well for those. It is a classic flavors of fall recipe. Sweet, but not overly so it is very filling and a perfect way to utilize the vegetables in season.

Roasted Kobocha Squash and Ginger Autumn Bisque

Puree of 1 kobocha squash*
2 apples, cored, chopped and evenly divided into two piles
1 cup apple cider
4 Tablespoons butter
2 cups low sodium organic chicken
1 leek, cleaned and chopped
3 stalks celery, cleaned and chopped
1 medium yellow onion, julienned
pepper, to taste
salt, to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
7 small sages leaves, roughly chopped
1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 Teaspoon olive oil

1. Melt 2 1/2 Tablespoons of the butter in a heavy bottomed stock or pasta pot over medium heat. Add celery, leeks, onions, sage, salt, pepper, 1/2 the apples. Saute until softened, about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Take mixture off heat and allow to cool. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and puree until smooth.
3. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in the stockpot and saute the other half of the apples over medium heat, stirring frequently.
4. When the apples are starting to soften add remaining chicken stock, pureed veggies, pureed pumpkin, ginger and cider.
5. Bring mixture to a boil and cover. Turn heat down to low and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to marry.
6. Turn off heat, taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Add cream. Allow soup to sit for 5 minutes to heat cream.
7. Serve, garnished with fried sage and a drizzle of heavy cream.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!


*I quartered my squash, trimmed the ends off, scooped out the seeds and goop then brushed melted butter all over the skin. I roasted the quarters in an oven preheated to 375 for about 40 minutes.

Crisp Topped Baked Apples

Sometimes I feel the need to explain why I am posting a certain recipe; why I've combined the flavors the way I have. Today's post features a dish that need no explanation. It's the perfect time of year for apples, and even pie haters have united in their love of crisp. Serve it a la mode and you'll have one unbelievably decadent dessert. Does it ease the richness of the combo that you'll bake the apple whole, with just a little caramel spice syrup in the center to flavor it?

My syrup bubbled over the sides of my apples and created a burnt, crunchy layer at the bottom of my pan during the part where I turned the heat up to bake the crisps, so I'd suggest covering the bottom of the pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. That being said, this dessert was fairly easy to throw together, the hardest part being carving the core mostly out of the apples without cutting all the way through (leaving the bottom intact to keep the juices in). My favorite part of the recipe is the vanilla and spice clove caramel syrup. I didn't think to reserve some caramel to drizzle over the plate, but I've fixed that in the recipe directions. Also, I deliberately included more crisp topping in the recipe than can fit in the apples. I found that baking it up in a muffin tin, breaking it into large pieces and sprinkling it over the ice cream created the perfect crisp to fruit to ice cream ratio.

Baked Apples w/ Crisp Topping

Makes 4 servings

4 apples
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons butter
6 spice clove heads, crumbled
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
tiny pinch of salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Teaspoon maple syrup
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tablespoons cold butter, chopped into small pieces
(optional) 1 Tablespoon whiskey (or cognac or bourbon)

1. Preheat oven to 325 (for smaller apples or hotter ovens, 300)
2. Cut a cone shaped wedge into the center of the apple, mostly removing the core, but not cutting all the way through to the bottom of the apple; this is to keep all of the juices from flowing out during cooking. The widest part of the wedge shape will go towards the top.
3. In a pan over low heat melt butter and add salt, crushed clove bulbs and cinnamon. Cook for 5 minutes to toast the spices. Add maple syrup, vanilla and sugar and allow to melt, stirring gently and occasionally. This will take about 7 to 10 minutes. Add optional whiskey and stir to incorporate.
4. Grease a baking dish and set apples into it, cut side up. Pour approximately 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the spiced vanilla sauce into the cone cut into each apple. You want to fill the cavities to about 1/2 centimeter to the top. Try to reserve some sauce to drizzle over top.
5. Bake the apples for about 20 minutes, basting the apples with their juices every ten minutes.
6. Assemble the topping: mix together flour, brown sugar and oats until thoroughly combined. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, incorporate chopped butter until the mixture forms loose, medium sized crumbs.
7. Remove apples from oven and turn heat up to 400. Stuff each apple cavity with crisp mixture. Loosely pack the remaining topping into a muffin tin and fill each cup only about 1/2" high, to allow mixture to get properly crunchy.
8. Bake apples and muffin tin full of crisp topping in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. Serve topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Garnish with extra crisp topping and drizzled with sauce.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!

Fluffy Pumpkin Buttermilk Waffles and Mini Donuts with Ginger & Pie Spice Butter & Maple Whiskey Glaze

I have been itching to get back to blogging ever since I returned from our honeymoon and perhaps that's why this post features the same batter not one but two ways, with a sweet, spicy, boozy glaze recipe that's simply magical. It all starts with fresh pumpkin puree and a special ginger and pumpkin pie spice butter that doesn't seem to photograph well, but nevertheless is absolutely divine! The butter is actually a wonderfully all purpose fall dessert addition--try it in your next apple or pear crumble or in your next apple or pecan pie.

Initially, I wanted to use the puree I got from roasting my own pumpkins for baked donuts in my new mini donut pan. But then my waffle maker arrived. The idea of pumpkin waffles just wouldn't quit haunting me, so I decided to try adding them to a buttermilk waffle batter, to make them extra fluffy. Then I thought "why cook up an alternate batter when the pumpkin buttermilk waffle batter will probably bake up fluffy and moist?" It was a good idea, so I went with it. I knew the short cooking time for waffles and mini baked donuts would hardly allow any spices added to the batter to toast properly and reach their fully toasted potential, so I decided instead to make a ginger and pumpkin pie spice butter to top the waffles. Alternatively you could toast the spices in the butter you're using for the batter before cooling it off and adding it in.

When I served the waffles I slathered on a generous amount of ginger spice butter and lots of real maple syrup. I served the Donuts glazed generously with the Maple Whiskey Glaze I made by using the maple syrup, some whiskey, some confectioners sugar and the ginger spice butter.

Pumpkin Buttermilk Waffles/Donuts and Ginger Spice Butter & Maple Whiskey Glaze

Pumpkin Buttermilk Waffle & Donut Batter

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted
1 cup whole wheat flour sifted (or you can use all all purpose flour)
2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 cup packed pumpkin puree
3/4 cup well shaken buttermilk
1 cup whole milk
4 1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 extra large eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Sift all dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together eggs, milk, buttermilk, vanilla and pumpkin.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just enough to combine.
4. Add sugar, then butter and stir only enough to combine.
5. Bake in mini donut pan or use in waffle iron immediately.
6. If you're making waffles, spread with spice butter (see recipe below) and serve with warmed maple syrup. If you're making donuts drizzle with glaze (recipe also below).

Ginger & Pie Spice Butter

1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2" piece of ginger, peeled & grated
4 Tablespoons butter
6 spice cloves (round parts only), crushed
1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon allspice

1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt butter
2. Add spices and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
3. When you can smell the spices in the kitchen they've been incorporated. Remove the butter from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Serve on your waffles and/or use part of it to make donut glaze.

Ginger Pie Spice Maple Whiskey Donut Glaze

1 Tablespoon ginger spice butter, melted but cooled
1 Tablespoon Confectioners' sugar
1 Tablespoon Grade B Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons good whiskey

1. In a bowl combine whiskey, spice butter and syrup.
2. Whisk confectioners sugar in until the glaze is smooth.
3. Ladle generously over donuts.

I hope you enjoy this flavor of fall recipe and I welcome your feedback!

Pics of the waffles to follow, as soon as I take a satisfactory one.

Ginger Congee (Savory Rice Porridge) w/ Sliced Marinated Chicken

Rarely do I have all of the text pre-written for a blog post, but as it happens this post was inspired by a participatory event on (what else?) Google Plus. September was cook-a-book month and as I searched the internet and my memory for any references to food I could make some time to cook during this hectic part of my life. Then, as I was reading an installment of one of my favorite detective series, inspiration struck. A seemingly easy food; a comfort food; a breakfast, lunch and dinner food; it was cheap and nourishing, both a side and a main (depending on preparation) and for some evocative of childhood and days in bed, home sick. That's right: this dish is even considered by many to be medicinal. What is this miracle dish? Well, it is a savory rice porridge and a version of it is made in many Asian countries, but I am sharing with you one of the Chinese versions: Congee.

And it came from:

Ruddy Gore a Phryne Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood

The Honourable Phryne Fisher, with the help of her clever companion Dot, solves murders in 1920's Melbourne with unflappable panache. She drives a racing auto, flies planes and solves mysteries and through it all manages to keep her exquisite clothing intact. She also rather enjoys a good meal.

Ruddy Gore sees her solving the mysteries of the death of a leading man playing in the title Gilbert & Sullivan opera, a ghost in the theater and uniting a father and daughter previously unknown to one another.

"Phryne accepted a delicate porcelain bowl of what looked very like library paste and took up her spoon.
'What is this?' she asked, sipping at a smooth, bland soup.
'Rice gruel--the French call it congee. It tastes better than porridge, I think.'"

Brown Rice and Ginger Congee with Chicken

Everyone around me seems to have the sniffles. It's understandable, as the weather gets colder. My first time trying congee I was told it was often given to someone to help recover from illness, so I thought it would be a perfect post to (hopefully) squeeze in to the cook a book event. I washed my rice five times, covering it in plenty of water each time, then using a whisk to agitate the water and rubbing the grains vigorously between my palms. After 5 such rinses the rice water was finally clear instead of cloudy and the rice clean enough to make congee with. I also used a couple of ice cubes of a zesty mushroom stock I made and froze awhile back to kick up the flavor a little.

Brown Rice Congee w/ Ginger and Sliced Chicken

approx 360 grams boneless, skinless chicken
1" ginger, peeled
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup short grain rice (I used brown)
8 cups water
1/4 onion, roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce, or to taste
1/4 Teaspoon sesame oil
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Wash the rice repeatedly using the method described above. When the water is clear even after whisking and rubbing the rice in it drain the rice and set aside.
2. pulse the onion, 1/2 the ginger, garlic and sesame oil in the blender with a very small drizzle of soy sauce.
3. In a large, heavy-bottomed stock or pasta pot, combine water, stock, soy sauce and onion/ginger/garlic paste.
4. Bring to a boil and add rice.
5. Turn down to a lazy boil and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 90 minutes. The grains should lose a lot of their shape and form a very thick broth by this point.
6. Trim the fat from your chicken and thinly slice it. Marinate it for 15 minutes in a drizzle of soy sauce, the remaining ginger (grated) and a crushed clove of garlic.
7. Add the chicken to the pot, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve hot and garnished with your favorite garnish (ours were garnished with green onions, sliced thai chili, rooster sauce and cilantro).

Spinach, Ricotta, Roasted Garlic Tortelloni

Ok, I will admit that making homemade stuffed pasta takes work. But the theme of September's blog posts seems to be commitment; once you unwrap and begin to roll out that fresh pasta dough, you are committed to making yourself some pasta. And pasta for those you love...if there are leftovers. ;) I promise you this filling is very worth all of the work. The flavor combination is inspired by a slice of pizza from a late night Brooklyn pizzeria I used to visit after a night dancing with friends. The place is so good the line is out the door, regardless of the hour; people will line up for this pizza at 2pm the same as at 2am. They would serve this popular slice which was covered in chopped spinach, dotted with whole cloves of roasted garlic and heavy with large, rich dollops of ricotta. The combination was amazing. I haven't had a slice in half a decade and I am still craving it as I write this post. What to do when I get out to Brooklyn about once every 2 years? Well, I can stuff some homemade pasta with the same ingredients and smother them in a homemade marinara sauce to bring some of the magic to my own kitchen.

I used Chef Chiarello's recipe for pappardelle pasta dough, found here, although I tweaked it by adding an extra 1/3 cup of each flour. The dough was wetter, but also more forgiving than other doughs I've tried. We decided to split the dough in half and use half of it to make capellini, which was lovely with a garlic, olive oil, italian sausage and broccolini sauce. The other half made nearly 3 dozen 3.5" tortellonis, so if you use the whole pasta dough for tortellonis it should yield almost 6 dozen. That is hours and hours of pasta shaping. As it was it took me 3 hours to make 35 tortelloni.

Homemade stuffed pasta is not incredibly difficult to make, so much as it is time consuming. One thing to keep in mind when making tortelloni: dust everything with ample flour; I set my finished ones on a wax paper lined sheet tray dusted with plenty of both ap flour and semolina flour. Also, if you'd like to make your own sauteed, chopped spinach, start with 8 ounces baby spinach and wilt in a pan with about 1 Tablespoon olive oil for about 8 minutes, then allow to cool before wrapping in cheese cloth and squeezing moisture out (as much as possible).

I served mine with a homemade marinara.

Spinach, Ricotta and Roasted Garlic Stuffed Tortelloni

12 ounces pasta dough, rolled down to the 3 thickness setting on a pasta roller and cut into 3.5" circles, using a pint glass or other wide-mouth glass
8 ounces chopped baby spinach
5 ounces dry ricotta (try to get the kind with less whey)
Paste of 1 small head of roasted garlic
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

1. Mix together ricotta, spinach, roasted garlic paste, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.
2. Form tortelloni: set 1/2 Teaspoon ricotta mixture in center of 3.5" circle. Then wipe the edges with water, to help them stick. Bring top and bottom of circle up together and join. Press the edges around the filling, so that the filling forms a bump in an otherwise half moon shape. Set the half moon on the table so the rounded edge is facing toward the top of your pastry board. Gently tug on the corners of each edge to stretch them out a little. Brush water on the inside of one corner and the outside of the other and join over the lump made by the filling. Press together well, then roll the extra edge of pasta down over the back of the lump (this might be clearer in the picture). Once all tortellonis are formed bring a pot of water to boil and salt it well. Cook the tortelloni to desired doneness. I cooked mine for about 7 or 8 minutes and they were just slightly al dente.
3. Serve in broth or topped with your favorite sauce.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I welcome your feedback!