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Maggie Monday: Rotating Parsnips In

April 29, 2013

The Ranting Chef Baking, Cheese, French, Kosher, Side Dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian , , , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

Several years ago I decided I would start using a wider variety of vegetables. I walked through the produce section and would buy something new and then go home a look for a recipe to cook it. Often it necessitated a return trip to the store to pick up an extra ingredient or two, but because of it I have been able to add some new veggies to the rotation. One of those, parsnips, only made a single trip to the house. I cannot recall what I made, but it wasn’t something that just grabbed me. I think I need to give them another try, and thanks to Maggie, I have a new recipe to try them. Here it is…

I don’t prepare potatoes often as we try to watch our carb intake. However, when I do make them, I go all out. What the heck- if you’re gonna splurge, there should be lots of cream, butter and cheese, right?

I like adding parsnips to this dish just to sweeten it a bit. You can easily omit them and just add another potato or two. This recipe is huge. When I make this for just the family, I cut it in half. If cooking for a bit of a crowd, make the whole recipe.

These are creamy, tender and just delicious.

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Au Gratin Potatoes & Parsnips

What you need:

1 1/2 sticks butter

6Tbs flour

3 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp salt

4 tsp dried ground mustard

1 tsp black pepper

6 potatoes, 1/4 inch slices

2 parsnips, peeled and sliced

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

What you do:

IMG_2614

Preheat oven to 375. Place the potatoes and onions in a deep casserole dish, lightly greased. In a sauce pan, melt butter, slowly add the flour, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes. Slowly add the cream and spices, continuing to stir. Add the cheese, and stir until melted. Pour over the potatoes, and bake for about an hour, or until potatoes are soft.

Maggie

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The Racket I Want to Get Into

April 28, 2013

The Ranting Chef Appetizer, French, Lunch, Side Dish, Soup, Vegetable , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

Cup and a half of broth: $0.35*

Slice or two of onion:  $0.27*

Small piece of stale French bread: $0.19*

Slice of Cheese: $1.00* (Gruyère), $0.18* (swiss)

Other ingredients and heat: $0.45*

Cost of French Onion soup at the restaurant: $6.95*.

 *all prices completely made up by me

Now that’s a racket I want to get into.

I’ve made French Onion soup once before. At the table while eating it my wife asked me my thoughts and I replied, it would be easier to open a can and possibly just as good. This recipe was better than that and now that I have a mandolin to thinly slice four onions quickly, the recipe was not too much of a pain.

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Who doesn’t like gooey melted cheese?

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Quite a bit of broth.

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The thinly sliced onions cooking down.

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With the liquids added.

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In the crocks.

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With toasted bread.

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And cheese for melting.

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Superb!

French Onion Soup Gratinee

Prep Time: 15 m | Cook Time: 1 h 15 m | Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
  • 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 sprigs fresh parsley
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 4 thick slices French or Italian bread
  • 8 slices Gruyère or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
  • 4 pinches paprika

Directions:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.

Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.

Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.

Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyère cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.

Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. Serve immediately!

PREP 15 mins

COOK 1 hr

READY IN 1 hr 15 mins

Nutritional Info:

Calories 618 kcal 31% Carbohydrates 39.5 g 13% Cholesterol 114 mg 38% Fat 35.9 g 55% Fiber 4.2 g 17% Protein 29.7 g 59% Sodium 3433 mg 137%

Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-onion-soup-gratinee/

Not As Tough As I Thought

April 20, 2013

The Ranting Chef German, Kosher, Pasta, Recipes, Side Dish, Vegetarian , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

I am perpetually amazed at how little I know about food. Until I started down this endeavor to purposefully make items from a “foodie bucket list”, I never really knew how simple it was to make certain items.

In many cases in the absence of knowledge, I generally assumed certain food items were more difficult to make than they really are.

  • Pasta – Mix eggs and flour, roll thin and cut. That’s it.
  • Tortillas – Flour, baking powder, salt and lard. Mix, roll thin and fry.
  • Mozzarella Cheese – Heat milk, add enzymes, press.

Another one of those items that I hadn’t thought about (and by default assumed was difficult) was spaetzle. I don’t make German food often, but when I do it is my go-to starch. In the past I would walk down the “ethnic” aisle and at the European Foods section pick up a box of spaetzle. Boil some water and drop it in.

In a conversation with a co-worker a number of years ago, she mentioned that she was going to make spaetzle that night. She proceeded to describe how easy it is. Make a quick batter and push it through a grater into hot water. Easy peasy.

After making it the first time, I found that the grater I had (box kind) was not the best one for this purpose. First, it was difficult to navigate inside the box. Second, it was too short to lay across the top of the pot, so I really needed a hand to hold it while I pushed the dough through the holes. After the first time I bought a spaetzle press.

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I love me some spaetzle.

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Not much to this.

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What an ingenious device. It is a flat grater that is long enough to sit over the pot (with a slight lip to help lock it in place) and has a box to put in the dough.

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Mixing up the dough.

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Press down on the dough and slide the box back and forth over the grater and drops of the dough drop into the water making spaetzle.

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After the boil.

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Once you are done with the quick boil, sauté up in butter and serve.

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Delightful!

Homemade Spaetzle

Prep Time: 0 hours 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 hours 5 minutes | Makes: 4 servings | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • Kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter; 2 tablespoons melted
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions:

Mix the flour, eggs and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then gradually stir in up to 1 cup water to make a smooth, batter-like dough. Beat with a wooden spoon until bubbles form, then stir in the melted butter.Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Place about 1 cup of the dough in a colander with large holes; use a rubber spatula to push the dough through the holes and into the boiling water. (Or use a spaetzle press.) Cook for about 1 minute after the spaetzle float to the surface, then transfer with a slotted spoon to another colander. Repeat with the remaining dough. Rinse the spaetzle in cold water if not serving immediately and set aside.Before serving, saute the spaetzle in a skillet with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter until warmed through. Season with pepper and garnish with parsley.Photograph by Kate Mathis

Source: http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/recipe/387724

Diced! – Jenna – Juicy Turkey Burgers with Spicy Tzatziki Sauce

April 16, 2013

The Ranting Chef Condiment, DIced!, Fried, Greek, Lunch, Recipes, Side Dish, Turkey, Vegetable , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Today we have an entrant for the second course of the Diced! competition. Contestants were instructed to create or find a recipe for a main dish containing the following ingredients: Ground Turkey, Gingersnap Cookies, Greek Yogurt and Fresh Jalapeños. They were instructed to make their dish and create a blog post about it, including pictures. You can help determine who advances to the next round. On Friday, after the last post, I will post a poll where you can vote for up to two of the contestants to move on. Vote for the post you like the best. You can vote because of the inventiveness, the yummyness, the use of ingredients, the quality of the writing and pictures or for any other reason. The poll will be active for one week only. Check back and vote. In the event of a tie, the Ranting Chef will choose who advances. More information about Diced! can be found here.

We started with five contestants and have three remaining (in alphabetical order): Ajax, Jenna and Maggie. Ellie had the fewest amount of votes after the first round and Mikaela had to drop out of the competition.

Today’s contestant, Jenna has three blogs including The Burgeoning Gourmet. With all that blogging, I’m glad that she has time to compete here in Diced! Check out her blogs and the post below…

I have to use what?

Pic 1

Right, I’m never a fan of any form of turkey, except at Thanksgiving and even then I force myself to eat it.  But, I have to use fresh jalapeños?  Awesome!  I love spicy food … my intestines would argue the point, but you’d think by now they’d give up and just let me enjoy it.  But I digress.  I love spicy peppers, curries, you name it.  So, how to make what I want to make when I live with two wimpy guys who can’t handle any spice?

Here is my answer to that:

Juicy Turkey Burgers w/spicy tzatziki sauce and better than fries side!

Pic 7-1

When I saw the yogurt and jalapeños on the list of mandatory ingredients, I went to my ex-husbands Greek roots and thought of tzatziki sauce.  Substitute cucumber for jalapeños and bingo!

I recommend making the Jalapeno Tzatziki sauce first.  You’ll want it to chill in the fridge for an hour or so before using it.

Jalapeno Tzatziki

Ingredients:

Fresh jalapeños, diced (coarsely for more kick, finely for delicate spice)

16 oz plain Greek yogurt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. fresh dill

1 tbsp. minced garlic

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

Now, you can just forgo the chopping and mincing by throwing all the ingredients into a food processor and let the machine do the work.  However, I have no such machine and my blender is crap.  So dice the dill, garlic, and jalapeños  and mix everything in a bowl.  Put it into the fridge to chill – an hour or longer.

Pic 2

Now onto burgers!

Juicy Turkey Burger

Ingredients:

3 lbs. ground turkey

1 small yellow onion, diced

¼ cup of ginger snap crumbs

1 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. Meat Magic (combination of spices by Chef Paul Prudhomme)

2 eggs

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

In a bowl, toss in the ground turkey, thyme, Meat Magic, salt, pepper, and eggs.  Using a rolling pin, I took the ginger snap cookies and ground them down to bread crumb consistency.

Pic 3

Toss into the bowl.  Dice up the onion and garlic then sauté it in the olive oil.  While this is sautéing, you can start work on the potatoes.  Let the onions and garlic cool a bit, until you can touch the oil without hurting yourself.

Pic 4

Put all of it, oil included into the meat mixture.  The added oil will help keep the turkey juicy!  Mix well and make patties as thick/thin as you like.

Pic 5

Cook as you desire.  It’s apparently summer here for the day, so I’ll be grilling!  These turned out so good, and the ginger snap gave it a really nice flavor.  I swear, I never would have thought it was turkey!!!

Better Than Fries Side

Ingredients:

Russet potato

Olive oil

Sea Salt

Pepper

Butter

Wash and dry your potato(s).  Carefully slice down, not going all the way through.  After slicing, wash them again, fanning out the slices a bit.  Place on a non-stick baking sheet.  Melt down butter and drizzle over the potatoes and then drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with pepper and sea salt.  Feel free to sprinkle rosemary or other herbs you like on your potatoes!

Pic 6

Bake at 425 for roughly 40-60 minutes, depending on how big of a potato you picked out!  About 20 minutes in or so, I pulled them out to drizzle a bit more oil on them.   This makes the skin nice and crispy.  You can just pull the slices out when it’s done. J

Pic 7

Jenna

Remember – check back after the last post to vote on who advances in the Diced! competition.

Crossing the Line

April 7, 2013

The Ranting Chef Appetizer, Cheese, Kosher, Side Dish, Snack, Vegetable, Vegetarian , , , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

With every couple where both parties cook, there are some dishes that belong to the husband and others that belong to the wife. Maybe they were family recipes passed on from previous generations or maybe they were because one spouse first made it.

Years ago my wife was looking for an appetizer to bring to a party and pulled out a recipe for Vegetable Pizza. This is a cold, cream cheese based pizza, not hot tomato based. She’s made it a dozen times since and for some reason, I never tried making it.

Earlier this year we were having several couples over and I wanted some handy finger food, so I decided to cross the line and make it myself.

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This is a good alternative to veggies and dip by putting it all on a croissant dough crust.

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I placed parchment down so the bottom wouldn’t burn.

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I used the dough that didn’t have the perforations.

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The cream cheese topping spread out.

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Very tasty and fresh.

Vegetable Pizza

Prep Time: 30 Min | Cook Time: 30 Min | Makes: 1 pizza

Ingredients:

  • 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 (1 ounce) package dry Ranch-style dressing mix
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped
  • 3 green onions
  • 1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
  • Optional
  • 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 cup chopped cauliflower
  • 1 cup shredded carrots

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Roll out the crescent roll dough onto a 9×13 inch baking sheet, and pinch together edges to form the pizza crust.

Bake crust for 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven. Once finished cooking, remove crust from oven and let cool 15 minutes without removing it from the baking sheet.

In a small mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and dry Ranch dressing. Spread the mixture over the cooled crust. Arrange vegetables and cheese over the cream cheese layer. Chill for one hour, slice and serve.

Nutritional Info:

Amount Per Serving Calories: 467 | Total Fat: 38.8g | Cholesterol: 58mg Powered by ESHA Nutrient Database

Source: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/vegetable-pizza-i/Detail.aspx

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