There's nothing complicated about making French Toast despite what you see here with Dustin Hoffman in the movie Kramer vs Kramer. He's, understandably, just a little bit rattled -
But if you aren't rattled it's a cinch. It's just bread dipped in a slurry of eggs and milk then pan cooked in a little oil or butter and sprinkled with cinnamon or powdered sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup or topped with fresh fruit. That's it, just watch over things and don't get distracted. I love French toast. The other day on the way to work I was listening to a talk radio show. The subject was comfort food. This guy called in and said one of his favorite comfort foods is French toast. He then proceeds to tell us about making it with eggnog instead of milk. That caught my attention. I thought - damn that sounds pretty good! So this past weekend I decided to try to make it. This time of year eggnog is readily available in grocery stores so that part was easy. Personally I like rye whiskey so that's what I used. This really makes a very tasty French toast on it's own with just butter but it would be great with a little spread of peach preserves.
Here's what you need for 6 pieces of French toast (increase in this proportion for more) -
6 Thick slices of crusty country bread 2 - 3 large Eggs 1/2 cup Eggnog 1/4 cup Rye Whiskey or Bourbon or Rum - your choice
1 Tablespoon+ canola oil Butter
The basic ingredients -
Eggs, eggnog, whiskey -
Eggs, eggnog, whiskey whisked together -
Make it a nice good soak so the flavors get into the bread
I traded some end of season figs from our fig tree to a friend at work for some end of season peppers he grew. Some of the peppers were poblanos. We wanted to do something different and possibly exciting with them. Well, exciting as far as poblano peppers go. They do have a flavor we enjoy but can be quirky by by sometimes tasting as mild as a bell pepper and other times having a nice punchy unexpected heat. So, we gave it some thought and poblanos really cry out to be stuffed but stuffed with what? Cheese? Good but too typical. Beef? Maybe. Chicken? Possibly, but with what else. Some kind of seafood? Hmmmm, yes but what? Crab, shrimp? Yes, shrimp but with what else? What seasonings? Lisa looked at a number of shrimp stuffed pepper recipes on line and we came up with few we could work with for poblanos. The result was amazing.
Ingredients for two people -
4 poblano peppers,
roasted and peeled
1 red bell pepper,
roasted, peeled, and chopped
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive
oil, divided
1 Tbsp butter
½ sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic,
minced
1 lb medium
shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
½ lime, juiced
1 Tbsp all-purpose
flour
½ cup sour cream
½ cup whole milk
1 cup shredded
5-cheese Mexican blend
To roast the peppers:
There are a number of way to roast and peppers. The best way is to roast them on the grill or under the broiler in the oven. But we chose to do them in a cast iron skillet. Remove from the skillet and immediately place in
a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow them to cool and rub the skins off.
Chop the red bell pepper and slit the poblano peppers on one side, leaving the
stems intact. (You can remove the seeds at this point if you want your poblanos
a little less spicy.)
To make the filling:
Preheat the oven to 350℉.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pan. Add the
red bell pepper and onion. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic
and cook for 1 more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove the
vegetables from the pan and set aside.
Next, sprinkle the salt, pepper, cumin, and lime juice on
the shrimp. Melt the butter in the same pan that you used to cook the
vegetables and add the shrimp. Cook until done, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the vegetables back to the pan and mix with the shrimp.
Place the poblanos in a medium baking pan and stuff with the
vegetable-shrimp mixture.
To make the sauce:
Add the flour and the remaining olive oil to the pan (that
originally had the vegetable-shrimp mixture) over medium heat and stir until
the flour starts to thicken. Add the sour cream and the milk. Whisk until
completely mixed without lumps. Cook until the mixture starts to simmer, but do
not boil. Remove from heat and add the cheese, stirring until smooth.
Pour the cheese mixture over the stuffed peppers and cook
for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.
We have a bumper crop of late ripening figs this year on our fig tree. So, as a last hurrah we were looking for different ways to use them up besides making them all into fig preserves. Lisa found a recipe that combined chicken and figs together with flavor seasonings that sounded delicious, and it was. I know you will love it! Here is how she did it in our humble test kitchen -
Ingredients
5 or 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 heaping tablespoon fresh thyme leaves off the stem
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup chicken stock
¼ cup white wine
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
6 to 7 fresh figs, halved
½ lemon, juiced
Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Prep the shallots, garlic and thyme and season the chicken generously with salt and
pepper -
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the chicken skin side down and brown on both sides, 5 min per
side. Remove chicken from pan and set aside -
Hear the sizzle!
Add butter to skillet and then add the shallots season
with salt and pepper and cook over medium stirring often until softened, about 5 min -
Add the garlic, thyme, and red chili flakes, stir for 5 minutes. Then stir in the balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, mustard
and honey. Simmer for about 5 minutes -
Chicken stock and white wine -
Place the chicken back into skillet along with the figs. Transfer to oven and cook for 30 minutes or until chicken is
fully cooked through. You can broil for the last minute or so for more color on the chicken -
Remove from oven and squeeze the lemon over juice and serve with your favorite side. We chose jasmine rice topped with some of the sauce.
Sweet and slightly smoky maple syrup is an easy way to add full complex flavor to both sweet and savory dishes. Here it balances the spiciness of the Dijon mustard to make a simple glaze for a lean pork tenderloin. A splash of port wine contributes to a bold sauce punctuated by sweet and sour fresh cranberries and zesty crystalized ginger.
Ingredients -
1 pork tenderloin approx. 1 - 1 1/2 lb Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup tawny, ruby port or Marsala wine
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons crystallized ginger - minced
How -
Preheat oven to 385 F
Season the tenderloin with salt and pepper.
In a large oven proof frying pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the pork and cook turning occasionally until browned on all sides, about 5 - 8 minutes. Remove rom heat.
For the tenderloin glaze -
In a small bowl, stir together the maple syrup and the mustard. Spread about half of the sauce on the tenderloin. Put the pan in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Take out and spread the rest of the sauce over the meat and return to the oven for 10 - 15 more minutes or until the internal temp reaches 165 F.
For the Cranberry relish -
Fresh cranberries
Crystalized ginger
Marsala wine
While the pork is roasting, cook the cranberries, the wine, the sugar and the minced ginger in a heavy bottomed sauce pot. We decided to use Marsala wine, but Port would work just as well. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook uncovered stirring regularly until the berries have popped and the juices are syrupy, about 10 minutes. Then remove from heat. Serve this warm with the pork. This stuff is amazing. You will want to make this at Thanksgiving for sure. It would also be good on chicken or beside fish.
Finished cranberry relish
When the tenderloin is ready, transfer to a carving board and let rest for 5 minutes. Then cut the meat crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces.
The finished roasted tenderloin with maple-mustard glaze
Divide the slices evenly and fan out on the plates. Spoon some of the warm cranberry sauce next to the slices.
We roasted mixed color baby potatoes seasoned with rosemary as a side.
Fileja is a
traditional handmade egg-less pasta from southern Italy, specifically Calabria
where many of my ancestors lived. It has a distinctive look and a shape that
traps and holds sauce very well. Because it is a substantial pasta it has a
nice chewy bite that goes well with a rich meat sauce. We usually serve them
with a slow cooked pork ragu or with chunky roasted tomatoes.
The technique
for making fileja involves rolling a piece of pasta dough around a metal or
wooden rod or skewer. In Calabrian dialect this pasta making tool is called a
dinaculu. I made our dinaculu by
snipping off the long side of a wire coat hanger. Credit for that idea goes to
Rosetta Costantino in her book My Calabria. It is the perfect tool for making
this interesting and versatile pasta. One Christmas I gave sets of them to my
kids as stocking stuffers calling them "pasta machines".
There are
similar types of pasta in other parts of Italy. In Sicily, they are called
busiate. The general term for pasta that is made by rolling the dough around a
steel or wooden rod is maccheroni al ferratto - literally maccheroni made on
iron.
Here two of the
dinaculu I made -
Video on how to make them -
Proportions for making enough for 4 people as a main dish - 3 cups of flour - semolina or unbleached all-purpose or a mix of half semolina and half all purpose flour 3/4 cup water (approx)
The amount of
water can vary depending on the humidity in your kitchen and the
moisture level in your choice of flour. If using all-purpose, we like King Arthur brand. Mound the flour on a work surface or in a bowl and add the water a little at a time to form a dough. Knead until smooth and allow to rest
for 30 minutes wrapped in plastic wrap.
Rolling is best done on a sturdy smooth surface like a kitchen table or counter top. Dust the surface you will be working on with just a little flour - not too much or the dough won't roll and wrap properly. Pull off a small piece of dough, a little bigger than a
marble, and make a short rope with it, about 2-3 inches long and almost 1/2-inch in diameter. Gently push the rod into the pasta lengthwise and at a slight angle. Using only light pressure
from your fingertips roll each piece forward away from you and then back again several times, stretching it a little as you go. The dough will wrap itself around the rod to
form the fileja. Then slide the pasta off the rod. Repeat with the remaining dough. Lay the fileja out on a towel or sheet to dry for at least 30 minutes to an hour before cooking. With a little practice you can make dozens of these quickly. And if you are having friends over, pour some wine and let everyone do some rolling.
You will notice
the surface of the pasta has a slight roughness. This is typical of fresh hand
made pasta and one of the reasons it's so much better than store bought That
roughness helps the sauce adhere and absorb into the pasta.
Note: Fresh pasta does not take as long to cook as store bought dried. Figure about 5 minutes max in rapidly boiling water for fileja, less if you are adding them to the sauce in the pan to finish cooking. Don't over cook them ! We make these at home regularly where it's a fun group activity. As you can see in this photo, different hands make different variations on the theme. Like snowflakes, no two fileja are the same...
With roasted tomatoes - Letting the fileja, or any type of pasta, finish cooking in the sauce lets the pasta absorb the flavors of the sauce much better than just ladling the sauce over the finished pasta in a bowl.
Butternut squash fritters are great fall treat. These things are addictive and easy to make. If you need to make a bigger batch for a party, a picnic or family gathering, use the ratio of ingredients and simply bump up the amounts. Ingredients - makes 20 fritters
one butternut squash - shredded
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup pecorino cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp raw sugar
2 tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper Optional - crushed red pepper flakes to taste
