Dandelions versus Green Leaf Lettuce

So I was watching this video of a 94 year old lady who makes meals from the Great Depression:



And in it she mentions several times that Dandelion Greens are "good for you". Rachel and I eat a decent amount of salads and usually make them with Green Leaf lettuce, so I wondered are Dandelion Greens "good for you?" Are they better for you than Green Leaf lettuce?

Answer: Yes

Take a look at the image below comparing the two taken from www.nutritiondata.com. Note: the amounts arent exactly equal, but even at the same quantity, Dandelion greens are pretty competitive.

Maybe we should be picking these out of our gardens. Also, if your response is that it is "dirty" or that there are a lot of pesticides in your garden, I'd venture a guess that there is less chemicals on your lawn than at the local farm.

Panko Eggplant with Chile-Yogurt Salsa

I came across this recipe through one of the cooking shows we watch, Simply Ming. Every episode, the chef, Ming Tsai, uses two "heroes" or highlight ingredients that he uses in all of his dishes, one hero is always from the west and the other hero is from the east. For this recipe, Greek yogurt and Sriracha sauce were the heroes.

Although it does not include the nutritional information, it should be healthy as it is vegetarian and the yogurt is fat free. The Sriacha sauce is something that I had seen, but never purchased and was at the regular grocery store. It has a nice kick that really added a lot of flavor. The second time I made this recipe, I used regular eggplant, rather than Japanese eggplant. If possible, use Japanese because the regular eggplant was a little stringy on the inside and wasn't as tasty. Out of 5, here is how I rank this dish:

Taste: 4.5
Health: 5
Ease: 5
Acquisition: 4

Note that sometimes these categories get weighted depending on how the dish ranks in the other categories, for example, because this dish was so easy to make and is healthy, the taste is weighted. It was great, but it was especially great because of the fact that it was so easy and healthy. (i.e. it's not lobster dripping in butter). For those of you who try this one out, let me know how you rate it! Here is the link: http://www.ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-7/panko-eggplant-with-chile-yogurt-salsa.htm


Ingredients

3 Japanese eggplant, halved lengthwise and scored diagonally
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons Sriracha
1 cup panko
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 scallions sliced thinly
1 large tomato, 1/2-inch dice
8 leaves Thai basil, fine ribbons
1 tablespoon sriracha


Directions

Pre-heat oven to low broil. Lay out eggplant and season. Mix together the oils and sriracha. Brush mixture onto sliced side of eggplant and dip into panko, place on baking dish. Moisten breadcrumbs on top with a drizzle of olive oil. Place tray on middle shelf. Cook until golden, brown and delicious, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine Greek yogurt, scallions, tomato, basil and Sriracha, season and store salsa in fridge. To serve, plate with a few tablespoons salsa spooned over hot eggplant.

How to Choose a Recipe

As many of you know, I enjoy both cooking and baking; however, I am no Martha Stewart. When deciding to take on a new recipe, there are several factors I take into consideration:

Taste: Will this recipe taste good? If yes, it is still in the running, but must pass a few more hurtles before it gets made.
Health: How healthy is it? If it is a dessert, this gets less consideration because desserts aren’t meant to be healthy. But main dishes need to be, unless it is for special holiday (i.e Thanksgiving). For example, one of my magazines has a recipe for baked penne with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes. It looks so good! But with the butter, cheese, and whole milk it comes to be 636 calories and a whopping 26.2 grams of fat per serving. This has kept me from making it, as tasty as it may be, it isn’t worth getting hooked on a dish that is bad for me.
Ease: How easy is this dish to make? To determine this, I look at the time it takes to complete and the amount of steps it takes. I also check to see how many pans and bowls do I need to use. Do I have to do something special to each part of the ingredient? Do I need to use special tools that I don’t even have? Sometimes a recipe is not worth it, these are the dishes and desserts that might be better ordered when going to a restaurant if you don’t think you have the skill, tools, or patience to pull it off.
Acquisition: Do I need special ingredients that will either be hard to find or expensive to buy? You don’t want to make any ingredient replacements if it will change the integrity of the dish, but sometimes you can get around some of the specialty ingredients if they don’t play a large role in the dish. Acquisition can definitely be a deal-breaker because I am not in a position to shell out $15 for a special spice of which I will use only teaspoon or drive around town looking for fresh lemon grass.
Do keep these four factors in mind whenever I’m recommending a recipe: nothing will ever be too hard to make, ingredients won’t be too hard to find, it should defiantly taste good, and should be reasonably healthy!

Note about photo: This what is called a croquembouche. This is tower of handmade creme puffs that is decorated with hand spun caramel. Needless to say, this would not pass the Rachel Recipe Test....although I would not be opposed to taking a bite if offered.

Pasta!

Jeremy and I have tried three new pasta recipes over the past week which have yielded some great results!

The first pasta dish was from Rachael Ray and was something that I had tried in the past: Spaghetti and Clam Sauce with Grape Tomatoes. This time around I didn't buy any clams and it still tasted great! In the beginning you add a few anchovy fillets to olive oil along with garlic and crushed red pepper...the anchovies make the whole dish taste salty in a great way. The best part of this dish is the fresh produce...the tomatoes cook until they split, but then the parsley and green onions are put in the dish last minute so they remain fresh and crisp. Here is the recipe if you are interested in trying this at home. Click me!

The second pasta dish was from a popular blog called "The Kitchn". The main ingredient in this dish is Brussels Sprout! Growing-up, I think we were served Brussels once...my mom didn't like them, and since she did most of the cooking, she didn't make them...fair enough! So I wasn't sure if this would be good because I didn't have much of an idea about the flavor and taste of Brussels Sprouts...however, the other main ingredient in this dish is pancetta which adds a great flavor to any dish, so I thought I would go for it. The sprouts go into the dish shaved, so the distinct flavor is spread throughout the dish without it being to concentrated. At the end, toasted pine nuts are sprinkled on top which adds a whole different dimension of texture and taste. I thought this dish turned out great and loved the idea of eating such a hearty vegetable in the main dish. Here is the recipe: click me!


The last recipe (see first picture) was one that Jeremy found in Gourmet Magazine awhile back and had on his "To Cook" list for awhile: Ziti with Poblanos and Chipotle Sauce. This pasta dish has a creamy sauce that is made by blending sour cream and a tablespoon of chipotle in adobo sauce. The sauce and ziti are mixed together with cooked poblano chilies, onions and roasted red peppers and topped off with green onions and cilantro. I was very excited to try this dish because it sounded so flavorful! Verdict: HOT!!!!!!!! It was way too spicy for either of us...it was tear jerking, sinus aggravating, heart-burning, spicy! The heat over powered all of the flavor. We tried to salvage it by added the rest of the left over sour cream to the sauce and pulled out most of the poblano chilies. This seemed to temper the spice at the time, but when I tried again the next night it was just as spicy. We had to throw it away. Jeremy is not ready to give up on the recipe...clearly we will add less chipotles. I also think it would be really good to include sliced chicken. When he gives it another shot, we will let you know how it turns out. Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested in trying it themselves: click me!

If you do try one, let us know how it turns out!

Thanksgiving 2009

About a month ago, I bought Gourmet magazine's last issue, their Thanksgiving issue. Sad to see a magazine that has been around for 68 years go away. Especially when Rachel and I found many recipes we wanted to try and were excited about new flavors this Thanksgiving. We especially wanted to try the recipes from the "rural Pennsylvania Thanksgiving" section.

This was what we ate:

• Pumpernickel Rye Stuffing with apples
• Smashed Yukon Golds with Bacon and Dill
• Grain fed Turkey with Apple Cider Glaze
• Handmade cranberry relish with oranges and apples
• Carrots with shallots, sage and thyme
• Rachel's Grandmothers dinner rolls
  
• and Rachel made a Berry Crisp for dessert

Everything was very good! We enjoyed trying new twists (at least to us) on Thanksgiving classics.

 

 

 

 

Stainless Steel Straws in action

Made these drinks for a cocktail hour yesterday, and my new straws worked and looked awesome, especially for Mojitos------no crushed mint leaves in your mouth.

Summer Cocktails

Summer is officially here, and I just ordered these stainless steel straws. They have been out of stock for months. I'm excited. Perfect for mojitos.

Pear Tart Tatin

This morning I continued exploration in baking by making a Pear Tart Tatin. It has been on my to-do list for a long time and I finally got around to it and it was yummy! It was pretty easy to make as well because it called for puff pastry sheet rather than having to make the crust dough from scratch. Here is is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the origins of this dessert as well as photos from my own creation (also above)!

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down apple tart in which the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked.

Tradition says that the Tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France in 1898. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories concerning the tart's origin, but the predominant one is that Stéphanie Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day. She started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. An alternative version of the tart's origin is offered on the Brotherhood of the Tarte Tatin website,^[1] according to which Stéphanie baked a caramelised apple tart upside-down by mistake. Regardless she served her guests the unusual dish hot from the oven and a classic was born.

The Tarte became a signature dish at the Hotel Tatin and the recipe spread through the Sologne region. Its lasting fame is probably due to the restaurateur Louis Vaudable, who tasted the tart on a visit to Sologne and made the dessert a permanent fixture on the menu at his restaurant Maxim's of Paris.

Tarte Tatin has to be made with firm dessert apples: cooking apples will not do as they mulch down into a purée. In North America, Tarte Tatin is typically made with Golden Delicious apples, which are not the type used for American-style apple pie.

Tarte Tatin can also be made with pears, peaches, pineapple, tomatoes,^[2] other fruit, or vegetables, such as onion.

The pears are simmering in the pan after the sugar, water, and apple cider vinegar had browned for 15 minutes

The puff pastry draped over the cooked pears - the whole pan was then covered and placed in the oven

This is the tart after cooking in the oven for 15 minutes. Now the lid stays off and it cooks another 15 minutes more

The tart is done cooking! The center has the second layer on it because after cutting the pastry puff into a circle, I had extra dough because I had rolled it too thin. I just placed on top because this is technically the bottom of the dessert.




Inverted and Finished!

If I make this again I will use peaches in order to bring out a more tart taste to the dessert. Pears are pretty sweet, especially after they have been cooking. Pineapple is probably to acidic for this type of dessert, but they may be good too. After all, the fruit is cooked in sugar for 15 minutes before the baking begins, so the pineapple may end having a great balance once it is all finished.