Goat cheese and chard and herbs oh my!

NY Times picture perfect pie.

I have so many bon appetit magazines, cookbooks, and food blogs for meal inspiration, that it can be overwhelming to choose one! I usually spend a little time (oh maybe several hours) perusing recipes and end up picking the one that looks like the most fun to make. When I saw this beautiful savory pie in the NY Times Health section, I thought, "I must make this crown of phyllo!" 

This recipe is essentially a quiche with a phyllo crust. I honestly cannot remember using phyllo dough ever, with the exception of when I helped my mom make baklava when I was 13. This was part of the excitement with this recipe was trying a different kind of crust, plus I just loved the way this looked in the picture (spoiler alert: my crust didn't turn out as perfect as the NY Times pic). Phyllo dough is a thin sheet of pastry made from wheat, water, and a little bit of oil. The sheets are super thin and dry out easily. The tricky part is layering the dough without tearing it. Each layer is brushed with a mixture of oil and butter to keep the layers together and so that they brown in the oven. 

Once you have layered the sheets to form a crust, you can start pulling the filling together. First, the swiss chard is chopped, blanched in boiling water, and transferred to ice water (this stops the cooking process). The crucial step is to squeeze as much water out of the chard as possible, so your crust doesn't become soggy. Second, you blend the eggs and goat cheese together in a food processor. Third, you add the chard and chopped herbs (I used tarragon, chives, and parsley). Then pour into the crust and bake.

That crust is overphyllo-ing.

As you can see the layers of my crust weren't as pretty as the NYTimes pic. However, I am fairly confident the flavors were similar. The phyllo makes for a particularly crunchy crust. And I especially enjoyed how the tarragon worked with the goat cheese. While traditional dough is probably what I prefer I would definitely make this again, especially when I am in the mood for something lighter (and easier to make).

Cheddar Leek Souffle

Look at it rise!

Nothing like a souffle to inspire the return to the blog! I took a trip to the Farmer's market on this blustery spring day and was just soaking in all the lovely spring fare - leeks, asparagus, and fresh eggs! I ended up with some arugula, sweet potatoes, cara cara oranges, and some strawberries to boot. I wasn't sure what I was going to make for dinner, but I knew it would be inspired by Spring.

Coating the ramekins with butter and parmesan cheese.

I recently received the March Bon Appetit mag issue, which had a recipe for the loftiest souffle. When I hear souffle I certainly think of a lofty, airy mountain of eggy goodness. The recipe is a basic cheese souffle with gruyere and parmesan. I wanted to go with a spring theme so Id incorporated leeks and cheddar. I sauteed three small leeks in butter with salt and pepper. I subbed cheddar for gruyere. You sprinkle the bottom of the ramekins with parmesan which creates this beautiful crust.

Don't forget to wash your leeks, they are dirty!

Souffles are intimidating - and this recipe may seem a bit involved. What I have to separate the yolks from the whites and I then I have to make a bechamel? But as long as you get everything prepped and ready to go, this recipe comes together fairly easy. It does help to save this for a lazy Saturday or Sunday.

Happy chef.

Not too shabby for my first souffle. The subtle oniony flavor of the leeks works wonderfully with the cheddar and parmesan. And the cheese on the sides and top creates this wonderful brown, flavorful crust. Souffle - so rich yet so light. I served these up with lemon asparagus and a nice cab/shiraz. Hellllooo Spring. This could work well for an easter dinner or a nice brunch.

All gone.

Summer is Here - First Caprese Salad of the Year!

Clockwise (from left): toasted Henry's Harvest bread from Grace Baking Co., sunflowers, sauteed asparagus and cauliflower with garlic, and caprese salad.

There are so many wonderful things about summer - corn, berries, peaches, but one of the best things is ripe heirloom tomatoes. One of my favorite dishes is the caprese salad. I know what you're thinking, that played out salad that you see on every italian menu in town is getting you excited? And trust me you can really mess this dish up. But the key to making this simple dish is using really good ingredients. I head to the farmer's market for some amazing heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil.

Caprese salad close-up: Heirloom tomatoes, mozarella, basil, and balsamic vinegar.

Using fresh, exceptional ingredients makes a simple salad a really amazing meal. I drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on top of the sliced tomatoes and mozarella and torn basil leaves. It is just wonderful! I toasted up some bread, sauteed some cauliflower and asparagus and my vegetarian feast was ready. Also, I just love the colors, don't you?

P.S. Malia get ready for some wonderful Cali eats!

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche and French Onion Soup

A couple of weeks ago I finally saw Julie and Julia. While the movie didn't blow me away, it was a fun movie about food. And let's be honest I love watching things involving food or cooking or baking. (Also, Meryl Streep is amazing in this movie! She totally captures the essence of Julia Child.)

For those of you who saw Julie and Juila, didn't it make you feel like making something a little challenging? I woke up the next morning with the intention of hunkering over the stove for a couple hours, perhaps even getting down and dirty with some dough. Luckily it was a Sunday, the perfect day to spend some serious hours in the kitchen. I know I am talking up the amount of work, but I was actually looking forward to spending my day cooking, a Sunday tradition that has been lost in the wake of prepackaged meals and the tendency to eat out. While Julia inspired us to cook, food television of late has had the opposite effect, so it seems. (Check out this article if you're interested in learning about how time spent in the kitchen has decreased considerable since the 1960s).

Alright, off of the soapbox and back to the kitchen. Julia inspired me to try out some french cooking. I had some beautiful vidalia onions that I needed to use, and decided they would be a lovely french onion soup. I got the most recent issue of Gourmet magazine celebrating seasonal recipes using produce from the lovely intersection of late summer and early fall harvest. I decided to try my hand at my first quiche - a broccoli cheddar recipe. Two simple yet classic french recipes - would I manage to cook both of these up in one day?

I began with the soup - slicing onions incredibly thin and then sauteeing them with butter and sugar to the point of caramelization. I continued to add wine, mushroom broth, a little balsamic vinegar, and thyme. The room filled with a wonderful aroma - there is something so comforting about making soup.

With the soup simmering on the stove, I began working on the pie crust for the quiche. Gourmet magazine features a rather traditional pie crust using butter. I love butter pie crusts -the flavor is so much better than one made with shortening.

The idea of making a pie crust can be quite daunting, but I think most people find it rather easy to pull together once they get started. A couple of tips: 1) Make sure your butter is very cold - this makes for a nice flaky crust and 2) don't use too much water - you want to use just enough to pull the dough together (too much yields a tough pie crust).

After making the dough you want to let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (Gourmet says 1 hour, but 30 minutes works just fine). Once you roll the dough out, place it in a pie plate and prick the dough with a fork (to allow steam to escape during baking). At this stage, you will chill the dough again for 30 minutes. Take the pie crust out and bake for 20-25 minutes.

While the pie crust was bakin, I began to make the filling for the Broccoli Cheddar quiche. The filling is rather simple as well - a mixture of eggs, broccoli, half-and-half, cheese, garlic, and nutmeg. When the pie crust has cooled, pour the filling into the shell and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. My quiche came out wonderfully -AJ loved it. The eggy custard was light yet creamy. The combination of broccoli, cheddar, and garlic was classic.

The soup was lighter with the use of mushroom broth, but still wonderful with the carmelized onions and salty swiss melted on top. Give French cooking a try, I do think you'll like it!

Pancetta Mac and Cheese

Pancetta Mac 'n Cheese

There is something so comforting about warm, gooey cheese and pasta. I had a hankering for some mac n' cheese last week, and decided to whip up a batch. The idea of cheese and pasta is so simple, yet so delicious. What could possibly make it any better? How about some crispy pancetta?

Grating up some extra sharp and jalapeno cheddars.

But wait, haven't you been trying to eat less meat. Yes, I have. But, sometimes the appeal of crispy pork is just too good to turn down. I found this recipe for pancetta mac n' cheese in Bon Appetite magazine.

Frying up some pancetta.

I halved the recipe, and used two different kinds of cheddars (from Bravo Farms) we picked up from our farmer's market. These cheddars were hormone-free and locally sourced. If you're going to eat cheese, I think that is the best way to do it. The extra cost is worth it. The extra sharp cheddar was pungent, while the jalapeno added a slight kick. I thought these would pair well with the smoky pancetta.

Measuring out the milk for the cheese sauce.

AJ helped grate the cheese, while I fried up the pancetta. While that was in the works, I boiled some whole-wheat rotini. The spirals allow for maximum cheese coating! Once the pancetta crisps up, I made a roux in the pan. The roux is what will make your sauce thick. Then you add the milk. When the milk-pancetta mixture has reduced some, you remove it from the heat and stir in the cheese. The pasta is stirred into the sauce and then poured into a casserole dish. Bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes, and dinner is ready.

Mixed greens salad with pancetta mac n' cheese.

The macaroni and cheese was wonderful. Once you have made your own, you will never go back to eating kraft from a box. The cheeses were strong, and paired well with the smoky pancetta. The pasta dish pairs well with a light mixed greens salad. Warm and gooey, this dish comforts the stomach and the soul.

Fondue A Deux: Fromage e Chocolat

I am proud to announce we have our first guest blogger! My fabulous roomie, Natalie, who has showed up in a number of our JAM foodie outings has been gracious enough to post about a recent fondue night we had with our other wonderful roommate, Jenny (She's my other favorite Jenny!). Natalie is also a member of the blog club, having recently started her own music related version where she reviews an ecclectic mix of artists and genres. Check it out at http://kerplunkinyourface.blogspot.com And without further ado, here's Natalie:

Enjoying fondue a deux!

Thanks to the popular rise of the Melting Pot chain, fondue parties are no longer trapped in the 1970s. After a delicious after-dinner get together there with some old high school friends, my roommates and I decided that we'd have to try making fondue on our own.

The accompaniaments to our cheese fondue

My parents have about 6 fondue pots, and luckily, a couple of them were electric. Fondue pots that use the Sterno "canned heat" cooking fuel just aren't as great. Not wanting to stray too far away from familiar tastes, Jenny looked up the actual restaurant recipes from the Melting Pot.

Here is the recipe for their famous cheddar cheese fondue:

1 ½ to 2 cups Sharp cheddar cheese1 ½ to 2 cups Emmanthaler cheese (can substitute w/something in the Swiss cheese family)

1/3 cup beer (PBR or bud light)

1 clove garlic (optional)

dash or two Worchestireshire sauce

1 tsp. Mustard powder

dash Cayenne pepper

adding the cheese

We paired the cheese fondue with carrots, celery, granny smith apples, and french bread cubes. The emmanthaler cheese really did cut the sharpness of the cheddar cheese, and it was not too rich (we later realized that our stomach aches were due to the fact that fondue parties should consist of more than 3 people).

Ta dah! Melty, cheesy goodness

We also tried a chocolate fondue, and we altered the recipe to include MORE chocolate:
24 oz semi-sweet chocolate baking chips

1 ½ cups light cream

1 tsp of vanilla

Jenny stirs up a pot of chocolate

We ended up forgetting to add the vanilla right away, but then vetoed it because the chocolate sauce was already to our liking. Strawberries, bananas, and Malia's delicious homemade brownies were the dippers for the chocolate fondue.

Strawberries, bananas and chocolate oh my!

I believe that our fondue night was a success! Malia and I have never been to the Melting Pot for dinner, but we would assume that we came close to its taste. It was also a lot cheaper! So if you're looking for something different to cook, and you have a bit of time to savor dinner, fondue parties are always going to be a winner in my book.

-Natalie (guest blogger...wooo!)

Heaven!

Grilled Cheese...the gourmet version

So I am sure you are all sick of my obsession with soup. So you will be happy to hear that I sought comfort from the cold in a different venue - the grilled cheese. I love a classic grilled cheddar cheese on wheat, preferably with tomato. However, I had an abundance of veggies that needed cooking, so I took the classic grilled cheese up a level.

Eggplant, onions, and portabellos getting soft and delicious.

I began by sauteeing some veggies I had leftover from the previous nights stirfry ingredients. The onions caramalized nicely. The eggplant softened and soaked up a little bit of olive oil, and the portabellos would add a meatiness to my grilled cheese.

Grillin' my cheese.

I decided that fontina and multigrain bread would be the best compliments to the delicious vegetables. I dabbed a little butter on the bread and let it fry. The cheese melted perfectly, and the crust was crisp and buttery. This grilled cheese was outta this world. The fontina was gooey with a slight nutty flavor that complimented the sweet vegetables nicely. I can certainly say that this is a combo I will repeat again.

Close up!

3 out of 3 JAMs

Birthday Food Tour in NYC

Jenny just turned 23 on September 12th. Happy Belated Birthday! Malia and I try and head up to New York in September to celebrate this momentous occasion. Now Jenny pretty much has it all, so it's not always easy finding a birthday present for this girl. Malia and I were watching the Food Network (our favorite tv channel) one evening after work and it dawned upon us - why not celebrate Jenny with a walking food tour of NYC! Obviously, there are a million places to eat in New York, so we decided to focus on places where we could grab bites of little things, allowing us to try some different items and minimize time spent waiting at tables to eat.

We Bolt bused it to New York from D.C. on Sept 19th and arrived around 7:30pm. Jenny surprised us wih reservations at Les Halles, a place we'd been dying to try after reading Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential". The restaurant is known for its Steak Frites, but Malia and I were a little apprehensive about ordering fries, since that was one of the places on our food tour the next day. But hey you only live once, so we went for it. Jenny got the steak frites as well. For dessert I got the bananas flambe. I wish I had taken pictures, because the presentation is amazing (for 12.50, it better be). We all agreed my dessert trumped the chocolate mousse and creme caramel. We headed back to Jenny's apartment to rest up for tomorrow.

Jenny knew that she was going to be taken for a food tour, but had no idea where she would be going and what she would be eating. We headed out at 11am to our first destination....

THE DUGHNUT PLANT

The shop is rather small and thus the line for doughnuts began to peak out the door. Let me tell you it was well worth the wait.

These doughnuts were the best doughnuts I have ever tried. Unfortunately in our passionate throes of eating, we forgot to take pictures! We tried five different doughnuts, three yeast and two cake: raspberry glazed, coconut cream/coconut glazed, plum jelly/peanut butter glazed, blackout (chocolate/chocolate glazed), and tres leches. The unique thing about the filled doughnuts is that they are piped throughout the square shaped dough so that you get a taste of filling surrounded by the dough in every bite!

JAM Note: Coconut Cream/Coconut Glazed was the favorite (although the bday girl liked the raspberry glazed the best.)

http://www.thedoughnutplant.com/

CHOCOLATE BAR

Our second location was an ode to all things chocolate: brownies, cookies, candy bars, truffles, and hot chocolate. Feeling the shift from summer to fall, we all decided we wanted to sip on something warm. Travis and I chose the spicy hot chocolate. It was a nice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and just the right dose of chilis to pack a little punch. The spices mellowed the sweetness of the dark chocolate. Malia and Jenny went for the mint hot chocolate, which always reminds me of the holidays.

Before heading on to the next food stop, we purchased a couple chocolate bars for the road: a dark chocolate with strawberry filling and a dark chocolate with key lime pie filling. The key lime filling was packed with bright lime flavor, which was a nicely juxtaposed against the dark, semi-sweet chocolate.

www.chocolatebarnyc.com

POMMES FRITES

After eating steak frites at Les Halles the night before, you would think we would have had our fill of french fries. But then again who in their right mind passes up french fries? These fries are made to order: double fried and served with your choice of sauces. The European Mayo and Especial Sauce (ketchup, mayo, and onions) come free. A variety of sauces such as curry, mango, and parmesan peppercorn will cost an extra $1. We got two regulars, which were more than enough for four people to share. They were hot and crisp on the outside. Delicious. Of the sauces, the parmesan peppercorn was nice and creamy, but the pepper was a little overpowering. JAM Note: the especial sauce was the favorite - the raw onions add a nice kick.

http://www.pommesfrites.ws/

RICKSHAW DUMPLING

Jenny had been to Rickshaw Dumpling before, but Travis told us that Jenny would definitely want to share these dumplings with us. We got 6 of three different kinds: peking duck, pork, and shrimp. The first two were pan-fried and the last was steamed. I prefer the pan-fried, adding a little crispness and chewiness to the dumpling. These are surprisingly light, and had we been eating only dumplings, I think we could have packed away quite a few more of these.

JAM Note: The traditional pork dumplings were the unanimous favorite.

http://www.rickshawdumplings.com/

In case you hadn't figured it out, healthy eating was not one of the criteria in scheduling this food tour. I was a little worried that a greasy grilled cheese might send my stomach over the edge after dumplings, but these sandwiches were not overly oily. The secret is the panini press they use to give the bread a nice crunch on the outside and to melt the cheese on the inside. Jenny and I shared a classic cheddar cheese with tomato on sourdough. That combination is definitely my favorite. The sourdough was amazing, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, with a slightly tangy flavor. Malia got the same, but subbed monteray jack. Travis took the nontraditional route with a chicken melt with roasted veggies on olive bread. He seemed to enjoy his choice.

Say Cheese!

This Wisconsin boy sure loves his cheese.

BOUCHON BAKERY

The final stop took us to Columbus Circle. You have the option of sitting down at their cafe to munch on sandwiches and some of their more intricate desserts. We opted to take our treats to go and enjoy them in Central Park. Everything they offer looked so good, it was hard to decide what to eat. The bakery offers everything from macarons, croissants, tarts, baguettes, and gourmet takes on "the nutter butter" and "the thin mint".

Jenny loves her macarons and chose a cherry with chocolate filling and a chocolate with chocolate filling. Malia and I opted for almond croissants, hers filled with raspberry preserves and mine with chocolate. They were divine. Unfortunately they forgot to put in Travis' coconut macaron. But we shared our goodies with him, so he didn't go hungry (as if any of us was actually hungry at this point).

After a long day of walking and eating.

www.bouchonbakery.com/