Last Monday we decided to go meatless for dinner. So I looked through my cookbook, "29 Minutes to Dinner Volume 2", and found the meatless section. After flipping past recipes for soup and tofu which I just did not feel like making, I found a recipe for "Ricotta Gnocchi". At first glance I was sure this recipe was far too fancy and difficult to make.
But it sounded so good and the picture was so tantalizing, I read the ingredients and there wasn't anything too fancy... then I read the instructions and I was amazed at how easy it was going to be to make this beautiful, fancy dish in just 23 minutes. I'm not kidding, it really took less than 30 minutes to make dinner!
So we set out for the grocery store for the two ingredients we did not have on hand: ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese (block). That's it. Everything else I had on hand: flour, butter, olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and 1 egg. I left a couple things out, because that's how I roll. And I hate lemon as you may know, so I feel I had good reason. I picked up spinach because spinach is delicious and it sounded good.
Then Monday dinner time arrived. I began by preparing the simple dough in my batter bowl. I grated the parmesan, measured the ricotta and mixed them with the egg and flour. I used my Small Scoop to make the cutest little dough balls. I heated butter and olive oil in my non-stick pan and scooped the dough directly into the pan. I cooked each for two minutes and flipped them with my chef's tongs (coated in silicone to keep the pan safe) and cooked them another two minutes. As they cooked they flattened just a bit and looked kind of like small scallops when they were finished.
I removed them from the pan, added garlic and red pepper, and then tossed in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach leaves, just to coat and wilt a bit. I made a wilted spinach salad with our cheese gnocchi. Truth to tell, I had this ulterior motive since I purchased the spinach when we went out for cheese.
It was ridiculously delicious! My husband tried to confiscate mine and has requested this dish again and soon. I was so impressed with how simple and elegant this dish was and how quickly it came together.
Showing posts with label batter bowl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label batter bowl. Show all posts
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Champagne Cake (A Birthday Story)
This was another calendar recipe, and it looked so good I had to make it for Shane's birthday. It was May's picture, so it was like fate. So we procured a white cake mix, pink champagne, and heavy whipping cream. All the other ingredients we had on hand. (Milk, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, powdered sugar)
In the picture there are four pink layers with fluffy white frosting in between. My cake was a little different. I didn't use any food coloring to make it pink (even though Shane said he'd totally rock a pink cake) because I only have green food coloring left over from St. Patrick's Day's Green Eats. And my cake was only two layers. Not because it would be too hard to do four or I didn't have time or didn't feel like it, but because I dropped one of the cakes on the counter when I was taking them out of the oven. My cake pan manufacturers thought it would be just brilliant to make the outside with a non-stick coating as well. Not such a good idea after all. I put the cake back into the pan and later I was able to frost the cracked cake back together, but there was no way I'd be able to make layers with it like that.
But back to the beginning of this story! I separated my eggs into my batter bowl (I hate making cake without it now, since it has the measuring cup pouring shape) and so not to be wasteful I made a tiny egg yolk omelet, which I accidentally crisped a little while trying to figure out if you need to coat non-stick baking pans. I never did find the answer but coated them anyway.
To the egg whites I added milk, vegetable oil and double vanilla (vanilla is the best, and I say you can never use too much! You can, however, use way too much almond extract) Then, just like my recipe said, I took the whisk to it and added the cake mix. It was a horrible un-whiskable mess. Then I remembered I had forgotten to add the champagne. I poured in the champagne, and a little for me on the side, to test it. (I tested it again a little later, too.) And it was still a horrible un-whiskable mess. So I scraped out the cake "batter" from my whisk and used a spatula to gently stir in the champagne, it took a few minutes to fully incorporate and I thought I had ruined it! But finally it began to homogenize and I stopped freaking out. Batter into the coated pans, bake for 20 minutes.
I got out everything for the frosting except for the heavy whipping cream, which I waited to be the last thing I got out. The colder your whipping cream, the faster you'll get to soft peaks (my goal). So into my bowl went 1/2 cup powdered sugar and again double vanilla, with 1 pint of heavy whipping cream. I stirred slowly at first to avoid flinging powdered sugar and cream all over the kitchen. Then I turned the beater on medium until it just began to thicken. Earlier, I had quartered 3 marshmallows and put them in the microwave, when the cream began to thicken I turned them on for 15 seconds and immediately added them to the cream, beating on high. There was some splashing, but not too much. I beat the cream for the next 20 minutes, and was not quite to soft peaks when the cakes finished baking.
The cream (future frosting) went into the refrigerator for a much needed chill, so I could take the cakes out to cool. I let the cakes cool and the cream chill for about 20 minutes before turning out the cakes and beating the cream to soft peaks, which didn't take long since I had done most of the work earlier and it had had a chance to chill.
I put the broken cake on my cake pedestal, because I say, if you're going to bake you may as well be fancy about it. I don't bake often, so it's like a special occasion. The broken cake was the bottom layer, so I scooped a big pile of frosting (formerly cream) onto the cake and spread. It was so easy! I had never used a cream frosting like this before, and it was so smooth and not sticky at all (like jar frosting which is basically sugar paste). The other cake went on top and the rest of the frosting I scooped onto the top of that and spread and smoothed down the sides. This cake took about 45 seconds to frost, it was amazing! This is the only way I'm making frosting from now on. The cream may be more expensive than buying jar frosting, but it tastes so much better and is so easy to use that the added cost and effort are worth it. Especially considering I make cake like twice a year. And unlike other homemade frosting which call for more powdered sugar than anything else, this frosting doesn't harden. (Even refrigerated overnight, it was still soft and fluffy)
I refrigerated the cake until time to sing happy birthday, cut the cake and serve it! I used my new high heel cake server because it is fabulous and perfect for the job. We also finished the champagne with the cake, and it was a perfect pairing.
In the picture there are four pink layers with fluffy white frosting in between. My cake was a little different. I didn't use any food coloring to make it pink (even though Shane said he'd totally rock a pink cake) because I only have green food coloring left over from St. Patrick's Day's Green Eats. And my cake was only two layers. Not because it would be too hard to do four or I didn't have time or didn't feel like it, but because I dropped one of the cakes on the counter when I was taking them out of the oven. My cake pan manufacturers thought it would be just brilliant to make the outside with a non-stick coating as well. Not such a good idea after all. I put the cake back into the pan and later I was able to frost the cracked cake back together, but there was no way I'd be able to make layers with it like that.
But back to the beginning of this story! I separated my eggs into my batter bowl (I hate making cake without it now, since it has the measuring cup pouring shape) and so not to be wasteful I made a tiny egg yolk omelet, which I accidentally crisped a little while trying to figure out if you need to coat non-stick baking pans. I never did find the answer but coated them anyway.
To the egg whites I added milk, vegetable oil and double vanilla (vanilla is the best, and I say you can never use too much! You can, however, use way too much almond extract) Then, just like my recipe said, I took the whisk to it and added the cake mix. It was a horrible un-whiskable mess. Then I remembered I had forgotten to add the champagne. I poured in the champagne, and a little for me on the side, to test it. (I tested it again a little later, too.) And it was still a horrible un-whiskable mess. So I scraped out the cake "batter" from my whisk and used a spatula to gently stir in the champagne, it took a few minutes to fully incorporate and I thought I had ruined it! But finally it began to homogenize and I stopped freaking out. Batter into the coated pans, bake for 20 minutes.
I got out everything for the frosting except for the heavy whipping cream, which I waited to be the last thing I got out. The colder your whipping cream, the faster you'll get to soft peaks (my goal). So into my bowl went 1/2 cup powdered sugar and again double vanilla, with 1 pint of heavy whipping cream. I stirred slowly at first to avoid flinging powdered sugar and cream all over the kitchen. Then I turned the beater on medium until it just began to thicken. Earlier, I had quartered 3 marshmallows and put them in the microwave, when the cream began to thicken I turned them on for 15 seconds and immediately added them to the cream, beating on high. There was some splashing, but not too much. I beat the cream for the next 20 minutes, and was not quite to soft peaks when the cakes finished baking.
The cream (future frosting) went into the refrigerator for a much needed chill, so I could take the cakes out to cool. I let the cakes cool and the cream chill for about 20 minutes before turning out the cakes and beating the cream to soft peaks, which didn't take long since I had done most of the work earlier and it had had a chance to chill.
I put the broken cake on my cake pedestal, because I say, if you're going to bake you may as well be fancy about it. I don't bake often, so it's like a special occasion. The broken cake was the bottom layer, so I scooped a big pile of frosting (formerly cream) onto the cake and spread. It was so easy! I had never used a cream frosting like this before, and it was so smooth and not sticky at all (like jar frosting which is basically sugar paste). The other cake went on top and the rest of the frosting I scooped onto the top of that and spread and smoothed down the sides. This cake took about 45 seconds to frost, it was amazing! This is the only way I'm making frosting from now on. The cream may be more expensive than buying jar frosting, but it tastes so much better and is so easy to use that the added cost and effort are worth it. Especially considering I make cake like twice a year. And unlike other homemade frosting which call for more powdered sugar than anything else, this frosting doesn't harden. (Even refrigerated overnight, it was still soft and fluffy)
I refrigerated the cake until time to sing happy birthday, cut the cake and serve it! I used my new high heel cake server because it is fabulous and perfect for the job. We also finished the champagne with the cake, and it was a perfect pairing.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Warm Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad
I finally made my calendar recipe from March! I admit, that I didn't follow the directions, but I did use the same ingredients, except that I omitted the artichoke hearts, because I couldn't find any marinated artichoke hearts. I think I should have checked Meijer, but I didn't, so I didn't get them.
I started by making a layer of pea pods on the bottom of my saute pan, and I added less than 1/4 cup water, just enough to cover the bottom and get them wet. I don't like boiling vegetables unless they are potatoes, which are tubers and don't count. So I turned that on to cook off the water and steam the pea pods. In the mean time I took some potatoes that Shane had crinkle cut for me with the Ultimate Mandoline (that's what it's called, and it is pretty cool, so don't knock its name :D) and put them in my large Micro Cooker with 4 cups of water for 15 minutes (which turned out to be too long).
While the peas and potatoes were cooking I chopped 1/3 of one large green bell pepper and 1/3 of one huge red onion. The onion I added right to the peas, along with 1 clove garlic pressed and 1 T olive oil and half of 1 lemon freshly juiced (the water had cooked off by this point). I gave that a nice stir and drained the potatoes and chopped the breast from a rotisserie chicken (so yum!)
In my small size Batter Bowl, which is a large measuring cup that is big enough to mix and make and bake in, I whisked together just under 1/4 olive oil and the other half of that lemon. When it was done it looked sort of like whisked egg yolk, so that was cool and odd. I added some cracked black pepper and added that along with the potatoes to the peas and other things.
When I stirred that all together, the potatoes crumbled and became a mashed potato coating for the other food. Upon tasting this dish, I remembered that I hate lemons and everything that tastes like lemons... I think picture was so pretty I convinced myself that it wouldn't be that lemon-y. I was wrong, it was VERY lemony. I added a pile of salt and that helped (and if you know me you know I don't like salt either). If I make this dish again it is not going to involve lemons. I am considering an orange. And I could use rice or perhaps cook the potatoes less.
I started by making a layer of pea pods on the bottom of my saute pan, and I added less than 1/4 cup water, just enough to cover the bottom and get them wet. I don't like boiling vegetables unless they are potatoes, which are tubers and don't count. So I turned that on to cook off the water and steam the pea pods. In the mean time I took some potatoes that Shane had crinkle cut for me with the Ultimate Mandoline (that's what it's called, and it is pretty cool, so don't knock its name :D) and put them in my large Micro Cooker with 4 cups of water for 15 minutes (which turned out to be too long).
While the peas and potatoes were cooking I chopped 1/3 of one large green bell pepper and 1/3 of one huge red onion. The onion I added right to the peas, along with 1 clove garlic pressed and 1 T olive oil and half of 1 lemon freshly juiced (the water had cooked off by this point). I gave that a nice stir and drained the potatoes and chopped the breast from a rotisserie chicken (so yum!)
In my small size Batter Bowl, which is a large measuring cup that is big enough to mix and make and bake in, I whisked together just under 1/4 olive oil and the other half of that lemon. When it was done it looked sort of like whisked egg yolk, so that was cool and odd. I added some cracked black pepper and added that along with the potatoes to the peas and other things.
When I stirred that all together, the potatoes crumbled and became a mashed potato coating for the other food. Upon tasting this dish, I remembered that I hate lemons and everything that tastes like lemons... I think picture was so pretty I convinced myself that it wouldn't be that lemon-y. I was wrong, it was VERY lemony. I added a pile of salt and that helped (and if you know me you know I don't like salt either). If I make this dish again it is not going to involve lemons. I am considering an orange. And I could use rice or perhaps cook the potatoes less.
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