Lake Paijanne on Christmas Day 2011 – no ice, no snow!

Somedays, the cupboards and fridge in my kitchen simply have nothing to offer me.  Inevitably, it’s on the days I’d most like to throw a plate of leftovers into the microwave a day, that this occurs. On one such day, after sniffing into the paper bag containing 4-day old ciabatta (read: dry and hard) and examining the fridge to find only a few lonely eggs and a few drops of milk, I had an inspiration:  Bread pudding – of course!

Light show, Helsinki, New Year’s Eve 2011

It’s the easiest thing in the world, and my guess is that it would be excellent made with old pulla, in the case that this unlikely problem were ever to happen in my house – old, uneaten pulla, that is.  But in this case,    I added cinnamon and cardamom for a sort-of pulla twist, a few lingonberries for tart twist, heated the oven to 400°F, and tossed the ingredients together in a bowl; then the baking dish, and let it bake for 30 minutes.

Unfortunately we ate it so quickly, there are no pictures to share, but take my word for that this is well worth your time and may make you hide fresh bread until it turns stale just so that you have an excuse to make this.

Bread Pudding
Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C


3 cups stale bread (firm white bread like ciabatta or pugliese or a mix of white & wheat works best – old & crunchy is good in this case)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup of berries: your choice (I used lingonberries for color and tartness)
1 – 2 Tablespoons of butter, cut into small pieces

Swan Latte, Fratello Torrefazione

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom.  Add the bread crumbs and toss to coat.  Let mixture sit for a couple of minutes so the bread crumbs absorb the moisture, add the berries, and toss again.   Pour the mixture into a small baking dish and add little pieces of butter across the top.  Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the mixture turns golden brown on top and puffs up a little.

Serve warm, preferably with a cup of dark roast coffee.
Serves 2 (happily) or 4 (if you must share).

Cross country skiing in Jyväskylä, Jan 7th, 2011

Nicely toasted Mac&Cheese

When I was growing up, we rarely ate food that came out of the box.  Typically if there was part of our food that came out of a box or can, it wouldn’t have comprised the whole meal – instead it would have been spaghetti noodles, to be boiled and added to a sauce made from canned tomatoes, to which onions and probably a ready-made spaghetti sauce flavoring mix would be added.  Not that our meals were fancy: one of the highlights of Sunday mornings was scrambled eggs with Spam – yep – that infamous not really ham but what do you call it in the distinctly blue tin, and Sunday afternoons was cream of tomato soup (of which I was not a fan as a kid) and open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches, made on my sister Melissa’s homemade bread – baked in Folger’s coffee cans so the bread slices where round, topped with Tillamook cheddar and a slice of summer sausage (also round, incidentally) and grilled face-up in our oven.

One serving: gone.

Now this, so far, is reasonable.  But the one thing I do remember coming out of a box was something we had rarely, but for some reason, my younger brothers and I loved:  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.  Those of you who know what it is are probably either recoiling in disgust at the thought of such nasty fare, or chuckling a little because you, too, loved it as a kid.  For those who don’t know what it is, let me explain.  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese comes in a tall, skinny blue box (at least it did when I was kid – the labeling may have changed).  In the box was dried macaroni and a little white package that contained a powdered yellow substance: “the cheese”.  The macaroni was boiled according to package instructions:  roughly 10 minutes if I recall.  Then the water was drained off and to the macaroni was added the dubious contents of the white package, a few tablespoons of butter, a little milk, and you stirred until all the yellow powder was evenly distributed, wetted with the aid of the butter and milk and any moisture clinging to the noodles after draining.  The result was a sticky, gooey, pumpkin orange macaroni slop that we were inexplicably thrilled about.

Fortunately, things have improved since then in the Macaroni & Cheese department.  Thanks once again to my favorite cooking magazine, Fine Cooking, we were able to dine on something that was much closer to what you will find at Beecher’s Cheese near the Pike Place Market, or from Rita & Skip’s corner market (which they very suitably served with meatballs – thanks again!)

Give it a try for yourself!  The recipe requires dirtying a whole pile of pots and pans, but is oh-so-worth the effort.  And so vastly different from the Kraft version, I’m not certain that a comparison is even fair.  And here’s the thing:  you can use whatever mixture of cheeses it is that you think will make you happy.  Ditto for the add-ins:  vegetables, meat, mushrooms, spinach, herbs, and spices.  Go a little wild with it, and Enjoy!

Something to smile about!

Macaroni & Cheese
adapted from Fine Cooking, Jan/Feb 2012


Preheat the oven to 350°F/170°C.  Position the rack in the center of the oven.

Prep your ingredients:
Pasta
1 lb of you choice of pasta (I used penne, but anything that the sauce will cling to works well.)


Heat water to a boil and add pasta.  Cook for one minute less than manufacturer’s instructions; drain; set aside.


Add-ins (whatever you want – here what’s in mine)
1 leek, white and light green parts only, washed and cut into 1/4″ thick rounds
1 cup chopped Savoy cabbage
1/4 cup water
1 cup of frozen peas
1 teaspoon of dried thyme

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add 1 Tablespoons of oil.  Add leek and cook until leek softens.  Add cabbage and water.  Steam cabbage and leeks together until cabbage is softened.  Remove from heat and stir in frozen peas and thyme.  Set aside.

Topping
1 clove of garlic, crushed or smashed into a paste
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups fresh, course bread crumbs, lightly toasted (if you have a food processor, toast the bread first and put the slices into the food processor to make crumbs)

Melt the butter and stir in the garlic.  Pour the garlic butter over the bread crumbs and toss to combine thoroughly.  Set aside.  


Cheese Sauce

2 Tablespoons of flour
3 1/2 cups of milk (I used 2%)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of mixed cheeses, grated (I used 2 cups Gruyere and 1 cup Fontina)
2 Tablespoons fresh, chopped parsley

In a heavy pot over medium heat, warm butter until completely melted.  Add flour and stir with a whisk until flour and butter are fully incorporated.  Add 1/3 of the milk, and whisk vigorously until the mixture is smooth, lump-free and begins to thicken.  Add the remaining milk, raise the temperature to medium high, and whisk constantly until the mixture begins to bubble.  Turn the heat down to low so the mixture bubbles quietly, and, stirring occasionally, let bubble for 5 minutes.  Add the salt, the grated cheeses and the parsley and whisk until the cheese is fully incorporated and melted into the sauce.


Assembly
Add the noodles to the vegetables in the frying pan and toss to combine.  Pour the cheese sauce over the noodle & vegetable mixture until everything is well-coated with cheese sauce.  Pour the entire pasta mixture into a 9×13″ baking dish (or whatever you have that fits this quantity of ingredients).  Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over the top.  Place mixture into the heated oven and bake until the bread crumbs are nicely browned and the mixture begins to bubble; about 15 minutes.  


Cool 5 minutes.  Serves 6 generously.

There’s just so much good stuff in here. Perfect winter food.

Tasty Morsels, hot from the oven

A tomato in winter is rarely inspiring.  Now, there was a time I would have said that a tomato outside of a pasta sauce or salsa was rarely inspiring, no matter what time of year it was, but things changed during a blistering, humid Minnesota summer, when, late one night after a a particularly sweaty soccer game in the persistent humidity that doesn’t disappear even when the sun goes down, my friend and I stopped by her brother’s house at around 10:30 PM for a short visit and snack.  His kids went to bed around 10 PM, I guess, so that’s when he started to cook.  As he was warming up the pan to begin production of a different drool-inducing delicacy, he set before us a plate with giant slices of beefsteak tomatoes fresh from the garden (his), topped with light drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of salt, a splash of balsamic, and a few shredded basil leaves (later I would discover that adding fresh mozzarella to this ensemble is what Italians call Caprese, but I’m getting ahead of myself).  Now, I was a strictly non-tomato eater.  I would push them aside in salads, decline them on my tacos, and just didn’t get the appeal of popping cherry tomatoes, one by one like grapes, into your mouth, raw, whole.

But there I was, attempting to be polite company, with a plate full of giant, admittedly beautiful, fresh Minnesota summer tomatoes staring back at me.  I tentatively speared a forkful, and put it in my mouth.  Wow!  Incredible!  The surprising sweetness of the tomato paired with the sharpness of the vinegar and the smoothness of the olive oil, enhanced by the slightly cinnamon flavor of the fresh basil and tempered by the salt danced around together in my mouth – I was having a glorious gastronomic moment.  I devoured the entire plate full as my friend, who well knew my disdain for fresh tomatoes, looked on in great surprise.

Not bad for winter tomatoes!

Beautiful color and stainless steel

I don’t remember what else was served that night – maybe some fried Chicken of the Woods (mushrooms) or something along those lines, but I’ve never forgotten how good a fresh summer tomato can be.

Before Roasting

In the winter, though, no matter where I’ve been in the world, it’s a bit hopeless.  No amount of doctoring or additives gets me excited about a raw tomato in the winter.  But, there is another way to fix them that creates the same burst of joy in the mouth as my friend’s brother’s tomatoes:  Oven roasted cherry tomatoes.  Serve them warm or cold, in sandwiches, salads or with eggs…if you can resist eating them all with your fingers as soon as they are cool enough to pick up.

Oven Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

1.5 cups (300 g) cherry tomatoes, any color or a mixture
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F/205°C

Wash and halve the cherry tomotoes and place them in a bowl.  Add all remaining ingredients and stir until tomatoes are completely coated.

Arrange tomatoes, cut side up, on an oven proof baking dish.  Pour any liquid remaining in the bowl over the tomatoes.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Turn off heat and let sit in the oven for 20 minutes longer.

Serve warm or cold.

Grilled Halloumi, Oven Roasted Cherry Tomato and Basil Sandwiches

1 package of Halloumi cheese, sliced into 16 thin slices
8 slices of firm white bread (ciabatta and pugliese are great options)
1 recipe Oven Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, above
16 fresh basil leaves

Pan fry or grill the halloumi until both sides are golden brown and crispy.
Lightly toast the bread

Top each slice of bread with two slices of Halloumi, 5-6 tomato halves, and 2 leaves of basil.  Serve warm at room temperature.

Serves 8.