Marinated Goat Cheese Salad

It was finally time to pull the marinated goat cheese out of the fridge to find out how weeks of marinating went. The answer? Delicious. To be honest, the original recipe called for the jar to be kept in a "cool place." I have to believe that if I had a cool place in my apartment aside from my fridge, that the flavors would have infused the cheese even more. However, until just recently, there hasn't been an only mildly warm place in my apartment, let alone somewhere cool. I think I will have to try this again once it really gets cold this winter and see if the flavors change.

The reason for marinating the goat cheese in the first place was to make the salad from Anne Willan's The Country Cooking of France. So, without further ado...

Marinated Goat Cheese Salad

Serves 4

1 package arugula blend lettuce

1 recipe marinated goat cheese

8 slices bread

2 T red wine vinegar

6 T oil from marinating plus more for brushing bread

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the broiler. Cut a round from each slice of bread. Cut each slice of cheese in half horizontally and place one piece of cheese on each slice of bread. The oil still coating the cheese should be more than enough to coat the bread, but if necessary, brush a little more oil on the bread. Mix together the vinegar, salt and pepper and then drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously to emulsify the dressing. Place the cheese bread under the broiler for approximately five minutes until golden. Dress the salad, adding more seasoning if necessary. Divide the lettuce between four serving plates and top with two slices of cheese bread. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Soup

Soup has been on the mind lately with the weather turning colder. We actually had a little bit of rain on Saturday which inspired the making of this batch. There's something about that first bit of rain each fall that is so welcomed. It's like those first few hot days of summer. They haven't been around in so long that you are just dying for them to come along.

I've been making a soup like this since I started cooking in college. It has changed much over the years, but the basic idea remains the same. Roasted tomatoes, pureed into a wonderful and warming dish.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Serves 6

2 lbs plum tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 T tomato paste

6 dill sprigs

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 450*

Halve the tomatoes and peel and quarter the onions. Remove the stem and seeds from the bell pepper and cut into large chunks. Place all the vegetables on a greased baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes until the edges start to char. Remove to a large pot and add stock. Tie the dill sprigs together with kitchen twine and add to the pot. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 30 minutes. Remove the dill sprigs and let the vegetables cool slightly before transferring to a blender and pureeing. At this point you can strain the soup, but I prefer to keep the thickness you get without straining it. Return the soup to the pot and add the heavy cream and salt. Split between six soup bowls and garnish with dill and creme fraiche. Enjoy!

Fingerling Potato Tart

I'm getting together with some girlfriends this week and needed something I could make ahead of time and reheat later. I adore savory tarts and seeing as they stand up pretty well to reheating, decided one would be perfect for this event. I've seen potato pies with layer upon layer of thinly sliced potato and gooey, melty cheese and have always wanted to make one. This is my attempt at something similar in a tart. The caramelized onions are what really pull the flavors together.

Fingerling Potato Tart

Serves 6

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t salt

4 dill sprigs

6 T butter

2 - 4 T ice water

3 medium onions

2 - 4 T olive oil

1 T dijon mustard

1 lb fingerling potatoes

1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 cup parmesan

Place the flour, salt and dill in a food processor and pulse until well blended and dill is chopped and distributed throughout the flour. Cut the butter into small pads and add to the food processor. Pulse until small crumbs start to form. Pour mixture into a bowl and drizzle in the water starting with 2 T and adding more if needed to get the dough to come together. Form a disc with the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Peel the onions, cut in half lengthwise and slice thinly. Heat 2 T olive oil in a small pan. Add the onions and cook until brown and caramelized, stirring occasionally. If the onions begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, add more olive oil 1 T at a time.

Preheat oven to 375*. Place the fingerlings in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes until just starting to get tender. Drain and let cool slightly before slicing lengthwise into very thin slices.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to fit a 9" tart pan. Transfer to the tart pan, line with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for 30 minutes until golden on the edges and let cool.

Spread the mustard over the bottom of the tart crust. Sprinkle half the caramelized onions over the mustard, followed by 1/4 cup of the shredded Italian cheese. Layer fingerling slices in a concentric pattern and repeat (onions, cheese then potatoes). Beat eggs, cream and nutmeg together in a bowl and pour over the tart. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top of the tart. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving and enjoy!

Proper English Fry Up

Breakfast can be a bit of a battle at my house. Are we having a quiche with sauteed leeks and a thick, rich custard? Or are we having bacon and fried eggs? While I'm usually pushing for the former or something similarly sophisticated, I don't entirely hate it when the boyfriend wins out. One of his favorite things to make on those mornings is a proper English fry up. Think bangers, fried eggs, baked beans, grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. Since I knew we would be having an English fry up this Sunday, I decided to bring in a little bit of sophistication by making some stuffed portobellos to go along with everything that the boyfriend was pulling together for the fry up. I'm giving you the mushroom recipe here, but to pull together the rest of the breakfast, here is what you will need: baked beans (preferably Heinz), toast (must be white), english bangers (sausage), bacon (if the sausage isn't enough meat for you and yours) and fried eggs (1 -2 per person). Often we also grill tomato halves as well if you'd like to throw those in the mix.

Stuffed Portobellos

Serves 4

4 stuffing portobellos (these guys are definitely smaller than regular portobellos)

2 slices thick cut bacon

1/2 cup baked beans

1 - 2 T olive oil

salt

Preheat oven to 425*

Remove the stems from the portobellos and use a melon baller to scoop out some of the flesh. Chop the removed stems and flesh and place in a medium bowl. Slice the bacon strips in half lengthwise and chop into small pieces. Cook until golden brown. Add the bacon and 1 T bacon grease to the chopped mushrooms along with the baked beans. Mix together, adding salt to taste, and divide mixture between the four mushrooms. Pour the olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish and add stuffed mushrooms. Make sure the bottom of the mushrooms are coated thoroughly in oil and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until tender. Serve alongside your English fry up and enjoy!

Gnocchi Board

I finally gave in and bought a gnocchi board. Had I known it was going to cost me less than $10, I probably would have given in a long time ago. 

I really do have an unhealthy addiction to kitchen tools and cooking supplies. If my mom wants to treat me for my birthday, she knows we're going to the local restaurant supply store. If the boyfriend wants to cheer me up, he knows something that says KitchenAid has a bigger impact than flowers, though I still love flowers (just in case he's reading this).

While my kitchen is larger than any that I've had before (since living on my own), it's still small in the the grand scheme of things and certainly doesn't have the room to house my addiction. That seems not to matter as my purchasing has yet to be limited by the question, where will I put it?

Anyone else out there share my addiction? What is your weakness when it comes to kitchen gadgets?

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Sometimes nothing will do but chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. When you're trying to eat healthy, this can be a problem. I suppose the only real healthy option when eating chocolate would be one single ounce of dark chocolate. Great for the antioxidants, not so great for actually satisfying that craving.

I tried Ellie Krieger's recipe for triple chocolate cookies recently and while I still prefer the full force, butter-filler cookies I normally make, these ones are a great substitution when I'm trying to be good. I never thought 1 tablespoon of batter would make a big enough cookie, but one or two of these guys and my chocolate craving is satisfied.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from The Food You Crave

by Ellie Krieger

Makes 20 - 24 cookies

(depending on how much batter you eat)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 t vanilla bean paste

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 t kosher flake salt

2 oz 62% dark chocolate, chopped

2 oz 72% dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350*

Blend the butter and sugar together using the paddle attachment. When light and fluffy, add the oil, egg and vanilla and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, cocoa and salt and add to the butter mixture in stages. Stir in the chopped chocolate and place the batter in 1 tablespoon scoops on a cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes and let cool slightly on a rack before enjoying!

Salmon Nicoise

I love it when restaurants will take a little twist on the traditional nicoise and use salmon instead of tuna. I like tuna, but I love salmon. Unfortunately, when I ordered a salmon nicoise out at lunch recently, it was somewhat of a disappointment so I knew I would have to make my own at home soon to make up for it. This was a great version and the vinaigrette was a new experiment using some grapefruit vinegar. If you don't have grapefruit vinegar on hand, just use whichever kind you prefer. 

Salmon Nicoise

Serves 1

1 salmon filet

1 T olive oil

3 small creamer potatoes

4 caper berries

6 green beans

1 tomato

1/4 cup nicoise olives

3 cups lettuce

2 T olive oil

1 T grapefruit vinegar

salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a small pan and cook the salmon for about four minutes on each side and remove to a cutting board. Microwave creamer potatoes for four minutes until soft and green beans for 1 minute until just tender. Slice the tomato into quarters and drain the olives and caper berries. Mix together the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and dress lettuce. Place lettuce in a serving bowl and top with potatoes, salmon, green beans, capers, olives and tomatoes. Enjoy!

Philly Cheese Steak Number Two

I love the foodie blogroll. It's a great community of food bloggers started by The Leftover Queen. Every month she hosts the Royal Foodie Joust where bloggers come together to create dishes based around three ingredients. This month, the ingredients were fennel, dairy and parsley. I decided to take another go at the boyfriend's favorite sandwich and do a twist on the philly cheese steak. I've sauteed fennel instead of the traditional onion and made a parsley cheese sauce to top everything off. He seemed to think it was a keeper. I think he would still prefer the traditional version, but this is one for the rest of us.

Philly Cheese Steak with Sautéed Fennel and Parsley Cream Sauce

1/4 cup + 2 T Butter

1/4 cup flour

1 pint milk + more for thinning cheese sauce as necessary

1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped

3/4 cup shredded provolone or italian cheese blend

1 t fennel salt

1 fennel bulb

6 oz sliced mushrooms

1 T olive oil

1 lb thinly sliced beef sirloin tips

4 french sandwich rolls

Melt butter in a medium pan and sprinkle flour over. Stir until a roux is formed and cook for 1 - 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Heat milk in the microwave and began adding to the roux in half-cup increments. Make sure each addition is fully incorporated and allow mixture to cook down slightly before adding the next. Once the entire pint of milk is incorporated, remove from heat and stir in 1/2 t of fennel salt, parsley and cheese.

Quarter fennel bulb, core and slice thinly. Melt remaining 2 T of butter in a pan and add fennel. Sauté for 5 minutes and add sliced mushrooms. Cook until fennel is soft and starting to caramelize. While fennel is cooking heat 1 T olive oil in a pan on high and cook sirloin quickly, cooking in 2 rounds if necessary to avoid crowding the pan. Season with remaining 1/2 t of fennel salt.

Toast french rolls and spread cheese sauce over each roll (thinning cheese sauce with more warm milk before serving if necessary). Layer fennel mixture, followed by steak and finally more cheese sauce. Enjoy!