The Houndstooth Gourmet

 

Spoiler Alert! This salad is easy and delicious….and not one ingredient came from a farmers market! Gasp, I know. Me-Miss “eat and buy local”. I  know, I know.

Ahem. I can explain.

I have been buying quarts of strawberries at the markets, and honestly, they’ve been good, but not great. I’m not wowed and I really want to be. But, here’s the thing-we’ve had so much rain, and strawberries prefer dryer conditions. Dryer weather sweetens the berries and this area has seen over 9 inches of rain in the past month.

I’m contemplating building an arc-a small one-it only needs to fit 3 dogs.

Which is why I have been keeping an eye open for sales on strawberries at my local markets. Yesterday, I found them on sale at Whole Foods for $3.89 per pound. They are much sweeter than local berries at this time. I will be checking out the local farmers berries each weekend to see how the taste is coming along over the rest of the season.

This salad is a a perfect begining, or ending to a meal. The candied pecans will have you snacking on them again and again (the recipe makes 2 cups). The sweetness and crunch of the berries and nuts plays nicely off of the creamy, salty tang of the cheese and mild pepper taste of the watercress.

Salad of Watercress, Strawberries, Gorgonzola Dolce and Candied Pecans with Champagne Vinaigrette

serves 4

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 large bunch watercress-about 6 cups loosely packed, washed and dried (you can use arugula or escarole)
• 4 large or 8 small strawberries, washed and dried just before serving, quartered
• 1/2 cup candied pecans (see recipe below)
• 1/4 lb. gorgonzola dolce, crumbled (you can use any mild blue-veined cheese)

Champagne Vinaigrette

• 2 Tablespoons champagne vinegar
• 2 tablespoons spicy apricot mustard (you can use other mustards such as dijon, or cranberry, or any fruity mustard if you like)
• kosher salt, pinch
• pepper, 2-3 grinds freshly ground
• 6 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Candied Pecans

• 2 cups pecans, rough chopped
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• pinch kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

In a bowl, combine pecans and egg white. Coat fully.

Turn coated pecans out onto a baking sheet which has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Sprinkle sugar over pecans and turn to coat evenly. Sprinkle pinch of salt over the pecans and spread evenly on baking sheet.

Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes. Turn once during cooking. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. The nuts can be stored in an airtight container for 4 days, or in the freezer for 1 month.

In a small bowl, add champagne vinegar, mustard, salt and peppers. Whisk briskly to incorporate. Continue whisking and slowly stream in olive oil. Continue whisking until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Adjust seasoning to taste.

To compose the salad;

Arrange watercress, quartered strawberries, crumbled gorgonzola and candied pecans on 4 salad plates

Drizzle vinaigrette over composed salads and serve immediately.

Tags: strawberries, nuts, cheese, salad, Recipe by Ramona
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 What I  love about food challenges is how they make you think outside of the box. This week’s Cookthink Root Source Challenge #6 is Peanut Butter, and I love peanut butter, especially when it is used in cuisines from far away lands. What comes to mind immediately is Thai Penang with coconut peanut curry, and Sopa de Mani-Bolivian Peanut Soup. Of course, a  good old fashione PB&J hits the spot, with it’s sweet and savory filling sticking to the roof of my mouth.

Back to the peanut butter challenge. I scanned through my cookbooks for inspiration. I wanted something unusual, a dish that I had never heard of, and I came upon a cookbook which I have not used in years (and now I wonder why?, why?)-Tonya Holland’s New Soul Cooking. If you have been watching The Food Network for several years, you might remember Holland’s show “Melting Pot”.

Melting Pot showcased Holland’s multi-ethnic approach to cuisine and her true cooking chops with her Grand  Diploma from La Verenne Lacole de Cuisine in Burgundy, France. Her classical French training enriched dishes with Mediterranean, Caribbean, Asian, American Southwestern and Southern influences. It was a terrific show and Holland’s lighthearted and friendly style made you feel like  you were cooking with her.

I actually got to meet her when she was doing a book signing at a festival in Richmond, VA several years ago. I bought her book and with geekitude asked her to sign it. It reads:

“Ramona, Happy New Soul Cooking, Cook with Soul!”

So here’s my Tanya Holland inspired soulful dish adapted from her recipe “Groundnut, Chicken and Cabbage Stew”, as well as lots of googled recipes for West African Groundnut Stew. Groundnut is a traditional name for peanut and relates to how the peanut grows; on a vine that buries its pods into the ground.

Peanut flavor is prominently featured in this dish, with its creaminess being offset by the slight acidity of tomatoes. Carrots and green cabbage give the stew body and an excellent source of vitamins.

Making this stew was very easy. It took one pan, and one enamel pot, which is like a record for me. No kitchen fairies were needed to clean up after this recipe!

Enjoy.

 West African Groundnut and Chicken Stew

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 lbs. chicken thighs-about 8
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 5 carrots, cut on the bias into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 head green cabbage, about 2 lbs., cut into 1 inch wide and 3 inch long pieces
• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger
• 4 cups chicken stock, heated
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 pinches dried red pepper flakes
• 1 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 (6) ounce can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts for garnish (optional)
• 1 bunch cilantro for garnish (optional)
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a skillet. While oil is heating, generously salt and pepper the chicken on both sides. Place chicken in skillet and fry until brown on each side. This will take 5-6 minutes per side. Set chicken aside and allow to drain on paper towels.

Pour excess oil out of skillet and add the butter. Add the onions to the skillet and cook until the are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Transfer onions to a dutch oven. Set the skillet on another burner and pour in the chicken stock. Heat chicken stock and scrape up any brown bits in the pan. This is where the flavor is.

Heat dutch oven over medium high heat and add carrots, cabbage, garlic, ginger and tomatoes. Add heated chicken stock, thyme, red pepper flakes, peanut butter, and tomato paste.

Add chicken to the dutch oven and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, covered for 2 hours, stirring occasional for even cooking. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over long grain rice and garnish with cilantro and chopped peanuts.

Tags: nuts, Recipe, chicken by Ramona
6 Comments »

Sopa de Mani is a traditional peanut soup served in Bolivia. It can be a starter or a main course. It’s slightly thickened with peanuts, has a kick from red chili pepper flakes, while sliced carrots impart sweetness to the soup. Sopa de Mani usually takes a long time to make since homemade beef stock is traditionally used. Here, I’ve taken a few liberties and shortcuts given the ingredients I had on hand.

In particular, the soup calls for ground raw peanuts, while my recipe uses roasted and salted peanuts to add crunch. I added a couple teaspoons of raw peanut butter to add creaminess. In under an hour, you can have a hearty soup made from ingredients found in your pantry.

For more information on Bolivian cuisine in our region, check out my Tuesday post on http://www.dcfoodies.com. In this post, I delve into the salteña- a savory stuffed pastry which is a staple of Bolivian cuisine, and can be found here if you know where to look!

Enjoy.

 

Tags: nuts, tomatoes, soup by Ramona
4 Comments »

 

A while back I wrote about these delicious chocolate chip cookies from the Metropolitan Bakery cookbook. I decided to make another batch and tweaked the recipe a bit to use bittersweet chocolate. I thought the dried cranberries would make for a sweet counterpoint to the chocolate.

The cookies are loaded with flavor and are not too crisp and not too soft. I used a small icecream scoop to attain uniformity in size so they all baked evenly. It’s important to fold the nuts, chocolate and cranberries in by hand after bringing the dough together. This gets everything evenly disributed throughout and more importatnly, saves you mixer’s motor!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nuts and Dried Cranberries

makes 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled old fashioned oats (I used Quaker Oats)

3 cups unbeached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 bar bittersweet chocolate (about 9.7 ounces) rough chopped with knife into 1/2 inch chuncks or slivers

1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped

1 1/2 cups walnuts,toasted and chopped

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a non-stick skillet, heat nuts over medium and toast for 8-10 minutes. Stir frequently. The nuts will be done when they smell-well-nutty and toasty. Remove to a cutting board and chop roughly.

Grind the oats using a food processer until they are finely ground into a flour. Combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

In another bowl or food processer (using paddle attachment), beat the butter on medium until light and creamy. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and allow each egg to incorporate for about 30 seconds. Add in vanilla.

Manually fold in nuts, chocolate and cranberries. You can do this in a large bowl or on a lightly floured board. Once ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout dough, you are ready to bake.

Using a spoon or scooper, drop dough onto  2 large parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheets. I strongly prefer parchment paper becuase the cookie dough does not spread and thin as much as it does with silicon. Parchment paper is also reusalbe between batches.

Place sheets of cookie dough in oven on middle racks. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn pans to face opposite direction and switch racks. Continue to bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes before you transfer them to a cooling rack. By this time, the pans should have cooled down enough to add your next batch of dough.

Tags: nuts, cookies, chocolate by Ramona
2 Comments »

The Metropolitan Bakery has been providing Philadelphia and surrounding areas with handmade rustic artisan breads and goodies since 1993. Hailing from the area myself, I was pleased to happen upon this sepia toned cookbook a couple years ago. I’ve always been fond of Metropolitan Bakery’s breads and make it a point to go to one of their store when I visit Philadelphia.

Most frequently, I visit their spot at Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market. The breads, pastries and cookies are among the best I’ve ever tasted (and I’ve been discovering and tasting a few here in Northern Virginia!). Most recently, I bought 2 large slightly crunchy cookies which were delicious. So, I’m on a mission to hone my baking skills with this book (among others) which contains over 100 recipes from rustic breads to brioche to cookies. Additionally, there are add -ons to the baking recipes such as jams, chutneys and spreads ranging from sweet to savory.

Today, I started with something approachable for me; cookies. Who doesn’t like a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie, right? This recipe got my attention because it has nuts, which I love, and oats. But instead of being a traditional chocolate chip oatmeal cookie, this recipe calls for the oats to be processed into a flour-like consistency. Along with roasting the nuts and using, well let’s face it, a lot of butter! this cookie turned out aromatic and crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. I’d put it up there with the best of them!

(Yes, that’s 3 sticks of butter. Move along now, nothing to see here…keep reading)

I hope you like them too.

Here’s the recipe. I altered it slightly. In parenthesis is what I used due to not having all the chocolate on hand. Frankly, I wouldn’t change a thing. Feel free to use the original recipe, or my alterations.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup old fashioned oats (I used Quaker oats because I bought a barrel of it at Costco)

3 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup milk chocolate chunks (processed 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups bittersweet chocolate chunks ( I used 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels and it seemed like plenty)

1 1/2 cup pecans, toasted* and roughly chopped

1 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted* and roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 2 large baking pans with parchment paper or non-stick sheet (I found the parchment allowed the cookies to rise a bit more)

In a food processor, grind the oats until they become fine like flour (1)

In a large bowl, combine:

ground oats

flour

baking powder

baking soda

salt

1 cup of chocolate chunks which has been grated over small holes ( I used the food processor again, pulsing it until the morsels became fine) (2)

In an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the granulated sugar and the brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added. (3)

Beat in vanilla.

Place mixture on low and add flour mix until combined.

Fold in the chocolate chunks/morsels, pecans and walnuts.

Drop dough in 2 tablespoon portions onto parchment lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between dough. Bake in middle of oven for 10 minutes. Rotate sheets from top and bottom, and the bottom to the top for even baking. Bake an additional 6 minutes. Cookies should be light golden brown(4). Transfer to cooling rack. Repeat until all dough is done.

*To roast nuts, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread nuts on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes(5). Allow to cool and rough chop.

(1) Oats before and after grinding.

(2) Chocolate morsels after grinding.

(4) Add eggs one at a time to the butter and sugars.

(5) After nuts have cooled, rough chop before folding into cookie dough mixture.

Now being that this recipe made between 50-60 cookies - share with your friends!

Tags: nuts, cookies, Recipe, chocolate, baking by Ramona
1 Comment »