Eggs Florentine

I didn't realize that Eggs Florentine is made with a cheese sauce, not a Hollandaise (like eggs Benedict is) until I read this the other day.

From the "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer, Becker, and Becker, 75th anniversary edition. This is a great recipe and a perfect example of why Joy is a wonderful reference book. It has everything!

Ingredients

• Poached eggs (2 or 3 per person)
• Sauted Spinach, about 1/4 cut for each egg that you plan to make
• toasted English muffins. half an English muffin is needed for each egg
• Mornay Sauce (cheese sauce)

Prepare all of linked recipes in this order: Mornay Sauce, poached eggs, spinach. You can keep the eggs warm in warm water. For each egg that you will serve, place the following on a plate, in this order:

1. half a toasted English muffin
2. 1/4 cup spinach. You can spoon this over the muffin. Or if you would like a slightly prettier look, spoon the sauted spinach into a measuring cup whose width is about the size of your muffin. Don't press. Over turn the cup on top of the muffin.
3. Pat the poached egg dry and put on top of the spinach.
4. A few spoonfuls of Mornay sauce

Serve immediately.

Bechamel Sauce (White Sauce)

It's from the "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer, Becker, and Becker, 75th anniversary edition.

This is a basic sauce, which is unassertive and smooth, and can be used as the base for many other sauces. Make the sauce a bit thicker than you think you need, since its easy to thin, but hard to make thicker. To think, just whisk a bit of milk into the sauce.

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup to 1 cup milk
salt
pepper (preferably white)

Melt butter in a saute pan. Make a roux, by adding flour, and whisk until smooth (about 1 or 2 minutes). Remove from heat, and slowly whisk in the milk, until it is just a bit thicker than you'd like. Return the pan to heat, and continue to whisk while it cooks for 1 or 2 minutes, and the sauce is smooth and thick. If the sauce is too thick, continue whisking in a bit of milk. Season with salt and pepper, and grated nutmeg.

The Joy also suggests that scaled milk can be used instead of cold milk to get an even better consistency.

Mornay Sauce (Cheese sauce)

I was really happy with how this sauce turned out! It's from the "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer, Becker, and Becker, 75th anniversary edition.

white sauce
1/4 cup cheese
salt
pepper
pinch of greated nutmeg

For the cheese you can use: Parmesan and Gruyere is traditional, but just Parmesan tastes great. Many other cheeses can be used too (swiss, chedder, blue cheese). I used just Parmesan, and was really happy with the results

Prepare white sauce. Finely grate 1/4 cup grated cheese into the sauce and grated nutmeg if you haven't added nutmeg already. Cook, while stirring, just until the cheese has melted (or else the sauce may turn stringy). Add salt and pepper (preferably white pepper since this is a white sauce and black pepper will add black flecks), to taste.

Note: this would probably make a really nice macaroni and cheese.

Sauted Spinach

1 bunch of Spinach
a few cloves of garlic, minced
salt pepper olive oil

Soaked spinach in cold water to remove dirt for five minutes. Cut off the base of the stems, and then drain.

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium. When the oil ripples, add minced garlic. Saute garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant, but not browned (browned garlic can be bitter). Add spinach and immediately increase heat to high. Continue sauting for about 1 minute or until the spinach wilts. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately, preferably while will piping hot.

Saag Paneer

Based on http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/saag-paneer-recipe/index.html

1 or 2 bunch fresh spinach, soaked in cold water and washed thoroughly, stems trimmed
1 small block paneer cheese, cut into cubs
1/2 pint buttermilk
1 single serving size of plain regular yogurt
1 yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 chile (optional, for heat)
butter
salt

Boil water in a large pot, and blanch spinach by immersing it in the hot water, and then immediately straining. Rinse with cold water. Squeeze the excess water out of the spinach and mince.

Heat butter in saute pan on medium high, and fry for a few minutes until the sides turn light brown. Place paneer in a separate bowl.

Sweat onions for 5 minutes in a saute pan on medium. Add garlic, and ginger, and continue cooking until the onions are soft. Add curry powder, saute the curry powder for about 30 seconds, and then mix with the onions. When the curry powder is fragrant, but not burnt, add the spinach. Turn heat down to low. Add buttermilk and yogurt, and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt. Fold in paneer cubes, and heat until the sauce is hot, and the paneer has slightly softened but do no let boil. Serve with flat bread or rice.

Braised Baby Artichokes

Recipe from The Santa Monica Farmer's Market Cookbook by Amelia Saltsman

Baby artichokes
1 lemon (preferably Meyer)
zest from 1 lemon, in long thin strands (use vegetable peeler)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh herbs (e.g. parsley), minced

Clean baby artichokes by removing the tough outer leafs until the inner yellow leaves are showing. Cut off tops, and then cut artichokes in half. Store cut artichokes in a bowl of water with a touch of something acidic, such as lemon juice or vinegar, to keep the cut parts of the artichokes from turning brown.

Heat some olive oil in a saute pan on high. Add lemon zest. Strain the artichokes and add to the pan when the oil is hot. Sear artichokes for 5 minutes, until they are browned in places.

Reduce heat to medium. Add minced garlic and most of your minced herbs (reserve some for topping the finished dish). After the garlic and herbs are fragrant (about 30 sections to 1 minute), add chicken stock, the juice of half the lemon, salt, and pepper. Scrape up any browned bits. Bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cover. Cook until the artichokes are tender, about 10 minutes. When the artichokes are cooked through, remove the cover and continue cooking until most of the liquid is absorbed or evaporated, and the artichokes are glazed. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice.

Garnish with the reserved minced herbs before serving. If desired, you can also garnish with additional lemon zest.

Can be served hot or at room temperature.

Note: if you need to add more liquid to the braising liquid, I recommend that you add water, since adding more chicken stock will probably overwhelm the artichoke flavor. Also, next time I make this, I would like to try using white wine instead of chicken stock

Ceviche

1 fillet of fish (snapper is traditionally used)
Other seafood if desired (e.g. scallops)
Lime juice from 5 limes
lime zest
1 jalapeno
a bit of chopped onion
1 tomato
fresh herbs (e.g. parsley)

Cut fish into small pieces. If using scallops, cut in half. Squeeze the juice of 5 limes (or as many as you need to mostly cover the fish) over the fish. Mix in lime zest. Deseed and devein the jalapeno. Mince jalapeno, and add to ceviche. Mince a small amount of raw onion and add to ceviche.

Refrigerate ceviche for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight. Before serving mince some tomato and herbs (e.g. parsley) and mix into the ceviche. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

Glazed Roasted Carrots

I used some Papaya Orange Habanero Preserve that I used to glaze these baby carrots. Any sort of preserves that would taste nice with carrots can be used, or honey can be used instead.

Baby carrots (regular carrots can be used if you peel the skin)
a few spoonfuls of honey or preserves (I used papaya orange habanero preserves)
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Wash and dry carrots. Toss carrots with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few spoonfuls of honey or preserves.

Roast until soft. For my baby carrots, I roast for 20 minutes, but you may have to roast for longer more depending on the size of the carrots.

Roasted Kabocha Squash

Ingredients:
1 kabocha squash
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.

Kabocha squash skin is edible. So you can leave the skin on (the green skin contrasts nicely against the orange squash and has a pleasing chewiness), unless you need skinless squash (e.g. for a soup) or you don't like the skin. If you are de-skinning the pumpkin, do it before cutting.

Cut kabocha squash in half, and then into half moon pieces. Remove seeds. The seeds can be rinsed, and air dried for a day or two and eaten raw or toasted.

Cut squash into pieces can be as large or as small as you like (even roasting squash halves is ok); smaller pieces will cook faster.

Toss squash piece in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread out the pieces on a baking sheet; try to not have any pieces overlapping.

Bake until melting soft. For smaller pieces you will probably need to bake for 20-30 minutes. If you are roasting squash halves, it will probably take 1 hour.

Curry Flavored Fried Cauliflower

1 head Cauliflower
a few Tbsp curry powder
lots of olive oil

Cut cauliflower into florets. Rinse and carefully dry.

Generously coat the bottom of a saute pan with olive oil. Heat to medium high. When the oil is hot, add the cauliflower. Saute until the cauliflower has browned, stirring infrequently. Add salt to taste as the cauliflower cooks. If you have a lot of cauliflower, you may need to do this in two batches. If necessary, add a liberal amount of extra olive oil. When the cauliflower has softened and browned in places, and is cooked to your liking, turn the heat down to medium, and sprinkle the curry powered over the cauliflower. Cook for 30 seconds more until the curry is fragrant, and then plate the cauliflower and serve.

Alternatively instead of adding curry powder, you make this similar to arnabeet, which is Lebanese deep fried cauliflower. Arnabeet can optionally be cooked with garlic and seasoned with lemon juice at the end, and is often served with tahini sauce.

Mango Pancakes

These are extremely hard to flip in the pan, but they taste good:

Mango Pancakes by Tarla Dalal

For the pancakes
3/4 cup plain flour (maida)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons shredded fresh coconut
2 mangoes, pureed
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup cooked and cooled rice
1 to 2 tablespoons oil
For the filling
1 mango, chopped
1/2 cup fresh cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
For the garnish
1 tablespoon castor sugar

Pancakes:
In a bowl, combine all the ingredients except the oil and make a smooth batter. Heat a little oil in a non-stick pan, pour 1 tablespoon of the batter and spread evenly to make a circle. Cook evenly on both sides till golden brown. Repeat.

Filling:
Peel and chop the mango into small pieces. Whip the cream with the powered sugar till peaks form. Combine with the mango.

Spoon a little filling on each pancake and fold neatly into a semicircle. Repeat. Sprinkle assembled pancakes with castor sugar, if desired.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Followed David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream recipe