Savory Bread Pudding

This is a recipe from my dear friend, John Brosnan. I make this a couple times every winter. It is delicious and makes great leftovers. Perfect for a larger gathering because it serves 10-12 people.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. french bread, crusts removed, shredded
3 large onions, sliced
Butter, at least 1 stick
1 lb. crimini brown mushrooms
1 T. fresh thyme
2T. fresh parsley
1 head spinach
2+ cups Gruyere
2+ cups swiss, any kind
1 cup parmesan
2 cups whole milk
6 eggs
Cayenne
Garlic
Salt + Pepper
Cornmeal or crushed pecans (optional)

preparation

Shred bread into 13" x 9" pan. It should be filled to the top. Saute onions in 3 T. butter, over medium-high heat, 20 minutes. Keep stirring until browned. Set aside. In sauce pan, saute mushrooms with sliced garlic, 1 tsp. thyme, and 2 tsp. fresh parsley, for 15 minutes. Set aside and cool. Saute spinach in butter. Add chopped garlic + salt after cooked. Mix whole milk, eggs, 2 tsp. salt + pepper, remaining thyme, parsley, and 1 tsp. cayenne. Add cheeses. Mix all ingredients together, in 2 batches if necessary. Butter 13 x 9 pan and add crunchy texture like cornmeal or pecans, if desired. Put mixture in pan and sprinkle with extra cheese + herbs. Bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes (20 minutes with foil, 20+ mins. without). Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

note

I often add pimentòn (smoked Spanish paprika) to this dish for a smoky flavor. You can also add sausage if you like.

Chard and Onion Torta

This is an extremely tasty dish and not too difficult to make. It does have to bake for 30 minutes, but the prep time is about half an hour and then you can relax. The saffron in this dish really adds a lot of flavor. This is a great way to use the chard that is in season right now.

Start by preheating the oven to 350 and buttering a baking dish. Cut the crusts off 2 slices of bread and put the bread in a food processor to make bread crumbs. Press the crumbs into the buttered dish to make a crust for the torta. Set aside any extra crumbs.

Heat 2 T. butter in a skillet and add 1 large, thinly sliced onion. Crumble 2 pinches of saffrom threads over the onion. Cook until onion is very soft, about 15 minutes. Add a little water or wine to the pan to keep it from crisping, if needed.

Add 1/4 cup slivered basil leaves, 1 teaspoon thyme leaves (or 2 pinches dried thyme), and 2 big bunches of chard leaves that have been separated from the stems and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cook until the chard has wilted and is tender, about 7 minutes. While that's cooking, smash 2 garlic cloves in a mortar with a pinch of salt to make a paste. Add the garlic and some salt and pepper to taste to the onions and greens. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in any extra bread crumbs. Add 1 cup grated gruyere cheese, 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan, 3 lightly beaten eggs, and 1 cup milk or light cream. Stir until just combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared dish, grate a little extra parmesan over the top, and bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Poke a knife in the top to make sure the eggs are set. Let rest a couple minutes before serving.

Approximate cost to prepare:

2 slices bread - $.60

1 large onion - $.40

1/4 cup slivered basil - $.50 (?)

2 bunches chard - $5.00

2 garlic cloves - $.40

1 cup gruyere - $2.00

1/4 cup parmesan - $.25

3 eggs - $1.50

1 cup milk - $.50

saffron - ??

mint, garlic, salt, oil - negligible

TOTAL - $11.00 for 4-6 people

Good potluck dish.

The best grilled cheese sandwich I ever ate

I haven't had grilled cheese sandwiches in years, but this version has made me a true believer again. This is the grown up version - with olive tapenade - but just like the kid version it is still fast and easy to prepare.

The olive tapenade takes about 10 minutes to prepare, but in our highly scientific taste test, we found that it was fresher and tastier than what we usually buy at Trader Joe's. It keeps for quite a while in the fridge and is really easy if you have a food processor. The recipe calls for nicoise or gaeta olives, but I used kalamata because they were easier to find and less expensive than buying the other varieties at the olive bar. I have recently found that you can buy kalamata olives at Costco and they are perfect for this recipe.

To make the tapenade, combine the following in a food processor and pulse, leaving a little texture: 1 cup olives (see comment above), 2 T. rinsed capers, 2 garlic cloves, grated zest of 1 small lemon or half a large lemon, lemon juice to taste, 1 T. chopped parsley, freshly ground pepper, and 4-6 T. olive oil.

To make the sandwich: Slice 2 pieces of rustic whole wheat or italian bread. I used sourdough from my local bakery. Cover one slice with a thin swipe of tapenade, then add sliced cheese over that. The recipe calls for carmody or teleme cheese because they melt well, but I used marinated mozzarella and it was super yummy! Top with the second slice of bread and lightly butter it or brush the outside with oil. Set the butter side down into a hot skillet. Butter the top of the second piece. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until crisp and golden. Cook on the other side. Take your time so that the cheese melts without burning the bread.

Add some greens and a glass of wine and you have an excellent meal.

Cost to make the tapenade. This really depends on where you get your olives. I made a double batch because the container of olives I got was about 2 cups. I also recently got kalamata olives at Costco for $5.99 for a 1.5 liter jar. I think there are about 4-5 cups of olives in the jar. If you buy olives at your local olive bar, they'll run you about $10/lb which I think is about $5.00 per cup. I get my organic, extra-virgin olive oil at Costco. It has an excellent flavor and costs $21.00 for 3 liters. This makes it $7.00/liter or about $1.75 per cup (about 11 cents per tablespoon). Capers are also widely variable in price. For the batch I made with the 2 cups of olives costing about $5, here's the cost:

2 cups kalamata olives - $5.00

4 T. capers - $.50

1 lg. lemon - $.50

2 T. parsley - negligible

4 garlic cloves - $.50

6 T. olive oil - .65

fresh ground pepper - negligible

TOTAL - $7.15 for 2 cups, so about $3.60 per cup

Trader Joe's costs $3.00 per 8 oz. jar. I think it's definitely worth making your own for the really fresh flavor.

The cost of the sandwich is also highly variable depending on the kind of bread and the kind of cheese you use. The marinated mozzarella cost $5.50 for an 8 oz. braid. I used about 1/8 of it, so that's 69 cents. I get 12-16 slices of bread per loaf, so at $4.50 per loaf, that's .28 - .37 per slice. You're supposed to use very little tapenade, but I love it so I probably used 2 t. per sandwich. That still makes each sandwich about $1.00 - $1.25. Not bad for the best grilled cheese sandwich ever!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

January 20th, 2010

Well, I finally made a meal in under 30 minutes, thanks to Rachel Ray. I made stuffed portobello mushrooms for dinner and are they ever scrumptious. The recipe is here:

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=1055

She actually includes 2 dishes in this recipe - stuffed portobellos and bread salad with tomatoes. Since tomatoes aren't in season, I just made the stuffed portobellos and a salad. I also served leftover green rice from the day before.

Since I was only making this recipe for 2 people, I had leftover artichoke and spinach filling. I think I'm going to try making some hand-made ravioli. I make pasta by hand quite often, but I've never tried ravioli before. I'll let you know how it goes.

The portobellos were fast, easy, and really tasty. You start by trimming and preparing your portobello, which usually includes scraping out the gills, but I didn't bother this time and they were really delicious. You oil the top side of the portobello and put it in the oven for 8 minutes or so. While it is cooking on that side, you combine frozen spinach (thawed), artichoke hearts, ricotta cheese, 1 egg yolk, one clove of garlic, and a little nutmeg, salt, and pepper. You then flip the portobellos over, and stuff them, and add a small handful of grated parmesan on top. Put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes. That's it.

They were juicy and delicious. With a salad, you've got a quick meal.

Approximate cost to prepare:
2 portobello mushrooms - 3.50
1 can artichoke hearts (organic) - 4.00
10 ounces frozen spinach (organic) - 2.00
1 egg yolk - .25
1 1/2 cups ricotta - 3.00
garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg - negligible
1/4 cup parmesan - 1.00 (I found paremsan for $5.00/pound, which is unusual)
TOTAL - $13.75 However...

This was supposed to make 8 mushrooms. I counted the cost to make the stuffing for the full recipe, but only the cost of 2 portobellos. If you were making 8 of these, you would need to add another $10.00 or so for 6 more portobellos.

Pecorino and Bean Salad

January 17, 2009

This recipe is from Giada de Laurentis of the Food Network. It is super easy, beautiful, and really yummy. Another must try. Here's the link to the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pecorino-and-bean-salad-recipe/index.html

This salad combines the creaminess of the cannelini beans, with the bright, fresh, crispiness of the shelled edamame. It is dressed with garlic and rosemary infused olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley. Then you add cheese for a tangy finish. I couldn't find pecorino romano, so I used lemon-garlic feta, which was really tasty. I also used the cannelini beans I had in my freezer, rather than canned.

Giada says that this is a great dish to take to a potluck or on a picnic because it doesn't need to be refrigerated. I suppose that is more true of a semi-dry cheese like pecorino, though I would be more careful with the feta, I think.

I served this with leftover root veggies over brown and wild rice. (I scraped off the old pancake and just served the veggies that were underneath. I added a bit more salt and balsamic vinegar to wake up the flavors. The combination of the deep purple vegetables and the bright green salad was really beautiful.

Approximate cost
1 can cannelini beans - $1.00
2 cups edamame - $2.00
oil, garlic, rosemary - negligible
parsley - .20
feta, 4 oz. - $2.50 (I'm sure it would cost more if you used pecorino)
TOTAL cost - $5.70, serves 6 or more