Salmon Terrine

Despite still not being able to cook much, it does not mean I don't eat well due to the wonderful local elfs dropping off food. This time, a fabulous home-made tender salmon terrine made by M. and S. ! Must learn how to make this.....

Adventures of a one armed chef

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plan.". Plans were to finish the semester and welcome summer, life that happened was an unexpected spin on a step and a broken shoulder. Besides coping with the excruciating pain and immobilized arm, life is now slow motion and the freezer is stocked with pizza. 

Slowly, I ventured out to cook again, and new challenges arise.  How to chop an onion with one hand? How to chop romaine without making it look like butchered?

Luckily, I have a few elfs who help me out with these new hurdles and also occasionally drop off a mean barley soup.

So, here it is -- elf salad.

Spring lunch

Life has been so busy lately that I've been living off things in my freezer and the veggies in my fridge, somehow creatively thrown together.  This is a nice one -- arugula, fennel, cabbage with grilled asparagus and grilled Trader Joe's meatless meatballs.

Salad:
1 fennel bulb, halved
1/4 head of a small head of cabbage
handful arugula salad
salt, pepper,
Galeo's dressing (Miso Ginger)
green asparagus
4 meatless meatballs (Trader Joe's or others).

I sliced the fennel and cabbage thinly into a plastic bowl using a mandoline, added the salt and pepper, and mixed it well. In a serving bowl, I mixed the arugula salad and about 1/4th of the fennel/cabbage salad, and added the dressing. Heated the broiler, and grilled the asparagus and meatballs for about 10-12 mins. It helps to brush the asparagus with some olive oil and add some salt. With the broiling, the meatballs get a nice crunchy crust. Serve asparagus and meatballs with the salad. 

Arrows Restaurant, Ogunquit, ME

Great article about the Arrows Restaurant in Ogunqit, ME in the Maine Magazine. The restaurants is about to open again for the summer 2010.

Arrows
(207) 361-1100
Bridgton
41 Berwick Rd
Ogunquit, ME 03907

Update: on May 3 2010  Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier: Arrows, Ogunquit, ME won Best Chef: Northeast, James Beard Foundation. 

Greek Yogurt Chive Dip

The garden starts to turn its colors from gray and brown to green, pink and yellow. Chives and mint are the first herbs each year that announce spring time and a new growing season.. "Hellooooo!" the chives chimes, eat me eat me! So, here we go, a chive greek yogurt dip. 

bunch of fresh chives
1 small container greek yogurt
salt, pepper to taste
1-2 TB water
Optionally: 1 TB sour cream.

Mix the greek yogurt with the salt and pepper until creamy and well-flavored to taste. With a kitchen scissors, cut the chives in 1/4 inch pieces directly into the greek yogurt mixture. Stir. The mixture will get thicker depending on how many chives you add; to make it creamier again, add some water.   Serve with pretzels, crackers or on a slice of rye bread. Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

They looked like worth trying out. And having tried them out, they can only describe with one word: outrageous!

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) salted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an stand electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the room temperature soft butter and the 2 types of sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix together. 

Add the flour mixture and continue mixing until just combined. Now, add the chocolates and almonds and mix until combined (I left out the almonds, because I had no slivered ones). Using a small ice cream scoop, drop the dough two inches apart on sheet pans lined with parchment (makes about 6 cookies per regular sized cookie sheet, and 3 cookie sheets overall plus 3 small cookies). Bake for 15 minutes.

Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets (! don't move them, they will fall apart!). The cookies should be very soft when they are removed from the oven. They will firm up as they cool (10 min).

ps. for those, who care: 1 cookie = 300kcal. 

Share the bread

I came across this recipe for rye sourdough bread on one of the blogs I read, and it looked simple enough to not wreck it. Indeed, it was very easy to make and the taste and texture and crust are phenomenal. I made some changes to the original recipe since I did not have the necessary ingredients at hand, but it still worked out great.

Rye sourdough bread:

250g regular sourdough (I use King Arthur Flour's sourdough) (original recipe calls for rye sourdough)

250 gr Pillsbury bread flour (original recipes: fresh ground rye flour)

1 TB non-diastatic malt powder

9 gr salt

2 TB sesame seeds

2 TB linseeds

165 ml warm water

Preparation:

Place all ingredients in your kitchen stand mixer using the dough hook. Knead dough for 2 min until all ingredients are well-combined. Let dough rest in a covered bowl in a warm place for 90 min.

Slightly oil your hands, and form a round/oval shaped bread (not much more kneading required!). Place the bread loaf in a round or oval 'brotform' basket that is dusted with a mix of  rye floor and corn flour and sprinkled with linseeds. (Alternatively, you can also just place the bread on a piece of baking paper/parchment paper on a plate.) 

Let the bread rise at a warm place for 2-4h until the bread has significantly increased in size.

Once ready, preheat the oven to 480F.

Place the bread into the oven (on a cookie sheet, or baking tiles). Bake at 480F for 20 min, and then reduce to 420F, and finish baking for another 25min. (I turned off the heat 10 min before the end of baking).


It made a great addition of a small wine and tapas gettogether later that day. 

Blog Bites: Quinoa Almond Tea cakes

The best thing about baking? The way it fills the house with the aroma of something divine. Ever since I saw Bea's blog post about the rose-shaped quinoa, rice flour and almond meal based tiny 'muffins', I was in love with her photos and I wanted to try the recipe. So, now, several months later I finally got around to it to have all the ingredients: baking supplies, the beautiful baking pan and enough time. The tea cakes are gluten-free, and have a wonderful light texture, but a solid flavor with the almond meal and vanilla. Simply delightful.

As for the recipe, I point you directly to Bea's post.

Weekend morning breakfast egg

It has been sunny and warm (for Maine terms) for over a week, the snow is all gone. It was the 'unsnowiest" February on record for Maine, and when biking the cleaned streets it feels more like May then early March. But, who would complain? It is the last weekend of spring break, and the second Saturday in a winter month. The morning bike ride will have a destination: the winter farmers market. Providing organic free range local chicken breakfast eggs.....

Newly Restored Burden House, Northeast Harbor, MDI

A great article in the NYT about the newly restored Burden House, which was designed by Isamu Noguchi. The Burden House is located nearby Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island.

Sauteed Escarole with Bacon and Blue Cheese

The escarole had been waiting for my attention for a few days; I also had picked up a package of smoked country bacon ends recently, and there it was, lunch.

1/3 head of escarole, washed, dried and coarsely chopped

1-2 pieces of thick cut smoked country bacon, cut into small cubes

splash of white wine

salt, pepper

1 TB of crumbled blue cheese

Heat a heavy skillet on low-medium heat, and wait until the bacon releases the fat and gets crispy. Remove the crispy bacon from the pan. Add the escarole to the pan, and add a splash of white wine, salt and pepper (easy on the salt, since the bacon is salty, and also the blue cheese!). Heat for 3-4 min until the escarole is wilted, but still has a slight crunch. Serve the escarole with blue cheese and the crisp bacon.

Mango Pineapple Smoothie

Bright as the early spring this year: a smoothie made with fresh mango, fresh pineapple, lemon juice and some Yoplait Banana cream cake yogurt.

Rustic sourdough bread

It was late at night when I walked into the kitchen, and the bread machine had just finished the baking cycle. The kitchen was filled with the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread. Pause. ..... Fresh bread. I fell for the seduction and angled the piping-hot loaf out of the machine. What's better than the first slice of fresh, crusty sourdough bread with some butter, even if it is late at night ? 

Sourdough bread:

1/3 cup fresh sourdough
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour
1 ts instant yeast (for bread machine)
1/2 TB baker’s milk powder
1/2 TB sugar

Place all ingredients in bread machine, in the order listed, and turn on the machine, and used the setting of firm loaf with normal crust.

Radicchio with Spicy Peanut Dressing and Baked Tofu

On another blog, I found this video link about the kale salad with spicy peanut dressing served by Cafe M.. It looked like a versatile, tasty dressing and dipping sauce. I made some changes to the original recipe (like adding Sriracha sauce for more heat and red miso for more depth), and it tastes fantastic.

Spicy Peanut Dressing:

1 TB chopped garlic

1 TB minced fresh ginger

3 TB mirin

2 TB agave nectar

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 TB chili powder

1 TB Sriracha sauce

1/2 small jar of chunky peanut butter (I like JIF)

1 TB red miso (potentially low-salt)

1 cup water

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Fill into a mason jar, and store in the fridge.

Salad:

1 small head radicchio, cut into stripes

1/3 cup garlic lupine beans

1 slice home-made or store-bought baked tofu

Cut the radicchio into stripes, and serve with lupine beans and baked tofu. Drizzle with spicy peanut sauce.

Ready for Maine Restaurant Week?

Check participating restaurants here.
Restaurant week: Mar 1-10 2010.

photo: beautiful Cleonice, Ellsworth