Tortilla Española

I make a lot of lists. Recipes to blog, things to buy at CVS, songs to download, movies to add to Netflix, decorating ideas. Problem is, I lose them and nothing gets accomplished. They get stuffed into my purse, I change my purse frequently, and I don’t find a list from December until March. This morning I was reminded that I was supposed to buy Q-Tips on December 18th.

Fortunately, my never-ending list of recipes to conquer remains an internal one, and when external events align so that one of them actually has a chance to materialize, I scratch it off my mental list and move its physical recipe into my stuffed-to-the-gills recipe book. This past week my mom was kind enough to send me a supply of chorizo, a spicy and smoky Spanish sausage she can sniff out a quality link of no matter where in the country she may be. I do not possess this skill and need to hone it pronto – because the one recipe I dared to try with perfect chorizo in my possession needs to be made over and over again.

Tortilla Española, often referred to as a Spanish omelet in tapas restaurants, brings to mind fond memories of helping my mom in the kitchen as a kid. As it requires thinly sliced peeled potatoes and paper-thin onions, Spanish pimentos and the elusive chorizo sausage, it is a bit of a labor of love. It also requires a midway flip, which I won’t deny intimidated me. My dad was always my mom's flipper. Josh is my flipper.

You will need:

4 small to medium potatoes, peeled and sliced with a mandolin (1/8 inch thickness)
1 medium Spanish (white) onion, sliced with a mandolin (1/8 inch thickness)
5 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons diced pimentos
4 ounces hard Spanish chorizo, diced
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Olive oil

Soak potato slices in cool water to prevent discoloration. When ready to cook, remove potatoes from water and press dry with a cloth, removing as much water as you can. Heat a 10 inch cast iron skillet filled with 1/2 inch olive oil over medium-high heat. Rub some of the olive oil into the sides of the skillet as well. Once oil begins to shimmer, add dry potatoes and cook until potatoes soften, but do not allow them to brown. Remove cooked potatoes to a plate and season with salt and pepper. Add onions to oil and cook until translucent but not brown. Remove and cook chorizo until hot but again, do not allow to brown. Remove chorizo to the plate with potatoes and onions.

Add diced pimentos to beaten eggs and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Once potatoes, onion and chorizo have cooled a bit, add to egg mixture. If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the skillet and pour in egg mixture. Do not disturb until eggs begin to set, then run a knife along the outer edge, and with the edge lifted, tilt and swirl the pan to distribute some of the uncooked egg on top toward the bottom and sides. Do this a few times until the top of the mixture is no longer runny. Loosen the bottom of the mixture with a spatula, being careful not to break or tear the omelet. Place a well fitting plate on top of the skillet and quickly flip the tortilla onto the plate, then quickly slide the tortilla back into the hot pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes, then remove from heat and slide back onto your serving plate.

Serves 4.

Skinny Lasagna

I wasn't suprised to learn that my favorite go-to lasagna recipe was not Weight Watchers approved. Oozing with melted Mozzarella, whole fat ricotta and bursting with pork sausage, the 30 points per serving calculation seemed about right, if not less than I expected. My mission was clear: make over the lasagna to satisfy my craving and not manage to blow my entire day. This won't be a regular thing, but being that it was my first made-over recipe, I've provided the nutritional data at the bottom of the recipe as well as the total Weight Watchers points (Points Plus) per generous serving.

For the sauce, you will need:

2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb chicken sausage, casings removed (I like Trader Joe's Formaggio & Vino)
Bunch basil, chopped
Small bunch parsley, chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon white sugar (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste

For the lasagna:

18 half-sheets lasagna or 6 full sheets
2 cups light Ricotta cheese
4 tablespoons Mascarpone cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cloves garlic, grated or minced very finely
Small bunch basil, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ bag of baby spinach (whole)
1 ½ cups reduced fat Italian shredded cheese blend, or equal parts reduced fat Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, shredded

To make the sauce, heat olive oil in a dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat. When hot, add onions and carrots and cook until onions are translucent, stirring frequently. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add sausage and cook for 4-5 minutes. Pour in wine and reduce slightly, about 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and simmer gently for 15 minutes before adding the basil and parsley. Season to taste, cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.

In a medium bowl, combine Ricotta, Mascarpone, egg, garlic, basil, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

To assemble lasagna, spoon enough sauce to line the bottom of a ceramic or glass baking dish. On top of the sauce, fill with one layer of pasta sheets (you may need to break some pasta sheets to completely line the bottom of the pan). Make sure that all the pasta is touching sauce – since the pasta is not pre-cooked, it will need to soak up the sauce to soften. Spoon a thin layer of sauce over the pasta sheets. Add a layer of spinach. Add tablespoon-size drops of Ricotta cheese blend over the spinach, about 9, and spread to cover spinach. Sprinkle ¼ cup of the shredded cheese mixture over the top and repeat with a new layer – adding in order sauce, pasta, sauce, spinach, Ricotta blend and cheese. Complete three layers and top the lasagna with remaining sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover with foil and bake immediately in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes, until the sauce bubbles. Remove foil for the last 10 minutes to brown the cheese. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Lasagna can also be made ahead of time and stored either in the refrigerator or in the freezer until ready to bake. If baking from frozen, add another 10 minutes to the cooking time. Serves 10.


Nutritional data

Per serving: 403 calories, 42 carbs, 14 grams fat, 24 grams protein

Weight Watchers points plus: 12.6

Strawberry Crumble

March always does this to me. The first hint of a warm breeze and I'm overly excited for more permanent warmth. Eventually I will wake up on a pretty morning and dress for work in a sandals and a skirt without leggings underneath. I will then find myself walking through a windstorm in the parking lot knowing that all the other employees walking into work in jeans are laughing at me.

The same goes for produce. Strawberries start to grace the shelves in shades of crimson only slightly deeper than their pale December counterparts, and I giddily fill my cart, only to find later that they need significant help from a sprinkle of sugar before I can consider them palatable. I'm annually premature and I'm not sure I'll ever learn.

Enter this strawberry crumble. Grand Marnier, sugar and butter join forces with the otherwise subpar strawberries and create something not only palatable, but superb - early March or not.

You will need:

1 pound of strawberries, tops removed and cut in half

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or cognac

1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the crumble topping:

1/2 cup flour

Scant 1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold butter, diced

6 tablespoons rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

1/4 cup dry-roasted almonds, chopped, or 1 tablespoon almond meal

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a medium bowl. Work the butter chunks into the flour mixture with your fingers, crumbling until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the oats and almonds/almond meal and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the strawberries.

Spray a pie plate or 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Pour in halved strawberries, vanilla, lemon juice and Grand Marnier and toss gently to coat. Top strawberries with crumble mixture and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the crumble is golden brown. Allow the crumble to rest and cool before serving.

Bacon-Green Chile Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes. Josh loves sweet potatoes. But the last two bags of sweet potatoes we bought completely went to waste because we didn't eat them in time. There was abosolutely no excuse, unless the fact that I'm sick of sweet potato fries counts. I needed something new to entice me into cooking and eating the current bag - which, given our recent pattern with sweet potatoes, may be our last for a while.

What a great sendoff! Green chiles are surprisingly well matched with the sweet potatoes, and the bacon is a no-brainer. Served with a few dashes of hot sauce, these were the best sweet potatoes I've had in ages.

You will need:

4-5 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sour cream (or light sour cream)
1 can green chiles
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
Dash chili powder
Salt and pepper

Add potatoes to a large pot of salted boiling water. Cook until potatoes are fork-tender and drain. Rinse the potatoes well under cool water and return to pot over very low heat. Add sour cream, butter, chiles, salt and pepper and chili powder and mash until smooth. Add bacon, stir and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve warm with a dash of hot sauce.

Dr. Pepper Ribs

I have a confession to make: I am afraid of our grill. I never used to be, but then again, I'd never attempted to light it myself before - my dad or Josh always lit it and I'd tend to the food on it thereafter. But about a month ago, Josh found himself late coming home and I was left to start the burgers.

I made my way outside, turned on the gas and fiddled with the knobs before lighting my long match to toss into the pit. After striking the match and before I could even blink, a fierce, billowing ball of flame erupted from the grill - quite literally blowing up in my face. Terrified, but miraculously with enough sense to shut everything off, I flew into the house and into the bathroom, convinced that I would find a reflection of someone without eyebrows and eyelashes. The person staring back at me had a halo of charred hair around her forehead, crispy eyebrows and raw red burns on the tip of her nose and across her chest. I was not going to be bald and eyebrow-less, but I was in pain and traumatized, so amid the acrid smell of burnt hair I stood in the bathroom and sobbed.

I'm fine, but I will never light the grill again. To wrap up a long story, these ribs were slow cooked and later broiled in the oven, in my kitchen, where it's safe and I understand how everything works. Marinated for 6 hours in Dr. Pepper, they turn out moist, sweet yet savory, and it's entirely possible that you won't even miss the grill.

You will need:

1 rack of baby back ribs, back membrane removed
1 liter Dr. Pepper
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Your favorite barbecue sauce

Rinse off your ribs, pat dry and season both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place ribs in a deep roasting dish and pour in enough Dr. Pepper to cover the whole rack (I used the entire liter). Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. When you're ready to cook the ribs, drain off the liquids and pat the ribs completely dry. Dry the roasting pan as well, and add a wire roasting rack to the pan. Place the ribs on the roasting rack, cover the pan tightly with foil, and place in the middle of the oven. Cook for 2 hours.

Remove the foil after two hours and brush generously with barbecue sauce. Set oven broiler to low and broil ribs for approximately 8-10 minutes, or until the barbecue sauce begins to caramelize and brown. Remove and allow ribs to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Homemade Butter

A while back, before I joined Weight Watchers (weren't expecting that revelation, were you?), and deep in the midst of diet research, I came upon something called the Vice Diet. The diet's creator promised that by cutting out the one food item you love and therefore eat more than recommended, you could lose staggering amounts of weight.

Hmm, I thought. What would be my vice?

The answer hit me like a ton of bricks: cheese, you dummy.

Well, that will never work, I thought as I pushed it away. What would be my second vice?

That answer was even worse: butter, you dummy.

So the Vice Diet isn't for me. Granted, I've cut back (severely) on both items, but I still eat them in moderation. And I've lost 5.6 pounds since the first of February. So pfffft to you, Vice Diet.

As usual, I digress. I learned that I could make butter in a stand mixer, but then my brother texted recently that he'd made it in a mason jar with marbles, and I simply couldn't put it off any longer. Let me tell you: you've never had butter unless you've had it from your own kitchen. If I could get fresher cream it would amp the awesomeness even further.

You will need:

A stand mixer
6 cups heavy cream
2 tbs kosher salt for salted butter, or whatever additions you desire (think cinnamon, strawberries, garlic, etc)
Ice water

Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer (it will be difficult to remove the butter clumps if you use the whisk attachment), beat the cream on medium high speed. When the cream forms stiff peaks (like whipped cream), you're halfway there. Continue beating. The cream will become clumpy and grainy and you'll wonder if you're doing something wrong, but just keep going. Resist the urge to scrape down the bowl - when it's ready it will scrape away from the bowl. Once the mixture starts sloshing and splattering, it's a sure sign that the butter is ready, as that means the liquid has separated from the fat.

It is important to remove as much liquid as possible from the butter solids, as it can quickly turn your butter rancid. To do so, set a mesh strainer over a deep bowl and strain the liquid from the butter solids, squeezing to remove as much liquid as possible. Add ice water in small amounts to rinse the butter solids, squeezing after each addition. When the strained water runs clear, you have removed all of the buttermilk.

Store in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator for no more than 2 weeks.

February Daring Baker's Challenge: Panna Cotta


Q: What could be more indulgent than a dessert comprised nearly entirely of heavy cream?

A: A dessert comprised nearly entirely of heavy cream, with added sugar and hot fudge, served from a champagne flute and enjoyed after an extraordinarily decadent 3-course dinner at home.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Well, I forgot about the cookies. And I used a David Leibovitz recipe. Whoops.

Otherwise, thank goodness this challenge came around when it did, because we decided to cook at home this year on Valentine's Day, and I had no idea what to make for dessert. Chocolate was a given, but if I made cake, we would be left with far too many leftovers - plus I have issues with eating my weight in cake batter. Panna cotta also requires (or rather, demands) vanilla beans instead of extract, and I happen to be fascinated with vanilla beans. Sold!

Since it would be just the two of us, I divided the following recipe in half (but stuck with one whole vanilla bean), and the panna cotta mixture still divided perfectly among 3 champagne flutes (kindly ignore the price tags on my champagne flutes). I topped each flute with an espresso hot fudge sauce. While the pudding and the sauce were lovely and a perfect end to an indulgent meal, I think I finally understand what people mean when they say something is “too rich” – I couldn’t finish my glass. This summer, I’d love to experiment with different toppings, like fresh berries or peaches, and serve dessert in smaller cups.
You will need:

4 cups heavy cream (my heavy cream carton yielded only half of this, so I topped it off with skim milk and the results were fine)
½ cup sugar
2 tsp vanillia extract, or one vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 packets powdered gelatin
6 tbs cold water

Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. If you are using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds from the bean into the cream and add the bean pod. Cover, and let infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the bean then rewarm the mixture before continuing. Lightly oil eight custard cups with a neutral-tasting oil, or spray lightly with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the very warm panna cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

Divide the panna cotta mixture into the prepared cups/glasses, then chill them until firm, which will take at least two hours. Cover with plastic wrap if not enjoying immediately after they have set.

Top with desired garnish - some ideas are:

Hot fudge
A mix of white and semisweet chocolate chips
Caramel sauce
Macerated berries
Grilled peaches
Candied nuts
 
Go crazy! Here's the link to the original post.