Baked Brie with Candied Walnuts and Caramelized Onions

My mom typically serves various versions of baked brie around the holidays, so I essentially grew up eating it. It's a classic appetizer with limitless variations. Different jams work well for a salty/sweet appetizer, or you could make it more savory with roasted garlic.

I served this during a long-overdue girls' night in this past week. All three of the ladies I spent the evening with are "food people," so just as I expected when I put this together, nobody turned their nose up at baked cheese with onions and sweet nuts. It's a surprisingly perfect combination, and not surprisingly at all, I didn't come home with any of it. Maybe I ate most of it, maybe I didn't...

You will need:

1 wheel Brie cheese (double cream is the meltiest in my experience), rind intact or cut off
1 sheet puff pastry
1 small yellow onion, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Caramelized onions

To a hot pan, add olive oil and once the oil shimmers, add onions. Season with salt and cook over low heat until the onions are soft and caramelized. Remove onions to a plate, cool.

Candied walnuts

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Once the butter is melted and just barely browned, whisk in the brown sugar. Add a pinch of kosher salt and remove from heat, stirring every so often to keep the butter and sugar from separating. While the butter cools, lay walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet, and toast in a 350 degree oven. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until you can just smell them - be careful they don't burn (it will happen quickly).

Add hot walnuts to butter/sugar mixture, and, working quickly with a wooden spoon, coat all the walnuts evenly. Still working quickly, spread the coated walnuts back onto your baking sheet. Using a fork, separate the nuts from each other, sprinkle with kosher salt, and allow to cool completely. Note: you may want to line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick mat. I stuck my whole pan in the freezer to cool them quickly.

Baked brie

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the top rind off of the wheel of Brie (optional - your toppings will melt into the brie more if you remove the rind, but it is totally edible).

Lay your puff pastry on a baking sheet and place the Brie on top of it, cut side up. Spoon caramelized onions over the top of the cheese, then layer on cooled candied walnuts.

Wrap the cheese in the puff pastry by lifting each corner of the pastry toward the center of the Brie and pressing gently. Cut off any excess dough. If you'd like, you can make something decorative (like leaves) with the excess and place them on top of the dough.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. Serve hot with sliced apples, crackers or baguette slices.

I'm Back!

It feels good to be writing about food again! But before that, I guess I should explain where the hell I've been for the last 8 months.

My last blog post was way back in February. In March I started low-carb dieting like a crazy person and stopped cooking or eating anything fun. I told myself I'd give myself a month, then start cooking more regular food and posting again. I continued to low-carb myself into boredom through April, then gave up all together and just started counting calories again.

Eventually we got to early May...the most exciting month on record of 2012 up to this point. Josh proposed! It was a perfect proposal here on this bridge (we returned to take engagement pictures).

So, through the summer and today, I am planning a wedding. And working out like a lunatic.

In August we bought a house, which is right up there with getting engaged in terms of excitement and distraction and endless to-do lists. My kitchen had zero purple elements for a while, but that was one of my first projects. I now have a purple island and built-in pantry.

In September, there was a slew of bad news, a death, and general sadness. I also turned 29.

Suffice it to say that for the better part of the year, not a whole lot of cooking had been going on, and when it happened, it was unimpressive. I was buying a lot of frozen items for dinners and liking it.

But now I'm out of the honeymoon phase with the new house, and though I'm still planning the wedding, all the big stuff is behind me. It's time for me to start cooking again and posting again, if only for the fact that I need my arsenal of "stuff I've cooked" to refer back to on those nights I can't come up with dinner ideas. My  house also has a tremendous amount of natural light, which means no more shooting food pictures in front of my barely-opened apartment door, light filtered through a filthy screen door, and I'm inspired to improve my photography.

Also, not that anybody remembers (I didn't until I re-read some of my old posts), but I challenged myself to complete a 30x30 list last September, and now I have 11 months to complete it!

I'll have my first recipe in ages up next week!

White Wine-Braised Chicken Thighs

I've been kind of a jerk lately. Josh has put up with a lot while I've been kind of a jerk. After spending a Sunday afternoon alone, in attendance at the maudlin movie "The Vow," once I regained control of my emotions I decided to stop being a jerk. And since I don't know how to apologize/celebrate/function socially without food, I also decided to make Josh a comforting, hearty meal to apologize with.

Front and center was this braised chicken, cooked in white wine and a mirepoix with a few other winter vegetables thrown in. The resulting sauce was a rich and lovely apology for this girlfriend's bad behavior.

I'm not suggesting you screw up as an excuse to make this chicken, but if you already have, this may be a good way to wipe the slate clean.

You will need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for sauteeing chicken
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 leek, sliced into rings
4 cloves garlic, whole
Small handful Italian (flat leaf) parsley, roughly chopped
1/8 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
Enough chicken broth to cover chicken (about 1/2 cup)
Splash heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Have a 3-quart Dutch oven waiting on a burner over low heat. Heat butter and oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Once butter has melted, increase heat to medium-high and cook garlic cloves until browned. Add carrots, celery, onions and leeks and stir, seasoning with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened slightly and have started to brown, add Herbes de Provence, thyme and cayenne, stir well. Transfer vegetables from skillet into Dutch oven. Add parsley to Dutch oven.

Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then sear quickly (2-3 minutes on each side). Once chicken is well-browned, transfer to Dutch oven. Wipe out the skillet of any excess oil with a paper towel, and reduce heat to low. Deglaze skillet with white wine, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, and pour into Dutch oven. Pour enough chicken broth to cover the chicken about 2/3 of the way up. Add in a splash of heavy cream and stir to combine.

Cook over medium-low heat for 60-90 minutes. Add more cream and/or seasonings if necessary at the end of the cooking time.

Oven-Fried Shrimp with Chipotle Dipping Sauce

Often, when I'm lacking inspiration for a weekend meal when we have Alyssa, I play to her nine-year-old sensibilities and ask her what she would like for dinner. I try to acquiesce her requests when reasonable, yet I always brace myself for "pizza." Lately as she's gotten older, however, her responses have been surprising me.

"Fried shrimp, broccoli and white rice."

After my momentary shock wore off, I got to work dreaming up a recipe and made a trip to Sam's Club, where we found the biggest shrimp I've ever seen in a freezer case. I waffled on whether to lug out the deep fryer or bake the shrimp in the oven, and I'm so glad I ultimately decided (at the last minute) to bake them. They were exceptionally crunchy thanks to their panko coating, and I didn't destroy my kitchen or ingest an additional 500 calories by frying them. Alyssa didn't seem heartbroken over the fact that I wasn't actually frying the shrimp, either.

I'll warn you, the prep time on these is a little steep if you don't buy your shrimp deveined. My shrimp were not deveined (and repulsively veined due to their size) and I probably spent 30 minutes at the sink, peeling, carving, disposing of the vein and rinsing them clean.

I couldn't fathom eating "fried" shrimp without a bit of dipping sauce, so I whipped up a quick dip using canned chipotles (look for these in the international or Mexican aisle of your grocery store), mayonnaise and a few of the same seasonings from the shrimp.

You will need:

2 pounds jumbo (16/20) shrimp, peeled, deveined and rinsed
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt, divided
2 teaspoon pepper, divided
1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 cups panko breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Set out 3 medium bowls. In one, add flour. In another, add eggs, milk, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Whisk to combine. Add panko breadcrumbs to the third bowl and season with remaining salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne.

Dredge shrimp in flour and when coated, move into the egg mixture with a fork. Coat shrimp in egg mixture then dip in panko, ensuring the shrimp is coated in panko crumbs. Move coated shrimp to a prepared baking pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Repeat with remaining shrimp. Spray shrimp with cooking spray, and cook at 425 degrees for 7 minutes. Flip shrimp over, spray again with cooking spray, and place under a low broiler for 1 minute or until  toasted (do not leave your oven!), and serve with chipotle dipping sauce (below).

Chipotle Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup light sour cream
Splash Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon (or more to taste, but it's spicy stuff) sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients until sauce is smooth. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes to allow flavors to marry. Serve cold.

Spicy Sesame Oil Popcorn

There's so much you can do with popcorn that doesn't involve a microwave - caramel corn and kettle corn being some of the more common examples. Both are widely available commercially, but like most things, making it at home is infinitely better - I for one like my kettle corn a bit more on the salty side, and making it myself allows me to manipulate the hot, unpopped kernals however I choose.

As long as you have a pot with a small footprint (8 inches across or so) and tall sides, you can make basic popcorn at home. Kernals, salt and vegetable oil are cheap and the whole process is quick. Creativity comes in when you pop your kernals in flavored oils or use flavored salts, much like Josh did last night at 1 AM.

You will need:

Canola oil, enough to barely cover the bottom of your pot
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili oil
Enough popcorn kernals to cover the bottom of the pot in one layer
Salt
Black pepper
Garlic Powder
Ground cumin
Cayenne pepper

Add oil to the pot and heat over medium heat for about a minute before adding popcorn kernals. Immediately after adding kernals, sprinkle in salt and other seasonings to taste, then cover the pot and shake it up. Keep the pot moving over the burner as the popcorn pops to keep it from burning.

Immediately after the kernals have popped, remove to a bowl. Add additional seasonings if needed.

Other oil/seasoning combinations include:

Truffle oil and truffle salt
Garlic oil, salt and parmesan cheese
Vegetable oil, salt and sugar (kettle corn)

Cinnamon Rolls

Hey everyone.

Remember me? Blog abandoner extraordinaire?

I'm back. I'm hoping to be back regularly. And since every piece of advice I've ever read on blogging says not to apologize or offer excuses for prolonged blogging absences, I won't. On to the recipe!

These have become a Christmas day tradition over the last few years. For as long as I can remember, we've had a Christmas Eve tradition, where we ditch the cooking for a night and go out for a big, splurgy dinner at a fancy restaurant - usually Italian. I took it upon myself to add a little structure to Christmas day, and started the tradition of baking up homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. I make the dough the day before, and wake up before everyone else to start rolling the dough out. The clattering of pans and rolling pins generally means I won't be alone in the kitchen long.

They're gooey and messy and cozy - the kind of indulgence you can eat in your pajamas, with bed hair and no makeup, amongst family.

You will need:

1 quart whole milk

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
8 cups (plus 1 cup additional, divided) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
1 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
1 tablespoon (heaping) salt
2 sticks melted butter
2 cups sugar
Cinnamon (use your best judgement)

Glaze:

1/2 bag powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt

To make the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat to scald it (right before it boils, about 200 degrees). Remove from heat and cool to warm. Sprinkle yeast on surface of milk and let it sit on the milk for 1 minute.

Add 8 cups of the flour. Stir until combined, then cover and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the cover and add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1 cup flour. Stir thoroughly to combine. At this point you can use the dough right away and start to assemble the cinnamon rolls, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl. (Note: dough is easier to work with if it’s been chilled for at least an hour or so beforehand.)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

To assemble the rolls, remove half the dough from the bowl. On a floured baking surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle, rolled very thin.

To make the filling, pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the melted butter over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers or a pastry brush to spread the butter evenly. Generously sprinkle half of the ground cinnamon and 1 cup of the sugar over the butter. Use more butter and/or sugar/cinnamon as needed and desired.

Beginning at the end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly towards you. Keep the roll tight - I find sometimes it's easier to fold the dough over itself. When you reach the end, pinch the seam together and flip the roll so that the seam is face down.

With a sharp knife, make 1/2-inch slices. Pour a couple of teaspoons of melted butter into cake pans and coat. Place the sliced rolls in the pans.

Repeat the rolling/sugar/butter process with the other half of the dough and more pans. Set aside to rise again for at least 20 minutes before baking. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Don’t overcook!

In the meantime, make the icing: in a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, butter, and salt. Whisk until smooth. Taste and add in more ingredients as needed until the icing reaches the desired consistency/flavor. The icing should be somewhat thick but still very pourable.

Remove pans from the oven. Immediately drizzle icing over the top.
 
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Sweet Potato and Sage Orzotto

I didn't share a single Thanksgiving recipe with you guys. As a matter of fact, for nearly the entire month of November I was MIA. I could make a bunch of excuses about how busy I've been at work, or that my parents were in town, or that I was responsible for a lot of the Thanksgiving meal we all had together.

Or, I could just share a post-Thanksgiving, we-need-to-use-these-sweet-potatoes-soon dish in this "orzotto." My heart was set on sweet potato risotto, but guess who's out of risotto rice? Orzo works as a great risotto substitute in a pinch; since it's a pasta it's just about as starchy as Arborio rice (risotto rice). The trick is in the very slow cooking with very hot broth, allowing the orzo to fully absorb the last addition of broth before adding more. A touch of sage and a touch of Parmesan, and maybe you will want to serve this on Thanksgiving next year, and not just to use up whatever raw ingredients you have left over from the big day.

You will need:

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small cubes
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups dried orzo
3 cups hot chicken broth
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large saute pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add sweet potatoes, onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until all have softened. Add orzo and toast for 2-3 minutes.

Gradually add the hot chicken broth one cup at a time, waiting after each addition until the orzo has fully absorbed the broth and stirring constantly.

Once all broth has been added and orzo is tender, season with salt and pepper, add cream, parmesan and sage. Serve immediately.