Potluck 3/4: Going Gluten-Free

Potlucks aren't always huge affairs. Sometimes they're small groups, maybe only three couples. And they can be just as good as the large and sometimes crazy potluck parties.

Laura was celebrating going from a diet essentially free of all things good and beautiful in the world (cheese, etc), to a gluten-free only diet, so the theme was "gluten-free." As I am learning more and more, this doesn't have to be such a constraining thing. It's more of an opportunity to try new things and generally eat healthier! The dishes were chicken panang from Carlos and Lana (delicious!) a Cajun rice dish from Geoffrey ( jambalaya? whatever it was, it was delicious!) and a double-chocolate pear cake courtesy of yours truly (recipe below!). The master mixologist, Geoffrey, also prepared some perfectly balanced margaritas and cosmos.

Double Chocolate Pear Cake (Gluten Free!)
adapted from Tartelette

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 oz semisweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sweet rice flour (*see note below)
1/3 cup sorghum flour (**see note below)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 or 2 pears, ripe, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

* I couldn't find sweet rice flour, so I used 1/3 cup minus 2 tsp brown rice flour and 2 tsp corn starch
** You can also use quinoa flour like I did, or amaranth flour. OR you can substitute 1 cup all purpose flour for the 2/3 cups gf flour in this recipe, if you want to make gluten-FULL recipe.

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a loaf pan (dust with rice flour if you want).
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl at medium speed, until light and creamy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat them in at low speed.
4. Add melted chocolate and buttermilk, beating until combined after each addition.
5. Sift in the flours, cocoa, and baking powder and beat for 30 seconds (still at low). Increase the speed to medium and beat for a minute.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pieces of pear on top.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Cake is done when the top has set, and a cake tester inserted (into cake, not pear) comes out clean.

Although it wasn't *quite* the same as a regular cake, it was still delicious, and was more crumbly and cakey than the typical flourless chocolate cake. Success!

Potluck 2/26: The Wine-al Countdown

Mike, the man who can always be counted on to bring a 12 pack of beer or an extra-large bottle of wine, hosted the last potluck in February. In typical Mike style, he came up with a potluck theme that combined scientific rigor with a love for wine: an old fashioned wine-tasting. We brought bottles of wine, put them in paper bags, and then numbered them, so we could taste unencumbered by the knowledge of the quality of the wine or who brought it.

There was also food, of course. A delicious lentil dish, a cheesy tuna bake, pasta with homemade pesto, spicy cheesy potatoes, and a bourbon apple cinnamon bundt cake (which was my contribution). My cake was tasty enough, but really nothing special. And I didn't adequately butter the bundt pan, and when I tried to un-bundt it, it broke apart. So we ate it from the bundt pan. I can assure you, it was much better that way. Did I mention the bourbon glaze that got poured over it? I guess it was a little special. I got my recipe from The Kitchen Sink, and you can go there if you want the cake recipe. But let me just give you the glaze recipe, for pouring over whatever you want to taste like bourbon. Mmm.

Bourbon Glaze
from The Kitchen Sink

Shake a scant 1 cup confectioners sugar and 2 Tbsp water in a mason jar to mix. Add 1 or 2 Tbsp good quality bourbon. Shake some more. Pour over cake, ice cream, poached fruit, or just into your mouth.

But back to the wine... here were the rules. Pour yourself a small (or large) cup of wine. Remember the number on the paper bag you poured from. Drink wine. If you are a true connoisseur, make mental notes on the flavor profile and think long and hard about what rating (between 0 and 10, with one decimal place allowed) you should give the wine. Write your rating in the row next to the wine number you drank. If you're just a regular person, sip wine, swish it around in your mouth, and pick a random number that may or may not correlate to the actual tastiness of the wine. Write said number in the correct row.

I personally only found a few wines that inspired either praise or serious dislike. Otherwise I went more with the "pick a number" method. There was plenty of good conversation, so it was also common for people to forget what number wine they just tried. What I'm saying is, that it wasn't a perfectly scientific study. But it sure was fun.

Near the end of the night, Gabriel took a calculator and tallied scores. Mike had provided prizes for the best wine, and for the best value wine (the wine with the highest score to price ratio). It should be noted that ratings of "i" and "pi" were disqualified for being imaginary and irrational, respectively. The rating, "ASS," was counted as a 0.

Katie and Kevin won the Best Value award, with their wine, Green Fin White Wine, at a price of $3.99 at Trader Joe's. Here is Katie accepting their prize, a princess bubble kit! (Yay!)

Gabriel's wine won the Best Overall award. He brought an Ulrich Langguth Riesling. Here we are accepting his prize of a scary inflatable pig punching balloon. It was truly scary, so I have spared you all by not posting pictures of it. It should be noted that Gabriel also brought the worst wine: Zarafa Sauvignon Blanc. Apparently, a giraffe on the bottle does not a good wine make. If you can decipher Gabriel's handwriting, here are the full results:

February Goal: Mussels for Valentine's

After having a delicious bowl of mussels with chorizo at The Blue Marlin during winter restaurant week, I decided I would recreate this dish for my February cooking goal.

Gabriel and I decided that instead of going out on Valentine's Day and facing overpriced meals and crowded dining rooms, I'd make dinner on the 14th, and we'd go out to our favorite restaurant, Sardine, later in the week. So mussels and chorizo went on the menu for v-day.

I don't often cook seafood, and when I do, it's usually fish from the freezer section. So even buying the mussels took me out of my comfort zone. I found a small seafood store in Madison, and ventured there on the 13th. I bought 2 lbs of fresh mussels, and stored them in the fridge in a bowl covered with a damp cloth. The next afternoon, I found one of the mussels had clamped on to the cloth. They were alive for sure!

To prepare the mussels, they first took a 30 minute soak in bowl of flour and water (so, in principle, they will disgorge sand and take in flour, making them plumper). Next I went over the shells with a wire scrubber and pulled out the stringy "beard" that helps them attach to rocks. I also discarded mussels that were open and didn't close after I tapped them. Finally, the mussels went into a hot pot of white wine, tomatoes, chorizo, shallots, garlic, and thyme. I was roughly following an Ina Garten recipe to make sure I had about the right proportions and for the method, but otherwise I was winging it. (My recipe appears at the end of this post.)

After a few minutes steaming in the wine, the mussels started to swing open. Gabriel and I peered in through the clear lid at the yawning shells. The smell of shallots cooked in chorizo fat was making our mouths water, and it was difficult to wait the 8 minutes it took for them to steam.

The rest of the menu was decided at the last minute. I was going to make short ribs, but I didn't have a great recipe for them. At the farmer's market, the vendor showed me a few different cuts of meat, and I finally decided on a large top sirloin that ended up providing 4 smaller steaks.

For dessert, Gabriel wanted something chocolate (maybe), and not fruit (probably). He's more of a milk chocolate guy, while I often find milk chocolate too one-note and sweet for my tastes. But I found a very interesting and not-at-all one-note recipe in Bon Appetit's February special on milk chocolate.

mussels steamed in white wine with chorizo
Dr. Beckermann Liebfraumilch (our favorite Trader Joe's wine)

top sirloin from Fountain Prairie Farms
butternut squash risotto
Les Jamelle Pinot Noir (a gift from Carlos and Lana)

milk chocolate mousse with port ganache and whipped crème fraîche

Mussels Steamed in White Wine with Chorizo
Serves 2-3 as a large appetizer

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh mussels
1/4 cup flour
1/2 lb bulk chorizo
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
2 or 3 shallots, chopped
2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups white wine
1 cup chicken broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions
1. To prepare the mussels, put them in a bowl with 2 quarts water and flour, and let sit for 30 minutes. Pull off the "beard," and scrub shells with a brush or metal scrubber if they are dirty. Discard shells that are open which do not close tightly soon after being tapped.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil at medium-high in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid. Break chorizo into small pieces and brown it in the olive oil.
3. Remove chorizo with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat. Add additional olive oil if needed. Saute shallots in the oil until they are tender. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes more, stirring, and making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add tomatoes.
4. Pour in white wine, and let it boil down for a few minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the chick broth, reserved chorizo, and thyme. Bring to a boil.
5. Add the mussels. Cover the pot and steam for 8 minutes. Discard any mussels that have not opened after 8 minutes.
6. Serve mussels in bowls, and ladle cooking broth and chorizo over them. Enjoy!

Pi Day

Sunday was Pi Day (March 14th...), and as a nerdy physicist/engineer and lover of pies, I had to make a Pi Pie. I chose a blackberry apple pie. Naturally, I inscribed the top with the Greek letter "pi" to let steam escape. The pie was extra juicy (despite corn starch in the filling), but it tasted great, especially topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Blackberry Apple Pie
from The Kitchn

Ingrediants
1 recipe for double pie crust (I used this one from Bon Appetit.)
3 cups frozen blackberries
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sweetened crystallized ginger (didn't have any - used a 1 in chunck of fresh ginger grated into the mix)
2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 pinch salt
(1 egg beaten thoroughly - whoops! didn't do this!)

Directions
Mix blackberries, ginger, and apples with brown sugar and set aside. Roll out one half of the dough, and line a 9 inch pie plate with it. Mix nutmeg, cornstarch, and salt, and stir this mixture into the fruit filling. (Lightly brush the pie dough in the plate with the egg.) Pour the filling into the pie dough. Roll out the second half of the pie dough, and lay over the filling. Seal edges with a fork, and cut slashes into the top. (Brush top crust with beaten egg).
Bake at 375 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes, until filling is bubbly, and the crust is golden brown.

As you can see, it was runny and juicy, but it was (and still is) pretty delicious. I hope a lot of people tried to make some pie on Sunday. If you didn't, don't be intimidated, it's fun and delicous, even if it doesn't end up looking pretty. Yay Pie! (and pi)

Potluck 2/4: Our cup runneth over

Oh my, have I been tardy with my updating. Sorry! Before I host potluck tonight, I figured I should at least get one February post in. So here goes - potluck night, February 4th.

The lovely Nicole hosted, in the house where Thursday potlucks began. And there was more food than I could begin to describe here. Nicole made biryani and tandoori chicken. Aditya contributed spicy, flavorful Indian potato cakes, the proper name of which I do not know. Carlos brought a chickpea curry, and Lana contributed chocolate-chip cookie bars. I am leaving out a lot of stuff, but I will blame that on putting off posting this, for which I have already apologized.

Where are the recipes for all these fabulous (and often Indian) dishes? Not here, unfortunately - although I love Indian food dearly, it is not my strong point in the kitchen. So let's get on to the desserts, shall we? I've already mentioned Lana's cookie bars, and I brought a simple chocolate bread pudding. I used Martha Stewart's recipe, and added some cardamom, because I wanted something a little more than the one-note chocolate taste. I was lucky enough to get to take a bit of it home, leftover, and it provided a few late night, and I'll admit, breakfast-time snacks.

But the killer dessert wasn't mine - it was Katie's (Nicole's undergraduate assistant). She made a dessert that combines two already wonderful things: sopapilla and cheesecake. You heard me right: sopapilla cheesecake (pictured above, on the left).

Sopapilla Cheesecake
from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup + 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 (8 oz) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a 9x13 in baking dish with cooking spray OR preheat to 375 degrees F and prepare 9 in springform pan with cooking spray.
2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 cup of the sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth; set aside.
3. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each sheet into 9x13 inch rectangles and press one sheet into the bottom of the 9x13 baking dish OR place crescent triangles from one can into bottom of the springform pan so they cover the bottom and some of the sides.
4. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the pan, then cover with the remaining crescent dough, and brush with melted butter.
5. Stir together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle evenly over the top of the cheesecake.
6. Bake until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.
7. Think it's the best cheesecake you've ever tasted.

Thanks for a good potluck, Nicole and company!

Andi & Julia: January Goal

My goal for the month of January was to cook a meal taken entirely from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Since most of the recipes are supposed to serve six, and I didn't want to try halving the recipes, I invited two friends whose potlucks, dinner parties, and food experimentation always inspire me: Carlos and Lana. Along with Gabriel, I figured the four of us could handle food for six, leaving me with a few leftovers. When choosing a menu I had a few things I kept in mind. My first constraint was the lack of a good heavy dutch oven that can go between the stove-top and the oven. I also wanted to cook either a chicken or a beef dish for the main course. As for the dessert, I wanted to choose a cake, simply because it would be a little more in my comfort zone. Here's the final menu:

Boston Bibb Letuce Salad with Sauce Vinaigrette
with goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, and almonds

Sauté de Boeuf à la Bourguignonne
with mushrooms, bacon, and onions

Pomme de Terre Sautées en Dés

French Baguette

Reine De Saba
with chocolate-butter icing and almonds

I actually started my preparation (on the last Saturday of January) by making the cake, but let me first describe the main part of the meal. I sautéed the mushrooms for the beef burgundy first, and then made the glazed baby onions. That was what I used the bouquet garni seen at the beginning of the post for. Then I started cutting the potatoes into a small dice. The sautéed potatoes were the suggested side dish for the beef, but rather than the "elongated olive shape" suggested in the main recipe, or potato balls, formed using a "potato-ball cutter," I chose the much simpler dice. They went in a non-stick pan with butter and olive oil, and at this point, Gabriel took over the potatoes. He was much more talented than I at the shaking and flipping required to keep the potatoes from sticking or cooking too much on one side. The beef dish was actually the faster sauté version of the famous boeuf bourguignonne that was such a big deal for the food-blogger Julie in Julie & Julia. So I started by browning the sirloin steak, leaving it a little rare in the middle. Then I started on the really fantastic sauce: red wine, garlic, beef stock, and tomato paste, all thickened with a beurre manié (a paste of butter and flour, whisked in at the end). At the very end, Gabriel helped me assemble the salad and shake up the vinaigrette in a mason jar.

I felt a little overwhelmed near the end, and almost forgot a few important parts of the sauce for the beef, but sitting down at the table with my friends and a glass of wine, I felt it was all worth it. The salad was a good combination of the tangy dressing and the sweet tomatoes, the creamy cheese and the crunchy almonds. The potatoes were simple, dressed only in butter and herbs, but they were so smooth, with the texture almost like that of a risotto. (I've made them since, in an stainless steel pan, with much less success - non-stick is the way to go). The beef was tender and flavorful, but the big hit was the sauce, which I will admit we were sopping up with bread and eventually eating straight from the pan.

Now to the important part: dessert. The chocolate was set to melt in a bowl over simmering water, and the butter and sugar were creamed together. And then, partly because I wanted to try it by hand, and partly because I didn't want to wash the beaters I had used for the butter and sugar, and beat my egg-whites by hand. It was tiring, and it took a little bit longer, but it resulted in a finer and more consistent foam. And holding up my whisk and seeing stiff peaks felt a lot more rewarding than when I use electric beaters. I mixed the chocolate with the butter and almond meal, and then carefully folded in the whites and flour. I poured it into a 9 in. pan (although the recipe called for a 8 in pan) and put it into the oven. I should have modified the cooking time because I changed the pan size, but I didn't think about it. So my cake turned out a little less moist than it was supposed to, but it still tasted delicious.

I made the chocolate-butter icing after dinner (wearing pearls, of course) and spread it on the cake. We took a break from playing my favorite game, Pictionary, to dig into the cake. And though I won't reveal who won *both* games of Pictionary, I will say that the cake was a winner. :) So the completion of my first goal for the year was a success. I see more meals inspired by Julia Child in the future...

Potluck 1/28 - Peaches!

The theme for the last potluck in January was "Travel." I had flown in from a research collaboration trip earlier that Thursday, and was only hosting because no one else had volunteered. I had a new Peruvian cookbook, so I decided to try making Arroz con Leche, or rice pudding. I had rice, but needed condensed and evaporated milk, an orange, and some port. So I went out to my car, turned the key, and... sighed in frustration. The bitter cold had agitated my finicky car battery, and my car wouldn't start. I called Gabriel and he agreed to pick up the food items at the new campus area grocery store while I went to a nearby liquor store for port.

I followed the directions, but felt that there was not enough rice for the prescribed amount of liquid. So I turned up the heat and figured I'd boil it away. Silly me: condensed milk+too hot pan+stepping away to put out dishes=terrible burnt milk smell. I rushed to the stove, turned off the gas, and started frantically stirring. Of course, that aggravated the problem, as I was now mixing liquidy (but unburnt) rice pudding with the horribly burnt stuff. I transferred the pudding to another pan, skimming out the blackened bits, and hoped someone would bring a better dessert. I was in luck: Geoffrey brought flourless chocolate cake (hallelujah!), and we also had salad and stuffed shells to round out the meal.

Now you're probably looking at this picture, thinking, "But Andi, I don't see anything like cake or salad or stuffed shells. All I see is beer!" I swear we did eat, but the talk of the party was really the beer. Mike brought this Audacious Apricot Ale, that we happily drank. I used to like a good fruity beer, but now I usually don't. Except for this one. It was delicious, and some of us began to wax eloquent about it. "It tastes like sitting on a porch, sipping something cool, on a warm summer evening after a hard day of work outdoors," I said. Lana said it reminded her of sitting in a field, eating a picnic consisting of small bites of different foods. Carlos was perhaps less of a fan, saying that it made him think of asking for the barkeep's recommendation, and then being disappointed. Mike was reminded of the first time he tried this particular beer, standing in the circle of a beer-tasting club, sipping beers and describing them. When Ed was asked what he thought of when he drank the beer, he replied, "Peaches!"

We've had the beer again since then, but not the rice pudding. Take from that what you will...

Thanks Mike for introducing us to such a conversation-sparking beer!