I love me a poached egg. One of my favorite go-to dishes is roasted asparagus topped with a poached egg and drizzled with a sweet balsamic vinegar. That said, I absolutely suck at poaching eggs — I always throw in several eggs and hope at least one will turn out. And even then, the egg is hardly recognizable when I plate it.
I know I sound like a broken record every time I utter the words I hate baking. But it’s true. I hate doing things that I suck at. And I, ladies ‘n gents, am a really sucky baker.
My friends always tease me about my OCD tendencies and need for total organization and routine in my life. You would think this personality trait would translate into kick-ass baking. Not so much. I’m a come-up-with-a-recipe-on-the-go-and-sprinkle-a-dash-of-this-and-pinch-of-that kinda gal in the kitchen, and baking is the total opposite of that. Baking is about precision and patience, two qualities that I truly lack, in or out of the kitchen.
I’m honored to share my birthday with the noodle. There’s nothing like a hearty noodle dish to lift your spirits, especially as the weather starts to turn cooler and the days become shorter. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Korea and was spoiled with all kinds of amazing Korean noodle dishes — savory, spicy, loaded with seaweed, dumplings and even rice cakes. Mmmm mmmm.
Ahem. *Deep breath in*
My name is Jenn…and I’m a frozen yogurt addict.
No, not the wannabe fro-yo made from ice cream and flavored powered! Ptssh! I’m talking about the real stuff, made with actual yogurt. And my fro-yo snobbery doesn’t end there. I only like a particular brand: Red Mango. I’ve tried many other brands, but none have the perfect harmony of tangy flavor and smooth texture quite like Red Mango. Ahh, yet another genius idea to make its way over from the motherland (South Korea) 
.
My favorite color is green. I’m part Irish (I even had reddish hair as a kid. Imagine that – a red-headed, Asian-looking alien child 
). My husband’s name is Patrick:
What I’m saying here is I heart St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, my friends treat it like my second birthday — I get cards, gifts, candy, you name it for St. Patty’s Day every year.
The cold, crappy, rainy weather this weekend (PS: I think that groundhog was drunk when he made the prediction for early spring this year – hrmph!) had me craving warm comfort food. I rummaged through my enormous “recipe pile” — recipes and cooking notes written on everything from post-its to gum wrappers — and came across my notes from a pasta-making class I took last year with Dylan Giordan, executive chef of Serafina and Cicchetti. Then the lighbulb in my head went off: GNOCCHI, baby!
One of the best things about working downtown again: killer happy hours within walking distance! I recently checked out happy hour at Lecosho, Matt Janke’s (formerly of Matt’s in the Market) newest restaurant nestled in the Harbor Steps, which just so happens to be a stone’s throw away from my work.
I had heard nothing but great things about this place and finally had a chance to try some of their nibbles at the last Foodportunity event — they served up a delicious, yet scary-looking (think bologna and meatloaf having a love child), duck mortadella over a crostini.
When I joined a friend for a proper meal at the restaurant, we shared the hand-made cavatelli with wild mushrooms and a side order of the cauliflower with bagna cauda. I absolutely fell in love with the cauliflower — perfectly crisp and packed full of garlicky-salty flavor! So naturally, I decided to try making this dish at home. Happy hour prices or not, the Amateur Gourmand is all about being economical these days .
You know what cauliflower is (doi!), but what exactly is bagna cauda, you ask? Bagna cauda means “hot bath” in Italian. A hot bath (or warm dip, rather) made up of olive oil, butter, lots of garlic and anchovies, and usually served fondue-style with veggies. The dish at Lecosho had the bagna cauda mixed into the roasted cauliflower, which I really liked.
I said anchovies…did I lose you? Don’t knock it till you try it people! Anchovy filets add so much depth of flavor! And, once those suckers dissolve and cook down, there isn’t any pungent fishy flavor…just the perfect salty bite.
So anyway, I’m also trying to watch my figure these days so I opted to leave butter out of my version of bagna cauda (I know, I know, first anchovies, now this…). The flavors were still spot-on and I didn’t feel so much like a blimp after eating a bowl…and then licking the bowl clean . I had some Brussels sprouts on hand who wanted to join the party so I threw them into the hot tub time machine as well.
If you have any kiddos or men in your life who need a little extra convincing to finish their veggies, give this recipe a try (let’s face it, some grown dudes are worse than kids when it comes to veggies).
Serves 2 as a side dish
For the veggies:
For the bagna cauda:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss veggies with olive oil and lay in single layer on baking sheet. Roast until browned, approximately 25-30 minutes.
Start on bagna cauda when veggies are about 10 minutes from being finished (you want the bagna cauda to be warm when you coat the veggies). In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper flakes and garlic and sautee until garlic starts to soften, about 2-3 minutes.
Add the anchovy filets – YUM! Reduce heat to low.
Using a wooden spoon, break up the anchovy filets; cook on low heat until they have fully dissolved into the oil mixture, about 5 minutes.
When veggies are done roasting, remove from oven and coat with finished bagna cauda. Toss to coat evenly. Now, if for some reason this isn’t salty enough for you, by all means add more salt. I found it to be plenty salty with just the anchovies.
Top with minced parsley and serve immediately while hot. Buon appetito!
I recently saw an episode of Giada at Home on the Food Network where she made sweet potato and kale chips. With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I decided to experiment with a healthy snack alternative myself (thanks for the inspiration, Giada!).
I decided to combine two of my favorite ingredients – beets and Greek yogurt – to make a figure-friendly version of chips and dip. Give these a try and I guarantee you won’t be grabbing any store-bought potato chips and dip anymore. Well, unless of course you screw up the recipe, in which case, that’s all your own fault . And if you have any guests who hesitate giving these a try, lie to them and say it’s purple potatoes — they won’t know the difference mwahahaha!
For the beet chips:
For the yogurt-chive dip:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the beets. Note: these little suckers bleed and turn everything red — I recommend keeping the beets on paper towels to minimize clean up later.
Using the thinnest setting on a mandolin, slice the beets.
Toss sliced beets with extra-virgin olive oil and salt & pepper. Place a baking rack on top of a flat baking sheet. Working in batches, place sliced beets in a single layer on top of the baking rack.
Bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes. Note: Keep a close eye on these! The high sugar content of beets make them very susceptible to burning, especially when sliced so thin.
While the beets are baking, start on the yogurt-chive dip. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt and lemon juice.
Add the chives and parsley and mix until well incorporated.
Season with shallot salt and white pepper; mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine.
When beet chips are done, season with additional salt while hot (optional). Plate with yogurt-chive dip, sit back, and watch the Packers kick some Steeler butt!
Oh, and another helpful tip: don’t turn your back for even a second while working with raw beets…or else a sneaky little kitty may get into some mischief (notice the red beet mustache on his face ).
Anyone else doing some figure-friendly Super Bowl nibbles? This Buffalo Chicken Rolls recipe from Can You Stay For Dinner is definitely on my list to try — YUM!
My boss invited our staff over for a lovely dinner at her house this week. While she handled the main dish (delicious seafood stew from Tom Douglas’ Tom’s Big Dinners cookbook), the rest of us contributed side dishes and dessert. I volunteered to bring a veggie side dish, and knew instantly that I wanted to do a beet dish — they are in season and are absolutely delicious. And I also wanted to get one of my coworkers to give real beets a try — she had only ever tried canned beets (ick!) and decided she wasn’t a beet person.
Anyway, I consulted my new Williams-Sonoma Cooking From the Farmers’ Market cookbook and decided on a roasted beet dish (recipe below). Then during one of my lunch breaks, I hopped downstairs to Pike Place Market to gather my ingredients (ahhh, the joys of working at the Market ). My vendors of choice for this dish: Frank’s Quality Produce and Pike Place Market Creamery.
The recipe calls for goat cheese, but you all know how I feel about that (bleeech!). So I made a switch-a-roo and used feta instead — mmmmm, feta!
Serves 4 (I doubled the recipe to make enough to serve our larger gathering)
Slightly adapted from a recipe in Cooking From the Farmers’ Market
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 1 hour.
When cool, peel and quarter the beets and place in a serving bowl. Note: Since I was preparing this dish the night before, I put the beets in two separate covered bowls (so the red beets wouldn’t bleed onto the golden beets) and stored them in the refrigerator. Right before dinner, I reheated the beets in the oven.
Meanwhile in a separate bowl, mix together the thyme, chives, and olive oil.
Remove the beets from the oven and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the oil-herb mixture over the beets and toss. Add the feta and toss. Check the seasoning and adjust as needed with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!
I heart peaches…a lot. And lucky for me, they are in season right now in the Northwest — I’ve stocked up like they are going out of business. So when I had the unusual craving for dessert tonight, I decided to put my peaches to good use.
Halved and pitted the peaches. Brushed the flesh with canola oil and sprinkled with some brown sugar.
Grilled peaches flesh-side down over medium-high heat.
Blended together some cream cheese, almond extract, honey and pineapple mint (from my friend’s garden).
Topped the grilled peach halves with the cream cheese mixture and crushed vanilla wafer cookies (Amaretti cookies would be great, too — tying in with almond extract flavor). Voila!
