Restaurant Style Salsa

Ever since finding this recipe ratio on the internet, it has been my go-to quick salsa for chips, nachos, tacos, and potlucks. It is so easy to prepare (with a food processor) that I have canned fewer jars of salsa this year; only a half batch of hatch chile salsa. But, this recipe doesn't require hatch chiles at all. I usually use one bunch of cilantro, leafy green parts only; and this is significantly more volume than the half cup the recipe calls for. If you want the cilantro to be finer, roughly chop with a knife before adding to the food processor. 

TheFoodening Blog - Restaurant Style Salsa

Ingredients

Two 14.5 oz cans of roasted diced tomatoes w/ green chiles
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green jalapenos, halved and seeds removed
1/4 tsp organic granulated sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 c fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 lime, juiced

Directions

Pulse together in a the bowl of a food processor with the sharp/serrated blade: all the ingredients.

Refrigerate for an hour before serving to let the flavors mingle together.

Homemade Sour Cream

Maybe one day I'll write up a post of the many combinations of sour cream, heavy cream, buttermilk, whole milk, and the ingredients that thickens the sauce and/or cheese. But that day is not today. Here is how to make sour cream from scratch if you happen to have run out of it or just wanted to make a party chip dip. This will be thinner than store-bought sour cream because it lacks thickeners such as carrageenan, a seaweed extract. 

No lemons? Substitute lemon with an equal amount of white vinegar.

Ingredients

1 c (8 oz) heavy cream
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 c (2 oz) whole milk

Directions

Like the crème fraîche, you'll want to use a clean pint size mason jar.

To the jar, add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Give it a stir to mix together. Add milk. Cover with a lid and shake a bit. Remove the lid and cover with cheesecloth, secured with a rubber band around the rim. Let sit on the counter for up to 24 hours, or overnight.

The mixture should have thickened.

Why this process requires the cream to 'breathe' while the crème fraîche does not. I have no idea. Maybe you don't want extra 'flavors' in the crème fraîche.

Remove the cheesecloth and give the mix a stir. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Homemade Crème Fraîche

I'm not sure why people buy $4+ tubs of this at the grocery store. It is heavier than heavy cream and thinner than sour cream. It'll whisk up like heavy cream but will have a much different taste and texture. This is different than making sour cream from scratch.

1.5 c heavy cream
0.5 c low fat buttermilk

Pour ingredients into a clean pint or quart mason jar. Cover and shake the jar a few times. Let sit on kitchen counter for 8 hours; then refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

To use with fresh berries:

Whisk desired amount until it has thickened to stiff peaks. Add 1 tsp granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Spoon this over fresh blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries.

Ginger Salad Dressing

This recipe tries to replicate the house-made ginger salad dressing that one can usually find with a Japanese restaurant's entree or bento salad. It comes together fairly easily; though you will have to procure or make-from-scratch a couple of the ingredients.

Yes, there is such a thing as toasted sesame oil and you can buy it in any grocery store that also stocks Asian goods. In the Portland or Seattle areas, Whole Foods and Uwajimaya definitely carries both oils. Read the ingredient label since not all brands carry pure sesame oil--where it is the only ingredient. You could also make it yourself by using toasting white sesame seeds before grinding it into an oil; though that takes special kitchen equipment to extract the oil from the seeds. That is too much trouble. Just buy the stuff.

Making your own sushi ginger is fairly simple, if you can get your hands on fresh young ginger. Sometimes

Ingredients

50 gm pickled sushi ginger
1/4 c toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce

Directions

Purée until smooth using an standard electric blender or immersion blender. Serve over fresh greens or roasted vegetables.

Marinade for Mushroom Kabobs

Originally I thought about using this marinade for both the brown (cremini) and white mushrooms, but ended up just using the brown mushrooms with red and green bell peppers. I only have aged balsamic vinegar and it seemed a waste to use a tasting vinegar for a marinade so I used half balsamic and half rice vinegar for the vinegar part.

The Foodening Blog - grilled mushroom and vegetable kabobs

Makes: 9 skewers (using 10" bamboo skewers)

Ingredients

8 oz brown cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed
8 oz grape or cherry tomatoes
1 large red bell pepper, sliced into 1" pieces
1 large green bell pepper, sliced into 1" pieces
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Combine all items in a resealable container. Shake to coat everything with the marinade. Refrigerate for an hour or until ready to use.

To grill:

Stab vegetables and mushrooms in an alternating order (for variety!). Grill vegetables for 10-15 minutes, rotating at the half way mark until the mushrooms are done. The bell peppers can be slightly charred.

Hoisin Sauce (gluten free)

The secret to a good hoisin sauce is to use fermented black beans as one of the main flavor ingredients. Simply using peanut butter and other savory ingredients isn't going to cut it. While you can use a starch (potato starch, cornstarch, or wheat flour) to thicken it up, substituting the starch with peanut butter and using a tamari-based soy sauce makes this sauce gluten free. Also, you should probably use a smooth peanut butter, but alas, all I had on hand was chunky. I've read that if you have a peanut butter allergy, you can also substitute dried prunes (2 prunes per 1 tbsp peanut butter). If you do end up using peanut butter as a thickener, your sauce won't be pasty black at all. It'll be a brown-ish color, like peanut butter.

Hoisin sauce is a sweet and savory sauce, with neither element overpowering the other. And, it certainly does not use Chinese five spice powder. But, you could add it if you like that flavor in your sauce and the accompaniment is a meat-based dish.

At some point I reverse engineered Trader Joe's light soy sauce by experimenting with tamari soy sauce, rice vinegar and water until I got a sodium content that was close to Trader Joe's. You can also find that recipe here.

Makes: ~1/2 cup

Ingredients

1/4 c light soy sauce
2 tbsp organic peanut butter
1 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
fresh ground black pepper, a few grinds
1 tbsp black fermented soybeans, rinsed and prepared
1 tsp chili sauce, or more to taste (e.g., Trader Joe's Sriracha or a sweet chili paste)

Directions

In a small bowl, soak fermented soybeans with hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain and then crush the beans with the tines of a fork. Voila. Now you have prepared fermented soy beans.

Whirl all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Put it into a lidded jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

Hatch Chile Salsa, Batch #1

This is the second time making it and first time actually committing the ratio to paper.. err digital cookbook journal. The first time was last year and it was delicious. This batch is really the second batch of tomato salsa for this summer.

A note about roasting fresh peppers. I started with 2 lbs fresh hatch chile peppers; but after processing them by roasting, peeling, removing the stem and discarding the seeds, I had 14.25 oz left. And, this is fine.

A common substitution for Hatch chiles is Anaheim,
and after roasting these Hatch chiles I really can't tell the difference.

This summer I've made 3 batches of salsa so far with different ingredient ratios. Batches #1 and #3 are essentially the same; the red chile pepper got swapped with Anaheim chiles in #3.

Batch #1, main heat ingredients - jalapenos (8), red chile pepper (1)
Batch #2, main heat ingredients - hatch chiles (2 lbs)
Batch #3, main heat ingredients - jalapenos (8), Anaheim chiles (5)

TheFoodening Blog - Hatch Chile Salsa

Batch #2 Ingredients

5 lb red tomatoes, roasted and peeled
1 head garlic cloves, roasted, peeled, chopped
4 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 lb (14.25 oz) prepared hatch chile peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, stems removed and chopped
1 tbsp kosher salt

Directions

1. In a large stockpot, bring tomatoes, garlic, chile peppers, lime juice, and salt to a boil; then simmer over medium heat to reduce the water content. You want salsa that can stay on a chip, not fall off like a soupy mess.

I let the water boil off for roughly 1.5 hrs; then got bored and used a mesh strainer to get more of the solids out into the jar.

2. Turn off heat and stir in cilantro. 

3. Fill sterilized glass jars and process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

Makes 5 pints.

Kitchen Notes: Substitution for Trader Joe's Light Soy Sauce

From looking at the ingredients by fat/sugar/calorie ratios on Trader Joe's products, especially coconut milk, they do dilute their products a lot. I suspect that their soy sauce, now priced in this area at $3/bottle is just half soy sauce watered down by vinegar (news to me too!) and water. I swear I did not notice the vinegar on the ingredients list of Trader Joe's soy sauce until recently. And then, I ran out of it.

Which brings me to wonder if I could recreate the ingredient ratio based on per tablespoon sodium and calories. This is a ratio that I have refilled the TJ bottle with:

1 c Kikoman gluten-free tamari soy sauce (that's right, no wheat)
1/4 c Marukan rice vinegar (at 0 calories and 0 sodium, it's all flavor)
3/4 c filtered water

Shake it all together in the bottle. I have no idea if these liquids separate at all, e.g., if one is heavier than another. Seems to taste ok. A little watered down in appearance; but that's to be expected since wheat (gluten) is really a thickener in soy sauce.

Makes 2 cups.

Gluten-Free Vegan "Oyster" Sauce

Cooks Illustrated would have you believe that oyster-flavored sauce is "a rich, concentrated mixture of oyster extractives, soy sauce, brine and assorted seasonings. The brown sauce is thick, salty, and strong." But it doesn't have to be that way when rehydrated shitake mushrooms offer a similar depth of taste and umami. Oyster sauce is typically sweet and savory, and is a popular brown sauce in many Asian recipes. 

This seems to be a roundabout way to make a condiment where my next recipe project only calls for a tablespoon of it; but I have all the ingredients on hand and I wasn't about to shell out $5 for a jar of questionable contents.

The Foodening Blog: Gluten Free Vegan "Oyster" Sauce

Also, while 1 cup of water is sufficient to rehydrate 1 oz of dried shitake mushrooms, there was less than 1/3 cup of soaking liquid leftover. I had to fill the balance of liquid with filtered water. A toasted sesame oil will have a slightly nuttier flavor than sesame oil. This recipe ratio comes from the Clean Dish.

Makes: 1.5 cups

Ingredients

1 oz dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tbsp gluten-free tamari soy sauce
1/2 tsp organic maple syrup
1 c mushroom dashi (the water the mushrooms rehydrated in)

Directions

1. In a sauté pan, fry sesame oil, ginger and mushrooms together until fragrant, about 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Remove from heat. Combine mushrooms and mushroom dashi (can add water if liquid is not enough) in a food processor and purée until smooth.

3. Return purée to sauté pan and simmer over low-medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequenlty.

4. Remove from heat and pour into a clean glass jar. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

The Foodening Blog: Ready to use "oyster" sauce

Homemade Harissa

Ever since I read Marcus Samuelsson's cookbooks Yes, Chef and Marcus Off Duty, I've come to respect the preparation and style of cuisine that includes ingredients such as teff (used to make fermented injera bread) or harissa (an African spice paste made from fresh or dried chiles).

Harissa made from dried chiles is not hard to make; though if you want to live vicariously, you can de-stem and unseed the chile pods before soaking them in hot water. The suggested chili ratio comes from Smitten Kitchen. When I was collecting dried chiles for this recipe, I just got whatever the store had -and- I had to check several local stores for them. I'm not a big fan of spicy hot foods; though damp and/or humid Pacific Northwest weather is often a good combination to spice things up.

As a spicy condiment, use it where you'd use ketchup or other savory sauces.

Makes: 2.5 cups

The Foodening Blog: Making Harissa

Ingredients

2 oz dried negro chiles
1 oz dried California red chiles
1 oz dried ancho chiles
2.5 oz sun dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and skinned, stem and seeds removed
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp ground coriander or 1.5 tsp whole coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground caraway or 1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin or 1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp kosher sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for storage

Directions

0. Preheat oven to 350 F and roast a red bell pepper for about an hour. You could rotate the bell pepper every 15 minutes, but I've found this is a waste of time.

1. In a small cast-iron pan, toast whole coriander seeds, caraway seeds, and salt together over medium heat (1-2 minutes, or until coriander seeds become lightly browned). Transfer salt and spices to a coffee grinder and grind into a powder. Set aside until ready to use.

Don't just eyeball chiles by what you think they weigh. Use a digital scale and measure them as their dried de-stemmed weight. Then unseed the pods.

2. In a large 2-quart (or larger) metal or glass bowl, add dried tomatoes and dried chiles. Pour boiling water on top and let sit for 30 minutes or more until the items have rehydrated.

Use a colander to drain out the excess water.

3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine red bell pepper, tomatoes, chiles, spice blend, garlic and olive oil. Pulse until it looks pureed.

4. Transfer paste to a clean glass jar and top with olive oil. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Basic Tomato Sauce (for pizza)

This recipe goes with the no knead pizza dough recipe. It is so basic that you wonder why it exists at all as a recipe. This comes from Jim Lahey's book My Pizza. At the time I made the sauce, I didn't have fresh tomatoes on hand.

Ingredients

One 15 oz can of organic diced tomatoes
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Using your hands squish the tomatoes together. Squish! Squish! 

Stir in salt and olive oil. Set aside until ready to use.

Sweet Chili Paste (La Jiao Jiang)

This is an ingredient I didn't have in the pantry. As long as you have a sharp knife, a mortar and pestle or a food processor, the recipe is easy to do. The heat of your peppers determines the heat of the paste. I used red jalapenos because they were the only hot red peppers available in my area, aside from Thai chili peppers which I didn't want to use for this recipe. My biggest complaint about Asian condiments are that I might use them a few times a year and the jar takes up prime real estate in the fridge. By making condiments in smaller batches, not only is it fresher tasting but also there are no preservatives.

The Foodening Blog: chopped red chiles

Store it in a glass jar. Keeps for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Related recipes: Sweet Chili Shrimp

Ingredients

3-5 hot red peppers
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp olive oil (optional)
pinch of salt
1 tsp rice vinegar

Directions

1. Remove the stem from the peppers and discard. Roughly chop the peppers into smaller pieces. Then chop in a food processor with the garlic, salt and vinegar.

2. (optional) In a small saucepan, heat olive oil over low-medium heat and add the peppers and garlic. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Let cool before using or storing in a jar.

The Foodening Blog: red chili paste, nearly done

Apple Bread Pudding with Apple Cider Sauce

This year I planned to do a pumpkin bread pudding, but alas, had no pumpkin puree to work with. I also didn't get around to the store to pick up bread, so I made it that morning using the no knead dutch oven bread recipe (a basic bread). The custard part of the bread pudding came out fine; but the exposed part of the bread above the custard seemed dried out.. like I should not have tried to dry out the bread before adding the custard by baking it for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Twice baked bread doesn't quite make the texture of dry, stale bread. Anyhow, onto the recipe...

Bread Pudding Ingredients

1 load white bread, cubed
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 1/2 c whole milk
1 c raw apple cider
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bread Pudding Directions

1. In a nonstick skillet, heat apple with ground cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the apples are tender.

2. Butter a 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Add apple and cubed bread, distributing both evenly in a single layer.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, apple cider, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. This is the custard base. Pour it over the cubed bread. Be sure to dunk all the bread into the custard mixture. Refrigerate dish for 1 hour before baking. This will help to flavor the milk and eggs with the apple cinnamon.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and drizzle on apple cider sauce.

Caramel Apple Cider Sauce - this was the sauce I made for the bread pudding; and the ratios seemed off. One, the caramel part of the sauce was too watery and I never got to the dark amber part. The heavy cream and the caramel separate if you let the sauce sit to cool down from the stove to room temperature. Two, the sauce was ridiculously sweet; and three, it made too much. To keep myself from re-making this awful sauce, I am posting an alternate Apple Cider Sauce recipe to pair with the bread pudding.

Apple Cider Sauce:

1 c apple cider
1 tsp cornstarch + 2 tsp cold water
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp bourbon (or apple schnapps), optional

In a small prep bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water before adding to the apple cider. Bring cider and butter to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the cornstarch and let the mixture thicken. Stir in bourbon (if using) and cook for an additional 30 seconds; remove from heat and pour on top of bread pudding.

The recipe ratio of the cider sauce can be doubled, if necessary.

Mulled Wine Cranberry Sauce

This may be the second time I've made it, though perhaps the first time documenting it as a blog post. The recipe ratio comes from Bon Appetit November 2005 issue. The amount of wine was too much; the end result tasted too much like boiled wine with cranberries. Also, the amount of sugar was too low; this made the sauce not only taste like wine, but like wine with sour cranberries. And, the orange fruit segments did nothing for the sauce; and added too much texture. My corrections are noted below. I wouldn't necessarily say that I have adapted the recipe, more like I am fixing it's glaring mistakes. I'm not sure that the variety of dry red wine has anything to do with the flavor; after all, this is just a condiment the roast turkey. Cranberry sauces are typically pumped full of sugar (to balance the tartness of the fresh cranberries). I am ambivalent about how this sauce came out. The wine drinkers that sampled it on T-day were pleased with how it tasted and there was a lot of it leftover.

The additional sugar depends on how sour/tart the sauce tastes to you. It may need more or none at all.

Wine used: Woodbridge Merlot

Ingredients

2 navel oranges
One 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries, washed and picked over
6 oz dry red wine
2/3 c brown sugar + up to 1/3 c granulated unbleached cane sugar
2 tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmet

Directions

1. Zest oranges with a fine grater, then juice the oranges.

2. In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine whole cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, wine, sugar, ginger, and spices. Bring to a boil then simmer over low-medium heat until most of the cranberries burst, about 20 minutes, and the sauce has thickened slightly.

2a. Taste the sauce. It is too sour, add more sugar.

3. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill until ready to use; or serve warm.

Kitchen Notes:

• This ratio is terrible. Came out tasting very sour and winey.
• The original 1 1/2 c dry red wine was too much liquid.
• Do not make again (note to self).

Dulce de Leche

Now that I have unused 4 oz jars, I think I should fill them up with something sweet. These would make nice gifts for those sugarholics in your life.

Dulce de leche is a caramel sauce with South American origins and likely the result of needing to preserve dairy in those pre-refrigeration days. This recipe uses the lazy method: a crockpot and sweetened condensed milk.

Food52 via Serious Eats would have you combine these ingredients, if making it from scratch:

1 quart whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

And, you'd have to slave over a hot stove for 1.5 - 2 hours, stirring constantly so the mixture doesn't burn or scald. And, once you're done this mixture keeps well for four weeks in the refrigerator.

Fortunately, there's always-on electricity and products like already canned sweetened condensed milk. Here's the other not-really-from-scratch process, which comes from the Crazy for Crust blog:

Ingredients

two 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk
clean glass jars with rings and lids
water

Directions

1. Evenly distribute sweetened condensed milk across the jars being used. It should fill seven 4 oz jars or three 8 oz jars. Attach lids and rings to jars.

2. Place jars (not touching each other) into the slow cooker and fill with enough water to cover the jars by 1-2 inches.

3. Set slow cooker for 10 hours on LOW.

The only problem with this method that the dulce de leche is not shelf stable because of its low acidity. This will also spoil if not used within 4 weeks and must be refrigerated, even though the jars are sealed.

Either method is a LOT better than buying the irradiated stuff from the grocery store, IMHO.

Spicy Tomato Salsa

This batch came out a lot spicier than last year's and it is likely that I wasn't paying attention to actually reading last year's recipe write-up. Because I also picked up some hatch chiles from the produce market at the same time as the tomatoes, I thought I might reserve some of the tomatoes for another salsa recipe using the hatch chiles as I was already mid-recipe. I ran out of pint jars so I only made 6 pints.

What's different between last year and this year's salsa? I left the seeds in the jalapenos, and there's half as many tomatoes in this batch.

Yield: 6 pints (canned) + 1 quart (refrigerated)

Ingredients

12 green jalapenos, stemmed but not seeded
8 tomatilllos, husk removed and quartered
5-6 lbs ripe Roma tomatoes, quartered, not peeled/seeded
2 green bell peppers, stemmed and seeded, diced
2 heads of garlic, cloves removed and roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 2 limes (4-5 tbsp)
2 tbsp kosher salt (without anti-caking additive)

Directions

Process in batches, a few pulses at a time with a food processor machine, all the ingredients except for the cilantro, lime juice and salt. Last year's salsa was processed into a sauce-like consistency. This time, it's a bit more chunky.

Empty roughly chopped batches into a large stockpot. Add lime juice, salt, and cilantro.

Cook for 1.5 hrs, or until the desired consistency is achieved.

I used a slotted spoon when filling the pint jars for canning. The quart or so of salsa leftover had a lot of water.

I processed the jars in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

I'm not sure this will last until next summer. I have already polished off a quart of salsa and gave away one jar. Looks like I may have to procure more of everything. :) :)

Papaya Salad Dressing

I picked up an unripe red papaya from Trader Joe's the other day ($3.29 each large). It's typically used ripened, either as an eating fruit, in fruit cocktail, or sweetened and dried in a tropical trail mix. I thought it might be a good option for a papaya salad. I'm sure it's done. Most papaya salads call for shredded green papaya; I'm assuming that the flesh stays green through the ripening phase. The partially ripened red papaya looks like an evening sunset, mostly yellow on the outer part and that characteristic salmon red color towards the center. The papaya yielded about 4 tablespoons of seeds. 

Ingredients

1 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp fresh papaya seeds
1 tbsp raw honey
2 scallions, white part only, minced
1 tsp dry mustard -or- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of sea salt

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients except for the oil. Turn the food prep on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies.

Simple BBQ Sauce

In an earlier post, I made a spicy homemade catsup. I used that in this recipe. It came out sweeter than I had expected and not as spicy or earthy/smoked as I had hoped. I used this as a basting sauce for roasted chicken legs. Overall, tasty. I'd probably add a lot more smoked chipotle powder to it the next time around.

Yield: about a cup

Ingredients

1 c homemade ketchup
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground red chili flakes
up to 2 tbsp smoked chipotle powder (optional)

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for about five minutes until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

For baked chicken parts:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Baste chicken with sauce and bake for an hour. Flip the parts over on the half hour mark and baste again with the sauce.

Miso-Glazed Fish

I found this wild Alaskan cod in the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's and thought I'd try doing something different with it (other than breaded and fried). At the moment, I don't have any drinking saké in addition to the mirin I use for sauces. I mean really, mirin is a seasoned saké, typically brewed sweeter than what you'd drink out of saké cups. For its replacement in this recipe I used Chinese red rice wine.

The flavors that I'm imagining this dish to taste like is outweighed by the salt from the miso paste. I think refrigerating the raw fish in the marinade overnight is too long. At most, it should marinade for an hour; otherwise you'll lose the essence of the Alaskan cod entirely. This marinade can accommodate up to 24 oz of fish, or four 6-oz fillets.

Serves 2.

Ingredients

3/4 lb wild Alaskan cod fillets
1/4 c Chinese red rice wine (or fine saké)
1/4 c mirin
2 tbsp yellow miso paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. In a small pan, bring mirin and rice wine to a boil and whisk in sugar and miso paste. Remove from heat. Whisk in sesame oil and set aside to cool.

2. Wash and gently pat dry the cod fillets.

3. In an 8" x 8" glass baking dish, pour in a portion of the marinade so that it coats the bottom of the dish. Gently lay the fillets on top. Then, pour the remainder of the marinade on top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Place fish skin side up under the broiler, about 6" from the heat. Broil for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the surface browns and starts to blacken in some spots. Can finish in the oven for up to 5 minutes more depending on the thickness of the fillets.

The fish is done when the flesh turns opaque and can be easily pulled apart with a fork.

This recipe is adapted from the NY Times. 

New Orleans Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

Bam! Emeril really knows how to kick a dish up several notches. I made a 9x13 bread pudding with a half batch of the whiskey sauce and there are no leftovers. Devoured. *poof* In one evening party. Strangely enough, despite Trader Joes having a lot of different types of freshly made bread, it is all sourdough based. I wanted just a general "white" bread that didn't scream, I'm a white bread. You know? 

Ideally day-old French or Italian bread would have done it, so I picked up a loaf of shepherd's bread. Trader Joes either changed their supplier or the recipe ratio for their private label shepherd's bread. It's no longer one of those rustic-looking, mop-up-the-stew loaves of bread. It looks -and tastes- like it was mass manufactured. Anyhow. It did the trick for this bread pudding.

This recipe ratio comes from the cookbook: Emeril's Potluck (HarperCollins, 2004). The whiskey used for the sauce was Makers Mark; though, I suppose any whiskey could do or bourbon.

Already hacked into before I could photograph it.

Ingredients

3/4 loaf shepherds bread (originally 24 oz), sliced into cubes (about 14 cups)

2 c (1 pint) organic heavy cream

4 c organic whole milk

6 large eggs

1 1/2 c brown sugar

4 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 c raisins

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Place bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish with unsalted butter.

2. In another large bowl, combine cream, milk, eggs, sugar, spices, salt, and raisins. Whisk to mix. Pour this into the bread bowl. Stir to combine. You can let this sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes or until you're ready to bake.

3. Transfer bread mixture to baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the center has set.

4. Pour some of the whiskey sauce (see below) over the top of the bread pudding. Reserve the rest in a small bowl so that guests may add more sauce if they like.