Sweetened Cream Scones

Once you have a decent base recipe, making additions to it is easy enough. This particular recipe calls for a lot of sugar. While it isn't as ludicrously sweet as the scones you can get at a Starbucks, it has a noticeable amount of sugar that is more than what you'd get out of a standard cream-based scone at an English tea shop. It can easily be turned into a savory scone (aka a biscuit) with the omission of the sugar. It's the combination of cold butter and cold heavy cream that make these scones light and crumbly. Moisture is a big deal in a scone like this. Depending on your climate (here it is very humid during the winter), you may not need an entire cup of cream.

Sweet Cream Scones with Rosemary and Strawberry Jam

Basic Cream Scone Ingredients

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, diced
up to 1 c. organic heavy cream

This batch's additions:
2 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
strawberry jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. In a food prep, pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and any additional fresh herbs until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. With the food prep running, slowly add heavy cream until the dough comes together.

3. On a lightly floured surface, turn dough out and knead into a ball. Lightly dust a rolling pin with flour then roll out the dough to 1/2" thickness. Using a biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes and place them at least an inch apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

4. If using a fruit jam, make an indent in the center of the scone and put up to a half teaspoon of jam in the middle. I used a wine cork for this step; but you could easily use a thumb or index finger too.

5. Bake scones for 18 minutes. Let cool before storing. If you're using jam in this recipe, you should store the scones in a sealable container in single layers separated by wax paper. That way the jam doesn't bleed onto other scones.

Honey-Balsamic Chops

The ingredient ratio for this recipe is more like a finishing sauce than a how-to make the aforementioned title of this post. It combines the sweet, tart taste of balsamic vinegar with the smooth, silky sweetness of honey. It could be used on grilled pork or lamb chops, as well as some types of white-fleshed fish like cod or tilapia.

Makes 1 serving.

Ingredients

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp raw honey
2 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
1 garlic clove
fresh black pepper, to taste
Himalayan pink salt (or sea salt), to taste

Directions

In a small food prep (1.5 c or 3 c), combine balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, honey, and freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. Spoon over cooked meat.

If you're concerned about the honey lingering on the bottom of the food prep container and having to spatula it out, you could also whisk these ingredients together in a small bowl. You'll have to mince the garlic first though.

Giadia's original recipe calls for eight grilled lamb chops (serves 6-8 people) and has the following ingredient ratio:

1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tbsp honey
3/4 c vegetable or canola oil

The chops are drizzled with 2 tbsp olive oil and sprinkled with 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, then grilled for 2-3 minutes on each side.

This recipe ratio is adapted from the book Giadia at Home by Giada De Laurentiis.

Chicken Soup

Autumn is in full force in the northwest with its overcast days and lots of rain. It's the perfect time to set the slow cooker (Crockpot) for a one-pot meal in the morning and come home to a piping hot bowl of soup full of hearty stock, meat, and vegetables. The flavor of this soup is more Italian by the herbs (thyme, parsley, garlic, bay leaf, and oregano) used, and the inclusion of traditional Italian vegetables in a soup such as carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes. This batch used chicken thighs. This recipe has no added sugar or salt. The sweetness comes from the tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and marsala wine; the salt comes from the canned tomatoes and beans.

Ingredients

1 lb chicken
1 qt chicken stock
One 14.5 oz can organic diced tomatoes
One 15 oz can organic black beans
1/4 c dry marsala wine
3 carrots, sliced
2 roasted sweet potatoes, diced
1 tbsp organic tomato paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp basil, minced

Directions

1. In a skillet, brown sides of the chicken and let cook (covered) on medium heat for 10 minutes, or until most of the pink is gone. Transfer all in the skillet to slow cooker.

2.  Deglaze skillet with wine to remove the crispy bits from the pan. Pour this liquid into the crockpot as well.

3. Except for the beans, add remaining ingredients and spices to crockpot and set on "high" for 6 hours. After three hours, the chicken will be cooked enough to fall off the bone (if using bone-in chicken parts). Remove chicken and shred or cut into bite sized pieces. Put chicken back into crockpot.

4. A half hour before you're ready to serve the soup, rinse and drain the beans and add those to the crockpot. If using canned beans, these are already cooked and this will just warm them up.

Almost Thai Coconut Chicken

What makes this dish "Thai" and not just a coconut chicken dish is its flavorings. And while I had a poorly planned meal ahead of me with quite a few unique flavors missing from the pantry, I still managed to hack together a recipe that works. I suppose that if I ate out more at authentic Thai restaurants I'd know what I was missing. Since I hardly eat out these days, a basic understanding of how flavors work together to become palatable will just have to do. 

I don't see what the big deal is with people's aversion to animal fats. If you already chow down on bacon or whole eggs, you should have no problem adding the chicken skin or its accompanying fat to this recipe.

Missing	Substitution
Jasmine rice	Fried short grain brown rice
Galangal root	Gingerroot
Lemongrass	Juice from half a lemon
Purple basil leaves	Two Dorot minced basil cubes

Ingredients

1 lb raw chicken (with skin), cut into small pieces
One 14 oz can of coconut milk
2 carrots, chopped
2 small white potatoes, diced
1/3 c. green onions, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Shaoxing red rice wine
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 tsp minced basil leaves

Directions

1. Cut the chicken into small bite-sized pieces and marinate with red rice wine until ready to cook.

2. Pour coconut milk into a 2-cup measuring cup and stir in curry powder.

3. Heat a stainless steel skillet on medium heat before adding oil for frying. When the oil is hot, add carrots, half the green onions, and the potatoes. Fry until carrots start to sweat and potatoes start to brown. Add the marinated chicken and cook until nearly all the pink is gone from the chicken meat. 

4. Add curry-coconut milk to the chicken. Stir until combined. Wait until mixture comes back up to a boil and add fish sauce, basil, garlic, and the remaining green onions. After five minutes or so the flavors should have cooked together enough so that one aroma doesn't overpower the others, as in, the pungent fish sauce is less pronounced.

5. Turn off heat and serve over hot steamed rice, noodles, or eat as is.

Sun-dried tomato pesto

Rather than buy the $2.99 container of this stuff from Trader Joe's. I thought I'd try to make it since I already had all the ingredients listed on TJ's container label. After making this batch with grated Parmesan cheese, I think that the cheese is unnecessary. A large clove a garlic is too much of a garlic taste for one cup of pesto. This batch of the pesto came out pretty strong tasting. I wanted to eat it with lavash bread. If you like more basil in spreads like this, then use more basil. I used some basil leaves from a house plant I grew from seed this summer. 

Optionals:

If you omit the cheese, the recipe is vegan-friendly.
If you enjoy nut flavors, pine nuts or walnuts are often combined with a tomato-based pesto.

Ingredients

1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
1 medium garlic clove
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp EVOO
basil leaves, up to 1/2 cup packed (to taste)
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (optional, to taste)

Directions

1. In a food prep, blend together sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and fresh basil leaves.

2. Mix in grated cheese and serve. Makes 1 cup.

Usage: Combine with cooked pasta, as a cracker or flatbread spread, with cooked eggs, or in place of mustard/mayo on a sandwich.