Buttermilk Waffles
Buttermilk is such a great ingredient. It’s featured in one of my favorite cakes, I use it to make mashed potatoes tangy and delicious, and you will see it featured in another recipe on Mrs. Smith Cooks in the next week or so. Still, I often find that when I buy a carton of buttermilk for something I will use it for that purpose, and then it slowly makes its way to the back of the fridge where all of the goblins reside. Determined to not let that happen this time, I decided to use up some of my buttermilk to make Martha Stewart’s Buttermilk Waffles. I’m so glad I did. The waffles were easy to make, fluffy and tender, and they tasted delicious. I added cinnamon and vanilla to the recipe to sweeten them a little. I may or may not have added a few squirts of whipped cream to these and devoured them after I finished photographing them.Ahem.
Buttermilk Waffles, Adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients
DRY:
2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 T Sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
WET
2 C. buttermilk
2 eggs
1 Stick melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Procedure:
1. Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl
2. Beat together egg, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter in a large bowl
3. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix together until just combined (Mixture will be lumpy. Do not overmix or waffles will be tough.)
4. Cook waffles on waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions, making sure to oil the iron before each waffle.
Red Lentil Dahl
Since we’re on the subject of comfort food. Mmm… dahl. I had a version of this dahl at a friend’s house years ago, and have made it many, many times since. This soup is warm, comforting, and made with with pantry ingredients. The only produce required is one onion, and a couple limes or a lemon. I try to have the ingredients for dahl in my pantry at all times so I have something to make on that desperate day before grocery day. I have taken this soup to sick friends or neighbors several times. With a simple salad and dessert, it’s a complete meal. It’s one of my favorites, in fact. I think this soup is exponentially better on the second or third day as the flavors mellow and blend. This dahl can be made as spicy (as in hot spicy) as you like. The garam masala, turmeric and cumin give it a wonderful warmth and richness. We usually eat it over white rice, but it’s just as tasty without the rice and with naan or other bread instead. Buen Provecho!
Ingredients
1 cup red lentils
2 T butter (or neutral flavored oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups low sodium broth (chicken or vegetable)
1 14 oz can coconut milk (regular or lite)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, (undrained)
salt, to taste
lemon / lime slices, to serve
chopped cilantro, to serve (optional)
white rice, for serving (optional)
Procedure
1. Melt the butter or heat the oil over medium heat until butter just melts but does not brown
2. Saute the onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes until soft
3. Add the spices and stir continuously for 30 seconds – 1 minute to bring out the flavor in the spices
4. Add the broth, lentils, tomatoes, and coconut milk and bring to a boil
5. reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils are cooked and tender
6. ladle in to bowls and garnish with lemon and cilantro, if desired
Pollo Sudado / Colombian Chicken Stew II
Two Colombian chicken stews in a row? It’s true! Though I hadn’t planned on posting these recipes back-to-back, the long anticipated cold snap is here, and comfort food is what we’re serving up around here. This stew is a one pot wonder, and I imagine it will go in a regular rotation of dinners in our home. It’s easy to prepare and uses simple ingredients. The recipe here is adapted from a recipe found in the book Secrets of Colombian cooking. Buen Provecho!
Ingredients
8 thawed chicken thighs
1 small onion, minced
1 large onion, sliced
2 T olive oil
3 T yellow mustard
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 T chopped cilantro + more for garnish
2 T chopped parsley + more for garnish
1 packet goya sazon (or 1 chicken bullion cube)
1 t. turmeric
1 1/2 pounds small yellow potatoes
cooked white rice, for serving
limes, for garnish
Procedure
1. Place chicken thighs in a large bowl. Add minced onion 1 T of the oilive oil, mustard, garlic, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Set mixture aside for 30 minutes
2. In a large pot or dutch oven, saute sliced onions on medium heat in remaining T of oilive oil until they are translucent. Add tomatoes (drained), cilantro, parsley, remaining tsp salt, turmeric, sazon (or bullion). Saute for another 5 minutes or so.
3. Add seasoned chicken and one cup of water. Cook for 45 minutes on medium.
4. Add potatoes and cover again. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Check to make sure chicken is cooked all the way through, & taste for salt and pepper
6. Serve in bowls over white rice and garnish with cilantro, parsley and cut limes.
Ajiaco / Colombian Chicken Stew
Alright, let’s skip the mandatory “I can’t believe it’s January already and I haven’t updated this thing since the summer” and get to the food. People, this soup is amazing. It’s a hearty potato and chicken stew. The potatoes break down and add a thickness to the broth that makes it creamy and filling. Ajiaco is served with a lot of special garnishes (limes, avocados, capers, cilantro and salty sour cream) that add depth of flavor, but any of them can be omitted if you don’t like the flavor. As I have mentioned before, I am focusing on Colombian recipes because my husband, Elias, is from Colombia and dearly misses the food from home. I’m proud to say that this recipe is one of Elias’s favorites. He raves about this dish and claims it is authentic in its flavor. I can not say the same for all the other recipes I’ve tried. You can be sure, however, that once a recipe makes it to this blog it’s been tested and approved by at least on Colombian!
A few things that must be noted before I get on with the recipe
- Special ingredients: Two ingredients that are essential to this soup but hard to come by in the US are guascas and papa criolla. Guascas are the herb that gives this soup its distinctive flavor. There’s no substitute that will make the soup the same, so figure out how to get yourself some guascas. I get mine at a Colombian grocery store in Chicago or online. Guascas online can be found at Amigo foods here or via Amazon.com (also coming from Amigo foods) here. Next the papa criolla. Papa criolla is a small yellow potato that can be found in Colombia or purchased in Colombian stores in the US (either frozen or jarred.) I have found that using ordinary russet or yukon gold potatoes in the soup base and then blending them and returning them to the pot adds the thickness one is looking for without the papa criolla. It works just as well, skips the expense and hassle of getting the papa criolla and it relies on fresh ingredients.
- This recipe was devised by taking elements from this recipe from Simply Recipes, this recipe from My Colombian Recipes, and through my own trial and error. Ajiaco is like a lot of recipes in that everyone’s grandma has their own version, and so there are a lot of variations. This variation works for us, but by all means, read through other recipes and put your own spin on it. It’s very flexible.
- Note: This soup requires a giant pot! Everything is made in the same pot and there’s a lot of it. I suppose the recipe could be halved, but I figure if I’m going to invest the time and energy on the soup, I might as well make a lot of it. It heats up extremely well for several days.
- Finally, the secret to making this recipe delicious is to cook it for a long time on low heat. It gives the potatoes a chance to soften and partially dissolve before blending, and it gives time for the flavors to combine.
Ajiaco / Colombian Chicken Stew, 10 generous servings
Ingredients:
3 pounds chicken legs and thighs, skin removed or 2 pounds boneless skinless breasts
1 quart chicken stock (homemade or low sodium purchased)
1 1/2 quarts water
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound peeled and diced Russet potatoes (can substitute Yukon Gold)
2 pounds baby potatoes (I use a combination of white red and purple, but any are fine)
2-3 ears corn on the cob, fresh if available, cut in to 2 inch round
1 T cumin powder
1/3 cup guascas
4 cloves minced garlic
salt 1 1/2 tsp, more to taste
Garnishes
avocado, peeled and cubed
limes, quartered
sour cream, thinned with a little water and mixed with salt (or heavy cream)
chopped cilantro
capers
Procedure
1. Put chicken, water, stock, chopped Russet potato, onion and garlic in a large pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce to medium. Add cumin and salt. Simmer over medium until chicken is tender and falling off the bone. (About 1 hour – 1 hour 15 minutes).
2. Remove chicken and set aside. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender) blend the soup base.
3. Bring blended soup back to medium-low heat. Add small potatoes, corn, and guascas. Cook slow and low until potatoes are tender (about 30 minutes). While soup is cooking, shred the reserved chicken.
4. Add chicken back to pot and continue simmering until chicken is warmed through. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed. Serve with garnishes and white rice.
Buen Provecho!
Baked Patacones with Mojo Sauce (Tostones)
Since I married my husband Mr. C (almost three years ago, now!) I’ve been teaching myself how to cook the Colombian food he grew up with. Now that we have a little boy, I feel that it’s even more important for me to continue to grow in my knowledge of Colombian cooking. It is important to me that our son grows up knowing and appreciating his Colombian culture. In my opinion, food and language are two of the strongest ways to do this.
Enter the patacón. Patacones are green plantains that are cut and fried, then mashed and fried again. They have a potato flavor and they remind me a lot of french fries. They are served at virtually every meal in Mr. C’s hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia.
I’ve been hesitant to learn to cook patacones because deep frying food scares me. Not only is it splattery and difficult to control the temperature, but I’m trying to slim down and fried food is decidedly not the way to accomplish this. When I found a recipe for baked patacones on Skinny Taste, I was curious. (She calls them tostones — same thing). I was skeptical that these would hold together and taste like the patacones we are used to, and I was pleasantly surprised. They don’t taste exactly like the fried version (just as fried french fries don’t taste exactly like baked fries) but they are so close, and the trade off in convenience and health is worth it to me.
A word about the sauce shown here: Mojo is not a Colombian sauce but since we were eating the patacones on their own, I felt they needed something else.
Baked Patacones with Mojo Sauce (two generous servings) adapted from Skinny Taste
Baked Patacones
Ingredients:
3 medium green plantains, peeled and cut in two inch pieces
3 tsp vegetable oil
salt (1-3 tsp)
cooking spray
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Prepare baking sheets by spraying lightly with cooking spray
2. Mix plantains, oil and salt in a bowl until plantains are well covered
3. Place plantains on prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes
4. Remove plantains and smash until very thin. (To do this, place the plantain between two pieces of plastic and smash with a heavy pot or saucer)
5. Re-spray baking sheet and arrange plantains (baked side up) on the baking sheet.
6. Lightly salt the plantains and bake for 15 more minutes until golden brown.
7. Serve warm with mojo sauce (recipe below)
Mojo Sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup orange juice
1 T lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t. olive oil
1 t. cumin
pinch oregano, salt and pepper
Procedure:
1. Saute garlic in olive oil for two minutes until light brown
2. Add orange juice, lime juice, cumin, oregano salt and pepper
3. Bring to a boil and turn off flame
4. Allow sauce to cool to room temperature before serving.
A couple of hints/tips for this recipe
- Green plantains are very difficult to peel. The skin is tough and woody They look like bananas, but do not be fooled! To peel them, make a long vertical cut in the skin and slide the knife between the skin and plantain. Try to get the skin off in larger pieces.
- The patacones must be smashed while they are still warm, otherwise they will become brittle and broken
Buen Provecho!
An Update and… Magic Two Ingredient Ice Cream!
Ok, first things first. I’ve been away from this blog for far too long. You see, just a couple of weeks after I posted that Tom Ka Soup recipe, I found out I was pregnant! The first three months I was so bogged down with “morning” sickness, that I stopped watching the cooking shows on TV, stopped reading food blogs, and basically checked out of the food world all together. Even when the icky stomach feeling was gone I wasn’t much interested in cooking, only eating gallons of ice cream and entire pizzas in one sitting. Just eight weeks ago, though, my whole world changed, and I welcomed this into my life:
Meet Clayton.
He’s awesome. I can’t lie. Now that he’s here, I know I will not have any more time than I did when I was pregnant (far less, in fact) but at least I have more of a desire to cook and blog about food than I did when Clayton was enjoying the pizza and ice cream womb service-style. The goal is to get back to posting here one to two times a month, at a minimum. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten us.
Now that the requisite updating is done, let me get to the magic two ingredient ice cream. People, this ice cream is so doggone easy I really feel embarrassed about calling it a recipe. I had to put it on the blog as the first recipe back, however, because it is “Why haven’t I heard of this before?” simple, it’s “Why didn’t I make at least twice the amount?” delicious, and it’s “Does this ice cream make me look skinny?” good for you. You can count on Mrs. Smith cheffing up some healthy recipes in the next year or so, because Mrs. Smith needs to be trimming down.
I got the idea for this ice cream when an infomercial for some contraption that makes ice cream out of bananas came on at about 3am when I was nursing that character in the picture up there. I was mesmerized by the idea that a.) anyone would pay fifty bucks (excuse me, $49.95 + shipping and handling) for a machine that would make “ice cream” out of bananas and b.) the thought that it would actually work.
Well, people, the joke was on me. It turns out that frozen bananas, whipped up (in a normal food processor, not some expensive one-task machine) have the exact texture and creaminess of ice cream. They don’t have the exact taste of ice cream. (Of course, it has some banana flavor) but the experience is so close to ice cream I have been whirlling this stuff up every day.
Here’s how to make it. (So. Easy.)
Magic Two Ingredient Ice Cream
Ingredients (per serving)
1 and 1/2 bananas, cut in to 1 inch chunks and frozen for at least 6 hours
2 tablespoons of cream, half and half or milk
Procedure
Process bananas and cream together in a food processor until creamy texture is achieved (about 30 seconds)
And that. Is. It. It’s not icy, it’s not chunky, it’s not “smoothie-esque.” It’s soft serve icecream-y. A few thoughts and pointers
- The more ripe your bananas, the sweeter and more banana flavor your ice cream is going to have. If you’re not a huge banana person, I recommend using bananas that aren’t very ripe and adding honey and whatever other flavors you would like. For me, the smooth, cold, creamy ice cream texture is just as important as the flavor, and I like bananas, so I just buy the very ripe ones.
- The possibilities for customization and fiddling with this recipe are endless. Peanut butter, chocolate chunks, nuts, dried fruit, coconut… all of these things could be added in to add flavor and texture.
- I’ve made this with half & half and milk, and I haven’t noticed much of a bump in flavor or texture from the half & half. Use skim milk, I say! Why add more calories and fat if it’s not going to help the flavor or texture?
- I have a regular sized food processor and a small food processor attachment that came with my immersion blender. I’ve been using the small attachment because then (get this) I can just take the blade out and EAT IT RIGHT OUT OF THE PROCESSOR. Shameless, I know. But It’s so darn delicious.
- Cutting the bananas in to 1 inch chunks makes the result more uniform and smooth, at least in the smaller processor.
Bon Apetit!
Tom Ka Soup
There is definitely something satisfying about recreating a dish normally eaten in a restaurant, and I’ve been wanting to recreate Tom Ka soup at home for a long time. I could eat this soup by the gallon. I order it every time I’m at the local Thai place and crave it. It’s sweet, and sour and a little salty too. The broth is lemongrass and chilli infused coconut milk. I adapted this recipe from a few recipes I found online as well as my memory of how the soup tastes at the restaurant. Though I made mine with tofu, cooked shrimp or chicken would be easy substitute for the tofu haters.
This soup is very easy to prepare. The only thing I had to learn, because I’ve never worked with it before, is how to prepare lemongrass. This youtube video came to my rescue! Buen Provecho!
Tom Ka Soup
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
0 – 2 Green chilies (Because I was wanting to share with the notoriously wimpy E., I used zero. This would be awesome with a little spice though.)
2 C chicken or vegetable broth
2 stalks Lemongrass (chopped into 2 inch pieces and smashed with the back of a knife a little, see video for guidance)
1 can asian straw mushrooms or 1 cup white button mushrooms cut in quarters
1 cup tofu, cut into small cubes (or cooked chicken or shrimp)
1 T soy sauce
juice of 2 limes
cilantro and carrot shavings, for garnish
Procedure:
1. Simmer the prepared lemongrass and chillies in the broth for 40-50 minutes minutes so the lemongrass flavor steeps into the broth.
2. Turn off the heat and let the broth cool a little before adding the coconut milk. Shake the can of coconut milk well before whisking it in, slowly, to the broth.
3. Bring the broth back to a simmer for 10 additional minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and strain the lemongrass and chillies.
5. Return the broth to the heat and add soy sauce, lime juice, mushrooms and tofu. Simmer until mushrooms are cooked and everything is heated through, about 15 minutes. (Add cooked shrimp last so it’s heated through and not tough.)
6. Before serving garnish with chopped cilantro and shredded carrot.
End of Summer Fresh Basil Pesto
It’s been a great summer… lots of playing mixed in with visits from (and to) friends, vacations, long days, bike rides…ah, summer. Yet, though I would wish for perhaps a few more weeks of summer, I’m looking forward to the clear nights, crisp days and spice-filled season of fall. Before jumping right in to fall, though, I decided to use up a ton of the basil growing in my herb garden and make a batch of fresh basil pesto. It was so tasty and delicious I am already making plans for next year’s garden to have three times the amount of basil so I can start stockpiling this stuff in the freezer. Wow. It was fresh and fragrant and garlicy and cheesy… perfection, really, and so easy. The pesto’s done in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
In addition to using as a pasta sauce, pesto is great as a sandwich spread, tossed over grilled veggies or swirled into minestrone soup. Enjoy.
Fresh Basil Pesto, adapted from Simply Recipes
Ingredients
2 cups of basil leaves, packed
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
1/2 cup olive oil (I used extra virgin, but whatever you have is fine)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (I used three and loved it, but beware that the garlic flavor is fairly sharp because it’s raw)
salt and pepper, to taste (I didn’t use either as the cheese was salty and the garlic added the heat and spice)
Procedure
In a food processor, pulse together pine nuts, basil, and garlic cloves until finely chopped. Stream in olive oil, stopping to scrape down sides. Add cheese, and pulse together. If the pesto is too thick for your liking, stream in more oil, one tablespoon at a time. Taste for salt and pepper, and add as desired.
Vanilla Cupcakes
I used to think that “baking a cake” or “baking cupcakes” meant taking out a box of cake mix, dumping in the requisite oil and eggs and presto-chango… cake! Ever since I got my handy dandy stand mixer, though, I’ve come to realize that making cake from scratch isn’t that hard at all, and it tastes fantastic. To me, vanilla cake is harder to screw up than chocolate cake. I don’t know why… I think it’s because chocolate cake promises so much that it’s easy to be disappointed. I’m on the quest for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe and you can be sure I’ll post it here when I find it. For now, though, this vanilla cake is delicious. The frosting I used for these cupcakes is a swiss merengue buttercream, and it’s so tasty and delicious I’ll be talking about it in another post. For now… behold the vanilla cupcake!
This recipe yields 12 cupcakes. I doubled it with no problem. I figure if you are going to go to the trouble of making them… make a lot! There are always neighbors you can win over or office breakrooms to leave them in!
Vanilla Cupcakes, adapted from the Joy of Baking
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of 1 large lemon (Joy of Baking says this is optional, I think it’s essential and actually increased this to 1 and 1/2 lemons)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2. tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup milk
Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon and Rosemary
Peaches! Yay! The peaches I brought home from the farmer’s market were just underripe and I was bummed. I was so looking foward to eating a peach that I wasn’t ready to wait for them to ripen! I switched gears and decided to grill them for dessert. The result was fantastic. The grilling brought out all of the juices and the cinnamon and rosemary was a great combination. (One for which I can not take credit. I read it in Mireille Guillano’s French Women for All Seasons) These peaches are fantastic on their own or with icecream. They can be made on an outdoor grill, a broiler or a grill pan. I used a grill pan. Bonus: your house will smell amazing when you make these!
Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon and Rosemary, Adapted from Mireille Guillano
Ingredients:
4 Peaches
1/2 – 1 TBS sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (this is much increased from the original version, but I love cinnamon)
2 TBS neutral flavored oil (I used vegetable oil, canola was in the original recipe)
4 sprigs Rosemary
Procedure
1. Preheat broiler/grill pan/grill
2. Wash peaches, dry, cut in half and remove the pits. Arrange skin side down on a baking dish and set aside.
3. Mix sugar, cinnamon and oil and brush over the peaches. Sprinkle with the rosemary and let sit for 10 minutes
4. Brush the peaches again with any remaining oil/sugar mixture
5. Grill (or broil) the peaches for 3-5 minutes until the peaches are tender but not mushy. Serve immediately.
