Kitchen Gadget Girl

Last week’s CSA box had a dozen lovely tomatillos, and my immediate reaction was to pull out the cast iron pan and whip up a fresh salsa. In the hot skillet, I roasted the tomatillos until lightly charred. Then I added them to the  food processor along with 1/4 a peeled red onion, 1/4 cup cilantro, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1/2 a seeded jalapeno. I processed until well blended, and chilled until I was ready to serve. That night, we had a great appetizer of tomatillo salsa, fresh guacamole and chips.

Lelo in Nopo also made a Salsa Verde last week, enough to can and save for later this winter. Sadly, my recipe only makes enough for one, maybe two, overindulgent nights of chips and salsa.

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Strawberries, hulled by my daughter, ready to eat

September 2008

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For a while now, I have been wanting to extol the virtues of my new Oxo Serrated Peeler, which Santa left me in my stocking and I subsequently used to peel lemons for Limoncello. In fact, my love of this peeler was the original inspiration for my blog. Imagine, I could share my experiences with different kitchen gadgets!

But then, I tried my serrated peeler on a cucumber, and it didn’t work that well. In fact, it did not work at all, it mangled the peel. I went back to my trusty Kuhn Rikon Peeler, which did the job with no problem. I am generally quick on the uptake, but it never dawned on me that there might be different peelers for different jobs.

According to Cooks Illustrated, there are loads of different peelers for different situations. My Kuhn Rikon Peeler is perfect for cucumbers and potatoes (an old-fashioned straight peeler is also good in this instance). The new Oxo Serrated Peeler is good for tender things, like peaches, tomatoes, and lemons, when you just want the peel and no pith. And a julienne peeler makes beautiful matchsticks for garnish or salads or stir fry. Of course, both Oxo and Kuhn offer professional versions with swivel and high-end blade features.

Now that I have cleared up that giant mystery, I would like to heartily recommend both my Oxo Serrated Peeler and my Kuhn Rikon Peeler. And now that I finally understand how both are used, peeling should not be such a confusing experience any longer.

Photo courtesy of jugglerpm

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Our new friends (and neighbors) invited us over for a spur-of-the-moment Paella party this weekend. A chance to socialize and drink wine with our friends was more than we could resist, even on a school night! And, the lure of Paella cooked on the grill was too enticing, almost makes me want to go out and get a paella pan for my grill. Here are some photos:

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My friend Suzy came over for lunch yesterday, and I served a lovely (if I do say so myself!) ladies’ lunch, including a Farro, Avocado, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad, along with open-faced Proscuitto, Manchego and Fig Tartines. I was rushing home from an appointment, so did not have time to prepare the butter and fig preserves ahead of time.

When it came time for lunch, I laid out all the Tartine ingredients, with the idea that we would make our own. Unfortunately, the butter was very cold (straight from the fridge) and the baguette was lovely and soft. You can see my problem. So, my big question is:

Do you leave your butter out (if so, how) or do you refrigerate?

I used Photo Dropper to find this Creative Commons licensed photo on Flickr, courtesy of josh-n.

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Little A and I attempted to make Spritz cookies this week - the pictures in my ancient Betty Crocker Cooky Book, circa 1963, made it look so easy, and being the Kitchen Gadget Girl, of course I had a Spritz Maker handy. We thought we could whip out some of the cute shapes they had in the book, maybe even some with food coloring! And the recipe itself was easy enough:

Spritz Cookies

•  1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour

Mix butter, sugar, egg, salt and flavoring thouroughly. Add flour and mix well. Using 1/4 of the dough at a time, force through cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 6 - 9 minutes until set, but not brown. Cool.

Easy, right? Well, actually, Spritz making requires quite a bit of technique and timing. Apparently, there is an optimal temperature for the dough, and a little twisting technique with the Spritz Maker. I have a bunch of Spritz tips, and Little A and I started with a flower shaped one. Unfortunately, they mostly ended up looking like blobs. Then we tried a funnel shaped tip, but that ended up making larger blobs, that I seemed to intrinsically know would not cook all the way through.

Finally, we ended up with a small star and the flat disc, and were able to squish out long, shaped cookies that we cut into smaller pieces. I also chilled the dough, which made things a little easier, thanks to recommendations from this site. And after reading a couple other blogs about Spritz Cookies, I realize that my Spritz Maker might be a little outdated. I am not sure what the best Cookie Press is, do you know?

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Of course I canned tomatoes this weekend, now is the time. So did other bloggers, such as Lelo in Nopo (met her at BlogHer, and have really been enjoying her blog), Hedonia (another from BlogHer) and Andrea’s Recipes (yet another BlogHer contact). All have great instructions and loads of pictures if you want to follow along. If you are interested, there are loads of other blogger recommendations about tomato canning, just use the Food Blog Search.

On Sunday, I made an Heirloom Tomato Ketchup from Cooking Light that turned out pretty well, although it took much longer to reduce down, probably because I tripled the recipe. I used 9 pounds of tomatoes and came away with 5 half-pints of ketchup.

Monday morning, I canned the San Marzano Roma Tomatoes from our CSA, into pint and quart jars. After peeling and quartering, I brought the tomatoes to a boil, then poured them into jars and proceessed for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. The tricky part happened when my daughter’s play date forgot to get off the bus, so I had to call the school, at the same time I was filling jars. Got the jars filled, lids and bands on, then sprinted back to the bus stop to pick up our friend. Phew!

My garage storage shelf is now full of 11 quarts and 11 pints of quartered tomatoes. Oh, I love that feeling of accomplishment. Now, I need to see if I can get my hands on some more tomatoes, so I can try Alanna’s Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.

Are you canning any of summer’s bounty this year? I would love to hear about it (and get inspired!)

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I picked up several boxes of tomatoes this weekend, and am planning to can them for the winter. However, I cannot resist eating some right now! This tart was a great way to enjoy the freshness of heirloom tomatoes. Since it was a soccer practice night, I sliced the tomatoes and onions ahead of time, and grated the mozarella cheese. All I needed to do when I returned home was to assemble the tart and bake. The recipe originally appeared in the June 2007 issue of Sunset. Wow, I cannot believe I held onto the recipe that long!

Heirloom tomato tart

• 7 sheets of filo dough, thawed [kgg: I used Whole Wheat Fillo Dough from the Fillo Factory]
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 7 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 cup very thinly sliced onion
• 1 cup shredded mozarella cheese
• 8 tomatoes, cut into 1/8 inch thick slices [kgg: I used heirloom, Romas would be good too]
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano [kgg: I used oregano from our CSA, delivered earlier this summer]
• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Lay 1 sheet of filo on the cookie sheet and brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering 6 more times (with filo, butter and Parmesan), pressing each sheet firmly to the one below.

Scatter onion across the filo, topping with mozarella cheese. Arrange tomatoes in a single layer, overlapping the edges slightly. Sprinkle with oregano and salt & pepper.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until filo is golden brown. Cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Note: Slice the tomatoes as thin as you can, so that the juice evaporates when baking, which will prevent soggy dough.

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Actually, this could also be a lovely dessert. The figs are gorgeous this time of year, and I could not resist picking up a basket at the store. However, since I am the only one in my house who eats figs, I made up a couple plates to take to neighbors.

Very easy to make - wash the figs and cut in half. I usually leave the stems on, as I find they make a good handle. Add a teaspoon of goat cheese, and drizzle with your favorite honey. Serve. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

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Today’s cookie is another from my new Martha Stewart’s Cookies book. The kids were excited, since the cookies look at little like Oreos in the picture, although now that they are done, I would suggest they are more like moon pies. The recipe makes about 2 dozen, which I did not think was very many, until I tried one. The sweet cream filling makes them quite rich!

In today’s cooking, we learned important skills such as even numbers, how many tablespoons of butter in a stick, and how to sift flour and cocoa together. We also learned the importance of sugaring your glass each time you flatten a cookie. Here is the recipe we followed:

Cream-Filled Chocolate Sandwiches

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder [kgg: I use Sharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder]
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 10 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• Vanilla Cream Filling (below)

Preheat oven to 375F. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, mix well. Gradually add flour and mix until well combined.

Using my favorite gadget, a 1 1/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto cookie sheets. [kgg: on one sheet, I used my Silpat, and the cookies came out flat. On the other sheet, I used nothing, and the cookies came out puffier. I liked the puffier look] Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and press to flatten cookies to 1/8 inch thick.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until firm. Cool completely on wire racks.

When cookies are cool, place the filling in a resealable bag and cut a small bit of one corner off. Use this to squish about 1 tablespoon of filling onto the flat side of half the cookies, and place the remaining cookies on top, squeezing gently to spread the filling to the edges. The recipe indicates these can be stored for 2 days in an airtight container. We usually don’t have cookies around that long!

Vanilla Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening [kgg: I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening, which is non-hydrogenated]
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

Cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, and mix until combined.

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