French 75: A Cocktail for New Year's

Everybody knows I like martinis, a lot, but I also like gin cocktails - note my versatility! ;) The French 75 is a fantastic cocktail for anytime of the year, it's that good, but I think it's a really great cocktail for New Year's. Why? Well, it uses Champagne, is delicious, is easy to make, is a classic, and it packs a serious punch - which is how it earned the name "The French 75". Concocted during WWI, its wallop reminded bar patrons of the French 75 mm artillery gun. It's just the sort of drink I want my guests holding when the ball drops!

Like all cocktails, there are a lot of recipes. The one I like to make is the first recorded recipe and the one found in the cocktail book from the Savoy. I just have to bet that's the recipe least mucked up by time and telephone!

For the gin, Sapphire or similar.

The French 75

yields one serving

2 parts gin

1 part lemon juice

1 spoonful powdered sugar

Champagne

1) Pour the gin, lemon juice and powdered sugar into a glass over ice and top with champagne.

This Soup is Magical

This one is for Mark, who declared this soup "magical" last week - words every cook wants to hear!! The pedigree of the recipe is a bit odd, however, and I can't actually trace its lineage too clearly, but here goes: Bonnie always makes this amazing soup, which she says is based off the Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup. Bonnie, however, is a proper cook in that she alters things to suit her tastes and needs, adding a bit of stock here, a bunch of potatoes there, so that when I got the recipe from cooking with her it was clear this is the sort of soup you make from your soul. Your tummy's soul at least! It really is wonderful, especially this time of year, and Adam has confessed to getting out of bed at night to heat up a second bowl!! Here is my version - which is, after all, magical! :P

(Don't add the kale til the end so the leaves stay bright! They will cook up plenty in that hot soup bowl!!)

My Zuppa Toscana

(yields 6-8 servings)

1 1/2 lbs spicy Italian sausage, squeezed out of their casings

3-4 Yukon gold potatoes, mostly peeled and cut into chunks

Just under 1 c onion, diced

6-8 slices bacon, cut into 1" pieces

1.5 tsp garlic, minced

1 qt chicken stock

up to 1 c heavy cream

kale

1) In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook the bacon pieces til the fat is rendered and they are crisp. Remove to bowl.

2) Add the sausage, removed from casings, to the pot and brown, breaking up with a spoon. Remove to bowl with bacon.

3) Add the onions to the pot with a pinch of salt and cook til translucent, stirring to pick up all the good browned bits from the pan.

4) When the onion is cook add the garlic to the pot and cook, stirring, for a minute or two until the garlic is fragrant.

5) Return the bacon and sausage to the pan, add the potatoes, and pour over the stock. Simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender.

6) Lower the heat and add the cream - I usually just pour in about half a cup, taste, season and then maybe add some more!

7) Serve in bowls with a handful of freshly torn kale leaves in the center.

Bonnie's Birthday & Salted Fudge Brownies

Yesterday was Bonnie's birthday, so we made pizzas and brownies! This recipe for Salted Fudge Brownies from Food&Wine caught my eye. They're as easy to make as any brownie recipe (ok, maybe you need a couple more ingredients than out of the box brownies, but they're still dead simple) and they taste like, well, fancy! Yes, I am declaring these Fancy Brownies!!

I did pretty much everything per the original recipe, except that I don't have a 9" square metal pan, so I used my 8x13" metal pan instead with no disasters, just a shorter cook time (think 25 minutes instead of 35).

Salted Fudge Brownies

(yield: 12 big square brownies)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine

1/4 c plus 2 tbs unsweetened cocoa (Dutch processed - look for "Alkali" under Ingredients)

2 c sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c AP flour

12 tsp fine seat salt

Preheat oven to 350 F

1) Line a metal cake pan (8x13" metal) with foil and grease the foil with butter.

2) In a nonstick pan melt the butter and chocolate over the lowest heat, stirring occasionally.

3) Remove from heat and whisk in - one at a time- cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla and flour making sure each is incorporated before moving to the next.

4) Spread into pan, then sprinkle with the sea salt. Swirl the sea salt into the batter with a butter knife. Smooth top and pop in the oven.

5) Bake for 25 minutes - edge will be set, center a bit soft and if you insert a toothpick it will come out with a bit of batter.

6) Cool at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate an hour more. Lift from pan the foil, remove foil and cut!

Pumpkin Lasagne Rocks My World

It sounds a little veggie (and I guess it is), but this Pumpkin Lasagne from Food & Wine rocks my world. It's seasonal, savory and so very rife with other alliteratives! The recipe says it serve four, but I think they mean four sumo wrestlers. With sides and stuff, this could easily serve 8.

Chard is sort of unwieldy. It's huge, leafy, never fits in a drawer and gets wilty pretty quickly in my experience. Buy it as close to cooking day as possible, and before you get to chopping it make sure it's rinsed of grit.

Pumpkin Lasagne

(serves 6-8)

2 tbs olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 lbs chard, stems removed and chopped

1 28 oz can pureed pumpkin

1 1/2 c Parmesan, grated

1/2 c milk

1 package no-boil lasagne noodles (about 9 noodles, or 6 oz)

1 tbs butter

2 1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400

1) In your largest nonstick frying pan heat the olive oil over medium-low. Add the onions and cook until translucent (5 minutes).

2) Raise heat to medium-high, add the chard with 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp sage and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Cook until the chard is wilted and liquid evaporates from the pan (it may be necessary to add the chard in batches so the pan isn't overcrowded).

3) In a bowl combine 2 cups of the pumpkin, 3/4 c cream, 1/2 c Parmesan and the remaining spices and seasoning.

4) Pour the milk into n 8x11" baking dish. Top with 3 of the noodles, then spread half the pumpkin mixture over that. Put half the onion and chard mixture on top of that, then top with another layer of noodles. Repeat with a second layer of pumpkin, onion and chard, and noodles.

5) Combine the last cup of pumpkin with 3/4 c cream and spread over the top of the lasagne. Sprinkle with 1 c Parmesan and dot with butter.

6) Cover with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15, until golden.

The World's Greatest of the Best of the Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookie

Because it wouldn't be a cookie recipe without a title like that? Why else would you try yet another recipe for one of the most basic of cookies otherwise!

I've tried lots - lots and lots - of chocolate chip cookie recipes. Lots. This is the best, my recipe, the one I eat out of the bowl and only some of the dough makes it into cookie form and when it does end up as cookies they're the ooey gooey chewy kind. If you like your cookies puffy and fluffy then this is the World's Least of the Worst of the Least recipes.

On chips: How many chips you add is a deeply personal decision. I won't judge. Me, I like a relatively moderate chip-to-cookie ratio. Also, try a milk chocolate chip instead of semi-sweets, or dark chocolate if that's your thing.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(about 24 cookies)

2 1/4 c AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

2 sticks butter, cold cold cold from the fridge

3/4 c dark brown sugar - packed

3/4 c granulated sugar

1 tsp almond extract

2 eggs

chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 F

1) Cream the butter and sugars. I don't want to hear any complaints about how this is hard work since the butter is cold, I don't even have a mixer and I can do this in minutes! (if any step were more important than the rest, it would be this one)

2) Add the extract and the eggs, give 'em a good mix.

3) Combine the flour, salt and baking soda then add to the wet ingredients and stir til evenly mixed.

4) Add the chips. At this stage you can chill the dough for a bit - it only helps - but cooking right away doesn't hurt any.

5) Scoop out (I like to use an ice cream scoop) balls of dough leaving plenty of room - otherwise you get what my niece calls a "double cookie", which, while it is cooler than a double rainbow is a pain to transfer from sheet to cooling rack.

6) Bake for 10-12 minutes until they're brown on the edges. The cookies will look a bit underdone in the center when you remove them from the tray to the cooling rack.

Grasshopper, tongue - and why it's not about being a thrill seeker

Below is a shot from a recent visit to Oyamel, a tasty small bites style restaurant in D.C. where you can order up some really amazing food.

Like these grasshopper tacos. Spicy, crunchy, and just a great bit of food I classify this outing alongside last year's lengua guisada tasting - a food adventure. Why? Because we just don't always get to go around trying out not just grasshopper and beef tongue, but beautifully prepared grasshopper and beef tongue!

I am not a "thrill seeker", the excitement of eating these foods doesn't arise out of their being strange or foreign to the average American - the excitement follows when it tastes delicious. Which is just another reason you shouldn't be afraid to try this stuff. If things like bugs or unfamiliar cuts of meat are devoured the world over in a variety of preparations, odds are it's not out of desperation, it's because it tastes good.

When people say something "tastes like chicken", I've come to realize that they aren't referring to the flavor. Sometimes chicken doesn't even taste like chicken [should]. They're speaking to the comfort level of a particular food, to the texture (typically a greater barrier than flavor), to its overall familiarity. For a country of immigrants, there's a lot of food we haven't tried.

So you don't have to try something out of the norm for a culinary rush, try it because if there's a long line of people ahead of you to get at it, there's probably a good reason for that.

Chocolate Pie

Easy to make, scrumptious to eat - and oh yes, lighter on dairy than the average pie! If you're weird about tofu...don't be.

Chocolate Pie

1 c milk chocolate chips
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 c amaretto liqueur (or coffee liqueur if that's your thing)
1 block silken tofu
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs honey
1 graham cracker crust

1) Using a double boiler (or by placing a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water) melt the chocolate and liqueur.

2) Combine tofu, melted chocolate mixture and honey in the blender and blend til smooth.

3) Pour blender contents into the crust and chill in the fridge for a few hours (filling will set).

Dairy-Free Ice Cream - With One Ingredient

I'm not even messing with you. There is, of course, one catch: it's best if you're not allergic to bananas.

"Ice Cream"

Ingredients:
bananas

1) Peel your overripe bananas, break each into a few pieces. Pop in a ziplock, and freeze.

2) Puree frozen bananas in food processor (or blender, but I haven't tried that) for a few minutes - until it resembles soft serve.

If one ingredient is just too mind-blowingly simple for you, you could always get crazy and add things like peanut butter, cocoa powder, honey/agave...

Espresso Shortbread

Here are some tasty shortbread bars with a butterscotch glaze I made for the Populi guys. Really easy to make, I picked up the chocolate covered espresso beans from Starbucks and I don't even have a coffee maker so I bought an espresso shot the day before and popped it in the frig!

I really don't know whether this is better described as a savory dessert, breakfast treat, or dessert-y appetizer...

Espresso Shortbread

(24 bars)

- 2 sticks butter, room temperature

1/2 c and 1 tbs sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 1/4 c and 2 tbs AP flour

1 tbs finely ground espresso beans

1) Preheat over to 300 F and line a 9x13 pan with parchment

2) Combine the flour and the coffee grounds in a small bowl.

3) Combine the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy in a large bowl. This will take a few minutes with a stand mixer or, if you're me, a few more with a wooden spoon!

3) Add the vanilla and salt to the butter sugar mixture.

4) Add the flour mixture in 2-3 batches. Stir until just combined (will still be crumbly).

5) Dump the dough into the pan and press into a relatively even layer. Smooth with a drinking glass or small marble rolling pin.

6) Bake for 50 minutes. Shortbread will be light brown and firm. Remove and cool for ten minutes or so, then cut into 24 bars with a sharp knife (still in pan). Continue to cool while you prep the glaze...

Butterscotch Espresso Glaze

4tbs butter, room temp

1/3 c light brown sugar

1 tbs espresso

1 tbs light corn syrup

pinch of sea salt

24 chocolate covered espresso beans

1) Combine all ingredients except the beans in a small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Boil for two minutes.

2) Remove from heat and pour over the shortbread, then quickly spread in a thin layer. Place an espresso bean on top of each while the glaze is still warm.

3) Use a sharp, oiled knife to cut the glaze between the bars, then remove from pan.

Better Welsh Rarebit

The cheese portion of this recipe is great, because you really spread it on top of toast for rarebit or serve it as a cheese spread at a party. It's delicious. As a bonus, discovering this recipe meant I also discovered Quilter's Irish Death, which I think I'm in love with. Sorry I don't have pics, I made this most recently for the Populi guys and their Friday meeting so I was flying out the door!

If recipes had dedications, this one would go to Ruth and James. So here you go, guys, Welsh rarebit - better!

Better Welsh Rarebit

1 lb extra sharp cheddar, broken into smaller chunks

3/4 c dark ale

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1 tbs Dijon

1/2 tsp cayenne

few pinches salt

sliced bread, toasted

Roma tomatoes, sliced

1) Position an oven rack to the upper third of the oven and preheat the broiler.

2) Throw the cheddar, ale, garlic, mustard and cayenne in a food processor and process to an even consistency. Add salt to taste.

3) Spread the cheese onto the toasts in a thick later. Place on a baking sheet and broil for a minute or two until the cheese is just browned on the edges.

4) Lay the tomato slices on top of the cheese and serve warm.

Mashed Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are really good for you with all sorts of good vitamins and dietary fiber. They're also a little confusing, so first a little sweet potato edumacation: The vivid orange potato commonly marketed as "yams" are sweet potatoes. So are the firmer, pale yellow sweet potatoes. They're both sweet potatoes and neither is really a yam! The orange ("yam") sweet potato is a little sweeter and has a creamier texture as well as more beta carotene. So when you're wondering which sweet potato to get think about the context, and for the recipe below use whichever you prefer!

The scariest thing about this recipe for me was not the sweet potato conundrum, but that there's no butter. No butter!! Blew my mind.

Mashed Sweet Potato

(servings: 6)

4 medium sweet potatoes

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

1) Leaving the skin on, cut the potatoes into medium cubes

2) Steam potatoes until soft (40 minutes)

3) Transfer to a medium pan and mash to desired consistency over low heat

4) Add orange juice, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon

5) Serve topped with olive oil

The Manhattan

Mark's comment about dry vs. sweet vermouth over on the martini post reminded me of this classic cocktail, the Manhattan. It is the first drink to ever incorporate Vermouth as a modifier, but it uses sweet, not dry Vermouth. Of course, like the martini, the Manhattan has as many variations as there are drinkers, so if you were making a "Perfect Manhattan" you would use both dry and sweet Vermouth.

Contrary to its name, the "Perfect Manhattan" is not dubbed for being the most original. A "perfect" cocktail is one that uses both sweet and dry Vermouth in equal parts. So for those wishing to try out what I will boldly dub a "pure" rendition of the drink before tailoring to their own tastes try out the recipe below.

Often said to use Canadian whiskey, I side with rye whiskey. You will likely only find a couple options at local retailers that are strictly rye whiskey, so a Canadian or Bourbon is fine. You also may not have bitters on hand, so pick up some Angostura. They'll likely serve your bar stocking best - oh, and this recipe sets you up nicely for another classic: the Old Fashioned.

The Manhattan

(1 drink)

2 oz rye whiskey

1/2 oz sweet Vermouth

2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

1 maraschino cherry (garnish)

ice

chilled glass

1) Fill a shaker/glass half full of ice cubes.

2) Add all liquid to the glass and stir well.

3) Strain into a chilled glass and garnish with the cherry.