A Weeknight Supper with Pizzaz

Posted on March 28, 2014 by brosbottom

Several weeks ago during a “phyllo workshop,” my students prepared five different dishes with phyllo dough. The class loved all the night’s dishes, from the cheese-filled phyllo triangles to a glorious apple and date strudel, but they were most enthusiastic about the golden pyhllo cups (baked in muffin tins) filled with a simple tomato, artichoke, and shrimp ragù.

Although they thought the crisp, flaky pastry shells were delicious, it was the robust, vividly-hued sauce that really got their attention. “This would be perfect over pasta,” one of the cooks exclaimed, while several others nodded their approval. Well, that got me curious so a few days later, I tried the sauce over fettuccine noodles, and was delighted with the results. Continue reading →

Cooking Indian and Vegetarian–Delicious!

Posted on March 19, 2014 by brosbottom

I’ve often told my students that I could easily become a vegetarian if I lived in India. I love the way that country’s cooks turn humble ingredients like okra, potatoes, eggplant, spinach, and much more into irresistible temptations. They season vegetables with fragrant spices, combine them with cheeses like paneer, or enrich them with cream, to ensure that they are packed with flavor.

So, I was intrigued while in Paris this January by an article that I spotted in a popular French magazine on Indian dishes made with dahl. The story included basic directions for using red lentils in soups, stews, and side dishes. I tucked the article into my suitcase, and once home, tried some of the recipes. Over the past month I’ve made the red lentil stew with winter squash and cauliflower at least a half dozen times, tweaking it at each try. Continue reading →

My Favorite Irish Coffee

Posted on March 12, 2014 by brosbottom

Photo by Lara Hata

The food world is always updating classic dishes and drinks, adding new twists to make them more contemporary, but some recipes are best left untouched. That’s the way I feel about my recipe for Irish coffee, given to me more than two decades ago by a teacher friend whose specialty was Irish literature. I’ve included the directions for this special brew in my first book, Betty Rosbottom’s Cooking School Cookbook, and in the more recent Coffee, and it’s been featured on this blog previously.

Irish coffee has an interesting history that starts in Ireland and finishes on the west coast of the U.S. As the story goes, the drink was created in the Shannon airport in the mid-twentieth century where it was a restorative offering served to weary passengers. The recipe arrived in the States with a San Franciscan who shared it with his hometown’s Buena Vista Bar. The rest is history. The hot, strong coffee infused with Irish whiskey became the signature drink of that California bar, and eventually its popularity spread around the globe. Continue reading →

Simple Little Appetizers for Cold Nights

Posted on March 6, 2014 by brosbottom

No one in our small New England town wants to commit to entertaining this winter! After countless storms and resulting cancellations, people are wary of planning too far ahead. My husband is a social animal, though, so I’ve figured out a way to issue some last-minute invites. It works like this. I wait until the local weather team gives the all clear, and then ask a few friends to come over for wine and nibbles. Afterwards, we all go out for dinner together. Simple and stress-free, this has become my social m.o. for the season.

Along with bowls of olives and toasted nuts, I’ve been serving some delectable cheese-filled Greek phyllo triangles. The classic filling for these savory pastries usually includes feta, sometimes cottage or other cheeses plus eggs. I opted for a mixture of creamy chèvre, grated Parmesan, chopped hazelnuts, and fresh mint. A dollop of this flavorful mélange is placed on a corner of a strip of buttered phyllo. Then the phyllo strip is folded Continue reading →

Chili–Perfect for Oscar NIght

Posted on February 28, 2014 by brosbottom

This past week at my annual winter soups cooking class, the enthusiastic students managed to down three main course potages along with a basket of warm breads and a colorful salad. The menu included a pureed tomato and garlic soup served with Gorgonzola brushette, a hearty French smoked sausage and vegetable mélange, and a spicy chicken, black bean, and chipotle chili. Although the class declared all delicious, it was the chili that drew them back for seconds and even thirds. At the end of the night, I asked the group if they would use these recipes in the days ahead. “Yes,” they answered, “for Oscar Night this Sunday!” “Which one?” I asked. “That spicy chili,” they replied.

It didn’t take long for me to decide to share this special recipe with readers since the Academy Awards are this Sunday night. (Get your ballots out.) Made with diced white Continue reading →

An Early Taste of Mardi Gras

Posted on February 21, 2014 by brosbottom

When my son, Mike, called last Wednesday to say that he and his family were thinking of driving from Boston to Amherst for the weekend, I knew they were all angling for some home-cooked meals. Since Mike, his wife, and both kids all love seafood, I decided on a shrimp jambalaya for the first night. My husband and I both spent childhood vacations as well as our college years in New Orleans and so are longtime devotees of this dish.

Instead of a classic version in which the rice is cooked separately, then topped with a tomato-based sauce with shrimp, for this variation the rice and sauce are conveniently baked together in a casserole. The shrimp are arranged atop the spicy mélange during the last few minutes in the oven. I gilded the lily by buying mini-lobster tails on sale at Whole Foods last week. They were quickly steamed, their meat picked out and added as an extra garnish when the dish came out of the oven. Continue reading →

Baking on a Snowy Day

Posted on February 13, 2014 by brosbottom

Looking out my kitchen window, I once again see snow cascading from the skies. Although the fields behind our house take on a fairy tale glow as the snow blankets them, I am weary of staying in during yet another winter storm. (I’ve lost track of how many we’ve had this year!)

What I do during these blizzards is cook. I’ve made countless soups. Chicken and black bean chili, a thick tomato soup topped with Parmesan cream, and spicy Indian lentil and butternut squash soup helped me ride out previous storms. This week I’ve turned to baking, and pulled out a favorite recipe for extra-thin, extra crispy oatmeal cookies. I was reminded recently of this recipe, which I first made and wrote about two decades ago. A food editor from a Honolulu newspaper wrote to tell me she was running it in the food section of a local paper at the request of one of her readers. Continue reading →

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes for Valentine

Posted on February 7, 2014 by brosbottom

If left to my own devices, I’d put chocolate at the top of the food pyramid, and not just any chocolate, a good dark one with 70 % or more cocoa. Chocoholics would probably agree with this reordering of the celebrated food chart, especially as February 14th approaches.

Each year I create a new chocolate treat to savor for Valentine’s Day, so for the past few days I’ve been working on a recipe for dark chocolate hazelnut cupcakes. Although baked in standard muffin tins, these rich cakes are petit, doming only slightly above their paper liners, but they are densely packed with intense chocolate flavor. Continue reading →

Duck for Dinner—Easy, Delicious, and Inexpensive

Posted on January 31, 2014 by brosbottom

Last fall at the supermarket, I was debating whether to buy some individually packaged duck legs with thighs when a friend passed by and picked up several packets. “Have you tried these?” I asked. To which she quickly replied that were they not only delicious, but also a terrific bargain at around $3 per serving. Since my husband never met a duck dish he didn’t like, I added a couple to my cart.

Uncertain how I’d prepare this purchase, I remembered on the way home a fabulous duck entrée I’d ordered in a Paris bistro several years back. It featured a duck breast that was quickly sautéed and sauced, then served atop a creamy parsnip puree. Duck legs, I reasoned, could be easily substituted, but would need a longer cooking time. Continue reading →

Piping Hot Onion Soup Counters Freezing Temperatures

Posted on January 24, 2014 by brosbottom

After three blissful weeks in Paris where the thermometer rarely registered out of the 40s, we returned to blizzard conditions in New England and temperatures so cold (try minus 5 as a low and 12 as a high) that we haven’t ventured far from the warmth of our home. Although the Artic blast has prevented us from walking for exercise, it hasn’t diminished our appetites. In fact, the weather has made us ravenous, especially for comfort food.

On my first trip to the grocery, I picked up all the makings for the ultimate cold weather dish—soupe à l’oignon gratinée. This particular recipe, the pièce de résistance of a recent cooking class called Midnight in Paris, is based loosely on the first onion soup I ever made from Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I. The main difference is that I suggest using a quickly made short-cut beef stock, or, when rushed, opting for quality purchased stock. Continue reading →