An Inspired Kitchen

Quiche with Hash Browns, Prosciutto and Red Pepper

Whenever I have leftover pie dough, I roll it out into an aluminum pie pan and freeze it so I can make a quick quiche.  For this quiche, I sautéed an onion, red pepper and prosciutto and added some hash browns to the custard mix and topped it all with cheddar cheese.  You can use asparagus, zucchini, broccoli or any veggie and any breakfast meat and any kind of cheese.  There are no rules. It made a quick breakfast or it would also be a great lunch or dinner to serve with a salad.  You don’t have to thaw the dough, just bake it on the bottom rack in the oven so the crust gets nice and crispy.  Click here for the recipe….

Roast Chicken

Roast chicken with potatoes, carrots and onions is the quintessential dinner everyone should know how to make.  It takes an hour and a half and there’s nothing to it once you have the vegetables cut up.  The humble chicken is exalted to the stratosphere and makes your home smell like warmth and comfort.  It could not be easier or more adaptable to using what you have on hand in the refrigerator or using your family’s favorite vegetables.  It’s fairly inexpensive, serves 4+, and you can use the bones to make chicken stock.  All the root vegetables are fair game like fennel, parsnips, beets, onions, potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots and any herbs you like or mixture of spices work.  You really can’t go wrong.  There is nothing better than caramelized onions and carrots.   I don’t bother tying the legs together.  It always seems to come out evenly cooked and delicious and this is a family dinner and meant to be rustic with no fuss.  The tips to roasting a great chicken are to take the chicken out of the refrigerator an hour before you put it in the oven.  Wash it, pat it dry with paper towels and salt and pepper the chicken inside and out and set it out on the counter so it can get to room temperature and the skin can dry out and cook more evenly and brown.  I like to keep the vegetables chunky so they don’t melt into the roasting pan.  Use a roasting pan just large enough to hold the chicken and all the vegetables and blast the oven to 425 degrees.  I put the roasting pan on the bottom shelf of the oven and baste the chicken and toss the vegetables a few times throughout the cooking time.  The chicken is done when you can pierce it with the tip of a knife and the juices run clear, the skin on the legs starts to shrink or a thermometer reads 160 in the thickest part of the thigh.  Usually, after 1 ½ hours, the chicken is fully cooked.  Take the chicken out and place it on a cutting board and cover with foil for 10 minutes before you carve.  With a baster, remove as much of the oil from the pan as you can and put the vegetables back in the oven to get even more brown if they need it while the chicken rests.  As far as the seasoning goes – the sky is the limit.  For this chicken I placed slices of lemon (you could also use oranges or a combo of lemons and oranges), 6 smashed garlic cloves and the stems from the herbs in the cavity and sprinkled fresh thyme and chopped rosemary over the whole chicken.  I poured a little olive oil over the vegetables and salt and peppered them.  I melted a tablespoon of butter and poured it over the chicken for better browning, but olive oil works well too.   To change the flavor of the chicken you can use a mixture of cumin, oregano, and chili powder, or the Middle Eastern spice mix Dukkah (you can get it at Trader Joe’s now or see my Chicken Dukkah recipe), classic French Herbes de Provençe ~  thyme, lavender, fennel and rosemary, an Indian garam masala mix, the Middle Eastern spice mix baharat (see my recipe for Baharat Meatballs with Fava Beans), cover it with harissa, or coat it with hoisin mixed with ginger and garlic ~ the list is endless and they are all delicious.   For directions on how to carve a chicken, look at my recipe for roast turkey.  Click here for the recipe….

Artichokes Stuffed with Herbed Breadcrumbs

Artichokes take a little while to prep, but they are worth it.  You cut around the leaves with scissors and remove the little spikes and then cook them in acidulated water until they are most of the way cooked.  Then take a spoon and dig the center of the choke and remove all the fibers.  I made a bread crumb topping with garlic, fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese and packed it into the leaves, put it in a baking dish, drizzled it with olive oil and baked it.  It’s a great side dish.  The best part is the artichoke heart that you get to when you have gone through all the leaves.   Click here for the recipe….

Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s pie is such a humble but delicious comfort food dish that my Mom has always made and one of our family favorites.  If you don’t bake it with the mashed potatoes on top, it’s called mince and tatties.  She always made it with ground beef, but you can also make it with ground lamb.  She and my Grandma have always used Bisto – that ubiquitous British gravy thickener and I use it as well for this dish.  You can find this British product at larger grocery stores now.  It’s a cornstarch based powder with a little bouillon powder mixed in it and you mix it with a little water and pour it in towards the end of cooking to thicken the sauce and make it more like gravy.  You sauté an onion and the beef and add carrots, garlic, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce (these last 3 ingredients are my own addition), some beef stock and cook it until the carrots are cooked through and then add the Bisto slurry to thicken it.  Most of the time I serve it over mashed potatoes for a quick dinner, but traditionally, you put the beef mixture in a casserole dish, top it off  with the potatoes and bake until the top is nicely golden brown.  I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over the top of  the potatoes to brown it even more.  I still like it and make it several times in the winter and it takes me back to my childhood.  Click here for the recipe….

White Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

I can’t believe it has been a year since I posted the first recipe on my blog.  I can’t thank you all enough for all the support and encouragement you have given me over these months and the patience you have had with my site when the photos wouldn’t post correctly (because I didn’t know what I was doing!) and all the other mistakes I have made along the way.  It has been a huge learning curve and a lot of fun to try my hand at something new.  I hope some of the recipes have inspired you to create new dinner ideas of your own and share them with your family and friends.  Thank you again for your support!

For my friend Laura’s birthday I made her favorite cake ~ a white cake.  We are both real buttercream fanatics so I frosted the cake with a Swiss meringue buttercream.  I put 1/2  a teaspoon of my favorite new ingredient – powdered vanilla in the cake batter, but it made the cake not so white.  It tasted good, but the color was deeper than a regular white cake which is made only with egg whites.  It takes a little bit more effort (and a pound of butter!) to make a Swiss meringue buttercream but it is sooooo worth it!  You need a thermometer to make sure the egg whites get to the correct temperature while you are whisking them over a bain marie before you beat them with the mixer.  It is also critical to beat the egg whites after they have come to temperature for about 5-8 minutes or until they have cooled completely down and become smooth and fluffy.   It’s easier to make if you have a standing mixer.  Another tip is to make sure the butter is at room temperature.  You add a tablespoon at a time while the mixer is constantly whipping.  Sometimes it can look a bit curdled, but continue beating and it should all come together.  Then you add vanilla and it’s pure buttercream heaven.  I usually take a serrated knife and cut around the bottom of the baked cake to remove any crust that forms during baking.  You can add any jam you like to the center.  I used a homemade Cascade berry jam, but I also love to use lemon curd (Trader Joe’s makes a great one).   Click here for the recipe….

Chocolate Cookies with Andre Mint Chips

I was pleasantly surprised to see Andre mint chocolate chips at the grocery store so I bought some and thought I would make chocolate cookies and add them.  They have a nice mellow mint flavor and were really good.  If you like the combination of mint and chocolate you should try them!  Click here for the recipe….

Sweet and Sticky Chicken Wings

This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson’s Sweet and Sticky Ribs which are very good, but I also like to use chicken drumettes.  The secret to this wonderful sweet and sticky glaze is using Thai chili sauce, cranberry jelly, soy sauce and lots of garlic which give it a really nice Asian taste.  There is also the juice of an orange which gives it a hint of citrus and you can add red pepper flakes or Tabasco if you want more of a kick.  Since I don’t do a lot of cooking with cranberry jelly, I just freeze the remaining  jelly and make another batch of wings another day.  Click here for the recipe….

Fritatta with Asparagus, Pancetta and Goat Cheese

Frittata, Spanish tortilla ~ whatever you call it, I love to make it on the weekend and when I have company for brunch.  You start out by sautéing an onion in a non stick skillet and add pancetta, prosciutto, bacon or ham (if you want).   Whisk some eggs with a splash of half and half, salt, pepper and any herb you like and add some cheese and vegetables. You can make it with anything, and if you have leftover vegetables like potatoes, red peppers, asparagus or zucchini, add them or add them raw.  I always have pancetta in the freezer that I can sauté with an onion and use that as the base of the egg dish.  I used raw asparagus in this, but red pepper is also great and I love to add cooked potatoes.  Add any kind of cheese ~Parmesan, fontina, manchego, cheddar, blue or goat cheese and any herbs you like are all good in this dish.  I made a chiffonade of fresh basil and sprinkled it over the top when it came out of the oven.  Gently stir the egg mixture with a heat resistant spatula and when it is almost set, place it in a 425 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes or until it puffs up and is lightly golden brown.  Cut it in wedges and serve.  This makes a great light dinner with a great crusty bread and salad.  The Spaniards serve this at room temperature as a tapas or appetizer.  Click here for the recipe….

Chili

I make chili all the time in the winter and try to be mindful of making it healthier and sometimes use ground turkey.  I still like beef better!  I add onions, garlic, red pepper, and a few stalks of celery for more texture. I don’t like to add a lot of chili spice and let people make it hotter if they want it.  Once you put too much in you can’t take it out!  Make a double batch and freeze it for a quick lunch or dinner.  Click here for the recipe….  

Chicken with Chili Sauce and Pineapple

This sauce is made with a bottle of chili sauce (which is not very spicy) and becomes sweet and sour with the addition of pineapple chunks, cider vinegar and brown sugar.  I also add raisins for a bit of color contrast.  You can use fresh pineapple, or an 8oz. can of pineapple chunks.  I like to serve it over rice and it’s a 30 minute dinner and easy to put together.  Click here for the recipe….