Table Talk

News and musings from Anastasia's Table. Feel free to browse some of the latest talk below, and get emails when new entries are added!

July 16, 2008

Sweet Onion Bread Pudding

Last week when I was planning menus, I came across this Onion Bread Pudding from Cooking Light. It came up in a search for southern side dishes. I was looking for something to pair with Creole Cod. I've never had a savory bread pudding and it sounded good, so I decided to add it my client's menu to go with their cod.

Of course, I had to tweak it. The first problem was that I needed it to be no more than 3 Weight Watcher POINTS per serving. The original recipe is made in an 8x8 pan, serves 4, and weighs in at 8 POINTS per serving. My first task was to reduce the serving size. One quarter of an 8x8 pan is a huge serving, so cutting cutting the serving size in half was not unreasonable. OK, so that got it to 4 POINTS per serving. I decided to use a whole grain bread rather than french bread and nonfat milk instead of 2% milk. I also wanted to add more onion. Those changes brought it down to 3 PTS per serving.

The recipe calls for slicing the onions into 1/4-inch slices and cooking the onion slices, while keeping them intact. The intact onion slices are placed over the bread mixture and topped with cheese. Cooking the onions while trying to keep the slices intact seemed like too much work to me. I decided to slice the onions and caramelize them, then add half of the onions into the bread pudding mixture and spread the other half on top of the bread pudding.

For the whole grain bread, I used one of my favorite loaves from the supermarket bakery. I trimmed off the crusts and cubed the bread.

I also let it sit for 30 minutes to let the bread absorb the milk and eggs before baking it. It filled the house with a wonderful aroma while it baked.

This is a pretty bad picture of it. I just got a new digital camera and I haven't had time to figure out the best settings for food photos.

Continue reading "Sweet Onion Bread Pudding" »

Posted July 16, 2008 9:38 PM in Cook Dates, Recipes

July 8, 2008

These are really good beets (even if they are plums)

Pork, plums, and blue cheese, oh my. Boy, the Peppered Pork Tenderloin and Blue Cheese Plums recipe in the July issue of Cooking Light jumped off the page and seared itself into my mind. Tonight was the night to try this recipe. It calls for grilling, but I wanted to adapt it to the oven and stove so I can make it for some of my clients. (I don't use my clients' grills.)

This dish lived up to my expectations. It was easy to prepare, bursting with flavor, and colorful.

When I presented this dish to Tom, he asked "Are these beets?". "No, they are plums". "Looks great." "Mmmm, the pork is delicious." "These are really good beets, even if they are plums."

The pork tenderloin is rubbed with fresh rosemary, black pepper, fennel seed, coriander, and salt. Rather than grilling it, I seared the pork in a grill pan, then roasted it. I grilled the plums in the grill pan. Then filled them with the blue cheese. I served the pork and plums with Garlic-Thyme Crispy Potato Cakes (add roasted garlic and fresh thyme to this recipe.)

Posted July 8, 2008 8:15 PM in Test Kitchen

June 23, 2008

My day as an Iron Chef

Today I got a newfound respect for people who cook completely without recipes. My cook date was supposed to be straightforward: a four-meal service for a long-term client. They get nine servings of each meal. Two of the meals were one dish meals, the other two meals consisted of two recipes each. So a total of six recipes to make. Of the six recipes, three were recipes that I had made many times. One was a recipe I had made twice, and two I'd be making for the first time. Should have been simple. But, I left my precious clipboard case that holds my shopping list, recipes, invoice, and labels in the cart when I loaded my groceries into my car. I discovered this after I got to the client's home and had unloaded all of my gear plus the groceries. There was a little bit of chaos at my client's this morning because she forgot I was coming and she was madly cleaning the kitchen when I arrived. When we determined that I didn't have my recipes, my client offered to go to the store to get them as soon as she could because she needed to run some errands after getting her two kids fed and dressed. OK, that should work. I can get started on some stuff in the meantime.

I'm cooking five days this week and all the menus were jumbled in my head. The first thing I did was to look over the pile of groceries and review what I was making. The menu for the day was Cowboy Casserole, Black Bean Burgers and Spicy Barbecued Edamame (these are the two recipes that I've never made), Paella Valencia (I've made this one twice, but that was over a month ago), Balsamic Rosemary Pork and Mashed Potatoes with Spinach. The good news is that I have all of the ingredients in front of me so I can piece together what I need to do. I've never been one to follow recipes to a T, but when faced with no recipes in front of me and a lot of different ingredients, I realized how much I rely on my recipes to know which ingredients to use. If you're cooking one or two recipes, it's no big deal, but when you are cooking more than that, not knowing what is supposed to be used for each recipe makes it a challenge.

I started with the Cowboy Casserole. This is a ground beef casserole that has onions, green bell peppers, and baked beans. The ground beef mixture is cooked on the stovetop, then poured into casserole pans, topped with cornbread batter and baked. I knew that it has ketchup, dry mustard, and Worcestershire sauce in the ground beef mixture and either molasses and brown sugar (I had both with me, but couldn't remember which one the recipe called for). I got the ground beef mixture cooked up, and decided to use the molasses. Although the amounts of the ingredients didn't match the recipe, it tasted right, so I mixed up some cornbread batter and popped it in the oven. One down. It turns out that the recipe calls for brown sugar. I think I like it better with molasses. I'll change that recipe.

While the Cowboy Casserole ground beef mixture was cooking, I peeled the potatoes and started cooking them. Wilted the spinach, chopped it, and set it aside. These potatoes are mashed with sour cream, seasoned with salt and pepper, then the chopped spinach and some grated cheese is stirred in. I haven't made these in a while, but I make mashed potatoes all the time. So this was no big deal. The mashed potatoes came out great. I usually chop the spinach before wilting it. This time I wilted the spinach, then chopped it. It was easier. Made a note to change that recipe.

The pork is marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped fresh rosemary, salt, and pepper. Hmm, does the marinade have garlic? Well, everything is better with garlic and this client loves garlic, so I minced a few cloves and added them to the marinade. Turns out that the marinade does not include garlic. Until now, because I'm also going to change that recipe.

OK, so now it is time to wander into the less known territory. My client isn't back from her errands with my clipboard case. What to do? I honestly have no idea how to make the black bean burgers and the edamame, so I decide to tackle the paella. I know that it has onions and garlic that need chopping. And that the shrimp is cooked first, then set aside. The chicken thighs are chopped and browned with chopped chorizo. I can get that started while waiting for my client to come home. Just as I finish all of that, my client arrives home with the clipboard. Yahoo, perfect timing. The paella is simmering on the stovetop in no time.

Now that I have the recipe, the black bean burgers go together very quickly and get popped in the oven to bake. On to the barbecue sauce for the edamame. Oh, this is where the molasses belong. First you make the barbecue sauce, then simmer the edamame in the sauce. Wow, both of these recipes were easy, as long as you have the recipe in front of you.

Today I learned a lot about how I cook and how I really use recipes. I don't use the recipe directions a lot, but I do use the ingredient lists. I don't follow the ingredient list exactly, but I also don't memorize them. Some things I just know how to make, but when faced with a giant pile of groceries, it isn't always easy to figure out how to combine them into the dish you want to make.

Rather than being stressful, this day was fun. If my client hadn't been home and hadn't offered to pick up my clipboard, I could have just driven home and printed the recipes. It is about 2 miles from the client's home to my home and about 4 miles from my client's home to the grocery store.

Tomorrow my client is about 20 minutes from the grocery store, so I'm considering using the secret agent trick of handcuffing my clipboard case to my wrist.

Posted June 23, 2008 5:35 PM in Cook Dates

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