Look out Campbells

The ubiquitous can of Cream of Mushroom Soup. A staple of many casseroles and quick dinners of my childhood. There was the Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Onion, Cream of Celery. They were virtually interchangeable when presented in a recipe.

Favorite childhood dishes we find ourselves making today include the always popular Tater Tot Casserole. There's the Pork Chops in a Paprika Cream Sauce (I don't know if the dish has a formal name) and Beef Stroganoff. To say nothing of the Green Bean Casserole (which I'm a heathen and don't like.)

All of these recipes are pretty simple. Cook some meat or veg, dump the Cream of ____ Soup in the pan/pot, stir. Maybe you'll add some cheese or something else. Maybe not. Then you'll either simmer or bake for a while. Done.

Last night we decided to use some ground beef to make the Beef Stroganoff. The recipe from the 70's/80's that we use goes something like this: Brown the beef. Add some garlic powder and granulated onion. Stir in a little bit of flour and add a can of "cream of" soup, plus 1/4 cup of milk. Simmer. Stir in sour cream and serve over egg noodles. Easy.

We didn't have a can of "Cream of" soup. But that didn't stop us from playing around.

Here's our new version of the recipe:

*Brown the beef and 1/2 a chopped onion. Season with salt/pepper and some garlic powder if you like.

*When the beef is cooked and the onion is soft, drain the excess beef fat from the pan, add 2 TB of butter. When melted, stir in 2 TB of flour. Cook for one minute.

*Add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water or chicken/veggie broth. Stir and bring to a simmer.

*A minute before you are ready to serve, stir in 1/2 cup of sour cream. Taste and adjust seasoning. Warm through and serve over egg noodles.

Done. That is substituting a roux for a can of "cream of" soup. We could barely tell the difference! I really look forward to trying this with tater tot casserole in the future. If you want Cream of Mushroom soup, add some chopped mushrooms to the pan instead of onions. Celery...ditto!

Super easy and we didn't need a can of "Cream of" soup. I didn't happen to have milk either, but I did have dried milk. You could use heavy cream and add a little extra water or you could use Half & Half. The point is, this is a cream sauce, so you want some dairy in there. If you want, you can skip the milk and just use broth for a lighter version and maybe just enrich the sauce with a swirl of cream if you like. You can also use no-fat/low-fat sour cream.

Ask Eat With Me

Naturally Dyed Eggs Image Source

Wishing everyone a Happy Passover & Happy Easter.

This past week I received a few questions that I thought I would answer here on the homepage of Eat With Me.

Catherine asked...

I am looking for the perfect Easter dinner menu...Which is your personal favorite--ham or lamb? And what appeals to you in the way of dessert? A wine suggestion would also be most welcome.

I have to say, I don't remember Easter dinner in my family. I know I spent time with my grandparents and would often dye eggs with my grandmother. She always had dozens and dozens of eggs. Lots of fun! But I don't remember the food.

As an adult, I tend to make the same Easter dinner and will be doing so this Sunday. I am a ham person; I'm not fond of lamb. So I will be doing a glazed ham and rosemary parmesan au gratin potatoes. I usually also serve an orange fennel salad, which pairs very nicely with the rich ham and potato dishes.

I'm not sure about wine, but with the ham, I might try a Beaujolais or Pinot Noir for red or an extra dry Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc for the whites. Catherine, I hope this helps.

Megan asked...

So I've been reading your blog for almost a year now, and I don't think I have ever commented. I was wondering where you are from originally because I have a huge debate with a friend of mine over Chicken and Dumplings. I grew up primarily in WV, but my mom always made what I now know to be considered Yankee Dumplings - Who knew right? Southern Dumplings are much denser etc. At least according to my friend, and what I've read online. Your first dumplings pictures looks like southern dumplins but the new one looks similar to mine, but I make mine very very differently. (I think mine are probably easier to make).

My response to Megan: I am originally from Wisconsin. I never had Chicken & Dumplins like this back home. My grandmother made Chicken & Dumpling soup, which is delicious, but those dumplings are more dense and firm, made with flour & eggs. These are very light, made with flour and butter.

Megan followed up with her own recipe for dumplins and you can find it in the comment section here. Thanks!

SteRfanie asked...

Hey -- I have 2 questions for you.

1. When a recipe calls for a "dry white wine," what does that mean? What are some examples of what I could use?

2. I've gotten a few new pans recently -- what is the difference in how would you use a stainless frying pan vs. non-stick? What is each one better for, or are they interchangable?

And my response: Dry is not sweet or soft/floral wines...sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio are the best. chardonnays can work. I would stay away from rieslings, gewerts, chenin blancs, viognier, etc....as those sweeter wines reduce during the cooking process and they become too sweet. As most chefs will tell you, if you're not willing to drink the wine because it has gone bad, don't cook with it.

For the pans, it really depends on what you're cooking. If you plan on making a pan sauce, the non-stick doesn't work as well. I use my two skillets almost interchangablly, so it really doesn't matter...you can still get good results. Non-stick is good for more delicate things...eggs, fish, veggies. I like to make my skillet potatoes in the non-stick, I can get a better crust on them and they don't fall apart. The stainless steel...best for hearty cuts of meat that can take the abuse from the heat and things that you want to get a solid sear/crust on, and again, if you're planning a pan sauce, the stainless still will hold onto bits of the meat. All those little bits that stick to the pan (called fond), those can dissolve into the liquid (wine/broth) of your sauce enhancing the flavors.

Hope this helps, pans aren't really an area of expertise for me. But the two that I have work well for my needs. Also, if you're buying pans, buy something that is oven safe, so no plastic or heat proof handles. With an oven-safe pan, you can make start something on the stove top and move it to the oven to finish cooking. This is great for braises and egg dishes like frittatas.



Thanks for the questions, keep them coming and I'll answer when I have the time.

Spaghetti

I've had a spaghetti squash sitting on my pantry since late October or November. I finally cooked it up the other day. The sauce and final treatment wasn't very good, so I'm not going to share, but I wanted to share with you my technique for cooking a spaghetti squash.

To start you need to slice the squash in half from pole to pole (top to bottom). Scrape out the seeds and stringy membrane. Once cleaned, I like to brush or rub some olive oil into the squash and season liberally with salt and pepper. This time around, I wanted to try something extra. I smashed open a garlic clove and tossed it into the center of the prepped squash. The garlic will roast and the aroma will give a hint of garlic to the squash.


With the garlic clove inside, I flipped the squash halves over onto a parchment lined baking sheet and placed them in the oven (375 degrees) for 45-50 minutes, until tender.


The squash is tender when a knife slides easily and smoothly into the flesh. That's a little devilish. Where's Dexter when you need him? Anyway, allow the squash halves to cool for a bit, covered with foil.


When you can handle the squash, take a fork and start scraping out the cooked strands of the spaghetti squash. You can serve with butter, a lite tomato sauce, an herb flavored broth or any number of other pasta sauces. I like to keep the spaghetti squash topping on the lighter side. I wouldn't use most types of cream sauce or full bodied marinara sauces. I feel they would dominate the dish and you'd lose the subtle, lightly sweet flavor of the squash.

Enjoy!

Fresh Garlic

This was an interesting weekend at the Market. Not for any particular reason. I had plans to buy only one item, as I'm going to be out of town part of this week for work and we leave next week for our trip to San Diego. So if you buy too much you can end up wasting if you don't use. So I had plans to buy buns...Parker House rolls...which are the best I've ever had and love to eat them as a snack, especially with a little homemade jam. So, good intentions and all that. I ended up buying fresh corn, more jam and garlic.

My table was set up next to a very nice lady (name escapes me!) who was selling garlic from her farm in Virginia. She bought the farm last year and this is the first crop she's been able to harvest. Next year she hopes to have much more produce. She already has a farm that supports 170 (?) families, similiar to a CSA (community sustained agriculture). Well, she certainly was a popular vendor this weekend. Despite the rain, she did very well, selling nearly 25 bundles (8 heads each)! I bought one bundle myself!

The garlic with the stems!

Beautiful heads of garlic with just a slight fragrant scent of garlic.

I decided I was going to prep the garlic for roasting!

I inherited my little garlic roaster from my friend Pam. If you don't have one, don't rush out to get one. You can use aluminum foil. So to make roasted garlic. Heat your oven to 350. Slice the tops of the garlic heads off, exposing the tops of the cloves.

Drizzle with olive oil and a light sprinkle of salt (optional). Cover the garlic roaster, or wrap the heads up in the foil. Place in the oven for an hour. At the end of the hour, I turn the oven off and let the garlic sit in the oven until cool. Your house is going to smell so nice! Rich, warm, enticing.

When the garlic is cool to touch, it is time for the final bit of prep. The sticky, smelling, OMG so delicious step. Take the heads and squeeze out the buttery cloves. Hold the heads over a bowl and squeeze from the root end; think tube of toothpaste.

The cloves are sticky and completely tender; they do spread like butter! Discard the remaining portion of the garlic head. Store the garlic in an airtight container, in the fridge. And I'll be making this recipe this week!

Knock Knock

Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock Knock.
Who's There?!?!
Banana.
Banana WHO?!!!!!!
Orange you glad you met me!

Oh bad jokes...sorry.

So, today...I'm going through my list of posts to do and think the best for today is dealing with oranges.

Orange Supremes to be exact...orange segments. No white pithy parts. No fiberous parts. Just juicy, sweet orange segments. Let's get started.

Pick your fruit from the market. Don't worry if you have a few blemishes on the skin, you're going to remove it anyway.

Start by cutting the top and bottoms off the orange. Cut in deep enough to expose the inside of the fruit.

See? Both ends cut off.

How we'll start to cut the rest of the peel off of the orange. Resting the orange on your cutting board, place your knife at the top of the orange, right at the edge of the fruit, before the peel begins. Carefully slice your knife down towards the bottom of the fruit, trying your best to keep the knife inside the orange and not cutting into the peel.

Continue this process all around the fruit. Then go back and remove what you can of the extra white bits that hang on. Save the peels and squeeze the juice out of those extra bits.

Now you need to pick up your orange and start to cut the segments. Look for the parts of the internal peel that delineate the segments. In this photo you see two white lines running from the top to the bottom. Place your knife as close to the inside of the white seam; cut into the fruit, roughly to the center of the orange. Repeat the cut on the opposite side of the segment.

There it is. Your first segment of orange. Now start working your way all around the orange, remove all the segments.

Here's what you'll have left when your done. Squeeze the remaining juice out and into the bowl you have saved your segments in.

These are the segments from one orange.

Here are three oranges and all the extra juice.

I don't know about you, but this is my favorite way to eat and orange. When I try to peel an orange and eat the segments, I often have trouble chewing parts of the fruit and kinda need to spit out part of the fruit. Unpleasant. But the supreme segments are just lovely. Small bites of simple, sweet fruit. The supreme segments are a great way to incorporate orange, or grapefruit into a freshing salad.

Enjoy!

Making Perfect Pasta Dough

With just three ingredients, you too can make perfect pasta dough ready to be shaped anyway you choose. Tonight we're going to have alfredo sauce with homemade pasta! So to start, I need the pasta dough.

Collect your ingredients: 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 2 eggs and a large pinch of salt.

Toss the whole lot into your food processor.

Whiz the processor until the mixture looks like dry cornmeal, about 30 seconds. Let whirl for another 10 seconds or so. If the environment your making the dough in is extra dry, you might need to add a few dribbles of water.

With the machine running, add 1 TB of cold water. The dough will start to pull together. If not, add a little more water. All the machine to run until the dough does pull together and forms a ball in the bowl of the food processor.

Remove the dough from the bowl, form into a round disk, cut in half and wrap in plastic wrap, toss into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow the dough to rest. At that point you can turn the dough into whatever shapely pasta you choose.

Perfect Pasta, part 2

Solanum lycopersicum

Tonight while preparing dinner (stay tuned), I was using some tomatoes and decided that I would prefer them peeled. Unlike a firm vegetable or fruit, you can't peel the tomato with a vegetable peeler. Peeling tomatoes is a very easy process, but you need to take a minute to do! Really, from the time I had a pot of water boiling, this step took about a minute, for just two tomatoes, and since I was going to make pasta...the pot of water was already boiling.

Why would you peel a tomato? You don't have to, but have you every had tomato in a cooked dish and had little bits of skin floating around, all rolled up tight? I don't like that! It doesn't look good and who likes to pick bits of tomato skin from your teeth??? It's not necessary, but this quick step can make a pleasant difference to your finished dinner.

How to Peel A Tomato

To start preparing your tomatoes, cut an "X" on their bottoms.

Lower the fruit into a pot of boiling water and let them swim around for about 30 seconds. They will start to shed their suits for you.

Remove the ruby orbs from the pot and give a quick plunge into a bowl of cold water to stop any cooking that started while in the bath. Drain and set aside.

Nekkid Tomatoes! The skin will slough right off. Discard the skin and cut into quarters. Remove the seeds; which when cooked can release an unpleasant bitterness.

Diced! Oops, a few seeds slipped by.