There are many reasons why I adore Jean. Today it's because she emailed me this. Stay tuned for the chocolate one.

After reading the article, I think a major mistake I made with the Alice Waters loaf (apart from my screwy oven) was I over-mixed it. I used my KitchenAid mixer, and I think that was too much, I should have just hand-mixed it. That's what I did with the Gourmet loaf (literally, I mixed it with my hands, I didn't even use a spoon) and it turned out so much more tender (tenderer?).

About that Alice Waters loaf: I know normally I'm really quick to dismiss a recipe that didn't turn out as being the fault of the recipe (which is probably a fault of mine) but with this one, I'm more inclined to think the recipe was fine and I just didn't follow it well enough. Everything else in that book has been terrific, or I made it wrong. In fact, really the only thing about her cookbook that I haven't loved is that it doesn't have ribbons attached to the spine for easy bookmarking, a minor flaw at most. I would recommend it to everyone, especially if you're like me and can't really cook even simple things without help. Thanks, Nancy!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach with Toasted Almond Dressing

Active time: 20 min
Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr
Yield: Makes 6 first-course servings

Ingredients:

• 1 (2- to 2 1/4-lb) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (4 cups)
• 5 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup whole almonds with skins (3 1/2 oz), very coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 lb spinach, coarse stems discarded (10 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Toss squash with 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a shallow baking pan and spread cubes in 1 layer. Season with salt and pepper and roast in middle of oven, stirring once halfway through roasting, until squash is just tender and pale golden, about 30 minutes total. Cool in pan on a rack until warm, about 15 minutes.
3. While squash is roasting, cook almonds in remaining 4 tablespoons oil in a 10-inch skillet over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until golden, about 3 minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Pour almonds and oil into a fine-mesh sieve set over a large bowl and cool until warm, about 10 minutes.
4. When almonds and oil have cooled, whisk lemon juice into oil in bowl until combined well, then season with salt and pepper. Add squash, spinach, and half of almonds to dressing and toss gently to coat.
5. Divide salad among 6 salad plates and sprinkle with remaining almonds.

RESULTS: Lately I've been contemplating the way recipes are named. You can have recipes that, like this, say exactly what is in the dish, including how the ingredients are prepared. Or, you can name it something like, say, "varenikis". What the heck is this? I don't know. But it sure sounds exciting, doesn't it? I wonder if anyone has done some sort of pseudo-scientific study looking at whether people at fancy restaurants are more likely to order food with an esoteric name versus a name that very clearly and common-sensibly states what it is. An interesting corollary to this study would be looking at whether it makes a difference if the name of the dish is in French or Italian. Coq-au-vin sounds very posh, but it really means chicken in wine, or something normal like that.

Anyhoo, this dish/warm salad--despite it's long and descriptive normal name in English--is very good, and dare I say it, rather elegant. And healthy! Spinach, squash, and almonds! I actually followed the recipe to the letter, if you can believe it. I actually weighed the squash and the spinach to make sure to get the right amount, but I think as long as there's enough dressing, you don't have to be that careful. It's a deceptively large amount of work for just five ingredients, though, so don't embark on it if you're fainting from hunger. Also, don't forgo the almonds, they really make the dish. The cookbook recommends adding some blue cheese on top; a little bacon would probably also be good.

Gourmet's Irish Soda Bread

From the Gourmet Cookbook:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk, well-shaken
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Butter and flour a large baking sheet, knocking off excess flour.
2. Sift together 4 cups flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and stir in sugar, caraway, and raisins. Add buttermilk and stir just until dough is evenly moistened but still lumpy.
3. Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and gently knead with floured hands about 8 times to form a soft but slightly less sticky dough. Halve dough and form into 2 balls. Pat out each ball into a domed 6-inch round on baking sheet. Cut a 1/2-inch-deep X on top of each loaf with a sharp knife, then brush loaves with butter.
4. Bake in middle of oven until golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to racks to cool completely.

RESULTS:

This turned out much better, really moist and not at all comparable to an anvil. I really like that it made two small loaves and that I could bake it at a lower temperature for shorter time, I may try that with the Alice Waters recipe if I do it again this year. (The key problem with the AW recipe was that at higher the temperatures my oven becomes increasingly eccentric, which is partly why it turned into a rock-hard lump.) So far this year, this recipe is running away with the competition.

I left the raisins in, even though I hate raisins, because I was a little afraid that taking them out would affect the overall moisture of the bread. Any thoughts?

White Beans with Rosemary and Garlic

From Alice Waters' book.

Soak 1 cup white beans (cannelli, great northern, navy, etc) overnight in 4 cups of water
Drain and transfer to a heavy pot. Add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil. Lower the hear and skim off any foam. Simmer gently for 2 hours or so, until beans are tender (not in the least bit crunchy!). Add more water if necessary during the cooking. Let cool in the pot and then drain and season to taste with salt.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or skillet, warm over low heat : 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. Add 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped and 1 teaspoon coarsely chopped rosemary leaves.
Cook until the garlic is soft, about 2 minutes. Stir into the beans, taste for salt and adjust. Let the dish sit before serving to allow flavors to marry.

RESULTS: This dish seems to be all aroma. Between the rosemary and the garlic, it just smelled wonderful, so much so that the next day when I brought some to work and heated it up in the microwave I had quite a few people who came to see what I made. It didn't have quite as much flavor, but the little it had was pretty good.

In other news, the crocuses are blooming! We're expecting high 60s and low 70s(!) for the weekend, so I'll bet we'll have a ton by Monday.

Golden-Crusted Brussel Sprouts

This is from http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Use brussels sprouts that are on the small size and tightly closed. You can finish these with many different types of cheese (Parmasan, Gouda, Gruyere a few). Try finishing off with roasted hazelnuts for a special something.

24 small brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese of your choice

Wash the brussels sprouts well. Trim the stem ends and remove any raggy outer leaves. Cut in half from stem to top and gently rub each half with olive oil, keeping it intact (or if you are short on time or patience, just toss them in a bowl with a glug of olive oil).

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your largest skillet over medium heat. Don’t overheat the skillet, or the outsides of the brussels sprouts will cook too quickly. Place the brussels sprouts in the pan flat side down (single-layer), sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt, cover, and cook for roughly 5 minutes; the bottoms of the sprouts should only show a hint of browning. Cut into or taste one of the sprouts to gauge whether they’re tender throughout. If not, cover and cook for a few more minutes.
Once just tender, uncover, turn up the heat, and cook until the flat sides are deep brown and caramelized. Use a metal spatula to toss them once or twice to get some browning on the rounded side. Season with more salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a dusting of grated cheese. While you might be able to get away with keeping a platter of these warm in the oven for a few minutes, they are exponentially tastier if popped in your mouth immediately.
Serves 4.

Results:
I know, I know, Brussel Sprouts. Hear me out: Katie has her turnips, Jean has her beets. I take brussel sprouts (this recipe only, please). According to the Trader Joe's bag that these little dudes came in, most people don't like brussel sprouts because of the sulfur smell that's released when they're overcooked. On the other hand, these smell and taste sooo good that even my dog is begging for them. The key really is to err on the side of raw. Really.

Alice Waters' Soda Bread

Makes one loaf

• 3 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (or a combination of whole wheat flour and white flour: use at least 3/4 c white flour)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups buttermilk
  

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Measure flour, salt and soda and mix together in a large bowl.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Stir, adding more buttermilk if needed; the dough should be soft, but not wet or sticky.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead just enough to bring the dough together. Turn it over and pat it into a round loaf about 1 1/2 inches high.
5. Place on a baking sheet and cut a cross into the top of the loaf with a knife. Cut fairly deeply into the bread, being sure to cut all the way to the edges; this helps the bread to rise properly.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400°F and bake for another 30 minutes or until done. To test, tap the bread on the bottom. It will sound hollow when done.

RESULTS: First off, I'm trying to use more wheat flour so I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and the rest was white. I also cheated(?) and used my mixer instead of doing this by hand. Why have a nice mixer if you're not going to use it to make bread?

Anyway, this was super easy to pull together, and you don't need to let it rise. I can't tell you if it was good or not, though. My oven ruined it by shooting up 50 degrees and cooking at 500. I'll try again.

Battle of the Irish Soda Bread 2009

I saw some crocus buds yesterday, today is sunny and brisk with the wind going every which way--Harper and I saw several piglets flying by on our walk--and I just turned my calendar to March. You know what that means: it's Irish Soda Bread Time!

If you recall last year I made two different recipes for Irish Soda Bread (I seem to have gotten the craving a week later last year, but I think spring is a week earlier this year, so it seems about right). One recipe was a brown bread recipe Beth found in the Washington Post. Another was my mom's. It was close, but my mom's won. However, it was also a rather complicated recipe and work has been so insane since September that, darn it, I'm just too pooped for complications right now. (Hence the dramatic drop-off of postings.) So, I'm going to try out two different recipes from my two new cookbooks: Alice Waters and the Gourmet cookbooks. Today is Alice Waters', which definitely wins points for simplicity.