16 Sep 2019
Way better than casserole made with canned soup! This from-scratch version of chicken and rice casserole bakes with mushrooms, garlic, cream, and herbs. So worth it!
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16 Sep 2019 9:00pm GMT
These Cacio e Pepe Fried Chicken Wings are made with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and LOTS of pepper. Eat 'em on their own or with your favorite dipping sauce!
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16 Sep 2019 2:00pm GMT
15 Sep 2019
Potato Leek Soup is a classic! Nothing's better than a bowl of hearty potato soup on a chilly day. And it's easy, too! No cream needed, just purée the soup to make it thick and creamy.
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15 Sep 2019 9:00pm GMT
28 Aug 2019
La Tourangelle is a family-owned company that produces outstanding nut and seed oils, with heritage in the Loire Valley of France, an area known for nut oils. Their toasted sesame, roasted walnut, roasted peanut and roasted pistachio oils are all award winners. The company began in 2002 in Woodland, California and their nut oils are all expeller pressed and are GMO-free. Their walnut, almond, hazelnut, pecan and pistachio oil are made in house and their almonds and walnuts come from California.
Earlier this year I got a chance to visit the La Tourangelle mill and also a farm that supplies some of their nuts.
Bullseye Farms grows tomatoes, cucumbers, hay, and nuts sustainably on about 16,000 acres. They have 500 acres of walnuts and they use a black walnut rootstock which is resistant to diseases. The walnuts are a cross between different varieties and are self pollinators. You might be surprised to learn that ugly nuts make the best oil. It's the variety of different nuts rather than uniformity that makes the oil taste better.
The process La Tourangelle uses to make their oil is unique and combines two different styles-refined and unrefined to make an oil that is full-flavored and yet affordable. All their oils are made in small batches and they use only French presses for their limited edition oils. All the nut oils are handcrafted by the master roaster who relies on years of experience to know exactly how to roast the nuts for maximum flavor.
The scent in the mill is intoxicating! Luscious and buttery, roasted walnut oil is the essence of walnuts. Walnut oil has a very short shelf life. Unopened it will last about two years, but once opened it's best to use it within six months. So don't hoard it! Use it! If you don't think you can use a whole tin of it, La Tourangelle now sells it in convenient single-serving pouches. While making a vinaigrette is probably the most common way to use roasted walnut oil, there are plenty of uses. Here are some of my favorite ways to use roasted walnut oil:
+ Use on top of pancakes or waffles instead of butter
+ Add to pasta with Parmesan cheese and chopped toasted walnuts
+ Drizzle over grains such as farro, bulgar or freekeh, top with fresh herbs
+ Combine with toasted walnuts and use on top of brussels sprouts, green beans or asparagus
+ Use in place of olive oil in pesto
+ Substitute it for butter or vegetable oil in granola recipes
+ Dip bread in it instead of olive oil or butter
+ Use in shortbread recipes
+ Add a few drops to soup before serving
+ Use in a carrot walnut slaw salad with Dijon mustard
+ Drip on top of vanilla or chocolate ice cream
+ Add to popcorn instead of butter
Disclaimer: My thanks to La Tourangelle for hosting me, I was not compensated monetarily for this post.
©2019 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
28 Aug 2019 6:38pm GMT
25 Jul 2019
It's #canbassador time again. That means I get a big box of cherries from the Northwest Cherry Growers and head into the kitchen to do some canning. Last year I finally bit the bullet and purchased a canner. It's not terribly expensive and stacks inside one of my stockpots. I generally can small batches and this time around I decided to make chutney with the help of my pal Alison. She shared the ingredients she would use and I tweaked the proportions.
The first rule of cooking with fruit is you need to taste it. How sweet is it? How juicy is it? That should guide your recipe. Adapt the recipe based on your preferences and the quality of your fruit. My cherries turned out to be very juicy so I added some dried fruit towards the end of the cooking to thicken the mixture. While this chutney has a great sweet and sour flavor, someone in my household actually used it in place of jam on toast. So far I've used it on grilled cheese sandwiches and on lamb chops. How you use it is entirely up to you!
Cherry season is short, but there are so many great ways to preserve the fruit. In past years I've made cherry barbecue sauce and cherry vanilla balsamic shrub. When Winter comes, I'll be making cocktails with bourbon cherries and eating turkey with cherry cranberry chutney...
Cherry Cranberry Chutney
Makes about 5 1/2 pint jars
Ingredients
9 cups pitted cherries
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
2 onion chopped
Zest of two oranges
3 Tablespoons minced ginger
2 heaped teaspoons allspice
1 heaped teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Fill a canner with water and bring to a boil. Place the jars in the canner and boil for 10 minutes.
Roughly chop the cherries and in a large stockpot combine them with the vinegar, sugar, onion, orange zest, ginger, allspice, garam masala and salt. Bring to a boil then simmer, stirring occasionally until the fruit is cooked and soft about 30-40 minutes. Add the cranberries and cook for another 15 minutes. Chutney will thicken further after being processed.
Lift the jars out of the canner, pouring the hot water back into the canner. Ladle the chutney into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. After filling the jar, release the air bubbles by inserting a narrow silicone spatula or similar tool between the chutney and the inner surface of the jar. Place the rims on top of each jar and loosely seal with the bands. Carefully place the jars back in the canner and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from the canner and let rest overnight, you may hear the lids pop. Store for up to one year.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: My thanks to Northwest Cherry Growers for providing me with fruit. I was not compensated monetarily for this or any other post.
©2019 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
25 Jul 2019 10:52pm GMT
12 Jul 2019
I always crave pizza but I am trying to cut back on carbs, so when I saw little street taco sized whole wheat tortillas at the store, I was inspired to revisit a recipe I created a few years back for
Whole Wheat Mini Pizzas. This time I went in a slightly different direction, making flatbreads that are not very pizza like at all-no grated cheese, no tomatoes, no sauce, no meat.
Right now it's corn season and the combination of corn, smoked salmon, a little crunchy cucumber and goat cheese is a real winner. What takes this recipe from good to even better, is the addition of a bit of Chili Onion Crunch. Chili crisp has been a condiment I've been seeing all over the internet and I finally bought a jar from Trader Joe's. It was so good I decided to do a little taste test and compare it to the more well known Lao Ganma brand.
A comparison-
Lao Ganma Spicy Chili Crisp, 7.4 ounces, $2.19. available online or in Asian markets
Ingredients: soybean oil, chili, onion, fermented soybeans, MSG, salt, sugar, prickly ash powder, sulfur dioxide and sodium sulfite
- Very oily and very crunchy, more salty than sweet, not much heat at all
Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch, 6 ounces, $3.99 availabe at Trader Joe's stores
Ingredients: olive oil, dried onion, dried garlic, dried red bell pepper, crushed chili pepper, toasted dried onion, sea salt, natural flavors, paprika oleoresin (color)
- Fine texture, more crisp than crunchy, not very oily, balanced sweet and salt, heat on the back end
Both are delicious, but I prefer the vegetal sweetness, texture and heat of the Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch. I also appreciate that it doesn't have any artificial ingredients. Also, doesn't garlic make everything better?
Fresh Corn & Smoked Salmon Flatbread
Serves 4
4 small whole wheat tortillas
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
2 teaspoons water
1 small Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
1 ear corn on the cob
4 slices smoked salmon, torn into bite sized pieces
2 teaspoons or to taste, chili oil, crisp or crunch
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Strip the corn off the cob and place 2-3 tablespoons of the corn on a piece of foil. Prick the tortillas with a fork to minimize puffing. Place the tortillas on a non stick pan along wit the corn on the foil, and bake for 5 minutes, flip the tortillas at about the halfway point. You want the tortilla to be crisp and browned, but not burnt.
In a small bowl mix the goat cheese with the water in order to make a spreadable texture.
Spread each tortilla with a tablespoon of goat cheese, top with the salmon and cucumber slices and scatter about 2 teaspoons of the corn. Drizzle the flatbread with the chile oil.
Enjoy!
©2019 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
12 Jul 2019 7:25pm GMT
Simply Recipes
