Goat Cheese, Tomato and Arugula Crepes

As winter is coming to an end, so is the indoor winter farmers’ market in town. I picked up some lovely fresh greens at the last market for this season on Saturday. Crisp arugula leaves - perfect for a salad! But there was enough to use in another recipe as well. So I decided to add some arugula to my brunch crepes along with goat cheese and tomatoes. It’s mild bitterness worked perfectly with the sweetness of tomatoes and the tartness of the balsamic drizzle. Don’t let the long ingredient list scare you - this is a really simple crepe recipe which can be easily customized per the ingredients you have at hand. This version is especially quick since the filling doesn’t have to be cooked, but if you’re in the mood for more elaborate crepes, try our crepes with caramelized onion and mushroom filling and Bechamel sauce.

Ingredients:

Crepes (~4-5 crepes)

½ cup flour (whole wheat or all purpose)

1 egg - beaten

½-¾ cup milk (adjust to get a thin consistency)

1 tsp melted butter (optional)

1 Tbsp chopped spring onions (optional)

½ tsp minced garlic or garlic powder (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil or butter to grease the pan

 

Filling

~2-3 Tbsp soft goat cheese

2 tomatoes -sliced

Freshly cracked pepper

Fresh arugula leaves (~6-7 per crepe)

 

Balsamic reduction

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

Mix all the crepe ingredients and adjust the amount of milk to get a thin batter consistency such that it can spread and coat the pan as you twirl it.

 

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a little bit of oil/butter to grease the pan. Add ¼-⅓ cup batter in the middle of the pan. Twirl the pan gently for batter to spread. Cover and cook until bottom is slightly browned. Flip the crepe over and cook uncovered until golden brown on the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter.

 

While the crepes are cooking, make the balsamic reduction by heating the vinegar and honey on medium-high. Let it come to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for another minute before taking off the heat. It will get thicker as it cools. If it is still too thin heat a bit more; if it’s too thick, add some water and reheat to combine.

 

Spread goat cheese on half of a crepe. Top it with tomato slices, cracked pepper and arugula leaves. Drizzle some balsamic reduction. Fold over the other half of the crepe. Drizzle more balsamic reduction (optional) and serve warm.

~Gayatri

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Goat Cheese Marinara Dip

Cold days call for warm comforting snacks. A hot cup of soup, colorful warm spinach salad, delicious roasted potatoes are just a few of the many quick and simple options. Another tasty snack is warm toasted garlic bread with marinara sauce for dipping. If you’re feeling especially chef-y, here’s a way to kick it up a notch with some melty delicious soft goat cheese in every bite!

Ingredients:

Your favorite Marinara sauce (See note below for a quick & easy recipe)

Soft goat cheese (I used herb goat cheese)

Quantities to be adjusted as per your liking - if you’d like to make the dip reallllly cheesy, use a shallow baking dish so you can add a lot of goat cheese slices on top to get a better goat cheese-to-marinara ratio.

Pour marinara sauce in an oven proof bowl/dish. Slice the goat cheese about ¼ inch thick, and place the slices on the sauce. Broil on low in the oven until sauce is bubbly and cheese is golden brown on top. This only takes a few minutes, so watch closely! Serve hot with some crusty toasted bread (garlic bread for more deliciousness!) to scoop up the delectable goat cheese and marinara sauce.

~Gayatri

Note:

Quick homemade marinara sauce - Heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Add ¼ cup chopped onion and 2-4 minced garlic cloves. Saute until onions are translucent, then add 1 can of crushed tomatoes. Season with salt, black pepper, red chili flakes (optional), and add about 1 tsp each of dried basil and oregano (or use chopped fresh herbs). Let it come to a boil and take off the heat.

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Goat Cheese Marinara Dip - cheesy deliciousness of goat cheese added to bubbly hot marinara sauce!http://cooksofcakeandkindness.blogspot.com/2016/03/goat-cheese-marinara-dip.html

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Crispy Parmesan Cups

A few years ago when I finished graduate school, my foodie friends Meghana and Vikram gifted me a super fancy cookbook titled “The French Laundry Cookbook”. The author, Thomas Keller, is the chef/proprietor of the renowned French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, among other fine dining restaurants. Starting his kitchen journey as a dishwasher, he climbed his way up to be a chef and restaurateur, currently holding 7 Michelin stars between 3 restaurants, and is also a James Beard award winner. Both the food and the photography in this book are brilliant. Every dish is elegant and is beautifully plated. Vikram and Meghana themselves are artists with food, and this wonderful gift from them is simply full of food art.

One of the recipes that caught my eye was a goat cheese mousse served in parmesan crisps. The combination of delicate crispy parmesan and the goat cheese seemed like a great idea, but I thought I’d try to make it just a little bit healthier by adding some greens. I still wanted to have the goat cheese component without making the mousse, so I made a goat cheese salad dressing.

The Parmesan crisps in the original recipe are prepared by melting the Parmesan cheese in the oven, but I didn’t want to heat up the oven just for that, so I decided to try this on the stove top. It was really quick and easy, with extremely satisfying results.  

Ingredients:

Parmesan cups (for each cup)

~¼ cup (loosely packed) finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese.

Freshly grated from a block of Parmesan is best for this because it is not as dry and you can grate it finely, however pre-shredded fresh Parmesan would work. Don’t use the dry granulated “grated Parmesan” sold in the plastic canisters.

Salad

Mixed greens

Cherry tomatoes

Sliced cucumbers

Sliced radishes

Any other ingredients of your choice!

Goat cheese salad dressing

1 Tbsp soft goat cheese

1 tsp honey

1 tsp lemon juice

Heat a nonstick pan over low-medium heat. Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly in a 6” circle. Don’t leave any big gaps. Let the cheese melt and get bubbly. Take the pan off heat after ~2 minutes (once the bubbling reduces and cheese starts to change color). Using a thin spatula, gently start peeling the Parmesan crisp from one side. Once you lift it a little, you can peel the rest of it carefully with your hands. Don’t worry if it breaks - you can use the broken pieces of the Parmesan crisp to top any salads unless you scarf them down while making the next one like I did.

Quickly place the hot Parmesan “sheet” on an inverted bowl and press on the edges gently but firmly to form the “cup”. Hold for a minute until hardened then take it off the bowl. Now step back and admire your awesome lacy edible creation!

Combine all the salad ingredients. Make the dressing by mixing the goat cheese, honey and lemon juice. Adjust the amounts to taste. Theres a lot of room to get creative with the salad ingredients as well as the dressing!

Carefully add the salad to the Parmesan cups and drizzle the goat cheese dressing on top.

This would make a perfect dinner party first course since it is not time intensive. The parmesan cups are fairly quick to make - the only time consuming step is grating the cheese. The cups can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container. The salad and the dressing can also be made ahead of time and stored separately in the refrigerator. Just put together all the components right before the meal and get ready to impress your guests.

~Gayatri