Puff Pastry Carrot

Easter is a time for family and friends, a time to be thankful and to rejoice. It’s a time for presents, candy, colored eggs and of course, bunny rabbits. What better way to please the gifts-bearing bunny than with some delicious carrots? This Easter, impress your guests with puff pastry carrots filled with your favorite spread or creamy salad. They're simple to make, delicious to taste and so fun to look at!

Ingredients:

Puff pastry sheet (I used Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry )

1 egg, whisked + 1 tsp water for egg wash (optional, but helps give the pastry a nice glossy finish)

Orange food coloring (optional - I didn’t use any)

Your favorite dip or salad for filling - I made a salad very similar to this one

Fresh parsley (for garnish)

Tools:

Cream horn molds (such as this one)

If you don’t have cream horn molds, you can make your own by shaping Aluminum foil into a cone. Make sure the surface isn’t crumpled as the dough will get stuck and the baked “carrot” shell won’t slide off easily. An easy fix is to just add another layer of foil to smoothen out the surface. Another option is to use an ice cream cone and cover it up with foil.

Thaw the puff pastry as per package instructions. Cut it lengthwise into  1” wide strips. Starting with a long edge, gently roll the pastry towards the other edge forming a long cylinder.

Grease the mold to allow easy removal. With the seam side towards the mold, start wrapping the pastry around the mold from the tip of the cone towards the wide base, making sure there are no gaps. You’ll notice the pastry stretching a bit, but try not to stretch it too much. It is important to not wrap it around too tightly as it will stick to the mold and not come off in one piece once baked.

If you run out of pastry, simply start with another rolled up pastry cylinder, and make sure you fuse the ends by pressing them together. Once you reach the base of the cone, trim the pastry and seal the end to keep it from unfurling.

If using egg wash, brush the egg+water mixture all over the pastry. If using food coloring, this is the time to apply it with a brush as well. Place the pastry wrapped molds seam side down on a baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 400 F and bake the pastry for ~ 15-20 min until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down for a couple minutes before sliding it off the mold. It might take a couple gentle twists to break free, but as long as it hasn’t been wrapped too tight, it will come off easily.

Let the pastry cool down completely before filling it with your favorite dip or salad. Top it with fresh parsley sprigs and your beautiful puff pastry carrots are ready!

~Gayatri

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Puff Pastry Carrot - A fun snack for the Easter!

Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Friday, March 25, 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

Potato Egg Salad

Although not as healthy as a salad made with fresh greens, egg salad is one of my favorites. I guess I consider it more of a sandwich filling than salad. Potato salad, while similar in preparation, doesn’t excite me as much. But I do love mashed potatoes especially with sautéed mushrooms and onions. So I figured I could combine all of these favorite ingredients and make one delicious potato-egg salad. Typically I use low fat sour cream or Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise (not a big fan of the taste or the calories), but feel free to use mayonnaise if you like that. Also the veggies are completely customizable, just try not to use ones with high water content if you’re not eating the salad right away.

Ingredients:

2 eggs - boiled

1 medium potato - boiled

¼ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped mushrooms

½ medium onion chopped

1 tsp olive oil for sautéing

1-2 Tbsp chopped radishes

1-2 Tbsp chopped spinach

2 tsp honey mustard (or other kind of mustard) - adjust to taste

2 Tbsp sour cream/ Greek yogurt - adjust as per consistency

salt, freshly ground pepper (to taste)

paprika (optional)
Herbs for garnishing: dill, parsley, cilantro (optional)

Heat oil on medium heat and sauté onions for a couple minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Chop eggs and potatoes.

In a big bowl combine the chopped eggs, potatoes, sautéed mushroom-onion mixture, celery, radishes and spinach. Add the mustard and sour cream/yogurt. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Serve chilled or at room temperature as a salad, or make a sandwich with the potato-egg salad filling, and any additional toppings (bell peppers, extra greens, tomatoes etc.).

~Gayatri

Fennel Bulb Salad

Knowing my love for dill, a friend brought me some a couple weeks ago. Not knowing that there were other plants with leaves almost exactly like dill, he had picked up fennel instead of dill :). I had used fennel leaves in salads before but wasn’t sure what to do with the bulb. I tasted it and it had an extremely refreshing taste, but a fairly hard texture. So, I roasted and softened it up just a little (still keeping it crunchy) and made a simple salad with fresh lemon dressing to compliment the taste of fennel. To highlight the taste and the fresh aroma of the fennel, I decided not to add any other vegetables to the salad.

Ingredients:

1 fennel/anise bulb (I can’t tell the difference between the two herbs)

1 tbsp olive oil

lemon juice (to taste) - I used juice of ½ lemon.

zest from ½ lemon.

¼-½ tsp honey

salt, crushed black pepper

~½ tsp minced fresh garlic / garlic powder (or to taste)

1 tbsp anise/fennel leaves (chopped)

Remove the hard outer layers of the bulb. Clean the bulb thoroughly to remove any dirt. Cut the stem such that there is about an inch left above the bulb.

Carefully slice the bulb to ~¼ inch thick slices. For the slices towards the center, cut out part of the tough core at the bottom while still making sure that the slice will remain intact.

With a few drops of olive oil in a pan, roast the fennel slices over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until browned before turning them and roasting on the other side. Thicker slices might take a little longer. Remove the slices on a plate and let them cool slightly before drizzling the salad dressing.

For making the dressing, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, honey, salt, pepper, garlic and chopped fennel leaves. Using a whisk or blender works well for getting the oil and lemon juice mixed properly. Adjust the ingredients to taste.

Drizzle the dressing over the fennel bulb slices, and garnish with more fennel leaves and lemon zest to brighten it up. This refreshing salad can be served warm or at room temperature.

~Gayatri

Spinach Raita (The "other" warm spinach salad)

Before we bid adieu to the winter (finally!), here’s another warm spinach salad recipe for those crisp “almost spring” days. This is actually a spinach raita (or koshimbir), which is an Indian yogurt salad. You can make raita with a lot of different ingredients, and it is typically eaten along with roti or rice as a cool and creamy condiment which goes well with spicy Indian food. Not a lot of raitas are “warm” salads, but my sister introduced me to this extremely delicious spinach raita with a cumin tadka (tempering), and now its one of my favorite salads! I have made a few modifications to adjust to my liking - I like my salads crispier because I typically pack them as a side with my lunch for work, and don’t eat it with roti. So I added onions to her recipe for extra crispiness and also reduced the cooking time for spinach. Whichever way you make it, its a delicious salad with a strong cumin flavor.

 
Ingredients:

2 cups fresh spinach leaves

½ cup roughly chopped onion (optional)

2 cloves garlic sliced (optional)

½ tsp oil

¼ tsp cumin seeds

⅛ tsp asafoetida/hing powder (optional - but gives a nice aroma especially if using onions. See note)

1 dry red chili pepper (optional) - broken in half (I also removed seeds to reduce the heat)

2 tbsp thick yogurt (or more depending on how creamy you like it) - I used 2% reduced fat Greek yogurt

Salt to taste
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds and red chili once the oil is hot. Add the asafoetida powder, quickly followed by the onion and garlic. Add salt, and saute for just a little bit so that the raw onion taste is gone but it still keeps the crunch. At this point take the pan off the heat. Transfer the onion, garlic mixture to a bowl. Add spinach to the bowl and mix well. This wilts the spinach just a little, but still has a bite. If you would prefer a creamier version, you can add spinach to the pan once the onions are a little soft and saute for a minute or so before transferring the mixture to a bowl. Mix in the yogurt and enjoy as a snack on its own, or served with roti or a nice pita sandwich with homemade lentil patty and hummus!

~Gayatri

Notes:

Asafoetida, or hing is an herb used extensively in Indian cooking to enhance flavor and aid digestion. It can be found in any Indian store.

 

If you’re like me and don’t like a lot of heat, you can take the red chili pepper out before mixing the yogurt. If left in, it keeps adding heat - which works well if you like that kick.

Warm Spinach Salad

Salads can be a quick and easy way to get some good nutrition (as long as it's not just iceberg lettuce and dressing!), but they don't often make for good leftovers. Limp raw lettuce? No thanks. Something I can reheat, however, might be doable. I've had some really good warm spinach salad at restaurants before, so I thought I'd try it out myself. Turns out it's pretty easy to make, and prepping the ingredients takes up most of the time. The nice thing about warm spinach salad is that you can personalize it any way you wish!

Ingredients

10 oz. fresh spinach

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

1 small sweet onion (or half a red onion, if you prefer the flavor; I have tried both)

1-1½ sweet bell pepper (I used one half of each red, orange, and yellow)

~1-2 TBSP apple cider vinegar (or balsamic for a more tangy flavor)

~4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Canola oil for cooking

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Dried fruit (I used cranberries) and/or nuts (I used sliced almonds) for garnish

Roughly chop the bell pepper and onion into strips about 2 inches long. In a little bit of oil, sauté pepper and onions for maybe 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and season with fresh ground pepper. Pour in vinegar and let simmer for a minute or two. Remove pan from heat, and add the feta cheese directly to the pan and mix. The cheese will melt a little bit, but mostly still maintain its crumbled form.

Put the fresh spinach in a large bowl. Add the contents of the pan to the spinach and mix well. The spinach leaves will "cook" a little bit from the heat of the veggie mixture and wilt a little, but won't go limp. Add in the cranberries and almonds, or garnish each individual bowl when serving.

You can refrigerate the leftovers and reheat portions for about 30 seconds whenever you want more!

 

~Karla

NOTE: If not a fan of bell pepper, cherry tomatoes also add some nice color and flavor. You can also use sun-dried tomatoes or raisins or other dried fruits in place of cranberries. And other goat cheese instead of feta. The possibilities are endless!

Baked Tofu

Being a vegetarian, I am always looking for different proteins that can add taste and variety to a dish. One of my favorites is tofu. I know a lot of people don't like tofu either for its taste (or lack thereof) or its texture. Personally, I feel that the taste part is actually an advantage because it can soak up a lot of flavor and you can make it taste good! As for the texture, I am also not a fan of the soft texture of tofu; even extra firm tofu is not dense or firm enough for me - hence the baking!

This baked tofu has a texture similar to Indian paneer (firm farmers cheese made from cow/buffalo milk which can easily be cut into cubes). I like to make a big batch and use it in different recipes but it is great to just snack on as well. Additional bonus – it requires absolutely no oil or butter unlike fried tofu!

Ingredients:
Extra firm tofu - 1 pack (14 oz)
For the marinade: 
3 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar (other vinegar will work too)
1 tsp mustard (I used honey mustard)
1 tsp honey (optional)
2 cloves crushed garlic
3 tbsp water (adjust so that there is enough marinade to coat the tofu and have about half of it still left in pan).

You can use any other marinade of your choice, just make sure it has enough liquid for the tofu to soak up.

Heat oven to 400 deg F.

Use a microwave safe and oven proof dish if possible (I generally use an 8x8 glass baking pan) to mix all the marinade ingredients in.

Drain the block of tofu and slice it at least 1/2 inch thick (~5-6 slices for a block of tofu). Using a paper towel gently press each slice between your palms to drain more liquid. Don't squish the tofu too much - you don't want it to crumble. Wring out the paper towel after every slice.

Cut each slice in half (optional), and place the tofu in the baking dish with the marinade. Let it sit for a few seconds and turn all the pieces over. Repeat a couple times to let the tofu soak the marinade.

Microwave on high, 2 minutes at a time, turning the pieces over each time until the marinade is almost completely soaked - but not all dry. I needed 4 minutes on each side.

At this point transfer to oven proof baking pan if you were not using one to begin with. Place in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes before flipping the tofu over. Let it bake for another 10 minutes. Check the texture of the tofu. If it is still too soft for your liking continue to bake a little longer. To finish it off, broil each side on the Low setting for about 2-3 minutes. You can let it crisp up if you like it that way.

Remove from oven and let it cool down a little before slicing further if required (otherwise it will fall apart easily). This goes really well with Asian flavored stir fries or even on top of a simple salad.

Notes: If you are not a fan of using microwave for cooking, you could skip that step and increase baking time. Another option is to reduce the liquid on stovetop on low heat, turning the tofu pieces every few minutes – then finish it off in the oven.

If you have leftovers, store them in the refrigerator. You could eat it cold or at room temperature, but if you want to reheat, microwave only for a few seconds - it can get chewy if you microwave for too long.

~Gayatri