Croque Madame

I'm not quite sure how a croque madame is different from a croque monsieur, except that the monsieur has tomato. Is that the only difference? And croque madame has an egg on top?

Ingredients

• 2.5 tbsp butter
• 1.5 tbsp flour
• 1 cup whole milk (or as much as you can. We ran out and had to use 3/4 cup whole and 1/4 cup skim, which turned out just fine)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup grated monterey jack cheese
• 4 slices white bread (we used sweet Hawaiian bread, which was awesome)
• however much mustard you want to put on your sandwich
• 2 large slices of prosciutto (1 slice/person)
  
• 2 large eggs

To make the sauce:

Melt butter in a saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil. When it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and 1/6 cup of the cheese. Cook until the cheese melts. Remove heat and cover with a sheet of wax paper (so a skin doesn't form on the roux)

To make the sandwiches:

While the roux is cooking, spread mustard on 2 of the slices of bread, and put the prosciutto on top.
When the roux is done, spread some of it over the other 2 slices of bread, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Put the pieces of bread together so that they form a sandwich. Durrrr.
Heat a skillet or griddle and spray with nonstick cooking spray or olive oil. Once it's hot, place the sandwiches on it. Cook them for 3-4 minutes total, turning them once halfway. They should get nice and brown. Remove from heat.
If you'd like, you can cook the eggs at the same time. Our griddle is big enough to cook like, 10,000 things simultaneously, so we just did it at the same time as we did the sandwiches. Cook the eggs over easy such that the whites are set and the yolks are runny. You know how this works.
Prepare the broiler.
Top each grilled sandwich with the remaining sauce, spreading evenly. Cook under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, until the topping is bubbling. You might want to check periodically to make sure you aren't burning the sandwiches. There is nothing worse than a burnt croque madame, let me tell you.
Take the sandwiches out and top each one with a fried egg. Eat.

Thoughts: OH MY GOD THESE WERE ABSOLUTELY TRANSCENDENT. SERIOUSLY. THIS IS THE BEST THING WE'VE MADE IN A WHILE. SWEET JESUS THIS WAS GOOD. THE ORIGINAL RECIPE CALLED FROM GRUYERE BUT I THINK USING PEPPER JACK WAS A GOOD IDEA. OMG. I CANNOT RAVE ABOUT THIS ENOUGH. CAN WE GIVE IT A NEGATIVE RATING? Dan suggests using a firmer bread next time (the kind we used was more spongy than most). I don't think we need a firmer bread. But you know. We can try it. We will definitely be experimenting with other fillings and cheeses and whatnot. There's a version that uses smoked salmon as well, but Dan doesn't seem excited about that. Hmph.

Disaster Index: -5/10

Strawberry Tart

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp whole milk
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut in half (depending on the size of your pan, you may need less)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a spring-form pan. We used an 8.5 inch pan.
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and milk. Mix the dry and wet ingredients. Do not overmix. This is important.
Spread the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Press the strawberry halves deeply into the batter, making several concentric rings.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out pretty clean.

Thoughts: Pretty delish, and very easy to make. I might have sprinkled the top of the tart with sugar and cinnamon before baking it, just to add a little more flavor. The more strawberries you can fit on top, the better. Don't worry about making a pretty pattern. Just add all sorts of strawberries.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chinese BBQ ribs with jasmine rice

Ingredients

• 2 lbs baby back ribs
• 1.5 tbsp peeled chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/6 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1.5 cups rice
• 2 cups jasmine tea
• 1 cup water
  

Preheat oven to 400 F. Put rack in middle position.
Puree the marinade ingredients together in a food processor.
Reserve 1/4 cup sauce and coat the ribs with the remainder.
Arrange ribs, meaty side down, in a broiler pan or a baking pan (lined with foil), and bake, turning the ribs and basting them with some of the reserved sauce about half way though. Bake for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, make the rice. This isn't difficult. Just make normal rice but instead of cooking the rice with water, do it with 2 parts jasmine tea and 1 part water.
Remove from oven. Turn on the broiler. Brush ribs, meaty side up, with the remaining sauce and put them under the broiler for 3 minutes, until there is char.
Eat.

Thoughts: Pretty damn good. This was the first time we attempted to make ribs, so we were pretty impressed with the outcome. I was worried they would be too dry, but they were not. I liked the chinese marinade, but in the future I would probably stick with traditional American BBQ sauce because I am a huge fan. Part of the ribs didn't cook all the way through the first time, so we can to throw those in for another 10 minutes, but they came out fine. The meat pulled away from the ribs pretty well, which was good. The jasmine rice was also pretty good. Not overpowering.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Shrimp and Orzo pilaf

Well, I don't know if this is exactly a pilaf, but it looks a lot like one. And it makes this recipe sound fancier.

Ingredients

• 1 lb frozen shrimp (ok, you're SUPPOSED to use fresh shrimp, but seriously, we're college students)
• salt and black pepper
• 1 medium red onion, minced
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp of crushed/minced garlic
• 1 lb pastina (we used orzo and something that looked like spaghetti-o's)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 4 oz chevre, crumbled (if you CAN)
• 4 tbsp of chopped chives

Preheat oven to 400.
Combine olive oil, minced onion, and some of the salt in a stockpot of Dutch oven. Cover and cook on medium-low heat until the onions have softened, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the pastina and cook, stirring frequently, until the orzo is coated with oil and lightly browned, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the broth and water and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is MOSTLY tender but still firm in the middle (this is sort of tricky to do), about 12 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes and oregano.
Pour into a 9x13 glass baking dish and put the chevre on top, in whatever form you think is best. Bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, thaw the shrimp until they are cool but soft.
When the pilaf is done, take it out and put the shrimp in it and stir it all around. This will warm the shrimp sufficiently to eat them without getting them all rubbery.

Thoughts: Pretty delicious, actually. I was sort of skeptical of the dish, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The original recipe calls for 1 large red bell pepper as well, but we didn't have one. But I would definitely put one in next time. The original recipe also calls for saffron, but seriously. Come on. The pasta was pretty difficult to get to the right consistency. I think you're aiming for al dente on this one, which is what the recipe is going for when it says cook "until the grains of orzo are mostly tender yet still slightly firm at the center". Why don't they just SAY al dente? Whatever. I think we may also have felt a little ambivalent about chevre. I mean, it doesn't really melt, so it just sort of sits on top of the pasta. I don't know. I doubt feta would be much better, since it doesn't melt either. Mozzarella? Maybe. Look into.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Apple Pie

Based on Alton Brown's recipe. Actually it's pretty much exactly it, just cataloged here for our use.

Ingredients

• For the crust
  
  
  
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into approximate tablespoons
    
  • 2.75c white flour
    
  • 1tsp salt
    
  • 1tbsp white sugar
    
  • cold water
    
  
  
• The pie filling
  
  
  
  • 1/2c sugar
    
  • 3tbsp corn starch
    
  • 2tbsp apple jelly
    
  • 2tsp lemon juice
    
  • 1/4tsp salt
    
  • 1/4tsp ground grains of paradise
    
  • 5 apples (2 granny smith, 3 pacific rose), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/2" thick
    
  • 1 peach, sliced up 1/2" thick
    
  
  

In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients for the crust except the water. Give it a few good pulses. Then add water, two tablespoons at a time, and pulse a few times until the dough sticks together when you pinch it (it won't really stick together on its own, though). Form the dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.

Now, peel and core the apples and slice into 1/2" thick slices. Toss together with 1/2c sugar and leave them in a colander for 1.5 hours. Preheat the oven to 450. Take the apples out (setting aside the liquid) and toss them (and the peach slices) with the jelly, the remaining sugar, the lemon juice, salt, grains of paradise, and the corn starch.

Take out one disc of tough and roll it out into a 12" circle. Place it in a pie tin and make sure it's neat around the edges and reaches the bottom of the pan. Place all the apples in concentric circles, piling them a little extra high in the center of the pie. Roll out the second disc and place it over all of the apples. Pinch the dough to the crust so that it won't come up, and then cut a 3" X in the top of the crust. Brush the crust with the remaining liquid from the apples (cooked down to 2tbsp?). Place the pie in the oven on the lowest rack for about 45-50 minutes.

Thoughts: Best. Pie. Ever. Next time we're going to try using more peaches, using some peach-vanilla jam, and upping the grains of paradise a little. Best served with some aged cheddar melted on top. Trust me.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Sweet Curry Powder

We ran out of curry powder the other day. Here is the recipe I used for sweet curry:
Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  
• pinch cayenne
  

Directions: mix spices.

Thoughts: Worked pretty well, I guess.

Disaster Index: 1/10.

Moroccan Potato Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can Cannolini / Great Northern beans
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 onions, chopped
  
• About 6 red potatoes, cubed
  
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (or vegetable bouillon)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
  
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  Chives, whatever else you like.
  

Sautee onions in olive oil until they're a little brown. Set aside. In a large pot, add the water and cannolini beans (we didn't drain them) and simmer for 15 minutes. Add everything except the milk and green onions and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Then add the milk and green onions and remove from heat.

Thoughts: this was pretty great. Claire thinks unreservedly that it was fantastic, but I think it had way too much salt. For the future, we could add some carrots. I discovered that a LITTLE bit of honey cut the saltiness by a lot and made it much more palatable to me. Something to consider.

Disaster Index: 1/10