Crepes with blueberry compote

It's too much trouble to put the accent circonflexe over the 'e'
Ingredients

Crepes

• 1.25 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Blueberry compote

• 2 cups ripe blueberries (you can probably also use frozen)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
  

Mix flour and salt in large bowl.
Whisk together milk and eggs in another medium bowl.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk to combine.
Whisk in butter.
Strain mixture into a medium bowl. Scrape off the sieve if it collects too much of the butter.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (up to 1 day). Batter should have the consistency of heavy cream.
Heat a griddle over medium heat (we did 300). You can also use an omelet pan, which would work beautifully. However, we do not have such an object. So we used just a pancake griddle. It's more difficult, and the crepes looked less than perfect in some cases, but whatever.
Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle and try to spread it out as best as you can so that it forms a circle. We actually dragged the bottom side of the measuring cup in a circular motion over the batter until we thought it was thin enough.
Flip the crepe when the top appears to be set. This will take anywhere from 45 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how thick the crepe is.
Loosen the edges of the crepe with a spatula, then ease the spatula underneath the crepe and flip it over. Cook on opposite side for about 45 seconds, or until lightly browned on top.
Serve immediately with warm blueberry compote (as follows):
Put blueberries and water and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until the berries burst. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Serve warm.

Thoughts: Badass. These were awesome. As indicated above, it would be easier if we had an omelet pan, but it still worked really well. You get the hang of it after about 2-3 crepes. Delicious.
Blueberry compote was equally delicious and hella easy to make. You can also serve the crepes with grilled bananas, which Dan likes to do.

Disaster Index:1/10

Sausage Risotto

For this dish, just use a standard risotto base. I've listed it below.

Ingredients

• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 Italian sausages, sliced
• 1-1.5 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup marsala wine
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• salt, pepper, olive oil
• Lots of hot water
  

Add onion and garlic to a pot with some olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper and sautee over medium-low heat until the onions are tender. Add the rice and stir it around, letting the oil coat the rice well. Let that cook for a few minutes over medium-high heat, stirring often to prevent the rice from sticking too much. This develops a richer flavor. Now add the marsala wine and stir well to deglaze the pot. Add the chicken stock and stir well.

As the stock cooks off, continue adding more (preferably boiling) water, a cup or so at a time, and then stir that in and let it cook off at a boil. Adding the water while it's boiling develops the starch in the rice. Between you and me, I can't really tell a difference when the rice is made with or without boiling water, but that's the way you're supposed to do it.

When the rice is cooked, add the parsley and stir. Cook to the desired consistency, and serve.

Thoughts: We've made this a few times, and it works really well. Afterward I discovered that it is close to a traditional recipe. Huh. In the future, I might try adding mushrooms to the recipe. I think they might go well.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Potato Cheese Chili Soup

A Moosewood classic

Ingredients

• 4 medium russet potatoes
  
• 3c water
  
• 1tbsp butter
  
• 1tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2 of a large onion, chopped
  
• 1.75tsp salt
  
• 1tsp cumin
  
• 1tsp basil
  
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• lots of fresh black pepper
  
• 1 green bell pepper, diced.
  
• 1c diced green chilies (2 small cans of it is 9oz - close enough)
  
• 3/4c nonfat yogurt
  
• 1c milk
  
• 3/4c jack cheese, grated (or cut up smallish so they'll melt - it's not really important that you GRATE it. I didn't.)
  
• 2 scallions, chopped
  

Scrub the potatoes and cut into small chunks (unpeeled). Cook them in the 3c of water until tender (about 20 minutes). Meanwhile, sautee the onions in butter in olive oil. After a few minutes, add salt, cumin, basil, garlic, and black pepper and sautee until onions are soft. Add bell pepper and cook a few minutes longer.
Puree the potatoes in their cooking water and return to the stove. Add the sauteed vegetables along with the diced chilies, yogurt, and milk. Stir until well blended over medium-low heat. When it's hot & well combined, stir in cheese and scallions. Serve.

Thoughts: I followed the directions fairly strictly in making this (which is kind of new for me) but it turned out really well. My personal feeling is that the potatoes got a LITTLE gluey when I pureed them as I did. Next time, I'd cook them for a little longer in the liquid and then mash them manually (so as not to get them TOO well worked). The flavor was terrific, though. I'd eat this again.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Apple Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk (we used whole; you don't have to)
• 1 egg
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup chopped apple

Preheat oven to 400.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Fold in the chopped apples.
Grease a muffin tin. Put the batter into the muffin tins.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Eat.

Thoughts: I think our oven cooks pretty cool, so we actually baked these for like, 35 minutes before the toothpick came out clean. They were pretty dense - possibly because we used whole milk instead of skim. The batter was more like a bread dough than muffin batter, but they came out really nicely. They didn't rise much either, despite the 2 tsp of baking powder. But I'd still rate them very highly.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Panettone

A first attempt at an Italian Christmas bread. Still not as good as my father's. This recipe has weird measurements because it's scaled down...

Ingredients

• 1 28oz tomato can, cleaned and empty.
  
• 4/3c flour
  
• 1/3c raisins (preferably a mixture of dark and light)
  
• 1.5tsp yeast
  
• 1/6c lukewarm water plus a little
  
• 1/3 stick of butter
  
• 1 egg
  
• a little less than 2tbsp sugar (1/9c, to be exact)
  
• 1/3tsp salt
  
• 1/3tsp vanilla (YOU figure out how to measure this)
  
• 1/2tsp anise seed
  
• zest of one orange
  

Combine everything in a bowl. Stir together with a spatula and add a little flour until the consistency is a really sticky dough (still a little wet). Force it into the WELL GREASED tomato can and set to rise for about 1.5 hours. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Take it out and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes, then invert the can to turn it out. Usually served in wedges, but I like just the round slices you get by doing it cross-wise.

Thoughts: Claire was skeptical but she really liked it. I didn't have candied citron (which is normally an ingredient) and I used only dark raisins. Also could have used some anise extract. Generally it was quite good. It comes out KIND OF like Swedish limpa bread, but much lighter. We're probably going to try this recipe again eventually, but not until I finish the panettone my father made for me when I was last in Janesville.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - getting there. Worth repeating.

Deep-Fried Cornish Game Hens

Yes, we deep-fried Cornish game hens. What?
Ingredients

• Cornish game hens (we used 2)
  
• a lot of canola oil
  
• tongs galore
  

There is nothing more harrowing than trying to deep fry Cornish game hens. First thaw the suckers. Then wash them off with water and pat as completely dry as you can, inside and out. Let them sit out for an hour (yes, really). Toward the end of the hour, begin to heat the oil to 350 degrees. You want 1) enough oil to come up about 2-3 inches from the bottom of the pot and 2) not enough oil that it will bubble over when you put the chicken in.

Oil heated, add the chicken. Use tongs or something. Two pair make it easier. Cook it until it's golden brown, turning occasionally to get all the sides. It'll take about 12 minutes. I recommend trying to let it sit for at least 4 minutes on each side without messing with it too much.

Pull the thing out and place it on a wire rack to drain the oil out. Pat dry if need be. Now is a good time to start scrubbing the grease off of everything in your kitchen.

Thoughts: in a word, terrifying. Otherwise, I have to say that while it turned out OK, I wouldn't deep fry again. The done-ness was great, and it was NOT dry at all, but neither was it really flavorful. Next time we try to make it we'll rub it down with herbs and bake it. Advantage to that approach is you don't have to risk horrendous disfigurement or death to eat a chicken.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Caramelized Rice Pudding

From Martha Stewart
Ingredients

• 1.5c whole milk plus 3/8c (eyeball it)
  
• 1/4c medium grain white rice
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/8c white sugar + 2 tbsp or so
  
• 1/8tsp salt
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• raisins
  
• some cinnamon (again, eyeball it)
  

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the rice in 1.5c milk in a saucepan with some raisins (as much as you like). Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (15-20 min?) remove from heat. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 3/8c milk, 1/8c sugar, the salt, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Pour it into the rice mixture, stirring constantly. Return it to heat and bring to a simmer. Divide it between two ramekins. Place them on a casserole pan or bread pan and add about an inch of boiling water to the pan with them (to kinda steam them as they cook) and bake about 15 minutes. Let them cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle the tops with sugar, and caramelize using a kitchen torch (or a broiler if you don't have one... we actually use a wind-proof lighter. Seriously.)

Thoughts: I really liked this a lot. Claire liked it "for what it was" but says that it was too rich that she didn't like the caramelized sugar on top. If she made it in the future, it would include more skim milk (less whole) and no caramelized sugar. I guess I was expecting it to be rich so I really enjoyed what I got.

Disaster Index: 1/10. But Claire probably wouldn't do it again. I, however, definitely would.