Sunday Night Dinner

Frittatta

2009-11-01T17:28:00.001-08:00

This chef had a surplus of eggs in the refrigerator. Eggland's Best Eggs. Time for this chef's first Frittatta!

Fritatta seems like a better spelling, and stupid Cooks Illustrated's least robust search engine ever can't recognize this spelling. Oh well.

Besides the eggs, zucchini is the next most important ingredient:

In order to make this more like the egg dish from Jaleo (the tortila, not tortilla), some onions were added. Sauted onions.

Kitchenaid made it so easy to shred three zucchini.

The shredded zucchini was pressed in some towels so to remove the excess moisture.

The shredded, dried pile of zucchini was added to the onions.

Two cloves of garlic followed.

Once the zucchini was mostly cooked, it was taken off the stove, and mixed in with six scrambled (yet raw) eggs. And some basil

This went back into the frying pan to cook until mostly set. Because non-stick skillets usually can't go into the oven, especially under the broiler, no matter what CI says, to finish the frittatta, it was put on a baking sheet. An oven-safe baking sheet. And finished under the broiler:

Ta-da!

Pumpkin bread

2009-10-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

Words to be provided at a later date.

A post in pictures

2009-10-18T17:42:00.001-07:00

Yum.

More squash!

2009-10-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

A visit to a farm brought more squash into this kitchen this weekend. The squash were plentiful and of many varying varieties.

Acorn and Carinval squash were chosen. The original plan was to steam them in the microwave or roast them in the oven, as was suggested by the very nice squash selling lady at the farm, but after having seen a recipe for butternut squash risotto, that plan was changed.

These are not butternut squash, but they are squash.

To start, the squash were peeled and cut into cubes. These cubes were sauted for about 8 minutes, then in chicken broth. When they were soft, they were drained, and the broth was reserved.

Next, onion was sauted (in butter) with a little garlic. Once the onions were nice and soft and a little bit browned, the 2 cups of arborrio rice were added and cooked until translucent. To this rice/onion/garlic mixture a little white wine was added.

Once the wine was absorbed, three cups of the reserved chicken broth were added to the rice:

This was cooked away until the rice had absorbed the liquid.

Back in went the squash, some parmesan cheese, and some chopped sage.

Delicious and very fall-like.

It's squash time!

2009-10-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Even though it's still way too hot here, it is beginning to feel like fall. One of the more exciting signs - the availability of all types of squashes. Today we will be using the butternut variety for Sage Butternut Squash Soup.

These squash can be hard to cut. But to start, the squash was cut into roughly 1/2 inch cubes.

Fist into the pot: 1.5 tablespoon of butter with an onion.

Add in a little chopped sage.

Then continue to cook. Saute for about 6 minutes, then add in the squash.

Cook that whole mixture for another 5-6 minutes, add in a clove of crushed garlic and cook for one more minute. Then we need to make it into soup, so add the chicken broth. The recipe called for five cups, but this was too much for the amount of squash.

Then put the mixture into the blender. This is a lovely KitchenAid blender, given as a birthday present to this chef.

The soup is done at this point. Unfortunately, the amount of liquid was too much for the amount of squash. Perhaps next time, the squash should be separated from the liquid after cooking, and added to the puree only as necessary.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment: Test 2

2009-09-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

In the continuation of the Toll House cookie experiment, we will continue with cold butter, sifted flour, volume measured ingredients.

There was another variable unintentionally involved here. In order to cream the butter and sugar while the butter was cold, the Kitchenaid Mixer was used.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Mix in th chocolate chips.

Teaspoon sized balls on the baking sheets.

And ta-da! Soft, puffy cookies.

This result is perhaps what the traditional toll House cookies are meant to be.

Next up, we will try to get the cookies to turn out how my mom's cookies come out - thin and chewy.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment

2009-09-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

This would be much nicer if blogger wouldn't rotate my pictures without my consent.

Nestle's Toll House cookies are a standard. Mostly because they are easy to make and taste really good. My first memories of these cookies actually involve a not terribly happy memory. I was about three or four years old and baking cookies with my mom. "Helping." Unfortunately, I knocked the bowl off the counter and the bowl broke. This memory may not actually be true, because the bowl I swear I broke is this one:

Anyway, the experiment at hand is one that is to determine what affects the "puffiness" of the cookies. When my mom makes them, they are very thin. Delicious, but thin. I have made them many times, and they come out many different ways. Puffy, thin, crispy, chewy. I also have a lot of variation in my oven (some apartments have ovens that do not have any noticeable correlation between oven temperature dial and actual oven temperature). The main variables in this experiment will be sifting, measuring methods, and butter temperature.

Up first: room temperature butter, sifted flour, volume measurements of flour and sugar.

The recipe is easy to memorize. Two sticks of butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar

Two eggs and one teaspoon of vanilla

Sift in 2.25 cups all-purpose flour, one teaspoon baking soda, one teaspoon salt.

Mix in a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips.

And then spoon onto some baking sheets

Bake for up to 10 minutes at 375F.

The result: somewhat puffy, overbaked cookies. The overbaking is likely more due to the lack of complete control over the oven temperature. The mid-level puffiness is assumed to be a direct result of the butter temperature.

Fresh Spring Rolls

2009-09-12T16:58:00.001-07:00

This has been the summer of Spring Rolls. The fresh kind. These are not a terribly involved in terms of cooking, they are more about assembly.

To make these, we need rice vermicelli, tofu, cucumber, carrot, green onion, and Thai basil. Unfortunately, no Thai basil was available at the store today, so mint and sweet basil were used as a replacement. Mint is closer to the flavor of Thai basil than regular basil.

The tofu was cut into strips, then briefly fried and finally dried.

The carrots were grated - by hand this time, not using the food processor. The green onions were split and cut into thirds. The cucumber was seeded and cut into strips.

Wash and clean some lettuce leaves to rest the rolls on.

The assembly process is involved, so no pictures were taken. To make them, soak the spring roll wrappers in water until flexible. Layer some of the herbs, add some noodles, some carrots, cucumber, and green onion, and finally some of the tofu. Roll up like a burrito and voila!

But before the can be eaten, we need some peanut dipping sauce. This is the real reason why one eats fresh spring rolls. Fry up some crushed garlic, add some tomato paste, hoisin sauce, peanut butter, and water. For a little kick, some asian chili-garlic sauce was added too.

Yummmmm.

More cake!!

2009-08-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

To celebrate a birthday, a special cake was needed. The cake is the perfect summer-time cake, although perhaps it would be better earlier in the summer, when strawberries are in season.

The base was High Ratio White Cake from the CIA Baking and Pastry book, which is not pure white, since it does have some egg yolk in it. This cake needed to be extra high, so the recipe was doubled and each cake was cut into two layers, with one of the layers reserved for future use.

First, we prep the pans:

Then, we mix up the batter. In a high-ratio cake, there is a high ratio of sugar to butter. All of the dry ingredients are mixed in with the butter and 50% of the wet ingredients (milk, eggs, and vanilla in this case). Then, to develop structure, this is mixed for four minutes. The remaining 50% of the wet ingredients are added in three additions, mixing for two minutes after each addition.

Mmm, cake batter.

These layers baked up very nicely.

The next day, it was time to assemble the cake. Slice up strawberries, enough for each layer and the top decoration.

And then whip up the cream. This time, it was stabilized - just like Rose Levy B. does.

Assemble carefully: Cake, whipped cream, strawberries, cake whipped cream, strawberries, cake, whipped cream, lots of strawberries!

The finished cake!

2009-08-18T18:31:00.001-07:00

Life in the kitchen was interrupted by a visit from this guy:

The kitchen is not large, and he is not a small dog.

But back to the story of the cake. When we last left it there were two layers of yellow cake, nearly 5cm high. They needed to be dressed up and what better to do it than chocolate frosting? The frosting was a new recipe for this chef, based on sour cream, not butter or sugar. To 2.25cups of sour cream, 15oz of melted, yet cooled, chocolate chips were added. And .25cups of corn syrup.

This was chilled a little to make it stiffer, and then it was time to ice the cake.

And since it was a birthday cake, it definitely need a few sprinkles!

Reviews were good, although this chef prefers a sweeter frosting...

A Single Sunday Night Chef

2009-08-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

The Sunday Night Chefs have separated, not due to anger but due to circumstances. Though there will be a high proportion of the Chefs living in an East-Coast-Liberal-Elite state in the very near future, only one Chef currently has the password to this site. These will be stories from the kitchen of that Chef.

Two things were going on in the kitchen tonight - Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables and Best Birthday Cake. The gnocchi were from Martha's Everyday Living magazine-ette (it's much smaller than a regular magazine). This magazine started arriving one day, completely unexpectedly. Best Birthday Cake is from Smitten Kitchen, via Porter House.

Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables:
This was a simple recipe, one that can truly be an "everyday food." Though this chef is experienced with gnocchi, even owning a gnocchi board, to be an everyday food, store bought gnocchi were used. The summer vegetables were "locally grown," which Harris Teeter defines as being from somewhere six hours away or less. Zucchini, yellow squash and garlic were up first - into the saute pan with a little olive oil and salt. Then some grape tomatoes for two more minutes - just enough to release the juices.

In a separate pot, the gnocchi were boiling away.

*Le Creuset was hiding in the background, trying not to be noticed. He doesn't have a cupboard to call home in this apartment's kitchen.

Once the gnocchi were cooked and buttered, they were mixed into the saute pan and topped off with a little basil.

Stir it around and yum! A delicious dinner.

The birthday cake was in the first stages tonight. The cake will be presented to a coworker on Friday, but this chef knew and Smitten Kitchen agrees that it is much easier to frost a cake while it's frozen.

This is a serious cake. Over four cups of flour, two cups of sugar, two cups of buttermilk, and a cup of butter. Plus a few other ingredients.

Popped into the oven for 40 minutes at 350 and:

Two beautiful cake layers, both nearly 5cm tall. These guys will be into the freezer tonight, getting ready to be dressed in chocolate sour cream frosting on Thursday night!

The Last Dinner

2008-12-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

By Sunday, one chef will be nearly to his new East Coast home. Where he will become an East Coast Liberal Elite. Not that he's not already a Liberal Elite.

A menu befitting the solemn occasion of our final Sunday Night Dinner was necessary. Old favorites were brought out. Fresh pasta, chicken fricassee, salad, and profiteroles for dessert.

What will Sunday nights become without a Tuscan-scene bowl full of fresh, buttered pasta?

Without chicken browned by our chicken browning specialist chef?

A sauce prepared by his sauce-preparing specialist chef?

Without a salad prepared by the salad specialist chef?

And without profiteroles prepared by our pate a choux specialist chef?

Not good Sunday nights, that's for sure.

The chicken fricassee recipe is the one from The Professional Chef that these chefs have used more than once in the last 3 years. The salad was a modified waldorf salad, with walnuts, dried cranberries and apples. And the profiteroles were from Nick Malgieri. With chocolate sauce from Cooks Illustrated.

A bittersweet chocolate ending to a good run of Sunday nights.

No new dinners to report

2008-11-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

but some pie making activity has been going on in the home of one chef. Another chef has foiled plans for Sunday Night Dinner for three Sundays in a row, due to travel. He is personally responsible for the unhappiness of the other three.

In order to appease the viewing public, here is a short photo essay on apple pie.

Apples, peeled.

Apples, mixed with sugar, cinnamon and a touch of flour.

Fill the pies.

Both pies!

Cover the pies with crust. Fix the edges up nice.

Put them in the oven, wrapped up around the edges so they don't get burnt.

Take them out when they are golden.

Nestle them in the orange box.

These pies are ready for travel. But where are they going??

A serious lack of dedication

2008-11-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

to Sunday night dinner has taken over the chefs. Last week, the host chef was working, this week one of the chefs was missing. But the remaining chefs couldn't give up that easily. It was a lovely night for a fall dinner. On the menu: butternut squash ravioli, salad, and pumpkin doughnuts (or donuts).

The chefs branched out and used non CI recipes this week. The pasta recipe was from Professional Chef, vol. 7. The butternut squash ravioli recipe from foodtv.com and the doughnuts from epicurious.com.

Let's start with the ravioli. The chefs are very good at pasta making. The filling for the ravioli was more interesting. A 5lb butternut squash was cut into pieces and roasted in the oven for around an hour. The roasted pieces were peeled and placed into Big Bertha. She made quick work of pureeing them. Then, some minced shallots were sauted in a pan with butter. The squash puree, a little cream, a little parmesan, and a little salt and pepper joined in next. This was cooked briefly, then packaged into ravioli. These were then cooked in boiling water (It's Pasta Time saved the day again!) for about 3 minutes. The cooked ravioli were briefly sauted in a brown butter sage sauce (which, surprisingly I'm sure, contained butter and sage leaves) and then were ready to be eaten! The delicious nature of these ravioli cannot be overstated.

The salad was a variation on a common salad theme. Baby greens, sliced strawberries and walnuts. On the side, for those not afraid of unknown black material, was an apricot vinaigrette.
And if the butternut squash ravioli weren't enough, the pumpkin doughnuts (donuts) capped off a delicious fall meal. The dough contains the usuals, sugar, eggs, flour, salt, baking powder, pumpkin and lots of spices. The dough is mixed and then needs a rest in the refrigerator. After its nap it's ready to be rolled out and cut with a doughnut (donut) cutter. Then a four minute bath in hot oil, a quick draining on some paper towels, and into the cinnamon sugar!

It's so hard to eat just one pumpkin doughnut (donut).

At last we meet again

2008-10-19T18:14:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy month for the four chefs. Travels, illness (imaginary illness it seems) and scheduling conflicts have prevented the preparation of Sunday Night Dinner.

This week's menu was based around marinara sauce. Marinara sauce, chicken parmesan, garlic bread and salad.

Uh oh, the garlic bread is missing from there. Here it is:

Let's start there. The garlic bread was not made from a recipe. A large loaf of french bread was split in half length-wise and width-wise. This was covered in butter. Lots and lots of butter. The butter had been mixed with some roasted garlic and some fresh garlic. The roasted garlic was quickly roasted in a pan on the stove, not for an hour in the oven. The bread, as everything usually is, was delicious.

Blogger is rotating the pictures again. Up next is tomato sauce.

This is the same tomato sauce from the Eggplant Parmesan from a few weeks ago. This time, due to an oversight at the grocery store, whole tomatoes were used instead of diced tomatoes. This would not be a recommended substitution, unless no other tomatoes were available. These whole tomatoes were a little...seedy. Bertha quickly pureed the whole tomatoes (though she did leave some chunks like we wanted). In a sauce pan, some garlic and red chili flakes were heated in some oil, and then the tomatoes were added. This was reduced for around 20 minutes and then the chopped basil was added. It was, as expected, delicious.

The chicken parmesan was "Champion", or so a back issue of Cooking Light declared. This recipe was from 2001. The chicken was pounded thin, dipped in egg white, then coated in a herb, flour, grated parmesan mixture. Into the frying pan until golden brown then into the baking dish. Once in the baking dish, the chicken was covered in sauce and some mozzarella.

Mmmm.

The salad was simple. A box of organic baby greens and some grape tomatoes, halved. For dressing a vinaigrette was prepared using the ratio from Professional Chef, Vol 7. One-sixth red wine vinegar, one-sixth balsamic vinegar, two thirds olive oil. Throw in a little salt, pepper and sugar and it's done!

Overall, a fine return for the Sunday Night Chefs.

Pimentos make every meal a big deal!

2008-09-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight's menu: Arroz con pollo and Avocado-Orange Salad with Romaine and Lime-Cumin Dressing. Both were from CI, from the Latin Comfort Food menu. And were they ever comforting.

Let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start. And tonight that means with red onion, lime, avocado and oranges. Mrs. Butterworth is there to watch over the dinner preparations.

The salad had a romaine lettuce base and was topped with red onion, avocado and orange supremes. The dressing was a simple mixture of lime juice, cumin seed, olive oil, garlic and jalapeno. The avocado and red onion were tossed in the dressing, but the lettuce was dressed according to the diner's preference.

The arroz con pollo had several steps. The chicken was first marinated in a garlic marinade. Then a mixture of diced onion and green pepper was sauted in a pan. Once this was done, the chicken was added. After the chicken was no longer transparent, but before it browned, it was put into a soup pot. The pan was deglazed with chicken broth and then the chicken broth and fond was put into the soup pot with a little water and some tomato sauce. Bring up to a simmer and then add the arroz!

The pot was put into the oven and at 10 minute intervals, the pot contents were stirred from the bottom to the top. Once the rice and chicken were cooked, the chicken was separated out and pulled from the bone and mixed with a pimento-olive oil-cilantro mixture.

Mmm pimentos.

Finally, arroz:

pollo:

arroz con pollo:

Ta-da!

Super fantastic Italian food

2008-09-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight's menu was Italian-based with a French dessert. Eggplant parmesan (with eggplant from the farmer's market, locally grown of course) and fresh pasta. Tarte Tatin for dessert.

Let's start with the dessert tonight. This dish featured apples obtained from one of the best apple orchards in the area, which isn't saying much at all. Minnesota orchards don't even hold a candle to Michigan apple orchards.

Anyway, first, butter was melted in a pan:

Quite a substantial amount of butter. Sugar was added, and then quartered apples were carefully placed in the pan Once the apples were cooked and the sugar and butter started to carmelize, a crust was placed over the top of the pan. Then into the oven for thirty minutes. After cooling, the pan was turned over, to reveal a lovely tarte tatin.

Fresh pasta is not new to these chefs. One chef was assigned to work the pasta dough, and after it was well rested, that was done. This picture captures the pasta at stage 2 of 5. Hanging on the rack in the background are sheets in stage 4.

Mmmmm.

The eggplant parmesan recipe was from Cooks Illustrated. The first step is to drain sliced eggplants that have been salted with KOSHER salt. Not table salt, or Christopher Kimball might come after you. After draining for 40 minutes, they were pressed in towels. Then they were dipped in egg and then shaken in a bag full of fresh bread crumbs (only premium sandwich bread can be used) and parmesan. Then onto a baking sheet covered with oil and into the oven. Flip halfway through the baking time, and then out for assembly. The eggplant slices were layered in a baking dish topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella. Then back into the oven for melting. Super fantastic!

The sauce was a basic tomato sauce. Some tomatoes, some basil, some garlic. The usuals.

Ooh! Look at that piping hot pasta!

Chefs on holiday

2008-08-25T18:52:00.001-07:00

The chefs will not be cooking for the next two Sundays, as they travel the continent. Until they all reunite, here is a look back at a meal from last November. Coq au vin, pommes Anna, a light salad, and profiteroles for dessert. We have featured coq au vin on this site previously, so we will focus here on the pommes and the profiteroles. But the coq au vin is just so lovely in the blue Le Creuset dutch oven.

The pommes anna start with a few pounds of potatoes. Russets for this recipes, though Yukon golds are generally the preferred potatoes for this group. The potatoes were sliced using a mandoline and then mixed with melted butter. More melted butter than the chefs will admit to. Then, in a hot pan, the potatoes were layered first counterclockwise around the pan, then clockwise until no slices remain except those that do not complete a layer. These are cooked in the pan for fifteen minutes, then flipped carefully onto a baking sheet and baked in the oven for at least another 15 minutes. Serve in the most beautiful butterfly dish you can find.

A delicious meal. Perfect for a November night.

The profiteroles have made more than one appearance in the Sunday night chefs' kitchen. This is one of the first things one chef ever learned to make. A quick pate a choux was mixed up and then baked into cream puffs. The puffs get filled with vanilla ice cream and then, this is topped with the most glorious chocolate sauce ever. The key is using the bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips. These are melted and combined with cream, butter, and a little corn syrup. Yum.

The only thing that could make them better would be if blogger would realize that this is a landscape picture, not a profile.

Great Faces, Great Places

2008-08-24T18:53:00.001-07:00

And don't forget the great food. It should be noted that only three of the four chefs were present tonight, as one has a weak constitution.

This was the last Sunday night dinner of the summer (though perhaps not technically, as summer continues until September 22) and this was all the reason to take advantage of grilling season in Minnesota and make some fabulous fajitas. On the side were fresh tomato salsa and sweet corn cake. And dessert was the Official Dessert of Summer 2008 - strawberry shortcake.

The fajita recipe is not new to this group. It's from cooks illustrated and has been a favorite for at least two years now. The chicken is marinaded in a mixture of lime juice, oil, worcestershire sauce, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro for fifteen minutes. It is difficult to remember, but one fourth of the mixture has to be saved for drizzling over the cooked chicken. Grilled along side the chicken are red and green peppers and some delicious red onion. This is one of the best recipes ever.

The sweet corn cake was modeled after something served at some of the chain Mexican restaurants. It turned out quite well, though perhaps a little on the dry side. To make it butter, cream, masa harina, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and fresh corn were all mixed together. The corn was sliced off the cob and then Bertha did a lovely job with it.

This was baked for nearly 50 minutes! The end result was beautiful until one chef couldn't keep his hands (and a bamboo skewer) off of it.

The fresh salsa was from cooks illustrated too. It was a relatively simple mixture of roma tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, lime juice, salt and sugar. That didn't stop CI from making the recipe complicated! The tomatoes drained in the sink for what felt like a very long time.

Overall, the dinner was amazing.

Dessert is not pictured, due to the low quality of images obtained. The low quality of the images does not reflect the high quality of the taste. Added to the enjoyment was a video of last year's vacation to South Dakota. Three of the four chefs (the same three in attendance tonight) went on a long weekend journey to the most patriotic of places, Mount Rushmore (or "The Great Face" as some people like to call it).

*A side note to any cats in the Prospect Park neighborhood: you are neither invited to dinner, nor invited into the Sunday night chefs' kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom or bedroom.

A gold medal feast!

2008-08-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

All four members of the Sunday night chefs team were back in town, ready to compete in the Sunday night dinner Olympics.

We went with a Greek theme tonight: lemon chicken, babaganoush, and spanakopita. The first two recipes were from Cooks Illustrated, the last from foodtv.com.

First round: Spanakopita.

Fresh spinach was wilted in a saute pan with some olive oil. This was drained, and should have been chopped, but was fine in the unchopped form in which it was used. Once the spinach was cooked, some scallions and parsley were cooked and combined with the spinach. To this some crumbled feta was added. This mixture was wrapped in strips of filo. Or Phyllo. Whichever you prefer. The phyllo had been brushed with melted butter and the folded spanakopita were brushed with more butter!

Difficulty: 9.5. The use of phyllo was a challenging element of this routine.
Execution: 8.0. A few of the sheets of phyllo proved too difficult for the chef to handle. Additionally, the dismount from the baking sheet was a little rough.
Overall: delicious.

Second round: babaganoush.

Few images were available of this portion of the evening's competition. But to describe the routine, two gorgeous egglants were grilled until soft. The insides were removed and drained of their excess liquid. This eggplant meat was put into Bertha (Bertha!) and processed with lemon juice, tahini, garlic, salt and pepper. Before serving, the the babaganoush was drizzled with olive oil and parsley.

Difficulty: 7.75. Grilling of the eggplants and seasoning of the mixture were key to this routine.
Execution: 9.5. The dish might have been cooled a bit more before serving.
Overall: delicious!

Final round: Lemon grilled chicken

Again, few pictures for this round. The chicken was brined in a mixture of sugar, salt and water. This was cooked to near completion on the grill, and then dipped in the special lemon sauce. This sauce's most interesting component was a garlic paste. The paste was created using the back of a knife on a mixture of minced garlic and kosher salt. This was cooked with some lemon juice and thyme. The same sauce was drizzled over the chicken when served.

Difficulty: 8.5. Garlic paste is an unusual component for a recipe, and the technique for making it is quite specialized.
Execution: 10.0. The chicken was perfect. In fact, it could not have been better.
Overall: delicious!

Final score: Gold medal quality.

The chefs are popular among the neighborhood cats. There was another visitor this week.

2008-08-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

Only three of the four chefs were available tonight, but dinner was to be had anyway! The fourth chef was on his way back, and should be there next week.

Tonight's menu was barbecue chicken sandwiches and pesto pasta salad. Both CI recipes. The pesto pasta salad was not new to this crowd, but it certainly is a favorite.

Cub failed us in terms of pine nuts. It shall be stated for the record that Rainbow Fresh has always had pine nuts. Bulk pine nuts. In the Fresh section. So tonight was a walnut pesto. It was quite good.

Bertha was loaded up with 4 ounces of basil, 1 ounce of spinach, lemon juice, the aforementioned walnuts, garlic, salt and pepper. She made quick work of grinding that down to a lovely paste. In went the last two sercret ingredients - parmigiano-reggiano and mayonnaise. Bertha took care of those with no trouble.

Pasta Time (not pictured) cooked the farfalle, and once cooled, they were covered in the pesto. Add some "Cherubs" (grape tomatoes in a lovely beehive shaped package) and we're all set!

The barbecue chicken recipe was a little confusing. So we improvised. The chicken was grilled until done (not 30 minutes and then 45 minutes).

This needed to be picked, which two of the chefs were delighted to take care of.

The sauce was involved. Bertha got to come out to play again (twice in one night!) and had no trouble turning two halves of an onion into a pulp.

We were really going for the juice here, so the pulp was put into a fine mesh strainer.

This was mixed with a variety of sauces including ketchup and Worcestershire and then cooked down until a bit thickened (but not terribly thick).

Due to one chef being slightly odd, the meat from the chicken parts were kept separate, white and dark. As this is dinner for four chefs, each was certainly capable of adding their own sauce to their chosen chicken.

Look at that lovely barbecue sauce in the beautiful gravy boat.

Dessert might be secret. But it involved some delicious raspberries.

Uninvited dinner guest...

2008-07-27T18:28:00.001-07:00

Today was hot. Very, very hot. The morning was taken up by all four chefs gathering to move the belongings of one chef to his new home. The afternoon was filled with food. Good, good food. It was so hot, we propped the kitchen door open, and almost had an uninvited guest come in. He was sent away, but reappeared when it was time to set the table.

Tonight's menu was a new recipe from Cooks Illustrated: Enchiladas Verdes. Mexican rice on the side, and birthday cake (of the flourless chocolate variety) with ice cream for dessert.

The enchiladas were AMAZING. The sauce started with tomatillos. These are actually more closely related to gooseberries than tomatoes. A pound and a half of tomatillos were selected from among those available at Cub (Fresh).

These were grilled with poblano peppers that had been split in half with seeds and pith removed.

Once blackened, the skins were removed from the poblanos and they, the tomatillos, a little sugar, a little salt, some garlic, and some chicken stock were processed by Big Bertha.

The chicken stock was really part of the poaching liquid that the chicken was cooked in. First onions were cooked in the poaching pot, to add a little something extra. This chicken was shredded, mixed with some pepper jack cheese and used as the filling.

The tortillas were briefly warmed on the grill, then filled with the chicken mixture and rolled tightly and put in the 9 by 13 baking dish. This was covered with the tomatillo sauce and a little pepper jack cheese was sprinkled on top.

Bertha had a second job for this meal. She processed some tomatoes and an onion for the mexican rice.

Two cups, and ONLY two cups, of this mixture was added to some slightly "fried" rice along with the rest of our quart of chicken stock.

This all came together with some lime wedges, cilantro, green peppers, and diced japalenos.

Overall, the dinner was amazing. The enchiladas couldn't have been better.

Dinner was complemented by flourless chocolate cake (Martha Stewart's recipe, though apparently some chefs do not approve of her) and some neapolitan ice cream. Since this was for a birthday, we splurged on the Deluxe Neapolitan ice cream. With real artificial flavorings.

Delicious, but No Cats Allowed!

It's been a while...

2008-07-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

and the four chefs still are not all on the same continent. In the meantime, one chef's glorious sunday dinner will be featured.

The purpose behind this menu was that it features the use of a dutch oven. A nice Le Creuset dutch oven. The 7.25 quart one. Because the 5 quart one would be too small. Even though the 7.25 quart one might weigh more than this chef might hope....

So Coq au Vin. There are actually two CI versions of this classic available online. One takes longer than the other and includes carrots and shallots. A blend of these two recipes was used for this night's meal. Carrots, but not shallots.

This was the first meal that involved this particular chef using a real bottle of wine. This required the first purchase of a bottle of wine, as well as the first opening of a wine bottle. Thankfully the Sunday Night Chefs are a friendly bunch, and are open to lending out corkscrews as necessary.

Look at that cork! All out and all in one piece!

This wine was combined with some chicken stock, thyme, and parsley and reduced to 3 cups.

At the same time, in the dutch oven, things were getting quite heated. The chicken was browned and the fond was used to cook the vegetables. In this case, pearl onions, carrots, and garlic.

This was the first time ever that frozen pearl onions were purchased in Minnesota by any of the Sunday Night Chefs. And let this chef announce for all the world that frozen pearl onions are at least one-hundred times easier to deal with than fresh. None of the blanching or peeling is involved.

After the vegetables were cooked, they were mixed up with some flour and tomato paste and then the wine and chicken were added (or in some cases returned) to the dutch oven.

Stew on the burner for at least 25 minutes. Yum yum.

Since this was one chef making Sunday night dinner, the (delicious)
Coq au Vin was served with Healthy Harvest whole wheat egg noodles. Not anywhere near as good as fresh pasta, but still a lovely accompaniment.

[Agh! If anyone knows how to make blogger realize that you do in fact know how to orient your own pictures, please let me know. I don't know why it thinks this picture should be rotated this way.]

Grilling menu with Thai flavors

2008-06-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

We went all out on the CI recipes this week. Thai-Style Grilled Chicken with Spicy Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce, Asparagus, Watercress, and Carrot Salad with Thai Flavors, basmati rice, and strawberry shortcake!

The Thai-style grilled chicken was delicious. It was brined, then rubbed with a mixture of cilantro, coriander (isn't that a bit of overkill?), ginger, black pepper, lime juice, and lots and lots of garlic. Twelve cloves of garlic, in fact. One-fourth cup. This was rubbed under the chicken skin and all over the outside of the chicken as well. Then it was grilled over high heat for much longer than the 18 minutes the recipe called for. But these were some big girls.

The dipping sauce made the chicken. It was spicy, with a lot of red chili flakes, and sweet with sugar and lime juice. Garlic and fish sauce balanced out the flavors. Served, of course, in individual dipping bowls with fancy chickens.

The basmati rice was made exactly as last week. The buttery flavor of the Tilda rice is just delicious. Too good, in fact. We have to buy some more Tilda before our next dinner!

On to the salad. The asparagus was briefly sauted, then cooled in the freezer. The asparagus and carrots were marinated in a sauce that is very similar to what is put on the ingredients for Vietnamese spring rolls. These parts of the salad were amazing.

The watercress that these were to be served on...well....it left a bit to be desired.

Doesn't that look amazing? It doesn't even look as good as it tasted!

And it wouldn't be a Sunday in June if we didn't have strawberry shortcake. This might be the last of the strawberry shortcakes for the near future. The berries used this week were hand picked by the chefs early, early on Saturday morning. A lot of effort went into getting into the berry patch to pick them, but this shortcake deserved the effort.

What do you think this busty chicken might be singing?

An Indian feast!

2008-06-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

What a better meal for a hot Sunday in June that grilled tandoori chicken? On the side some fresh baked naan, basmati rice, and more delicious grilled vegetables.

The tandoori chicken was a recipe from CI. There was a spice rub with cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and ginger. This was applied to the chicken breasts.

Due to a misunderstanding regarding the size and cut of chicken breasts required for the recipe, we ended up with just two single breasts, a total weight of 12oz of chicken. But the two we made turned out beautiful.

The vegetables were a slight departure from last week's. Though prepared the same way, we had yellow squash, red onion and green peppers this week.

The rice was a modified basmati rice pilaf. Modified in the sense that we did not put anything other than rice and butter in it. We used the recommended Tilda brand of imported basmati rice, and the difference was definitely apparent. It might not look special, but this was special rice, indeed.

The naan recipe was from CI's Best International Recipes book. It requires a small amount of yogurt. Because we usually don't have time to let dough rise after grocery shopping, this dough was prepared ahead of time by one of the chefs.

The dough was divided and rolled into 8 balls (the 8th is not pictured, he was too shy). Then rolled out and cooked in a frying pan.

Immediately after removing the bread from the pan it was lightly brushed on one side with melted butter. Yum.

Dessert was prepared ahead of time. It was an old family recipe from one chef's mother: a raspberry charlotte. Homemade lady fingers were briefly soaked in diluted liquer (perhaps only out of consideration for the two non-alcohol-drinking chefs). The interior was reminiscent of panna cotta mixed with fresh raspberries.

The charlotte was accompanied by a lovely raspberry coulis. This marked the inaugural use of the beautiful new gravy boat.

Bertha's Big Day!

2008-06-15T18:55:00.001-07:00

Bertha is a Kitchenaid 12 cup food processor. She has been in one chef's family for at least a year now. Bertha is very powerful, but often doesn't know her own strength.

Tonight's menu featured old fashioned burgers. For the chef who does not eat hooved animals, there was a piece of barbequed chicken. Also served were french fries and grilled vegetables. Dessert was an old favorite, key lime bars.

The burgers were most special. The meat was sirloin and short ribs (boneless short-ribs, the butcher thought we were crazy when we first asked for short ribs to make burgers with). There were a number of steps involved in preparing the meat. First, it was cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) cube chunks. One cubed, it was placed in the freezer for 20 minutes. Once it was nice and firm, but not frozen, then it was Bertha's big moment! She tore that meat apart, but only to the proper consistency, no further. The meat was then patted gently into patties, but not handled any more than ABSOLUTELY necessary.

These burgers were much to fragile for throwing on the grill, they were carefully fried in a 12 inch skillet. The buns were prepared in that pan before, lightly toasted on both sides. Once the burgers were flipped, cheese was added. The cheese was melted, then the burgers were assembled!

We can't forget the "special sauce". A delightful mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, vinegar, and sweet relish. The relish played an integral part. That's why we splurged on the organic sweet pickle relish.

The french fries were quite a production. They were first soaked in cold water (in the refrigerator) for 30 minutes. Then they were fried for 6 minutes in 325F oil. After the first frying, into the organic paper bag from Whole Foods they went, to soak up some of the oil. A ten minute rest, and then back into 350F oil to crisp them up.

The vegetables were delicious, but pretty standard as far as grilled vegetables. Zucchini, onion, and red pepper. Brushed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

All in all, a delicious meal.

And we can't forget the key lime bars. A truly dreamy dessert. This time we did the more conventional baking in the oven method. They can, however, be successfully prepared on the grill. Bertha did another lovely job on the crust. Go Bertha Go!

What could be better on a Sunday evening in June?

A brief cake interlude

2008-06-10T16:00:00.001-07:00

When one chef has a birthday, the others might like to give a gift that will be cherished. The March 16th dinner saw one chef receive a copy of The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. To properly honor the birthday of the giver, a Blueberry Swan Lake cake was required.

This cake was quite an effort. The cake itself was White Chocolate Whisper. Between layers were strawberries and on top was a blueberry sauce. It was iced with stablized whipped cream.

Overall, the cake was quite delicious, though personally, this chef felt the cake was a little too buttery.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

2008-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

The feature of this meal was by far the homemade pasta. There is nothing more delicious than freshly made pasta with a little butter and a little salt. Unfortunately, the pasta was camera-shy and we have no up close picture of it.

The pasta is there on the right in the background.

To go with the pasta, we had chicken paprikash. One of the chefs kept coming across recipes for it and was interested. The recipe we ended up using was from Cooks Illustrated. It was quite delicious.

And doesn't the sauce look gorgeous in that orange Le Creuset duch oven!

Dessert was back on for this night. There was a brief scare in the making of the lime curd when one chef realized that she had forgotten to add the lime juice to the curd. But as it had just been put in the refrigerator to cool, the missing juice could be added with no negative effects on the final product.

Served with a slice of pound cake. Fannie Farmer, if memory serves this chef correct.

Yum-o!

February 24, 2008

2008-06-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

This was a busy winter night in Minnesota. There had been suggestions of having an all appetizer meal, with cold Vietnamese spring rolls along with fried spring rolls, and maybe even "chicken wrappers", which believe it or not are from the CIA, 8th ed. Instead of spending so much time wrapping though, it was decided that we would have cold Vietnamese spring rolls (with the best peanut dipping sauce ever) and Jap Chae. The spring rolls and sauce recipe were from Cooks Illustrated, and the Jap Chae was CIA.

In a contest for best dish, the spring rolls win by a landslide.

Thai basil, which is always available at Midway Cub, makes a nice statement. They are layered on the rice wrappers, then rice noodles are added as well as a carrot/peanut mixture, and some cucumbers marinated in vinegar.

The Jap Chae was a little disappointing. But there certainly was a lot of it! The flavor was a bit dull, maybe due to the poor quality soy sauce used.

No dessert tonight, the chefs were too busy.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

2008-06-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

We're working on posting some of the wonderful meals the Sunday Night Chefs have created over the years. This was a special one, a birthday dinner!

On the menu: Avgolemono, skewered chicken, mille feuille with puff pastry and eggplant, and homemade rolls. For dessert: lemon curd cake.

The avgolemono was inspired by the amazing lemon soup we had at Acropol Inn. This was one of the strangest dining experiences we had. The restaurant was empty but for us and another table. The food, not all that surprisingly, was quite terrible. With the exception of the soup. Unfortunately, the Cooks Illustrated recipe was not the same. The eggs were added at the end of cooking, and instead of cooking like in an egg-drop soup, made the soup strangely creamy. The lemon flavor was too pronounced as well, making a soup that was very difficult to eat.

What more than made up for the soup were these dinner rolls:

A slightly sour-dough taste, crusty on the outside and warm and soft on the inside.

The chicken was marinated in a lemon, garlic and olive oil mixture. Only for a short time, no more than 15 minutes or the chicken and lemon interact unfavorably.

The mille feuille was chosen because this week in March was "Greek Week" at Lunds. They provided us with a set of Greek recipes, and we thought this looked interesting. It had two layers of puff pastry, a pan fried eggplant, a small amount of tomato sauce, and some mascapone. As one chef says, anything with puff pastry is delicious!

(The above picture is driving me crazy. It was taken and is saved on my computer rotated 90 degrees to the left. But when I upload it, it rotates itself.)

The cake was again the piece de resistance. The lemon curd was amazing. The cake was amazing. Even the seven minute frosting was amazing. And it was just so beautiful.

Happy Birthday!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

2008-06-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, but three of the four chefs were all back in town tonight. The fourth was enjoying himself at a CPF event. He certainly missed out!

Tonights menu was really just a backdrop for the desserts: blueberry pie and raspberry tart!

We started the meal with butterflied grilled chicken (CI) and rosemary roasted potatoes (also CI). And a lovely salad.

The butterflied chicken was brined for approximately 45 minutes, or the time it takes for one chef to begin cleaning the raw chicken contaminated area of the chicken and another to give a practice Ph.D defense talk. Then on to the grill:

It spend a total of about 25 minutes under a baking sheet and some bricks, but then we took those off to make room for the potatoes. The potatoes are pre-cooked in the microwave, then brushed with a wonderful rosemary and garlic infused olive oil. After they are grilled, they get tossed in the remaining oil. Yum!

All in all, quite a successful night, but we'll be glad when all four of us are once again cooking together!

2008-05-11T18:51:00.002-07:00

May 11, 2008 Grilled tomato and cheese pizzas (CI), salad, and strawberry shortcake (CI).

This is the best pizza recipe ever created. We try to avoid repeats in our cooking, as we want to broaden our skill sets, but this is one that must be made often. Dough is grilled on one side. Off the grill the cooked side is then brushed with spicy garlic olive oil, and topped with a mixture of fontina and parmesan and tomatoes. Back on the grill for a couple more minutes, and then topped with fresh basil. Yum.

The strawberry shortcakes are the best dessert ever made. At least in May. The strawberries are macerated. Which is kind of a gross word, when you look it up. But in this case, it's just delicious.

Why do strawberries make you smile?

2008-05-11T18:51:00.001-07:00

This is our first test post. More to come shortly.