Peter's Hot Wings

It's Super Bowl season and everyone loves a good spread of bar food to snack on for the event.

Pedro decided to bring the best of Pittsburgh bar food to our home last night, creating what he called "99 Bottles - the home experience." If you haven't been to 99 Bottles in Carnegie, we highly recommend it. My parents discovered this little gem (read dive) and it's a fun spot to watch the Penguins play during hockey season.

My favorite item from last night's fixings were Pedro's homemade chicken wings. He started with a couple packages of the full chicken wing and broke these down to the wingette and the drumette. You can discard the wingtips or use them to make chicken stock.

Make sure the wing parts have enough moisture to really soak in a good coating of flour. Pedro didn't feel ours had enough moisture so he soaked them quickly in a milk and egg bath. Then he coated them with seasoned flour which included salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Pedro says "wings should always be tasty enough to eat on their own, the sauce is just an extra something."

Fry these wings in 3/4 inches of vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet, or use a deep fryer. Let them sit a minute before soaking them in sauce.

For Pedro's sauce he first melted about 3 tbsp. of butter in a sauce pan and then added 5 cloves of crushed garlic. Once the garlic started to brown just slightly, he added a little more than 3/4 c. of Frank's red hot. Then about 1/2 c. high quality BBQ sauce. And finally about 1/4 c. Siracha sauce. The sauce is really a free for all - a place to bring your own creativity to the table. You could add honey or habanero, just depending on the final flavor profile you're looking for.

Serve your wings with blue cheese, ranch and/or fresh veggies. A yummy bar food classic!

My first soufflé!

Ina Garten appeared on this week's episode of Sunday Morning on CBS and she inspired me to dust off one of my favorite cookbooks, “Barefoot in Paris - Barefoot Contessa.” 

I came across this Blue Cheese Soufflé recipe, and had to try it. Generally, I shy away from (read am terrified of) recipes that require too many chemical reactions. For this reason, I’ve never made bread, never made a merengue, never brewed beer by myself, never made pizza dough – you get the gist. I’m envious of Pedro’s knack for these types of cooking adventures, and enjoy helping him but have never ventured to try a recipe like this on my own.

Nonetheless, I approached this soufflé with confident optimism, and did it ever pay off!

One thing I learned about the process of making a soufflé is that it essentially consists of two parts. The base sauce that flavors the dish (can be salty or sweet) called the crème pâtissière, and the whipped egg whites. You gently fold these two components together, and this is what gives a soufflé its characteristic lift. Julia Childs’ cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” provides an excellent overview of the proportions required for each of these two components, which gives you the flexibility to make any kind of soufflé you’d like. I recommend actually making a soufflé first, using Ina’s recipe, and then diving in to Julia Childs’ chapter on the soufflé (she gets a little technical and it would have been hard for me to understand without having first experimented on one of my own).

When reading Ina’s recipe, I had to google “scalded milk” to understand the subtlety of scalding milk vs. scorching it. It turns out, heating milk to 82 degrees C helps to break down certain enzymes and proteins in the milk. It’s all magic to me as to how this helps with the cooking of the soufflé, but important to note nonetheless.

Finally a brief word about equipment. I had never made merengue with egg whites before, and I absolutely can’t imagine doing this by hand. In my opinion, a KitchenAid (or other kind of electric mixer) is a must. So is cream of tartar to stabilize the whipped egg whites. In terms of ramekins for baking a soufflé, Julia Childs mentions in her chapter that you can almost use “any old baking” dish. This may be the case, but since I felt like I was tempting fate by even embarking on this recipe in the first place, I went ahead and bought a nice porcelain 64 oz. ramekin that I’m sure I’ll be using for my next soufflé adventure.

Happy Soufflé-ing! And a special thank you to Pedro for supervising (and saving!) the crème pâtissière. 

Louisiana Sazerac

I'm getting ready to go on a girls trip to the Louisiana bayou with my sister and one of my best friends Anne Garland. To prepare for the trip, I decided I better learn a little something about creole bitters and the famous NOLA cocktail the sazerac.

I substituted an anise liquor for the absinthe called for in this recipe and it tasted just fine. I can't wait to try one of these down south!

Calabazas ::: Dates and Blue Cheese

I was recently inspired by the small plates served at Pittsburgh's Bar Marco in the Strip District and decided to embark on my own little small plates adventure.

To begin, I purchased a few "calabacitas" from our local Mexican grocer. I've actually never seen these at normal grocery stores, and I think they're really just small zucchinis, but I've only ever known them as calabazas from Mexico.

After cutting the stem, slice in half lengthwise and cut out a little groove in the middle to create a boat for your stuffing. The center cut that you remove is tasty eastern raw or dipped in hummus or ranch.

Sprinkle the halves of calabaza with salt, pepper, powdered garlic and dried or fresh rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil and bake until tender.

Remove from the oven and place your stuffing in the middle. In this case I stuffed the calabazas with blue chees3 and chopped dates. I put them back in the oven to warm the stuffing... Just for a minute or two until the cheese began to melt.

Once I removed from the oven I drizzled with a balsamic reduction and garnished with sweet pea sprouts.

So, so delicious! Serve as an appetizer or small plate.

Homemade Almond Milk

In October 2014, I tried a 21-day detox, which required me, among other things, to cut dairy from my diet. Of all the great things I learned from the program, one of the most lasting takeaways for me was how much of an adverse reaction my body was having when I over-consumed dairy products like milk, cream sauces and cheese.

I've largely cut dairy from my regular diet now (except for the occasional pizza or hard cheese treat! :), and depend on almond milk for baking, coffee and tea, and morning shakes. My skin, in particular, has noticed a huge difference! Goodbye terrible acne flare ups!

Almond milk is pricey, and in the U.S. contains a stabilizing food additive called Carrageenan that has been outlawed by Europe's food agencies.

Pedro and I researched a way to make our own almond milk and have discovered a cost-effective, delicious way to make a homemade version. It's also nice because we know what ingredients are going into our milk, and the finished product is super silky (not chalky or powdery like so many store-bought soy or almond milks can be). Also, for the cost of a 3-lb bag at Costco (pictured below $17), you can make double the amount of almond milk you'd have to buy in tetrapaks at Walmart. In other words, homemade almond milk costs about $1 per quart. The leftover pulp from the almonds makes a great face scrub as well.

To begin, soak a cup of almonds in water overnight. You'll notice the almonds grow large and fat as they absorb the water. This process also releases certain enzymes as the almonds prepare to sprout.

In the morning, drain and rinse the almonds and place them in a vitamix, blendtec or other high power blender. 

Begin blending the nuts with a couple cups of water. Once the major chunks are blended, add two more cups of water.

Then pour this mixture into a nut bag (available from amazon, and pictured below) to strain the fiber. You can repeat the blending process and still get a lot of good milk from the nuts. Simply add another ~4 cups to the pulp you return to the blender. You can play with these proportions depending on how thick or light you prefer your milk.

This milk will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for approx. 4-5 days. Enjoy!

Winter Squash, Leek and Farro Gratin With Feta and Mint

It's NFL playoff season and the Steelers are facing the Ravens tonight. In addition, it's been raining all day and a little chilly - the perfect night for some comfort food gratin.

This recipe from the New York Times cooking blog is really tasty and simple. I cut the amount of winter squash in half in replaced that half with ground lamb (which I had to ground myself from a whole leg we bought at Costco - enter Pedro's industrial kitchen aid with meat grinder accessory). The substitution made the gratin a little dry for my taste. I maybe would have added a half cup of milk or almond milk to the egg mixture to add some moisture to the gratin. I also topped the gratin for the final 10 minutes of baking with bread crumbs and olive oil. We both loved the mint in this dish! And the way the farro offers a nice high protein, high fiber alternative to pasta. Yum!

Here's the link to the NYT recipe (also pictured below): http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017081-winter-squash-leek-and-farro-gratin-with-feta-and-mint