Abercrombie & Feast

Last November, I got homesick.  Big time.  Living abroad is a great adventure, and I wouldn’t trade this life we have for the world.  But, every now and then I miss the USA and all the lovely people in it.  So, after a few glasses of wine one Thursday night in October, I decided I was going back to the States for Thanksgiving.  I booked my flight, packed lightly (shopping!) and hopped on a plane to LAX.  My gorgeous husband joined me for the first (and loooongest) leg of the flight, then we split up… he flew to Atlanta to be with his family, and I met my parents in Rhode Island to celebrate with my grandfather.

Oh man, we had fun.  And oh man, did we eat well.  Seafood, clam chowder, turkey, sweet potato casserole good enough to make you slap yo’ mama.  We mostly stuck to the classics, as Americans tend to do around the holidays.  But, when we experimented with a new recipe to enjoy one afternoon by the fire, we hit on a huge winner, and a new classic in my house.  Behold, the Newport Cheese Puff….

I will admit, I have no idea where this recipe came from, so I’m sure I should be giving credit to someone and I’m not.  Sorry!  I do know that these are easy to make with things you probably already have on hand, are a really simple party snack and are goooooood. 

I’ve since made these numerous times for a wide variety of occasions.  Sunday afternoon snack, easy first course for a dinner party (just add some salad greens), game-time finger food… these puffs fit the bill no matter what the event. 

I am going home to Georgia this year for Thanksgiving- the first time I’ve been home in over 2 years.  I am looking forward to it so much.  I know these cheese puffs, and so many other gorgeous, nostalgic dishes will be on the menu. 

Newport Cheese Puffs

Makes 20-25 puffs
1 loaf plain white bread
3 egg whites
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs mayo
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
chilli powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste
paprika

Preheat your oven to 180C or about 350F. 

Cut out small (1-2 inch) rounds of white bread, avoiding the crusts (you can save the crusts for bread crumbs later!)

Whip egg whites until stiff.  Carefully mix in mayo, cheese, garlic powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper.

Spoon the egg white mix unto bread rounds.  Sprinkle with paprika and bake about 10-12 mins or until golden brown. 

Oprah once said, “My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.”  Once again, the wonderful Ms. Winfrey has got it right.  Potatoes are divine.

Perhaps it’s because of my Irish background, but I believe that the humble potato is one of the greatest things you can cook.  Roasted, baked or boiled, potatoes are versatile and delicious.

At this time of year, potatoes are everywhere.  It’s rare to see a holiday table that doesn’t contain potatoes in some form.  So, for your next holiday, or cozy Sunday night dinner, why not move beyond traditional mashed potatoes?  Branch out past roasted spuds?  Instead, try this… gratin dauphinois.

Cheesy and rich with a golden top and layers of tender potato slices, gratin dauphinois would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving table.  And the leftovers from last night will make a great addition to my lunch today!  All I need now is someone to share it with… do you think Oprah would be interested??

Gratin Dauphinois

Serves 6-8

1 kilo (about 2 lbs) potatoes
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
a pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/4 cups double cream
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 170C or about 325F.  Thinly slice the potatoes.  I used my new mandoline and it was much easier, but you could simply slice the potatoes by hand.  You’re aiming for really thin slices. 

Butter a 9 x 6 1/2 inch ovenproof dish.  Layer the potatoes in the dish, adding a bit of cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and garlic between each layer. 

When you’ve layered all the potatoes, pour the cream and milk on top.  Then top the whole thing with the rest of the grated cheese.

Bake for about 45mins to 1 hour.  Test with a knife to make sure the potatoes are completely cooked and the liquid is absorbed.  If the top starts to get too brown, cover loosely with tin foil for the rest of the baking time. 

Let rest for 10 mins before serving. 

I missed my kitchen so much.  It’s good to be home, albeit temporarily.  I am soothed by standing at my own stove, stirring with my favourite wooden spoon and smelling our dinner coming together throughout the evening.  Is there a more therapeutic way to unwind after work??  I even have a new kitchen toy to play with… a mandolin purchased in Japan!  So last night I set out to spend some time in my happy little kitchen, to use my new mandolin, and to make a healthy and light meal that wouldn’t weigh us down as the weather heats up.

The salad that I want to tell you about was inspired by a salad that Deb wrote about on Smitten Kitchen.  I made several adjustments, a few additions and subtractions, but I think the souls of our salads are much the same.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Another salad??  Didn’t we just learn about an asparagus and blood orange salad?  And, worst of all, a cauliflower salad?  But hear me out.  This salad is satisfying in a way that salads rarely are.  In fact, I literally just finished eating the leftovers for breakfast and I’m already trying to figure out when I can make this again. 

I added quinoa to this salad to bulk it out and make it a more substantial part of our dinner.  Quinoa is a grain used a lot in South American cooking.  It’s super high in protein and can be used in tons of different dishes.  If you can’t find quinoa near you, you could easily replace it with cous cous in this recipe and it would still be fantastic.

This is literally the first thing I’ve cooked in my kitchen in about 3 weeks.  I plan to do lots of cooking for the next two weeks, then I’m off again for a week with my family in the US!  I’ll try to post more in the next two weeks and to add at least one more post about our time in Japan.  So, whilst I’m self-soothing with new recipes, promise me that you’ll try this one!

Quinoa and cauliflower salad

1/2 head of cauliflower, thinly sliced
1 small green capsicum (bell pepper), very thinly sliced
2 ribs of celery, very thinly sliced
2 spring onions, very thinly sliced
10 green olives stuffed with feta cheese (you could easily use plain green olives and add a tiny bit of feta to the salad), chopped
1 large handful parsley, chopped
100g (1/5 lb) of quinoa
2 cups chicken stock
2 tbs dijon mustard
2 tbs red wine vinegar
6 tbs olive oil
1/2 garlic clove, finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Put the quinoa and the chicken stock into a pot.  Bring to a boil and let cook for 10-12 minutes, until the quinoa is translucent.  Drain and add the quinoa back to the pan to dry.  Let cool in the pan whilst you make the rest of the salad.

Add the finely chopped cauliflower, capsicum, celery and parsley to a bowl and mix well.

Put the mustard in a bowl and add the vinegar.  Mix well with a fork.  Add 1/4 of the oil and mix well again.  Add the garlic and mix well.  Add the rest of the oil slowly, mixing well between each batch.  Taste.  If it is too tangy, add more oil.  If it is not tangy enough, add more vinegar.  Add salt and pepper as needed.  Finish the dressing with a good squeeze of lemon juice. 

Put the cooled quinoa into the bowl the vegetables and mix well.  Add 3/4 of the dressing and mix well, so all of the salad is lightly coated.  Serve the salad, with a little extra dressing on top.

Wow!  Can I just say, right here at the top of this post, Japan is awesome.  We had SUCH a good trip.  Full of neon lights, quiet train rides, taking off our shoes, ancient temples, speaking in badly accented Japanese, laughing at ourselves and tons of food.  We ate everything!  Sushi, tempura, yakisoba, ramen, bbq, miso soup, green tea, kimchi, and on and on and on. 

This is going to be a short post- for a few reasons.  First, I fly out again tomorrow for a week away for work and I don’t have time to craft anything very good here.  Second, I haven’t fully processed Japan yet.  We saw so much and tasted so much!  I need a few more days to sort our experiences out into useful stories for you.  Here are a few of the beautiful pictures from our trip. 

So, in the meantime, while I process and plan very exciting stories for you, let’s talk briefly about noodles.  Doesn’t sound too exciting, I understand.  But, I ate a LOT of noodles in Japan.  We had ramen soup for lunch almost every day.  Not Ramen Noodles, those industrial, dehydrated noodles in vacuum packs.  Ramen soup was brought to Japan from China and has since been adapted to fit the Japanese palate.  Noodles about the size of spaghetti float in a flavour rich broth, which can be soy or miso based.  There are bamboo shoots, spring onions and thin slices of pork on top.  It is a balanced meal in a bowl and it is good. 

But I did not rely only on ramen soup to fulfil my Japanese noodle needs!  Oh no!  There was also yakisoba (fried noodles), soba noodles (made of buckwheat) served cold and dipped into a soy broth made fiery with wasabi or served hot in a soup with tempura vegetables on top and, in perhaps the only disappointing meal of the trip, some cold, plasticy noodles in a bland red sauce with pieces of pear floating around.  Let’s not talk about that one- there are too many other amazing noodle stories to be shared.

One of my favourite noodle experiences in Japan was eating noodles for breakfast!  As I always tell Andy, I prefer savoury flavours to sweet flavours in the morning.  So, on our first morning in Morioka, we by-passed the bakeries and pastries and ducked into a tiny soba shop in the train station.  We had to point to what we wanted and eat standing up, but it was worth it.  We started our day with a hot bowl of noodles in rich stock with vegetables bobbing on top… and it was great.  We stood, shoulder to shoulder with Japanese men in work suits, slurping our noodles and enjoying the early morning rush at the train station.  The experience filled me up with happiness and the noodles filled me up with tasty goodness.  An ideal start to our Morioka morning.   

Ok, so maybe this wasn’t a very short post.  Once I start talking about noodles I clearly have trouble stopping!  I leave you with a couple of noodley pictures from our trip.  I will be back soon to fill you in on more details and, hopefully, to share a few new Japanese-inspired recipes with you.  It’s good to be home.

Soba noodles for breakfast

Scary plasticy noodles in cold sauce