Garlic Scape Pesto

Do not make this, eat this, smell this or come anywhere near this stuff if you don't like garlic.  I'm not kidding.

I had scapes for the first time last year and I used them to make this pesto so when I saw them in the store this year I knew I needed to make it again.

Scapes are the stalks of the garlic plant that grow out of the bulb.  They look like a green onion but are kind of curly.  If you smell them they smell like garlic and if you eat them they taste like garlic and I love garlic so I'm definitely into these little buddies. It seems that scapes have a pretty short season that arrives around June so if you see them, buy them.  You can figure out what to do with them later.

Pesto is probably the most popular thing to do with scapes.  This one is a combination of scapes, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  I like this combination because you can really taste the scapes.  Which means it's like eating garlic. I'm being very serious when I tell you that this stuff is super strong so use it sparingly.

It couldn't be much easier to make the pesto... you just throw all this stuff in a food processor and blend it up.  The hardest part is cleaning the food processor when you're done.  I hate cleaning the food processor because I don't want to put the base of it away until I can put the whole thing away (it's up on a high shelf in my kitchen which means I have to get out the step ladder and I'm lazy so I refuse to do this more than once) and if the bowl and blade are in the dishwasher I have to wait at least a day to put it away so the base sits on my counter which annoys me.

Last year when I made this, I used it as a sauce on pasta (adding a little bit at a time to get the level of flavor I wanted and incorporating some pasta water to make it smooth).  This time I used it as a condiment to a grilled flat iron steak, kind of like you would do with a chimicurri sauce.  It was a pretty awesome combination and really freshened up the flavor of the steak.

P.S. - this stuff freezes really well so you can make a bunch (like I did), serve it with your steak (like I did) and freeze the rest to serve on pasta later (like I will).  You know you want to be just like me.


Garlic Scape Pesto
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients
10 oz Garlic Scapes, cut into 2" pieces
3/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
5 T Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper


Instructions
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Serve as a condiment on grilled beef or pork or as a sauce on pasta.  For the pasta, you may need to thin it out with a few tablespoons of pasta water.

Enjoy!
Julie
 

Lemon Meringue Pie Dip

I apologize for talking and talking and talking about this dip and making you wait to get the recipe.  Believe me you would have been more grumpy if I'd told you about the dip and didn't tell you how to get it from the bowl to your mouth.

This dip is the perfect summer dessert!  I mean, lemon meringue pie is pretty much summer in a crust and I like this even better.  Why?  Because I get to dip things in it.  I love dips!  Salsa, guacamole, spinach dip, ketchup (which is the ultimate dip) and who could forget the hot blueberry cheddar dip.  To get dip for dessert... that's just better than anything I can think of!

This dip is just like lemon meringue pie in that it has a base layer of lemon custard topped with meringue.  The lemon custard is pretty easy to make... cook egg yolks and lemon juice together.  Allow it to cool over an ice bath and whisk in sweetened condensed milk.

The meringue topping is comprised on egg whites whipped with sugar and a bit of cream of tartar.  That gets spread over the lemon custard and toasted in the oven.

There are some days I can't imagine life without my stand mixer.  Anytime I have to whip egg whites is one of those days.

In case you are wondering, the photo above is an example of what happens when you have meringue toasting in the oven and you get distracted.  I'm not surprised this happened, it's hereditary.  Just about every Thanksgiving when I was growing up someone burnt the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes (someone was my Mom... sorry Mom... but in your defense there were only 6,000 things happening at the same time and you were in charge of all of it because no one was helping you... before you readers get all judgey on me for not helping, I was the youngest kid and I did help eventually... just not in time to keep Mom burning the sweet potatoes from becoming a bit of a family tradition). 

Don't worry, you can just scrape off the burnt part and re-toast (this applies to meringue and marshmallows).

I was a huge fan of this dessert and my guests and CA liked it too.  The lemon custard is super tart and creamy and the meringue is light and fluffy.  Based on the feedback in the blog post for the inspiration recipe, I significantly increased the ratio of custard to meringue and I'm so glad I did.  The ratio here was perfect even if I did have to scrape off a bit of the meringue.

Plus, using pie crust to scoop this stuff up is just brilliant!


Lemon Meringue Pie Dip
Adapted from Something Swanky

Ingredients
8 Egg Yolks
3/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk (I used fat free)
3 Egg Whites
3 T Sugar
Pinch of Cream of Tartar
2 store bought or homemade pie crusts
Sugar for sprinkling

Instructions
In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and lemon juice over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until think and custard like, approximately 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.  (You can speed this process up by putting it in a plastic baggie and placing that in an ice bath).  Once cooled, whisk in the sweetened condensed milk.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment whisk together the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar on high speed until it forms stiff peaks.

Preheat your broiler.

Add the egg and lemon mixture to an oven-safe serving bowl.  Top with the whipped egg whites.  Broil for 1-2 minutes until the meringue (egg whites) are lightly browned.  Refrigerate until cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out your pie crust and cut into 2"-3" triangles (or another shape if you prefer).  Place the triangles on a baking sheet, sprinkle them with sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Use the baked pie crusts to dip into your lemon meringue pie dip.


Enjoy!
Julie

Gluten Free Pie Crust

No gluten free people actually ate this pie crust.  In fact, I think I'm the only person who ate this pie crust.  You may be surprised, but I'll tell you a secret... this is not the first time I made something and then ate it all by myself.

I made this pie crust to serve at my book club gathering with the lemon meringue pie dip you finally get to hear about tomorrow.  Unfortunately, my GFF (Gluten Free Friend) had a last minute work emergency and was not able to join us for book club so everyone ate the dip with the regular pie crust I told you about yesterday.... Not that we all couldn't have eaten this version.  It was very tasty and I doubt anyone would have noticed the missing gluten if I hadn't told them.

This crust did taste different than my regular pie crust but I think that had more to do with the lemon juice that's in it than the gluten free flour.  However, the lemon flavor went just perfectly with the lemon flavor of the dip.

The texture of the crust was great - it held up really well for dipping and it was light and crispy.  I've heard that a lot of gluten free pie crusts tend to be super crumbly and fall apart, but I didn't find that to be the case with this recipe.  I think it might have to do with the addition of the fruit pectin or Instant ClearJel (which BTW is not packed in GF facility so may have trace amounts for those of you who are super gluten free).  I think this ingredient helps the crust stick together - fruit pectin is used to make jelly so its "jelling" quality is useful.

So, even though this recipe has not been GFF approved, I still think it's a good one.  I'm sure I'll make her a pie again eventually and will get her seal of approval (or not).

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Makes enough for a single pie crust

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
2 T Sugar
2 tsp Fruit Pectin (or Instant ClearJel, optional)
1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Salt
6 T cold Butter
1 Egg
2 tsp Lemon Juice or Vinegar
1 T Cold Water


Instructions

Whisk together the flour or flour blend, sugar, fruit pectin, xanthan gum, and salt.

Cut the cold butter into pats, then work the pats into the flour mixture till it's crumbly, with some larger, pea-sized chunks of butter remaining.

Whisk the egg, lemon juice and water together till very foamy.  Mix into the dry ingredients.  Stir until the mixture holds together (if it still looks to try to stick together you can add more water, 1 tsp at a time).

Shape into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and chill for an hour, or up to overnight.

Roll out on a piece of plastic wrap or a surface that has been floured with gluten free flour. Fill and bake as your pie recipe directs. 

Enjoy!

Julie

My Favorite Pie Crust

I find it kind of funny that I don't make more pie.  Everyone loves pie and if they don't they're weird.  But for some reason I usually save pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It's actually completely backwards that I don't make pie all summer because that's when all the beautiful fruit is available.  Plus you get to eat it with ice cream.  Forget about crisps and crumbles, it's all about the pie!

Not that I made real pie today... I just made pie crust.


This crust was made as a dipper for a lemon meringue pie dip (but you have to wait two days to hear about that... sorry for the tease, it's a function of the blog world.  If I told you everything today then we wouldn't have anything to talk about tomorrow).

This crust is really quite perfect to me.  I've made a lot of different pie crust recipes (including the one from the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook) but I always go back to this recipe.  The result is light, flaky and buttery.  It's also easy to make and it has vodka in it.  Which makes it better because booze makes everything better.  There's actually science behind it... I know science is boring but this will only take a second.

The vodka evaporates more quickly than water when it bakes so using some vodka helps keep the crust from getting soggy.  Also, alcohol does not aid in the formation of gluten and gluten is the thing that makes bread chewy... chewy pie crust is bad so you want to keep the gluten down in pie crust (which is why you don't knead or mix up pie dough too much either).

Let's recap what we learned today.

1.  Pie is good.
2.  Liquor is good. 
3.  Liquor is good in pie.

See, that was easy?  So, yeah, I love this pie crust and will probably use it forever.


Pie Crust

Adapted from Williams Sonoma
Makes enough for a single pie crust

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 T Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 stick cold Butter, cut into 1/4" cubes
1 1/2 T Vodka, chilled
up to 1 1/2 T Water, chilled

Instructions
In a Stand Mixer: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment stir together the flour, sugar and salt.  Add the butter mix on low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the vodka and mix on low speed until incorporated.  Add the water in 1/2 T increments until the dough just pulls together and still has a few crumbs (you may not need all the water).


In a Food Processor: Pulse together the flour, sugar and salt in the food processor.  Add the butter pulse until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the vodka and pulse until incorporated.  Add the water in 1/2 T increments and pulse until the dough just pulls together and still has a few crumbs (you may not need all the water).

Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.  Roll out on a piece of plastic wrap or a floured surface. Fill and bake as your pie recipe directs. 

Enjoy!

Julie

Quinoa Mac & Cheese aka Cheesy Quinoa Casserole

I skipped a day talking about my book club dinner to celebrate my 100th post but now it's back to business.  I've been seeing recipes for mac & cheese made with quinoa for a while and pinned this one months ago.  Book club offered the perfect reason to make it.

The picture in my head of this mac & cheese looked like mac & cheese just without the noodles.  The sauce in my head was very much cheese sauce.

This recipe is certainly cheesy (especially since I added more cheese than the original recipe called for) but it's more like a cheesy casserole than straight up mac & cheesy. 

If I really just wanted mac & cheese with quinoa subbed for the mac, I'm not sure why I didn't just use a mac & cheese recipe and make the substitution.

Anyway, the process of making this dish is pretty easy.  Saute up leeks, red pepper, tomato and garlic.  Add the quinoa and cook until toasty.  Add the broth and cook the quinoa until it's cooked through.  The cooked quinoa gets mixed with eggs, milk and cheese and baked.

The resulting mixture, before it's baked, is pretty darn soupy.  I was glad that the original recipe warned me of this because I might have freaked out and started trying to strain it or something.

Once the mixture is baked it thickens up nicely and has the consistency of a rice casserole - still moist but it holds together when you scoop it out.

The flavor here is good - I like what the addition of the leeks bring to the table and it had a good, strong cheese flavor.  The ladies liked it but agreed that it was no mac & cheese.  CA liked it too, probably more than the girls did. (Yes, I let him eat the book club food, he just has to do it in a different room.  Trust me, he likes it better that way.)  As he was eating leftovers today he said that it tasted like cheesy grits and we should eat them for breakfast.  That's probably the best description of this dish - cheese grits with the nutty flavor you get from quinoa.  He's so smart.

Quinoa Mac & Cheese
Adapted from Moni Meals

Ingredients
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 medium Leek, halved and sliced
1/2 of a Red Pepper, diced
1/2 of a large Tomato, diced
1 1/2 cups Quinoa, rinsed
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 cups Unsalted Chicken Stock (you can use salted, but reduce or eliminate the salt in the recipe)
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 large eggs
1 cup milk of choice (I used 1/2 cup regular milk and 1/2 cup buttermilk)
8 oz. Cheddar Cheese, grated


Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 13-9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat the oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leek, red pepper and tomatoes.  Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the quinoa and garlic and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until the quinoa just begins to turn a light golden brown.

Stir in the chicken stock, salt and pepper.Cover and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Summer for 20 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. 

Whisk together the eggs and milk.  Stir the egg mixture into the cooked quinoa mixture.  Stir in the cheese.  The mixture will look pretty soupy but it will set up when it's baked.  (I made the recipe up to this point and then refrigerated it overnight.  If you're baking it straight out of the refrigerator you'll need to add about 15 minutes to the baking time.)

Bake for 30-45 minutes until it is browned around the edges.  Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 41: Bouchons

Holy Crap... this is my 100th blog post.  I can't believe it's happened so fast.  I started this blog about four and a half months ago and I couldn't possibly having any more fun.  I am baking more than ever because you all give me an excuse.  I have to have something to blog about so if I'm ever bored, I just bake something... anything.

I promised myself I would be completely honest with my blog posts and tell you when I screw up.  In fact, some of my favorite posts are the ones when things go wrong which typically involves me burning food or myself.   If it's OK with you guys I'll keep up the cooking, baking and posting even if it is sometimes hazardous to my health.

I thought it would be quite fitting that my 100th post be on Bouchons which is the namesake cake of Thomas Keller's bakery and cookbook.  Just think how amazing something needs to be for you to name a whole bakery after it.  Imagine my disappointment when I learned these are just brownies.  I know, right?

Don't get me wrong, these are very good brownies.  They're fudgy and dark chocolately and have chocolate chips in them.  I like them a lot but they're just brownies.

The batter is relatively easy to assemble... you mix together flour and cocoa powder.  You whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla paste.  You add butter and the dry ingredients and mix in the chocolate chips.  Pretty simple.

I went ahead and bought the silicone mold that is required to make these.  The shape resembles a cork or bottle stopper, which is "bouchon" in French.  There's your language lesson for today.

For your amusement today you can see above that I had a small issue.  I baked the bouchons for the recommended amount of time and let them cool a little bit before I unmolded them.  Ummm, they definitely were not done.  The middles were completely gooey.  For a whole 30 seconds I contemplated leaving them that way.  I have no problem eating half baked dough but then I reconsidered, did my best to shove them back in the molds and put them back in the oven.  Luckily they came out just fine after the second bake.

So, Happy 100th post my dear readers.  I hope you find the next 100 as enjoyable as the first.  I promise they will contain approximately 50 pounds of butter and sugar, 100 pounds of flour and at least a couple of vegetables.

Oh yeah, and it's also Independence Day - Happy Birthday USA - love ya! 

Enjoy!
Julie

Grilled Basil Lime Chicken

Yesterday I told you all about the Hot Blueberry Cheddar Dip that I served as an appetizer to my beautiful book club ladies.  Today I'm going to tell you all about the main course.  Actually, you're going to hear about this book club dinner for a while since I still have a side dish and three dessert components to tell you about.  I personally love making book club dinners because...

(1) I love the ladies who come to book club.
(2) My guests are always very appreciative of the effort I put into making the meal.
(3) I get to be challenged in my cooking because we have a pseudo gluten free book club (one of our members is gluten free - she may think it's an obstacle but I like it).
(4) Book club dinners always include dessert.
(5) They also include a little bit of discussion about the book and a lot of discussion about the latest cover of US Weekly and bad reality shows.

This chicken was perfect to serve at book club because most of the prep is done the day before.  The chicken is marinated overnight in lime juice, mustard, Worcestershire, soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, green onions.  That way, when I got home from work all I had to do was plop these little buddies on the grill.  (You should read that to say that CA manned the grill... he's the perfect book club husband in that he grilled the chicken and promptly disappeared so we could have girl talk.  I'm pretty sure he wanted to be as far away from that as possible.)

After the chicken is grilled it gets drizzled with a mixture of lime juice, olive oil, green onions, garlic and basil while it's still warm.  The fact that the sauce is not cooked really keeps the flavor light, fresh and summery.

I really liked that this dish is healthy and still really flavorful.  The lime and basil flavors are incredibly bright.  My ladies liked it and so did CA so I guess it's lady and man approved food.


Grilled Basil Lime Chicken
Adapted from Goodeness Gracious
Serves 6

Ingredients

For the Marinade
2 Limes, zested and juiced
3 T Olive Oil
3 T Dijon Mustard
3 T Worcestershire Sauce
3 T Soy Sauce
3 Green Onions, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Salt
3 lbs Chicken Breasts (I had 4 large breasts and cut them in half)

For the Sauce
1 Lime, zested and juiced
1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 Green Onions, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 T Basil, chopped

Instructions
Combine the ingredients for the marinate in a large plastic baggie.  Add the chicken to the bag and squeeze to make sure the chicken is completely covered.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl.  This can be done just before cooking the chicken or up to a day ahead.

Preheat the grill and grill the chicken until cooked through - approximately 8 minutes per side.  Remove the chicken from the grill, cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Slice the chicken, put it on a platter and top with the sauce.

Enjoy!
Julie