Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens (22 page)

½ cup freshly grated

Parmesan cheese

¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil

1
Place your 12-quart stockpot over medium heat, and add the milk, chicken stock, bay leaf, and onion. Allow this to come to a boil. Remove the bay leaf and onion half. Season the liquid to taste with salt and pepper. Begin whisking and drizzle in the polenta slowly, while stirring constantly.

2
Once all of the polenta is added, it should begin to thicken and bubble. When this happens, reduce your heat again to low, and stir continually for at least 5 minutes. Check to see if it needs more salt or pepper.

3
Remove from heat and stir in the butter, tomato, and Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately, poured in the center of a large serving platter and garnish with the fresh basil, or scoop individual portions onto your dinner plates. Pour leftovers into an oiled loaf pan, cover, and refrigerate. The polenta will become solid overnight. Remove it from the loaf pan, and you can slice it into beautiful layers that can be snacked on cold or heated up with a little leftover tomato sauce for a wonderful lunch.

Butternutty Squash Bread Pudding

Serves 8

A big hit when I brought this to Thanksgiving, who could say no to bread pudding or butternut squash? Make it a day ahead, and reheat it in the microwave on Thanksgiving. Saving oven space on Thanksgiving can be a crappy little lifesaver.

1 loaf (about a pound) focaccia bread, cubed

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 shallots, sliced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

2 pounds butternut squash

1
cup heavy cream

4 eggs

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1
Preheat oven to 350°. Place the cubed bread on a sheet tray and toast until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Place your 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat and melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Once it has melted, sauté the shallots until they begin to brown, then remove them from the heat. Add the thyme and rosemary and stir the mixture together.

2
Place the butternut squash on a large cutting board, and use your chef's knife to cut off the stem and the very bottom to create a flat surface on the top and bottom. Now cut in half, through the waist. Run your knife along the outside, peeling off the skin of the squash. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds after both halves are peeled. Now cut them into small cubes.

3
Toss the squash together with the shallots and herbs in the sauté pan, and add the bread cubes. Use the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to lightly coat the inside of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish (disposable is fine). Evenly layer the squash mixture inside the baking dish.

4
Pour the heavy cream into your 1-quart saucepot, and heat it over medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. When the cream comes to a boil, carefully pour it over the egg mixture while whisking to temper or prevent the eggs from curdling. Pour this custard evenly over the squash and bread. Bake for 45 minutes or until it is golden brown and the custard is set. Serve warm cut into fun shapes including triangles or squares to prevent waste, but for an elegant presentation, diamond-shaped servings are the way to go.

Get Your
Goat Cheese Soufflés

Serves 6

Unlike a conventional cheese soufflé, this recipe is not only full of flavor but tangy and incredibly stable (that's chef-speak for its ability to stay nice and puffy). It can be made ahead of time and reheated quite easily, so it is extremely CLK friendly!

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 eggs

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1½ cups whole milk

8 ounces soft goat cheese

1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

½ lemon, juiced

1
Preheat oven to 350°. Use 2 tablespoons of butter to coat the inside of six soufflé cups (You can find disposable aluminum cups in the grocery store. 10-ounce or 5-inch aluminum baking cups are what you're looking for), and put them in the refrigerator. Separate each egg, placing four eggs whites into a medium-size bowl and let them come to room temperature, which will take about 10 minutes. Put three egg yolks in the refrigerator, and discard the fourth yolk.

2
Place your 1-quart saucepot over medium heat and add 4 tablespoons of butter. When the butter has melted, stir in the flour, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stirring constantly, gradually drizzle in the milk, and allow it to come to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

3
Melt the goat cheese and Parmesan into the milk sauce. Once it becomes smooth again, stir in the mustard, chives, and parsley. The sauce should be thick like glue. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes.

How to Separate Eggs

When I separate eggs, I like to crack one in half and hold it over a clean container to catch the white. Slowly separate the halves allowing only the whites to fall into the container. Carefully transfer the yolk to the other half of the shell (without breaking the yoke), and the rest of the white should fall away into the bowl. This method will get easier with practice (that means you have to try it more than once). You can also crack the egg and drop the yoke onto the fingers of one hand that you've positioned over the egg white container. Open your fingers slightly to allow only the white to fall through. The whole, separated yolk should be resting in your fingers.

4
Once cool enough to touch, season it to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the three egg yolks, and place the bowl in the refrigerator. Now return to your egg whites, which will be easy to beat at room temperature. Add the juice of half a lemon to your egg whites and beat until they reach stiff peaks. You'll know they are ready when you can turn the bowl upside down and the stiff peaks stay in place.

5
Add the cheese mixture into the egg whites and gently put your spatula in the center of the bowl. Pull toward yourself scraping the spatula along the bottom. When the spatula breaks the surface of the batter, turn the bowl about an inch, and start again. Each time you pull up and then drop the spatula back into the center, you will be folding in the egg whites to the batter. Continue around the bowl one time or you will deflate all of your egg whites, and immediately divide the soufflé batter among the buttered dishes. Place the dishes onto a baking pan and place them in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the soufflés are golden brown and firm to the touch.

6
If serving immediately, leave them in the cups for a soufflé effect, or pop them out and store in an airtight container until ready to reheat. To reheat, place the soufflés in a warm oven for a few minutes. To serve, position a soufflé at 12 o'clock on a dinner plate and your protein such as Sole Meuniere (p. 108) in the bottom left at 8 o'clock with your vegetable (steamed baby carrots p. 168, for example) in the bottom right at 4 o'clock pointing toward the fish. Very French (very gourmet) presentation!

Better-Than-Nookie
Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Serves 6 to 8

I use a freezer bag as a pastry bag for this recipe, making it a super example of Crappy Little Kitchen ingenuity. I love this recipe topped with Spicy Pomodoro (p. 211), and then garnished with slivers of basil and good Parmesan cheese.

1 pound sweet potatoes

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup freshly grated

Parmesan cheese (save some for garnish)

Sea salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

1 egg yolk

Basil, sliced for garnish

1
Preheat oven to 350°. Rub the sweet potatoes with olive oil, put them on a baking sheet, and place them in the oven. They should roast about 30 minutes. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven. Hold a hot potato with a dry, clean kitchen towel, and carefully cut a slit running the length of it. Then squeeze the flesh into a medium-size bowl. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.

2
Use your whisk to mash any lumps out of the roasted sweet potatoes. Fold in the flour and Parmesan cheese using the traditional folding technique. Don't overmix the dough once the flour is added or you will make the dough tough. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then mix in the egg yolk. Refrigerate for an hour to chill and set up to a firmer texture.

3
Place your 12-quart stockpot with built-in strainer over high heat and fill it halfway with water. When the water begins to boil, add 2 tablespoons of sea salt.

4
Place your 12-inch sauté pan on medium-high heat. Then take your gnocchi dough out of the refrigerator and put it into a freezer bag. Push all of the contents into a bottom corner of the bag and cut a centimeter-size hole into that corner.

5
Standing by the boiling water, squeeze lightly on the freezer bag to force out some dough, about 1 centimeter in length. Use your chef's knife to cut each dumpling, making it fall into the boiling water. Use half of the bag of dough in this fashion.

6
When those dumplings begin to float in the boiling water, add ¼ cup of olive oil to the 12-inch sauté pan. Carefully strain the gnocchi from the stockpot by slowly lifting out the strainer and allowing all of the water to drain out. Carefully pour the dumplings into the sauté pan. Move them around slightly to make sure they brown evenly. When golden brown, transfer them to your serving platter.

7
Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the dough remaining in the freezer bag. Pile the gnocchi high down the center of a large serving platter, top with Spicy Pomodoro (p. 211) and garnish the center of the plate with sliced basil and grated Parmesan cheese

Under-the-Sea Timbales

Serves 6

Anyone will enjoy the beauty of this stunning dish, which is a special treat for seafood lovers. Try topping this with Lemon Tarragon Sauce (p. 192) as a side dish or with Béarnaise Sauce (p. 197), and serve it as an appetizer course. To reheat, simply pop it in the microwave for 1 to 1½ minutes. Super CLK friendly.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound small shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 pound bay scallops

2 eggs, 1 whole plus 1 yolk

½ cup whole milk ricotta cheese

1 lemon, juiced

½ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons minced chives

1
Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly grease six soufflé cups (you can find disposable aluminum cups in the grocery store. Look for 10-ounce or 5-inch aluminum baking cups) with melted butter, using your pastry brush. Set the cups aside. Place your 1-quart saucepot over high heat and fill it most of the way up with water. Finely mince the shrimp and scallops together, until they are almost completely pulverized and turned into a paste. Add this seafood paste to a medium bowl.