Mashed Butternut Squash

I know I haven't updated in ages after promising to do so. Typical. Not that I haven't been cooking or cooking Ina dishes, or anything like that! This time I was just too lazy to document it.

But on this day, I am feeling sort of Fall-ish, even though its August. It's a chilly August day. I'm dying for some Fall! Pumpkin Spice Latte, apple fritters and scarves. FALL.

I had this butternut squash I bought, intending to make risotto with it, but instead I decided to make this mashed butternut squash recipe since it sounded so good.

Here is the mise en place:


Not too many ingredients. But note how it includes butter. Ahhh...

Squash, meet my Shun. Prepare to die.


Now, that I've dismembered my squash, it is time to roast it.... alive!!!11!!


Okay, this is a really weird, grim road I've gone down. Back to squash just being squash. Here's the roasted squash.


Now, Ina's instructions are to blitz the squash in a food processor. I'm going to do as told, but honestly, the squash is so tender that you can easily mash it with ricer, or a potato masher. I'm guessing that the food processor will make it more into a puree than a mash. I've added in the half and half and seasonings.


And here's the mash. So far so good.


Keeping it warm while I prep the rest of dinner. Man, that is really orange! What happened to the white balance on my camera? Damn my counter for making everything avocado!


The review:
Excellent. I thought the mash might be a little grainy or lumpy since it was in the processor, but it wasn't. It was really smooth and nice. You almost don't need the brown sugar since the squash itself it kind of sweet, but it does caramelize the squash and helps it to brown up. I would definitely make this again since it was easy. I could also see this becoming a really good start to a twice-baked squash recipe. So good.

Twofer: Easy Cheese Danish and Omelet for Two

It's no secret that my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Why? Well, it's a meal that's comprised of all my favorite things: fresh, hot baked goods, cheese, bacon, lovely jams, potatoes, butter, coffee beverages and even STEAK sometimes! I didn't even mention asparagus with hollandaise or maple sausage patties until now. If it really wasn't for Joel, I'd probably have pancakes for dinner once a week, foregoing all vegetables and justifying my carb-fest by eating some strawberries, rolling my eyes and saying, "Whatttt? It's fruit."

Sometimes I like to make a "breakfast at dinner" meal. It's easy to throw together and when I make an accompanying salad, I feel oddly French and superior. "Look at moi! I am making zee elegant menu du jour that is tres jolie!" Even though, I'm only making, you know, scrambled eggs.

The mood to make a breakfast dinner struck me the other day and I turned to Ina for suggestions. The omelet for two and easy cheese danish seemed like the perfect, and decadent option.

First up, here's the mise en place for the cheese danish:

I'm going to take a moment here to shout out Trader Joe's puff pastry. It is AWESOME. There are two sheets in the box, and unlike the other brands, you don't need to unfold it, so there aren't any creases. I've found quite a few uses for it so far and always keep it on hand since I can whip up some delicious cheese straws quickly when company comes over. Highly recommended.

So, first we make the filling. Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth:


add lemon zest and vanilla.


Mix together until the filling is smooth. I didn't want to take out my hand mixer so I did it by hand. It would be smoother with a mixer, but mine was pretty smooth anyhow.


Spoon the filling on the puff pastry and pinch the opposing corners together. This puff pastry square is slightly smaller than the Pepperidge Farm one, so there was actually way too much filling. Since I didn't want to waste it, I tried to spoon in as much as I could. As you can see, my danishes are bulging dangerously.


The recipe calls for placing the danishes in the refrigerator to firm up a bit. In the meantime, I will start the omelet for two. Here is the mise:

What's that in the middle? Is it... bacon??

Yes it is. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. A moment, please.


My, my. What to do with that bacon fat. Fry some potatoes in it of course!


While the potatoes finish cooking, whisk the eggs and milk together with seasonings. Oh yeah, and put the danish in the oven to bake!


Yay! Potato and bacon bowl. Seriously, I could stop right here and be happy.


Here we go... omelet time. Now, in this recipe you only cook the omelet on the stove until the bottom sets. Then you pop it into the oven to finish.


Here is the omelet straight out of the oven!


Ditto with the danish. As you can see, my danish exploded open due to the amount of filling. Don't worry. Totally worth it.


Easy Cheese Danish


The result: Fantastic of course. How can you really go wrong? the danish was really easy to make and very tasty. The filling wasn't too sweet or too cheesy. It was light and eggy. I would definitely make this again, but I might chop the zest a little finer next time. It wasn't a big deal or anything, but I personally would just like it a little finer. The omelet was delish. It looks like a huge thing, but I actually only used one potato and three strips of bacon with the 5 eggs for two people, so it probably ended up the same size as a restaurant omelet. I can see making lots of variations on this recipe since it came together so quickly. Maybe some sausage and cheese or spinach with the potatoes. It's more a method of cooking instead of the actual ingredients. Joel loved everything, so there's hope yet that the all breakfast all the time diet could work out. ^-^ Overall, this was a very pleasant meal and we had leftover danish for the next morning. Fabulous!

New Ina book!

Ina has a new book called Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics.

Yay! I love it when Ina has new cookbooks since it gives me new food to try and experiement with. I picked up my beautiful copy today and will check out the fabulous new recipes tonight. Otherwise, I think I'll try Ina's apple crostata this weekend!

Outrageous Brownies

Ha. So what's the point of having a food blog, if you're not going to post?

So after I made my spectacular announcement that I would be reopening this blog, my computer dies. I mean DIES. All I know is that I ran AdAware, and then the next time I restarted the comp -- it didn't allow me to login. Then, when I managed to login, I had no administrative privileges. I couldn't use any programs, access the Internet, nothing. It all came to an end in mid-JULY, when I reinstalled the OS. Gosh, what a pain in the butt.

So what does that have to do with food or Ina or anything? Nothing. Movin' on.

We're making Outrageous Brownies today!!! I mean, how can they be outrageous and not have three exclamation points?

First up, the mise en place:


I've actually never made brownies from scratch before. I've heard that it's very easy though. Check it out! I splurged and bought some Scharffen Berger baker's chocolate, so I am guaranteed to make good brownies right?

First up - melting the chocolate for the batter:

That's right. Butter and chocolate. Like my makeshift double boiler?

Next is mixing the base for the brownie. In go all the wet ingredients:


Here's the dry ingredients that I have to add to the batter to thicken it. I don't have a proper sifter, so I have to sort of sift it through this strainer. Not the fastest use of my time, but it will leave me with silky flour.


Ooh, lookie! My chocolate has transformed into smooth, glossy molten goodness!

You know, I've given this some thought. You hear about Cleopatra bathing in milk to stay young-looking. If I ever got Hilton-type money, I am going to give a chocolate bath a try. If anything, the caffeine will stimulate my skin.

So here is the final batter. I've added in the flour and melted chocolate and some walnuts.


All ready to go into the oven:


And about 40 minutes later, here is the finished product!


So Joel has been really excited to eat this. It made the whole apartment smell really good, even when it was sitting and cooling on the kitchen table. When I finally cut into the brownies, he actually cheered.

Here's my brownie. I graciously let Joel have the corner piece. He might like baked edges more than me.


Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This brownie is so good. I can't even describe it. It's very moist and cake-like. Not as chewy as some people might like it, but I like the more cake like consistency. The Scharffen Berger chocolate really made the difference. You could really taste how rich and decadent these brownies are. Considering that there are two sticks of butter in this baby, you can hardly eat a large piece since it's so rich! I would go so far as to say that this may be the best brownie I have ever eaten.

Since we have this whole pan, I'm going to wrap up half and freeze it. I've heard that it freezes well and then you can thaw it and heat it up again. Good as new.

Thank you Ina! These brownies are truly outrageous!

Reopen for business!

I know I haven't posted since... what November? yeesh. Sorry. My digital camera died and I my mum got me a new one! It's fantastic. I loveeeeeeee it! I think the zoom is something like 12x, so I'll be able to photo the sweat running down BJA's face at the next Green Day concert.

Yeah, I know that's what you wanted to read about on a food blog.

Updates to come post-haste!

Chicken Piccata

Note from management: We here at The Barefoot Kitchen apologize for the tardy updates. We've experienced some technical difficulties that have now been fixed. You may now return to your regularly scheduled food blog.

I had pictures. I was going to do a lovely Thanksgiving edition with not one, but two dishes. I made a lovely spinach gratin as well as roasted butternut squash for Thanksgiving dinner. The process was lovingly documented. Then, with one slip of the finger, my camera's memory card was erased leaving me quite despondent. I could have cooked during the long holiday weekend. Instead, I chose to sulk and watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York back-to-back.

But I was back in the kitchen last night and tried out a recipe I had been meaning to make for a long time: Chicken Piccata.

I love chicken piccata. The sauce has a nice crisp taste and if there is cream in the sauce, it tastes rather luxurious and silky. Considering that the ingredients are inexpensive, you get a lot for your money and can easily entertain with this recipe.

Ina's recipe for chicken piccata particularly appealed to me because it does not include capers. Whatttttt?! I know! Capers are always in piccata! That's just craziness! Well, Ina doesn't put them in her piccata. And since I am not fond of capers, I went with it.

Here are the ingredients - pretty basic stuff. I'll tell you right here that I didn't fully follow the directions. The recipe in the book called for regular chicken breasts that you flatten. I opted for the 30 Minute Meal timesaver and bought thin-sliced chicken cutlets. I know I'm getting less chicken that way, but the time and effort saved is well worth it for me.



Here's a shot of the pristine dredging and breading station before the flour is everywhere, egg is dripping and breadcrumbs are clumpy.



When I took a cooking class a few years ago, the instructor told us that we really only wanted a fine coating of flour. It was very important to get rid of the excess flour, so she recommended "spanking" the flour off. I am not joking. She showed us by lightly spanking the chicken breast she was holding. It works. The excess flour fell off and the chicken had a really delicate dusting. It works better than just shaking the excess flour off. So yes, I spank my meats.

I also wanted to mention that I have quit using regular breadcrumbs for the most part. Ina's recipe calls for regular breadcrumbs, so that is what I used, but in all other instances I now use panko. Now panko is nothing new to me since I am Japanese. However, its suddenly become the darling of Food Network chefs. They all pronounce it
"paan-ko" or "pank-o." Given, it does look like the word "pancake" so I can understand, but it still hurts the ear. Its "pahnko." Anyway, I now use panko in all the places I used to use breadcrumbs - all breaded meats, meatloaf, and gratin tops. I find that it's just lighter and browns better.

Here is the chicken browning in the saute pan. It will finish cooking in the oven. I have to watch this carefully as I'm prone to burning breading.



The finished chicken. The oven has made the breadcrumbs very crunchy. Yay!



Time to make the sauce. This sauce is very quick and easy to make. I think it really only takes about 5 minutes. All the ingredients go into the pan. Ina says to add the juiced lemon rinds to sauce to infuse more lemon taste. I'm a little scared. Ina really likes her citrus. This could be really strong.



I'm just noticing that in my pictures, the lemon rinds look rather ... nipply. Anyway, the sauce reduces and I take it off the heat and add some butter to thicken it. Here is the finished sauce:



Here is the finished product plated. I think it looks rather good! I don't garnish it with lemon slices, but the drizzled sauce over the top and the parsley it quite presentable. Good enough for dinner anyway!



The Review
Excellent! I am so in love with this dish, I really am. I thought adding the lemon rind would make the sauce over powering, but it didn't. It's very good. Adding some half and half or cream would make it sooo good and very wicked delicious. Finishing the chicken in the over was a good choice. It wasn't overcooked and the coating was very crunchy. I still think it would have been better with the panko, but cannot say that the regular breadcrumbs weren't tasty. I served the chicken with some mashed potatoes and a salad. Joel, who is not crazy about lemon-flavored foods, was happy with the recipe and said that he would happily eat it again. Very good recipe and I highly recommend it.

Parmesan Smashed Potatoes

So why another potato recipe so soon? Well, I actually wasn't planning it, but then Joel and I got inspired by recent Food Network programming and decided to hold our own mini-Thanksgiving for two. I cooked some turkey cutlets with pan gravy, baked up some cornbread, sauteed some green beans and opened that old can of cranberry jelly stuff. Since we were having turkey, I thought it would be appropriate to do mashed potatoes, and the Barefoot Contessa has a few great recipes for mashed potatoes.

First we start off with the ingredients:


I will warn you right now. There is a lot of FAT in these smashed potatoes. I'm not even going to try to cover it up. I think the potatoes will turn out tasty because of the fat, but personally, I think it's excessive. Butter, half and half, and sour cream. That's a lot yo'.

Boil them 'taters. I'm kind of obsessive, I take off all the blemishes and imperfections off of the potato. I know I can leave some of them on, but... anyway, those are the little gouges in the potatoes you see.


While the potatoes simmer away, I'll melt the butter and mix it with the half and half. God. I never have half and half in my house. I don't use it in my coffee. I don't know how else I'm going to use the rest of the carton up.


Shhh. the recipe says to heat it on the stove, but I heated the mix in the microwave.

Here we go! Smashing the potatoes are quite satisfying. It makes you feel like you are truly putting effort into your food instead of just throwing something together to eat. I hear kneading bread dough is similarly cathartic. Here, you can see that the potatoes are pretty dry. I've only added in a little bit of the butter mixture. It should get creamier as I add more fat.


A little while later, the potatoes are smashed sufficiently and are nice mixture of fluffy/creamy. I don't like super fine pureed potatoes and enjoy them when they have a bit of texture. Anyway, now I'm ready to fold in the sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Seriously, I don't think you can make these potatoes any richer. And, I love calorie-laden carbohydrates.


Parmesan smashed potatoes. You can catch a glimpse of the rest of the meal in the background.


The review

The smashed potatoes are excellent. I didn't have a doubt they would be since the ingredients and preparation were very simple. They have a nice smooth texture without being gluey. The use of red potatoes works well. I like the difference that the peels make in the final product. However, as I mentioned above: THIS IS A RICH DISH. I don't think that the use of the three different fats were needed. Basic mashed potatoes contain butter and milk. Sometimes I substitute sour cream instead of the milk. I've never put all three into mashed potatoes before, let alone half and half and a large dose of cheese. This recipe could be significantly lightened with minimal taste discrepancies. Save this one for a special occasion or party.

The recipe makes 6 servings. I used the leftovers to make Shepherd's pie the next night. Potatoes were still quite tasty and didn't become grainy or lumpy overnight.