Black Bean Hummus

It's fun when you're typing up a recipe and you realize that you misread the directions when you made it. Luckily, this doesn't happen too often. And typically its nothing so significant as to ruin a recipe. But often I think "Oh, that would have been nice to know!". This time I got carried away and threw everything in the food processor (my baby processor that is my most utilized kitchen tool), including the Kalamata olives. Just now I read that they are meant as a garnish. Well, they tasted good mixed right in!

So it's up to you- follow the recipe (which I suggest if you have any aversion to olives, and in that case why even bother with the garnish?) or be a rebel and throw them in (if you like their briny saltiness- I do!). If you are including them, you might want to cut back on that 1/2 tsp. salt. You don't want to overdo it.

Now I'm wondering what this hummus would taste like without the olives. It was creamy and tangy and delicious with them- it should be smoother and more mild without them. This is a fusion of Greek and Southwestern flavors and somehow it works! We ate ours dipped in fresh homemade pita bread, but I bet good old tortilla chips would also hit the spot.

Black Bean Hummus

INGREDIENTS
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp. tahini
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika + extra for garnish
10 Greek (Kalamata) olives, pitted
drizzle extra virgin olive oil (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Mince garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Add black beans, water, lemon juice, tahini, cumin, salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika; process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Add additional seasoning and liquid to taste. Garnish with paprika, olives (optional), and a drizzle of olive oil (optional).

(Adapted from All Recipes)

French Dip Panini with Au Jus

 
This is an upgrade on the Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Panini that I posted earlier this week. I've added thinly sliced deli roast beef and a hot Au Jus sauce for dipping. Voila! You have French Dip. The Au Jus presented a problem. The authentic homemade version comes from the drippings of cooking a roast. On a school night? Not happening. Nor did I want to buy a packet that you mix with water and is supposed to mimic the flavor of beef broth. Not natural; not for me. So here's what did work: shallot, garlic, and a box of natural/organic beef broth/stock slow simmered over the stove until reduced to 1/4 of it's original volume. Delicious concentrated beef flavor. Your hot panini will want to dive right in. My only warning is this: use low sodium stock unless you have a passion for salt.

INGREDIENTS
1 large onion per sandwich, thinly sliced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Gruyere cheese, sliced
roast beef, thinly sliced
whole wheat bread
butter or cooking spray

Au Jus:
4 cups low-sodium beef stock/broth (1 box)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
dab of butter

DIRECTIONS
1. To caramelize the onions, heat several drizzles of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and stir to coat with oil. Continue cooking over medium heat and stirring often until the onions are soft, deep brown, and caramelized. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The onions can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use.

2. To make the au jus, melt a dab of butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and saute for several minutes. Add the beef broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to about 1 cup. Season to taste with salt and pepper (boxed or canned broth is already very salty so you probably won't need to add salt). The au jus can be refrigerated until ready to use and reheated.

3. To assemble the panini, preheat panini press to high heat. Layer cheese, onions, and roast beef on slice of bread. Top with a second slice of bread. Spread butter on both sides of the sandwich or spray with cooking spray. Place on the preheated panini press and grill for several minutes until the outside is crispy and golden brown and the cheese has melted. Serve hot with warm au jus for dipping.

Makes about 1 cup of au jus.

(Adapted from Panini Happy)

Whole Wheat Walnut Boule

Bread baking is my passion... yeast bubbling, flour flying in my face! It's like creating a living organism. One with an insatiable sweet tooth that feasts on sugar, resulting in a bad case of gas. It's the yeast expelling carbon dioxide that causes the dough to rise. Yeast happens to be a finicky eater. For example, it will only tolerate its beverages at certain temperatures (ideally between 85 and 99 F). Too cool and it won't grow, too hot and it dies. Talk about particular. Like I mentioned before, it loves sugar, and isn't as fond of salt.

Yeast can be brutal on the novice baker. But once you've got down the basics, you can conquer bread. Nothing makes me more satisfied than pulling out a high-rising loaf of golden brown bread or batch of pillow-soft rolls. If I had to live on one food alone for the rest of my life, it would be bread. No question. In fact, I wish I could live on bread alone. I can't get enough of it.

Most of you know, I try to use as much whole wheat in my baking as possible. It's 100% healthier than the white variety. It can make the process trickier though. I've had a lot of success with King Arthur's 100% White Whole Wheat Flour and I recommend you try it. It improved my bread a bunch!

This is a free-style loaf. You shape it into a blob and let it rise. It bakes into a crunchy-crusted round with a soft savory inside. I love the subtle walnut flavor from the oil and bits of toasted walnut baked right in. The only hiccup I ran across in this recipe was that my dough deflated when I tried to cross-hatch the top. I had to let it re-rise and it never reached its former peak. So I'll skip that step next time. (And be very gentle when brushing it with the egg wash.) The less you mess with risen dough the better.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp. natural cane sugar
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 Tbsp. toasted walnut oil
2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
cornmeal, for dusting
1 egg white
1 Tbsp. milk

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Add yeast and let sit for 10 minutes until foamy.

2. Add walnut oil, salt, and 1/2 cup bread flour. Mix to incorporate. Add in the whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if necessary, for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place dough inside a bowl coated with cooking spray, cover, and let rise for approximately 1 hour, until doubled in size.

3. Punch dough down and knead in walnuts. Shape into a round and place on a large baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or a on a piece of parchment paper. Cover and let rise for approximately 1 hour, until doubled in size.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Uncover dough. Whisk together milk and egg white. Gently brush the mixture over the dough. With a sharp knife, make perpendicular slits in the top of the bread (optional- this caused mine to deflate so I'll skip it next time). Bake in preheated oven for 15-30 minutes, until browned/the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove form the oven to cool on a wire rack.

NOTE: You can also bake this loaf on a pizza stone for a more artisinal quality. Preheat pizza stone in oven to 350 F. Allow dough to rise on a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal and transfer the whole thing to the oven, placing the parchment paper directly on the stone when ready to bake.

Makes 1 loaf.

(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Spinach Bacon Salad with Warm Cider Dressing

Dustin declared this his favorite salad. Bacon. Hard boiled eggs (he'll eat them by the dozen with a sprinkle of salt and pepper if you let him). Warm cider dressing. Yeah, yum. Not a "light" salad, but they boys love it.

My only qualm with this salad is this: Should you (and it's unlikely) have a problem finishing it off in one sitting, it doesn't keep very long after it's been dressed. So for that reason, make it in small quantities. And it wouldn't be the same without the hot dressing that slightly wilts the spinach leaves. So take two seconds to heat it over the stove. You'll see what I mean.

INGREDIENTS
6 oz. baby spinach
4 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
red onion, thinly sliced
4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled
half a package of Cremini mushrooms, sliced

Warm Cider Dressing:
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 tsp. natural cane sugar
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. To make the dressing, heat sugar, cider, olive oil, and Dijon in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. In a large bowl combine salad ingredients. Pour warm dressing over salad and gently toss. Serve immediately.

Makes about 1/4 cup dressing, enough to serve 4.

(Recipe adapted from a friend.)

Deep Dish Apple Pie with Sweet All-Butter Pie Crust

When we came home with 25 lbs. of Virginia grown apples, I knew apple pie was in our future. This dessert is extra special because Dustin helped out. He drove us to Charlottesville on our apple-picking adventure, braved gravity and climbed to the top branches to find the finest and ripest, and even helped make the pie! He's usually not very involved in the cooking around here. Partly it's my fault for being so territorial in the kitchen. That, and he lacks the desire. (Unless he's having a sugar craving and wants cookies- NOW!)

But this dessert bears Dustin's magic touch. He peeled and cored and sliced all the stunning Granny Smiths that filled the dish. In my time of need, he came to the rescue and he was indispensable! I was busy rolling out pastry and boiling caramel and fretting over what I wanted to be the perfect pie. And my cute husband rolled up his sleeves and chopped through those apples in no time! (Or just in time, rather, to smother them in cinnamon, butter, and sugar, pour them into a deep dish, cover them with a blanket of pastry, and send them off to bake).

It's no wonder that I thought this pie was a sweet success. I made it with my honey. (Awww!) So my opinion might be a little jaded. Together, curled up on the couch under laptops, lecture slides, and books, we finished off half a pie. Including several scoops of vanilla ice cream. Dustin has never loved apple pie, but he agreed that this was a good one. My favorite part? The most amazing, buttery, flaky, spectacular crust I've ever had! I swear- I'll never, ever buy one again. Reserve a little of the filling "juice" to brush on top and it will turn golden, sweet, and crunchy.

I was surprised that with all the butter and sugar, the filling was not super sweet. I liked that the tart-ness of the Granny Smiths snuck through. You could always mix in a few apples of a sweeter variety for a sweeter pie. I sure have a crush on that crust, though! Crust + thick caramel-apple filling + frozen vanilla ice cream = Ahhh.

INGREDIENTS
1 recipe sweet all-butter double pie crust (below)
7-8 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 heaping tsp. cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg white

DIRECTIONS
1. Make the pastry dough according to directions (below). Chill until ready to use. Roll out each pastry on a floured surface until large enough to cover pie dish. Place one sheet of rolled out pastry in the bottom of the dish. Brush with egg whites.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, sugars, and vanilla and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

4. Toss apples with cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour caramel mixture over apples (reserving several Tbsp. to brush the crust) and stir to coat. Pour apples into pie dish.

5. Cover with the second sheet of rolled out pastry. Trim the edges, pressing them together. Make several slits in the top. Brush the top with the reserved caramel mixture.

6. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour, until the top is golden brown and the apples are soft. Place on a wire rack to cool for about 30 minutes before serving warm topped with vanilla ice cream. (If you serve it immediately the filling will ooze out- it needs some time to set up.)

Makes 1 9-inch deep dish apple pie.


Sweet All-Butter Double Pie Crust

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. natural cane sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) COLD unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6-7 Tbsp. ice water

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in food processor (or by hand with a whisk). Add butter and pulse until coarse mill forms (or cut in butter by hand with a pastry blender until only pea-size crumbs remain). Gradually blend in enough ice water until dough clumps (or mix in a Tbsp. at a time by hand). Form dough into a large ball. Divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight.

Makes a double 9-inch pie crust.

(Crust from Epicurious, Filling adapted from All Recipes)

Curried Lentils and Sweet Potatoes

I knew this dish wasn't going to look very appealing on film. It's not photogenic. Cooked brown lentils appear reminiscent or things I'd rather not talk about on a cooking blog. I realize that these photos might not make you excited to rush and try this recipe, so I have to convince you in words. Because it's yummy! It was my first attempt at lentil-anything and I'm hooked. They're superbly healthy, and when combined with sweet potatoes and earthy spices- delicious!

This is a richly flavored, spicy (in a non-hot way), aromatic dish. (As most curries are.) Find a good quality garam masala (a blend of Indian spices) and it will make all the difference. The original recipe called for the addition of leafy greens, such as Swiss chard. I suppose you could use spinach. I omitted it altogether. I didn't think it would improve the texture of the dish. Definitely top it with a handful of freshly sliced scallions.

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch fresh ginger root, peeled and minced/grated
1 1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
4-5 cups vegetable broth (I used 4 cups + 1 cup water)
2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 lb swiss chard (center ribs removed and leaves thinly sliced) or spinach (optional- I omitted it)
1 tsp. kosher salt, more or less to taste
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper, more or less to taste
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime
scallions, thinly sliced, for serving

DIRECTIONS
1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, curry powder and jalapeno. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
2. Stir in 4 cups broth, sweet potatoes, lentils and bay leaf. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, partially cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. (If lentils seem dry, add up to 1 cup stock or water, as needed.) Stir in chard/spinach (optional) and salt and pepper, and continue cooking until lentils are tender and chard/spinach is cooked, about 30 to 45 minutes total.
3. Just before serving, stir in cilantro, lime zest and juice. Spoon into a large, shallow serving dish. Garnish with scallions and serve.
Serves 6-8.

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Caramelized Onion and Gruyere Panini

This is the first time I've had Gruyere, the renowned Swiss cheese. Wikipedia had a lot of complimentary things to say about Gruyere: "it is one of the finest cheeses for baking, having a distinct but not overpowering taste", "adds savoriness without overshadowing the other ingredients", "is a good melting cheese", and "a fine table cheese". It describes it as "sweet but slightly salty" with a creamy, nutty flavor when young that grows more assertive and complex with age. Depending on the age of your cheese, the flavor will vary. Typically the older it is, the stronger it gets.

Gruyere pairs perfectly well with naturally sweet caramelized onions to create a heavenly panini. Because the onions take some time to cook, you can't throw this together in seconds, but I've never regretted spending the time to slow-cook onions on the stove. It's wild how such a pungent, tear-provoking bulb can turn into something so gentle and sweet with a little time and tenderness. And here's a secret: many recipes call for you to add sugar to the pan when caramelizing onions- YOU DON'T NEED TO! They become astonishingly sweet and succulent all on their own. (A good quality extra virgin olive oil helps this process along.) I think it's one of nature's miracles- add a little heat and the onion will turn sweet!

INGREDIENTS
2-3 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
4 slices whole wheat bread
4 oz. Gruyere cheese, sliced or grated
butter or cooking spray

DIRECTIONS
1. To caramelize the onions, heat a splash of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and stir to coat with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 25-35 minutes until the onions are soft, golden brown, and caramelized. (At this point the onions can refrigerated until ready to use.)

2. Preheat a panini press or griddle to medium-high heat. Divide the onions and spread over two slices of bread. Top each with 2 oz. of Gruyere. Top with the second slice of bread. Butter the outside OR spray the press with cooking spray. Grill the panini until the cheese is melted and the top is browned. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 paninis.

(Adapted from Panini Happy)

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

You can make two versions of this muffin. One is guilt free and the other I'd call dessert. You choose. When I make muffins I typically want a healthy breakfast or snack that doesn't trigger a sugar surge. Many muffins are really just cupcakes in disguise. It's important to distinguish cake-like muffins from the good-for-you kind. Depending on what ingredients you use, and whether you include the crumb topping, this muffin can be either.

My muffin is 100% whole wheat and packed with pumpkin, applesauce (no oil!), apples chunks, and just enough natural sugar for the right balance of sweet and healthy. They are moist, flavorful, and delicious. (And especially good kept in the freezer and reheated in the microwave until warmed throughout.) You could always grate the apple for a less chunky texture.

If you want dessert muffins, you can use white flour, oil or butter, refined sugar, etc. and add the streusal topping. Or use the healthy ingredients and add the crumble anyway. Why not?- some goodness is better than none!

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup applesauce (or canola oil)
1 egg, whisked
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup apple, peeled, cored, and chopped or grated (I used 1 Golden Delicious)

Brown Sugar Streusel Topping (optional):
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. butter

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease or place muffin liners in a muffin tin.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, applesauce, and egg. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in apples. (Batter will be very thick.) Divide batter evenly among muffins tins.

3. To make the streusal topping (optional), in a small bowl mix together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the muffin batter.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the tin to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy warm!

Makes 10 muffins.

(Adapted from All Recipes)