2011 | The Wannabe Chef

Yearly Archives: 2011

Raw Zucchini Noodles With Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Written on June 23, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

When I had the raw lasagna at Wildflour reminded me of a way to “cook” I forgot I knew. During the Winter I’d roast anything and everything and make heavy sauces for food to add flavor. I don’t like to cook as much in the Summer; I can’t remember the last time I even turned our oven on. It’s just too hot. And when the produce and herbs are so flavorful, they even taste better with less done to them.

Raw food is perfect for the Summer because the flavors are clean and powerful. While this could seem complex it takes less than 10 minutes to put together. The only tools necessary are a standard vegetable peeler and a food processor. It’s a little more complex than a salad, but completely worth it.

Raw Zucchini Noodles With Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Ingredients for 2 servings

For the noodles:

2 zucchini
Vegetable peeler

For the pesto:

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 handfuls basil
0-2 cloves of garlic(depending on how much you love garlic)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2-3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the noodles, simply peel long strips of zucchini until reaching the center. Discard the seedy core.

For the sauce, combine the pumpkin seeds, basil, garlic, lemon juice, and salt in a food processor. Turn the processor on and slowly pour in the olive oil until the ingredients blend into a smooth paste.

Toss the pesto with the noodles. Serve cold or at room temperature with extra veggies.

I wasn’t sure how the “noodles” would hold up, but they twisted and twirled just like any good pasta. The zucchini held on to the sauce well, too, and since it has such little flavor let the pesto shine. It’s not something I’d eat every day because I like my eggs and beans, too, but it’s fun for a change.

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The Only Omelet Recipe You’ll Ever Need

Written on June 22, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Breakfast

I’m careful never to overuse superlatives, so believe me when I say this is the best omelet I’ve ever had. It’s filling and meaty with a salty-sweet kick. The maple syrup takes this to a new level that other omelets just can’t compete with. In fact, if chocolate and peanut butter didn’t exist, I’d probably eat this for dessert, too. You could add melted goat cheese or cuts of smoked bacon but honestly this omelet doesn’t need either of those; it has so much flavor on its own.

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, and Maple Syrup Omelet

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion, julienned
1/3 cup sliced and washed mushrooms
1 Tablespoon oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, beaten together
Extra oil for greasing

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.

Add in the onions, mushrooms, maple syrup, and salt and sauté the vegetables until the onions have caramelized and mushrooms cook a golden brown. Move the vegetables to a plate and heat enough oil in the same pan for the omelet.

Beat together the 3 eggs and pour them into the pan. Add the cooked vegetables on top of the omelet and cover the pan to let the eggs cook. When the omelet egg has mostly cooked, fold it over once and let it rest in the pan for a minute. Plate and serve hot.

I’ll start heating up the pan; how many should I make?

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4-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse With Kahlua

Written on June 21, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

How can you have thick and creamy chocolate mousse with just chocolate and water? It seems impossible. But as soon as I stumbled on this blog post making exactly that I had a hunch I would make it and love it. It’s a little difficult technically but completely worth the end result. Following through with all of the prep work makes the active part easier.

This is one of those recipes where you’ll want to use good chocolate. You know, the Ina-Garten-only-uses-good chocolate. Since the recipe is primarily chocolate and water, all the flavor comes from the chocolate. You certainly don’t want to make this with chocolate chips. I used Callebaut baking chocolate and it came out fine. If I were making this to really impress someone(say for a Valentine’s Day dessert) I would use Vahlrona.

Chocolate Mousse With Kahlua(a variation on this recipe)

Ingredients(Makes 3-4 servings):

265 grams good quality bittersweet chocolate
1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons warm water
2 Tablespoons Kahlua
3 Tablespoons cane sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder*

*I added this at the very end to help thicken the mousse up. I might have needed it because water from the ice bath slipped into the chocolate bowl. If as it’s cooled the chocolate mousse doesn’t seem thick enough, add this in. Otherwise the recipe is fine without it.

Additional notes:

Watch this video before starting for an actual portrayal of how the chocolate should look after each step.
Since the proportions are very important for this recipe, it’s best to weigh all the ingredients out on a kitchen scale before starting including the liquids.
Use a large plastic bowl with a wide bottom when whisking the emulsion so that the chocolate is shallow and will cool down faster.

Start by measuring out and mixing together the water, Kahlua, and sugar.

In a double-boiler or microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate down completely.

Prepare an ice bath in a larger bowl for the chocolate and move the melted chocolate to a bowl in the center of the ice bath.

In the ice bath, whisk together the chocolate and alcohol mixture. Continue mixing softly and smoothly for 5-10 minutes as the chocolate cools to keep the mousse emulsified as it cools.

If after a while the chocolate mixture is still rather thin, add in the 2 extra tablespoons of cocoa powder and whisk them in making sure not to leave any clumps.

Once the mousse has come together, spoon it in to servings bowls. Refrigerate for an hour before serving.

It’s hard to imagine something so creamy being made with only chocolate and water. This makes for an easy recipe to pull out and impress with on special occasions; I’ll definitely be committing it to memory.

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When In Providence…

Written on June 20, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Restaurant Review

Time has really flown by lately. Yesterday I went to spend the day in Providence with a friend leaving soon and realized it’s been about a month since I was on campus.

A month since I walked across the main green.

A month since I last drank a GTS Kombucha from the bookstore café.

And a month since I last made a trip to Wildflour Bakery.

I really can’t resist this place. There’s no where like it in New England. They have the greatest selection of raw and vegan food with a bakery selection equally as fantastic. My friend suggested we go there(probably because I went through a phase when that’s all I would suggest we do) and I was no one to say no.

I’ve heard a lot about Wildflour’s raw lasagna and even though it was mid afternoon a filling, savory meal sounded great to me.

This reminded me how much I love raw food when it’s well prepared. Their lasagna is made up with layers of zucchini, tomato paste, and a herbed nut cheese. Even though none of it’s cooked, the flavors are complex and developed and the whole dish was rather filling.

To wash it down I grabbed one of their seasonal juices.

This was refreshing, but had a little too much lime juice for me. I would have liked a softer lime flavor and a touch of salt. I could never get enough of watermelon and salt.

Of course no trip to Wildflour is complete without grabbing something from their bakery. They have a huge selection of vegan baked goods. They have a good selection of gluten-free things, too, though I can’t say I’m not jealous of the chocolate peanut butter cup cupcakes and peanut butter brownies.

Since I’m probably not going to be back for at least another month, I got a trio of desserts: Chocolate coconut rum ball, raw coconut macaroon, and raw chocolate ganache(aka the best dessert money can buy). So far I’ve only had half of the raw chocolate ganache; it’s as good as I remember and blows the pants off of my version. But I think I’m one step closer to figuring out the recipe.

So when in Rome, do as the Romans do, minus the public urination and slave-driven gladiatorial games because they don’t like those so much anymore. And when in Providence, go to Wildflour Bakery. They won’t do you wrong.

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London: The Non-Food Highlights

Written on June 18, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Going to London I was really interested in seeing two things: Anything royal and really old stuff. I have very specific interests, and by the end of the trip I got all I could have asked for and more.

The day we arrived, June 11th, also happened to be the queen’s official birthday celebration day. As soon as we had our bags at our hotel we took the tube over to Buckingham Palace—never mind that I hadn’t slept a wink for over 28 hours and worked the day before. We met with some friends and then this happened:

Still can’t see it? Here’s the same picture zoomed in.

That would be the entire royal family. Talk about a bucket list moment. Kate and William are on the far left, the queen is in blue behind the lantern standing next to Charles and Camilla. Should we be concerned that I could make them all out 1000 feet away when they were the sized of ants? My obsession knows no bounds.

The next day we left London on a trip that included a stop at Stratford. Stratford’s claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of Shakespeare, and this was his house. It was very pretty even in the pouring rain, though I can’t imagine how it must have been in the 16th century without heating or power.

We also visited Oxford, specifically Christ’s Church, or “the place that inspired Hogwarts.” Oxford was so impressive it made me consider those two forbidden words: Grad school. The campus was something special for sure. A friend of mine is attending in the Fall; I’m incredibly jealous and wonder if I can sneak into her luggage.

The next day involved a quick trip to the British Museum. Even though I was only there for a mere 50 minutes, I managed to take more pictures than I did at any other attraction. It was like stepping in to one of my textbooks, and I was home. Among the most impressive collections was the Parthenon friezes. I’m sure this interests few people other than me so I’ll shut up and move on.

And then there was also the Rosetta Stone, which I got a picture of myself standing next to. How geeky is that? The stone has on it the same law written in three languages: Ancient Greek, a spoken form of Egyptian, and hieroglyphics. Before its discovery historians had no clue how to translate hieroglyphics, but then this stone combined with a knowledge of ancient Greek helped to crack the code. How cool is that? It sounds like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

But my favorite part of the whole trip was visiting Stonehenge. The whole experience is hard to capture in words. Being there you get a sense of how awe-inspiring the structure is, and how complex a crafted ring of stones can be. It’s crazy to think this was ancient by the time the Romans invaded Britain and found it. Of course I wanted to go to the center and search for the secret chamber that holds the Pandorica but that part is closed off to visitors.

Have you been to London? What was/would be your favorite part?

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London: Desserts Edition

Written on June 17, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous, Restaurant Review

Whereas the food in London wasn’t so great, at the end of the day there was always something sweet and delicious offered up, from meringues the size of my head to vegan, gluten-free banoffee trifles from Manna.

This wasn’t the best dessert I had(that’s a little lower down) but it was definitely the prettiest. Layers of gluten-free chocolate cake, caramel sauce, soy pudding, and banana slices. I felt compelled to order this after another restaurant had banoffee pie on their dessert menu that same day and everyone in my party had to ask me what that was. It was also dessert on one of the flights; who knew it was that popular? The chocolate cake in the trifle was delicious, rich, and moist. The pudding, although it had good flavor, also had a strong soy aftertaste. If I tried to recreate this vegan I’d probably use something neutral in flavor for the custard base like cashews.

One thing that was everywhere in England was fudge. It must be the national dessert, because you could get it on any street corner. This brand apparently won awards so I just had to try it, and a chocolate fudge by the same manufacturers. The chocolate fudge wasn’t very chocolaty—I prefer my microwave chocolate fudge—, but the manuka honey fudge was excellent. It had a strong amber flavor to it that made it taste like a soft, butter toffee.

The best dessert I had was from a vegetarian restaurant called saf located at the Kensington Whole Foods. We didn’t eat at the actual restaurant but I grabbed a raw pudding cup from their to-go section. It wasn’t very pretty, but what it lacked in looks it made up for I flavor.

Mmm, doesn’t that look appealing, especially when you know that spirulina and moss are what make that bright green color? As off-putting as it was, I just had to lick the sides of the container clean. It was that good. I will definitely try to make something like this at home, perhaps without the moss.

Even though it wasn’t English, I’d give honorable mention to the chocolate covered vanilla-infused ganache from La Maison Du Chocolat. This came from the confections room at Harrods, which was quite literally a room full of gourmet chocolate stands. I was in heaven. It was hard to choose just one thing but I think I made the right choice with this; the inside was impressively soft and a nice contrast to the chocolate shell. I wanted to stay in that room all day.

Isn’t dessert grand?

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A Taste Of London

Written on June 16, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Restaurant Review

For the last 5 days I’ve been on vacation in London. I’ve wanted to go to London for years now and it was everything I hoped it would be; the sights were incredible. The food, however, was very hit or miss. To be fair, I wasn’t going to London for the food, and most of the meals my group ate were in between famous landmarks. Food just wasn’t our priority.

Some of the meals were impressively bad; those ones I didn’t bother taking a picture of. English food doesn’t have the best reputation and when you’re limited to gluten-free, vegetarian(ish) options it’s even harder to find something edible and delicious. Salt was missing from practically every meal; and if I never see a plate of french fries again in my life I’ll be OK with that. So instead I’ll just point out the highlight meals.

My favorite restaurant experience was at Manna on Primrose Hill. This was actually the only restaurant that I knew I wanted to eat at before going to it. It’s a small vegan restaurant with lots of gluten-free options. I immediately went for the enchiladas, made with corn tortillas, beans, sweet potatoes, pumpkin seed puree and baked in a tomato sauce. It wasn’t outstanding, but I liked it and would definitely order it again.

I just had to order their onion rings as a side, because how often do you see vegan, gluten-free onion rings? I’m guessing the batter is rice flour and soy milk. It was impressively crispy and not oily at all. The only problem I had was that it lacked season; a little more salt would have gone a long way.

Another night we had Indian food near Swiss Cottage. Indian food is all over London; it’s practically the cuisine London is known for. Since so much of English food is only lightly seasoned, it’s easy to understand why the spicy punch of Indian food is so popular.

I ordered the house’s chana masala and a dish called veggie veggie 5 with 5 different vegetables sautéed in spices. The masala was good but again not outstanding. The vegetable dish had a great heat to it and was refreshing. I could have eaten Indian every day in London since this is the sort of food I’m naturally drawn to.

I have to give honorable mention to the food court at London Tower, which surprisingly had a great menu. Their sesame carrot salad had just the right amount of dressing and was one of the few times a restaurant made a meal out of vegetables. The bean salad was also very delicious. The restaurant even had a gluten-free brownie which looked dense and gooey but I was so excited to have a plate full of vegetables that dessert wasn’t even on my mind at that meal—weird, I know.

I would recommend London for the culture, the friendly people, the historical sites and terrific museums. I would not recommend it for a foodie vacation. Tomorrow I’ll post about London’s redeeming quality: Their desserts.

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Simple Fruit Sauce For Pancakes

Written on June 15, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Breakfast, Miscellaneous

Have you tried these pancakes yet? I eat them probably 3 times a week for breakfast. If that’s wrong I don’t want to be right.

The thing is, they’re healthy, too. On account of the garbanzo bean flour and egg they have 10g of fiber and 18g of protein. Add a little something sweet and that’s a breakfast.

This fruit syrup is simple—no fuss—and only has a touch of honey for sweetness making it plenty healthy, too. So go ahead, pour it on, and pass it over.

Simple Fruit Syrup

Ingredients:

8oz fresh or frozen fruit(try strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, even mango!)
1 Tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cook the fruit in a small pot over a low heat until tender enough that a fork easily glides through.

Mash the fruit until smooth and jelly-like. Alternatively, you could puree the fruit in a food processor or blender for an even smoother puree.

Stir in the honey and salt.

Pour into a serving container and serve. Refrigerate leftover sauce for 2-3 days.

You could eat this on pancakes, ice cream, toast—anything! I like the sauce thicker so you get whole chunks of fruit in every bite. It thickens up as it cools to be more like jelly, so you might want to heat it up depending on how you’re using it. It would taste great warm on ice cream, though I think that goes without saying.

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Grilled Eggs

Written on June 14, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

Stop the presses. Two of my favorite things have come together for something amazing this Summer, and I’m not talking about NKOTBSB.

I was thinking about these for a while—how I’d cook them, how’d they come out, would it actually work, etc. They took a lot longer to cook than I anticipated(about 30 minutes, definitely not the most efficient way to cook eggs), but flavorwise tasted delicious with the charred pepper. It’s definitely a novelty dish; serve “grilled eggs” at your next outdoor party and expect a great reaction.

Grilled Eggs

Ingredients:

2 large bell peppers, top halves removed
4 medium eggs
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Brush the bottom of the peppers with olive oil.

Crack 2 eggs into each pepper half.

Heat a grill up to 400 degrees. Carefully place the peppers on the grill and close the lid.

Cook the eggs for about 25-30 minutes until the white on top has completely cooked. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.

A little salt and pepper on the eggs brings out all the right flavors. The yolks are fully cooked and not runny, yet even though I don’t like hardboiled eggs these I didn’t mind. These would be perfect slathered in barbeque sauce.

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Thick Tomato Sauce With A Secret

Written on June 13, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

“Secret secrets are no fun, secret secrets hurt someone”

Secrets are never good. Someone always ends up crying alone on the swing set during recess. But enough about my childhood. This sauce has a secret: It’s actually healthy for you, and it’s healthy because there’s an extra serving of vegetables in it. You’d never guess from tasting it, but cauliflower—not cream—is what makes this sauce so thick. I won’t tell if you won’t tell.

Cauliflower Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup steamed cauliflower OR 1 cup raw cauliflower, steamed
3 Tablespoons white vinegar
2 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh chopped basil

If you’re working with raw cauliflower to begin with, chop it up and steam it until it’s soft and reduced to about half of its size.

Combine the tomato sauce, cauliflower, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the processor as needed to make sure no clumps remain.

Fold in the fresh basil. Toss with pasta and season to taste.

Another secret: I don’t like pasta, so I took one taste and gave this away before making myself another dinner. But I could have drank the sauce, and pasta is nothing without sauce.

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