2011 | The Wannabe Chef

Yearly Archives: 2011

Carrots Vichy

Written on March 11, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

I, just like George Washington, can not tell a lie: These are not Carrot Vichy. If you don’t know what Carrot Vichy is, clearly you’ve never googled it. According to Epicurious, it’s thinly sliced carrots cooked in butter, sugar, and Vichy water(whatever the hell that is) and sprinkled with parsley. Instead I made these with honey and olive oil for a lighter flavor, and swapped the herbs for what I had on hand.

(Almost) Carrots Vichy

Ingredients:

1lb large carrots, sliced thin
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon dried herbs
salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Thinly slice the carrots about 1/4-inch thick and put them in a mixing bowl.

Pour in the olive oil and honey.

Next add in the salt and herbs(I used dill; herbs de Provence would also be good here) and mix it all together. Lay out the carrots on a baking tray and cook for about 45-55 minutes or until the carrots are soft and tender.

I don’t care what you call them; these are tasty. Every other time I’ve made roasted carrots they’ve come out tough, but these were actually soft. But I guess since I used tap water these are Carrots Tap?

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Maple-Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Written on March 10, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

In case it isn’t obvious, I love maple and roasted things. Any excuse to add sugar to vegetables sound good to me. These have just enough flavor to get anyone to eat their vegetables.

Maple-Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients:

1 bunch brussel sprouts, stems removed
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons cooking oil
splash of white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toss the brussel sprouts with the maple syrup, oil, vinegar, and salt.

Lay the brussel sprouts out on a single layer. Bake for 45 minutes or until they’ve browned.

Even though these were frozen vegetables, they still tasted darn good. I’m looking forward to eating this again when the vegetable is fresh and in season to get a better caramelization. Until then, I’ll just have to see what else I can cook in maple syrup.

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Garlicky Cashew Cream Sauce

Written on March 9, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

If you haven’t picked up this March’s Rachael Ray magazine yet, ~~don’t bother because I’m not in it~~ you might not know that there’s a 4-page spread on “meatless mains.” Better yet, these aren’t Sandra Lee pop-a-tofurky-in-the-oven-and-call-it-dinner recipes; no, these are actually good recipes made with real food.

The first one that caught my eye was their “cashew cream sauce” which they put over tofu. I followed the recipe for the most part but changed it a bit and upped the garlic(I clearly wasn’t going anywhere that night).

Garlicky Cashew Cream Sauce(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews, soaked and drained
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt

Soak the cashews for 3-4 hours until they’re soft. Drain the cashews reserving some of the water for the sauce.

Add all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.

Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a few days.

I liked the flavor of the sauce, which was deep, rich, and strong. I served mine with baked tofu and caramelized onions; next time I would try this with something like pasta to soak up the sauce better. Oh, and I would probably make sure there are a few tins of Altoids lying around to cover up the garlic breath.

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Maple Roasted Nuts

Written on March 8, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Snack

I should warn you before I share this recipe that these are like crack. They might even be more addictive than Pringles; the lab tests haven’t come back yet. I do know that about half of the batch was “missing” later on the day that I made these. Since I was the only one around, you can be the jury on that case. But really, these are very good, and dare I say “healthy”? They’re sweet but not too much so that they feel like dessert; and who doesn’t love the flavor of roasted nuts? You can think up your own joke there…

Maple Roasted Nuts

Ingredients:

2 cups nuts(I used 1/2 walnuts, 1/2 cashews)
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Gather your nuts in a large bowl for mixing.

Pour in the maple syrup and add in the sugar. Toss to coat with your hands, making sure all of the sugar mixture gets used up(if you’re wondering why my maple syrup bottle has a red and green ribbon on it, it’s because it was a Christmas present; doesn’t every family give each other maple syrup for Christmas?).

Line a tray with parchment paper and lay the nuts out in a single layer. Roast for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure not to burn them. Once the nuts have cooled enough to touch, separate and move them to a container to make sure they don’t stick to the pan.

If you’re like me, then you’re going to burn a few of these because you’re easily distracted and don’t bother checking on these at all. That’s OK because the ones that aren’t burnt taste terrific. I loved the walnuts in here; next time I would try adding in some almonds, too, for more flavor. Just don’t leave the jar open next to you when you’re all alone and have no will power; that’s a dangerous combination.

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Lemon & Dill Whitefish

Written on March 7, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

Every Friday during Lent growing up we ate fish. That always confused me because you weren’t allowed to have meat and I’ve always thought of fish as meat. Still, I wasn’t complaining because usually we got fish served like this. This is by far my favorite way to prepare fish. Sure, cooking it in a chili rub and adding creamy avocado is good. But nothing makes fish better than lemon and dill. The best part about this recipe is that you can use any fish; I just happened to grab hake because it was on sale this weekend.

Lemon & Dill Whitefish

Ingredients:

1lb any flaky whitefish
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 Tablespoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lay the fish out on a baking tray and rub it with the olive oil on both sides to coat.

Next, pour on the lemon juice along the length of the fish. Generously sprinkle on the dill evenly, too.

Rub in the herbs across the fish. Bake for 15 minutes or until it’s white all the way through. Let the fish rest for 5-10 minutes covered before cutting in. Sprinkle at the last minute with salt.

Making the fish this way just tastes fresh, as if it were caught that morning. Nowadays I won’t be waiting until just Friday’s during Lent to eat fish like this.

You’re also supposed to give up something you love during Lent. I think I’m skipping that part this year, since what I truly love is wheat flour and gluten and all the stuff I can’t eat anyway. And that fast has lasted for a hell of a lot longer than 40 days. If you celebrate Lent, what are you giving up this year? If you don’t celebrate, what do you think you could never give up?

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Sunday Confessional 5

Written on March 6, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Sunday Confessional

I spent Saturday in Boston with three awesome bloggers and didn’t take a single picture. Oops. At least they were snap happy. Photo courtesy of Tina.

I think Boston is the best city in the world. Having worked there and gone to school there, I miss it all the time. Maybe it’s the people; maybe it’s the atmosphere; but probably it’s because it’s the only city I can use the public transportation in without getting lost… much.

vaseline800.jpg (174210 bytes)

As part of my marathon training, I ran/walked 20 miles in 3:30:17 and hated every minute of it. Countless times I thought of throwing in the towel until at mile 15 a ~~crazy~~ homeless woman named Mary told me to “use it or lose it.” So I kept on using it until I was done. Mary also offered me a cigarette; as generous as that was, I don’t think it’s part of my training plan.

At mile 5 I stopped right in the middle of the path, stripped off my running tights, threw back on my shorts and stuffed the tights in my pocket for the rest of the run. Runners. Yeah, we’re different.

February 23rd 058

The night after my long run, I ate my favorite dinner: Carbs with a side of potatoes. Again no picture because I was a bad blogger that day.

I also sat down with the last of the microwave fudge and ate it all from the pan. You’re allowed to do that on days you run 20 miles.

Past Sunday Confessionals:

Sunday Confessional 1

Sunday Confessional 2

Sunday Confessional 3

Sunday Confessional 4

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How To Use Tumblr To Promote Blog Content

Written on March 5, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Uncategorized

For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying out a new(ish) blogging platform: Tumblr. No, this blog’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Rather, I’ve started experimenting to see how a secondary food photography Tumblr blog can help food bloggers spread their content.

Tumblr is all about posting and reblogging visual content between members. There is (not surprisingly) a large percentage of their membership who like looking at good food photography and subscribe to food blogs. By releasing your content on Tumblr, you can draw the attention of people who might not know about your blog.

Getting Started:

The first thing you need to do is create your account. It’s free and easy; just choose your domain(I suggest having it relate to your primary blog like thewannabechef.tumblr.com), pick a theme, and choose how you want your landing page to look. That’s it. From your dashboard, you can start sharing text, photos, videos and more.

How It Works:

When you make a post, your primary goal should be spreading content. The first step is to make sure what you’re posting is visually interesting in some way. A good way to spread your blog content would be to publish a picture on Tumblr with a link in the body to the original recipe post.

The next biggest factor in deciding if what you post will get seen is the tags which help people find your posts. Don’t be too descriptive but rather give words that people might search for like “Chocolate” or “Vegan” as they relate to the content.

In terms of feedback, people can reblog your content meaning sharing it with their followers(and possibly or not adding notes of their own”), replying directly to the author, or simply “liking” your post. Each of these counts as a note.

Whenever somebody does one of these things as well as when you gain a new follower, this appears in your feed.

Of course, you can share whatever you want on Tumblr and it doesn’t have to be related to any other blog. Tumblr is a great way to informally blog and meet people with a different area set. This is just one way that you can use it to expand your blog’s reach. If you have any other questions about Tumblr, I will be happy to answer them as best I can.

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Lemon Drop Frosting

Written on March 4, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

Question: How do you make coconut blondies even better? Answer: You give them an awesome and delicious frosting.

I know I said these are so good that they don’t need any frosting, but really, what doesn’t frosting make better? I was reading in this NY Times article on coconut oil that it makes a great, smooth vegan frosting so I wanted to try it out. If you don’t have coconut oil, room-temperature non-hydrogenated shortening would also work well in this recipe.

The flavor reminds me of a lemon slurpee or an Italian ice. It’s really sweet and refreshing. It goes perfectly with the coconut, but would also work with any vanilla cake. And it takes about a minute to come together! You can’t beat that.

Lemon Drop Frosting

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Start by mixing room-temperature coconut oil and lemon juice. If your coconut oil is too hard to begin with, gently heat it to the point where it’s semi-soft.

Gently sift in the sugar and continue folding until the frosting starts to come together.

Once the mixture’s homogenous and starts sticking to itself, it’s done.

The frosting should be rather soft and easy to spread.

Don’t worry if you eat more than you frost with; that’s completely normal. It’s also completely normal to pick off the frosting with a fork and eat it after you’ve frosted the blondies. These things happen.

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Coconut Blondies

Written on March 3, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

These are about as rich and decadent as a cup of coconut milk can make anything to be. When these first came out of the oven, I weren’t sure if they were technically a cake or a blondie. It turns out the difference(very unscientifically) lies in the ratio of fat and sugar to flour. Since these are full of fat and sugar(and taste delicious in case that’s not a clue), I feel pretty comfortable calling them blondies. Also, a cake needs frosting I feel and these just melt in your mouth all their own.

Coconut Blondies

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup safflower/canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour(I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour)
1/2 coconut shreds
1/3 cup white chocolate chips(optional)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 pan.

Mix together the coconut milk, oil, eggs, sugar, and extract until the eggs are just beaten in.

Sift in the flour and baking soda and mix until it has just come together. The batter should be pretty loose.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the center of the cake has cooked through.

I would definitely make this again in a heartbeat, except I might have to double the recipe next time and add toasted hazelnuts. The coconut flavor is just strong enough to notice but the vanilla keeps it from taking over.

Did I mention I really love them? I think I’ll have another.

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Hasselback Potatoes

Written on March 2, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

Lately there’s been a lot of these hasselback potatoes around the food blog world. As a meat and potatoes person, I knew I had to try these. The recipe is so simple and yet quite different than your regular baked potato. These weren’t quite crispy like potato chips as I was hoping but they were tender and rich.

And, if you’re like me, you’ll be a little disappointed to learn that this isn’t named after a certain View hostess. Next you’ll try to tell me that Whoopi Goldberg didn’t invent the whoopie pie…

Hasselback Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 medium baking potato
2 pats of butter
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Carefully slice the potato ever 1/4-1/2 inch about 90% of the way through, making sure not to cut it completely.

Put a pat of butter over each side of the potato. Bake it for 60 minutes.

Plate and pour the excess melted butter overtop. Season with salt and pepper.

Paula Deen would do good by this recipe, ya’ll. It was definitely a fun and different way to eat a baked potato. Bacon bits on top would have been a great final touch.

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