caramelized onion and brie puffs

One of the first things I learned how to make was a baked brie. They're always a crowd-pleaser, and they're relatively easy to put together. This weekend, I made miniature baked brie puffs, which is marginally more difficult by virtue of increased labor. I should've taken pictures. But, just between you and me, I can't find my camera.

Ingredients

1 large white or yellow onion, sliced into thin half-moons
2 tablespoons butter
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 wedge of brie, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (triple cream melts the best)
a pinch or two of salt
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water
a handful (or 2) of flour for your countertop


First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then caramelize the onion slices. You want to do this over a medium heat because you do not want the onions to crisp at all. Put the butter in a skillet to melt. Once the bubbling has subsided, add the onion. Add the salt after a couple minutes. Let it cook, with relatively little stirring, until they are soft and brown. This will take some time - maybe 20 minutes. If your onions start to get a little dry, add some chicken stock (or water or vegetable stock if you're avoiding meat) to help the process along. Once the onions are lovely and brown, remove them from the heat and set aside.

Now, the hard part (and remember, hard is a relative term - nothing about this recipe is overwhelming) - the dough. Put some flour down on your work surface, and unfold the pastry dough onto it. If it doesn't unfold pretty easily, it's probably not thawed enough. Grab your rolling pin and roll out the dough from the center to the edges, making a bigger and bigger square. Pick up the dough and flip it over after every 2 - 3 rolls to keep it from sticking to the counter. Put down more flour whenever you need to, also to keep it from sticking.

This process is a little difficult if you've never handled dough before. Just remember, if it gets too sticky you can add flour to it. And if it gets too dry, you can add water to it. You can mash it back up into a ball and re-roll it as many times as you need too. Plus, it will puff up so wonderfully and taste so heavenly, that it won't matter if it wasn't rolled perfectly.

You want the dough to be about 1/8 of an inch thick. This is thin, but not so thin that it looks translucent or fragile. The dough will be about 50% bigger.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 2.5 inch squares (just eyeball it - I don't want to hear about anyone breaking out a ruler). Now, fill each individual square. I like to do this using a min-muffin tin.

Place a square of dough in each depression in the tin. Place a piece of brie into each square of dough. Place a spoonful of caramelized onions over each piece of brie. If you can't get all your dough into one muffin-tin, just cover it with a damp towel until the first batch is done.

(You don't need to have a muffin tin for this - you can just fill the dough squares while they're flat, and fold them up into little envelopes of deliciousness. Then bake 'em on a cookie sheet).

Next, whisk the egg yolk and water together. Brush this mixture onto the edges of each dough square. Then seal up the edges - this doesn't need to be perfect - by folding them over each other or pinching them together. The egg yolk will work like a glue. Finally, use any leftover yolk mixture to brush the tops of the newly sealed dough packets.

Stick the puffs in the oven. If they aren't golden brown after 10 minutes, let them cook another 5 minutes. Then check again. It won't take long.

Serve at your next fancy party and pretend you spent the whole day in the kitchen. Or serve to your close friends and give 'em the skinny on how simple they are to make. Either way, enjoy.

thanksgiving

I've been eating mostly salad and baked chicken breast for what feels like weeks now. Therefore, there hasn't been much cooking for me to blog about. I worry that it would be condescending for me to blog about baked chicken breast - sprinkle with salt and pepper. put in 400* oven for 20 minutes - so instead, let's talk about thanksgiving.

This year will be the first thanksgiving I host for my family. I am bursting with excitement. I am also grappling with what dishes to make, and what dishes to ask others to bring with them. Here's the list from which I will make eliminations (or possibly additions if I just can't cut anything).

roast turkey or turducken or fried turkey
yam casserole (non-negotiable)
mashed potatoes
boudin stuffing or herbed stuffing or giblet stuffing
creamed spinach or spinach madeleine
cranberry apple lemon sauce
pecan pie
baked brie
some kind of fig and prosciutto appetizer


So there's my list. I'm sure it will fluctuate mightily in the next 5 weeks. In the meantime, what're your family thanksgiving food traditions?

PS: last night I watched Jaques and Julia cooking a thanksgiving dinner (from which I have happily poached the above-mentioned cranberry, apple, lemon sauce). Anyway, toward the end, Julia says "what wine do we serve with a thanksgiving feast?" To which the wonderful Jaques replies, "a lot."

Happy cooking and bon appetit!

asparagus risotto

I find risotto really hard to pass up. I mean, if it's on a menu, I endure an inner dialogue something along the lines of this,

"Mmmm, risotto."
Yes, but there's also picatta. And lasagna. Ooooh! And manicotti!
"Yes, but risotto is so creamy..."
You think a tube of pasta stuffed full of ricotta cheese isn't creamy? Plus, you can make it at home! You're probably never going to make manicotti. Let's face it, if you tried, you'd just end up eating all the ricotta before you could stuff it into the pasta tubes. We both know that.

Whereupon I forgo my beloved risotto. But on the way home from the restaurant, I buy some arborio rice and plot the next night's dinner.

Ingredients

The amounts in this recipe are for 1 serving. There's instructions in the recipe to increase for more servings.

1/4 an onion, chopped
1/4 c. arborio rice (or other short grain, Italian, risotto-type)
1 c. chicken stock
1/4 bunch asparagus, ends removed, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tbs. olive oil
1/4 c. grated or shredded cheese (I like peccorino romano, but any parmesan or romano works)
salt and pepper to taste

Be prepared: once you add the rice to the saucepan, you will be stirring constantly. So put on comfortable shoes, throw some music on the ipod and get ready to work that bicep...or whatever the stirring muscle is.

First, put your chicken broth over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. You should have about at least three times as much broth as you have rice. You want the broth to be hot (but not simmering or boiling), so that when it's added to the rice, it doesn't cool it down (and thereby increase the cooking time).

Over medium-high heat, saute the onion in olive oil, using a larger saucepan. Cook until the onion is soft. You may also add minced garlic to the onion, but I tend to leave garlic out of my risotto dishes. Increase the onion by 1/4 for each additional 1/4 cup of dry rice.

Risotto rice will generally increase in size by about 4 times. So when I cook it just for myself, I make around 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup, dry. This yields about a cup (maybe a little more) which is more than adequate for one person. So, using that, add enough dry rice to feed however many people you like (1 cup dry = 4 cups cooked = feed 4-6 people, depending on appetites).

Now, and this is important, add your dry rice in with the onion and cook it without any liquid for a few minutes. Stir constantly! You want the rice to look a little beat up - it will get opaque white edges. I'd estimate this takes between 3 - 5 minutes. This process will help the starches work properly in the cooking process - yielding that creaminess we're looking for.

Once you've got opaque rice, add about a cup of the hot broth (use a ladle). Again, stir constantly. In total, you'll want to cook the rice for about 18 minutes.

Stir until the rice absorbs the broth. You don't want it looking dry - but no obvious liquid either. Once you get to that point, add another half cup of broth.

Keep repeating this (add 1/2 cup broth, stir until absorbed) until you reach the 12 minute mark. At this point, toss in the cut-up asparagus. It will cook in the broth with the rice. (I like a lot of vegetables in my rice, so when you're increasing the recipe, bear that in mind - just put in what looks right to you).

Continue adding broth and stirring until absorbed until the rice has been cooking a total of 18 minutes. At that point you should have plump and creamy risotto. If you don't, then keep adding more broth and letting it get absorbed until the texture is right.

Add cheese. Lots of it. I put 1/4 cup of cheese in when I make 1/4 cup of dry rice. Trust me, it's essential.

Once you've mastered the basic risotto recipe, you can add any ingredients you like. My favorite additions (besides asparagus) are mushrooms, spinach, tomato, or cooked chicken.