Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Root down.

Roasted beet and cranberry soup with pickled beet greens. © Ryan Schierling
I've been told a number of times that I could make soup out of anything. For a while, I took that as a challenge. Some days it meant mind-bendingly turning a leftover chickpea, feta and black olive salad into African peanut soup. Other days it meant making proper stock and clearing the crisper (read as: rotter) drawers of our refrigerator. Have you ever made lettuce consommé? No, you haven't, and you don't want to. Soup – as the saying goes – may be good food but it is also, occasionally, a grim test of a cook's mettle.

All of the tried-and-true classics are already in cans, so the challenge is to either make a soup can soup better, or make something that no one's thought of yet. The problem is, I did some research on the internet and apparently, everything's already been thought of already, soup or otherwise… and it's on a blog, or Facebook, or Instagram, or Pinterest, or whatever.

This information overload pushes me back toward simplicity, and sometimes that's the best thing about the massive, endless, big old stupid-head internet. I turn the computer off, scribble the first three ingredients that come to mind on a scrap of empty envelope and race to the grocery store. That's it, and it's soup. I don't need truffle oil for this, or wild game, or heirloom anything.

Now, it's winter. I want to make something that's a foil to the chill, the wind and the frost, but celebrates the meager ingredients available in this coldest of seasons. So far, we've put together potato chowder with roasted green chiles, proper Texas red, and chicken stock with chunks of onion and carrot and gently-simmered pesto-filled tortellini. All are simple, and filled with robust flavors that shine on their own.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Tortilla Española-dilla.

Walking Tortilla Española? Indeed. © Ryan Schierling
Disclaimer: This is not a recipe for authentic tortilla Española, so don't get your calzoncillos in a bunch.

Julie didn't set out to make tortilla Española when she decided to whip up a quick, portable breakfast with a bare minimum of ingredients, but at its simplest, that is what it has become. Similar to the Spanish bocadillo, but subbing a big flour tortilla for bread, this delicious and deceptively-easy egg, potato and onion dish has quickly become one of my all-time hand-holdable morning favorites.

It's not a stretch, because tacos of all kinds find their way into my waking routine at least a few times a week, but this is a fast, one-pan breakfast that takes nothing more than one tortilla, one egg, a serving of hash browns and a little chopped onion. 

It doesn't need bacon or roasted red pepper or basil or tomatoes or cheese, but any additions or substitutions make for effortless frittata-like possibilities (as long as the overall moisture-level and consistency stays the same), and we do mix it up occasionally. This morning's version included leftover mashed potatoes instead of hash browns, a little fresh salsa verde, a chopped-up Morningstar Farms® sausage patty, onion and egg. Tater tots, frozen shredded hash browns, chopped-up hash brown patties or leftover latkes also work well. 

We've been joking about how this should have been our Today Show Home Chef Challenge entry, because it's much closer to what our Papaquiles were re-imagined as for large-scale preparation and service by the Today Show food trucks at SXSW. Perhaps next time...

This is a simple, single-serving tortilla Española that gives you creamy potato, custardy egg and a bit of bright onion, all in a fraction of the time it would take to create the superlative Spanish classic. As an added bonus, you can eat it while driving. Try that with a proper tortilla Española.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Hot toddies and hand pies.

Apple toddy hand pies. © Ryan Schierling
In a brazen act of nostalgia, I bought one of those Hostess™ apple fruit pies. It was a timely impulse, as it was just a couple of weeks before I learned the brand was going out of business. I remembered enjoying them as a kid, and on the day of my purchase I was curious how I would feel about them now – and how wide the chasm compared to homemade. As it turns out, getting past the first bite on this nostalgic interlude required a level of food masochism I was simply incapable of entertaining.

Yes, occasionally, I like to make little apple hand pies. They are easy and fun, and with just the two of us in this household the presence of a whole pie is downright daunting. These recipes are simple and can easily be whipped up in the time it takes to reduce an apple to a quarter-inch dice and roll out a batch of double-crust pie dough. Heck, if you have a handful of delicate dough left over from those pot-pies you just busted out – use that to assemble a few little hand pies and throw them in the oven while it's still hot. 

My intention was for this to be a happy little story to document our trusty apple hand pies, just the apple-filled single-serving pastry to satisfy that all-American pie craving this holiday season. My typical filling includes heavy cream, which is uncommon, though not entirely unheard of – it seems to be of German or Dutch influence. I have no idea where I picked up this nifty trick, but that little bit of cream conspires to do the work of butter and flour with those delightfully-tart Granny Smiths. I'll include that recipe below, as well.

You see, before I managed to actually make a batch, I got soundly derailed.

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