QCC has moved!
Well, I moved the blog a while back but never posted to ridirect. So here it is:http://www.queencitycooking.tumblr.com
Pad Thai!
I know I've really been letting my loyal QCC readers down. Too much going on with school, and though I have been cooking quite a bit, I just haven't been so inspired by my dishes....until today! Tonight, I made chicken and shrimp Pad Thai! It was delicious and surprisingly easy to make. First, I scrambled 2 eggs and then set the eggs aside. Then, I cut chicken breasts into small pieces, and stir fried it until half-way cooked. I added the cooked rice noodles (to cook rice noodles, be sure to take the boiling water off the heat, and have the noodles soak in the hot water. Keep an eye on them. Mine were a nice al dente in about 5 minutes) and the Pad Thai sauce (I bought bottled sauce in the Asian section at Wegman's--next time I'll try making it myself!) and mixed it all together. Once it seemed combined (about 4 minutes on medium heat), I added 2 cups of bean sprouts, the scrambled eggs and chopped green onion. I cooked for another minute or so, and voila! When I served the Pad Thai, I added chopped roasted peanuts.
cookie cake!
Check out the "I love you" (in Hebrew) cookie cake I made for Adam for Valentine's day!
Barefoot Contessa Party: Onion & Fennel Soup Gratin
I was most excited about making this one. Ina explains that this is her take on french onion by "turning up the volume" with fennel. It was so good. The recipe calls for 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/4c olive oil, 3lbs spanish onion, 2lbs fennel (core removed), 1/2 c dry sherry, 1/2 cognac or brandy, 1 1/2 c dry white wine, 8 cups beef broth, 3 bay leaves, 1tbsp kosher salt, ground black pepper, sliced sourdough, 6 oz grated Gruyère cheese. The soup takes a good amount of time to make but probably the most labor intensive part is slicing the onions and fennel--5lbs total is a lot! It was well worth it though. Definitely going to make this again. All and all I would say the Barefoot Contessa party was a delic
ious, fun and cheese-y success.
Barefoot Contessa Party: Baked Fontina
Ina's Baked Fontina is basically cheese fondue that you scoop up with bread. The recipe calls for 1 1/2lbs of Italian Fontina Val d'Aosta cheese, olive oil, 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced, 1tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves, 1tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and some bread. Dice the cheese into cubes and distribute evenly in a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Drizzle the EVOO and sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top of the cheese. Broil for 6 minutes and serve piping hot with bread. We served it with some baguette, sourdough and a yummy green salad. The dish was delicious but very rich. Next time I would use half the amount of EVOO she calls for (1/8 of a cup instead of 1/4).
Barefoot Contessa Party: Old-Fashioned Banana Cake
Today I am having a Barefoot Contessa cooking party with my friends Lauren and Liat. Lauren and I had talked about doing this for a while because we are both huge Ina Garten fans and my mom recently got me her new cookbook, How Easy is That? We picked three recipes to make for an early dinner tonight. It was hard to pick but we ended up choosing the ones that just made our mouth water looking at the pictures in the book, and despite the lack of variety in the meal (lots of cheese!) it's going to be so delicous. This morning I made our dessert: the Barefoot Contessa's old-fashioned banana cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake calls for 3 ripe bananas, 3/4c sugar, 1/2c packed light brown sugar, 1/2c vegetable oil, 2 eggs at room temp, 1/2c sour cream, 1tsp vanilla extract, 1 grated zest of orange (which I didn't include, so I'm hoping for the best), 2c flour, 1tsp baking soda, 1/2tsp kosher salt and 1/2c chopped walnuts. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together. Mix the sugar, brown sugar and bananas in a mixer on low until combined, then add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix on low until smooth. Finally add the sifted flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in chopped walnuts, and then bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees. After baking, let cool in pan for 15 minutes and then take out and cool on a cooling rack.
The cream cheese icing calls for 2 1/2c of confectioners sugar (sifted), 6 tbsp butter (room temp), 6 oz cream cheese (room temp) mixed together with a mixer on low speed. Totally decadent and unbelievably delicious. And I have to say, the cake turned out astoundingly like the one in the beautiful photograph in the cookbook.
