Cauliflower Gruyere Souffle: Labor Intensive, But Tasty

I've made this dish once before, and it's relatively easy and flavorful. However, it requires a lot of dishes, so be prepared with an empty sink and dishwasher before taking on this particular recipe.

First, bring a quart of salted water to a boil. Add a cauliflower head that has been broken into florets; cover and cook for 25 minutes.

Drain the cauliflower and return them to the same pan to dry off any excess water on high heat. If you don't use high heat, the water won't evaporate off, and trust me when I say that cauliflower retains a lot of water, so it may take a while.

Once your cauliflower is nice and dry, add it to a food processor and puree it to a nice, almost mousse like consistency. Set it aside.

Next, combine a quarter cup each of butter and flour to form a roux; do not let this get too brown. Add one and a quarter cup of milk (I used almond milk, so it works out just fine), salt and pepper to taste, and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. This should take about five minutes. Add four ounces of grated gruyere cheese and whisk it until it's smooth. Add two cups of the cauliflower to the mix and stir.

Now is where things get a bit tricky because you are tempering eggs. This demonstrates one of the proofs that cooking is applied organic chemistry. In order to temper eggs, you have to add about a quarter cup of your hot mixture to four egg yolks, because if you just add the yolks to the hot mixture without tempering them, you'll end up with scrambled solids, and nobody wants that. Once you've whisked the hot mixture into the yolks, add this well-blended mixture to the cauliflower mixture and set this aside.

Take your four egg whites that came from separating the four egg yolks and whip these into soft peaks using a hand mixer. You can do it by hand, but unless you have a strong pair of arms and like to whisk things for ten minutes straight, I recommend using the mixer. Fold the whites into the cauliflower mixture in such a way as to not break down the whites.

Pour this mixture into an ungreased souffle dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour or until brown. Serve this immediately because it will collapse almost as soon as you take it out of the oven.

Will and I liked this dish, but I need to work on getting the cauliflower as dry as I can. I need to remember not to worry about burning the food.

Cheese Stuffed Shells With Marinara Sauce: Easy and Flavorful

This sounded amazing when I looked up the recipe; however, it had no sauce and my husband doesn't like crunchy baked pasta, so I quickly defrosted some of my homemade spaghetti sauce (see my post on spaghetti and meatballs for the recipe) and used that for the sauce.

First, cook your 11 ounce box of large pasta shells according to the package directions; while that's cooking, combine a pound of ricotta, 8 ounces of feta cheese, one egg, 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, and two cups of spinach. This should make a stiff filling. Add two crushed garlic cloves and seasoned salt to taste.

By now, your shells should be cooked through; drain them and rinse them off with cold water to make them cool enough to handle. Spoon the filling into the shells and arrange them in a glass dish greased with olive oil; pour the spaghetti sauce on top. Bake this in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes, checking at 25 to make sure your sauce doesn't scorch.

Will loved this dish. If I wasn't mistaken, he had two helpings. I loved it, but unfortunately, I still have indigestion from last night, so evidently it didn't love me. I had a ton of shells left over, probably from adding too much cheese filling, so I will make it without the sauce and see what happens.

Splurge Night: French Onion Filet Mignon

My auntie and uncle sent Will and me some food from Omaha Steaks, among which were four beautiful filet mignons. I decided to attempt the recipe that earned me an A in culinary school as my signature dish, but was so brown that the chef teaching the class thought it was raw despite it being medium rare because it was so browned.
First, caramelize one sliced onion. Once the onion is caramelized, remove them from the pan and set it aside. Add your steaks and cook until they're browned; it's okay if they get a little burned. Remove them from the pan and set it aside.
Deglaze your pan with marsala; once it starts to reduce, add your filet mignons back to the pan and let them infuse with the flavor as well as get a bit browner. Meanwhile, toast some white or sourdough bread and butter it. Once the marsala is reduced to the point of being glossy, remove the steaks from the pan, arrange the onions on the toast points, put the steak on top of the onions, place a slice of Swiss or gruyere cheese on the steak, and pour the marsala reduction on top of the stack. I served this with the twice baked potatoes that were sent with the steaks and broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots; but mashed potatoes and any vegetable would go with this.
Will loved it; he said it's by far my best dish. I got the reduction done a little better than that fateful final. I think the chef would be proud of what I did, but he would also likely give me feedback to further perfect it. I am quite proud of it, and will continue to work with it.

Splurge Night: Pork Schnitzel With Noodles

Schnitzel was a staple when I lived in New Mexico because it's cheap, easy, and quick. While I no longer need as cheap of meals as I used to, I haven't made this in over two years and said, why not?
First, take two pork chops, preferably thin ones; if you can only find thick cut ones, take a meat knife and split them down the middle to make thinner chops. Pound them out to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thickness; make sure to use a ziploc bag or some saran wrap or else your chop will stick to your tenderizer and fall apart. Remember not to pound it too thin or it will fall apart; you just want it tender and all one width. Next, lightly coat with flour seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, coat in a mixture of eggs and milk, and coat in flour. Cook these in a skillet in batches until the breading is brown and the meat is cooked through. Meanwhile, cook some pappardelle or egg noodles according to the package directions and drain. Put your noodles in a bowl and coat with a bit of butter; add caraway seeds and seasoned salt and toss to coat. Once your pork is cooked, add any leftover egg wash to the pan you cooked the pork in and scramble them; you will serve this on top of the schnitzel.
Normally I serve this with broccoli or another nice vegetable, but the only frozen vegetables we had that weren't used to treat Will's concussion last week was corn, so that's what makes it a splurge night in addition to the frying, even if it is no more than a Tablespoon of oil.
Will loved the new spices I used on the noodles; usually I serve them plain. I definitely think the noodles would make a great light lunch on their own. For those of you who either don't like or can't digest pork, this is just as easy to make using chicken breasts, veal, or beef.

Chicken Piccata: Made It With a Twist On the Fly

I made chicken piccata last night; unfortunately, I didn't realize I didn't have enough ingredients, so I had to improvise the wine sauce. Despite those setbacks, it all worked out and was tasty.
First, pound your chicken breasts to about half inch thickness; to do this without destroying your meat, wrap it in cellophane and then go to town pounding it out. Then, stick them in a plastic bag with a quarter cup of flour spiced with salt and pepper to taste and shake the bag to coat the chicken. Meanwhile, melt some butter on medium heat and add the chicken to the pan; brown the breasts. Add some white wine; I didn't have enough white wine and so had to use a bit of red as well; bring this mixture to a boil and let it simmer twelve minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add a bit of lemon juice; I didn't have any lemon, but I did have some dried lemon zest for when I make houska, so that worked well, and serve your the chicken.
While my chicken was tasty, the star of the show was a frozen mushroom risotto from Trader Joe's that I wound up doctoring using saffron, cream, milk, Italian seasoning, and provolone and Parmesan cheeses. I also served this with carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli.