The Renaissance Kitchen

Food is love.  I think when anyone goes out of their way to cook or bake for you, there is love.  I know that I enjoy food more when someone else has prepared it for me. My favorite dish, Pastel de Papa, is an Argentinian type of Shepherd’s Pie.  My mom made it perfect every time.  It was my birthday dinner choice.  I learned to make it from her and YET mine never tastes as good as hers.  No one else’s matches my mom’s.  GRRRR…My mom is gone now but the memory stays with me.  Food is love and now that Valentine’s Day is approaching instead of buying a box of chocolates, why don’t you make some truffles for the loves in your life.  It might create an everlasting memory.

This is my original creation.  I’m almost afraid to say that because there are so many recipes out there in the world, that I might not have been the first to discover this combination.  Do you know what I mean?  I read some cookbooks and recipes in magazines.  I’m starting to look more on the internet and on Instagram but I’m not a fanatic.  I’ve never seen anything like these.  These truffles just came into my head, especially because I love gingersnaps and I love dulce de leche and I love a good white chocolate.  That was it!  I put it all together and came out with this treat.

The taste is great but I did make some mistakes along the way that I’ll share with you.  You see, I’m not much of a confectioner, just the little bits I do at Christmastime.  I think these truffles are perfect for Valentine’s Day.  As many of my recipes are, this one is pretty easy and quick, too.  These truffles are very sweet and delicious.  So, make a batch and share with your sweetie.

Ingredients

1 cup Gingersnap crumbs (I used Anna’s Ginger Thins.)

1/2-2/3 cup Dulce de Leche (Look in the Mexican Food section, where the condensed milk is.)

1 Cup White Chocolate Chips (Guittard is the only chocolate I use.)

1 Tbl. Vegetable Shortening or Coconut Oil

Set some wax paper on a cookie sheet. Take 20 Gingersnaps and put in a Ziplock plastic bag.   Crush with a rolling pin until the cookies turn into small crumbs.  If you prefer, you can use a food processor for this step.  I guess I’m just old fashion.  I’d rather do it by hand.

Add the Dulce de Leche and stir until well combined.

Take about a tablespoon and roll into a ball.  It will be a little gooey. Use some confectioner’s sugar on your hands to help with this process.

Put them on the wax paper and prepare the truffle coating.  Microwave the White Chocolate Chips with the Vegetable Shortening or Coconut Oil for 30 seconds at time until smooth.  Stir in between heating.  Don’t overcook.  Then just dip the truffles in the Chocolate mixture.  I used a fork to dip them.

Once the chocolate coating had hardened, I melted a little white chocolate and drizzled over the truffles.  I didn’t use any shortening or coconut oil for the drizzle.  That’s it.

Now here is where I made my mistake.  I always see on TV or magazines that chefs will coat sweet somethings on a rack so the chocolate just drains down instead of pooling under the sweets.  So I used my cookie rack – look at the top picture.  Well, that was a total mistake! See what happened!

I used  a knife to pry those little babies off the grid!  I had to laugh at my attempt to be so professional.  Oh well, use wax paper on a cookie sheet instead.

I hope you will try them and let me know what you think.  You could always use dark or milk chocolate for the coating.  Remember to give some away to your sweetheart.

I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

I don’t know if you have noticed, but lately I have been making lots recipes that include lemons and olive oil.  My Meyers lemon tree is full of lemons and I’m trying to use them as much as I can.  This particular recipe I adapted from Lucero’s Lemon Olive Oil Cupcakes with White Balsamic Icing.  Lucero is a well-known olive oil producer and I have been checking out the recipes on their website.  I loved the idea that the lemon cupcakes are flavored only with lemon infused olive oil. It worked and they were delicious.  I didn’t follow the White Balsamic Icing basically because I didn’t have white lemon balsamic vinegar.  Do you?  I didn’t want to buy a bottle of something that I didn’t think I would use on anything else.  So, I made a simple lemon icing and it actually turned out pretty well.  I used some lemon extract that I had made previously.  If you are adventurous then by all means look up the recipe at lucerooliveoil.com and try it out.

I try to bring something every week to my fellow volunteers at the food locker.  You know how you get so much joy from giving.  Giving is better than receiving.  My co-volunteers really show appreciation and joy from tasting all my stuff.  I must confess that I get a big thrill when I receive good feedback from someone who is eating whatever I have made.  Hearing someone say that it’s really good or yummm… or can I have the recipe?, gives me so much satisfaction.  And after I get all the praises and make sure that the recipe is good, I get to do it all over again with you when I share it here.  Blogging is almost as wonderful as cooking for someone in person.  Thanks for reading and being a part of my joy.  Here’s the Lemon Olive Oil Cupcake recipe:

Ingredients

Cupcakes

3 Eggs

2 1/2 cups Sugar

1 1/2 cups Lemon Infused Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

3/4 tsp. Salt

Icing

1 tsp. Lemon Extract (Mine is homemade. You can always use vanilla extract.)

3 Tbl. Lemon Juice

2 cups Powdered Sugar

Place paper liners in muffin pans.  This makes about 30 cupcakes. Mix the Eggs, Lemon Infused Olive Oil, and Milk.  Sift the dry ingredients, the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt, in a separate bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.

This makes a lot of batter.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean from the center.

Let cool and glaze with the icing.

For the icing, just mix the Lemon Juice, Lemon Extract and Powdered Sugar until smooth.

The CD I’ve been listening to a lot lately when I’m cooking is Seis Cuerdas. It’s beautiful guitar music.  I love it!

I made 24 regular cupcakes and 10 mini-cupcakes.

Each cupcakes contains: 309 Calories, 12.2 grams Fat, 49.9 grams Carbs, 2.1 grams Protein.

Yikes!! but they are really yummy for an occasional treat.

Is your olive oil extra virgin as the label says?  It might not be. There has been a lot in the media lately on this particular topic.  Did you read the article in the December issue of Cook’s Illustrated?  How about the 60 Minutes report on Olive Oil in Italy, did you catch that?  If you have been keeping your eyes and ears open, you probably have heard that the Italian Olive Oil that we commonly purchase is not always Extra Virgin.  That’s right!  A lot of the Italian Oil is rancid.  According to the 60 Minutes report, any where between 75 to 80% of it is bad.  People in the industry know this. I just didn’t know that it was the Mafia that was involved in this rip off.

Many of my friends ask me to tell them which oils are the best.  I would always try to steer them away from the Italian ones but it was hard for me to come right out and say that their everyday oil from Italy is probably bad or will soon be for sure.  It’s hard to say that Italian oils are bad because there are so many wonderful oils from there.  If you have ever been to Italy, you know that their food and olive oil is outstanding but it’s what they send to us that is not always of good quality.

So, how do you know that you are buying something of good quality?  How can you tell? That’s exactly what I cover in my Olive Oil Tastings.  I show you what to look for when purchasing.  I tell you some of the qualities that make a good oil.  AND I teach you how to taste oils so you can distinguish, somewhat.  That’s what I do.  I taste oils for sensory analysis.  It’s through the human senses that one can distinguish if the oil is extra virgin or not.  It takes hours of training but I give you an idea of the most common defects found in oils.

I love doing this.  I present for about an hour and then, we all taste oils.  When it’s a small setting of 10 or 15 people, I encourage everyone to bring their olive oil from home so that we can taste them, too.  It’s great fun!  I believe that everyone leaves knowing more about this healthy food.  I dedicate myself to educating others because I have always considered myself a pretty good home cook but I didn’t know the difference between olive oils. I just bought Italian ones.  I use EVOO in just about every meal I make.  I was so taken aback when I found out some of the facts of the olive oils that I trusted, I feel I have to share with everyone I can.

If you would like to learn more or find out about that bottle of oil in your pantry, just contact me. I am now booking Olive Oil Tastings.  I am in Northern California.  Please contact me through this website if you are interested.

Happy Tasting!

I don’t know about you, but I have put on a few pounds since the Christmas season.  December was a month of lots of baking and gifting AND tasting, maybe more than a taste.  I really can’t afford to put on any more  pounds.  So, I’m looking at some tried and true recipes that have less calories.

I love soup.  Do you?  The only soup I had growing up was Campbell’s Chicken Noodle and Cream of Mushroom.  My mom would only eat the latter.  You see, my grandmother, who lived to 96 years old and died an accidental death, had soup every day.  Grandmother would have a stew-like soup called “Puchero”.  She would separate the broth from the meat and vegetables.  With the broth, she would add some pasta and make soup for the first course.  The meat and veggies were served as the second course.  Since, grandmother had the same lunch every day, Mom developed a dislike to soup.  Not me, I love it.

I’d like to share this soup recipe with you.  It has few calories and little fat. This is fast and easy.  I adapted it from a Susan Sommers’ recipe called “Oriental Turkey Meatball Soup”. I used homemade broth with very little salt added.  Be careful with the broth you use.  It may already contain lots of sodium.  So, watch the soy sauce.  I’ll give you my homemade broth recipe soon.

Ingredients

6 cups Chicken Broth

1 lb. Ground Turkey

2 finely chopped Celery Stalks

5 slices peeled fresh Ginger

2 Tbl. Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp. Hot Chili Oil

2 heads Baby Bok Choy

1 -2 Green Onions

Bring the broth to boil in a large saucepan.  Meanwhile, chop only the greens of the Green Onion.  Add the Green Onion to the Turkey.  Mix with your hands and make 1 inch meatballs.

When the broth boils, add the Turkey meatballs, Celery, Ginger, Soy Sauce, and Chili Oil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Then add the Bok Choy for 5 more minutes.  I cut the Bok Choy in fourths because they were a little large.  Usually, they can be cut in half.

Add more Soy Sauce and/or Chili Oil to taste.  Have you been reading all the articles about those people who like cilantro and those who hate it?  Well, I love cilantro.  My daughter hates it.  I topped my bowl with some cilantro leaves…YUM.  (Optional, of course.)

Serves 4, each at  225 Calories, 3.4 grams Fat, 1.3 grams Carbs, 35 grams Protein.

I fix this soup usually for lunch and don’t always have music on.  Once I get everything in the pot, I go and finish my chores until it’s ready.

Soup’s on!

I put on a Mozart CD to make this Lentil and Green Olive Salad.  I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while now.  It’s from The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook  by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.  It is a simple dish but I think what can make it delicious is the quality of the ingredients.  I kept thinking about an old friend as I considered making  this recipe.  He is a vegetarian.  I remember once he was over and enjoying my lasagna rolls.  I proceeded to tell him what was in them and he giggled.  He told me this joke about a man who was invited to the White House for dinner.  He was served a hamburger.  The man said it was the best hamburger he had ever had.  He asked to go speak to the chef to let him know.  The guest asked what the secret was and the chef answered that they started with USDA Prime Top Sirloin and ground that up.  Then, my friend would smile.  I had heard him tell this joke before and I never got it.  I would smile back at my friend, politely, but I never got it!  I always gave lots of credit to the cook who figures out what ingredients work well together and figures out how to prepare them and get everything on the table looking beautiful.

This man’s joke has been on my mind a lot because I finally got it.  Of course!  The White House was feeding everyone a ground up excellent quality of steak.  A recipe will taste its best only when the best quality ingredients are used.  There are times that ingredients won’t make a big difference but since this recipe is simple, it is essential that you buy the best.  So, I used everything fresh and organic.  I used my own lemons and arugula.  The olives were a Greek Blend which included Kalamata, so, I added them along with the green olives.  They weren’t pitted.  It took a little more work to slice the meat off the pit but it was worth it because they are my favorite.  I, also, used a lovely robust olive oil.  This dish is where you want to use your best EVOO.  It will make the salad.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. brown or green Lentils

1 small Onion, peeled

1 Garlic Clove, peeled

1 Bay Leaf

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup pitted Green Olives, coarsely chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper, cut into long thin strips (I left them too long.  Next time I will cut in half.)

1/3 cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tbl. fresh Lemon Juice

Bitter Greens like Arugula, Chicory, Frisée, Radicchio…

Zest of 1/2 lemon, cut into fine julienne strips

1 Tbl. minced Flat-Leaf Parsley

Pick Lentils over carefully, looking for stones or unusual beans.  Rinse under running water.  Place in a saucepan with the Onion, Garlic, Bay Leaf, Salt, Pepper, with 3 cups cold Water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer 30 minutes until Lentils are tender. Check because the time can vary.  Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients.

When the Lentils are done, drain them, discard all the vegetables and mix while still warm with the Olives, Red Peppers, Olive Oil, and Lemon Juice.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve on a pile of bitter greens.  I mixed some Arugula from the garden with a bit of romaine lettuce I had in the frig.  Garnish with the strips of Lemon and Parsley.

Makes 6 servings.  Each consisting of 274 Calories, 11 grams of Protein, 25 grams of Carbs, 16 grams Fat.

If you are watching your fat intake, by all means use less olive oil.  I have to say that I found the 1/3 cup to be perfect.

Buen Gusto!