Pear-potato gratin with rosemary and Boursin

 

This is one of those recipes where you look at all of those ingredients and figure it can't be anything but stellar, because I adore all of those ingredients separately. I made this on New Year's along with lamb chops with a balsamic vinegar-orange honey glaze.

Pear and potato gratin with rosemary
From Better Homes & Gardens, November 2020

Ingredients
12 ounces yellow potatoes (about 3 medium)
2 Bosc pears
1 5.2-ounce package herbed Boursin cheese
¾ cup half-and-half
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan, divided
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish
½ teaspoon lemon zest

Method
Preheat oven to 375. Slice potatoes about ⅛-inch thick. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add potatoes and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain and let cool slightly.

Peel pears and slice in half. Remove cores. Slice lengthwise ⅛-inch thick.

Place potatoes and pears in a 1½–quart gratin dish, alternating them.

In a small saucepan, combine Boursin, half-and-half, 2 tablespoons Parmesan and salt. Whisk over medium low heat until just melted. Stir in rosemary and lemon zest. Pour over potatoes and pears in pan. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and more chopped rosemary if desired.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes until tender and golden brown. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

Serves 4, but not generously.

Rating: As I said, I expected to love this dish. I did not mind this dish at all; it was fairly pretty, more than reasonably tasty, and yet disappointing because I had set this up in my mind as the holy gratin grail in advance. Examined rationally, I would say it got a tad dry, so next time I might up the liquid component, since it probably needed to cook that long both to get tender and brown. Also, while I love pears, they are inherently a bit grainy, and that texture component wasn't entirely pleasing in this context. So this recipe goes into the pile of promising, but in need of refinement. It's good enough to be worth pursuing, at any rate.

Chicken with honey-pomegranate molasses marinade

 

So long as you've got pomegranate molasses in the house, you've got the makings of something delicious. This recipe comes together pretty quickly overall, although you do need to plan for a couple of hours marinating time.

Honey pomegranate roasted chicken thighs
Adapted from Cooking Light, Dec. 2007

Ingredients
¾ cup honey
⅓ cup finely chopped shallots
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Method
Combine honey, shallots, lemon juice and zest, Worcestershire sauce, Sriracha sauce and garlic in a large container. Add chicken and toss to coat. Marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for 2 hours, stirring at least once.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a sheet of parchment on a rimmed baking sheet. Remove chicken from marinade and place on parchment. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Put marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch and water and stir into marinade. Cook, stirring often, for a few minutes or until thickened.

Spread some marinade on chicken thighs and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, basting twice more at 10-minute intervals.

Rating: Really quite tasty, with a nice balance of sweetness and tang. Pretty minimal effort for the reward.

 

 

 

Sandwich cookies and beer

 

Happy Solstice. We figured it was a day for warm soups and cold beer, and what better night to open the bottle of Surly's Darkness?

For your beer-cookie pairing, may we suggest the Cinnamon Cookie Butter Sandwich Cookies, one of the finalists in this year's Star Tribune cookie contest? You can find that and oodles of other options at the cookie finder here. 

A friend made all five of this year's winning recipes, which is possibly a case of overachievement, or else just what's called for in a year that involves a pandemic.(For those keeping score at home, she liked the fig cookies the best.) So far I've only tried the sandwich cookie recipe, but there's still plenty of butter on hand. They don't quite stack up to the Pistachio Orange Cookies, a previous winner, or even the almond stackers I made a few years ago, but they're no slouch.

Happy baking, and may all the coming days be sweeter and brighter. 

Curried sweet potato soup

 Never do I adore past self more than when I heat up soup for two for a quick lunch on a cold workday at home. And never is advance prep more rewarded than when it comes to soups.

Like so many soups, this one definitely benefits from being made ahead so the flavors have time to fully develop. When I tasted this one for seasoning purposes right after I first made it, I put it in that burgeoning category of recipes that qualify as perfectly fine, but ones that don't necessarily need to be made again.

Then I reheated it for lunch today. The keeper pile just got deeper.

Note: This recipe contains peanut butter, which makes a very nice flavor component, but I think tahini would be a quite workable substitute if allergies are an issue.

Curried sweet potato soup

Adapted from Meredith Deeds, published in the Star Tribune Taste section

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or ginger paste
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups broth
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Optional garnishes: cilantro, plain yogurt, chopped peanuts, lime zest

Directions

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium low heat. Add onions and cook until softened, stirring as needed.

Meanwhile, peel sweet potatoes and chop into pieces no more than 1-inch big.

When onions are softened, add garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook 1 minute. Stir in salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Add sweet potatoes and broth and bring to a simmer. Cook covered until sweet potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.  Stir in coconut milk and peanut butter and let cool slightly.

Blend soup in a blender or food processor once it’s cool enough to safely process. Return to pot and add lime juice and brown sugar and heat through. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with optional garnishes as desired. (We opted for just cilantro, which worked well.)

Rating: Soothing, creamy warmth. Perfectly balanced, with different notes that hit you with each mouthful, from the ginger to the curry and the very subtle red pepper flakes. 

It made part of a perfectly delightful lunch with chutney chicken salad sandwiches made with the chicken leftover from making broth overnight. For that next make-ahead soup. Again, thank you past self, and Ms. Deeds for a nice recipe.

Chicken with pecorino cream sauce

 

Chicken with Pecorino Cream sauce

Adapted from recipesandme.com

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to a uniform thickness
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup chicken broth
¾ cup half and half
2 teaspoons dried oregano
⅓ cup Pecorino Romano, grated
⅓ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1½ cup spinach leaves

Method

Cut pounded chicken into smaller cutlet-size pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until golden. Remove and set aside.

Increase heat to medium high and add chicken. Cook until golden brown on each side. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium and add broth and half and half to skillet. Add cheese and whisk until melted. Add sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. Simmer until spinach wilts. Add chicken and juices back to the skillet along with reserved garlic and cook for another 5 minutes or so or until chicken is heated through.

Rating: It didn't pack quite as much flavor punch as I'd hoped, but it's fine enough and fairly pantry-friendly. Serve it with quinoa or couscous to soak up some sauce.

 

Cauliflower soup with crème fraiche

 

 I first ran across this recipe when it ran in the Star Tribune's Taste section in 2004. It's been a go-to ever since, as has the cookbook it initially came from. The soup is particularly good, and colorful, when made with the golden cauliflower often available at farmers markets.

Cauliflower soup with crème fraiche, prosciutto and Parmesan

Adapted from Betty Rosbottom’s “Sunday Soup”

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups chopped leeks (white and light green parts only)
2 large cauliflower heads, broken into florets
8 cups chicken broth
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
½ cup crème fraiche
Thinly sliced prosciutto for garnish

Method
Melt butter in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and saute until softened. Add cauliflower, broth and cayenne pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly.

Puree soup in food processor or blender. Return to pan and whisk in crème fraiche and half of the Parmesan. Heat through.

Meanwhile, cook prosciutto slices in a small skillet until crispy. Serve soup garnished with prosciutto and remaining Parmesan.

Rating: Rich in flavor, creamy with just the slightest touch of heat, this is good with or without the garnish, although it pairs nicely.