Kitchen Kapers

A new toy has brought much joy to breakfasts in my research kitchen. Long ago in a galaxy far away, I made so many omelettes for nameless faces that I swore I’d never eat another, insisting on other, less posh egg options at home. But experiments with Cuisinart’s Green Gourmet Cookware have led to a wonderful melange of two breakfast favorites, homefried style potatoes and fluffy eggs, or the Potato Omelette. The non-stick surface of this eco-friendly skillet makes an omelette that doesn’t need folding, and can be cooked through with a little patience and slower heat. Here’s my recipe for truly tasty homefried potatoes (actually baked), along with the recipe for my Potato Omelette, and some photos of both before and after…enjoy!!!

Oven-Roasted Potatoes
OK, not fried at all, but these spuds have all the sweetness and crunch of good diner homefries. They keep well and can be made days in advance, only getting tastier after some time in the fridge.

Ingredients
2-3 lbs organic* russet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed, skin on
1 white onion, sliced into rounds
1 small chile (serrano is preferred), thinly sliced, seeds removed if you must
olive oil, for drizzling
sea salt, to taste

Technique:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine potatoes, onion, chile, oil and sea salt in baking dish. Mix well. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and leave covered for 15 minutes to steam on stovetop without any additional heat. Taste one (i said ONE…restraint) tablespoon to test for seasoning and refrigerate until needed. Quantity makes 4 Potato Omelettes.

Potato Omelette

Ingredients
3 eggs, whisked until frothy
1 pinch dried Italian seasonings
1 portion oven-roasted potatoes

Technique:
Place even level potatoes on bottom of Cuisinart 8″ Green Gourmet Skillet over low heat. Oil from potatoes will begin the cooking process. Whisk in eggs/seasonings, covering potatoes evenly with the mixture. Simmer, only scraping if necessary for 10-15 minutes or until all liquid is almost gone in pan. Place serving dish on top of skillet and invert to serve. Let rest for 5 minutes to set completely or serve immediately if you like your eggs a little “over easy”. Serves 1.

*to ensure maximum nutrition, always use the skins of veggies if you can…and organic is a good habit to get into…

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and while some of my friends like to celebrate with green beer and corned beef and cabbage, I’ve never been a big fan of either. So instead, I decided to bake up some Irish Soda Bread. But what is Irish Soda Bread exactly? There’s a lot of debate as to the difference between true, genuine Irish Soda Bread and what I like to call Irish-American Soda Bread. If you take a look at the recipes, you’ll notice that even though they do have some similar ingredients, they have quite a few that are different as well. But I love them both equally for different reasons, so I thought, why not reconcile them for the holiday? And don’t be discouraged by the thought of having to bake up a bread the day of a celebration! These breads go together quickly, and are a snap to make.

Old World Soda Bread and New World Soda Bread

Old World Soda Bread

This bread is the traditional (from Ireland) original. It’s a nice rustic bread with great flavor and an awesome crust. It’s a versatile bread and it can go with a variety of dishes (even corned beef and cabbage) and is also great as toast.

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (you can also use whole wheat flour, if you prefer.)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Lightly dust a baking sheet with flour and set it aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the buttermilk and mix until the dough begins to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball and transfer it to a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough just until it holds together, about 1 minute. Shape the dough into a 6 inch round. Transfer it to the baking sheet and using a sharp knife, cut a 1 inch deep X across the top of the dough. Transfer to the oven to bake for about 35 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Remove it from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

New World Soda Bread

This is more akin to the raisin-studded slightly sweet breads that Americans refer to as Irish Soda Bread. This is great with a bit of fresh butter slathered on top!

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsps butter, chilled
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt or buttermilk (I used yogurt.)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly brush a baking sheet with butter or spray with cooking spray and set aside. In a mixing bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in the chilled butter until it forms pea sized clumps. Gently fold in the raisins and the yogurt or buttermilk. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1 minute. Shape the dough into a flat disk and cut an X shape into the top of it. Arrange the dough on the baking sheet and transfer to the oven to bake for 45-50 minutes. Remove it from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Since it’s Philly Beer Week, I decided to crack open a bottle or two of the local brews and get…baking?!? Yep. I know it might seem a little silly to “waste” a drop on something so seemingly trivial as a baked good, but I think it helps bring out the best of what a craftsman brewer puts into each bottle.

Luckily for me, there are quite a few smaller brewing companies located in the Philly-metro area, including Philadelphia Brewing Company, Yards, Victory, and another Cherry Hill, New Jersey, based company, Flying Fish. These local breweries have a lot to offer and you should definitely check them out when you have a chance.

Now, I won’t even pretend to be a beer aficionado, but I do know what I like, and one of my personal favorites happens to be Flying Fish’s Belgian Style Dubbel. It has a light, fruity nose that rounds out to a nice, dry, nutty finish and I suspected that it would make a very tasty Beer Bread.

Beer (Week) Bread
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
12 ounces beer (I’m using the Belgian Style Dubbel, but feel free to experiment!)
4 tbsps butter, melted and cooled (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch loaf pan and set it aside. In a mixing bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and give it a little bit of a mix to incorporate all your dry ingredients together. Add the beer and mix slowly until just combined. (Try not to overmix it, as this will make the bread tough.) It should look like this:

Transfer the mix to an 8 inch loaf pan.

Drizzle the top with the melted butter and transfer to the oven. (You might want to put a baking sheet under your loaf pan, just to make sure the butter doesn’t bubble over and make a mess while baking.)

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick insterted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool an additional 10 minutes.

This bread can be served warm or at room temperature. Makes 1 loaf.

I was really pleased with the results. The bread turned out beautifully, with a crunchy, chewy crust, and a distinctive flavor. Of course there are also many add-ins you could use with a bread like this. Since I used a lighter beer, I chose to keep it simple, with no add-ins, so the flavors of the beer would shine through. However, if I wanted to make a sweeter bread, I could’ve added more sugar to the dry mix, and some chopped dried fruit. I’m also anxious to try this recipe with some of the other beers available. Maybe a stout with the addition of some chopped nuts. Or maybe just a good local IPA with some shredded cheddar. The possiblities are endless, so give it a try and let me know how your Beer (Week) Bread turns out!

If you’re interested in learning more about cooking with beer, be sure to check out our Cooking with Belgian Beer class.