Elle's New England Kitchen

Ingredient Wars!  This time around, again, was a very fun challenge for me. I went back and forth for a while about what to make (which is why I’d never cut it as a challenger on the actual show, Chopped.) and finally decided on egg rolls.

Making egg rolls used to scare the heck out of me, but thanks to my good friend Canarygirl, who walked me through it a few years back, I realized it wasn’t hard at all. A little time consuming, maybe, but still—pretty easy.

The ingredients this time around were :

1. Cod Fillets (or some other white fish)

2. 1 orange

3. Ricotta Cheese

4. Egg Roll Wrappers

5. Ritz Crackers (or another butter cracker)

I decided I’d pan fry the fish, after dipping it in egg white and the Ritz crumbs. Than adding things from the pantry and fridge, I’d make an egg roll filling to put inside the egg roll wrappers. The ricotta cheese became an Asian Style dipping sauce for the egg rolls.

The Ingredient Wars Judge, aka my husband, asked if we could make a few open-faced egg rolls. Sure, why not? So a few egg roll wrappers were just tossed into the hot oil—man are those delicious as is! But we held back some of the filling to just scoop over the top of the flat fried egg roll wrappers, and you know? That turned out to be my favorite of the two. Who knew? The filling hadn’t been heated up, so it was like a cool, crunchy salad on top. Good stuff!

Recipes:

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Fried Fish Egg Rolls with Asian Style Ricotta Dipping Sauce

Fish:

1 pound cod, or other white fish
4 egg whites, beaten
1 1/2 sleeves Ritz crackers, crushed into crumbs

Egg Roll Filling:

5-6 green onions, chopped
1 head Napa Cabbage, thinly sliced
6 oz bag matchstick carrots
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
3 minced garlic cloves
1/3 cup soy sauce
13 cup rice vinegar
2 TBSP brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp or so of orange zest
fresh cracked black pepper
the cooked fish from earlier, flaked
1 package egg roll wrappers
oil for frying

Asian Style Ricotta Dipping Sauce

7 oz ricotta cheese
juice of half an orange
1 tsp or so of orange zest
1 TBSP cilantro, minced
1 TBSP soy sauce
a few drops of sesame oil
3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Prepare the fish:

Dip fish in egg whites, then in Ritz crumbs.
Heat a bit of oil in a pan, cook fish for 3-5 minutes per side, or until done.
Set aside to cool.

Prepare the sauce:

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl, set side in the fridge.

Prepare the egg rolls:

In a large bowl, mix all of the filling ingredients, except the wrappers. Season to taste.
Fill each wrapper with 1/3 cup of filling in the center. Wet edges of the wrapper, and roll up
egg roll style, sealing the edges well.
Heat oil to at least 350°, and fry about 4 egg rolls at a time--3-4 minutes on one side, and 3 minutes on second

side.
Let the oil come back to temp between each batch--this is extremely important so the hot oil sears the egg roll, and oil doesn't seep inside.
Remove to a rack placed over paper towels to drain.
Serve with dipping sauce.

For an open faced egg roll, fry an unrolled wrapper till golden brown on each side, then drain on the same rack over paper towels.

i hope any of you that decided to participate are having fun with the ingredients! Stay tuned for the next Ingredient Wars. I hear from “The Judge” that something sweet may be on the horizon.

Check out what Caleb did with the ingredients this time around! Looks fantastic, doesn’t it?

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Cravings. I’m one of those people that can’t stop thinking about them once they hit me. I have to satisfy the cravings to get them out of my head. And they’re for all kinds of things, like the rest of you, I’m sure. A very common one for me is spaghetti and meatballs—I crave that all the time! My family is lucky they don’t eat it every week. Though, I don’t suppose they’d mind…hmmm…I know I wouldn’t!

But that’s not what this post is about! Cravings, yes. Spaghetti and meatballs, no. I had a craving for a Chocolate Glazed donut. Could not stop thinking about them. But do I really want a deep fried, full of fat, greasy donut? Well, maybe, but should I have one? Hell, no! So I went for the next best thing.

Yes. Cake for breakfast. Also known as Muffins. My friends, muffins. I love them! These are no exception—they were so. Damn. Good. And very easy to make—a bonus!

Chocolate Glazed Donut Muffins

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makes about 9 muffins

2 cup flour
scant 1 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Cake Spice + 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Mix in the eggs, oil, butter, milk and vanilla.
Grease the muffin pans. Divide the batter between the muffin cups--an ice cream scoop works great!
Bake for about 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for about 5 minutes, then turn on out on rack to cool.
Cool completely before glazing.

And here is the recipe for the glaze, from King Arthur Flour. King Arthur is the only flour I use, ever. It’s such great quality and never lets me down. And have you checked out their site? Bakers Heaven!

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup (I use Golden Syrup)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often. Add extra corn syrup if needed to make a smooth, shiny glaze. Yield: about ½ cup glaze.

If you’re using sprinkles, get them on there right after glazing the muffins so they’ll stick. And then let the muffins sit for a bit so the glaze can set up. The easiest way (for me) to glaze them was to put the glaze in a bowl that’s kind of narrow at the bottom, so the glaze isn’t too shallow. If it is, you’ll be bumping the muffins on the bottom of the bowl and won’t get a pretty glaze.

Easy dinner alert! This one’s a family favorite. We love this dish! Well, honestly, my younger kids don’t because they don’t like tuna or garlic. Crazy kids, right? But my 13 year old loves it, too!

Not only does this one taste great, but the ingredients in it can be kept on hand for a complete pantry dinner! Who doesn’t love that? So not only is it delicious, but you can have everything on hand to make this at a moment’s notice. In fact, I’ll bet a lot of you have nearly all of the ingredients already! And a bonus? It’s extremely quick to make. But it’s pretty! And you know what that means. Guests will oooh and ahhh because it looks and tastes great, but you’ll know you didn’t slave over it. And that also makes this a “guests dropped in, what do I make for dinner?” dinner.

I got this one in an email a few years ago—from my local news station. I’ve made a few little changes, but the main idea is the same. Pasta cooking in one pot, and the rest in a sauté pan, then toss the two together. As far as the tuna goes, I use tuna packed in oil, but if you prefer, you can use tuna packed in water. And the pasta is also up to you—spaghetti, bucatini, this would also be good with penne—but use what you like or have on hand. Bucatini is fun—the noodles are like straws! We love trying new pasta shapes. I know, I know—we need to get out more. You’re preaching to the choir here!

Bucatini with Tuna and Baby Peas

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This comes together very quickly—so have everything ready to go and right on hand. Because you don’t want to burn the garlic while running around looking for the broth and peas. That would completely ruin this, or any dish!

* 16 oz. bucatini, spaghetti, or your favorite pasta
* 3 tbsp. olive oil
* 6 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth, if you prefer)
* 1 1/2 -2 cups frozen baby peas
* 2 cans tuna packed in oil, drained and flaked
* 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, or to taste
* 1/8 tsp. salt, or to taste
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
* olive oil to drizzle over

Directions

1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions is a large pot of salted boiling water.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, heat the oil in a large nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the garlic; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds--don't let it burn!
4. Add the chicken broth, peas, tuna, salt, and pepper; stir gently until heated through, about 1 minute.
5. Remove from the heat.
6. When the spaghetti is done, drain well and put it in a large bowl, then add the tuna mixture; toss gently to coat the noodles.
7. Add the Parmesan, and toss it all together.
8. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
9. Garnish with more parmesan, and add a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh black pepper.

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Not only do they have all of the major everyday spices that we all use, but they also have some amazing blends. The Greek, Pork, and Pizza seasonings come to mind immediately. We’ve tried all three and they’re fantastic! Check them out—you can click to see them in the two ads in my sidebar. Those will take you to their Bestsellers page, but to see all of their spices, click on the links in their right-hand side bar.

Hot off the presses, we have a winner!

It’s Temperance!  Congratulations, Temperance, you won!  Please email me with your address and I’ll get your iPod shipped right out to you.

**In case any of you are wondering why her # is 136 and not 336, Blogger will only count up to 200 on one page, so on page 2 of the comments, 201-400, she’s 136, or technically 336.

Thanks to all of you for playing along, Tweeting, and reading my blog!  And stay tuned for more giveaways!

Some of you know I did a home version of Chopped, the Food Network show. It was a lot of fun, and forced me to be creative. A great exercise for my brain, and we got a delicious dinner out of it! And my husband has a lot of fun coming up with my surprise ingredients.

And quite a few of you said you’d love to join in the next time I did it, so here it is! But with a small change. I don’t want to give the Food Network any reason to tell me I need to stop using the name “Chopped,” so I gave it some thought and came up with this name and a button you can all use on your posts:

On Chopped, they start with four chefs, and they prepare three courses, with one chef getting chopped after each course. The ingredients are unknown to them until the beginning of each round.

Now of course, we won’t be chopping anyone here, just doing the surprise ingredient part. Much less stress. And there’s no time limit, either. I know how tough it can be to join in blog events because of time constraints in “real” life, hehe. So if you want to join in, just take the ingredients and do something at your own pace. If you want to get back to me with what you came up with, that would be awesome! I’ll add everyone’s links and a photo in the original post.

And as far as the ingredients go, if there’s something you can’t find, or can’t use because of allergies, go ahead and pick something sort of close to the original one. It’s very flexible--the main idea is to push your boundaries and come up with some new stuff.

And remember, you also have access to anything in your pantry, just like on the show!

1. Cod Fillets (or some other white fish)

2. 1 orange

3. Ricotta Cheese

4. Egg Roll Wrappers

5. Ritz Crackers (or another butter cracker)

So there you go! There is no set posting date, no deadline--just take them and do something, then post what you come up with. And you don’t need to have a blog to join in, either. But I’d love it if you let me know in the comments if you participate and what you come up with!

A couple of weeks ago, we were at the (indoor) farmer’s market, and looking at all of the gorgeous fruits and vegetables. I guess when it’s 35 degrees and freezing outside, everything that is fresh looks gorgeous, right? But really, this place has the best stuff. Anyway, I picked out some beets to oven roast, and the beet greens were just beautiful! Usually, the ones I see at the grocery store are gross. Not pretty at all, and full of dirt. Seriously, you wouldn’t even want to imagine putting them anywhere near your mouth. Ick.

But the ones a the farmers market? They were so pretty and green and vibrant, and I knew we could do something with them. Wasn’t sure what at the time, but I couldn’t pass them up.

A couple of days before, I’d been reading blogs and came across Pithy and Cleaver. Great blog! They had me at Garlicky White Beans. Because, yum! I had already picked up the beans for that to have on a baguette, so the beet greens just worked their way into my plans. One whole grain baguette before leaving the market and we were all set.

Sliced baguette, toasted, a bit of sautéed beet greens, some white bean mash, and it’s heaven in your mouth. Seriously, we couldn’t stop eating this. And have been looking forward to it ever since! We lead such an exciting life, do we not?

There’s garlic in both the greens and the beans, but it mellows out during cooking, so you won’t be keeping any vampires away with this one. And really, if they all look like Edward Cullen, why would you want to? There’s also fresh lemon juice in both. Add some fresh basil to the beans, and you’ve got some wonderful flavors going on.

Sautéed Beet Greens

To print these recipes, click right here!

To print these recipes, click here!

Beet greens from 3-4 large beets, rinsed well and drained, then roughly chopped
2 shallots, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth, if you prefer)
1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper

Sauté shallots with garlic in a little olive oil over medium heat--don't burn!
Add the beet greens and toss them in the oil mixture, after about a minute, add the broth.
Cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
Remove the lid, and squeeze in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Bean Mash inspired by Pithy and Cleaver

1/4 cup olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can white beans (don't drain!)
about 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper

In a pan, heat the oil over medium low heat. When it's heated, add the garlic and cook slowly, to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor.
Add the beans and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
Begin to mash them with a fork, or a potato masher--even the back of a spoon.
Add the basil, lemon and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the greens and the bean mash on toasted whole grain baguette slices.

This is definitely one recipe that we’ll enjoy again and again. it’s so easy to prepare, and it’s not to bad for you, either. Makes a nice appetizer, or a light meal. Unless you eat all of it, like we did, and then it’s not so light. hehehe.

There’s still time to enter my one year blogiversary giveaway! Just leave a comment to be entered to win an iPod Touch.