Double Chocolate Biscotti

I wouldn't say that I'm a particularly good cook, but I'm certainly better at cooking than I am at baking. I spotted this recipe for double chocolate biscotti -- and thought that I could give this baking thing another shot. 

The recipe was super easy to make. The recipe author has several other biscotti recipes on her website, which I am definitely going to try.

It is a little challenging to move the loaves if you form them somewhere else besides the baking sheet. I had to move quickly holding the loaf up in the air so it wouldn't fall apart as I moved it over to the baking sheet. The loaf is soft and pliable, so breaks easily -- even after the first round of baking. 

The orange zest is a nice bright touch. The biscotti turn out a bit crispy, but certainly not as crunchy as I expected. They aren't as soft as a brownie, but you don't need to dip them in coffee or another beverage to soften them up enough to eat. That didn't stop me from having a couple with some coffee ice cream...which I'd recommend. 

Enjoy!

Homemade Papaya Sorbet

We borrowed an ice cream attachment from a friend to use with out stand mixer. We decided on papaya because we had one in the house that was bridging on overripe. 

Straining the pureed papaya

Chilling the simple syrup

Pureed and strained papaya

Blending the simple syrup and the papaya

 Beginning to mix the sorbet in the ice cream attachment

Fully mixed and ready to eat

Finished product!

I would definitely try making either sorbet or ice cream again with the attachment. While you do need to prepare ahead of time by freezing the bowl an prepping the fruit, it's relatively easy to make and can be accomplished in a few steps. I'm not sure I would use papaya again - it was more naturally sweet, and in combination with the simple syrup, pushed it a little too far into the "sweet" realm that I would have liked. 

French Cooking Class

For Paul's last birthday, I bought him (well, us) a French cooking lesson. We finally redeemed our class last Friday evening. We attended a class at Cook Au Vin, which is in Chicago. They make it very clear that while we are actually going to be cooking, we're able to drink some wine and have fun at the same time.

We cooked the Vuitton Menu, with a couple changes. We did a roasted mixed vegetable dish instead of the Tournee vegetables -- and we had a prune pudding instead of a lemon pie.

Our prune puddings cooling -- we had to make these first.

Paul and our chef/teacher for the evening

Prepping all the ingredients

Putting together our scallop appetizer (cooked in a ceramic shell)

Paul stirring the main dish (Hunter's Chicken)

The roasted vegetables awaiting dinner

The finished scallops!

Overall, I thought it was a fun and interesting class. We did learn some helpful techniques during the process, like the easiest way to dice an onion, which herbs should go in at the start of a sauce versus the end, and learned more about making a roux. I am always worried that my roux is too thick, but apparently that isn't as big of an issue as I made it!

I thought the food turned out pretty good (considering a bunch of novice chefs were the ones cooking everything!). Our chef was kind and very thorough in explaining why he did things. He also did a great job of managing all the craziness that ensued once people had taken down a couple bottles of wine! I would be interested in doing another class like this in the future and learning some additional techniques.

Fish Tacos!

It's Mexican/Spanish/Argentinian week at Casa de Bissler! We kicked off the week with some delicious fish tacos. 

We were less enthused reading the recipe and realizing we had to deep fry the fish, but they turned out pretty darn tasty. We used about 1 lb of halibut, rather than 2 lbs, but kept the amount of breading, oil and sauce the same. I think that was smart for the breading and the cooking part, but probably didn't need it for the sauce (as we're trying to figure out what to do with all the extra!). 

We used a Kaliber non-alcoholic beer (they are good for something, amirite?) to make the beer batter. I pretty much want to cover everything in beer batter now.

Beer batter on top, sauce on the bottom

Prepping the fish pieces

The deep-frying was a little scary at first. We were a little afraid of catching everything on fire, and I hate oil splatters everywhere. We fried the fish in about an inch of vegetable oil, and kept a lid nearby just in case things got out of control. We also kept our distance (and those of us who hate wearing shoes inside kept our distance). Since the pieces were a little bigger, Paul did two or three batches to make sure they weren't too crowded. 
 

Fried goodness!

Ready to enjoy!

We topped them with the sauce, tomatillo salsa and red cabbage. They were DELICIOUS. Like good as the ones I've had in restaurants before.

As for what to do with the leftover oil, we let it cool for a few hours and then dumped it back into the (now) empty vegetable oil container to throw away.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

It's a big day, folks. I made my first pie EVER. We had picked up some rhubarb on our way back from Ohio, and the only thing I know how to make with rhubarb is pie.

Making the dough

I used a combination of dough and pie filling recipes. I didn't have any shortening, so went for a pie dough recipe that used butter. I'm sure it's horrible for you -- but it was delicious and easy to make, following the directions.

I used a strawberry and rhubarb filling, using the recipe I found here. 
 

The dough worked great -- and like the pie recipe said, it only took about an hour to cook in the oven. The filling was a little watery, but I also cut pieces when it was still warm because I couldn't wait any longer!

Looking forward to some dessert leftovers tonight!!

Veal Scaloppine with Mushrooms, Marsala and Thyme

I have something to admit. I love veal. But I have never been brave enough to make it myself. I'll usually just stare lovingly at it on a menu. 

We saw it available, and decided to be brave. We used this easy veal scaloppine recipe. I would make it again, no question. We used regular button mushrooms instead of oyster mushrooms, and veal cutlets instead of medallions. We had Marsala cooking wine in the house, so we used that over sherry (which is our usual go-to). 

Easy, fast and tasty. Made for a yummy dinner (plus a couple lunches) alongside a big salad. You could easily pair potatoes or roasted vegetables with this as well.

Trout Schnitzel with Lemon-Chile Butter

Schnitzel!

We made this dinner a while back, just wanting to try something new. Instead of brioche crumbs, we used panko (which may be why the breading looks much heavier in our photo versus the one accompanying the recipe). While it was different, the flavors didn't knock my socks off. I was also sort of unwilling to go bananas coating the fish the chile butter to try and jazz things up.

However, I did find that I like trout. We've been cooking it (usually steelhead) regularly, especially since it has been the best-looking (while still reasonably priced) fish at the grocery store. The steelhead is similar to salmon in color, and is more flavorful than rainbow trout. 

Southwest Stuffed Peppers

I am a huge fan of stuffed peppers. I love bell peppers, and get to eat them with some cheese and salsa? SOLD. 

I came across this recipe in Real Simple -- and that it was. We took an extra step of grinding the meat ourselves (but I'm ridiculous and you don't need to do that). We opted for sirloin versus ground chuck, brown rice instead of white rice, and did straight Greek yogurt (and didn't thin it out with water). Delish.

Cooking the meat and rice

Fresh out of the oven!

So colorful!

We had lots of leftovers by making four peppers. Paul thought it could have been a little spicier, but I liked it as it was. We buy medium salsa, so that on top helped add a little heat to the dish. You could mix up the ingredients inside the peppers -- black beans instead of ground meat, Spanish rice instead of brown or white, jalepenos instead of green chiles, or chihuahua cheese on top -- the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!

Ahi Tuna

We're all into being brave and trying/cooking new foods at home. We picked up some ahi tuna at the fish market last week, and went for it. 

We wanted to do a blackened seasoning, so we ground up and mixed a bunch of spices we had at home. It was a combination of coriander, black pepper, salt, paprika and cayenne pepper (I think modeled off of this recipe).

Do not adjust your television set. I buy the biggest pieces of tuna ever.

The tuna was seared in frying pan at medium high heat (with a little vegetable oil in the pan) for just a couple minutes on each side. Paul topped it with a soy sauce/rice ginger/mustard sauce combo he whipped up.

Delish.

I had Paul cook mine a little longer, as I like mine a little less rare. He cooked mine for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side, and it came out great (it was a pretty thick piece). It was really tasty -- and enough left over from my piece to have for lunch the next day. Super simple to make, and something totally different for us. You could easily mix up the spices and the sauces to give it a different flavor (for example, adding citrus and making an avocado/fruit salsa to go on top; going with more of an Indian spice using cumin and coriander, etc. )

Wild Boar with Celery Root and Onions

Paul and I had attended a fun event back in January for Artizone, which is a company that delivers artisan products from local shops directly to your front door. We got really excited about the opportunity to order some interesting food from the options available within the different partner markets. Feeling brave, we ordered a rack of boar (among some other interesting items). I really like boar ragu, so figured this would also be delicious. 

We found a recipe online that looked interesting, calling for us to brine the rack overnight, and then serve the cooked meat with celery root (celeriac) and caramelized onions. We made the brine liquid suggested and let it sit overnight.

Boar rack covered in the herb paste

I am now a fan of celery root. It's a little gnarly looking, but it's pretty tasty. I peeled the outer layer (trimming where needed) and then used the mandoline to slice it into thin pieces. 

Cooking the slices of celery root in some melted butter. Yum!

I would note that this recipe doesn't give a cooking time for the oven, and that's sort of a problem. We cooked it as suggested -- browning on the stove, then in the oven -- with an oven-safe thermometer inserted. The thermometer began reading that the rack was at the right temperature (I think we based this on a beef temperature, but went towards the high/well-done end), but it was definitely not. I like rare meat, but it was cold-raw. 

We ended up cutting the rack into smaller pieces and continuing to cook the pieces in the oven until they were more thoroughly cooked. I think it took an hour to an hour and a half total to get everything cooked through to where I wasn't scared to eat it.

The meat atop the celery root and onion mixture.

We each had two chops, which was definitely enough meat. I thought it was a little salty for my taste (probably from the brining), but Paul liked it. The celery root and onion were really great -- and the sweetness went well with the saltiness of the meat. The herb crust was really tasty and aromatic, so I would definitely make that again for other types of meat.

Homemade Ravioli

Paul and I were motivated one Friday evening to make our own pasta. Four hours later, we were ready for dinner. It's definitely a lot of work, but a fun experience (especially when your frantic pasta making is fueled by wine and sheer hunger). We started by making Mario Batali's tomato sauce recipe (it's our go-to for making sauce).

We made two fillings -- a roasted squash with sage and a ground turkey with ricotta cheese and Italian seasonings. We used the tomato sauce with the turkey, and make a sage brown butter sauce for the squash ravioli. 

The sauce bubbling away on the stove.

Turkey, ricotta and Italian seasonings on the left -- roasted squash and sage on the right.

Paul is usually the pasta-maker in our house, but I helped roll it out as well this time!

We used a pizza cutter instead of a more traditional pastry wheel or pasta cutter.

Squash ravioli with browned butter and sage sauce

Turkey meat ravioli with a fresh tomato sauce

It's definitely time consuming, but also pretty fun and rewarding to make your own pasta. Food just seems to taste better when you've made it yourself. I think I would have a little less dough on the outer edges of the ravioli next time, as it cooks differently than the pasta that is surrounding the filling (i.e. it takes longer to soften up since it's two layers of pasta versus one). I think I would just trim the ravioli a little more next time to solve that problem. My favorite was the squash ravioli with the brown butter and sage sauce -- so delicious!

We also had TONS of leftovers -- and opted to freeze them, uncooked for a quick dinner another evening. We defrosted and cooked them yesterday for a tasty mid-week meal!