New Blog, New Name, New Recipes...

Just a quick post to say that although I'm still baking and cooking, The 'Chefski Digest has moved!

Find all the recipes archived here and more at http://recetaschefski.wordpress.com/

Here's to more food adventures :) 

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo
Adapted from Pioneer Woman


I love this recipe. It's got the perfect proportion of all the pico ingredients, so as long as I follow it exactly, the results are, well, perfect. Here goes:


Ingredients
5 plum tomatoes, diced small (I then place them in paper towel to soak up excess moisture)
3 jalapeños, diced small
1 small red onion, diced
fresh chopped cilantro, about 1/2 tablespoon (but this is to taste)
salt to taste
juice of half a lime 


"Directions"
Combine the above ingredients in a bowl, stir around to blend, and refrigerate for a while to let the flavors meld. Seriously, the magic is in the proportion! YUM.

Carnitas

At this point, I'm behind on posting around six recipes. Why? Because it's Winter Break, and while I'm certainly enjoying cooking and baking more than I did the last couple of weeks of the Fall semester, I'm simply embracing the do-what-I-want-when-I-want for as long as I can. So I've been baking holiday cookies, giving them away to friends, cooking new things (including plenty of soups!), but I think tonight it's time for me to post this incredibly easy and oh-so-succulent pork recipe. 


What I love most about this recipe is that all you need are a few ingredients. The secret is letting the pork cook on the stove for a long time. The result is meat that melts in your mouth and is perfect for tacos, on bread, or on its own. 


This dish will always hold a special place in my heart for two reasons: This is what I made the first time I ever attempted to make anything out of pernil (the cut of meat traditionally featured during Dominican holiday feasts), and it was the dish I was thinking of making on November 11, 2011. Life got the best of my lunch plans that day, though. All for the better. 


Carnitas
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen


Ingredients
3 lbs boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (I used 3 oranges)
1/4 cup lime juice (2-3 limes)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt


Directions
1. If you were feeling adventurous, as I was when I made this, you will have bought a bone-in pernil (pork shoulder), and you will have needed to hack away a pretty gnarly piece of fat from your meet before slice and cubing it. It was actually really fun to do this, but time consuming. Don't get rid of all the fat (I don't think that would be possible), as you will add none to the pot for cooking.
2. Place your meat in a large pot. 
3. Add orange and lime juice, plus the rest of your ingredients.
4. Add enough water to just cover your pork.
5. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer.
6. Simmer uncovered for two hours, and resist any urge to meddle with it. Just let it be.
7. Once two hours have elapsed, increase the heat to medium-high, turning the pieces occasionally. Keep cooking for 45 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated and the meat has a chance to sizzle. Once browned all around, you're ready to eat!

Béchamel Sauce

This sauce deserves its own post because I have already made it outside of the lasagna context from which I got the recipe (coming soon). So easy. So fast. So delicious! 

Béchamel Sauce
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Yield: approx. 4 cups sauce


Ingredients
4 cups skim milk
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 stick of butter (8 Tablespoons)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


Directions
1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk and garlic and bring to a simmer. Once heated set aside.
2. In another medium saucepan, melt butter (if you like, until it become brown butter). 
3. Add flour and whisk vigorously. Cook for 1-2 minutes, whisking all the while. This is your your roux.
4. Gradually add the milk to the roux, whisking all the while, until you have added all of the milk. 
5. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg, and keep whisking until your sauce thickens, about 3-5 minutes. 
6. Serve over pasta, use in lasagna. 

Vanilla Bean Pudding

Leave it to Deb from Smitten Kitchen to keep it simple: milk, sugar, cornstarch and an egg are all you need to get you started on the path to homemade pudding paradise.


When I was growing up my family would frequently host relatives visiting from the Dominican Republic, and my aunts and uncles would always be sure to bring with them a pile of traditional goodies. Among the treasures were queso de hoja (a wonderful, tangy white cheese), Double Bubble gum, these little green mints called Cristal Menta, all kinds of traditional confections, and, of course Maizena. Maizena is a brand of cornstarch popular abroad, and what I remember most were these little packets filled with differently flavored starches -- strawberry was my favorite -- to which you could add warm milk and create what I have since come to recognize as pudding. The recipe I made today, which is a real "back to the basics" kind of recipe, took me back to those times, and you know, come to think of it it's not so surprising. To my mind, pudding and childhood go hand in hand.


Vanilla beans, by the way -- they are somethin' else. I am completely sold on using them whenever possible in place of extract. 


Vanilla Bean Pudding
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Yield: Six 1/2 cup servings


Ingredients
2 2/3 cups skim milk, divided
1/3 or 1/2 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you'd like it
3 Tablespoons or 1/4 cup corn starch, depending on how firm you'd like it
1/4 teaspoon salt
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean (yum!) or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg


Directions 
1. Set 2 cups of milk over medium heat to boil. 
2. Meanwhile, in a medium heatproof bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, vanilla bean seeds (unless using extract... hold on for that). Feel free to throw the vanilla bean pod into the heating milk for added flavor. 
3. Slowly whisk in 2/3 cup milk a bit at a time in order to avoid lumps. 
4. Whisk in the egg.
5. Once milk has boiled, remove vanilla bean pod and slowly whisk milk into the bowl of mixed ingredients.
6. Return the mixture to the original saucepan, and bring back to a simmer while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula. 
7. Once it's simmering, cook for one more minute to ensure fully cooked egg and cornstarch. Don't jump the gun and take it off the heat before it thickens, though!
8. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract if you are using it in place of the beans.
9. Divide into small bowls (I ended up being generous and using just 4 lil bowls), and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.
10. Enjoy warm pudding goodness from the bottom of the saucepan to hold you over until you can get your hands on the cool pudding!

I love those flecks of vanilla bean!

Ginger Snaps

To me, ginger snaps are--along with anything pumpkin--a must-have of the holiday season. They're 1) easy to make, 2) full of spicy goodness, and 3) beautiful when covered in sparkly sugar. Now, I've recently heard about ginger snaps with a firey kick of black pepper... but that will have to be for another year. For now, these cookies have gotten me through the last three holidays of baked gift-giving, so it's about time I put them up here!

Ginger Snaps

Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

small bowl sugar (turbinado makes for extra pretty cookies) for rolling

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer.

2. Stir in the molasses and egg using a spatula.

3. Next, add 1 cup of the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, stirring until combined.

4. Add the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time until fully incorporated.

5. Chill your dough in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will make it easier to shape.

6. Shape your dough into 1-inch balls, then roll them in sugar to coat the outside.

7. Bake on a greased cookie sheet (or on parchment paper) for 10 minutes in a 375 degrees F oven.
8. Enjoy with milk or pack up to send off as gifts.

Super-Moist Pumpkin Muffins

I know I'm not alone in this, but I really do enjoy all things pumpkin. This year I was lucky enough to score a couple of real pumpkins for free and tried my hand at roasting them and turning their sweet flesh into puree for baking! I'm pretty sure the high water content of the homemade puree added to the moistness of these muffins, and I'll be hard pressed to use canned pumpkin in the future if I can avoid it. Here's to autumn lasting as long as possible and holding winter at bay!


Super-Moist Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I bet I could have subbed in apple sauce for a bit of this)
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soday
forgot to use 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (whoops) but got a very nice rise anyway
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice: 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
sprinkle of ground cloves
2 Tablespoons sugar + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon for topping
optional: top with roasted pumpkin seeds


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2.In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, vanilla extract, Splenda, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda (and I'm guessing baking powder as well) and salt until smooth.
3. Add flours and whisk til just combined.
4. In a small bowl combine 2 Tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
5. Fill your muffin tin with the batter, only about 3/4 full in each well. Top with cinnamon sugar and pumpkin seeds if using. 
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.