Columbus Foodie

This is my first time participating in the Paper Chef event, so like an idiot, I misread the instructions a little. I’ll explain about that a little later. Paper Chef #22 - Slow Edition, hosted by Tomatilla, asks us to create a dish out of the featured ingredients, a la Iron Chef. For an amateur like me, it’s a daunting task. While I’m great at following recipes, and even winging it from time to time, creativity isn’t really my forte (at least not yet). To take four random ingredients and create a dish that tastes good? Wow, tall order. OK - here’s where I screwed up. I misread the instructions to read that we had to use at least three of the four ingredients listed. Oops, I left out one. My solution to that small problem is below, although it isn’t in the picture.

This months four ingredients were quite diverse - barberries (never heard of them, but luckily we were able to substitute another berry), pumpkin, spinach (good luck, I still haven’t found any fresh locally - but again, we were able to substitute any green), and slow.

Excuse the bluriness of the picture, my camera wasn’t quite cooperating with me with this salad, for some reason. This salad is inspired by the mixed baby greens salad at Pastaria at the North Market, and the dressing for the salad was based in part on Emeril’s Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette - I like my dressing sweeter than the recipe calls for, so I used 4 tablespoons of brown sugar rather than 2 teaspoons.

To make the salad, toss baby greens (there’s ingredient #1), with thinly sliced onions, goat cheese, blueberries (ingredient #2), and top it with the balsamic vinaigrette (ingredient #3 - qualifies as slow because it’s aged balsamic, and also because you have to incorporate the oil slowly so it emulsifies the dressing). As I mentioned, I forgot #4 - but I’d incorporate it by tossing some salted pumpkin seeds into the mix for a little crunch.

So there you have it - a salad. Simple, but effective. If you’d like to make it more like Pastaria’s version, you can also add a handful of golden raisins as well.

October 16th is World Bread Day, and in its honor, Kochtopf is hosting an one-off event that challenges us to bake (or buy) a bread and blog about it. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not much of a bread baker. My experience baking yeast breads starts (and ends) with my breadmaker. I hate the strange shaped loaves (even though the bread tastes great), so I don’t use the bread maker quite as often as I should. So, with that in mind, I decided whatever recipe I made would not use the bread maker.

I finally decided on Onion and Fontina Beer Batter bread, a Cooking Light recipe I’ve been meaning to try for quite a while. Since I had some nice hearty pea soup, I figured that this would be the perfect complement to the meal. This may be a personal preference, but I tend to eat bread more with soups and stews more than anything else.

The amazing thing is, even though this isn’t a yeast bread, the beer in the recipe gives it a very yeasty vibe, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was yeast-based. And even more amazing, this is a light recipe that does not taste light in the least. I’ll proudly add this recipe to my “tried and true” book, and make it whenever I’m making soup or stew. It’s really that good. The ingredient list is simple enough that I usually have the items it requires on hand, save the fontina cheese - others who have made this recipe have substituted mozzarella or Italian four cheese mix and had spectacular results as well.

Onion and Fontina Beer Batter Bread
from Cooking Light January 2006 issue

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3 cups all-purpose flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fontina cheese
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (such as amber ale)
Cooking spray
1/4 cup butter, melted and divided

Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 6 minutes or until tender. Cool to room temperature.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Add onion, cheese, and beer; stir just until moist.

Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray; drizzle evenly with 2 tablespoons butter. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes; brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Bake an additional 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

NUTRITION PER SERVING CALORIES 149(30% from fat); FAT 5g (sat 2.3g,mono 2.1g,poly 0.3g); PROTEIN 3.5g; CHOLESTEROL 12mg; CALCIUM 61mg; SODIUM 259mg; FIBER 0.8g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 22.2g, 3 WW POINTS
Tag: world bread day ‘06