Herb Garden Lasagna

Did you know that a couple celebrating any wedding anniversary on or after their 50th is entitled to a greeting from the president? Hot dog! This is one of those Wikipedia facts I came across while searching for the list of traditional anniversary gifts by year (first year paper, second year cotton, etc). I'd forgotten that there are now two categories to choose from—a modern list, which calls for glass or crystal for the third year, and the traditional list, which says it’s leather. The question of which category to follow quickly led to: What kind of a leather or crystal gift would Matt even want? Which led to exactly zero ideas, which led to thinking that it would be more fun if instead of a list of these broad materials like crystal and wood and silver, the list was instead made up of different landmark meals. The first anniversary (as they say it’s the hardest) could be something classically celebratory like steak. And for the second, how about something a bit more run-of–the-mill but still special, like a whole roasted chicken? And for the third—how about lasagna? To be honest, I had had a particular lasagna in mind for a while now, one from Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbal Kitchen. Instead of meat, there's tons of basil and béchamel. And the greatest thing about lasagna? You can make it ahead of time, come home from work, put it in the oven, and have a delicious, special Friday night anniversary meal in no time.

Of course, the prep doesn't exactly happen in no time. No, this lasagna will definitely take a couple of hours to put together. But here's what I would recommend: Free up a space on your kitchen counter and set your computer there. Dial up your best friend via video chat and begin the work of lasagna-ing. Tell your friend that there may be moments when you will be more concerned about burning your béchamel than conversing, and that at times, you will be in another room completely, but not to worry, you will be listening the whole time!

One of my favorite ways to make fun of myself is to describe myself as a young wife. I do this so much that a conversation between me and a friend might go something like this:

Friend: What are you doing tonight?
Me: Well, I'm making dinner for Matt and then we'll probably watch back to back episodes of The West Wing.
Friend: Oh, young wife stuff.

And while watching ancient episodes of The West Wing—we started at season one a month ago—may not fall under the young-wife category, I can completely trace my cooking beginnings to getting married three years ago. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I can directly correlate marriage to the start of this blog. Because when I first began to cook, I was so enamored of the results of following a few simple steps that I would take pictures of the dishes before we ate. I still remember the menu for the birthday meal I made Matt just eight days after the wedding: pork chops, asparagus, and peaches sautéed in butter with freshly whipped cream for dessert. I'd never purchased pork chops let alone any raw meat that required being wrapped in butcher paper, and so I remember reading the description exactly as it was written in the recipe to the man behind the counter: "Yes, I'd like two bone-in center-cut pork chops, please." It was a novelty and I felt supremely adult and truly domestic. This was also in the days before I had acquired my mom's old electric mixer, and I distinctly remember Matt and I passing the heavy cream between one another taking turns to whip it, cheering the other one on as if it were a high school sports event: "C'mon, Matt! You got this! I know you've got this!" I look back at those photos and think: We were so young! And yet, it’s only been three years. I can't imagine what I'll think at our ten year.

Although there is one photo that feels very much like us and I think it always will. Is that fear in Matt's eyes or the shock of marital bliss?

What do you say, Matt? If the next 47 years are anything like our first three, I think we’ll be a shoo-in for that presidential greeting, don’t you?

Herb Garden Lasagna via The Herbal Kitchen

One 28-ounce can plus one 14.5-ounce can crushed tomatoes

¼ cup chopped marjoram

Kosher salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup all-purpose flour

3 cups milk, whole or low fat

1 pound whole milk ricotta

4 ounces basil, stems removed (2 cups gently packed)

1 cup flat-leaf parsley, gently packed

2 cloves garlic

½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

8 ounces oven-ready lasagna noodles (12 noodles)

8 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded

Boil the tomatoes in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until they turn into a thick sauce. Stir in the marjoram and 1 teaspoon salt.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook the roux for about a minute. Pour in the cold milk all at once. Whisk until all the lumps disappear, then occasionally until the sauce comes to a full boil and thickens. Season with 1 ½ teaspoons salt.

Blend the ricotta with one-third of the white sauce in a food processor until smooth. Scrape the cheese out into a bowl.

Without washing the food processor, pulse the basil, parsley, garlic, and ½ teaspoon salt until finely chopped. Add the remaining white sauce and the Parmesan and process until well combined.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

If it’s your first time dealing with oven-ready noodles the process will seem strange, but just trust it. Spread half of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles on top of the sauce; they should fit without touching each other or the sides of the pan. Dab half of the basil sauce over the noodles, covering the pasta as best you can. As you build the lasagna think about layering the ingredients in 3 stacks, spreading the filling just over the noodles rather than worrying about the gaps between and around the noodles, but if some spills over that’s fine. Top the basil sauce with 3 more noodles in the same position. For the next layer, distribute the entire amount of ricotta by scooping it in spoonfuls onto the top noodles and spreading it a bit, pressing down as little as possible. Top with 3 more noodles, then the remaining tomato sauce. Finally, put the last 3 noodles in place and spread the top with the remaining pesto sauce.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil, tenting it a little so it doesn’t touch the lasagna, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Bake an additional 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cheese is evenly browned. Let the lasagna rest for at least 15 minutes before you serve it; it will be very loose at first, but will firm up as it sits. The lasagna can be assembled ahead and kept refrigerated until you are ready to bake it (allow an extra 10 minutes in the oven under the foil), or baked ahead of time and reheated in a 350 degree oven.

Chocolate Macarons: Notes from a first-time-macaron-baker

Let's be honest here. During the time there was a huge macaron craze going on in the food blog world, I was all "whatevs". Major reason for that is that it just seemed too complicated and I am more of a simple bakes type person. My motto is and always has been to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible but still make it seem awesome.

Then I actually tasted a macaron. That cost me 2.5 SGD a piece. And I said to myself, ok this is a challenge I need to take up. It can't be that hard, right? The idea went round and round in my mind for many months and finally, when I couldn't even grant myself the no-Kitchenaid excuse, I caved in and bought some almond meal. Before I knew it, egg whites were aging in the fridge and I was getting emotional support from some awesome people all over Facebook. There was no turning back.

There are tons of resources online for making macarons. Like experts would tell you, its not only about the recipe (although that definitely matters too), its more about the technique and the science behind it. My notes below combine the wisdom of all the sites and videos I referred. Hopefully you find it useful.

Chocolate Macarons Recipe
Adapted from David Lebovitz
Makes about 15-18 filled macarons

For Macaron Batter
1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces, 50gm)
3 tablespoons (25 gr) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For Filling:
I used store-bought hazelnut spread to fill my chocolate macarons because I didn't want to stress over making the filling too, but go ahead and Google up some macaron filling recipes, I am sure there are tons out there, some interesting flavour combinations too.

Tools and Equipment:
- Piping bag with 1/2" or 2cm plain tip (I used a large ziplock bag and cut out a small corner). I was a piping virgin and this was my first attempt at it, although I must say that I have done a lot of henna designing and fabric painting back in the day.
- Egg separator (slightly optional, read notes below)
- Electric beater
- Silicon or wooden spatula
- Large, dry steel mixing bowl
- Baking sheet/parchment paper

A few notes on the ingredients:

- almost all websites I saw recommend aging the egg whites. If you live in a cold place, leave it out on your kitchen counter for a day or two. If you live in a warm place, let them age in the refrigerator, just remember to take them out and bring them to room temperature before proceeding. Some sites said microwaving the egg whites for 20 seconds in medium-high will do the trick but that idea freaked me out so I took the safe way out and aged them the old-fashioned way.

- use an egg separator to separate the yolks and whites. I know some people are experts at using their fingertips to do a juggling act with the egg to remove the whites from yolks, but this will add moisture to the egg whites and we don't want that. Make sure that all equipment you use is completely dry and this includes the egg separator, the bowl you are transferring the whites to, and even your hands.

- although many seem to prefer blanching their almonds and powdering it to make their own almond meal, I would highly recommend beginners to buy almond meal. Buy the finest you can find or atleast slivers if you can't find ground ones. That makes the process much easier and less prone to failure.

- although coloured macarons are definitely more fun, there are recommendations around what sort of food colour you should buy (powdered or gel colours vs oil-based or water-based ones, etc). I found the entire decision on what colour and what type too stressful so I took the easy way out and made chocolate macarons. I would recommend this highly for beginners.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 300º F (150º C). This was the optimum temperature for my oven but I suspect the actuals were much higher. Don't take it up beyond 180 C though.

2. Line a baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat and have a pastry bag with a plain tip about 1/2-inch, 2 cm ready. (Or take the ziplock route I took)

3. Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps.  You can use your blender, food processor or mixie, just make sure that you don't grind the almonds to a pulp. Its important that you process these three together and not just the almonds.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam. At this stage, add the granulated sugar and continue beating until very stiff and firm. When you invert the bowl, the egg whites to stay put. That's how you know when to stop. It took me about 2-3 mins to get there.

5. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in 5 batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula (ideally). When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding (it helps to set a limit, like no more than 50 strokes to incorporate the dry mixture into the egg whites) and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone).

6. Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

7. Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then leave them alone for atleast an hour and up to a maximum of 3 hours. This is so that the top dries up and you get a smooth surface for the macarons but leaving them out too much will give you crunchy macarons and you don't want that. This step is important and if you skip it, you get non-macarons like in the picture below. Bake for 15-18 mins and let cool completely before removing from baking sheet.

Above: I didn't let the piped macarons rest before baking.

Below: I let them rest for an hour and they turned out perfect.

Some more notes and resources:


0. This is probably the best resource you will refer to, over at MisoHungry. She has a table on outcomes and possible reasons. When my macarons cracked on top the first time, I did a frantic Google search and found her site. She said two possible reasons for this - first is, the batter is too runny in which case I can do nothing except start again. Second is, the tops are not dried out enough. I crossed my fingers and let the macarons sit out before baking and that did the trick.

1. This video is super useful to observe the technique of folding the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites. Its short and sweet too.

2. If you are interested in the science behind macarons, check this site out.

3. This is the first website I visited when I decided to try my hand at macarons. The pictures are quite detailed although I would hold my piping bag at 90 degrees while piping, as a general rule.

4. Confession: I had never piped anything before I baked these macarons. Actually, my very first attempt can be seen on these cupcakes and it looked so dreadful that I stopped after one cupcake

Go ahead, take the plunge. It will be worth it :)

Macarons are my entry to this month's A Sweet Punch. The group completed a year and we could bake anything for this month's challenge. I am bringing macarons to the table!

3rd Annual Mother's Day Brunch

Sunday was the 3rd Annual Mother's day brunch. This year's guest list was 30 people, a big step up from the first brunch I hosted, and 10 more than last year. More people meant a simplified menu. I had all sorts of plans to make danishes and croissants and donuts, but I just did not have the time to pull it off. But, rather than lament what I did not make, let's talk about what I did. First up: muffins. I decided that mini-muffins would be best since they would allow people to sample a variety of food without getting full from a mega-muffin. I made a batch each night in the days before the brunch (24 mini muffins per batch) and stuck them in the freezer. I went with the lemon poppy seed, pumpkin bran, bakery-style berry, and espresso chocolate chip from Vegan Brunch. Next: cinnamon rolls from Artisan Breads Everyday. The great thing about this recipe is that it does not call for an egg in the dough and is easily made vegan. I like the recipe better than the one I blogged about before (though the pic for that post is the background for the brunch invite I sent out). I also made lemon currant rolls. I always make them for the school bake sale and so they have become a thing. I always give the people what they want. This time I just used flax eggs and did not bother with the whole tofu thing. They turned out great. You can also see some vegan apple muffins my neighbour brought over. Next up is Vegan Mom's scrambled tofu. Simple and plain, and the kids don't freak out. Next to that is a bowl of sauteed onions, mushrooms, and pepper for those who wanted to dress the tofu up a bit. In the chafing dishes (new this year--borrowed from a friend) are roasted baby potatoes and a ton of pancakes (from Vegan Brunch).
We lined up three tables and sat 20 in the dining room/living room, with a kids' table in the summer room. Guests brought juice, tea, coffee, and fruit salads to round out the menu and we all went to town (I had to blur some faces because I did not ask anyone if I could post the pic). All in all, a great success!