Jun 13, 2010: Calzone with Pesto

A calzone is pretty much a folded, into a half moon shape, pizza. I was looking to make the calzone heartier so I added fried potatoes with leek.

The dough was the other half of TJ's pizza dough.

Calzone
3 Potatoes, diced
1 C Leek, chopped
Pesto
Pizza Dough

Directions:
1. First cook the potatoes until brown.
Add the leeds when the potatoes are fork tender.


2. Fill the calzone... sauce all around, add fillings to one side of pizza dough

Fold over and crimp with a fork


Bake 500F for about 10 minues.


Cut calzone in half and serve!

Nov 19: Roasted Chiicken

Today, gave Julia Childs recipe for Roasted Chicken a try.

Her recipe calls for just coating with butter and seasoning with salt and pepper. Sounds simple enough. :-)

The tough part of the recipe calls rotating the chicken every 10 minutes for the first 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450F
Start breast side up, cook 10 minutes...
rotate so one side is up, cook 10 minutes...
rotate so the other side is up, cook 10 minutes...

rotate chicken back to breast up, reduce the temp to 350F and finish roasting (about 40 minutes)*.

*Note: The actually recipe call for rotating again at 350F, but I was impatient with this method.
Sorry Julia... :-)

Instead of a V-rack, I cooked the chicken over potatoes and onions.



After 30 minutes, I added a leek to the roasting pan.


After roasting the chicken was allowed to rest for 10 minutes while the rest of the meal was completed.

The finished chicken on serving platter.
Brussels sprouts, leeks and potatoes were the sides for the chicken.


Overall, you can't go wrong with roasted chicken. :-)
However, the cooking method is quite intricate.

Nov 08: Potato Leek Soup

A couple weeks ago was the last day of the season for Tacoma's Farmers Market. I lucked out and happened to be in the area.

I scored a great deal on a bunch of leeks, $1 for a bunch. In the supermarket, it's a $5 expense.

Leeks are a member of the onion family, Allium. Other delicious members of the family are onions, shallots, garlic and chives. Now that's a yummy family tree!

What to do with the leeks?

One of the simplest preparations is Potato Leek Soup I learned from S.
Potatoes, leeks, salt and water or broth.

Potato Leek Soup

8 ounces Leek, sliced (about 2 cups)
1 pound Potato, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)
3 cups liquid (I used 1 C broth + 2 C Water)
1 Chicken bullion cube (Optional)
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1T Butter
Milk or Cream or Sour Cream (Optional)



Leeks are grown by mounding soil around the stalk as the stalk grows. The mound blocks light helps keep the leaves white and tender. However, the mounding just means that you end up with dirt in-between the layers of leaves.

To wash... I split the leek down the middle and slice into semi-circles.



Soak the sliced leaves in water for a few minutes, to loosen dirt, and swish around. Repeat as needed.


Potatoes are coarsely chopped.



Optional: saute the cleaned leeks in butter and salt for about 5 minutes. Don't need to brown.


Add the potatoes and a quick stir.


Add the liquid and bullion cube. Simmer about 30 to 40 minutes.


The Finished Soup
The soup can be served many ways...

As a hearty, chunky rustic soup....


Or more typically, pureed in a blender. Since the soup is low fat, you can add milk or cream to the soup during blending.

Instead of using a blender, I used a stick (immersion) blender to puree the soup.



I didn't have any cream or sour cream... I did find some cream cheese so I added a small dab of cream cheese.


I wanted the soup to be a little more heartier so I added a pouched egg.


Overall, the soup turned out nicely. Nice leek flavor and easy to make.

What surprised me was the blended soup was very smooth, silky and thick. No cream was added but the texture was similar to a rich bisque. Also, the soup reminded me of a split pea soup without the grittiness that sometimes accompanies split pea soup.