Kale and quinoa winter salad
7 bunches of kale
2 cups quinoa
4 sweet potatoes
5 persimmons
dried cranberries
almonds
Dressing:
4 lemons
olive oil
1 shallot
ground parmesan
salt
touch of truffle oil
tiny bit of soy sauce
Croutons:
Chopped up bread (same as what we used for bread pudding)
Cheated on this one and used rosemary garlic dipping sauce from William Sonoma that we had
Mushroom Bread Pudding
We doubled this one http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mushroom-leek-bread-pudding-recipe/index.html with a few changes based on what was available at the super market and our whimsies.
6 cups (1/2-inch-diced) bread cubes from a rustic country loaf, crusts removed We used the Italian bread at the super market
2 tablespoons good olive oil We added truffle oil
1 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ounces pancetta, small-diced We omitted this step to be veggie-friendly
4 cups sliced leeks, white and light green parts (4 leeks) We saved the dark green parts to flavor broth
1 1/2 pounds cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed and 1/4-inch-sliced We used a mix of cremini, jumbo mushrooms, and shitaake mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves We trippled this
1/4 cup medium or dry sherry
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley We're not parsley folks...
4 extra-large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade We used the sweet potatoes from the kale salad, kale stalks, shallot ends, broccoli ends, garlic, thyme, leek for a vegetarian stock
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese (6 ounces), divided The supermarket was out of gruyere. We ended up using a mixture of gouda and cheddar
Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mushroom-leek-bread-pudding-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback
The original toffee recipe is here http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/12/chocolatealmond/
I followed as instructed...except I was anxious and left out the chopping nuts part... So I had whole almonds instead. Not the end of the world but didn't stick quite as well as I'd hoped. But then I took the pieces that had not stuck together, chopped them together, melted extra chocolate and mixed it with the chopped toffee and nuts, and made chocolate bars with toffee and almond. It worked.
Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
- 2 cups (8 ounces, 225 g) toasted almonds or hazelnuts, chopped between 'fine' and 'coarse'
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup (1 stick, 115 g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- a nice, big pinch of salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, or 1 cup chocolate chips Used bittersweet
optional: Roasted cocoa nibs and fleur de sel
1. Lightly oil a baking sheet with an unflavored vegetable oil.
2. Sprinkle half the nuts into a rectangle about 8″ x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) on the baking sheet.
3. In a medium heavy-duty saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, heat the water, butter, salt, and both sugars. Cook, stirring as little as possible, until the thermometer reads 300 F degrees. Have the vanilla and baking soda handy.
4. Immediately remove from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla.
5. Quickly pour the mixture over the nuts on the baking sheet. Try to pour the mixture so it forms a relatively even layer. (If necessary, gently but quickly spread with a spatula, but don’t overwork it.)
5. Strew the chocolate pieces over the top and let stand 2 minutes, then spread in an even layer.
Cut and pasted from http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/12/chocolatealmond/ in case the link ever breaks and I become very very sadly unable to find what I did.
