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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Parmesan Fennel Gratin

I'm slowly accepting that fall is here so I'm getting into all the root vegetables and squashes available right now.  I wanted to do something with fennel, and with a quick search, I picked out Ina Garten's Parmesan fennel gratin on Food Network's site.

Ina Garten's Parmesan Fennel Gratin

I like that the fennel is oven-braised in chicken stock and white wine to soften the vegetable.  The anise or licorice flavor of raw fennel becomes very mild as the fennel cooks.  So if you're not a fan of raw fennel, I suggest trying this preparation at least once before swearing off fennel entirely.

Using panko crumbs for this is key to get a nice, crunchy topping.  Each time I make this, I may bake the dish for more or less time than the recipe suggests to make sure the topping gets golden brown and toasty and the fennel is tender they way I like.  To get maximum topping coverage and crunch, I prefer to lay the fennel down on one of the cut sides rather than with the pointy end facing up.  This way there's more surface to hold the topping.  All the wedges don't end up fitting in one baking dish but I don't mind baking in two dishes at the same time.

I noticed a difference between the Food Network video and the written recipe on how much salt to use.  In the video, Ina uses 1 tsp of salt and makes a larger batch than the written recipe.  So I used 1 tsp of salt for 3 fennel bulbs instead of 2 tsp stated in the written recipe.  I thought 1 tsp was fine since the chicken stock and Parmesan cheese also add salt to the dish.

Even though there's Italian parsley in the topping, I also chop some of the green fennel fronds and sprinkle over the top before serving to add some fresh color.  Great dish for an everyday meal or even Thanksgiving.

This is from the first time I made this recipe.  My kitchen lighting is terrible so color tone isn't captured they way I'd like.

My Rating (out of 5): 4

Roasted Edamame

If you put a bowl of boiled or steamed edamame pods sprinkled with salt in front of me, I'd be a happy girl.  I love these beans just with salt.  But when I saw this PureWow recipe for roasted edamame, I wish I had thought of it sooner.

Roasting the edamame helps dry out water, making the pods not as soggy or mushy as they become when boiled.  What I really liked about this PureWow recipe is the lemon zest.  Roasting with the lemon zest really added a nice zing to the flavor.  I didn't have pimenton (smoked paprika) so I just sprinkled regular paprika which still gave this dish a slightly smoky flavor.  I can only imagine how good it would be with smoked paprika.

I will definitely make this again.  Next time, I'll lay the thawed edamame on a towel to drain more water before roasting, or roast for longer than the recipe suggests to get more char and color on the edamame.


My Rating (out of 5): 4

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

No. 15: Sweet Pete’s Salted Caramel

Finally!  More Crumbs locations have re-opened.  This is my first cupcake under new ownership of Marcus Lemonis and Fischer Enterprises.  The variety of cupcakes offered seemed smaller than I remember at the Union Square location.  Some of my favorites were not available so I decided to try one of the new flavors named after the owners's other businesses such as Dippin' Dots and Sweet Pete's candy.

The Sweet Pete's Salted Caramel cupcake looks different than the Salted Caramel cupcake I've had in the past.  (See previous Salted Caramel post here.)  I only heard of Sweet Pete's through news updates on Crumbs, so I am not familiar with their products.  I presume that Sweet Pete's makes some kind of salted caramel candy and those candies are used in the Crumbs cupcake?

Over the last few years, the change to mass manufactured cupcakes at Crumbs was noticeable, but I still liked the cupcakes.  However, today I really noticed the mass production in the look and taste.  The Sweet Pete's Salted Caramel cupcake tasted a bit stale.  The frosting had started to dry to where the mini chocolate chips fell off easily.

Unfortunately, the salt and caramel flavors were missing in this version.  There was a slight caramel flavor in the frosting, but not enough to taste like I was eating salted caramel.  No salt came through at all.  There was a skimpy drizzle of caramel on the top.  Because of the chocolate chips and chocolate cake, the overall flavor was just chocolate.  Instead of chocolate chips, more caramel sauce or even crushed or chopped Sweet Pete's caramel candy would have been better (assuming that's a product).  The texture of the cake was okay, but nothing noteworthy.  It wasn't dry or noticeably moist either.  Just ok.

Size: Signature
Picked Up At: Union Square
My Rating (out of 5): 2