Panzanella, or Bread Salad

I’m sorry things have been so quiet around here. (Can you hear the crickets?) Life has left little time for blogging this summer, and I haven’t done a whole lot of creative cooking either. But I have completed a couple of challenges that I have yet to blog about. I’m hoping to get all caught up and then start a new round of challenges in the fall.

One recent challenge was seasonally appropriate: to make a cold dinner that was also satisfying. For this challenge, I wanted to use something from our garden, which means tomatoes. Naturally, I thought of one of my favorite salads: panzanella, or bread salad. Not only is this a great dish for enjoying dead ripe tomatoes, but it’s also handy for using up stale bread. The juices from the tomatoes soak into the bread and give it new life.

To make this dish an entree, I added leftover grilled chicken and cannellini beans, along with an assortment of vegetables. They combined to create a satisfying, hearty dish for a hot summer night. The inspiration for the basic recipe comes from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

Main-Course Panzanella

Yields: 4 servings

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the bread of its crust and cut into smallish squares to make approximately 2 cups bread cubes. Toast the cubes in the oven until browned and dried out, about 10 minutes. Put the cubes in a large bowl. Puree 1 ripe tomato in a food mill over the bowl. Toss the tomato puree with the bread, add some salt, and let it sit for 15 minutes or more.

In a food processor, combine 1 peeled garlic clove, 1 teaspoon anchovy paste* and 1 tablespoon capers,drained. Puree. Combine thoroughly with ¼ cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and salt to taste. Set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the salad ingredients:

• Dice 2 ripe tomatoes.
• Dice 1 yellow or red bell pepper.
• Peel and dice 1 cucumber.
• Thinly slice ½ red or sweet onion.
• Thinly slice 1 breast leftover cooked chicken (preferably roasted or grilled).
• Drain and rinse 1 cup cooked cannellini beans.

Combine everything in the serving bowl with plenty of freshly ground pepper, and toss thoroughly.

*I prefer anchovy paste (it comes in a little tube) to actual anchovies because I don’t cook with anchovies often, and then I only use a little at a time. A tube of anchovy paste seems to last me a good long while. You may substitute 2-3 anchovy fillets, if you like.

Some Old Favorites: Grilling Out on the New Deck

A recent cooking challenge that I haven’t gotten a chance to post about yet was to resurrect some old favorites. I chose backyard barbecue favorites in honor of our new, expanded, gorgeous deck, and to give my husband a chance to cook for a change.

The menu was: grilled turkey burgers, mini baked potatoes and quick pickles. I have posted the turkey burger recipe before. This is the only turkey burger recipe I have found that results in juicy, tasty burgers rather than dried-out hockey pucks. Giving credit where credit is due, the original recipe came from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking.

That cookbook was also the source for the mini baked potatoes idea. You don’t even need a recipe for these. Just substitute medium-sized Yukon gold potatoes for russets. Poke holes in the top and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Load them up with all your favorite fixings. Despite being so simple, this is a genius idea, because often a full-sized baked potato is just too much.

Finally, the quick pickles came from another Sara Foster book that I’ve been featuring a lot on this blog lately: Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen. (Expect a full-fledged review very soon.) Even though this was a new recipe I was trying, it qualifies as an old favorite because I’ve been making some variant of these pickles for years. It’s a great way to eat garden cucumbers, and it also works for zucchini.

Here’s my version of a quick recipe for quick pickles. For 1 pound of cucumber slices, combine 2 cups water and 1 cup white wine vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon coarse salt, plus fresh dill, red pepper flakes and/or sliced garlic, as desired. You can also throw in diced red onion, if you like. Let the pickles marinate at least 1 hour. These pickles keep about 1 week in the fridge.

Smooth Gazpacho + Fried Green Tomato BLT

I’m sorry I’ve been so delinquent updating this blog. Summer has gotten crazy-busy, and my only writing time has been severely curtailed ever since my little one got inconsistent about napping. When he doesn’t nap, I don’t get any writing time, so I can’t blog. It’s definitely cut into my productivity.

I cooked my last challenge a couple of weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting it. It’s still seasonally appropriate, though. The challenge was to make a chilled soup, one I hadn’t tried before. I have to admit that I didn’t go very far out on a limb for this one. I made a blended gazpacho.

Usually, when I make gazpacho, it’s pretty much a salad in a bowl. This time, I was inspired by Thomas Keller‘s recipe for Sun Gold Tomato Gazpacho, from Ad Hoc at Home. This soup is blended until it is silky smooth. It has a wonderful mouthfeel that encourages you to keep eating and eating. My husband also loved it. (Although the Kid, as per usual, turned up his nose.)

This soup uses cherry tomatoes, which should be abundant just about now. I was going to take advantage of some wonderful heirloom cherry tomatoes I spotted in the co-op, but by the time I went back to get them, they were all gone. So instead of using the yellow tomatoes that are called for, I substituted red. It didn’t hurt the soup any, so far as I could tell.

I served this with another great recipe from Sara Foster‘s Southern Kitchen: Fried Green Tomato BLTs. I didn’t have actual green tomatoes yet, so I used red ones from the co-op that were still a bit mealy. They fried up great and the sandwich was tasty, although nothing really beats a basic BLT at the height of tomato season. I encourage you to make your own mayonnaise for your BLTs. I stirred in some chopped basil, which gave it a summery taste. Here is my recipe for fool-proof homemade mayo.

Cherry Tomato Gazpacho

Yields: 6 servings (leftovers keep well in the fridge)

• 1 cup cold water
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped onion
• 2 lbs. cherry tomatoes, stemmed and halved
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• pinch or two of cayenne pepper, or to taste
• salt, to taste
• ¾ cup good-quality olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced basil, for garnish

1. Reserve 1 cup of the tomatoes, ½ of the cucumber and ½ of the pepper for garnish. Dice the cucumber and pepper. Refrigerate until serving.

2. In a large bowl, add the water, garlic, onion and remaining tomatoes, cucumber and pepper. Let marinate in their own juices for 5 minutes or so. Transfer to a food processor or blender and blend until completely smooth. Strain to remove any larger bits of tomato peel.

3. Return the mixture to the blender or food processor. Add the vinegar, smoked paprika, cayenne and salt. With the blender or food processor running, slowly pour in the oil, blending until very, very smooth. Taste and add more vinegar or seasonings as desired.

4. The gazpacho can be refrigerated up to 2 days. To serve, garnish with the reserved diced vegetables and minced basil leaves.

Adapted from Ad Hoc at Home, p114.

Yaki Udon

I’m a bit late in sharing this challenge with you, since I made it about two weeks ago. The challenge was to make an Asian-style noodle dish that I hadn’t tried before. I had some udon noodles in the pantry, so I started from there. After doing some reading on Wikipedia, I decided to make yaki udon, which is a stir-fried, Japanese noodle dish.

Yaki Udon

To tell you the truth, this wasn’t such a challenging dish, but I did learn something new. Usually, when I stir-fry, I cook the meat first, then I add the vegetables. Last, I might throw in some cooked noodles, or I’ll toss it all on top of cooked rice.

This time, though, I cooked the veggies first, while I let the meat marinate. Then I added the boiled noodles. This enable the vegetables to get browned and tender, and the noodles to also brown a little, since there was no liquid in the pan. When they were done, I removed them to a plate and cooked the meat. I tried not to disturb the meat other than turning it once, so it would develop a crunchy, brown crust. Finally, I added the marinade from the meat and stir-fried until the sauce had thickened. Last, the veggies and noodles went back in to get coated with the sauce.

I think this made a real difference in the quality of the stir-fry. Every ingredient shone, and nothing was over-cooked. Although the sauce was evenly distributed, it didn’t turn gloppy. All in all, it was delicious, and a truly simple dish to make.

You can substitute any thinly sliced meat here (I used chicken). Scallops or shrimp would also work. And of course, any vegetables that you have on hand can be added. I like to slice the veggies thinly and on the diagonal for a nicer presentation and faster cooking. It is also good to add something with crunch for a garnish. I used raw bean sprouts, which provided just the right finish.

Yaki Udon

Serves: 2-3 people

• ¼ lb. chicken or other meat, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp. mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 1 tbsp. ponzu sauce
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• peanut oil
• 4 oz. udon noodles, cooked, drained and rinsed
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced diagonally
• 1 small red pepper, sliced thinly
• 8 spears asparagus, cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
• mung bean sprouts for garnish
• soy sauce to taste

1. Combine the meat with the mirin, ponzu sauce, flour, sesame oil and sesame seeds, and set aside to marinate.

2. Heat some peanut oil in a wok or skillet until very hot. Add the vegetables and stir-fry until they are crisp-tender and beginning to brown. Add the noodles and continue to stir-fry until the noodles are brown in places. Remove to a plate.

3. Add some more peanut oil to the pan and heat until very hot. Drain the chicken, reserving the marinade, and add it to the pan. Let the chicken cook, turning once, until cooked through, browned and crusty.

4. Add the marinade and stir-fry the chicken quickly until the sauce thickens. Return the vegetables and noodles to the pan, and stir-fry until the well-mixed. Remove to a serving dish and top with the bean sprouts. Pass the soy sauce at the table.

More Southern Cooking!

I got busy over Memorial Day weekend and cooked a lot out of Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen. Pretty much every recipe was an unqualified winner, with a couple of minor exceptions. First, the good.

Yes, that is bacon all over those baked beans.

You know how sometimes when you make a recipe, you think: That’s it! I don’t have to try another version, because this is the one I’m going to stick with forever. That’s how I felt when I made these baked beans. They weren’t at all hard to make, and they were absolutely delicious. They use butter beans (but you could substitute any cooked bean), and I have never thought butter beans tasted so good. Usually, I’d rather not taste them at all. But these beans were sweet and smoky and spicy, all at the same time. They were everything you’d want baked beans to be, and they made the perfect accompaniment to all the hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken we were grilling up. Add some watermelon, and you’re set.

Speaking of watermelon, I also made the Watermelon-Tomato Salad with Shaved Feta and Handfuls of Mint. This was another keeper. The watermelon added a touch of sweetness that rescued somewhat bland tomatoes, which aren’t at their peak yet. Lots of basil and mint and a garnish of feta rounded it out. I need to make this salad every summer.

I also tried the Crispy Chicken Cutlets with a Heap of Spring Salad. This is a simplified version of buttermilk fried chicken. The cutlets are dipped in flour, soaked in buttermilk and egg, and then coated in homemade bread crumbs. They are shallow-fried until crisp. These cutlets were just great, much better than the Chicken Nuggets I made a while back. I liked the springtime salad they were served with, and I thought the Buttermilk Green Goddess Dressing was a nice accompaniment. It was light and herby, perfect for this time of year. My only complaint is that it was a little thin for my tastes, probably because I made it with plain yogurt instead of mayonnaise, which was one of the suggested variations. So it was lighter, but a little too watery.

Finally, I attempted to make dessert. I have to admit up front that baking is not my forte, and I am about ready to give up on making cakes and their kin altogether. This time I attempted Granny Foster’s Simple Pound Cake. This was a true pound cake, for it required a pound of eggs, a pound of butter and a pound of flour. And it was gigantic, probably way too much batter for the pan. As a result, it took forever to cook, and even when I took it out of the oven after almost two hours, it still wasn’t set in the middle. It did firm up as it cooled, though, so we were able to eat it. It tasted darned good, although a bit on the sickly sweet side for my tastes. Everyone enjoyed it, and after piling some ice cream on top, we didn’t really notice the slight mushiness. But this is the first recipe from this book that I’ve tried and would not make again. Still, I can already tell that this book is a definite keeper.

My challenge this weekend was to make some barbecue classics, and I think the baked beans certainly qualify.

A New Take on Tuna Salad

My cooking challenge for last week was to prepare a fresh and flavorful fish dish. My husband wanted this dish to reflect the bounty of the season and to be tasty, because he generally thinks fish is bland. (I don’t agree, but that’s another story.) He suggested a flavorful sauce.

The combination of fresh and flavorful got my mind working, and I came up with a salad. But not an ordinary salad. Rather, I wanted a composed dish that would showcase tasty produce surrounding a really nice piece of fish, all dressed with a tasty vinaigrette, which works really well on both fish and vegetables. I hit upon doing a version of a salade Niçoise, but with a twist: no olives (because I don’t really like olives). Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home has a tuna Niçoise recipe that is both gorgeous and easy to make; that would be my template. Leafing through Ad Hoc at Home‘s many vinaigrette recipes, I spotted the one I wanted: bacon vinaigrette! The bacon would taste great on a thick tuna steak and on the vegetables I wanted to accompany it: new potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes and avocado.

The vegetable platter.

The best part about this dish is that it is very easy to prepare. The most important step is the shopping, as this dish relies on finding the freshest, tastiest produce and cut of tuna available. It can also adapt to the season. I suggest visiting the farmers market or local co-op and buying whatever looks fresh and beautiful. As for cooking the vegetables, I simply blanched the green beans and steamed the potatoes until they were tender. I then cut everything up and apportioned it on a pretty platter.

As for the tuna, this challenge gave me a chance to explore the best local markets for buying fish. While my regular co-op does a great job of supplying local, organic chicken, bacon and sausage, it doesn’t stock a large selection of fish, and they never have tuna. The grocery store I usually shop at has a fish counter, but I am suspicious of their sources. Their tuna in particular often tastes a little fishy, and it’s a little too red, if you know what I mean.

That meant I had to go further afield. Because I left my shopping so late in the day, I chose to head over to Whole Foods rather than trying out Fresh Market, which is a little farther away. I normally avoid Whole Foods, because the experience of shopping there could easily be the tenth circle of Hell, in my opinion. Starting with the parking lot, which is poorly designed and always jammed with cars fighting for the spaces. Once you’re inside, the food is so gorgeous and artfully laid out, but you have to contend with people jamming the narrow aisles with huge carts and cutting across your path. I feel like a bumper car whenever I go inside. I could stand it just enough to go back to the fish counter and pick out a gigantic, gorgeous tuna steak. I couldn’t even handle ducking over to the bakery for a loaf of bread before my patience snapped. (I do have to give kudos to Whole Foods’ cashiers and fishmongers, who are just as friendly as they can be, unlike their clientele.) The trip was worth it, though, because just take a look at this fish.

The tuna.

Fish this good only requires a little salt and pepper for seasoning and a brief pan-searing in a thin film of olive oil. To judge doneness, watch the edges. You want just a thin sear on both sides. Remove it from the pan and slice thinly for serving. A one-pound steak was plenty for my husband and I, with leftovers. (My toddler refused to partake, of course.)

All that’s left is the dressing, which is also very simple. For two servings, cut 2 slices of bacon into 1-inch pieces. Fry over medium heat until crisp on the outside, then transfer to paper towels to drain, reserving the bacon fat in the pan. Combine 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, and ¼ cup olive oil with salt and pepper to taste in a blender. Pour off the bacon fat into this mixture and blend until it is well emulsified. Stir in the bacon pieces and spoon the vinaigrette over the vegetables and fish to serve.

The whole salad.

I feel like this wasn’t too much of a challenge, since it was so easy to prepare. But I think this only goes to show that even the simplest dishes can be the most rewarding, if you take the trouble to find truly excellent ingredients. I would definitely make this salad again and again.

For the next challenge, I am tasked with making an Asian noodle dish. Since I’m still on a light and flavorful kick, I’m thinking Japanese. I hope you’ll join me.

Chicken Nuggets and Fries

Ok, I’ve been putting off this challenge way too long. First, I put off making it — illness and holidays got in the way — and then I put off writing about it.

To tell you the truth, a meal of homemade chicken nuggets and fries was not one I was looking forward to making. I think of this as typical restaurant kid’s food, not a meal I would likely order for myself. I don’t even like to order it for my kid, although sometimes choices are limited. Since this isn’t a meal I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat, I didn’t think it was one I would enjoy making either. But I was challenged to make it, and I did.

Homemade chicken nuggets.

I don’t ever deep-fry at home. My rationale is that deep-frying is unhealthy, messy and expensive when you consider how much oil is required. And it’s very easy (all too easy) to find good-tasting deep-fried foods when we go out to eat. It just doesn’t fit into what I consider good home cooking.

So I didn’t want to deep-fry either the nuggets or the “fries.” For the nuggets, after researching many different recipes, I decided to take a combination approach. I shallow-fried them for a few minutes to get the breading crispy, then transferred them to the oven to finish cooking.

Based on the recipes I read, it seemed that the best results came from soaking the chicken first in buttermilk, then rolling it in a hearty coating (heartier than flour), such as cracker or bread crumbs. I chose panko bread crumbs, which I spiced up quite a bit with paprika, cayenne and salt. I cut boneless chicken breasts into approximate nugget size before letting them soak in the buttermilk for a few hours. Then I rolled them in the coating and shallow-fried them in vegetable oil just until the coating browned. I transferred them to a baking sheet to finish cooking at about 425 degrees.

The nuggets were crispy, but certainly not as crispy or as yummy as their deep-fried counterparts would be. (I said I don’t like to deep-fry at home, but there’s no denying that deep-fried foods taste very good.) The breading had a tendency to slide off, too. I think the extra spices were essential. Otherwise, the dish would have been rather bland.

I added two dipping sauces to help with the blandness factor. One was a simple honey-mustard sauce: two parts mustard whisked with one part honey. The other was lemon juice whisked with a little olive oil, Italian seasonings and plenty of grated Parmesan. I actually liked the second sauce better with the crudites (raw broccoli, carrots, cherry tomatoes and celery) that I served with the chicken, but my husband preferred it on the nuggets.

Two kinds of oven fries.

Now for the fries. I decided to try “oven-frying” them two different ways. I cooked both batches for about 30 minutes at 425 degrees.

For one set of fries, I used peeled Yukon gold potatoes. I cut them into wedge shapes and sprinkled them with a little oil, salt and some sugar. This was based on a recipe I found online, and I think the intention was to mimic the look of French fries. The potatoes did turn spotty brown where the sugar caramelized, but they didn’t taste at all fried; they tasted sweet. My husband liked them, but I didn’t.

For the other batch of oven fries, I used unpeeled russet potatoes. I tossed them with a bit more oil, coarse salt, paprika and cayenne. Again, these didn’t taste fried, although they more closely resembled the thick-cut steak fries that you find at some up-scale restaurants. I liked them a lot better, though.

For me, this meal rated about a C. I doubt I would make it again unless it was requested, although I would make the oven fries to serve with other dishes. My husband rated it a B+/A-. He was disappointed that I didn’t make more dipping sauces, particularly a barbecue sauce. My toddler declined to eat any of it at all. I guess it’s not real chicken nuggets and fries when your mom makes it.

I haven’t received this week’s challenge yet, so stay tuned. Also, now that the recent spate of holidays has passed, I promise to get back on a weekly cooking and posting schedule, at least for a while.

A Mexican Fiesta

I’m sorry that this update has been so long in coming. I was busy with a project all last week, plus I got a touch of something over the weekend that kept me from blogging and cooking. So I’m taking this past weekend off and playing catch-up. This challenge is actually from one week ago.

The challenge was to make a Mexican meal, but not to fall back on the usual suspects. That means no tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas — basically, nothing wrapped in a tortilla. I immediately decided that I wanted to make several small plates, like a tasting menu. Appetizers are often my favorite dishes in Mexican cooking, anyway, and that would give me a chance to try three or four new dishes.

For help, I turned to Rick Bayless, specifically his cookbooks Authentic Mexican and Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen. You may know Rick Bayless from his stint on Top Chef Masters or from his restaurants in Chicago (which I have yet to visit, although my husband has been several times). I love his cookbooks because they make authentic Mexican cooking accessible to the home cook. He gives lots of helpful advice about ingredients, timing, and varying the recipes, and they usually turn out delicious. I won’t be reprinting any of his recipes here, so I urge you to check out his books for yourself.

Here is the resulting menu:

Jicama sticks with lime and mint.

If you’ve never had jicama before, it’s a very refreshing starter. It’s crisp and cool like a cucumber, but the taste is closer to a very mild radish. Look for jicama in the grocery store; it’s a gigantic, waxy thing that looks like an oversized turnip, but it’s easy to peel and cut up into sticks. Marinate the sticks in a little lime juice and lemon juice, chopped mint leaves and salt. We were crunching on these all week long. This was my toddler’s favorite dish of the night.

Tuna seviche.

Seviche is seafood that is “cooked” by marinating it for several hours in lime juice. I’ve never made seviche at home before, mostly because I was afraid of dealing with the uncooked fish. But we like tuna pretty rare anyway, so that seemed like a good fish to use for my first attempt. This was a very refreshing salad, especially because it’s combined with a fresh, vibrant tomato and avocado salsa. A little chopped serrano chile provides a hint of heat.  My husband and I both enjoyed this one.

Melted queso with chorizo, roasted poblanos and tomatoes, served with corn chips for dipping.

This was my favorite dish of the night. I could probably have eaten it until I burst. I used chihuahua cheese, which has a wonderful mild but cheesy flavor. I melted the cubes of cheese in a metal pie plate to try to retain the heat. To the melted cheese I added roasted poblano pepper, crumbled chorizo, scallions and diced tomato. We just scooped it all up with corn chips. I think this mixture would work very well as a topping for nachos. We had about half left over, and it reheated nicely the next night in the same pie plate.

Baked poblano peppers stuffed with chorizo and potatoes, topped with a tomato-chipotle sauce.

This was an intense, flavorful dish. Sharing one pepper was plenty for my husband and me. I had to modify the original recipe, which called for dried ancho peppers instead of fresh poblanos, so this is closer to a chile relleno. I stuffed it with a mixture of pan-fried chorizo and potatoes and sauced it with a spicy tomato-chipotle sauce. That’s parmesan sprinkled on top. It was hot, but not overwhelmingly so. This was my husband’s favorite dish due to the mouth-popping flavor combination.

And I made a delicious red wine sangria to accompany. I mixed cheap red wine with lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, and seltzer water over ice, and popped in a sprig of mint leaves. The result was way too drinkable!

My husband said that this was my most successful challenge yet, mainly because I stretched myself and made dishes that I wouldn’t normally cook at home. And because everything came out so deliciously. We stretched our stomachs too, as we ate way more than we should. This would make an awesome menu for a Mexican-themed party, especially held outside on the deck on a warm night.

I’m hoping to tackle the next challenge later this week. The challenge is to make a kid’s favorite dinner at home: chicken nuggets and fries. Since I don’t deep-fry, this will require some creativity. Look for the results next week.

Cheesy Chicken Sandwiches

This week’s challenge was inspired by an article my husband saw in the New York Times Magazine, extolling the virtues of those cheesy, meat-filled sandwiches that taste so good after a night of drinking. Every college seems to have its own specialty, and the grandfather of them all is the Philly cheesesteak. My husband wanted me to create such a sandwich.

To be honest, I am not a fan of these types of sandwiches, as they are usually too greasy and heavy for me. So I tried to come up with a sandwich that pays homage to the cheesesteak and its ilk, but is still something I would like — that is, lighter and more flavorful.

While the resulting sandwich is not a true cheesesteak in any sense, we both still enjoyed the results. It begins with a toasted hoagie roll (my husband says the bun would not be toasted in a real Philly cheesesteak, but I am a Southern girl and didn’t know this; besides, I like a crusty roll). Before toasting, I pulled out much of the doughy insides, leaving a bread shell in which to stuff the filling. This keeps the sandwich from spilling out all over your shirt as you eat it.

Inside the bun, layer sauteed, thinly sliced chicken; sauteed red onion and mushrooms; sliced sweet piquante peppers; and sliced provolone cheese. The whole torpedo is put in a hot oven for a few minutes to warm it through and melt the cheese. Meanwhile, spread on the top bun a homemade chili mayonnaise of my own concoction to add flavor and creaminess. My husband doesn’t like mayonnaise, but that doesn’t seem to apply to homemade, flavored mayos, which don’t taste anything like the jarred variety.

This challenge was a definite hit, and pretty easy to make too. Serve with a pickle and oven fries. Next week: a Mexican menu!

Chili Mayonnaise

I made this mayonnaise with a hand blender, but it can also be made in a blender or food processor or, if you are very industrious, whisked by hand.

Combine in the blender:

• 1 egg
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ teaspoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Cayenne pepper to taste (about a dash)
• Juice of ½ lemon

Blend until well combined. While the blender is running, slowly pour in ¾ cup vegetable or canola oil. The mayonnaise should emulsify to a thick, yellowish-white consistency as you pour in the oil.

Mix into the finished mayonnaise:

• ¼ cup chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup roasted red pepper, minced
• ¼ cup scallions, minced
• additional salt, cayenne and lemon juice to taste

The finished mayonnaise makes 1 cup and will keep in the fridge for about 1 week. In addition to eating it on the chicken sandwiches, I used it as a dressing for salad greens and for chicken salad, and I spread it on turkey sandwiches. Yum! I think it would also be very good as a dipping sauce for fried fish or boiled shrimp.

Gigantic Stuffed Potatoes

This week’s challenge was to serve, as a meal, a stuffed baked potato. To be honest, I didn’t consider this to be much of a challenge. I love baked potatoes, and I have made stuffed potatoes many times before. But my husband said he wanted something different than the usual toppings, so I tried to get creative with this recipe. I also learned a new technique for crisping prosciutto, which definitely made the challenge worthwhile.

These were some really big potatoes! I made two, but my husband and I could only eat 1½ between us, so I had leftovers for lunch the next day. They were delicious as well as filling. We both agreed that this challenge was a success. (My toddler won’t touch potatoes unless they are of the french-fried variety, so he doesn’t get a vote this week.)

For the stuffing, I decided to go a bit upscale. Truthfully, I looked in my fridge and based the stuffing on what I already needed to use up. I combined sauteed spinach, sauteed mushrooms, crispy prosciutto, and gruyere cheese. The flavor combination was outstanding, and I felt like together these ingredients made for a more-or-less balanced meal.

I wanted to add something crispy like bacon to the stuffing, but not use bacon. I had some prosciutto in my fridge already, and I found this technique for crisping it like bacon. It worked beautifully. Now that I know how to do it, I will definitely be adding crispy prosciutto to scrambled eggs, salads, soups, and whatever else I can think of.

When I was shopping for this challenge, I found gigantic potatoes at the grocery store. They were as big as footballs, seriously. If you use reasonably sized potatoes, half a potato would make a great side dish as well. And this recipe is completely open to adaptation, just by varying what you stuff the potatoes with. But please, do use cheese. You have to have cheese on baked potatoes, in my opinion.

Here’s the recipe. I don’t have exact amounts for the ingredients, so you’ll have to wing it. But that only makes this recipe easier to scale up or down.

Twice-Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach, Mushrooms, Crispy Prosciutto & Gruyere Cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Figure on ½-1 russet potato per serving, depending on whether you’re serving this as an entree or side dish. Scrub the potatoes well and prick in several places with a fork. Rub them with olive oil. Place directly on the oven rack to bake until they give when gently squeezed, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Arrange the prosciutto slices (about 1 per potato) on a wire rack and place that on top of a baking pan. Slide the whole thing into the oven. Roast for 7 minutes and set aside to cool. The prosciutto will crisp up even more as it cools. Save the baking pan, as you’ll need it later.

Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium. Add sliced cremini or button mushrooms. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Saute until the mushrooms release their liquid and turn brown, about 10 minutes. Set aside in a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.

Add a little more olive oil, if needed. Put some baby spinach in the skillet (as much as you think you’ll need). Season and saute until the spinach wilts. Set aside with the mushrooms.

The potatoes should now be cool enough to handle. Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh, leaving a shell of about ½-inch thickness. In a bowl, mash the potato flesh with butter, sour cream, and milk. Use your judgment for how much you need to achieve a creamy texture. I usually use 1 tablespoon of each per potato. Stir in shredded gruyere cheese, the reserved spinach and mushrooms, and the prosciutto, crumbled. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully mound the potato filling into each potato shell. Top with a little more shredded Gruyere. Place the potato halves on the baking sheet and return to the oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are heated through and browned in spots, and the cheese is all melted. Enjoy.