Adding Flavor to Simple Recipes

Well, it’s clear that I haven’t had a chance to post much here recently, and I haven’t been doing many cooking challenges lately either. Sometimes life gets too hectic. With that in mind, I am returning my focus to simple recipes, and I will post a bunch of them here.

By simple recipes, I mean recipes that have only a handful of ingredients, no more than five total, including salt, pepper and oil. Or quick but complete dinners that you can put together in one pan. These are the kinds of recipes that you will memorize after making them two or three times, so that you can easily whip one up on a weeknight even if you’re dead tired, or you can pull out when you’re not sure what to make with that ingredient you picked up on sale.

These recipes are great to add to your repertoire, but the problem is that they can become boring after a while. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a ready-made arsenal to add pizzazz to any recipe. You can vary the flavors depending on your mood and what you have available.

Here is my list of sure-fire ways to quickly and easily boost the flavor quotient in a simple recipe:

• Garnish it with fresh herbs after cooking.
• Sprinkle in a little citrus juice or vinegar at the end of cooking.
• Add minced chiles or red pepper flakes for heat.
• Substitute heavy cream, sour cream, plain yogurt or melted butter for some of the oil.
• Sprinkle with grated Parmesan or other cheese or with crumbled bacon (you can substitute bacon grease for some of the oil as well).
• Mix in slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pesto or other ready-made ingredients from the pantry.
• Substitute or add similar vegetables.

As I post some of my favorite tried-and-true simple recipes, I’ll provide examples of these flavor boosters. But never be afraid to experiment. Cooking is more fun that way!

Pancakes for Dinner + Strawberry Shortcake

Image by Merelymel13 via Flickr

Since it has been an unseasonably cool and very rainy week, keeping us stuck indoors, it has also been a week of treats. Last night, I made silver dollar pancakes and bacon for dinner. I don’t know what is so sinful about transferring a Sunday-morning meal to a Wednesday evening, but it certainly brightened up everyone’s week.

It being strawberry season, I had all the things to make strawberry shortcake on hand, which was my project Monday afternoon when the rain poured down like Armageddon outside.

Strawberry shortcake is, of course, absurdly easy to make. It has three components:

• Strawberries, hulled and quartered, and mixed with a small amount of sugar; the riper they are, the less sugar they need. Let them macerate a while to produce some juices.
• Shortcakes, made from your favorite biscuit recipe with a little more sugar added. I like to make biscuits with half-and-half or cream for dessert recipes. I brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with sugar to get deeper browning when baking and add a touch more sweetness.
• Whipped cream (see below).

To assemble, bake the biscuits, let cool and split. Spoon some strawberries in the center and top with whipped cream. This treat brings spring to a dreary day.

How to Whip Cream

Chill a mixing bowl and the mixer beaters in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Add 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla (optional) to the bowl. Start beating on the lowest speed until bubbles start to appear, about 30 seconds. Switch to medium speed until the cream starts to thicken, another 30 seconds. Switch to high speed and beat until peaks appear, about 20 seconds more for soft peaks and 30 seconds more for stiff peaks.

Store covered in the fridge for several hours. Here’s a guide to whipping cream with pictures of soft and stiff peaks.

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Broiled Chicken with Creamy Spinach

This was a quick and tasty weeknight entree that could be spiced up any number of ways. I used chipotle powder (available from Penzey’s), which is a wonderful way to add a little smoke and heat, but you could substitute any spice or even salsa.

I sprinkled 2 chicken breasts with the chipotle powder and salt, plus a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream. I broiled them for 5 minutes or so, until they had browned on top. Then I removed them from the oven, flipped them and poured over another ½ cup of cream. They went back into the oven to broil until done. (The chicken pieces were thick, so this took about 10 minutes, and I had to flip them another couple of times.) The cream got very bubbly and browned in spots as the chicken cooked.

When the chicken was done, I removed it from the pan and put it in the oven, now turned off, to keep warm. I scraped the cream into a pot, added ½ cup stock and a bunch of spinach leaves, washed and stemmed. I brought the mixture to a boil and cooked, stirring all the while, until the spinach wilted and the liquid thickened. Voila! Creamed spinach. Serve with the chicken and some crusty bread.

The idea for this dish came from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, although I didn’t follow his recipe exactly.

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New Year’s Eve Chocolate Souffle

Last night, my husband took over the kitchen for our New Year’s Eve dinner. He spent all of Wednesday making a vat of tomato sauce and used some of it yesterday to make baked pasta with sausage and mozzarella, his signature dish. (The rest we bagged and froze in case of a post-apocalyptic event.)

I put together a simple Italian-style salad to go with it: romaine, diced red onion, shaved Parmesan, capers and a creamy Italian-garlic vinaigrette. (Hint: To make any vinaigrette creamy, substitute 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream for some of the oil.) I got this nifty salad dressing mixing/storage bottle for Christmas that I was able to try out. You just put the ingredients in and use a pump handle to mix the dressing right before you pour it. Works really well. Here’s a picture of it.

We don’t eat dessert very often around these parts, so I like to make a dessert on holidays and special occasions. Yesterday I wanted something light and easy, so I tried a chocolate souffle recipe I clipped some time ago from the New York Times. It was designed to serve 2, which I like in dessert recipes because then there are no tempting leftovers; we only ended up eating about half of it, though, and this morning I am putting leftover whipped cream in my coffee — so much for that thought. Anyway, it was very light and easy, pretty much a chocolate mousse that you bake, perfect with some champagne after a heavy meal. Next time I will use the smaller ramekins for baking so as to achieve a more dramatic puffing effect. Here’s the recipe.

Chocolate Souffle

Time to make: ~1 hour

• two 2-cup or one 4-cup souffle dish
• butter and sugar for the dish
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate
• pinch salt
• ¼ tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbsp. sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter the souffle dish (or use butter-flavored Pam, like I did). Sprinkle the inside with sugar, then invert and tap the bottom to remove the excess.

Chop up the chocolate. Melt it over low or in a double boiler, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.

Separate the eggs. Set aside 1 tbsp. of sugar from the 1/3 cup. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until very light and thick. The mixture will fall from the beaters in a ribber when it is ready. Stir in the chocolate until well combined. Set aside.

Wash and dry the beaters. Beat the egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar until they hold soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining tablespoon of sugar while continuing to beat until very stiff and glossy. Stir a spoonful of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten in. Folk in the remaining whites using a rubber spatula. Transfer to the prepared souffle dishes. (Note: At this point, you can refrigerate, covered, for several hours, at which point you will have chocolate mousse.)

Bake until the center is nearly set, 20 minutes for individual ramekins and up to 35 minutes for a larger souffle dish. In the meantime, wash the beaters yet one more. Pour the whipping cream into a chilled bowl and beat until it holds soft peaks, adding the final tablespoon of sugar halfway through. Serve the souffles topped with some whipped cream.

Pasta with Pesto-Cream Sauce

This is one of my favorite types of recipes: very simple and super-fast to make, but elegant and satisfying on the plate. It also takes well to variations, which I also like. Instead of using traditional basil pesto, you could substitute other herbs, or even use sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, reconstituted dried mushrooms or anything that packs a flavor punch to offset the silky smoothness of the cream. Also, you don’t have to just use this sauce on pasta. I think it would be equally good on polenta, vegetables, maybe even fish.

Pesto-Cream Sauce

Serves: 2
Time to make: ~15 minutes

What you need:

• ¾ cup half-and-half
• 1 cup chicken stock
• ½ tbsp. cornstarch
• ¼ cup pesto
• 1 tbsp. butter
• salt and pepper
• grated Parmesan
• fresh basil
• blender

1. In a blender, mix the half-and-half, stock, cornstarch and pesto
2. Melt the butter over medium
3. Stir in the half-and-half mixture
4. Simmer 2 minutes or so, until the sauce has thickened and warmed through
5. Season and garnish with Parmesan and fresh basil
6. Serve over cooked pasta

Note: Adapted from a recipe in The Best 30-Minute Recipe.