Panza...whaaa?

At a July 4^th cookout a few years ago, I tried the most unique creation ever to hit my tastebuds...panzanella. Panzanella is Italian for bread salad.  I had heard Giada speak of this on an episode of her Food Network show, but at the time the combination of the words bread and salad sounded less than appetizing.  But, as with all generalizations in the English language, words don`t always refer to what we think they do.  Salads aren`t always a bowl of green leaves and bread doesn`t always refer to a baked loaf.  Panzanella uses bread (traditionally foccacia or French bread) that has been cut into cubed and toasted in a skillet or in the oven.  (Think: croutons) This is then thrown in a bowl with fresh summer vegetables and herbs and tossed in a vinaigrette.  Traditionally, it uses somewhat stale or old bread, but I think that part is pointless and doesn`t effect the texture much because it ends up being toasted any way. It`s the perfect side dish for a summer meal and it kills two birds with one stone in terms of meal components: vegetable and bread.  I listed two recipes today, one being the link to The Barefoot Contessa`s traditional Panzanella recipe that my Mom and I found and doctored up a bit.  We took away the capers and the cucumber, added freshly grated parmesan cheese, and increased the Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar.  The other is an original concoction: Dessert Panzanella with Lemon Curd Whipped Cream, using pound cake instead of bread.  (Might wanna spend a few extra hours in the gym for that one...) In terms of toasting methods, I found that toasting French bread in a skillet worked the best.  However, with the pound cake being so crumbly in the dessert version, I`d suggest using the oven. 

Panzanella: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/panzanella-recipe/index.html

*Nutritional Spotlight: Olive oil!  Most people know that olive oil has a positive effect on the body, but they don`t know why.  I`ve heard everything from “It`s a healthy oil and has fewer calories than butter” to “You can eat as much of it as you want and you won`t gain weight!”....WRONG. Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat.  The proven health claim is that this type of fat can lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol.  This is aka “bad cholesterol”. Butter is a saturated fat...the kind that raises your LDL and total cholesterol (BAD). The confusion sets in with calories.  Olive oil, although it is not a trans-fat or saturated fat, still contains a lot of calories per tablespoon, 120 to be exact.  This is just as many calories as canola oil has.  It`s also as many calories as butter contains (depends on the brand of butter, but usually 100-120 kcals/Tbsp). CALORIES are CALORIES...whether they contain a health benefit or not.  You gain weight from eating too many of them and in terms of weight, your body does not make the discrepancy between good calories and bad calories.  But in terms of the effect of good and bad calories on your health, that`s why I`m writing this blog. :-D

Dessert Panzanella with Lemon Curd Whipped Cream

3 cups cubed pound cake

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 cups fresh strawberries, quartered

1 stick melted butter (Yep, I know...just do it!!)

For the sauce:

½ c lemoncello

½ c creamy poppyseed dressing

1 Tbsp honey

juice from 1 lemon

For the whipped cream:

1 c heavy cream

1/4 c sugar

1 small jar lemon curd (found on the baking aisle)

1 chilled glass bowl 

Heat the oven to 375°

Arrange cubes of pound cake on a baking sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Toast in pre-heated oven until the cake pieces resemble croutons: a golden-brown and crispy. Remove and set aside to cool.

*TIP: Freezing the pound cake after it has been cubed and before it is toasted reduces the likelihood that it will crumble on you.

 In the chilled glass bowl, whip the cream and sugar together until the consistency is stiff and makes peaks when you lift the mixer out of the mixture (I`m lazy and use a mixer...you`ll break your arm if you use a whisk). In a separate bowl, empty the entire jar of lemon curd.  Beat the lemon curd until it reaches a creamy stage.  Gently fold the curd into the whipped cream so as not to deflate the cream.  Set in the fridge to chill.  

*NOTE: If you want to bypass having to whip the cream, combine 1 tub of thawed Cool Whip with 1 jar of lemon curd.  

Next, whisk together lemoncello, dressing, honey, and lemon juice until well combined.  Set aside.  In a large bowl combine berries and pound cake croutons.  Pour lemoncello sauce over the mixture and toss to coat.  Chill for 1-2 hours before serving to let the berries and cake marinate.  Lastly, serve with a dollop of the lemon curd whipped cream. 

*Nutritional Spotlight: ....Due to the high fat content of the pound cake and the high sugar content of the lemon curd, eat this in moderation :-)

Fat Replacements

When I was in undergrad, I had to take many classes of which I had both feelings of love and hatred for. One of them?  Experimental Food Science.  This class was kitchen fun and tedious torture all wrapped up into one.  Back then, I was neither tedious nor detailed with anything.  Hence, the hatred part....no one likes any situation that forces them out of their comfort zone, right? The purpose of this particular class was to experiment with different ingredients in recipes and observe the effects that they had on the overall outcome of the finished product.  It involved lots of weighing ingredients on scales, calibrating ovens, measuring heights at which products had risen, and taste-testing.  We observed the consistency of microwaveable puddings vs. cooked puddings, measured the height of a muffin cooked in the microwave (yes, you can do that) vs. one baked in the oven, and so on and so forth.  Despite asking my class partner to knock me out of my misery with her kitchen spatula, I actually walked away from this course having learned some very interesting things about cooking.  (Thanks, Dr. Cunningham!) One of them was how to successfully replace fat in a recipe.  Examples of this?  Pinto bean fudge, cookies made with mashed banana instead of butter, muffins made with flax seed mill instead of oil and last, but not least.....brownies made with spinach.  The favorite out of all these?  Definitely the fudge.  If you don`t believe me, then try it.  I don`t have the recipe we used in undergrad, but if you google “Pinto Bean Fudge”, you will find some quality recipes.

My kitchen lab partner and I spent hours and hours experimenting with the spinach-brownie recipe.  The final products turned out so-so.  The best combination we found was replacing only half the fat in a standard brownie recipe with pureed spinach.  Replacing all of it was just gross and the batter resembled something you would see in a baby`s diaper.  Vom.

Rather than share with you my hidden spinach brownie recipe that I cannot find and do not really wish to (we had to taste test so many that I never want to have one again!), I thought I would broaden your horizons with complimenting another blogger`s fat replacement recipe: http://www.hungry-girl.com/

Click on the link and search for “Yum Yum Brownie Muffins”

This simple recipe uses pureed pumpkin and had my good friend Delina not brought it to my attention, I never would have known it existed.  HG`s recipe produces a moist brownie with some hidden nutrition.  They are lower in fat (but not fat-free) and fewer calories for the size that they are.  Nutritional information is provided by Hungry Girl at the end of the recipe. Props to her...she is quite impressive!

WARNING: DO NOT taste the batter....

 

*Note: Pureed canned squash can also be used.

*Note #2: My favorite healthy fat replacement is milled flax seed.  Try Hodgson`s Mill brand and refer to the side of the box for directions.  It can be used to replace butter or oil in most any recipe and can also be used as an egg replacement!

Crazy for Crepes

While my stint in Mobile, AL was short (11 months) and not-so-sweet, I definitely left the city having made some wonderful memories with some really great people.  I made friends with a military couple stationed at NAS Pensacola and spent many a weekend at their house.  They were such a unique and talented pair in so many ways and one of the best things about them is their love for entertaining. Wade and Jackie are wonderful hosts and make anyone who enters their house feel like part of the family.  Wade (Commander Mikulla) is a navy pilot and can grille anything, smoke anything (food only, I mean), etc.  His wife, Jackie, is a radiology technician-turned-Super-Mom who is a fearless expert in the kitchen.  Neither of them let your wine glass go shallow or leave your coffee cup empty.  One of the best memories I have is waking up to brunch on Sunday mornings at their Florida home....crepes with fresh fruit, blueberry sauce, yogurt, and whipped cream, beef bacon, and english muffin-arugula-white cheddar-and egg sandwiches.  Now, I am a beanpole by choice and prefer to stay that way...BUT, I ended up gaining about 8 pounds last summer between staying at their house and then graduating school and going through the transition phase to real life (ugh).

So, when I moved away from Mobile and said goodbye to these lovely people, Jackie gave me her crepe recipe and I have made it over and over again for guests and family alike. Crepes are so versatile and can go either way: savory or sweet.  I have yet to try making any savory ones, but after trying some in Portugal...that is definitely on my cooking list. I have attached the recipe (and Jacks- I hope that is okay with you for me to share!!) for the crepes and also one for a blueberry sauce that I use which  is quite similar to hers. I also included my own recipe for a crepe suzette sauce and traditional crepe/cannoli cream.

Jacks and Wade...love you guys.


Jackie`s Crepes
1/3 c all purpose wheat flour
1/3 c all purpose white floud
3 eggs
1 1/4 c skim milk

Optional (but in my opinion necessary):
ground flaxseed mill
wheat germ
splash of vanilla
brown sugar

Combine all ingredients.  Batter should be very runny.  If too thick, add more milk.  Spray a non-stick frying pan (small) and heat over medium high.  Once pan is hot enough, pour about 1/4 c of batter into skillet. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. Cook the crepe until the bottom is light brown, then flip and do the same with the other side. (Usually about 30 to 45 seconds) Repeat with rest of batter and set each crepe aside to cool.  Serve with vanilla yogurt and fruit and top with blueberry sauce (see below).

*Variation 1: Crepes Suzette 

1 1/2 cups orange juice 
2 tablespoons honey 
2 teaspoons grated orange zest 
2 tablespoons triple sec

In a large skillet over high heat, bring the orange juice to a boil. Add the honey and zest, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the mixture is slightly reduced to a simple syrup consistency, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the alcohol. Serve warm over a warm, folded crepe.


*Variation 2: Traditional Crepe/Cannoli Filling 

1/2 c marscapone cheese
1/2 c ricotta cheese
1/3 c powdered sugar

Combine and serve as crepe or cannoli filling.



Breakfast Blueberry Sauce 
1/2 c white sugar
1 T cornstarch
1/3 c water
2 c frozen blueberries
1 t lemon zest
1 t lemon juice

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a 2 qt saucepan.  Gradually stir in water and dissolve starch/sugar.  Add blueberries and bring to a boil of medium heat while stirring constantly.  Boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and lemon juice.  Serve warm as topping for crepes, pancakes, waffles, or cheesecake.

• Nutrition tidbit- NEVER add lemon juice to any recipe that involves boiling water until the very end.  The vitamin C in lemon juice is a water-soluble vitamin and is therefore, easily lost when cooking with water.  It is also very heat-sensitive.  For this recipe, such a small amount of water and lemon juice is actually used so it`s not as crucial.  However, the nerd in me just thought I should share :). 
• Nutrition tidbit- Blueberries are an antioxidant-rich fruit (one of the best actually), particularly Vitamin C.  They also contain Vitamin A which itself is not considered an antioxidant; However, it`s precursor, Beta Carotene, is.