Archive for the ‘Savory Main Dishes’ Category
One of my favorite food memories from my trip to Paris a few months ago was going out late at night near the Eiffel Tower and queuing up with a bunch of other people to get freshly made crepes, then sitting in the park enjoying the lights of the tower while eating. The crepes were so good that the first night I had one, I ate it just after crossing the street away from the crepe stand, then turned back around and ordered another. They were that good. At home, I usually make crepes for breakfast and fill them with jam. The street crepes, while sweet options were available, were most popular in their savory incarnations. I liked the ham, cheese and egg crepes best.
I was glad that I had the opportunity to watch the crepes being made because the process was a little different than you might expect. I fully anticipated that the fillings would be added after the crepe was cooked. Instead, they were cooked right on the crepe itself – even the egg! A few practice runs and home with my own crepes, and I now I have a method that seems to come out almost as well as the crepes I had in France. The French crepes will always have the late-night Eiffel Tower advantage over mine, however.
To make these crepes, you need a large frying pan, preferably one that’s about 12-inches across. A crepe pan is not necessary unless you’re going into the crepe business. You could make smaller crepes, but you might have to compromise on how you fold it to get all the filling it. It’ll still taste good, however. I used deli sliced ham and havarti cheese for these. Turkey meat is good, too, if you’re not a fan of ham, even though the saltiness of the ham really goes well with the egg and cheese. Havarti and Swiss are my two favorite cheeses for these, but feel free to use your favorite sliced or shredded cheese. The amounts given below are just suggestions, as I tend to eyeball the amount of cheese I’m using. No matter how you tweak the filling, you’ll end up with a great-tasting crepe. The batter can me made in advance and will keep well in the fridge for about 2 days, as long as you give it a stir before using.
I don’t usually provide step-by-step photos for recipes, but in an effort to recapture even a hint of the experience of watching a pro make crepes, I’ve photographed all the steps to go along with this recipe.
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When I was a kid, macaroni and cheese was one of my favorite dinners. I suspect that there are lots of former kids out there who would say the exact same thing. Everyone has a different “type” of macaroni and cheese that they favor. I know some people who like it go be gooey, with strings of melted cheese coming off of every forkful. I know some people who like the boxed stuff, neon food coloring and all. Personally, I prefered – and still prefer – the kind of macaroni and cheese that was saucy, not gooey, with a good cheese flavor, like Stouffer’s frozen mac n’ cheese.
The only thing that I would change about the frozen type I used to scarf down would be to add a crispy topping to provide some additional contrast to the dish. I haven’t seen a frozen version that does such a thing, but my homemade macaroni and cheese certainly does. This baked macaroni and cheese is a variation on one of Mark Bittman’s recipes from the book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It starts with a roux (a mixture of butter and flour) that is used to thicken some milk. I add lots of grated, sharp cheddar cheese to that milk mixture before adding partially-cooked pasta. I rarely have macaroni on hand, so I tend to use cavatappi as a substitute and think that any tube-like pasta works well. I also add in some Parmesan cheese for flavor.
The finished macaroni and cheese is not quite as creamy as the kind I loved as a kid, but it has great flavor to it and I love the crispy topping. Fresh bread crumbs make the best top layer, but crispy panko breadcrumbs will work if you’re looking for more of an actual crunch. As for cheeses, sharp cheddar is always a favorite of mine, although mixes of cheese work well in this recipe, too. If you’re looking for something that is really gooey, try a blend of shredded cheeses that includes a really melty cheese, like swiss or a little mozzarella.
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Croque monsieur is (essentially, but perhaps not officially) french for “grilled ham and cheese sandwich.” It’s a very popular sandwich that has been around for just about a century, having first appeared on a restaurant menu around 1910. Gooey cheese, salty ham and buttered, toasted bread makes a great combination. It’s so popular that there are now lots of different variations on “le croque,” changing up the type of bread used, the amount or type of meat and adding extra ingredients to the basic recipe. The basic recipe consists of ham and cheese toasted in between two slices of bread, and the whole thing is usually topped with another layer of cheese that is melted/broiled on. The Croque Madame is a very simple variation on the original and adds either a fried or poached egg to the top of the sandwich, usually replacing some of that final layer of cheese.
These sandwiches are meant to be a lighter meal or snack, not as heavy as a full dinner, and are quite popular as a fast food-type option. While you could pile one of these up with sliced ham to make the sandwich a bit heartier, I prefer to keep it a little on the lighter side and use just a slice or two of ham in the middle. This seems – as far as I can tell – to be a little more in keeping with the “traditional” French way of making the sandwich, since the sandwich is usually sold quite inexpensively and with only a slice or two of ham inside.
Cheese, on the other hand, is never in short supply in french cooking and even though I didn’t use too much on this sandwich, you can feel free to pile it on if you want more. It’s pretty traditional to use a cheese like gruyère, but any easily melted cheese is a good choice for this sandwich. I like havarti and will have it on its own or combine it with gruyère for my sandwiches.
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Chicken pot pie is comfort food, no doubt about it. As with all types of comfort food, everyone has their own way of making it – and there are tons of freezer-read options available that try and entice people not to make it themselves. Chicken pot pie is definitely worth making at home because it is so much better than the frozen pies you can buy and you can always customize it to suit your own tastes.
For me, chicken pot pie should be kind of like a very hearty, creamy chicken soup that happens to be in pie form. I don’t want it to be so thick that it slices like custard; my pie needs to be scooped out of the pie dish. I also don’t want the crust to overwhelm the pie; I use only a single top crust to cover my filling. Elise has an excellent chicken pot pie recipe, and I base my pie off of hers. The biggest change I make from her recipe is that I usually start with a rotisserie chicken and shred up the already cooked meat, rather than starting with raw chicken and making the stock for the pie myself. It’s very convenient this way, and it is a great use for leftover chicken if you have a lot to use up. I often go out and buy a chicken from the market right before I make a pot pie because I like a lot of chicken in mine and don’t usually have that much laying around as leftovers when I cook chicken at home!
My “secret” to pot pie is to use homemade pie crust for the top. It always comes out flaky and crispy, and it really doesn’t take very long to make it. I usually mix up the dough, chill it for only a few minutes while I cook the filling, and then roll it out before the pie goes into the oven. That said, it’s not necessary to use homemade pie dough. A sheet of puff pastry works well as a topper for this dish, too.
The filling for this pie is rich and creamy, with a consistency like a medium-thick gravy (thicker than I make gravy, thinner than the gravy you’ll find at your average diner). Its subtly spiced with thyme, which leaves lots of room for the flavor of the chicken to come out and shine. This recipe makes enough to fill up a deep dish pie plate and will definitely overfill a smaller one. You can use a casserole dish if you don’t have a smaller pie dish. If you must use a smaller pie plate, put the leftover filling into a ramekin, top with its own piece of puff pastry, and bake it off, too.
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Crustless Quiche is one of my favorite easy dinner dishes to make. Quiche doesn’t sound like it would be a quick-fix dish at any time, but this quiche doesn’t use a traditional pastry crust, which really cuts down on the prep time. Instead, the quiche filling includes some all purpose flour and baking powder, in addition to eggs, milk and other standard quiche ingredients. In the oven, the filling separates into a very thin crust layer and a tender egg/custard layer. The crust provides just enough stability to make the quiche easy to slice and give the dish some texture, but it doesn’t add any of the extra fat or calories that the traditional pastry crust has.
From start to finish, it takes very little time to throw this recipe together and, like most quiches, you can use just about any kind of vegetables or cheese that you like. It’s very easy to make these vegetarian, but I used a combination of sausage and mushrooms in this quiche. The sausage, mushrooms and any other vegetables need to be cooked beforehand on the stove, since the oven cooking time is relatively short.
I used Chicken Chipotle sausage (I get them at Trader Joe’s) in my batch, but you can use any type of sausage that you like. Since the chipotle adds a lot of spice – and I tend to like spicy sausages in general – I kept the additional peppery spices to a minimum in the recipe. If your sausages are mild, add in some more pepper, or even some red pepper flakes to jazz things up a bit.
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