Sauteed Green Beans

I had a busy weekend of cooking... I'd like to share here a couple of the delicious things that I made :)

Sauteed Green Beans & Cherry Tomatoes

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/252123/sauteed-green-beans-cherry-tomatoes

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 pound green beans, trimmed
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes (I just grabbed a few from the garden - not nearly this many but it was still yummy!)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add green beans and cook, stirring often, until seared in spots, 2 to 3 minutes. Add water, cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes for tender-crisp or 6 minutes for tender. Push the beans to the side; add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, stir everything together and cook until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vinegar, salt and pepper.

Cottage Pie (that's Shepard's Pie that's made with beef!)

See also http://eatlikekat.blogspot.ca/2012/10/vegetarian-shepherds-pie-with-cheddar.html if you want a vegetarian dish instead..

But if you want a meaty version, this one was delish:

Based on http://www.rachaelray.com/recipes/seriously-flavorful-shepherds-pie-savory-beef-and-mushrooms-with-cheesy-mashed-parsnip-and-potatoes-on-top
If you have parsnips, then go for it and just follow the recipe above.  I didn't happen to have any so I did this instead (ie. I dropped a few other ingredients that I didn't happen to have):

Ingredients

• 6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into largish chunks
• Salt
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
• 1 pound mushrooms, crimini or button, quartered
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped thyme + 1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary (or whatever combination of herbs you happen to have/want to use)
• Coarse black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef sirloin (I might have had closer to a pound?)
• 1 large bay leaf
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 rounded tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• About 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup dry red wine or dark beer
• 2 cups beef stock (I used mushroom stock made from cubes since that is what I had)
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups shredded or crumbled very sharp white cheddar cheese (we only had a cup or so of the orange stuff, so that's what we used)

Directions

1. Place potatoes and parsnips in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and season with salt, cook to tender. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Heat a large Dutch oven or frying pan over medium-high heat with a couple tablespoons EVOO, 2 slow turns of the pan. Add mushrooms and brown completely. Season with thyme, salt and pepper and remove to a plate.
3. Add 1 turn of the pan EVOO to the pot and heat until it begins to smoke. Add meat and caramelize until deep brown. Remove to a plate and add remaining tablespoon oil, another turn of the pan. Add bay, vegetables and garlic, and reduce heat to medium. Cook 12-15 minutes, until tender, then sprinkle in flour. Cook a minute then stir in tomato paste and Worcestershire. Deglaze the pot with wine or beer and stir in stock. Add the mushrooms and beef back to the pan.  Reduce heat and let simmer to thicken and combine flavors. When ready to assemble casserole, remove bay leaf.
4. Drain and mash potatoes with milk and butter. Melt in cheese and season mash with salt and pepper.
5. Place meat/mushroom mixture in a large casserole dish and top with the potatoes. Bake 20 minutes or until brown.

Coconut-Mint Sorbet with Chocolate Freckles

I was looking for this recipe this morning and realized that it wasn't posted here.. this one comes from the super fantastic "Batchworks Sorbet" in Roberts Creek, BC (definitely worth a visit!)

Now that I read this over again, I see there are a few steps I haven't quite followed correctly in the past - on a couple of occasions, that has led to ice cream soup disaster, but on the whole whenever I make this it is incredibly delicious and well-loved!

Ultimately the best way to avoid disaster is to make sure everything is well-chilled before you try to do the churning step.  This means that it's better to make this at home than to try to transport your ingredients and ice cream maker to someone else's house - if the ice cream maker and/or the ingredients are above a certain critical temperature at the time of churning, then it will never work!  I will type up the original recipe here, not the shortcut version that has been mostly successful for me.

I also highly recommend chilling the serving bowls because this sorbet is best when it's fresh but it will start to melt quickly while you're trying to eat it, and so it is best to stall that process as much as possible.

Ingredients

3/4 c sugar
3/4 c water
400mL can of coconut milk
1/2 bunch fresh mint, chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 oz bittersweet dark chocolate

Directions

Step 0. (Optional Katie addition in case you want to take a shortcut later) - Give the can of coconut milk a good shake and put in the refrigerator to chill it. Leave it there until you need it later in this recipe.

Simple syrup mixture with mint added

1. Bring the sugar and water to boil in a medium saucepan. Boil for 2 minutes then add the fresh chopped mint. Cool completely. Chill in the fridge for 2-24 hours.
   
2. In a blender, add the coconut milk to the water/sugar/mint mixture.
3. Blend on high for 2 minutes. (optional: push through a strainer to remove chunks of mint - I've never bothered with this step). Add vanilla.
4. Chill mixture well (if you've pre-chilled your coconut milk, you can just carry on to step 5).
5. Put the mixture in an ice cream maker and churn as per directions.  Once the sorbet is churned, put in a suitable somewhat shallow container (recipe calls for a "rectangular shaped tub", but I use a flat-bottomed metal bowl) and place in the freezer to get the sorbet nice and cold. This will take about 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, over a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate. While the chocolate is still hot, drizzle it with a spoon in a thin line over top of the sorbet. Let it harden and then mix it in. Add enough drizzles until it is nicely freckled.



Freckling in progress..

7. Place the sorbet in a cold freezer for at least 30 minutes.  Cover the top with plastic wrap to prevent ice crystals from forming. Let stand at room temperature 10 minutes before serving.

mmm... time to get my mint mixture made so we can feast tonight!

Cobbler!

I've never made cobbler before, but I wanted a quick to prepare, summery, baked, delicious dessert and it seemed like it might fit the bill...

I started with http://allrecipes.com/recipe/51535/fresh-southern-peach-cobbler/, but made a few minor tweaks...

Ingredients

Fruit part

8 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges  - I didn't bother to peel them and I only had three peaches so I added 2 apricots and a bunch of blueberries (510g in fact)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar  - I used less... more like 1/8 cup.  You could reduce the white sugar too.
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch 

Cobbler part

This isn't exactly how I made it, but it is what I'd try if I did it again...
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup boiling water

 Cinnamon Sugar for the Top

I happened to have some cinnamon sugar already on hand - I don't think I used more than about a tablespoon in total - here's what the original recipe says:
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine everything in the "fruit part" list.  Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a large pyrex baking dish (I used the big rectangular one). Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients from the cobbler part.  Blend in butter with a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined (it should still be quite crumbly, but without powdery flour left loose).
4. Remove peaches from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. I formed little mounds on the spoon (trying not to handle the topping too much) then plunked them on top.  
5. Sprinkle entire cobbler with your desired quantity of the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes.

Enjoy warm with ice cream!