One of our favorite (and hence, most used) tools in the kitchen is the immersion blender.  You may have heard people call this a “boat motor” or a blender on a stick.  They are perfect for one-pot soups, purees and vinaigrette.  This is the perfect tool for all of that heavy duty holiday cooking coming soon!

Well, we say it’s the best use for a pumpkin.  Jack o’lanterns exempt, that is.

This recipe came to us by way of one of our favorite writers.  It is so different.  It is so easy.  And most importantly, it is so delicious!

Swiss Pumpkin

1 small pumpkin
1 baguette, sliced into rounds
1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss Cheese
2 eggs
1 cup milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Cut off the top of your small pumpkin.  Hollow the center (seeds & strings).  Layer in sliced baguette and cheese, filling almost to the top.  Whisk together eggs, milk and seasoning.  Pour over bread and cheese.  Replace the “lid” of your pumpkin.  Place pumpkin into a shallow baking dish.  Bake at 375 degrees for 2 hours.
Allow to cool slightly.  When serving, be sure to scoop some of the pumpkin with the bread mixture.

This delicious recipe yields a super moist and filling snack, breakfast or running-out-the-door meal.

Zucchini Bread

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done

It’s too bad that some produce doesn’t come with a manual.   Having dinner at a friend’s house, I noticed that one of the offered items was roasted fall squash.  My host painstakingly peeled, seeded and roasted it, but when it hit my plate, I noticed that it had a stringy consistency.  I asked a few questions and figured out that he had cooked a spaghetti squash.

Here’s what he should have done:

Cut squash in half.  Remove seeds.  Oil and season the cut side.  Place cut-side-down on a baking sheet.  Roast until tender.  Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.  Drag a fork through the pulp to remove.  Your squash will have a “spaghetti”-like consistency.

I just love it when I’m transferring hot stock or sauce over to a pan and it drizzles all over my stove top.  Don’t you?

If the answer is “Not one bit!”, we have the solution.  Dip your ladle into the liquid, draw it up and hold the ladle above the liquid until it stops dripping.  Then dip the bottom of the ladle back into the stock.  You can now proceed to transferring your liquid drip-free.

Knife Skills

We’ve all been guilty of giving our knives preferential treatment.  It seems as though the hand just naturally goes to the chef knife for the big jobs.  But if you want the right tool for the job, you may want to look to the outcast, the bread knife.  As much as the name indicates, a “bread” knife is for so much more than just the rare occasion you may buy unsliced bread, make your own bread or make croutons.  Here are some ways we have found to use this surprisingly multipurpose piece of cutlery.

-Slivering block chocolate
-Slicing hard cheeses*
-Cutting tomatoes
-Cleaning artichokes
-Prepping hard squash

*When slicing cheese it is not necessary to saw through it; rather, hold both ends and apply gentle pressure to slice evenly through block cheeses.

Whatever you do:  Do not use a serrated knife to cut an onion.  It will only make you cry…

Coming to a kitchen near you:  Yet another thing that we chefs use the French name for to make it sound more complicated than it really is.

Sous Vide, which translates to “under vacuum”, is a cooking method that a lot of professional culinarians are experimenting with.  The process involves vacuum sealing food in airtight bags and then immersing the bags into low temperature water for long periods of time.  Don’t know where to start? Help is on the way!  Famed chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se has put together a “how to” called Under Pressure full of step-by-step instructions for professionals and those of you who just like to explore a little.  Home versions of the thermocirculators (machines that regulate your water temperature) used in pro kitchens are also going on the market post haste.  It seems like this is a trend that won’t be going anywhere soon. So, if you aren’t running out to buy a Foodsaver and a thermocirculator, at least you’ll be hip to the lingo when your restaurant server tells you that the fish of the day has been prepared “Sous Vide”.

Clean Kitchen

Scientists report that 15% of all households have a sponge infected with Salmonella.  To keep your dish sponges and brushes clean and germ free, toss them into the dishwasher on the top rack.  Run your machine on a setting with a drying cycle.  This will kill 99.9998% of bacteria, yeast and mold. 

If you are planning on participating in a marathon (running, reality t.v. or otherwise), you’ll need your energy.  This is a carbo-rrific recipe to give you the fuel you need.  It’s a bit of a project, but so worth the work to yield pillowy nuggets of potato pasta goodness.

Potato Gnocchi

3 pounds russet potatoes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg, extra large

kosher salt, to taste

Boil or bake potatoes whole until they are soft*.  Peel and pass through a potato ricer or just extract potato from peel with a fork.  Allow potato to rest on a cutting board until all the unwanted moisture has steamed out.  Form your potatoes into a well (this will look like a volcano).  Sprinkle all the flour all over the top.  Place the egg in the well.  With a fork, stir the egg and some of the surrounding flour and potato together.  Slowly incorporate the rest of the potato and flour until your dough becomes smooth.  Knead for about 4 minutes.  Put on a pot of salted water to boil.  Divide your dough into 4.  Roll one portion of dough into a long rope.  With a sharp knife, cut this rope into 1-inch sections.  To shape these pieces, roll down the back side of a fork’s tines, pressing lightly with your thumb so that you make a slight indentation.  This will leave you with a concave side and a side with ridges (see picture above).  Continue until you have worked through all the dough.  Drop batches of the gnocchi into boiling water and cook until they float to the top.  Transfer to a bowl of ice water; once chilled move to a dish and drizzle with oil to hold.

These gnocchi can be served with any number of sauces, but we like ours simply browned in butter to enjoy as a side dish.

*The bake/boil controversy is almost as age-old as the great toilet paper debate.  We bake our potatoes.

Food for Thought

If you are having a hard time getting to sleep, you could try a warm cup of milk or some “sleepy-time” tea.  But, would you consider the banana instead?

In addition to melatonin and serotonin (so soothing), bananas are known to also contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.  Other foods that will help you snooze are honey, whole wheat bread and oatmeal.  Honey and banana on whole wheat oat bread?  Rip Van Winkle won’t have nothin’ on you!