Cauliflower Gratin

I just have a minute, so I'll share a quick side dish with you.

Cauliflower Gratin was something I grew up eating. I loveeee cauliflower, and this is one of my favorite dishes. It's pure melt-in-your-mouth cheesy goodness. It's sort of like au gratin potatoes, except cauliflower.

Credit of this recipe goes to mi Madre. I know I poked fun of her pork steaks, but this cancels that out...Right?

Yum yum.

Cauliflower Gratin

(Printable Version)

What you'll need:
1 head of cauliflower
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
8 oz swiss cheese

First, trim the cauliflower into bite sized pieces.

In a saucepan, melt butter on medium-high heat.

Add the flour to the melted butter, and whisk until combined.

It will be kind of lumpy. This is called a roux--it's a thickener. You can add a roux to any sauce to thicken it.

Side Topic: Roux
To make a thickened sauce from a roux, melt the butter, then add the flour, then the liquid. It's always equal parts butter to flour (1 tablespoon of butter--1 tablespoon of flour.)

If you're thickening an already made sauce (or soup), melt the butter and add the flour. Then add some (a cup at a time) of the already made sauce (or soup) liquid to the roux. Whisk it until liquidy and smooth (not lumpy). When the roux is thick, but smooth, then add it to the sauce (or soup). Then, bring it to a boil. It thickens at a boil--so don't forget this step.

I'll have more on this in a later post, I promise. Maybe I'll do a How To post.

End Side Topic.

Slowly, SLOWLY, add the milk--stirring to incorporate. I cannot emphasize slowly enough, this prevents lumps.

See. Thick. Lump Free. Looks like gravy.
Add your salt and pepper, and garlic powder.

You just made what our grandma's call a "white sauce".

Pour this white sauce over the cauliflower in a 9x9 baking dish. Mix it in and make sure the cauliflower is saturated with sauce.

Then, grate your cheese.

My favorite step, clearly.

Cover the cauliflower with the cheeeeeeeese.

Stick it in the oven at 350˚ F for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden and the cauliflower is tender.

See. Yum.

Serve it with your favorite meal to make it even more delicious.

Chicken & Asparagus Crepes

I know I told you I'd have this recipe for you yesterday, but it was such a gorgeous day--one of the first one's we've had this season, and I just couldn't have myself sitting at home indoors. Sorry!


I tried something new yesterday.

I went to Zumba class.
Zumba is a dance fitness workout.
Oh boy, oh boy!! Is it ever funnnnnnnnn!!!

Now, I'm not a huge workout buff--and I definitely cannot dance. I am very long limbed, and clumsy as all get out--but Zumba was fun. And I sweated. Boy did I ever. It was a great, great, fantastic workout.

Afterwards, I didn't feel exhausted like I normally would after sweating that much, I felt incredibly energized.
Have you tried Zumba?
You should.
My friend got me a Groupon in our area for Zumba--TRY it! It's FANTASTIC.


Annnyywhooooo, back to these delicious Crepes.

Deliciousness wrapped in a perfect pancake-omelet.

**I must post a disclaimer: As I said in the last post, my camera was a little wonky during crepe-time--so these pictures may be a little funky. Also, I am not an excellent editor. But please, please don't let un-delicious looking pictures distract you from the deliciousness that this meal truly was. We all have our moments**

These ended up being very similar to enchiladas (in the step-by-step, not the ingredients or flavor.) You fill them, you roll them, you bake them, and you cover them with sauce. See the similarity?

Let me tell you something, though: These were better than enchiladas.
I am a huge enchilada lover, myself--and these were better. Why am I even talking about enchiladas?
These crepes, they are not enchiladas.
They are cheesy-chickeny-herby goodness, wrapped in a sort of pancake, sort of omelet, then smothered again in creamy, cheesy, goodness.

Um, yes please.

And now, I share with you--the secret of these heavenly bites...

Chicken & Asparagus Crepes

(Printable Version)
Adapted from here.
What is required:
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups shredded chicken
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (such as dill, parsley, mint, or chives), or...
      1 teaspoon of each dried herbs (I used thyme, parsley, and dill)
salt & pepper, of course
1 teaspoon garlic powder
8 crepes (recipe here)
1 shallot, chopped
1/2 pound asparagus
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup half & half, milk, or cream (whatever you have)
1 teaspoon lemon zest

First, shred the chicken into a medium bowl.

I just used 2 leftover chicken breasts leftover from the night before. You can do the same, or just boil and shred some or you can use rotisserie chicken.

Then add the ricotta.

Yep, that's ricotta--not ice cream.

Then grate some Parmesan...

My favorite part of grating cheese in when you do allll that work grating, then you finally get to lift the grater up, and you have a nice big cheese pile.

Add the Parmesan, herbs, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper to the chicken mixture.

Mix it. Mix it good. Mix it....Mix it reeeeaaal good.

Next, you'll need a 9x13 baking dish, lightly sprayed.

In the dish, lay out 1 crepe, and spread a little of the chicken mixture on it.

Roll it up, and push it to the end.

Do it again....

And again.

Until all 8 crepes are rolled.

See, looks like enchiladas.

Stick this in a oven that's been preheated to 425˚ F.
No need to cover it. It will only be in there about 15 minutes--while we make the sauce.

For the sauce:

Chop up a shallot or 2 (I used 2, mine were small.)
Do you know what a shallot is?
A shallot is like an onion--but it has a much milder, sweeter flavor.

These are shallots:

But wait...Aren't those onions?

Nope--they're shallots. They're mini.
See:

Anywhooo, chop them up--just like you would an onion (be careful though, they're small.)


Then, get your asparagus ready.

First, cut the ends off (not the end shown in the picture--the other end....Someone in school cut off the end in the picture--oy.) You want to cut the dry parts off the end--they are just that, dry, and not good to eat.

To know where to cut, bend the asparagus gently.

It will bend naturally near the end...

Then bend a little harder...

And it will break naturally where it should be cut.

You don't have to do this to all of them, just one. Then you can chop the ends off the other ones about the same distance up as where the one broke.

*Can I just say that I'm mortified by my nails in these pictures. Please don't judge me by these pictures. Some people like chipped nails--like my old college roommate (Hi Mouch!). I; however, do not like chipped nails, and I can assure you that the problem has been addressed and the nails have since been properly manicured.*

Back to it, back to it...

Heat a skillet on medium-high heat.
Add 1 tablespoon of oil or butter..
Then add the shallots.

Cook for about 1 minute, then add the asparagus.


Add the broth..

Then add the cream, salt, and pepper, and lemon zest.
Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, to thicken a bit.

Remove the crepes from the oven--serve with sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
YUM.

See! So easy!



I'm off to start my weekend...It's another gorgeous day--maybe I can convince the Boo to take the pup and I to the park...

Do you have any big weekend plans? Anything exciting happening in your neck of the woods?


soooon.

Enjoy!

Pancake Omelets...Errr, Crepes.

I had been missing out on the deliciousness that is a crepe for the first 22 1/2 years of my life.

I had my first crepe experience when the iHOP came to town. (Don't get me wrong, I had eaten at an iHOP before, they had plenty of them in Michigan--but when the first iHOP came to Louisville, people went CRAZY for it.)

So, although I hadn't been missing out on iHOP, I had; however, been missing out on crepe-ness.

The idea of this pancake thing, which is kind-of like an omelet too...kind of like a pancake omelet...a pancake omelet that can be filled with delicious pastry cremes and syrupy fruit with whipped cream and goodness... or that can be filled with melty cheddar, and salty ham, and topped with a sinful hollandaise and some grilled veggies..... That idea... it's ridiculous.

Ridiculously fantastic.
And ridiculously easy.  Ya dig?


Follow me here...

Basic Crepes

(Printable Version)
All you need for these delicious pieces of heaven is:
1 cup of all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Measure milk...

Flour..

And water.

Get 2 eggs...

Add it all to a bowl:

Add 1/4 teaspoon on salt...

Then add 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

Mix it all together.

It should be a thin batter.
If it's not, then you messed up.


Next, heat a small non-stick saute pan on medium-high heat. Lightly spray the pan with cooking spray.
Once the pan is hot, ladle some batter into the pan.

Swirl the pan around to spread the batter evenly on the bottom of the pan.

Allow the batter to swirl a little bit onto the side of the pan. This will make it easier to flip later.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes on the first side
Start to loosen the edges of the crepe with a spatula...

Shake the pan a bit to loosen the rest of the crepe, if it releases evenly from the pan, it's ready to flip.

To flip the crepe, hold the pan in one hand push it away from your body, then quickly pull back to your body.

I had to call the Boo in to help photograph the flipping.

Let me just tell you, it's hard to take pictures while demonstrating cooking. Weird, twisted, angles and limbs occur frequently. This recipe was particularly hard because the batteries in my flash were dying, so it took about a minute for the flash to charge again. Half of my pictures turned out completely black. Oy

Okay. Rant over.
After the Boo took his picture, I decided to give it a go myself, you know, so you could see it from my perspective.

Not bad, right? I was proud.

Phew. The hard part is done.
Now, just let the crepe cook for another 2 minutes on the second side, until its just a little bit brown.

Flip it out of the pan and get started on the next!

This recipe will make about 8 crepes.


Mmmm....

You can serve these as dessert crepes--with whipped cream, powdered sugar, and fresh fruit.
Or you can stuff them with chicken, and sprinkle cheese on them with fresh vegetables.

Delicious. Versatile. Crepes.

Don't fret, I'll have a delicious recipe to use the crepes with tomorrow!