Cipollini Onion Tart

Remember earlier this week when I said that the squash chowder was my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner? That was a total lie. This tart was, by far, my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner, but I couldn't post the recipe until today because it's not on the Williams Sonoma website. My poor mother actually had to scan her Williams Sonoma Thanksgiving recipe booklet and email it to me. Yay technology.

My mom also says that cippolini onions are expensive, but I saw them at the farmer's market on Saturday for $2 a pound, seriously. And since they were the most amazing thing that has ever been a part of our Thanksgiving dinner, they might be popping up in my own dishes in the near future...

Cipollini Onion Tart

INGREDIENTS:
For the dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6-7 tbsp ice water, or as needed

For the filling:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 lb cipollini onions, peeled and ends trimmed
1/4 cup cabernet sauvingon

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl and pulse to blend. Add the butter and pulse. Add the water a little at a time and pulse until the dough just begins to come together in a rough mass.
2. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll into a 13-inch disk, about 1/4" thick. Fold over the edges of the dough, about 1" around, and crimp to seal. Transfer to baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat an oven to 375°F.
4. To make the filling, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add salt and combine, then add onions. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring frquently, until carmelized on all sides.
5. Add the wine and reduce until syrupy, about 6-8 minutes.
6. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 10 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and place the dough on top of the onions. Prick the surface to let air escape.
8. Return the pan to the oven and bake until crust is golden brown, about 35 minutes.
9. Remove the pan from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Place a serving platter upside down on top of the pan and turn both upside down together. Lift off the pan, leaving the onion tart on the serving dish. Serve immediately!

Serves 4-6 (or one very hungry Katy, who could probably eat this whole thing by herself).

Dumplings

When I was in China this summer, I tried to eat dumplings every day. Dumplings are one of my favorite foods in the US, so the opportunity to eat vastly superior ones in China was not to be squandered. My favorites of the whole trip were actually from a place right below the hotel I stayed at in Beijing, steamed vegetable dumplings with an almost-clear, thick doughy skin. In Shanghai, I ate xiao long bao for days in a row, despite the fact that I am 99% a vegetarian, before I caved and finally headed to Shanghai's phenomenal european restaurants, solely because of their much-needed air conditioning.

I didn't expect these dumplings to rival my memories of China (a nearly impossible feat), but they were really, really good. Plus, it's so fun to make them myself, which adds a level of satisfaction that you can never get by eating something that's been prepared for you. I will definitely be making these again. And, who knows, maybe as I get more experience, I'll be able to recreate the dumplings I loved in Beijing!

One word of advice, though. The sesame oil in this recipe is crucial. It gives the dumplings such an authentic asian flavor, and makes your whole kitchen smell delicious. I very much discourage substituting any other type of oil, they just wouldn't be nearly as good.

Mushroom Dumplings

INGREDIENTS:
10 oz baby bella mushrooms, minced
1 medium white onion, minced
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
24 wonton wrappers

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a medium saute pan, saute onion in sesame oil, until onion is translucent.
2. Add mushrooms to onion and saute until browned and softened.
3. Lay out wonton wrappers on a cutting board. Place 2 tsp of mushroom mixture in the center of each wrapper, and wet edges with water. Fold into a triangle and press edges to seal.
4. Line a steamer basket (metal or bamboo) with wax paper, and place dumplings in the basket. Steam for 3-4 minutes, or until dumplings are warmed through.

Serves 3-4.

Mushroom Canapés

Mushrooms are the craziest little things. In a package or loose, they seem so dry, but stick them in a saute pan for a few minutes and suddenly they're moist and delicious! The same thing happens when you chop them up in a food processor. I thought I would need to add more sour cream to bind the mushrooms together, but those crazy little mushrooms handled it on their own.

I could happily eat this on toasted french bread every single night. It would be delicious warm, too -- just assemble the canapés and toast them on a low setting for 5 minutes. YUM!

Mushroom Canapés

INGREDIENTS:

8 ounce box of cremini mushrooms (portabella or white mushrooms would also both work)

1 large clove of garlic

1 tablespoon fat free sour cream

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish

1 tsp parsley, finely diced

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

10 slices of portugese or french bread

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse mushrooms briefly under cold water to remove dirt.

2. Place mushrooms and garlic into a food processor, breaking any large mushroom in to pieces. Pulse until mushrooms are finely chopped.

3. Add sour cream, parsley, parmesan, salt and pepper. Process until blended.

4. Spoon mushroom mixture onto slices of bread. Garnish with extra parmesan cheese, and serve.

Serves 4.

Almost-Bruschetta

I'm not sure you can call this bruschetta, since it doesn't have garlic or basil, but it's delicious. It's more of a warm tomato salad, on top of bread slices. Very tasty, and incredibly easy to make.

Almost-Bruschetta

INGREDIENTS:
8 plum tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp coarse sea salt (I used pink sea salt, but plain is fine)
Pinch of pepper
12 sourdough bread slices, 1/2" thickness

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat broiler to 500 degrees.
2. Dice the tomatoes into small pieces.
3. In a small bowl, mix tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
4. Top bread slices with about 2 tbsp tomato mixture per slice, and place on baking tray.
5. Broil for 5 minutes, or until tops of tomatoes are slightly charred. Serve.

Serves 3-4.

Roasted Garlic Spread

Why can't you order this as an appetizer in restaurants? It's so simple and delicious. And good for you! The only downside is that you will definitely have garlic oozing out of your pores the next day...

Roasted Garlic Spread

INGREDIENTS:
1 head of garlic
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of coarse sea salt
6-7 baguette slices

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice off the top of the garlic head, leaving each clove slightly exposed.
3. Drizzle garlic with 1 tsp olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.
4. Wrap garlic in tin foil, and roast for 35 minutes.
5. Remove garlic from oven, pick cloves out of their shells, and place them in a small bowl.
6. Mash cloves with a fork, and spread on baguette slices. Drizzle with olive oil, and serve.

Serves 2-3.

Butternut Squash Toasts

This should have been the first recipe I put up. Every single time I make it, someone asks me for the recipe. Which ends up being embarrassing, because I have to admit that it's basically the simplest, easiest thing in the world.

At the beginning of the summer, I was in the grocery store shopping for ingredients for a dinner party, and I realized that all I had as appetizers was cheese, bread, and nuts. I wanted something a little more special that required very little extra work. So, I thought I'd make an extra dip. And what better base to use than butternut squash? It's incredibly healthy, and one of my absolute favorite vegetables. The recipe has now evolved into a spead for appetizer toasts, but you could also serve the dip alone.

You could use fresh squash in this recipe, but it would be a huge hassle without much added benefit (plus, it would require a decent food processor, which I have but hate to use because it's a pain to clean). Frozen squash tastes great, and since it's frozen at the peak of freshness, it's often actually more nutritious than the fresh foods you buy in the grocery store, which may have been in transit for days or weeks. Unfortunately, frozen butternut squash is only available as a puree, so it's fine for soups and dips, but if you want roasted squash, you need to use fresh.

It's also fat free! So you don't even have to feel guilty if your guests go home and you polish off the leftovers...

Butternut Squash Toasts

INGREDIENTS:
4 multigrain rolls*
10 oz box of frozen butternut squash
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 tsp salt (use regular salt, not sea salt, for this recipe, otherwise it can be grainy)
Pinch of ground pepper
1-2 Radicchio leaves

DIRECTIONS:
1. Microwave squash for approximately 5 minutes, stirring once
2. Spoon squash into a mixing bowl, add sour cream, salt and pepper
3. Slice each roll into slices approximately 1/4" thich and toast on "light" setting (this should create about 20 slices)
4. Finely dice radicchio leaves as small as you can -- 1/8" at largest
5. Spread one heaping tablespoon of squash spread onto each toast, garnish with radicchio, and serve.

*You want the kind where you can see all the grains and seeds in the bread -- they're worth going to a bakery for if they're not available in your grocery store. But, if you don't feel like it, baguette slices would be fine too.

You could also serve just the squash portion as a stand-alone dip. It goes well with pretzels, bread slices, or carrots and sliced peppers.

Mushroom and Carmelized Onion Tart

This is another deceptively easy recipe, and I love that it isn't quite as delicate looking as the Asparagus Tart. You can drop the goat cheese on top of the tart in clumps, or you could saute it in with the mushrooms and onions. Either way, the flavor is so intense it just bursts in your mouth.

Mushroom and Carmelized Onion Tart

INGREDIENTS:
Flour, for rolling the puff pastry
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 large white onions, sliced into wedges
1 pound button mushrooms
Coarse sea salt
3 oz goat cheese (I used Chavrie Basil and Roasted Garlic Goat's Milk Cheese)


DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle. Trim uneven edges. and place the pastry onto a baking sheet.
3. Using a fork, prick the dough at 1/2-inch intervals. Do not prick the border of the dough, approximately 1" from the edges.
4. Pre-bake the crust for about 15 minutes.
5. While the crust is baking, heat a pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute onions and garlic on medium heat until translucent and browned, stirring every minute or so (about 25 minutes total). Add mushrooms and sea salt, saute an additional ten minutes, or until mushrooms have lost their raw quality.
6. Pour mushroom and onion mixture onto prebaked tart, and drop dollops of goat cheese at approximately 3 inch intervals.
7. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, allow to cool, and serve.

Asparagus Gruyere Tart

This is such a beautiful recipe. And delicious, too! Blanching the asparagus is important, because you don't want the edges of the tart to burn in order to get the asparagus fully cooked!

Also, an easy trick to grate cheese (particularly hard cheese like parmesan and gruyere) is to use your zester. When I was growing up, my mother had an larger cheese grater that she used to use, but the zester works just as well. If you keep rubbing back and forth without breaking contact with the cheese, you end up with beautiful long ribbons of gruyere. In this recipe, that didn't matter too much, but if you were using it to top a salad, it would be really lovely.

Finally, a word of wisdom: This recipe calls for puff pastry. That's not the same thing as phyllo dough. Phyllo dough is impossible to work with, has to be defrosted overnight before you even touch it, and requires a lot of extra egg/butter/olive oil to bind the sheets together. Puff pastry, on the other hand, can be bought pre-made in the grocery store (I used Pepperidge Farm), defrosted at room temperature for 45 minutes, and then rolled into the appropriate size. It's incredible easy. Some of you might be wondering if *I* might have accidentally bought phyllo dough the first time I tried to make this recipe. I'm going to plead the fifth...

Asparagus Gruyere Tart

INGREDIENTS:
Flour, for rolling the puff pastry
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 pound asparagus
Coarse sea salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle. Trim uneven edges. and place the pastry onto a baking sheet.

3. Using a fork, prick the dough at 1/2-inch intervals. Do not prick the border of the dough, approximately 1" from the edges.

4. Pre-bake the crust for about 15 minutes.

5. While the crust is baking, bring a put of water to a boil. Blanche the asparagus for 3-4 minutes, until it has turned bright green but has not cooked all the way through. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus (they should snap off in your hands when bent).
6. Remove pastry shell from oven, and sprinkle with Gruyere. Arrange the asparagus over the Gruyere, alternating ends and tips. Sprinkle with sea salt.

7. Bake for an additional 20 minutes, allow to cool, and serve.

I should note that this is a very slightly adapted version of a Martha Stewart recipe that appears in her book, Everyday Food.