Pasta with Asparagus and Bacon

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Spring is, in theory, here and I wanted to make a nice, quick and relatively light dish to use up some first of the season asparagus that I had and I had a hankering for pasta, so I figured that I would do a rift off a classic peas and prosciutto pasta using asparagus and bacon.

The Software
3/4 lb of pasta (rotini or penne are good choices for this)
1 lb asparagus – cut into 1/2 inch pieces, woody parts removed
5 slices bacon
1 tablespoon bacon fat (reserved from cooking the bacon)
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup white wine or vermouth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 shot (1 1/2 oz) cognac
1/4 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, minced
2 – 3 oz grated cheese (I used half and half pecorino Romano and parmigiano reggiano)
salt
pepper

The Recipe
Bring water to a boil for pasta. Add salt. Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain but do not rinse. Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water.
In a large sauté pan, cook the bacon over medium heat until done. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Remove bacon fat from pan and reserve 1 tablespoon. Don’t wipe the pan after removing fat. When cooled, dice bacon into small pieces and set aside.

058 — The finished product making good use of the season's bounty.

Raise heat to medium high and add asparagus and sprinkle with salt. Cook until it begins to soften and brown, about 3-4 minutes depending on the size of the stalks. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add the tablespoon of reserved bacon fat and onions to the pan. Saute the onions for 4-5 minutes until they begin to brown.
Reduce heat to medium and carefully add the stock, wine and cognac. Return heat to medium-high and bring to a boil for 4-5 minutes.
Add pasta and 1/2 of the cream. Cook for about 2 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium and add asparagus and cheese. Cook for about 2 minutes until the asparagus heats back up.
Add remaining cream, garlic and bacon and cook for an additional 45 seconds to a minute, stirring constantly.
For more sauce or if the sauce is too thick, add small amounts of the pasta water as necessary.
Taste – add salt and pepper as necessary.
Serve an enjoy

Notes
The sauce is meant to coat the pasta rather than drown it, so this doesn’t produce a great deal of sauce, but it has a ton of flavor as the past a will absorb a good deal of the liquid from the pan when it is put in and produce a very thick and creamy sauce. You can use almost any white wine to cook with in this recipe, but I really like the sweetness that vermouth brings to the dish. The bacon is really optional, but hey, everything is better with bacon.

I also happened to notice that Thursday Night Smackdown posted a variation of this recipe recently. I swear I wrote this before I saw TNSD’s version.

Totally Over the Top Mac & Cheese

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I get tons of requests for this mac and cheese recipe since it is easy to make and is phenomenally good. I can’t take a great deal of credit though; I took the base recipe from Alton Brown and made a few changes to it. I had the pleasure of talking about the changes that I made with Alton about a year ago and he liked them and suggested a few others, which I have since incorporated. If you want the original recipe, you can find it here. Otherwise you will get my revised recipe, which I dub “Totally Over the Top Mac & Cheese”.

Alton_Brown_0806 — Feel free to thank AB for this recipe if you have the chance to meet him. If you have the chance, take it - the man is a genius and hilarious to boot.

The Software
1/2 lb of elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups whole milk
1/2 cup onion, minced (about 3/4 of a medium onion)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 large egg (lightly beaten)
6 oz Sharp Cheddar – shredded
6 oz Gruyere – shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Black pepper to taste

The Recipe
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Shred the cheddar and Gruyere and mix the two together. Separate into 2 parts, one containing 1/4 of the cheese and 1 containing 3/4 of the cheese.
• Mince the onion. Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil in a 4 qt pan.
• Add pasta and cook for about 5 minutes to al dente and drain.
• While the water is coming to a boil, melt the butter in a 3 qt pan over medium heat.
• Whisk in the flour and cook until pale blond (about 3 minutes) stirring about every minute.
• Whisk in onion, paprika and mustard until combined (probably 30 seconds)
• Slowly add the milk and cook, whisking constantly until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Slowly add 2 ladles full of the milk mixture to the egg, whisking as you add it. This will temper the egg to keep it from cooking and turning into scrambled eggs. I usually do this in a measuring cup. If there are any lumps (i.e. cooked egg), start over with another egg.
• Add the egg into the pot with the remainder of the milk and stir a couple of times to combine.
• Add 3/4 of the cheese to the sauce and stir until the cheese is melted, 1-2 minutes.
• Add the pasta to the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.
• Put pasta and sauce in a 4 qt casserole dish, cover with the remaining cheese and bake in the over for 30 minutes.
• Let stand for 5 minutes and serve with your favorite hot sauce (or not)

IMPORTANT – don’t fully cook the pasta – it will finish cooking in the oven and it will be completely mushy if you cook it fully on the stove. Also, don’t rinse the pasta after you drain it.

Notes
Timing is important on this recipe, so I highly suggest preparing all of your ingredients before you start cooking – it really makes the job much easier when you are not trying to measure something while watching something else. I also highly recommend freezing the cheese for about 10 minutes prior to shredding – it makes it much easier. The shredding can be done in a food processor or using a box grater. Don’t buy the pre-shredded cheese, it really doesn’t taste the same and shredding yourself will take you 2 or 3 minutes extra and it will be worth it. I really like Beecher’s Flagship Cheese in this recipe, but if you aren’t local to Seattle, you probably won’t be able to find it, so just use your favorite cheddar. You can use all Cheddar if you would like, the Gruyere is optional. If you want a nice crusty cheese top, use a dish that is broiler safe and put under the broiler the last 2 minutes of cooking in the oven. If you like the crispy breadcrumb topping, please consult the original recipe. The pasta and sauce can be made in advance and then put in the oven later – just put it in the casserole dish, covered in the fridge and when you are ready to cook it, remove it from the fridge, uncover and let it sit at room temp for 15 minutes while you warm the oven. The leftovers also make really good fried mac and cheese the next day. I have played with several variations of this recipe, so here are the ones that I like the most:

Bacon Mac and Cheese
Cook 3/4 lb of bacon until just before browned. Drain on paper towels and mince. Sprinkle on top of the mac and cheese before putting in the oven.

Roasted Red Pepper and Sun Dried Tomato Mac and Cheese
Add 3 oz of minced sun dried tomatoes and 3 oz of roasted red pepper to the pasta and sauce before it goes into the casserole dish. Stir well to combine and finish in the oven.

Italian Mac and Cheese
Replace the Gruyere and Cheddar with equal parts (5 oz) Italian Fontal and Taleggio. Also add 1 oz of grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano to the mix. Replace the elbow macaroni with 8 oz of penne. Follow the base recipe otherwise. You won’t use any of the cheese for a topping. Add some freshly chopped Italian parsley after cooking. Note – Taleggio and Fontina are soft cheeses, so you don’t need to shred them. Freeze them for 10 minutes and cut into 1/4-inch cubes for melting. Make sure you remove the rind also – it is edible, but not needed in this recipe. Fontal and Taleggio should be available in just about any gourmet market or cheese monger.

South of the Border Mac and Cheese
Replace the Gruyere and Cheddar with equal parts Monterrey Jack and Pepper Jack. Add some minced jalapeño before the pasta is put in the casserole. Follow base recipe otherwise.

I have always wanted to try an herb and goat cheese variation of this recipe, but haven’t gotten around to it.

Quick and Easy Spicy Shrimp

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Being a good catholic boy and being pretty hungry tonight, I decided I needed something quick and filling to take care of my situation. I also wanted something with a kick. I had some nice gulf shrimp, so I decided to use them. I came up with a simple, recipe that won’t take more than 15 minutes or so for a nice sautéed shrimp dish.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Toss in a few capers, and you get something that looks like this.

The Software
3/4 lb raw shrimp or prawns, peeled
1/3 stick of butter
1/3 lb pasta, cooked (I prefer penne for this dish, but any pasta will do)
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon powdered garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon Mama Lil’s Goathorn Peppers
1 tablespoon heavy cream
2 tablespoons minced parsley
Salt
Ground Black Pepper

The Dish
Peel the shells off the shrimp (and save them for stock – you could put them in a zip top bag and freeze them). In a bowl sprinkle flour, a small amount of salt, a few grinds of pepper and garlic on the shrimp and toss to coat. Let sit until pasta is in the water, about 10 minutes.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook to al dente, about 6-7 minutes. Drain but do not rinse the pasta. Reserve a little pasta water.

When the water is at a boil, add butter to a sauté pan over medium-high heat and melt until foam subsides and butter begins to turn a bit brown (it shouldn’t take more that 2 or 3 minutes, so you need to keep an eye on it). Take shrimp, shake off excess flour and add to pan with red pepper flakes. Cook on first side for about 2 minutes until lightly browned. DON’T MOVE THEM IN THE PAN – your pan will be hot enough that they won’t stick. Flip and add the goathorn peppers and cook for another 2 minutes 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Add pasta, parsley, cream and, if you want a little more sauce, a bit of pasta water and toss to combine. Check seasonings and add any additional salt and pepper if desired.

Notes
The amounts in this recipe are a best guess on the seasoning, feel free to adjust them as you like, especially the pepper flakes. I use the Mama Lil’s Sweet Hot Peppers, but any pickled pepper will do, or, if you like, you can leave them out altogether. I highly recommend using either a stainless steel or non-reactive aluminum sauté pan for this, rather than a non-stick pan – you won’t be able to see when the butter begins to brown in the non-stick pan and you risk burning it. I used 16-20 count shrimp, which I think are the ideal size for this recipe, but you can use whatever size is convenient. The smaller the shrimp, the less cooking time you will need. I would highly recommend not using anything smaller than 26-30 count (also known as Extra Large) as they become difficult to peel. Make sure your shrimp are raw and they should be untreated. Shrimp treated with Sodium Tripolyphosphate tend to be really soggy and don’t properly sear. If you are buying them frozen in a bag, check the ingredients – it shouldn’t contain more than shrimp and salt. If you are buying them from a fish counter, ask the fishmonger if the shrimp have been treated with anything.

Mark Bittman’s Eggless Pasta And Crackers

by A.J. Coltrane

No, it’s not pasta with crackers, it’s pasta and crackers. What got my attention is that they’re basically the same recipe:

Eggless Pasta	Ingredient	Crackers
2 cups	Flour	1 cup
1/2 cup (hot)	Water	1/4 cup
2 TBP (Olive)	Butter or Oil	2 TBP (Corn)
1 tsp	Salt	1/2 tsp

These are both “4 servings.” I’ll rescale the pasta recipe so that the flour is equal in both:

Eggless Pasta	Ingredient	Crackers
1 cup	Flour	1 cup
1/4 cup (hot)	Water	1/4 cup
1 TBP (Olive)	Butter or Oil	2 TBP (Corn)
1/2 tsp	Salt	1/2 tsp

The more I cook the more I’m convinced that most recipes are just variations on a theme. For example, compare those two recipes to Ming Tsai’s shallot pancake recipe that I posted in January 2011:

1 cup flour: Check.

1/2 cup (hot) water: This is the variation, it’s wetter, as it’s a bread/dough rather than pasta or crackers. Related sidenote – I’m beginning to think a key to making crackers may be keeping them as dry as possible without totally dehydrating the flour.

1 TBP Oil: Check again, in this case it’s sesame oil.

1/2 tsp salt: Check.

As far as the actual recipes go —

The pasta recipe recommends letting the pasta dough rest for at least 30 minutes after kneading, then rolling out and cutting the dough. (Again, the Ming Tsai Shallot Pancake recipe calls for a rest too, as do many recipes that involve hydrating flour.)

The cracker recipe does not specify a rest, though I’ve seen cracker recipes that do. Roll out the cracker dough thinly and cook in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Source for the Bittman recipes: The excellent “How To Cook Everything Vegetarian“, which also gets a “Favorite Cookbooks” recommendation.

Waiting for the Sun(choke)

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few weeks ago, Coltrane and I went to a cooking class at Le Gourmand and one of the items on the menu involved Jerusalem Artichokes, also known as Sunchokes. What is a sunchoke you ask, well here is your answer (from wikipedia):

The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called the sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, and found from Eastern Canada and Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.

Mrs. Iron Chef is not much of an advernturous eater, so I haven’t really played with Sunchokes over the last couple years and just forgot how good they were until the class. Well, flash forward to last Sunday – I am wandering through the Farmer’s Market in Ballard and what do I see, but some amazing looking sunchokes. I think to myself, “Iron Chef, those are calling your name for a nice sunchoke puree.” So I buy a pound and bring ‘em home.

Flash forward to tonight – I make my puree. Sunchoke puree is a flavorful, nutty, slightly sweet dream. A recipe so easy, a caveman can do it:

The Software
1 lb Sunchokes, rinsed. You can peel them but your don’t have to.
1/2 cup Chicken Stock
1/4 cup Vermouth (or any white wine)
1 teaspoon minced onion
salt and pepper

The Puree

Cut the sunchokes into 3/4 inch pieces. Combine all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered until sunchokes are easily pierced with a fork, about 8 minutes. Transfer the solids to a blender with half the braising liquid and puree until smooth. You are looking for the consistency of slightly thin mashed potatoes. Add more liquid if necessary to the puree. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Server as you would mashed potatoes.

Notes

Personally I had mine tonight with some sautéed Fiddlehead Ferns, but turkey would work well too; if you want to be boring. Sunchokes are also delicious raw.

Ming Tsai’s Shallot Pancake Recipe

by A.J. Coltrane

Ming Tsai’s Shallot Pancakes. It may look like quite a few steps, but it’s fast and easy. (Seriously, it’s super easy and the results are impressive.) The original recipe is here. The recipe below is scaled down in size.

Ingredients:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Very Hot Water

1 large Shallot, or substitute Scallions

~1 TBP Sesame Oil

~1 TBP Canola Oil, plus more for the skillet.

Sesame Seeds (Optional, but good.)

Salt

Step 1. Combine flour and hot water in a mixer or food processor. (I use a little food processor; the dough is ready in about 5-10 seconds. Pulse it a few times and it’s done.) When the dough comes together sprinkle a small amount of flour on a counter and knead for a couple of minutes — until the dough is smooth and not sticky. If the dough is sticky add small amounts of flour to fix it.

Step 2. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour. (On Simply Ming, Tsai calls for overnight. The linked recipe calls for up to 48 hours.) In theory the minimum rest would be about 20 minutes — long enough for the dough to hydrate.

Step 3. Combine sesame oil and canola oil in a small bowl. Slice shallots thinly.

Step 4. Flour work surface and roll out dough to around 1/8″ thick. Brush Oil mixture over the top of the dough. Sprinke the dough with sliced shallots and salt.

Shallot Cake 1 — The next time I made this I used more shallots.

Step 5. Roll the dough into a “jelly-roll.” Twist each end of the “jelly-roll” in opposite directions 3-5 times. (This will add more layers.) Roll the “jelly-roll” up like a snail, tucking the end underneath. Finally, roll out the snail to about 1/4″ thick.

Shallot Pancake 2 — The "jelly-roll", twisted.

Shallot Pancake 4 — The Snail, squishified.

Step 6. Heat a skillet over medium heat. (Ming recommends cast iron.) Oil the pan with 2-3 tablespoons canola oil. Brush the dough on top with the sesame/canola oil mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place the dough in the skillet, with the oil/sesame seed side down. Brush the new “top” with the oil mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cook each side 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown. (The recipe calls for 2-3 minutes per side. I found mine took longer, especially on the first side, but I didn’t use cast iron.) Slice into wedges and serve.

Ming’s “Dim Sum Dipper”, pictured above, is 1/2 cup soy, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 TBP Sambal Oelek. You may want to halve (or less) those amounts… It’s basically a 2:1 ratio of soy to rice vinegar and a dash of something hot.

This recipe is so good, and so easy.. I figured I must have overlooked it in a cookbook at some point. So I went looking. The nearest thing I could find was in Jeff Smith’s “The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines”, but that recipe used lard to maintain the layers instead of oil. That would explain why I haven’t made it. (Two points: Cookbooks by Jeff Smith are still readily available for cheap — go figure. Also, Smith says that he got the recipe out of cookbooks by someone named Pei Mei. A little research and.. there it is! (One of the books anyway, Smith references Volumes I-III.) Published in 1969. It’s actually Fu Pei-Mei.)

The neat thing about this recipe is that it makes a nice “laminated” dough (think phyllo) with very little time or effort involved. The recipe can also be scaled to whatever size is needed — the ratio is 2:1 ap flour to hot water, everything else is negotiable.

I’m thinking pesto might be a good substitute, or a roasted red pepper coulis…

Alternate Au Gratin

by A.J. Coltrane

I’ve tried making Potatoes Au Gratin using the Joy of Cooking recipe many times. I’ve never been able to get it to come out “right” — it always comes out too “soupy” for my taste.

The picture above shows my latest go at it, using the Joy recipe as a jumping off point. (The dish tightened up quite a bit after a few minutes of cooling — the finished product had almost no “liquid.”)

Here are the two ingredient lists, side by side:

Joy of Cooking	Coltrane’s Alternate
1 Clove Garlic	1 Clove Garlic
1 TBP Butter	1 TBP Butter
2.5 lbs baking potatoes, peeled	2 lbs “Red Skin Golden” potatoes, unpeeled
3 cups milk or half-and-half	2 cups half-and-half
1 tsp salt	1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper	1/4 tsp pepper
pinch nutmeg	pinch nutmeg
Cheese, bread crumbs, and dots of butter to cover.	1/2 cup shredded cheese

The potatoes in the Alternate are Jolly Green Giant “Red Skin Golden Potatoes.” I think they’re just new red potatoes. I also left the skins on, because I didn’t feel like peeling smallish nubby potatoes. (Read: Didn’t feel like the extra work or throwing away nutrients.) It turns out that when the potatoes are sliced super thin the skins don’t have any substance left; peeling the potatoes isn’t really necessary. Besides, if anyone asks then the dish was intended to be “rustic.”

The recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Halve garlic clove and rub on interior of baking dish. Rub the butter in the baking dish.

3. Combine potatoes, milk, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and milk or half-and-half in saucepan. Bring to simmer. Simmer until liquid reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

4a. Joy recipe: Pour mixture into the baking dish, top with the cheese, butter, and/or breadcrumbs. (The butter and cheese are “optional.”) Bake until the top is golden and the potatoes are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

4b. Alternate recipe: Pour half the mixture into the baking dish. Top with half of the cheese. Pour remaining mixture into the baking dish. Top with the remaining cheese. (This keeps the cheese from all sitting on top, as the Joy recipe calls for.) Bake until the potatoes are tender, 1 hour.

The cheese can be a combination of chedder, gruyere, and/or anything else that shreds well.

This is another recipe that the thin slicing disk on the kitchenaid is the Best. Thing. Evar. Total prep time was maybe 5 minutes, plus another 5 minutes of simmering the potatoes on the stove.

I’m guessing reintroducing the knobs of butter wouldn’t hurt the Alternate..

Pot Stickers

by A.J. Coltrane

Pot stickers are really easy to do. They’re somewhat time consuming, but almost impossible to screw up. Most of the time they’ll fool people into thinking that you can cook. I don’t use a recipe for them — something like this will work fine as a leaping off point:

The Filling — The filling - includes cilantro from the CSA box.

The “Recipe”:

1 lb Ground Pork

1/2 Large Head Cabbage, finely shredded

1/2 cup – 1 cup Scallions, finely chopped

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

1 package (4″ square) Wonton Wrappers — Buy two packages to cover overruns, they freeze just fine. Extra wrappers can also become Crab Rangoons if you have cream cheese in the house.

Other good stuff: Black Pepper, Sambal Oelek/ hot sauce, minced Bell Pepper, minced Cilantro, Ginger, minced Onion, Soy Sauce. Any of those in small quantities will be fine.

The Assembly:

Use a food processor, even one of the little cheap ones is highly recommended as a time-saver. I would also suggest that the assembly process happen while sitting down, in front of a television, with beer. It’s much more pleasant that way.

1. Cut all vegetables into pieces that the food processor can handle. Working in batches if necessary, pulse the food processor to finely chop vegetables. Do not puree.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

3. The Setup:

Two plates, one for folding the pot stickers and one for the finished product. A small bowl or ramekin with some water — the water will be used to seal the pot stickers. Plastic wrap for covering the finished pot stickers — the pot stickers can sit in layers on the plate, with plastic wrap between the layers.

4. Take one wrapper out the package and place on the “assembly” plate. (The wrappers will dry out quickly, make sure to keep the package covered, or at least mostly closed.) Place about 1 tsp+ of the filling into the center of the wrapper. I use two forks for this to keep my hands relatively clean. (Use one fork to pick up the filling, then scrape off with the other fork and onto the wrapper.) Lightly wet one finger in the bowl of water and moisten two adjacent edges of the wrapper. Fold the two “dry” edges over to meet the “wet” edges, removing as much air as possible. Crimp the filled wrapper a few times.

The Cooking Part:

Note: You’ll need a non-stick skillet that has a lid. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of canola oil. When the oil is hot add as many pot stickers as will fit in one layer into the pan.

Cook about 2-3 minutes. Resist the urge to poke, move, or otherwise disturb the pot stickers.

Add 1/8 cup of water to the pan and immediately cover. Watch out for splattering oil/water. It’s best to have the lid in your hand hovering over the pan when you add the water so that you can slap on the lid when the water hits the heat.

Cook about 4-6 minutes. The goal is to have the water finish evaporating just as you’re ready to remove the lid.

Remove the lid and cook an additional 2 minutes to crisp, finish browning, and evaporate any leftover water. Cut open one pot sticker to ensure that the pork is cooked through.

Repeat until all pot stickers are done.

Sweet and sour sauces go well with this recipe. Also good is the classic soy/sushi vinegar/ hot sauce combo (1 part soy, ~1 part sushi vinegar, and a dash of hot sauce. You can substitute white wine vinegar and a little sugar for the sushi vinegar.)

It looks like a big project, but it’s easy. Most of the preparation can take place in front of the TV. Painless.

Saving the World Through Salad Dressing

By Iron Chef Leftovers

“I am going to solve all the world’s problems with one salad dressing” –Michael Struk

Salad dressing is usually an afterthought to most people. We buy it pre-made in a jar and it is loaded with stabilizers and salt. What most people don’t realize is that salad dressing is really easy to make at home. My friend Mike adapted the below recipe from the “Le Bec Fin Cookbook”. The dressing is amazing and takes about 5 minutes to prepare.

The Software
1 1/2 cup Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Walnut Oil
1/3 cup Verjus
10 Stalks Lemon Thyme – leaves removed from stems
20 basil leaves – chopped
1 tablespoon Mayo
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1/3 teaspoon granulated garlic
Salt and Pepper

The Dressing
Combine everything but the salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Blend until combined. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. That is it. It will take you longer to measure the ingredients than it will to put this together.

Notes
If you don’t want to go out and buy Walnut Oil, just substitute Olive Oil for it. If you don’t have Verjus (and you really should in your pantry – don’t know what Verjus is? Click here), substitute a good Red Wine or Champagne Vinegar. You should be able to find Walnut Oil and Verjus at any good specialty food store (in Seattle I would recommend DeLaurenti; over the web I would recommend chefshop.com – which conveniently also has a retail location in Seattle). This recipe produces a good amount of dressing – it can either be scaled down or put in a container and kept in the fridge for 3 days. If you want a thicker dressing, add a bit more Mayo to it.

Chocolate Tofu “Cheesecake”

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have gotten a number of requests for this one, so by popular demand…here it is.

Yes, it has tofu in it, yes it has chocolate in it and yes, it is tasty. I am not much of a baker and I don’t really like baking to begin with. I do love cheesecake though, so I happened to be watching Alton Brown’s Good Eats Episode titled “Tofu World” and he made a “Moo-Less Chocolate Pie” – an amazingly easy, quick and tasty cheesecake substitute. The only baking involved is the pie crust and I have used store bought to cheat on this one. It takes about 10 minutes of prep time for this recipe if you are not making your own crust.

The Software

13 oz Chocolate – roughly chopped (I use 2 parts 55% dark chocolate, 2 parts 70% dark chocolate and 1 part white chocolate)

1/3 cup coffee liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound Silken Tofu (extra firm) drained

1 tablespoon honey

1 9 inch pie crust

The Pie

Pre-bake your crust (if necessary) and let cool. Melt the chocolate, liqueur and vanilla in a bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water, stirring often. (This can also be done in a microwave, but be careful of burning the chocolate). In a blender or food processor, combine the tofu, honey and chocolate and spin until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. That’s it. You have dessert. Serve with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, or just eat it as is.

Notes

The original recipe calls for 13 oz of semisweet chocolate chips. It is fine to use that, but I found that using the combination of chocolate in the software section adds to a deeper chocolate flavor. I personally use a good chocolate like Callebaut or Schaffen-Berger, which are available just about everywhere these days (read – most mega marts carry them). You can substitute 1/3 cup of very strong coffee for the liqueur if you want. If you like it sweeter, add more honey, but I would recommend waiting until after everything is combined and tasted. This will set into the consistency of something resembling a dense cheesecake. If you want something more pudding like, I would recommend using a less firm silken tofu.