POTS AND PANS CITY BLOG

A panini can be more than just meat, cheese and vegetables thrown together and grilled.  A panini can be made into a child’s delight as well, and what child doesn’t love peanut butter and jam sandwiches—or chocolate?  Here is a fabulous panini that every kid will love—and probably most adults too!

Ingredients:

Preheat your panini press according to the manufacturer’s directions.

• 4 slices crusty bread, cut into ½ “ slices
• Peanut butter
• Fruit preserves or jam
• 2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Assemble the panini sandwiches:  Spread each slice of bread with a layer of peanut butter.  On half of the bread slices, spread your favorite fruit preserves or jam.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the jam.  Top these two bread slices with the other buttered bread slices with the peanut butter on the inside.

Place the sandwiches on your panini grill, pressing down lightly, for about 2-3 minutes, or until grill marks appear on the bread.

Enjoy warm, with the ooey-gooey peanut butter, jam and chocolate chips melting into the crisped bread.

Let’s face it…you can’t go wrong serving any type of pie, especially one with a super flaky  crust and a tasty good terrific filling.  People love pie.  However, many people are intimidated when making a pie thinking that they could never achieve that flaky melt-in-the-mouth pie crust that they are striving for.  But, making a great pie crust is easier than you might think. 

When baked, your pie crust should be light and flaky.  It shouldn’t be tough, burned or soggy.  When creating your pie, the dough should not be sticky or gummy, but should still hold together well.  Sometimes it takes a bit of practice to get the right texture needed for that perfect pie crust, but really it is quite do-able.

The first important thing to consider when making a pie crust is the temperature of the ingredients you are using.  The ingredients, such as the fats (butter, lard or shortening) and the water, should be ice-cold or at least as cold as possible.  This means you have to work fairly quickly with the ingredients so that they don’t warm up.

To begin making your pie crust, whisk the flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl and then pop it into the freezer for about 30 minutes.  Cooling these ingredients will help all the other ingredients you are adding to the mixture (the water and fat) stay cold too.

If you resort to the traditional method of using your hands to bring everything together, the heat of your hands can warm up the ingredients too much. Try using a pastry blender instead of your hands as better way of bringing the mixture together.  You can also use a food processor to blend the ingredients together quickly.  This way no warmth from your hands touches the dough and everything stays cold. 

The reason everything needs to stay cold is that the coldness keeps the fat from softening and becoming too mixed up in the flour.  The hard bits of butter, fat or shortening forms little pockets in the dough that fill with air and that is how the pastry becomes flaky.    The fat melting in between the layers of flour what makes the pie crust flaky.  That is where the ‘little peas’ consistency comes in as well. 

If you do use the food processor, to ensure you get the right sized combination of flour/fat “little peas” consistency that you are looking for, it is best to use the pulse button for more control.  The dough pieces should resemble small peas.  Then when you have achieved the right consistency, gradually begin to add the cold, ice water a little at a time, still using the pulse button.  Pulse just until the dough starts to hold together. 

Ideally the dough should be soft and pliable, not sticky or crumbly. If the dough is too sticky, you have added a bit too much water.  Adding a little more flour will fix this problem.  If your dough is too crumbly, then you have added too much flour and will need to add a little more water.  Add only a little drop of water each time until you get the texture you are looking for.  It is easy to add too much if you go too fast.

Once the dough has been made, shape it into a ball, flatten it out, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Then pop it into the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Your dough discs should be about the size of a CD and about a half an inch thick. If you are making a dough-crust pie you may need to separate the dough into two discs.  Try popping your rolling pin in the ‘frig as well to keep even the equipment you are using as cold as possible.

After the allotted time for refrigeration, you are then ready to roll out the crust.  Place your chilled, unwrapped dough on a lightly floured work area.  Working quickly with your cold rolling pin, roll out the dough on the lightly floured surface.  Start from the center and work the rolling pin outwards to the outside edges and forming a circle.  When the right size has been attained (to fit in your pie plate), carefully fold the dough circle around your rolling pin and transfer it into your pie plate.  Add your prepared filling, and then repeat the dough-rolling process for the top. 

The edges of your pie need to be sealed so that the filling is completely enclosed as will not bubble out the edges. You can crimp the edges together pressing down with a fork, or use a finger method of sealing the edges together with your thumb and finger.  Prick the top of the pie crust with a fork, cut slashes in the top with a knife, or cut out small shapes in the top with a cookie cutter, to allow steam to escape.  Place your pie in the oven and bake as directed for the filling you are using.  After baking, let your pie cool on a wire rack and then sit back and enjoy the compliments you are sure to receive!

Hearty soups are great warmer-uppers for those crisp fall and winter days.  A soup like the one below with meatballs and vegetables makes a total hot and satisfying meal.  It has everything in it needed to make it healthy and great tasting. Even kids love it with the meatballs and the macaroni submerged in its tasty broth.

Ingredients:

• ½ pkg. frozen beef meatballs
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 TBSP. cooking oil
• 2 large carrots, cut into chunks
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
• 1 stalk celery, cut into chunks
• 1 cup spiral macaroni
• 2 pkg. dry beef bouillon
• 3 cups water

In a large stock pot, sauté onions and minced garlic in hot oil for approximately 3 minutes (until onions are translucent).   Add frozen meatballs and let brown on all sides (approx. 3 more minutes).  Add canned tomatoes, spices and all other ingredients, except macaroni. Bring to a boil.  Turn down heat and let simmer for 45 minutes.  Add macaroni.  Simmer 15 minutes longer or until macaroni is tender when cut with a fork.

Spoon into bowls and serve with fresh Italian bread.

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used both to blend wines and in varietal grape wines (varietal wines are produced from a single grape variety). Wines made with the Merlot grapes are typically medium-bodies wines with hints of berry, plum or currant. These grapes have a softness and fleshiness that blends well with the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes which ripen later in the season.

The Merlot name is derived from a French word meaning ‘young blackbirds’, but it is not known whether these grapes are named because of their dark-blue color (resembling the dark birds) or for the blackbirds’ fondness for the grapes. The Merlot grape is the third most planted red grape in France, where the Merlot wine is primarily produced. It is the 5^th most planted grape in Italy, but it is also planted in California and Romania, and on in lesser amounts in Australia, Argentina, the Niagara Peninsula in Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Slovenia and in other parts of the United States. Merlot grapes are typically planted in the cooler growing areas because they tend to ripen too early in areas that are too warm.

The Merlot grapes’ role in traditional wine blends is to add body and softness to the wines. Typical blends include Bordeaux, Graves, Medoc, Chateau Petrus, Sangiovense, Kekfrankos, Kekoporto and Kadarka.

Merlot wines have a flavor that is similar to Cabernet Sauvignon, but Merlot seems less distinctive and slightly more herbaceous in both taste and aroma. It has a plusher, slightly more velvety mouth-feel than Cabernet and has a lower natural acidity level. Merlot is a wine drinkers favorite, rather than a wine collectors, with many a wine drinker ordering this pleasant wine.

The plumy, fruity richness of the Merlot wines complement beef dishes well. Below is a recipe for Crock-Pot Pot Roast beef that would go pleasantly with a serving of a glass of Merlot wine. The robust, hearty meat would be complemented by the richness of the Merlot wine.

Crock-Pot Pot Roast

• 3-4 lb. chuck roast
• 2 TBSP. olive oil
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can beef bouillon
• 3 large carrots, cut into chunks
• 4 large potatoes, cut into wedges
• 3 large onions, cut into wedges
• 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 2 dashes soy sauce
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika

Season roast with spices and sear meat in hot oil in large skillet.

Add to crock pot. Add all remaining ingredients and season with spices again.

Cook over low heat for 4-5 hours.

Mix together 2 TBSP. corn starch with small amount of water.

Add to crock pot and cook for another 15 minutes to thicken gravy.

We are all looking for ways to make our money go further in today’s difficult economic climate.  Food is  a large and constant part of every family’s budget.

Buying cheaper cuts of meat is one obvious way to save. When coming home from work dead tired though, one wants something quick and easy to cook.  Grilling or frying a steak is one easy solution, but can be expensive.  And frying up a lower priced cut of meat does not a happy meal make.

Cooking with a crockpot is one good solution.  Crockpots use low heat and cook over a longer time than other types of cooking.  Cheaper cuts of meat can be best for crock pot cooking as they often have rich flavor and are tenderized by the long slow cooking.

Crockpots can also be very convenient as you can put the meat and vegetables into the pot in the morning before you go to work and come home to a meal mostly ready to eat. Often there is less cleanup time when you prepare your meal with a crockpot.  Crockpot cooking can also help keep the temperature down in the kitchen on those hot summer days.

You can adapt many recipes to the crockpot if you follow a few basic guidelines:

Vegetables
Root vegetables such as carrots and other dense vegetables such as potatoes should be cut into pieces that are one inch or smaller in size.  Since they take longer to cook, they should be placed in the bottom of the pot.

Beans
Beans should usually be soaked overnight before going into your crockpot.  Beans should be precooked enough to soften them before adding sugar or acidic ingredients such as tomatoes.

Liquids
Generally speaking, you can use about half as much liquid for crock pot cooking as you would if you were preparing the same recipe by another method.  One cup of liquid is usually enough unless the dish contains pasta or rice.

Rice and Pasta
Cook pasta just enough to make it slightly tender before adding to the crockpot if your recipe calls for adding cooked pasta.  For uncooked rice, add 1/4 cup extra liquid per 1/4 cup of rice.  Long grain converted rice works best.  You can add cooked rice shortly before servings if your recipe requires a long time in the crockpot.

Herbs and Spices
Whole herbs work well for crockpot cooking as they release their flavor over time.  The flavor of ground spices and herbs tends to dissipate with long cooking times, so it is better to add them towards the end of cooking.

Milk and Cheese
Milk, cheese, cream and sour cream don’t do well when cooking over long periods of time, so it is best to add these ingredients in the last hour of cooking.  For milk based soups, use 1 or 2 cups of water and then add your milk or cream in the last hour.

Try not to open your crockpot’s lid while cooking, as this will let the heat and water vapor escape, adding to your cooking time as well as drying out the contents.

This terrific tasting spicy soup recipe gets its roots from Jamaican cooking. It has a slight curry taste, which comes from the Grace’s packaged soup mix (which you can find in the international aisle at your local grocery store or at your local Caribbean food store). It also has a bit of spicy heat from the country pepper. You can omit the country pepper if you don’t like it really spicy, but adding it will definitely increase the flavour value. The chicken in the soup makes this a whole meal deal, great for those cozy winter days when you want nothing more that to eat a satisfying meal and curl up by the fire afterward.

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs. Grace’s Pumpkin/Chicken soup mix
• 4-5 medium new potatoes
• 2 small onions
• 3-4 medium carrots cut in chunks
• 5-6 chicken pieces (thighs)
• 1 large can pureed pumpkin, or 1 ½ cups steamed pureed fresh pumpkin
• 6 cups water
• 1 pkg. chicken bouillon powder
• 2 TBSP. cooking oil
• Pinch each of Salt and Pepper
• ¼ of a country pepper, chopped very finely

In large stockpot, brown chicken pieces in cooking oil.

Wash and cut up potatoes into large chunks. Cut onions into chunks. Peel and cut carrots into 1” pieces. Add to stockpot.

Add all remaining ingredients to pot and simmer together for 1-½ hours. Serve.

Roasting the vegetables before adding to the soup pot really adds to the flavor of this wonderfully tasty soup. The mild roasted garlic taste adds a new dimension of flavor as well. This soup is great for vegetarians as well, as it is made with vegetable broth instead of meat based broth.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium red potatoes
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1 head garlic
• 1 TBSP. olive oil
• 1 can (14 ½ oz.) vegetable broth
• 1 TBSP. flour
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 cup half & half cream
• Croutons

Preheat oven to 375° F. Peel and cube the potatoes. Place potatoes on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick vegetable oil. Sprinkle the onion and rosemary over the potatoes. Peel away the outer skin of the head of garlic leaving the skin on the cloves intact. Snip off the pointed top with sharp kitchen scissors, leaving the bulb intact but exposing the garlic cloves. Place the garlic, cut side up, on top of the potatoes. Drizzle the olive oil over everything. Cover with tin foil. Place the baking tray in the oven and bake, covered, for about 50 minutes or until the garlic cloves feel soft and the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

In the bowl of your food processor, squeeze the garlic bulb to remove the soft insides. Add the potatoes, onions and half of the vegetable broth, all of the flour and the pepper. Cover and blend until smooth. Pour this into a medium stockpot. Stir in the remaining broth and the ½ & ½ cream. Cook and stir over medium heat until the soup thickens and is bubbly. You can add in a little more half & half cream to get the consistency of the soup you like. Serve hot in bowls with crunchy croutons on top.

Here is a great recipe for the famous Italian Wedding Soup. The term “wedding soup” is actually a mistranslation of minestra maritata (‘married soup’) which is a reference to the fact that the green vegetables (the spinach) and the meat (the meatballs) go well together. It has a light soup broth, but is still satisfying with the addition of the meatballs.

Meatballs:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 lb. ground beef
• 1/4 lb. ground turkey

Combine all above ingredients and place on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Soup:

• 10 cups chicken broth
• 1 lb. fresh spinach, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 2 TBSP. grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

In a large pot over med-high heat, bring broth to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium. Add meatballs and spinach. Simmer approximately 8-10 minutes. In a small bowl beat eggs and Parmesan cheese together. While stirring soup gently, slowly drizzle egg mixture into soup. Stir gently with a fork. Thin strands of egg will form in soup after about a minute. Spoon soup into bowls and garnish with extra Parmesan cheese.

There is nothing more warm or comforting than a wonderful bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day. Remember that steaming bowl of chicken soup with tasty noodles your mom used to make? After a long day battling the cold winter elements, that soup just seemed to warm you up from the inside out. Nothing speaks more of homey comforts than a bowl of hot soup.

But when you talk about soups today, they have come a long way from the old traditional chicken soup standby. Not only are there light chicken noodle soups, but there are hearty beefy soups, vegetable soups, creamed soups, heart-healthy soups, seafood soups, luxurious soups with exotic ingredients, cold soups—you name it. And each one seems to be better tasting than the next.

Soups can come under various categories as well. There are bisques, potage, broths, stocks, bouillon, consommés, fumet, Scotch broth, chowders, Vichyssoise, borsht, gazpacho, and even dessert soups. Let’s just define what a few of these soups really are.

A bisque soup is a rich, thick creamy soup that has been pureed to an even texture. In the traditional bisque recipe, bisque typically includes seafood, wine or cognac and cream, along with spices. The seafood is pureed to make the soup smoother. In recent times, the seafood is often replaced with poultry or vegetables. Potage is also a pureed soup often thickened with cream or egg yolks. As the names suggest, both bisque and potage soups have their origins in France.

Broth, bouillon and stocks are relatively the same thing with different names. They are made from meat, vegetables or fish and spices combined with water. The ingredients are strained out and only the clear liquid remains. These are often used as a base for other soups or can be eaten on their own. Consommé, which is related to this group of soups, is really clarified meat broth. Fumet, also related to this group, is a concentrated stock, typically made from fish or mushrooms, used to add flavor to less intensely flavored stocks or sauces. Scotch broth is a Scottish soup made with lamb or mutton, barley and various vegetables.

A chowder is a thick soup made with milk, bacon, onions and potatoes. There are various types of chowders, the most famous being clam chowder. There are also seafood chowders or corn chowders. Chowders are really a chunky soup almost like a stew in a rich creamy broth thickened with potatoes.

Vichyssoise is a cold soup traditionally containing potato and leek and garnished with chives. It has a rich, creamy texture. Borscht is also a soup that is served cold (but it is also sometimes served hot). It is a Russian or Polish soup made from fresh beets and assorted vegetables, made with meat or meat stock and generally garnished with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Another soup in the cold soup category is gazpacho (sometimes spelled ‘gaspacho’). This is an uncooked soup made of a pureed mixture of vegetables. The vegetables typically include fresh tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, onions, celery, cucumber, breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and sometimes lemon juice. The soup is typically served smooth, but can be served in a chunky style as well.

Dessert soups are generally made with pureed fruit and served cold. Any fruit in season can be made into a dessert soup. The fruit is pureed and fruit juice or lemon juice is added for smoothness.

It seems that each country in the world is famous for its own soup type. As mentioned before, the French are known for a couple of different soups, as are the Russians and Polish with their Borscht and the Scottish people for their Scotch broth. The Chinese are known for their Bird’s Nest Soup which is actually made from the white or black nests of a small Asian bird. The Chinese are also famous for their wonton soup. Mexico has its menudo soup, which is a hearty, spicy soup made with tripe, calf’s feet, chili peppers, hominy and seasonings (and reputed to be great as a hangover cure). The Italians have their famous Italian Wedding Soup and the well-known Minestrone.

Soups are typically eaten at the beginning of a meal, or as a main course. The first course soups are generally of the clear soup varieties or the creamed versions. Main course soups are usually the heartier soups containing chunky ingredients of meat, fish, potatoes, thick noodles and vegetables in a thicker broth. And of course the dessert soups are served after the main meal as a light palate cleanser and as a sweet touch for dessert.