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The un-pearable lightness of being

OK, now that we’ve survived the Iowa caucus, if not unscathed, and it’s a holiday of sorts, I think it’s time for a light, easy dessert that includes strong alcohol.

A few weeks ago, my sweetie turned me on to a French dessert called clafoutis as a possible option for my little braiser. Once I started looking at the options, they appeared endless. And delicious.

Cherries are traditional, which are fine if unexciting. Chocolate and nuts sound like something to save for later, as is the one with raspberries for a more summer seasonal option. This endless winter calls for pears.

Pear clafoutis recipe.

I don’t know why I associate pears with this season, but I do. Even better, my sweetie found a pear eau de vie liqueur that is meant to be served with and on top of the clafoutis. It was a bit pricey so I’m grateful he didn’t look at the cost until after he was home with it in hand. It’s also quite good, and I’ll probably be splurging on a raspberry one later to go with the summer version of this.

The process of making clafoutis is so easy that Epicurious has a base recipe it compares to waffle batter, and then includes some common ways to make it, that mostly includes adding 2 c. of some kind of fruit. To be honest, as much as I have enjoyed the eau de vie, it’d be fine without adding 2 T. on top.

The flan-like finale with fruit is just fine on its own. However, as with so much these last three years, the alcohol helps.

Despite this, I admit I did forget the melted butter the first time. I was not disappointed I had to make it again. It also didn’t taste that much different, just fluffed more with the addition of butter, and still stuck to the bottom of my braiser either way. It was also delicious both ways.

Basically, it’s almost impossible to mess up, and it’s a perfect way to celebrate the end of all the texts, calls, and door-knocks, and if you’re into that sort of thing, Valentine’s Day.

So close … I can practically taste it.

Here’s what I did, following the Epicurious recipe, but adding some ginger for a tiny kick:

Ingredients 

  • 1 c. whole milk
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ c. sugar
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • 3 t. grated ginger, optional
  • 2 T. butter, melted (I guess also optional, but I’d stick with it)
  • ½ c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 pear, cored and cut into pieces
  • 2 T. pear eau de vie liqueur, optional, and more for serving, if using

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, ginger if using, and butter. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Add in the flour and whisk until smooth.

Pour into a 9- to 10-inch skillet or braiser.

Scatter the fruit on top.

Bake until the clafoutis is puffed and golden, about 35 to 40 minutes. Just before serving (immediately), drizzle on 2 T. of the eau de vie, and enjoy!

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You do udon

I’m slowly getting back into the groove of things since being back from vacation. I imagined it would be quicker but exhaustion got the better of me as did the daily grind.

So I decided to start back up with the kind of weeknight dinner that takes little effort and barely follows a recipe. I went with udon noodles with chicken and broccoli, or the more vague “Asian noodles,” which was the not-the-most-culturally-sensitive Google search I did to get the vague idea of ingredients for a sauce.

Udon noodles ingredients.

That blog post, like my own, makes clear that this recipe can be adapted to anyone’s tastes. Don’t like broccoli? Try carrots or spinach or a combination of veggies. Want to add peppers? Go ahead. Don’t want chicken or are vegetarian? Skip it or add tofu.

The same is essentially true of the sauce. I went heavy on the sesame oil because I love it and I have it. I also added a bunch of ginger (from a jar because I was lazy) that wasn’t in the recipe; I just like a lot of ginger. I skipped out on the cilantro to save my sweetie, but I think it would have been pretty tasty as an addition.

That’s to say, you do udon.

To hurry things along, I cooked the udon separately while I prepared the chicken, vegetables, and sauce, but if you’re in no rush and want this to be a one-pot dish, you can cook the noodles in the Dutch oven and leave to drain while preparing the rest of the dish.

I still want more; it disappeared too fast.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

  • 14 oz. udon noodles, cooked to package directions
  • 1 lb. chicken, sliced or chopped
  • 3 c. broccoli (or about one grocery store package with 2 to 3 heads), chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts sliced
  • ⅓ to ½ c. soy sauce (less sodium is good)
  • ¼ c. toasted sesame oil
  • 1 ½ T. ginger, minced (I used the jar stuff)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 T. rice vinegar
  • Sambal oelek (chili paste), or Sriracha, to taste (I used about ½ T.)
  • 3 T. sesame seeds
  • Vegetable oil, for sauteing

Directions

Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute the chicken until mostly cooked through before adding the broccoli and green onions, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, and sambal oelek or sriracha, and stir to combine.

Once the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are cooked to desired consistency, turn off stove top and add the sauce. Stir to combine and then add the cooked noodles, and continue stirring. Remove from heat and add the sesame seeds, stirring again. Taste and add more soy sauce or sesame oil as desired, and enjoy!

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Stir Fry-day!!!

You guys, I’m not going to lie, it’s been a bit of a week.

It was one where I could not eat for a day and a half, and that had nothing to do with the sh*tshow in DC that may well decide the future of the court for the next generation.

All of it’s enough to make you want to weep, and believe me, it’s not been easy keeping a straight face. Fortunately, there’s wine.

And, mercifully, this week’s recipe calls for using some white wine, so enjoy the leftovers while trying to hold on to your last bit of sanity. It reminds me of my favorite quote.

My stir fry recipe, I think, is from Cook’s Illustrated. It’s one of those recipes that was printed more than a decade ago, put into a plastic sleeve, and has been used ever since. The Christinia that printed it is quite a bit different from that one. But the recipe persists.

Sheet pan stir fry ingredients.

It’s not quite comfort food. It’s relatively healthy. It’s not something I grew up on. But it’s the kind of recipe that bends to suit what one’s feeling at any given time. Like, this time, I made it with chicken but I’ve enjoyed it with tofu or just the veggies.

I usually cook it on my pseudo wok, but I saw from things I’ve made so far this year that cooking veggies and chicken on a sheet pan would be fine. Basically, it’s hard to mess up

Also, did I mention that the sauce includes wine *and* ginger?! It’s pretty amazing.

Wine *and* ginger, you say? Delicious.

Here’s what I did to enjoy my stir fry on a sheet pan:

Ingredients

For the sauce:

  • 4 T. soy sauce
  • 4 T. dry white wine or cooking sherry
  • 1 T. honey
  • ¼ c. minced ginger (I use the jar, but if you’ve got the patience for ginger root, please do!)
  • 4 to 5 cloves garlic, minced (Again, I’m lazy and used a couple teaspoons of the jar stuff)
  • 4 scallions, sliced white and light green parts

For the stir fry:

  • Combination of veggies, approximating 2 lbs. Mine was a combination of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, sugar snap peas, green peppers, and onions. (For a better estimate, I used less than a quarter of a cauliflower, 2 heads of broccoli, 1 large carrot, about 1 bag of Dole sugar snap peas, one pepper, and one onion)
  • 1 lb. chicken, cut into ½ inch chunks, marinated in about ⅓ of the sauce
  • Remaining slices of scallions, added near the end of cooking time
  • Oil, for generously greasing the sheet pan
  • Rice, for serving

Directions

Mix the sauce. Prepare the chicken by putting the chicken chunks in a bowl and topping with about a quarter of the sauce.

Meanwhile, chop the remaining vegetables into bite-size pieces.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees, and generously grease a large sheet pan.

Add the vegetables to the sheet pan, and coat with about ½ of the remaining sauce. Cook for about 10 minutes. Create an opening on the sheet pan and add the marinated chicken. Top with more sauce. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through (I used an electric thermometer and it took longer, but safety first when it comes to eating meat!).  Remove when close to ready to serve, and add the remaining scallions and the rest of the sauce. Bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool slightly, and enjoy with rice!