Apple Onion Cheese Gratin

This pairs well with a hearty salad and a glass of white wine. The apples I used were from my family's trees at home, so the brown sugar wasn't necessary. It ended up being quite sweet naturally. Thank you fall for your bounteous goods!

Apple Onion Cheese Gratin
from Erza Pound Cake (originally from Moosewood New Restaurant Classics)

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
4 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups cheddar (or Gruyère), grated
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 Tbs. brown sugar (optional)

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Lightly oil a 11" x 7" (3 qt.) baking dish.
2. In a small pot, scald milk over medium heat, just before boiling but not after.
3. In another small pot, melt butter over medium heat. Then whisk in flour until fully combined.
4. Slowly whisk in the scalded milk. Add nutmeg, salt, and cloves, and whisk continuously until the sauce starts to thicken.
5. Spread apples and onions evenly in prepared dish. Sprinkle the grated cheese over, and then pour the sauce on top.
6. Sprinkle over the pecans, bread crumbs, and sugar (if using). Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden and crisp.

Jalapeño Poppers

One of the many things that happened on fry-day. These were by the far the best jalapeño poppers I've ever had, and I think a large part of that had to do with the fresh jalapeños being used. We froze some of these for later, and they weren't nearly as good after being frozen. I would make just as many as you're going to eat, and try to find local jalapeños. They were 18 for 1$ at the Kirksville farmer's market, so you can probably find them pretty cheaply in your area!

Jalapeño Poppers
from Whisk the Pantry

Ingredients:
8 jalapeños
3 Tbs. cheddar cheese, shredded
3 Tbs. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 cup panko (or fresh) breadcrumbs
1/3 cup flour
oil for deep frying (I used peanut oil)

Instructions:
1. Fill deep-fryer to indicated level with high-smoke point oil, and let come to temperature (365F).
2. To prepare the jalapeños, cut a line length-wise on the jalapeños. Then cut a line half way-across the top, just down from the stem. The jalapeños should now open up like a coin purse when you press the ends together. Gently scoop out the seeds.
3. In a small bowl, mix the cheddar and cream cheese.
4. Spoon the mixture into the jalapenos. Dip the stuffed jalapeno first into milk, then flour. Do this with all of them, letting them dry before dipping in milk, and then bread crumbs.
5. After having dipped them all in the breadcrumbs, do a second coat of milk and then breadcrumbs.
6. Once oil is at heat, pop the jalapenos in (I suggest holding by the stem and sliding them into the oil to avoid getting splattered) and cook until outter coating is golden-brown.
7. Take out finished poppers with a slotted spoon and set on a plate lined with paper towels. Serve hot.

Mushroom Corn Browned Butter Sage Sauce

This was the epic dinner I cooked for my friends the Saturday night when my good friend was in town (right before going off to India! He's there now, as I post this : ) So excited for him!!) Lets just say I was fattening him up on western food one last time before he went off to lose weight in the East.

Mushroom Corn Browned Butter Sage Sauce
from Cookbook of the Month

Ingredients:
1 lb. short spiral pasta or ricotta gnocchi, cooked
1.5 cups fresh breadcrumbs
4 Tbs. olive oil, divided
7 Tbs. butter, divided
1 lb. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced uniformely
1 Tbs. fresh thyme leaves
1 Tbs. fresh sage leaves, slice
4 ears of corn, kernels stripped
2 large shallots, finely diced
1.25 c. flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs and stir to coat with oil. Cook, stirring occassionally, until breadcrumbs are toasted and golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.
2.  Add remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil plus 1 Tbs. butter to pan, and heat until butter foams. Add mushrooms, thyme, 1/2 tsp. salt, and pepper. Saute mushrooms, not stirring too much, until most sides are carmalized. Set aside.
3. Add remaining 6 Tbs. of butter to the pan, and cook until butter browns and smells nutty. Scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, add sage, and cook for 1 minute until it sizzles. Add corn, shallots, 1 tsp. salt, and pepper. Saute, stirring frequently, until corn is tender (2-4 minutes).
4. Add prepared pasta to the pan, and toss to coat with butter. Add mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and parsely and stir to combine. Heat the dish if necessary.
5. Season to taste, and serve hot.

Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs
from Food Network UK
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 - 15 oz.can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 - 15 oz.can red kidney beans
1 - 15 oz.can white beans (cannellini)
15 g. fresh cilantro
salt, pepper
125 g. flour (seasoned with additional salt and pepper)
1 egg, beaten
125 g. bread crumbs
1 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. chilli powder (or paprika)
oil for deep frying

Instructions:
1. Get a pot of water boiling, place in eggs, and boil for 6.5 minutes (do more if you prefer harder-boiled). Peel after done cooking.
2. Drain all beans and chick peas, and rinse well in cold water. In a bowl, mash them all together to get a coarse mix. Add ginger and chilli powder and salt and pepper to taste.
3. In a small pan, heat about 3 inches of oil until you can drop a bread crumb in, and it becomes golden brown.
4.  In a bowl, place the flour and season with salt and pepper. Put the beaten egg next to the flour in another bowl,  and the bread crumbs in 3 third bowl next to the egg, creating an assembly line.
5. Split the bean mixture into 4 equal parts. Using a 1 ft. by 1 ft. square (about) of cling wrap, flatten one portion of the mixture until a large oval so that it can completely encircle an egg. Take one of the peeled boiled eggs, put it in the middle of your bean-mixture oval, and pull the cling wrap over so the egg gets encircled by the mixture. Push it around with your fingers (outside of the cling wrap) to try and seal cracks)
6. Peel off the cling wrap, roll the egg around in the flour until it's completely covered, then the egg, then the bread crumbs. Pop into the oil, and cook until all sides are golden brown (turning once the bottom is golden brown, unless you used enough oil to completely cover the egg. Take out with a slotted spoon to drain the oil, and place on a plate with folded paper towel to take off some of the oil. Repeat with the remaining eggs.
Serving suggestion: Serve with sour cream or creme fraiche.

Gnocchi Gratin with Blue Cheese

This.... was delicious. I know it's lots of work if you make the gnocchi by hand the same evening, and I know it takes a lot of costly cheese ingredients, and I'm sure I gained several pounds from this. But it's all worth it. Serious deliciousness.


Gnocchi Gratin with Blue Cheese
from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:
~100 gnocchi, uncooked (one recipe found here)
1 cup creme fraiche (or heavy cream)
3.5 oz. finely grated Parmesan
1 tsp. rosemary
a 1/4" slice fresh ginger
2 Tbs. butter, room temperature
4 heaping Tbs. fine dried breadcrumbs
4 oz. blue cheese (mild type)

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F (190 C) and a large pot of water until boiling.
2. Heat the creme, ginger, and rosemary in a sauce pan until boiling, then take off the heat, cover, and set aside.
2. Butter a 1.5 qt. baking dish or gratin dish with half the butter (anything with sides and as much surface area as possible.
3. Once pot of water is boiling, in batches (12 or so) cook the gnocchi until they float to the top, placing them in the buttered dish when done.
4. After all the gnocchi is cooked, take the ginger slice out of the creme, and mix the creme in with the gnocchi.
5. Crumble the blue cheese on top of the gnocchi/creme mixture.
6. Mix 1 tbs. of butter with the breadcrumbs and 3 Tbs. Parmesan, and spread on top.
7. Finally sprinkle the remaining 2.5 oz. grated Parmesan on top of the mixture, and put in the oven for 25-30 mins until top is bubbling and browned.