Butternut, Apple, and Parsnip Soup with Smoked Duck

Hello/Bonjour! Long time no see. My self-imposed winter break lasted a little longer than I originally intended, but now I am back and raring to go.

Let’s get right to this soup. It is perfect in every way you hope a January soup will be. It is oh so easy to make (like, actually easy), and quite economical too. If you make it a day ahead, it will only taste better upon reheating. It freezes beautifully. (Make a double batch to tuck into the freezer for some other night.)

The squash, apple, and parsnip balance together famously. The soup itself is a little sweet, a little sharp, and incredibly rich in flavor, while low in calories. (You know I don’t normally care about such things, but what with January being a month of resolutions, I figured it was worth mentioning.)

The only bad part about this soup is peeling the butternut squash. I abhor peeling butternut squash. Alas, we can’t have everything in life. Read more »

When Dessert Goes Awry, Christmas Edition

It happens to the best of us: juggling five tasks at once, you forget the cake baking in the oven. Before you know it, the smell of burning wafts in your direction. Rushing to the oven door, you crack it open to find your worst fears confirmed: your cake has charred to a coal-black crisp.

I would like to say: fear not! This circumstance doesn’t have to be an occasion for despair. So much in the kitchen is salvageable. If you give that disastered cake a loving adjustment or two, your mistake need never be revealed to your dinner guests. Read more »

Pearl Couscous with Roasty Roots, Chickpeas, and Pepitas

Ce soir, the Frenchman and I depart for a nine-day visit to France.

We haven’t been to Angoulins since the summer. Then, we swam at high tide, ate every meal outside, and padded barefoot around the porch. In winter, his seaside home is no less beautiful, although obviously much colder. This time, we will curl up in front of the fire, eat foie gras on toast (it’s Christmas, in France, after all), and meander to the beach with a bottle of Champagne on Christmas Day (avec shoes, thankfully).

I am looking forward to the trip, and to the break. I just have one quibble: if it were up to me, we’d teleport directly from our living room, straight into the Frenchman’s living room. (I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve asked the Frenchman to invent teleportation. Then, he could sleep at home every night, even during business trips. He assures me he’s on top of it, although I have yet to see results.)

The trouble is, I am terrified of flying. I know, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, plane-safety statistics being what they are, and considering how often I fly. Still, I am thrown into a tizzy every time I board a plane. It’s not great. To make matters worse, the Air France terminal at JFK is just the pits. (I know, my life is terrible!) Unless you enjoy rubbery chicken with sprayed-on grill marks, or Chinese food languishing under a heat lamp, you’re out of luck. Read more »

Oven-Soft Apples and Pears

Dilemma: I made these apples and pears expressly for an ice cream I plan to churn up over the weekend (vanilla, bourbon, crème fraîche… you’ll likely read more about it soon), but then they turned out so unexpectedly delicious on their own, I can’t stop devouring them right off the baking sheet.

These fruit slices, baked with just a suggestion of butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg, are cooked low and slow until they’re only partially dried. The results are soft bursts of concentrated flavor, and the occasional crunch from bits of caramelized brown sugar.

It doesn’t matter too much which varieties of apple or pear you use; I tried Bartlett, D’Anjou, and Bosc pears, and all came out well. Do use firm fruit though.

I promise, if you set out a bowl of these at your next holiday party, or bring a tin for the host or hostess, they will disappear quickly. You can also eat them with ice cream or yogurt, with oatmeal or waffles, or as a decorative top to a cake. Read more »

Steak and Ginger-Pickle Sandwich

This is a sandwich for when the Frenchman is businessing in Atlanta for the better part of the week. While he’s away, you deserve something tasty, but uncomplicated; laborious cooking is less fun for one.

This is a sandwich for when you agree to go to a (rather stodgy) holiday party with your parents, and the only menu item that seems remotely appealing is the surf & turf, a dish you haven’t had occasion to order since, well, ever. And so you eat the lobster tail, and ask the waiter to wrap up the 10-ounce piece of steak still languishing on your plate. Now you have 10-ounces of steak in your refrigerator.

It’s a sandwich for when you think: what can I do with this steak in my refrigerator? And then you decide to make a sandwich, because sandwiches are both easy and, when made properly, glorious. You decide to flash pickle onions and persian cucumbers with cider and rice wine vinegar, and (why not?) fresh ginger dropped in for flair and personality. Read more »

Kitchen-Focused Holiday Gifts, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of The Roaming Kitchen’s Holiday Gifts 2012!

My intention was to keep this post short; clearly I have failed miserably. Ah well. I hope you find recipes you want to make, and gift ideas you want to give.

Happy Holidays! Read more »

Kitchen-Focused Holiday Gifts, Part 1

My original plan was to write a whole slew of holiday-gift-recipe-ideas from scratch. Then I realized how overwhelming that would be.

Also, it wouldn’t be overly useful: a quick google search yields plenty of ‘edible holiday gift’ lists, curated by magazines with far more resources than I.

So instead, I’ve decided to present a mashup of recipes, ideas, and products I love and use myself. (For the record, no one is paying me to endorse any of this, but if someone wants to know, I accept payment in the form of milkshakes and Japanese chef’s knives.)

My goal was to offer plenty of practical options that wouldn’t break the bank. (I love looking at fancy magazine gift ideas, but what they recommend is often designer, and really expensive.) With the exception of a few items, most of what you’ll find here is reasonable on any budget.

Finally, the recommendations you’ll find below are personal to me–much more than sending you off to make dark chocolate bark with dried cranberries would be, I think. I hope this collection of ideas acts as a insight into my kitchen, and helps get you through the holiday, too. Read more »

Butterbeer

Disclosure: at the moment I am sick and chilly, and a hot beverage described as “the best thing [Harry] ever tasted, [a drink that] seemed to heat every bit of him from the inside” sounds pretty appealing.

Buttered Beer is actually a real drink dating back to Tudor England involving ale, butter, egg yolks, and various heady aromatics like aniseed, licorice root, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and what have you. Butterbeer, however, is a fictional tipple summoned from the clever mind of J.K. Rowling. Read more »