Belgium’s National Dish

While I was in Philadelphia over the holidays, I had dinner at a charming pub called Monk’s Cafe that served “Belgium’s national dish” – pots of mussels in savory sauce with fries. The combination of flavors, complemented by a good beer, was inspired.  I had many tasty bites while I was visiting Philly, but I kept thinking about this dish.

Since coming back to Berkeley, I happened upon a recipe for mussels that sounded very similar to dish I had at Monks. Still drooling at the memory of that dinner in Philly, I decided to try it out. I was a little nervous about cooking mussels for the first time, but this dish was surprisingly easy. I’m also happy to report that it’s just a good at as the mussels I had in Philadelphia. I’m generally not a fan of seafood but this recipe is a true exception.

The fries I made to accompany the mussels are probably the easiest at-home fries that you can possibly make. They take a little longer than traditional deep-fried potatoes, but they’re much less messy and a lot healthier.  The trick with these baked fries is the two-step baking process, which replicates the two-step frying process of truly delicious deep-fried fries. The fries are baked at a high temperature to cook and brown them, and then baked for another period at a lower temperature to dry them out because nobody likes soggy fries.

You’ll want the fries and the mussels to finish at the same time. To time everything perfectly, prep everything you’ll need to cook the mussels and when you have about 15 minutes left on the fries, start the pot of mussels.

Recipes from The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider

Baked Fries:

• 2-3 large baking potatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste

Savory Mussel Stew:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 shallots
• pinch of hot pepper flakes
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3 1/2 pounds mussels, scrubbed
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 Tbs. butter

I found it quite good to pull the mussels out of the shell and let them soak in the broth. Don’t forget to enjoy this meal with good beer!

 

Earthy Sweetness

Apple Crisp, For Two

Hello, Everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Personally, I’m glad to be on the other side.  Now that Christmas is over, I can actually relax and enjoy being home with my parents and sisters. We always do way too much on Christmas day. We visit both sides of the family, friends, and try to squeeze in a little immediate family time as well. I’m sure many of you do a similar holiday run around. Having many people that love you, and want to see you is certainly not something to complain about. However, it does make for a busy day. I can only see it getting even more complicated in the future, as my sisters and I get married, and eventually have kids… But let’s not to worry about that now.

This recipe is one I’ve been sitting on for a couple of weeks. I made an adorable little apple crisp for my sweetie and I right before I left for the holidays. It was the perfect amount for two people. It was an amazing not-too-heavy dessert. I actually debated about whether or not to post yet another dessert recipe after all the holiday indulgences. Since I already did the drawings, I figured why not?  I’ll start posting healthy recipes in the new year.

Sometimes, I feel self-conscience about my posts because they’re pretty revealing as to what my diet has been like. If you’ve noticed my recent posts have been all pies and desserts, it’s because that’s exactly what I’ve been eating. Again, I’ll start eating and posting healthier meals after the holidays, really I promise. Until then, ease into your New Year’s resolution of eating better with this slightly lighter treat. Enjoy!

Love,

Heather Diane

Ingredients:

• 2 cups apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour (for filling)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tablespoon water
• 3 tablespoons quick-cooking oats
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (for topping)
• 3 tablespoons  packed brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).
2. Place the sliced apples in a 8×4 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
3. Combine the oats, 3 tablespoons flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.

Comfort Food

ANNNND, now it’s almost Christmas. How the heck did that happen!? I know the theme of my last few posts have been “WHOA, whoa, whoa! Where did the time go!?!” But that’s really how I feel!  It’s been a good year and I’m trying to relax and enjoy my holiday travels but I can’t help but feel a little flustered.

I just arrived to my hometown of Jacksonville, North Carolina after visiting friends in Philadelphia and Raleigh.  It’s been a great trip so far and I feel grateful to be able to spend this time with friends and family. At this point I realize I’m not going to get much done for the rest of month, so I’m trying to plan for next year.  In the new year, I’m hoping to manage my time more carefully, so I can accomplish more and not feel like time is my enemy.  I’m even going to try this new thing, where I wake up early.

Anyways, I know I’m not the only one who finds the end of the year stressful. For those of you who need some serious comfort food, try this chicken pot pie recipe. It’s warm, flavorful, and really hits the spot on a chilly night.

I hope everyone who is traveling has a safe and lovely trip. To all my fellow end-of-year stress puppies, hang in there and have some pie.

love,
Heather Diane

Crust:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup warm water

1. Mix together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Pour in the olive oil and mix until moistened.
2. Stir in the warm water.
3. Knead the dough until it’s soft and elastic but not sticky.
4. Divide the dough into two portions, one for the top crust and one for the bottom. The portion for the bottom crust should be slightly larger.
5. Set the dough aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup french green beans, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, green beans, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembling the Pie:

1. Select a pie dish about 2 inches deep and 10 inches wide.
2. On a floured surface, roll out the the larger portion of the dough. Place it into the bottom of the dish and shape it so it comes up and over the sides of the dish.
3. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over.
4. Roll out the second portion of dough and place it over the filling, so that it meets the edge of the dish. Shape and trim the dough as needed.
5. Pinch the edges of the dough together to seal.
6. Puncture the center of the dough with an one inch X
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Apple Pie Love

We are officially in the throes of the holiday season and I simply can’t believe it. Illustrated Bites is almost one year old and 2011 is nearly over. As someone who is trying to get an illustration career off the ground while juggling two part time job  and trying to maintain a healthy work/life balance, this blazing passage of time is giving me a bit of a panic attack. I just wish I didn’t need to sleep!  Not to worry though, things seem to slowly be coming together, and I’m learning patience and celebrating small steps forward.

This last month of 2011 will be an exciting one.  I’m looking forward to some big changes in 2012. One exciting change is that my lovely and talented sister, Christina, just moved here for a new job at Chronicle Books.  We’re from North Carolina and for the past two and a half years, I’ve been living in the Bay Area while the rest of my family was still in NC. Now that my sister is here, San Francisco is going to feel a lot more like home.

If you’ve happened to notice that I haven’t posted in a few weeks, it’s because I’ve been busy spending the evenings catching up with my little sister. Oh yeah, Thanksgiving happened too. Just because there hasn’t been a new post in awhile doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking. Just the opposite really; I’ve been cooking so much I haven’t had time to illustrate and write about it! Christina is quite the cook herself and we’ve whipped up many tasty dinners and desserts over the past 2 weeks.

One of my favorite things we made so far is apple pie. It’s a simple and seasonal dessert that was quick to make once we spread the work between the two of us. I made the crust and Christina handled the filling. Get a pint of vanilla ice cream and you’re in for a serious treat.

Apple Pie Ingredients:

Filling:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch salt
• pinch cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 5-6 macintosh apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
• 2 tbs. butter
• milk for brushing crust

Crust:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 16 tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 6 tbs. ice water

1. First, prepare the crust. In a food processor combine the flour, salt, and sugar and pulse for a few seconds. Next, add the pieces of butter and combine until the flour resembles coarse corn meal.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add 6 tbs. of ice water to the mixture and combine with a spatula.
3. Use your hand to create a ball of dough.  Divide it in half, and flatten each half into a disk.  Wrap the disks in plastic and place them in the freezer for 10 minutes.
4.  Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples and place them in a mixing bowl.
5. Add both kinds of sugar, the spices, and salt. Stir to throughly coat the apple slices.
6. Set the apple filling aside while you roll out the crust.  Remove the dough from the freezer, unwrap one of the disks, and place it on a floured surface. Roll the dough out until it is large enough to cover your pie dish. To check, turn the pie dish upside down and place it on the dough. There should be about 2-3 inches of extra dough sticking out from the edge of the pie dish. Transfer the dough to the pie dish by folding it in half twice. This makes it easier to lift. Place it in the dish and unfold.  
7. Once the bottom crust is pressed into the dish, pour in the apple filling. Dot the filling with two tbs. of butter.
8. Roll out the top crust, and fold it in the same way to transfer to cover the top of the pie.
9. Pinch together the top and bottom crust and cut away any excess dough. You can decorate the edge of the crust with a fork if you like.
10. Cut a few slits in the dough that radiate out from the center of the pie. These slits act as vents and allow steam to escape.
11. You can add decoration to the crust by cutting out shapes from the excess dough and pressing them into the top crust. I added a few heart shapes to my pie.
12. Brush the top of the dough with milk and sprinkle with brown sugar. Refrigerate while you pre-heat the oven to 450°F.
13. Bake for 10 minutes at 450°F. Reduce the heat to 350°F and bake an additional 40-50 minutes, or until the pie is golden brown.
14. Cool before serving. Enjoy!

Not Icky, I Promise!

 

Hello Cutie, You Look Delicious!

It’s been a pumpkin bonanza at the Berkeley Bowl for last few weeks. The entire front entrance has been crowded with huge boxes of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. They even have a few giant pumpkins on display. I’ve been LOVING it, there is something really festive about that many pumpkins in one place. It puts me in an perfect autumn-y mood.

Every time I walk by the pumpkin display, I can’t help but pick up one of the baby pumpkins. I go to the Berkeley Bowl at least four times a week  (I live around the corner) so quite a few pumpkins have come home with me lately. Some of them are busy being adorable on my kitchen table but I’ve tried to cook the majority of the pumpkins that I’ve bought. Pumpkins are awesome because they easily lend themselves to either sweet or savory dishes. This is my second pumpkin recipe post, after writing about pumpkin pie a few weeks ago.  This time around I would like to share my recipe for savory pumpkin quiche.

This recipe for pumpkin quiche is my own rendition of a dish served by Gregoire Restaurant that I picked up while I worked there.  It is basically an egg quiche inside the hollow of a small pumpkin. When you eat it, you get a little scoop of the egg and a little scoop of the squash. Sounds delicious, right?

Pumpkin Quiche Ingredients:

• 3 baby pumpkins
• 5-6 eggs
• about 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup oyster mushrooms
• 1/2 onion
• salt & pepper
• olive oil
• day-old bread

Step One: Preheat the oven to 350°F and clean the pumpkins. Slice each baby pumpkin in half, through it’s equator, and scoop out the seeds. Cut the stem off the top half of the pumpkin so that it can lay flat.

Step Two: Fill the bottom of a cookie sheet or baking dish with water. You don’t need much, just enough to cover the entire bottom. Place the pumpkins upside down in the dish and steam them in the oven for 15 minutes.

Step Three: While the pumpkins are steaming in the oven, sauté the mushrooms and onions in one tablespoon of olive oil for about five minutes or until the onions are translucent.

Step Four: After you remove the pumpkins from the oven, increase the oven temperature to 375°F. Flip the pumpkins over and place the sautéed mushrooms and onions in the bottom of the the pumpkin cavity. Slice the day old bread into small cubes and place them into the cavity along with the mushrooms and onions.

Step Five: Whisk the eggs and cream together along with the salt and pepper. Use 2 teaspoons of cream for every egg. You’ll have to use your judgement for how much custard you’ll need. If your pumpkins have a larger cavity, you’ll need more. If you’re using smaller pumpkins, you’ll need less. Pour enough custard into the pumpkin cavity to cover the bread, mushrooms, and onions.

Step Six: Brush the edges of the pumpkin flesh with olive oil and bake for 20-30 minutes. When the egg is set, the quiche is done!

This is one of my favorite fall dishes, I hope you have a chance to give it a try. Pumpkin quiche makes an excellent side dish for Thanksgiving, as well. In the past, I’ve made it with larger pumpkins that get passed around the table and you just take a scoop out for your plate.  If mushrooms and onions aren’t your thing, you can use any filling that you want. I’ve made sweet pumpkin quiche with cranberries and walnuts and a little brown sugar in the custard, and it turned out well. This is a good dish to improvise and experiment with and really make it your own.

Before I go, I just wanted to share with you the finished product of the cover for the Mauitime I mentioned in my Pumpkin Pie post. You can check it out on my website heatherdiane.com. It was a fun and successful collaboration with Justin “Scrappers” Morrison. I hope you have the chance to check it out! Have a great week, everyone!

Love,

Heather Diane

Luxurious Treat

 

A simple treat that I’ve been enjoying a lot lately is figs with melted blue cheese, drizzled with honey. It’s a really quick and luxurious side dish or appetizer. Turn on the broiler in your oven and slice figs lengthwise. Place them in a baking dish face up and put a healthy slice of blue cheese on top.  Put them in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese, it only takes about a minute. After the cheese is melted, remove them from the oven and drizzle with honey. It is a really fancy seeming dish that takes all of five minute to prepare. Go ahead, treat yourself!

Okay, It’s Official

  As much as I hate to admit it, autumn is here.  I realize that for most of the country, this summer was a particularly hot one and the cool weather is a relief. But here in the Bay Area, we hardly got a taste of summer. It’s not that I dislike fall, but I really miss the warm weather of the south. The weather here was foggy and cool June through September and the promised indian summer never came. Now, the rains have returned, which ends any hope of warm weather.

Since there’s no use fighting it, I decided to embrace the autumn weather by making my favorite seasonal dessert, pumpkin pie. If anything is going to get me exited about the fall, it’s pumpkin dishes. There’s something about the earthy sweetness of pumpkin that is just so comforting.

Before I get to the pie recipe, I wanted to share a few other things I’ve been working on and some ideas for the blog. I’ve been quite busy lately with sign painting, screen printing, and illustrating. I recently finished up my end  an exciting project with Justin “Scrappers” Morrison for the Maui Time. I’ll share more when the project is finished and in print but for now, here’s a little peek:

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Also, as some of you may know, I work as a sign painter in San Francisco at New Bohemia Signs.  I’ve wanted to incorporate more sign painting into Illustrated Bites for a long time. My new and exciting plan for doing that is to create food-related signs and do occasional give-aways here on the blog. In conjunction with that I’ll also be selling some signs online. This new project was inspired by a sign I recently  painted for my lovely friend, Emily.

So, yeah…I made a pumpkin pie AND it was awesome. I will admit that this pie was pretty labor intensive because I made it completely from scratch but it’s TOTALLY worth it. The good news is that this recipe made enough filling for a second pie, so it’s sort of a two for one deal.  My sweetie’s folks were in town and his mom helped me though the process, which made a world of  difference in the workload (Thanks Nancy!)  I highly recommend getting someone to lend a hand when you make this.

Step one: Pick up a pumpkin. I used a sweet pie pumpkin I bought at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. Slice the pumpkin into wedges and scrape out the guts. Use a paring knife to cut the flesh away from the rind. Don’t worry if you leave some flesh on the rind, it’s pretty hard to get it all.

Step two: Steam the pumpkin. Put all the pumpkin flesh in a pot with about a half a cup of water. Turn the heat to medium and cover.

Step three: While the pumpkin is steaming, make the pie crust. It’s easiest if you have a food processor.

Crust Ingredients: 

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 3 tablespoons ice water

1. Combine flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse.  Add the butter and process until the butter and flour are blended.
2. Place the mixture in a bowl and sprinkle in the ice water. Mix with a spoon and then gather into a ball. If it is too dry add a little more water; if it’s too wet, add a little flour.
3. Wrap in plastic, flatten into a disk and freeze for ten minutes.

Step four: While the dough is in the freezer, puree the the steamed pumpkin. The pumpkin should be steamed until it’s soft, and easily  punctured with a fork. Puree throughly, until there are no lumps. It will be easiest to do this in small batches.

Step five: Take the dough out of the freezer and sprinkle the countertop with flour. Unwrap the dough and sprinkle with flour. Roll the dough with light pressure from the center out. Add flour as needed.

Step six: When the dough is about 10 inches in diameter transfer it to your pie plate. Press into the plate and tuck the excess edges into itself and pinch for the crust. Return to the freezer while the oven preheats.

Step seven: Preheat to 425 Degrees F. Find something to weigh down the crust while it bakes. I used a cast iron skillet but you could use tinfoil and a pile of dried beans or rice. Anything that will lie flat. Just make sure to butter the side that will be in contact with the pie crust.

Step eight: Puncture the bottom of the crust with the fork and put the weight on the crust. Bake  for 12 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees F then carefully remove the weight and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Pie Filling:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch salt
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 cups light cream or whole milk

Step nine:  Beat the eggs with the sugar, then add the spices and salt. Mix in the pumpkin and the milk. Warm this mixture in a sauce pan over medium low heat, stirring occasionally.  Get it hot but not boiling.

Step ten: Pour the mixture into the the crust and bake for 30-40 minutes until mixture shakes but is still moist. Cool on a rack and serve at room temperature.

Extra credit: Homemade Whipped Cream
I told you this was an intense recipe!

• Half pint heavy whipping cream
• 4 teaspoons powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip the cream with a whisk until peaks form. Again, this is much easier with a partner to take turns with. When the cream is stiff, fold in the vanilla and powdered sugar. Viola! Whipped cream.

Phew, that’s a monster. Anyways, you’ll feel great once it’s done and it’s so delicious you’ll forget it took like, three hours. If you’re like me, as it cools down and the winter rains start, you’ll look for any excuse to spend an afternoon in a warm kitchen. I hope you enjoy. Please let me know if you tackle this beast, I want to hear all about it!

Time to Get Real, Y’all

Dear wonderful reader,

It’s Monday night and I’m drunk. Not super drunk, just tipsy. I haven’t had dinner yet and beer always goes straight to my head when I haven’t eaten. There’s a pizza in the oven and It’s smelling pretty good… While I’m sitting here cruising the internet while dinner cooks, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want Illustrated Bites to be. All summer I’ve been distracted with illustration work and playing outside, so I haven’t done much cooking. The blog has definitely gone downhill in that time. At least, I feel like it has.

Time for confessions. I’m not an awesome cook. I think I’m better than most people my age but I’m still learning. I feel like I’ve been putting up a front, like I’m this amazing chef and you should listen to all my insight and knowledge. But I’m not!  In this way I feel like I haven’t been very connected to my blog and therefore not very motivated to do it. My writing has also been really guarded…so I’m just going to fucking cut that out (sorry, Mom!)

It’s time to get real, y’all. I’m 24, learning to be a real life grown up, an aspiring illustrator, and a budding chef. I like to cook,  I love to eat, and I love to draw. And this blog is now going to be more about all of those things, not just recipes. It’s going to be illustration, bites about life, illustrated food, eats and bites, and much more. But don’t worry,  there will still be recipes.

Whew, that said… let’s move on.

Love,

Heather Diane

p.s. If you’re wondering (and rightly so) what’s with all the fish; the topic of this post was originally going to be about which fish are the most sustainable and ecologically friendly to eat. But I had to get some things off my chest. However, I do think it is a really important topic and you should check out Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. You can download guides specific to your region and easily search different seafood so you can make the best consumer choices.