A Salad for Warmer Days

So, it's 8:30 on a Friday night, and I'm sitting in my bed after having eaten a lovely homemade pizza dinner with my parents. I know what you are all thinking. Does she not have friends? How old is she, because did she ever tell us? Why is she in bed so early? Why isn't she posting about the homemade pizza?

I'm here to answer all of your questions, and more! First, I do have friends. Such good friends, in fact, that I'm leaving in two days to  go stay with some of them in Boston for a week! I'll touch back on that later. The answer to the second question is that I am 19, so it's pretty weird for somebody my age to spend their Friday night this way, which brings us to the third answer. I have a very good explanation for this. You see, I work at a bakery, and bakeries have early hours. Long story short, I have work at 6:30am tomorrow. But I'm staying up to blog for you guys because I love you all so much and I love talking about food even more.

Finally, my answer to your fourth question is that my mom made it, and I would never steal the credit for anybody else's work. Though I do have to say that I make some pretty fantastic pizza, which I will definitely be writing about in the near future.

Anyways, back to the main reason for this post. A salad. Not a boring salad with the wilted iceberg from your bottom drawer, and not a grab-store-bought-dressing-from-the-fridge salad either. None of that shit in my kitchen.

Whenever I go food shopping, I usually try to buy at least two or three different kinds of lettuce. I almost always have spinach and arugula in my fridge, so for this salad I used spinach. I love the way spinach wilts under the sauteed onions I threw on top, because it gives it a different texture than a regular cold salad. Along with the spinach and onions, I threw in some chevre, sliced strawberries, and half of an avocado. I sauteed the onions in olive oil, and because of that the salad didn't need much dressing, but I drizzled on some aged balsamic vinegar, because I'm obsessed with anything and everything vinegar.

This salad is really simple, and easy to make if you only have a short time to eat lunch, or you're just too hungry to wait long for anything. For me, thinking about this salad is what helped get me through work today. With the strawberries and avocados, it really reminds me of warm weather, and I think everybody needs a reminder of what that feels like right now. #elkinthekitchen.

A Salad for Warmer Days

Ingredients
1-2 handfuls of spinach
3 strawberries
1/2 avocado
2 Tbsp chevre
1/2 onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cut the onion into slices. It doesn't matter how thick or thin, as long as they are all around the same size. Pour the oil into a sautee pan, put heat on medium, and throw in the onions. Let them fry for around five minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so to make sure they are not burning.
2. Once the onions are done cooking, it is time to assemble the rest of the salad. Put the spinach in a nice sized bowl. Slice the strawberries and avocado, and throw them in on top of the spinach, along with the onions. Crumble the chevre on top. Mix around so the warm onions can wilt the spinach and melt the cheese a bit.
3. Once everything is in the bowl, drizzle a bit of balsamic on top, sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and enjoy!

I hope this recipe reminds you of summer they way it does for me. As I mentioned earlier, I am going away next week, and I will try to keep up with posts, but if I stop for a few days, do not fear! I won't abandon the blog, or you guys for that matter, so just know that if there is ever a lull in posts, it's for good reason (like a vacation!!).

Drinking Chocolate

This post is going to be short. While it won't seem like a lot, while it may seem like an afterthought, I believe that everybody should have access to this recipe. My drinking chocolate is unlike any Swiss Miss or Hershey's chocolate syrup you've ever had. It's not too sweet, but it's one of the most chocolatey things you'll ever taste, if you use the right quantity and quality of chocolate.

You have a few options when it comes to this drinking chocolate. I give you the option to add salt if you would like. The salt deepens the flavor of the chocolate, but it definitely takes it even farther away from the traditional, super sweet hot chocolate. I love adding salt to mine, but I have weird taste buds, or so they tell me.

You could decide to drink it straight up, as is, hot chocolatey milk, or you could choose to throw a bunch of marshmallows and a huge pile of whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. The first option is more natural, and definitely healthier for you, but the second option is way more fun. And isn't that what we need right now in this dark winter, some fun? #elkinthekitchen

Drinking Chocolate

Homemade Drinking Chocolate

Ingredients

2 oz (2 squares) high quality dark chocolate

1 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 pinch of sea salt (optional)

1 cup whole milk, warmed up to above room temperature

Directions

1. Chop or shave the chocolate into smaller, finer pieces. They don't have to be perfectly shaved, but make sure they are small enough to melt easily, and at the same pace.

2. Melt butter in small saucepan. Add chocolate shavings, constantly whisking to combine with the butter. If you are adding the pinch of salt, now would be the time.

3. Slowing pour in the warm milk, a few tablespoons at a time, whisking constantly to properly combine with the melted chocolate. If you fail to whisk them together, the chocolate will separate from the liquid.

4. Keep on heat, whisking until it has come to your desired heat. This process will only take a few minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on the mixture the entire time it's on the stove, and be careful not to scald or curdle the milk. Once hot, remove from heat, and pour into your favorite mug.

5. If you are adding the additional toppings, now is your chance. I like to put the marshmallows on first, so they get melty in the hot chocolate. I then quickly whip up some heavy whipping cream in a bowl to make my own whipped cream, which I dollop on top of the marshmallows. Finally, I sprinkle some extra chocolate shavings on top, because it just looks so darn pretty.

Pickled Vegetables

Although I'm notorious for telling everybody how much I love the winter, how the snow is my favorite type of weather, and how I am a "winter baby" because I was born in February, I'll admit I'm currently a bit sick of it. That is the reason why I drove to four different stores today to find the things I needed to make pickled vegetables. I needed something to get me out of this slump, and the thought of crisp, vinegary, and salt vegetables sounded like the perfect idea.

If I'm being completely honest, I didn't need to go to four different stores, but I needed to put some okra in my pickling jars, and nobody seemed to have it. After two hours and some good sleuthing skills, I finally got my hands on some, and I was ready to pickle!

I grabbed four brand new 12 oz canning jars, sterilized them in a hot water bath, and I was ready to stuff them with my vegetables. I chose to use onions, cucumbers, okra, garlic, and jalapenos. Along with the veggies, I used dill, mustard seeds, and black peppercorns to flavor the pickles. After packing the jars with veggies, it was time to add the liquid. For the pickling liquid, all you need are equal parts water and vinegar, and a decent amount of salt. I brought the liquids and salt to a boil in a larger pot, and then filled the jars with it, but not all the way to the brim. The only thing left to do was to seal the jars in another hot water bath, and my work was done!

The one annoying part of pickling is that there is no instant gratification, because you need to wait at least 1-2 weeks for the pickles for be ready to eat. So, in two weeks, I'm going to be a very happy girl. #elkinthekitchen

Pickled Vegetables

Ingredients
8 oz okra
1 large cucumber, in slices
1 large onion, quartered
8 cloves garlic
2 jalapeno peppers, each cut in half
8 sprigs dill
4 tsp mustard seed
4 tsp black peppercorns
2.5 cups apple cider vinegar
2.5 cups water
4 Tbsp kosher salt
4 12 oz canning jars

Directions
1. Sterilize jars and lids in a hot water bath
2. Fill each jar with 1/2 of a jalapeno, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs dill, 1/4 of the onion, 1/4 of the sliced cucumber, 1/4 of the okra, and a tsp each of mustard seeds and black peppercorns.
3. Combine vinegar, water, and salt in a pot and bring to a boil.
4. When the liquid has boiled, turn off heat, and ladle enough liquid into each jar to cover the vegetables, but not all the way to the brim. I left about a half of an inch, or an inch, of room at the top of the jars. Screw the lids on securely.
5. Once the lids are on the jars, you need to seal them by boiling in another hot water bath for 10 minutes. The lids should be a bit concave when they come out of the bath. If they are not, that means they did not fully seal, and the jars that did not seal you must keep in the refrigerator. Those jars will keep for about a week.
6. Let the jars that sealed properly sit for a week or two before you break into your pickles.

Panko Chicken Nuggets and Homemade Ketchup: A Not-So Oscar-Worthy Snack

For whatever reason, every food blog that I follow has been saying that popcorn is THE snack for the Oscars this year. Well, I say no to that. Mostly because I had a hunger much stronger than any popcorn could satisfy. So, I decided that the only option was chicken. Chicken breaded in Panko crumbs and then fried. And of course, it had to be accompanied by ketchup, because I'm not crazy. In an attempt to make myself feel less guilty, I made my own homemade ketchup. It was the first time I'd ever tried it, and let me tell you, it was worth it. Nobody really cared what my predictions were for the Oscars (mostly because I hadn't seen any of the movies), but everybody was waiting with bated breath to see what I put on their plates for dinner tonight.

Chicken Tenders, Mid-Fry

Finished Ketchup, after 2 hours of Simmering

This meal is decently easy to make. The only trouble is that the ketchup takes 2+ hours to make, so you either need to make sure you cleared enough time out of your day, or just make it in advance (which is totally doable). For me, I made it today, because it's Sunday, and what else did I have to do? Nothing, I had nothing else to do. I actually decided extremely last-minute to make the ketchup. and luckily I had all the ingredients I needed. I started off by sweating chopped red onion and garlic in sunflower seed oil and salt, and then adding a chopped red chili pepper to sautee a bit with them.

After a few minutes, I added tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, molasses, water, lemon juice, and a mixture of ground spices.

I combined all the ingredients with a stir or two, waited until it boiled, and then reduced heat to low and let it simmer for two hours. The ketchup cooks down so much in that time, it's ridiculous. It probably ended up being one quarter of what the pot started with.

After the simmering and the considerable reduction, I blended the mixture with my immersion blender, and it was finished! Like I said, super easy, even if it did take a few hours.

The ketchup was time consuming, yet easy. The chicken was very quick to make, but much more hands-on. So hands-on that I found my fingers coated in buttermilk and Panko. It was worth it though.

I started with my 1.5 lb container of chicken tenderloins, which I cut in half to make the nuggets more nugget sized. I then seasoned both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper, making sure to wash my hands before I touch the pepper mill and salt pig.

Raw Chicken, Super Cute!

 After seasoning the chicken, I grabbed three soup bowls, and filled one with flour, one with buttermilk, and one with Panko. It's hard to determine how much you're going to need of each of those things, so it's good to start off with small amounts and keep the containers of extra close by, so as not to waste anything.

 The coating process for the chicken is easy: flour first, then buttermilk, then Panko, and finally the pan. Make sure to pour the olive oil (or sunflower seed oil, or your preferred oil) in the pan and heat it before adding the chicken. Cook the chicken until golden on both sides (turning over mid-fry so that both sides have a chance to become golden), and make sure there is no pink on the inside.

 We only want delicious white on the inside. After the chicken is done cooking, pile it all on a plate, sit down with your friends, and enjoy it dipped into some of your fresh ketchup! There will be lots of leftover ketchup, so make sure to store it in a secure container, so you can enjoy it for the next few days. Thanks for reading! #elkinthekitchen

Homemade Ketchup

Ingredients
1/2 red onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili pepper, seeds in, diced
1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
3 tsp salt
1 sprig thyme
1 pinch black peppercorns
1 pinch fennel seeds
1 pinch coriander seeds
14 oz tomato paste
1.5 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp molasses
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions
1. Sweat onion and garlic in sunflower oil in salt for 2-3 minutes. Add diced pepper, and cook for a minute or two longer.
2. Grind thyme, peppercorns, fennel, and coriander. Add the spice mix, tomato paste, water, vinegar, molasses, sugar, and lemon to the pot with the sweating vegetables, and stir once or twice to combine.
3. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to low and let simmer for two hours. The ketchup will reduce considerably, and thicken up very nicely.
4. After two hours of simmer, use an immersion blender to blend the ketchup into a smooth mixture. If you don't have an immersion blender, you and blend in a blender in small batches. If worse comes to worst and you don't have any type of blender, the ketchup will still be delicious without it.
5. Enjoy with a burger, fries, chicken nuggets, or anything else you would like!

Panko Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients
1-2 lbs chicken tenderloins
1-2 cups buttermilk
1-2 cups flour
2 cups Panko
1/4 cup olive oil or sunflower seed oil

Directions
1. Cut tenderloins into halves or quarters, in order to make them more nugget-sized (it's more fun to eat them that way). Once cut, season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Make sure to wash your hands with soap before touching anything.
2. Grab 3 bowls and fill one with flour, one with buttermilk, and one with Panko. Coat all the nuggets with the flour first. Next, dip the flour-coated tenderloins into the buttermilk. Finally, coat the nuggets in the Panko crumbs.
3. Heat the oil in a medium-large frying pan. Once the oil is hot, place the tenderloins in the oil. Cook until golden brown on each side, and completely white on the inside (about 3-4 minutes per side). If you have to do your chicken in two batches, that is okay! I did mine in two batches.
4. Once fully cooked through, take the nuggets out of a pan, pile on a dish, and eat with your homemade ketchup.

Creamy Baked Eggs with Leeks and Cheese: The Perfect Winter Brunch

It's a Sunday morning after a particularly bad snowstorm, and there is only one thing on my mind: brunch. I'm not thinking about yogurt and granola, or a green smoothie, or half a grapefruit. No. Those things are all good when the time is right, but right now I'm looking for something a bit heartier. That is why I will being sharing with you my recipe for Baked Eggs with Creamy Leeks, and Cheese.

Creamy Baked Eggs with Leeks, Herbs, and Cheese

This meal is simple, delicious, and full of protein, so it makes everybody in the family happy. The amount of people that you are feeding will determine the amount of eggs, but for me, I used a skillet that can fit about 4 eggs, to feed myself, my mom, and my dad.

You can choose whichever cheeses and herbs to use in your dish, but this morning I chose to add rosemary and thyme as the herbs, and I grated Swiss and Locatelli into the dish for my cheeses. I love adding rosemary and thyme to pretty much any dish, so that was a no-brainer for me. As for the cheese, if you didn't want to use either of the two I mentioned, Gruyere would be a very nice substitution. Along with those ingredients, and the eggs, you will leeks, butter, heavy cream, and salt and pepper.

Ingredients: Eggs, rosemary, thyme, leeks, unsalted butter, Swiss cheese,
 Locatelli cheese, heavy cream, and salt

Once you have all your ingredients assembled, cleaned, and chopped/grated, the fun really begins. I start off the process by cooking the leeks in the butter directly in the skillet until they are aromatic and brighter in color.

Leeks cooking in butter

I then add half of the herbs and cheese, as well as 2 Tbsp of the heavy cream, on top of the leeks, before cracking the eggs into the skillet.

Make sure the yolks remain intact. Once you've got the eggs in the pan, you can pour a bit of the remaining heavy cream on top of each yolk, and then add the remaining cheese and herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste and then pop it in the oven!

After you're finished baking the eggs, you can divide it up to serve, or you can all dig into the same pan. Personally, I like eating from the same skillet. I think it brings people closer, but maybe I'm just weird. Serve with a piece of nice whole grain toast, and you've got yourself the best way to start your day! I hope you enjoyed your first taste of Elk in the Kitchen! #elkinthekitchen

Creamy Baked Eggs with Leeks and Cheese
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup chopped leeks, cleaned
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 sprig thyme, chopped
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used Swiss and Locatelli)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt butter in ovenproof skillet. Once butter is melted, add the chopped leeks and cook until leeks become aromatic and brighter in color, about 3 minutes.
3. Remove skillet from heat and add 2 Tbsp heavy cream, half of the herbs, and half of the cheese into the buttery leeks. Stir once or twice to incorporate,
4. Crack eggs into the skillet, being sure to keep the yolks intact. Pour a bit of the remaining heavy cream on top of each yolk, and sprinkle in remaining herbs and cheese. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
5. Place skillet in oven and bake until whites looked cooked but the yolks are still runny. This will be about 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven.
6. Once the eggs are done cooking, remove skillet from oven, divide the creamy goodness between you and your hungry guests, and enjoy with some nice toast or a biscuit!  

Welcome to Elk in the Kitchen

Hello everybody! My name is Elke, and I like to cook. I am 19 years old, and I'm about to start college in Philadelphia as a Culinary Arts major. This blog is my way of sharing my foodie journey with the world.

Up until now, I have never meandered over to the world of blogging, but I have kept a journal of my culinary accomplishments on my Instagram account, elknation, as well as under the hashtag, #elkinthekitchen. Please check out my stuff, and stay tuned for exciting things on Elk in the Kitchen!