Royal Salad (with a cheesy crown)

Cheese.

Ahhhhhm cheese ... I must be part cartoon mouse because I adore cheese. Real cheese, though. Not cartoon cheese.

I like it plain, I like it cooked. I like it gooey and melty, I like it creamy, and I like it crispy. Mmmm. Crispy. What's better than cheese that has melted and then gotten a little brown and crisp on the edges?

Well, how about cheese crisps? And then, for the fun of it, how about molding those crisps into interesting shapes? That's exactly what I did with this salad, molding the crisp cheese into a "crown" that topped the salad. And for the jewels in the crown, I filled it with red and yellow tomatoes and some cubes of cucumber that peeked through the holes of the cheese.

I didn't include ingredient amounts for the salad itself because, well, you know how much salad you want. Make it the way you like it!

Royal Salad (with a cheesy crown)

For the cheese crisps:
Grana Padano cheese 

For the balsamic drizzle:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (the cheap stuff is perfect)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

For the salad:
Mixed lettuce greens (your choice)

Cucumber, peeled and cut in 1/4 inch dice

Cherry tomatoes, quartered

Chive olive oil (or plain olive oil, or other herb-infused oil, as desired)

Balsamic drizzle

Cheese crisps

Salt

To make the cheese crisps:
Grate the Grana Padano cheese  - a loose cup per crisp is plenty. Pile the cheese on a silicone baking mat in circles that will be wide enough to drape over whatever you'll use to form the cups. I used a flower-shaped cakelet pan.

Bake the cheese at 350 degrees until it melts and browns slightly - start checking after about 10 minutes, and watch it carefully until it has completely melted and browns lightly. You can let it brown further, if you prefer, but don't let it brown too much or it may get too brittle to deal with on the salad. It will be very pliable when it's hot, but it will harden quickly as it cools.

Carefully remove the melted cheese rounds and drape them over your preferred mold - the back of a muffin pan will work perfectly, or you can use something fancy like the cakelet pan I used.

If the cheese hardens before it drapes, you can put the pan into the oven to let it soften and conform to the shape you're looking for - this is why it's good to use the back side of a baking pan - you can put it in the oven.

Let the cheese crisps cool, then carefully remove them from the pan.

To make the balsamic drizzle:
Put the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and add the sugar and the split vanilla bean with its seeds. Simmer on low heat stirring, as needed, until the sugar melts and the mixture thickens and it has reduced to about half the original volume. You could do this quickly at a full boil, but the point is to infuse the vinegar with the vanilla flavor, so simmer slowly.

When the vinegar has reduced, let it cool, then remove the vanilla bean and transfer the liquid to a suitable container.

To assemble the salad:
Place the salad greens on serving plates. Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar reduction and olive oil, as desired. Figure about a tablespoon of each per salad - you can always pass more at the table.

Fill the cheese cup with tomatoes and cucumber. Place an extra leaf of lettuce on top to hold the vegetables in place as you flip it over on top of the salad. Sprinkle extra bits of cucumber on the salad greens, if desired.

Serve, passing extra vinegar and oil at the table for those who like more.

Gadgets: Staybowlizer

When a friend posted a photo of the Staybowlizer ($24.99) on Facebook, much conversation ensued. First, the scoffing. Then people started thinking of times when it might be useful.

At first, I thought this was just for keeping bowls in place on the counter, like when you're whisking something with one hand and pouring with the other and the bowl tends to skitter around on the counter. Yes, you can use it for that, but you could also just put a towel under the bowl to keep it more stable, right?

But after watching the video on the manufacturer's site, I thought, well, maybe it's not as silly as I first thought. When Adam Kuban said, hey, that would be great under the baby's bowl, I knew I had to take a closer look.

Flip the Staybowlizer one way up, and you can nestle a bowl in the ring and it keeps it from slipping around while you're whisking or stirring. Handy for times when you need to pour and whisk at the same time.

Flip it with the other side up and press the bowl down and it suctions to the counter. How secure that suction is depends on how smooth the bowl and the counter are. When I used a bowl with a textured bottom, it didn't hold nearly as well as when I used a smooth bowl. I was also able to suction a flat plate onto the counter and later I suctioned a saucepan to the counter. I'm not entirely sure why I'd need to do that, but it was amusing.

I used that suction feature when I was mixing a batch of royal icing, and I have to admit it was nice to just let the bowl sit securely for all that mixing time. For a batch of cake batter, not a big deal to hang onto the bowl, but when I had to spend a lot of quality time with that hand mixer, it was nice to be able to shuffle the mixer from one hand to the other while the bowl stayed in place.

The ring also works to turn a pot and bowl into a secure double boiler. I have a couple bowls that fit well into a certain pot, but the Staybowlizer let me use a wider selection of bowls and several other pots - handy if I've got the usual pot in use or I require a larger or smaller bowl. And, the silicone makes a nice seal, so it keeps steam from messing up my melting chocolate. Since the bowl stays firmly in place on top of the pot while I'm whisking or stirring, there's no need to try to grasp a hot bowl on top of a hot pot of water, which is a plus.

Since the Staybowlizer is made from silicone, it can be used as a trivet, and it's dishwasher safe.

I plan on using it for pumpkin carving very soon, to let me rest the pumpkin at an angle without it trying to roll away. I'm sure there are other crafty uses for it, but I'm not all that crafty.

The longer this hangs around my kitchen, the more uses I find for it, but I think this would be most useful for people who need an extra hand in the kitchen - like folks who have limited use of one hand, or for those who do a lot of the whisk-while-pouring recipes. It would also be great when the kids help in the kitchen, so the kids can mix or stir with both hands while the Staybowlizer keeps the bowl
steady.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

The Most Decadent Mashed Potatoes and Gravy ...

When people talk about comfort food, one of the first things I think of is mashed potatoes and gravy. If no one was looking, I could make a meal from mashed potatoes and gravy.

But just because it's comfort food, it doesn't mean you can't up-scale it a bit. Porcini mushrooms and a bit of truffle add that magical touch to this recipe. Meanwhile, the mushrooms take center stage, so there's no need for meat - this is a vegetarian gravy.

The truffle oil is used to finish the dish - and a little goes a long way. A few drops per serving is more than enough. If you prefer a more subtle truffle flavor, porcini and truffle-flavored oil is a nice option.

For very smooth potatoes, use a ricer or food mill rather than mashing. If you don't have either of those tools, you can still get smooth potatoes with a regular potato masher. Make sure the potatoes are fully cooked, and then mash them on their own, before you add butter or other additions.

Some folks like to use an electric mixer to beat their potatoes, but I'm not one of them. Over-mixing can lead to gluey potatoes, and that's not something I want to risk - I'd rather find a few bits of un-mashed potato.

Also, beating potatoes with an electric mixer brings back the horrifying vision of the green-flecked mashed potatoes I made when I was a kid. I used mom's electric hand-held mixer to beat the potatoes in the same pot she cooked them in. Unfortunately, it was a teflon-coated pan. Thus, the green flecks. It took us a while to figure out what happened, and it's not something I ever care to repeat.

Decadent Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Gravy

For the gravy
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt, as needed
Truffle oil

For the potatoes:
2 pounds yukon gold potatoes
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Salt, to taste
Milk, as needed

To make the gravy:
Put the dried porcini mushrooms in a saucepan with water just to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add more water, if needed, to keep the mushrooms barely covered.

Strain the liquid through a coffee filter or through a paper towel in a strainer. Reserve the liquid. Rinse the mushrooms and chop finely.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saute pan. Add the sliced portabella mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Cook until the mushrooms begin to lose their water. Add the diced porcini mushrooms and cook, stirring as needed, until all the liquid is gone. Add the flour and stir until you don't see any dry bits of flour.

Add the reserved mushroom cooking liquid, plus water to equal two cups. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook for at least 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste, stirring as needed. Continue cooking until the gravy has thickened to your desired consistency. Keep in mind that it will be thinner when it's simmering than it will be once it's off the heat. If you need to thin the mixture, add water as needed.

Add the thyme leaves and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if desired.

To make the potatoes:
Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Add to saucepan with cold water to cover. Add 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, then drain well.

Pass the potatoes through a ricer or food mill, or mash with a potato masher. Add the butter, sour cream, cream, and pepper, and stir to combine. Different potatoes will absorb liquid differently, so if the potatoes still seem dry, add milk, a little at a time, until you get to the consistency you desire. If you add a little too much liquid, heat the potatoes gently, stirring, to thicken the potatoes again.

Serve the potatoes with the gravy. Add a few drops of the truffle oil to finish each serving. Or, if you're passing the potatoes and gravy separately you can drizzle the oil into the gravy before serving.