Cooking up Some Barefoot Contessa!

I’ve visited a few of Ina Garten’s cookbooks before on my blog, but Ina’s books could never be a one recipe wonder, well not in my house anyway. We have eaten many great meals courtesy of Ina, and although I sometimes drift away from the Barefoot Contessa books, I always find my way back again.

UKTV Food channel in the UK has been showing Ina’s TV programmes for a while now, and I do like to watch her shows. I know from comments I’ve read on foodie forums that I frequent that Ina is either a like her or loathe her kind of woman, I like her a lot!

The most frequent question I get in relation to Ina is which book should I buy first? It’s a hard question, and one that I can’t really answer as I like them all; but this is not very helpful, so what I tend to say is I started with the first cookbook – The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and followed with the second Barefoot Contessa Parties! And have pre-ordered the rest as they came out. She has a new one out later this year – Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics for anyone interested.

Here is a selection of the most recent Ina recipes I’ve tried - all delicious.

Ina’s Creme Brulee from Barefoot in Paris, I’ve made this a couple of times and I played around with it a bit, half milk and half double (heavy) cream is my preferance. Recipe Here.

This is an absolute must try! Curried Couscous from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I found it hard to stop eating this – and believe me I never thought I’d say that about couscous =) Recipe Here.

Lemon Chicken

Lemon Chicken with Satay Sauce both from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, a terrific combination, her satay sauce is lovely, a bit thicker than many I’ve made before but packed full of flavour. Recipe Here.

A family supper, Mac and Cheese from Barefoot Contessa Family Style, makes a huge amount! Recipe Here.

Asian Salmon, Vegetable tian and sauteed sweetcorn from Barefoot Contessa Parties! (salmon and Corn) and vegetable tian from Barefoot in Paris, a really great Summer supper. Recipe Here, and Here and Here.

Pear, Apple and Cranberry Crisp a gorgeous crisp from Ina’s most recent book – Barefoot Contessa at Home. There is plenty fruit and loads of topping, mmmm. Recipe Here.

Breakfast Barefoot Contessa Style

Having gotten myself into a bit of a weekend breakfast rut, I decided it was time to lift myself out of it, and were did I look for inspiration? Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. They have been running her shows on UKTV Food for a while now, and I manage to catch a few new episodes which led me into an Ina recipe spree (more of which in later posts).

As I made her strawberry scones and granola, I had visions of walking into her deli and buying them, which is a bit silly really I suppose as I’ve never been there, and because it’s now shut am never likely to get there! Still I imagine it was a busy place to be on a Saturday morning.

Since Barefoot Contessa Cookbook arrived a few years ago it’s the strained breakfast orange yoghurt that I’ve not managed to get past, we really love it, and I now have yoghurt in the fridge ready for straining, will do that this weekend. The past couple of weekends though had been lit up at breakfast time by strawberry scones and granola.

The scones are nothing like a British scone, they are a lot richer for starters, with a big amount of butter and cream in the mixture. They were a bit rich for me, but maybe I was being too fussy as everyone else who tried them liked them. What I did like about them was the diced up dried strawberries - it was like a little mouthful of jam when one popped inyour mouth, mmmmm.

Home made granola has taken me a while to get right, I’ve resorted to baking it at much lower temperatures in the oven, and this time this particular granola came out perfectly, a fabulous mixture of oats, fruit and cashew nuts. I liked that the sweetener was honey and not sugar, it fits in better with my healthy / natural image of granola.

The oats with their coating baked and crispy.

The fruit and nut add ins.

Mix together to arrive at this, a great, filling and energy giving breakfast! Now I’ve had my fill of granola as is with milk, granola muffins here we come!

Granola
A halved recipe from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Click here for the full recipe courtesy of the Food Network. My Note: I cooked this at 160oC for 30 minutes and used sunflower oil.

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup sliced almonds

3 fl oz / vegetable oil

2 fl oz / 1/4 cup good honey

3/4 cup small diced dried apricots

1 cup small diced dried figs

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup roasted, unsalted cashews

Preheat the oven to 170oC / 350oF.
(1)Toss the oats, coconut, and almonds together in a large bowl. Whisk together the oil and honey in a small bowl. Pour the liquids over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated.
(2) Pour onto a 13 by 18 by 1-inch baking tin / sheet pan. Bake, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the mixture turns a nice, even, golden brown, about 45 minutes.
(3)Remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. Add the apricots, figs, cherries, cranberries, and cashews. Store the cooled granola in an airtight container.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken & Herbed Basmati Rice

I am a big fan of Ina Garten, have all her books and have cooked a good number of her recipes. UKTV Food has started to show some of the TV programmes too, and she’s great to watch. I eagerly awaited her new book last year - Barefoot Contessa at Home. When it came I thought it was good but not fantastic. Well over the last few months I’ve made a recipe here and a recipe there and it has grown on me so much that I think as much of it as say the first Barefoot cookbook or Parties! I actually think that her subtitle ‘recipes that you’ll want to make over and over’ is really accurate.

It’s funny how some books just look great from the start. I thought (and still think) Jamie’s Italy is great. When I received Jamie’s Dinners I was distinctly under whelmed, but over time I haven’t cooked anything (yet) from his Italy cookbook and lots from the Dinners one. I quite like these slow burners, they just sneak up on you and have a good place in your collection of books before you know it.

Here is my latest Ina supper.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken & Herbed Basmati Rice

The chicken comes from her first Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, I have been meaning to make it for well a few years I suppose. It was a combination of seeing Anna’s (of Anna’s Life) picture of it, and then that night when I was looking through Barefoot Contessa at Home I came upon her herbed basmati rice. In the introduction to the rice recipe she says it plays the perfect supporting role to this chicken (and also loin of pork with fennel).

The chicken is marinated in a mixture of honey, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. I halved the recipe and marinated 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I really dislike cooked chicken skin). I basted the breasts while roasting every 5 minutes, then simmered the marinade and thickened it into a sauce. The rice is cooked by the absorption method with a little butter, then spring onions, dill and parsley are forked through at the end. The chicken was delicious, as was the rice and the two went together really well, the mix of parsley and dill in the rice was inspired. I’ll serve them together again next time too. The only vegetable I added was a few spears of asparagus, I wanted to keep the main course light-ish because I had made a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for dessert – more about this in my next post!