Category: Barefoot Contessa

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #39: Meringues Chantilly

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This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, pg. 176.

Monday was my day off from work. And I had the opportunity to make dinner for us all once again. I made a recipe out of Cook Like a Pro. Check out Recipe #38! But, the original plan for Monday was to make a dessert! I think I’m becoming a dessert person. Ha!

So, sticking with the Paris and French theme I started last Friday, I decided to bang out a dessert recipe from Barefoot in Paris. Meringues Chantilly called to me as soon as I laid my eyes on it! So I knew that had to be it. But there was one problem. I’ve never attempted meringue before.

Well, this was definitely the recipe I would because, after all, one of the reasons for this blog is to learn new things, right? So the meringues were made. And to be honest, after I accomplished separating the egg whites successfully (went through a couple more than I wanted to, pesky yolks!), the stand mixer did most of the work.

Then came the piping! I read the recipe, drew my circles on the parchment, made of mess of the piping bag, my hand, and the counter and piped my circles. It wasn’t until after I stuck them in the oven that I realized they were supposed to be discs. Oh well! I’ll work with it and it still came out fine.

Since meringue can be kind of bland and dry on their own, I decided to whip up Ina’s sweetened whipped cream and the raspberry sauce that is a few pages later in Barefoot in Paris.

When it came time to serve, I spooned some raspberry sauce on the bottom of the plate, placed one meringue ring on top, added some whipped cream, more raspberry sauce, another meringue ring, a dab of whipped cream, and finally some more raspberry sauce. I garnished with some fresh raspberries and a strawberry.

How did it taste?

One word: DIVINE!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #38 Chicken Thighs with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Published on by RJ1 Comment

This recipe can be found in Cook Like a Pro, pg. 91

I had off from work on Monday, so I was asked to make dinner. Of course, I obliged. Usually, when it’s my turn to make dinner, I get to decide the meal from scratch entirely. But not Monday. I already the main ingredients to work with: chicken thighs. So, naturally, I seized the opportunity to cross another Barefoot Contessa recipe off the list.

Using the Master Recipe Index, I quickly found a recipe that would work. It was even better because we had nearly everything to make it. I only had to purchase one ingredient. Score! The creamy mustard sauce recipe calls for two types of mustard. One of which is one my family doesn’t really use. The amount in the recipe was only a teaspoon, so I opted to leave out the whole grain mustard entirely. But, you wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

This recipe cooked up nice and quick and was packed with so much flavor thanks to the Grey Poupon dijon mustard. The sauce was creamy despite not having any dairy product. This meal serves a crowd and it will definitely be a crowd-pleaser!

Overall the cooking time was off from what the recipe said it would be. I’ve found this to be typical of Barefoot Contessa recipes. However, in this case, I think it was due to the fact that I had really GIANT chicken thighs to cook. I had to spread them over two pans! They were so large and there was so many!

But, I just adjusted the recipe to compensate for the large number of thighs and went with it! This dish has so many different flavors that it will leave you wanting to have seconds…maybe even thirds.

I made dessert, too! That was the original plan for Monday. Just make a dessert. I chose to do something I’d never done before and make meringue. Check back tomorrow to see how they turned out!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #37: Provencal Vegetable Soup

Published on by RJLeave a comment

This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 82.

Last Friday, I made a recipe out of one of my favorite BC cookbooks, Barefoot in Paris. I’m not really sure what it is about this cookbook that interests me so much. Perhaps it’s the fancy food. Maybe it’s the fact that it allows me to live vicariously through Ina in Paris. Whatever the reason may be, the book is full of French-inspired cuisine that tastes great.

The original recipe for this soup calls for making pistou, which is basically the French version of pesto sauce. But it is March in New England, so fresh basil is hard to come by and what the grocery stores do have this time of year is expensive and doesn’t look too great. So, I decided to not make the pistou for this recipe.

Overall, this soup is basically a French-style minestrone. Though, personally I prefer the heartiness of a minestrone over this one. There are more layers of flavors in minestrone and this vegetable soup kind of felt a little flat. We had ample leftover and I found myself adding in crushed red pepper flakes each time I reheated it, just to add to the flavors.

This soup uses a vegetable that I’ve never seen in a soup before: string beans. It was a nice way to use this vegetable and spiced up the vegetable soup-monotony that I usually have (carrots, onions, potatoes, etc). Leaving the skins on the potatoes and using white potatoes give the soup a natural thickening agent, especially as it cools.

To keep with the healthier-eating plan that my family and I have been doing, I used vegetable spaghetti instead of regular spaghetti. As expected, once the soup cooled and remained in the fridge a few days, the pasta did act like a sponge and soak up a lot of the excess water. However, it seems that the pasta didn’t “bloom” as much as other pastas used in vegetable-based soups before.

Overall, Provencal Vegetable Soup is nothing to really write home about. While it is easy and can be adapted to use any vegetables you have available to you, the flavors weren’t really there for me. As is common with many Barefoot Contessa recipes, the heavy use of pepper overpowers the dish.

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #36: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Published on by RJ1 Comment

This recipe is available in How Easy is That?

This week, one of my co-workers had his last day at work before moving onto his new job. Usually we have a little party and lunch or dinner for the person leaving. Due to some COVID precautions, this was scaled back a tad. But, I still offered to make cupcakes!

Part of this — ok, most of it — was self-centered. I love to bake and I wanted another excuse to knock off a recipe. So, I offered to make the red velvet cupcakes. And let me tell you: they were a HUGE hit!

This recipe makes 15 cupcakes, which in my opinion is a great number. Many other red velvet recipes make like 24 cupcakes. I didn’t need that many…trying to lose weight and be healthy with cupcakes around the house isn’t a good idea–so Ina came through on that front as well!

These cupcakes weren’t dry and had the right balance of flavors. There wasn’t too much food coloring in them. That was nice because who likes tasting food coloring? The cream cheese frosting was the perfect balance between the tangy cream cheese flavor and sweetness. I highly recommend these for your next red velvet needs!

Due to COVID, I decided to put each one in little boxes. That way people could take them home if they didn’t want to eat them at work. Though, most of my coworkers just ate them right after serving. But, the boxes did make them look cute and more “professional.” I was very pleased with how these turned out.

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #35: Macaroni & Cheese

Published on by RJ1 Comment

This recipe can be found in Barefoot Contessa Family Style, page 202.

I’m sorry that this is a quick post!

Saturday night I made one of Ina’s macaroni and cheese recipes. This one is what I consider to be her “base” recipe, as some of her other books features variations on this recipe.

This recipe, though tasty, may not be popular with kids, despite it being in the Kids Entertaining section of her Family Style cookbook. I think it’s the Gruyere cheese that will give kids pause. It has a taste that borders on being an “acquired” one.

Despite this, this macaroni and cheese recipe is quick, easy, and tasty.

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #34: Banana Rum Trifle

Published on by RJ6 Comments

The recipe is from Modern Comfort Food, page 208.

A number of weeks ago I purchased a quart of heavy cream for a recipe that I wanted to make. However, plans changed and it didn’t happen. Soon, I realized that the expiration date on the cream was nearing and I didn’t want to throw it out. So, I started searching for recipes that would use a decent amount of the cream. Enter Ina Garten’s Banana Rum Trifle.

This is Ina’s take on banana pudding and let me tell you, it’s one of the best desserts I’ve had in a while! I will say, I did omit the rum from the recipe. I also chose not to “decorate it” with the whipped cream. However, this wonderfully light and sweet dessert can easily serve a crowd. In fact, I can see it going over very well at a summer picnic or holiday.

You begin by making a plain pudding….at that moment it is unflavored, just quite sweet. Once that chills for a while, you whip 3 cups of cream with vanilla and vanilla bean seeds. Then you add in the pudding and whip some more. Then the building phase begins.

The layers of cream and Nabisco wafers and bananas blend so well together and make this dessert taste like it came from heaven. A tip: follow the recipe and actually WAIT the time stated in the recipe before digging in. I know it will be hard, but it will be worth it!

The only downside to this dessert? It’s addicting! Be prepared to go for a jog afterward…for like an hour.

This one is going on the Favorites list!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #33: French String Beans

Published on by RJ5 Comments

This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 160.

The side dish I made to go along with the Panko-Crusted Salmon last Friday was something that took no time at all in the kitchen! Ina’s French-inspired French String Beans turn up the flavor on otherwise pretty bland veggies.

Sadly since it is February, I did not get the chance to truly enjoy the full potential of this recipe. I had to use frozen regular “American” string beans instead of the thinner, slightly longer French ones. But, I still think it turned out well enough for me to get a sense of what Ina was going for with it.

In the recipe, you pair the string beans with a mixture of peppers and a red onion. You roast the onion and peppers in the oven for about 15 minutes. I did this, but upon eating the meal I think they need another few minutes in the oven. The peppers were okay, but the onion could have used a little more “roasted” texture. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m trying to describe here. It seemed like another two to three minutes in the oven would have made things a bit better.

Despite this, the recipe produced a flavorful side dish that was pretty easy to make. That’s a win for me!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #32 – Panko Crusted Salmon

Published on by RJ2 Comments

This recipe is from How Easy is That?, page 152

For Friday night dinner, I made my first fish recipe in the Ina cook-through saga. My family usually eats fish about once a week, typically salmon. So, a salmon recipe seemed like the logical choice. We already had the fish and almost all the ingredients to make the panko crust. I think I only had to buy a lemon for the zest.

This recipe is pretty straight forward. But, to be honest, it’s nothing special. The dijon mustard does give the salmon an extra flavor and it plays nicely with the panko crust. The panko prevents the salmon from drying out which, obviously, make it more flavorful. If you’re looking to dress up your run-of-the-mill salmon filet, then definitely try this one. One of the perks is all the ingredients are pretty standard, so it won’t break the bank either. That was a nice reprieve from some other Ina recipes.

To my dish, I decided to throw in some of the pine nuts I used for the gremolata I made a few weeks ago. Those little nuts are expensive and I don’t want them to go to waste!

In addition to this recipe, I made a side dish. That recipe review will be posted later in the week.

See ya then!

Ina Garten Recipe #31 – Perfect Roast Chicken

Published on by RJ1 Comment

This recipe is from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, page 130.

It’s been a minute since I’ve made an Ina Garten recipe, hasn’t it?

In fact, I think this is the first recipe I made of hers in the month of February. Guess I won’t be matching or beating last month’s total of 8 recipes!

Anyway, I decided to make an Ina classic this time. In fact, I think many fans of her show would argue that this is one of her signature dishes. Roast Chicken!!

Continue reading “Ina Garten Recipe #31 – Perfect Roast Chicken” →

Barefoot Contessa Recipe #30: Winter Minestrone and Garlic Bruschetta

Published on by RJ2 Comments

This recipe can be found in Foolproof, page 53.

Last Friday was really cold! Like really, really cold. Mother Nature was definitely preparing us for more than a foot of snow we got on Monday. But, with the colder weather on Friday, I decided that a soup would be the perfect dinner. Of course, I made an Ina soup!

Continue reading “Barefoot Contessa Recipe #30: Winter Minestrone and Garlic Bruschetta” →