Broccoli & Chickipea puree

I made hummus the other day, after blogging about the white bean spread, and will definitely try this Broccoli & Spinach puree from NYTimes.com next. I love the green, and this would be a nice way to use up an odd amount of leftover broccoli.

Simple Bread Spreads: White Bean

I received this very As-Seen-On-TV spinning/pulling/chopping gadget for Christmas. While the device definitely does not chop neatly enough for most uses, I've discovered it minces like magic, and provides a 'rustic' (not entirely smooth) puree in moments.

So here's the first little dip I made recently: white bean with olive oil. It's super easy -- just don't get too laissez faire and or your liable to forget, for example, all of the parsley.

White Bean Dip with Parsley Oil (or just oil, in my case)

Food & Wine magazine

Ingredients

• 1 C dried white beans (I used navy, which always confuse me because I expect them to be blue)
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and fresh pepper
• 1 C flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1 C celery leaves

Cover the beans with 2 inches of water in a saucepan. Add garlic, thyme and bay. Bring to a boil, then simmering for about two hours, stirring occasionally and adding water to maintain level.

Drain, reserving 1/3 C of the cooking liquid. Remove herbs, and transfer beans, garlic, cooking liquid and 1/4 C of the olive oil to a food processor. Puree. Season with salt and pepper. Here's where I used the spinning/chopping gadget (officially the Chef'n VeggiChop). It worked perfectly, and was way less mess than the food processor.

Very finely mince the parsley and celery leaves, then add to the remaining olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the white bean dip to a shallow bowl, and pour olive oil mixture on top. Or, if you have forgotten the entire part about parsley, just top with plain olive oil and season with extra salt and pepper.

Guest Blogger: Rosemary Parmesan Puffs

Growing up, there was really only 1 cook in the kitchen - my mom. My dad was sort of the pinch hitter, brought in off the bench for big events like Thanksgiving and Christmas to bake and carve the turkey and possibly mash a potato or two. He also whipped up some pretty mean Raggedy Ann birthday cakes for yours truly. However, in the past five or six years (much to my mom's surprise and delight) my dad has fast-tracked to foodie and chef extraordinaire. Though of course, like all modest and selfless fathers, he's the last to admit it, shrugging off our praises as "simply following the recipe". Well dad, I'm here to say, that you can follow the recipe and still be a horrible chef. Case in point: Not Always the Bread Winner.

My dad stumbled across this recipe while searching for Thanksgiving appetizers. The recipe is a simple and quick appetizer - perfect when you've got five other 1st and 2nd courses to prepare. The result of this recipe are, to quote the chef, "tiny cheesy gougeres that are delicious and kind of retro-Frenchy". I would just call the recipe absolutely delicious.

Rosemary Parmesan Puffs
Recipe from: Star Palate by Chef Kathy CaseyRecipe Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 22-25 minutes per batch
Yield: about 50 Puffs

Ingredients:
½ cup Water
½ cup Whole Milk
6 tablespoons Butter
1 tablespoon very finely chopped fresh Rosemary
½ teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon minced Garlic
1 cup Flour
4 large Eggs
3/4 cup grated high-quality Parmesan Cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring water, milk, butter, rosemary, salt, and garlic to a boil over medium-high heat in a heavy medium-sized saucepan. All at once, add the flour and stir in quickly with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring-mixture will come away from the sides of the pan and become thick and stiff. Keep stirring and turning over for about 1 minute (you want to dry the mixture out a bit).

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and, with a handheld or standing mixer, mix on medium-high speed. Add 1 egg. As soon as egg is partially incorporated, increase mixer speed to high. Add remaining eggs ONE AT A TIME after each previous egg is well incorporated. Mixture should be smooth. Mix in the Parmesan.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. You will need 2 or 3 baking sheets, or work in batches (if you don’t have parchment paper, lightly spray baking sheets with nonstick vegetable spray and watch the cheese puff bottoms closely to prevent over-browning). Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls-they should be the size of large marbles-onto parchment; or you can pipe it from a large piping bag fitted with a large plain tip.

Bake on upper rack of oven for 22 to 25 minutes, or until puffs are golden. Serve warm. If you are short of baking sheets, have more balls ready on sheets of parchment. When a batch of puffs is done, remove the baking sheet from the oven, pull off the parchment filled with cooked puffs, and quickly add the next parchment sheet of puffs.