Rosemary Kitchen Witch

Curry Turkey Stuffed Peppers

2012-01-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

So after a few people I know had some major successes on the 17 Day Diet, I decided to try it out. I NEVER try diets, but I saw such great results with 4 people I know, I decided why not. So far I have not been dissappointed. I've lost about 11lbs in the 1st few weeks, so I'll keep it going.

So this recipe is 17 Day Diet friendly, for the 2nd phase of the diet. I've been getting pretty creative with making diet dinners seem more exciting, and this one was a big hit with me and Mateus.

Ingredients:
1lb ground turkey breast
1 cup wild rice
3 large green peppers
1 cup red pepper diced small
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup chopped scallion
1/2 cup curry salsa (I used The Brooklyn Salsa Company, but any curry sauce would taste good I'm sure)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt, pepper and Olive oil as needed.

Directions:
Boil the wild rice according to directions (this freakin took forever for some reason, but was worth it), rinse and set aside.
Cut each green pepper in half, take out the seeds and ribs, and put on a baking sheet into a 350 oven to start to soften them.
In a large pan, cook the turkey, breaking it up as much as you can, and remove from pan. Return the pan to the heat and saute all the veggies until soft. Once softened, add back the turkey, and add the cooked rice. Add the lime juice, cilantro, and curry salsa, combining everything. I kept my mixture a little on the dryer side, but you could always add more salsa, or lime, or olive oil to keep it a bit more saucy.
Take the peppers from the oven, and add the turkey mixture to each, piling it up high! Return to the oven for 20 minutes to let the peppers cook through.

So my peppers stayed a little crispy, but I was fine with it. I think next time I will add more curry, and cook for longer in the oven to they become a little most softened and brown on top.

Perfect Brussels Sprouts

2012-01-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Brussels Sprouts. Not everyone favorite vegetable, but perhaps we can change that! They are for sure an acquired taste for those who are not huge veggie heads. But once you have the taste for them and their sophisticated flavor you can benefit from how great they are for you! I LOVE THEM! While asparagus still hold the coveted position of Stephanie's favorite vegetable, the little mini cabbages are movin on up the ranks.

Directions:
I think the best method for making brussels is a quick steam followed by a roast. All I do it trim the rough stem area as much as possible while still leaving enough to keep the leaves attached, slice each sprout in half, and steam them for about 5 minutes until they are ALMOST fork tender. At this point you still want them crispy.

Then just toss them into a backing dish with plenty of room with a little olive oil and a decent amount of black pepper and salt. Put them into a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, tossing once, until they are brown and starting to get crispy and almost burnt. Sometimes if you get a really good batch of sprouts, i SWEAR they start to taste like pop corn, or roasted almonds.

I like to serve them as a side dish, OR on a salad.

Some other great options that make them even BETTER it to add a little lemon zest before the oven step, or then to toss them in a warm pan with some softened onion and crispy pancetta or bacon bits (real bacon, not the weird fake salad topper). Brussels and bacon are a crazy good combo. CRAY!

Blasphemous Marinara Sauce

2011-12-31T07:56:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests, I've committed Italian blasphemy and have just about given up making my own sauce. NOT because I'm bad at it, because I DO make an awesome sauce (hahaha...awesome sauce), but because it takes forever, which I don't always have, and it costs way too much once I've loaded all the meats I need in the cart.

I have found a way to make to make amazing sauce in like 15 minutes that tastes like you took all day and is perfect for lasagna or spaghetti or pizza. But you have to 1st be willing to commit the crime of buying a jarred sauce. But you have to buy a GOOD one, so shop around and try different ones each time to find your favorite. Mine is Lidia's. How could it not be? She is the QUEEN of Italian cooking. She is in my top 5 favorite tv personalities. She is amazing. Here's the jar:

I promise that this sauce will have you seriously rethinking slaving away for an entire sunday making sauce from scratch. This will allow you to have great sauce any day of the week.

Ingredients:

1 jar of good marinara sauce

1 package of ground meat (most of the time I use beef, but when they have it, USE LAMB! It takes this to a whole new level of luxury).

1 handful chopped parsley

1 handful chopped basil

4 tbs of heavy whipping cream (omg)

2 tsp of ground cinnamon (secret ingredient I stole from Tyler Florence)

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Brown all the meat in a pan with salt and pepper, drain the excess fat if you feel guilty about it. If not, leave it in for extra flavor. You shouldn't really need olive oil for this if the meat has enough fat in it. Once the meal is cooked, add the jar of sauce and simmer for 5 minutes to marry the meat flavor to the sauce. Turn the heat to low and add the cream, cinnamon, and herbs. The cream will give it a very silky and luxurious texture, and the cinnamon will add an unexpected warmth and depth to the flavor. You won't be able to taste actual cinnamon.

Keep it real with a wooden spoon people.

Cajun Halibut with Fennel and White Beans

2011-12-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

I made this a while ago, I THINK it was halibut, but I kinda forget. But you can make this with any firm white fish, tilapia, sea bass, cod, halibut. I normally just grab what looks the best for the money I'm willing to spend that day. The veggie mixture the fit is sitting on it one of my FAVORITE things EVER! Delish. Enjoy!

Ingredients (for 2):
2 servings of firm white fish
Cajun Seasoning
1 small yellow onion
1 large fennel bulb
1/2 can of white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 large tomato diced
handful chopped parsley
olive oil, salt and pepper
canola oil for the fish

Directions:
In a sauté pan, soften the onion, fennel, and garlic in some olive oil, salt and pepper. Once they become a little soft, add the white wine, olives and beans and simmer until the liquid reduces and creates a semi-thicker sauce. Add the tomatoes at the end so that they still exist when you eat it.. Otherwise they will probably just disintegrate (unless you want that, which probably is cool too). Add some parsely and turn off the heat.
For the fish, just add liberally amounts of black pepper and cajun seasoning to both sides (the one I used was the Trader Joe's brand because my cousin gave me some to try, but they all taste pretty much the same to me). Heat up some canola oil in a pan and brown the fish on each side on medium heat. Depending on the fish and thickness the times will vary. For the halibut it was about 5 minutes on each side.
Serve the fish over the fennel mixture. I highly suggest drinking the rest of that white wine with this meal.

Fun places we went in December!

2011-12-29T17:29:00.000-08:00

Just some cool stuff we ate in NYC this month. It was a fun holiday season, and Mateus and I had some great culinary adventures. And now we could use a diet. : )

Magnolia Bakery! Just got some cupcakes for fun.

Kun Jip, Korea Town.

They bring you all those smaller plates automatically, and we got some dumplings, pork and kim chi, and spicey squid hot pots.

Max Brenner! We had the European Fondue for Two and some hot chocolate. Delish!

An Chio on Orchard Street for some pho.

It hit the spot last night since it was FREEZING out, and also sobered us up a bit. Yes that's raw beef on top, but its so thin that once in the boiling hot broth it cooked right up!

Spitzer's Corner - Long Ireland Breakfast Stout and the Truffle Mac and Cheese really hits the spot!

McSorley's Alehouse.

We go all the time, its fantastic. Oldest bar in NYC, just our style. This photo is of all my work buddies that we met up with yesterday. Nothin beats a handful of lights, a handful of darks, and some crackers with cheese, onion, and mustard. : )

Happy New Year Everyone!

Blanched Veg with Garlic Aioli

2011-12-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

This made for a very different appetizer at Christmas this year. It went over nicely as a fun new option. I got the idea from Ina Garten (MY HERO!) who made it on her show but instead it was fingerling potatoes and the aioli. But they didn't have those at the store when I went. So instead I blanched some asparagus and string beans. Shocked then in ice-water so they stayed crisp and green, and refrigerated them so they were cool and refreshing.

Aioli Ingredients:

1(1/2-inch thick) slice white bread, crust removed
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
4 large garlic cloves grated or minced
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
Salt
Black pepper
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Chives, chopped

Directions:

For the aioli, tear the slice of bread into pieces and place in a bowl. Pour the vinegar over the bread, and set aside for 5 minutes. Everything else EXCEPT the olive oil goes into a food processor with the bread, and pulse until everything is incorporated. Then with the processor on, drizzle in the olive oil slowly and keep processing until it becomes this like sour cream. YOU JUST MADE MAYO! : ) Ew, I hate mayo, but this is pretty good. Like fancy mayo. In fact, save any leftovers to put on a sandwich!

Refrigerate! Dip veggies in it, spread on a sandwich, but whatever you do, eat a mint after. Phew!

Greek Chicken Meatball Bites

2011-12-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

I have to give credit to 2 ladies for this recipe, one that I like WAY more then the other. The first one is cousin Danielle, who said she made these for a party and they came out awesome and were very healthy, so she inspired me to make them. The other is Rachel Ray (uuuuuuuugh) who is the original author of the recipe that I VERY loosely followed.

I highly suggest making these for an appetizer to bring to a party, or to have as something new and fun for dinner like I did. I LITERALLY just made these for the 1st time and LITERALLY just ate them, and they were a big hit with the hubs (plus they only took a half hour to make total so that worked out well).

Meatball Ingredients:
1 package ground chicken breast (the small pack for dinner, larger for a party - i'm sure you can all eyeball the amounts accordingly for all the rest of the ingredients)
1/2 box frozen spinach - thawed and drained
2 tbs chopped dill
1/2 cup of crumbled feta (or more, whatevs)
1 egg
2 tsp each of ground coriander, black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes, and dried mint

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a fork - then with your hands once the fork thing pisses you off. Its gonna be super sticky and not want to form balls, so just do the best you can.
Drop small amounts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until they are firm and browning. Serve up with the following tzatziki sauce:

Tzatziki Ingredients:
1-2 cups plain Greek yogurt
2 inches of a cucumber grated or minced
zest of 1 lime, and juice of half
2 tbs fresh chopped dill
1 SMALL clove of garlic grated (or minced super super small)
1 tsp dried mint (of you have it - not that important)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Ummmmm, mix in a bowl? Refrigerate? pretty self explanatory.

Baked Gnocchi Semi-Florentine

2011-12-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

So on food network (of course) I saw a quick commercial where Giada was making baked gnocchi, but since it was a commercial there was no recipe, and I couldn’t find one online, but it seemed like a good idea, so I invented a recipe and it was very VERY good, and very VERY rich. This was not a waistline-friendly dish. But if you want some molten comfort food in a bowl, this turned out excellent. I’m calling it “semi-Florentine” because I added some greens and veggies, but not ones traditionally found in Florentine.

Ingredients:

1 package fresh or frozen gnocchi, boiled until ALMOST done

3tbs butter

3tbs flour

1 cup heavy cream

3.5 cups skim milk

½ grated parm cheese

3 pinches of nutmeg

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Pinch of salt

A few healthy cranks of black pepper

3tbs crumbled goat cheese (garlic herb seasoned was good)

2 cups of slices mushrooms

3 cups of chopped kale

½ cup frozen peas

2 minced shallots

Directions:

Sautee shallots, mushrooms and kale in some olive oil and butter, seasoning with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. Set aside.

Making a béchamel sauce (BEST base for mac and cheese sauces, or to use in lasagna, or alfredo. *see note): take the butter and melt it in a sauce pot, and add the flour and stir until it’s a thick yellow liquid. Then add the cream, milk, parm and spices and continue to stir. In 5-10 minutes you will see the sauce start to thicken on the spoon. I like to add a decent amount of black pepper and nutmeg, and a pinch of cayenne so that its warm and peppery without being spicy. Once the sauce is thickened to a mac and cheese sauce-like consistency, remove from the heat and stir in the vegetables, including the frozen peas.

Boil the gnocchi until ALMOST done (softened on the outside but still firm/chewy inside), drain and add to the sauce.

The whole mixture can now be transferred into a buttered deep baking dish, crumble the goat cheese over the top, and then stick in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the top is brown and bubbly. Let the molten heaven cool a little before you try and eat that, unless you don’t feel like you need the skin on your tongue.

*Note: the start of this is basically making a rue. If you are going to make a big pot of white sauce, just increase the butter and flour to ensure it gets thick. Its always going to be equal parts flour to butter. The longer you cook those 2 ingredients together, the darker they will become, and dark rue is the start of some GUMBO!

This is a terrible photo that does not do the end result justice, but its all I got. I didn't plan on blogging this until I ate it.

Salmon Tartare, Ina Style!

2011-12-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe recently on Barefoot Contessa, and literally went out right after to buy all the ingredients. It was a daring decision to trust the supermarket’s “fresh” salmon, and eat it uncooked, but it was worth it! It made for a lovely, and fancy, weekend lunch! I would make this FOR SURE for a holiday and bring it as an appetizer with toast points or crackers. And even though it tastes and looks very rich, its so good for you! Only good fats!

Ingredients:

1lb fresh salmon, diced small

4oz package of smokes salmon, diced small

3tbs capers

2 shallots, minced

1tbs coarse mustard

1tbs Dijon mustard

3 limes juiced

1 tbs olive oil

Handful of dill, minced

Pinch salt

Few cranks black pepper

Just mix everything together let it all marinate in the fridge for 3 hours, this will “cook” the raw salmon in the acid of the lime juice. Serve over toasted pumpernickel bread, cut into toast points.

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

2011-10-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

Quarter some beets and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at 375 until tender.

Serve the beets atop a salad with some crumbed goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, chopped walnuts, scallions, and parsley with the following dressing:

Whisk together the following (amounts are estimated - go with your gut):

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar (the kind that says "glaze" is the best"
1 tps of dijon mustard
1 tbs honey
Salt and pepper

YUM!

Farmer's Market Finds on a Simple Plate!

2011-10-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

A few cool photos I took of some great stuff I got recently at the Nyack farmer's market, and how the veggies were applied to dinner!

These are candy cane beets. I roasted them and served them along side some other cool veggies, for a vegetarian feast.

King Oyster Mushrooms. Per the shroom lady's advice, I sliced these into "scallops" and browned them very quickly in a hot pan with butter. They acted as a non-meat meat that night.

Oyster mushrooms that i sauteed and served as a garnish over a root veggie soup. They made it VERY fancy while staying super earthy.

Here's the plate where the above mentioned beets and mushroom "scallops" ended up. No fancy seasonings, just salt, pepper, a little thyme, and the natural flavors of the vegs. I served it all up with some sauteed spinach and the beet tops! (Don't waste your greens people! if beet greens are too bitter, throw them in with greens you like and you will never know the difference).

2 Superb Soups for Fall!

2011-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Making fall time veggie soups is ridiculously easy and therapeutic. I like to buy root veggies, and try out different combinations of them while still applying the same basic soup formula with some additions here and there. Here are 2 that I've made recently, both had some similarities in flavor, with subtle differences. Also I will note some different ingredients that made them each special. The best part is you don't need a recipe, just add what you like! It all gets pureed anyway, and so that you don't feel like you're serving up baby food, just make sure you have an elegant garnish to add some sophistication!

Here's what was similar:

1. They both have white wine.
2. They both have thyme, black pepper, and nutmeg.
3. They both received some dairy at the finish (one got heavy cream, the other got some parmesan and a dollop of sour cream).
4. They both contain a half sweet potato, and about 3-4 regular potatoes.
5. They both contain 1 apple.
6. The both got pureed.

Soup #1: Roasted Turnip and Potato Soup with Mushroom and Red Pepper Garnish.

I roasted chunks of turnip, potato and an apple in the over with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. In a soup pot I sauteed some onions in butter and oil, added some white wine. Once reduced a little, add in the roasted veggies, some stock or water, and cook until everything is soft. For this one I used a stick blender to puree the soup, and added about 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a pinch of nutmeg at the end.

I topped this one with some sauteed oyster mushrooms and red peppers, as well as a few roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas). The mushrooms were "flash sauteed" in a super hot pan with some butter and oil for only about 2 minutes. They were a fun luxury purchase at the farmer's market, so I made sure I asked the crazy shroom lady how to cook them properly.

Soup #2: Cabbage, Leek and Potato Soup with Chives and Sour Cream.

For this one, nothing got roasted. Everything in the pot. I sauteed a small head of cabbage (diced), 3 leeks, and 2 cloves of garlic in some oil and butter until everything was soft. I lslo added plenty of thyme, black pepper, and some nutmeg. I added half a sweet potato, 3 regular potatoes, and an apple (all diced small) to the mixture, with a healthy sized glug of white wine. Let that cook, and then add some chicken stock. After 20 minutes I pureed the soup in batched in the regular blender. Once that was done I added a BIG handful of chopped chives, a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese, and each bowl got a cannel of sour cream to stir in while eating.

(iPhone apps make my food photos SUPER AWESOME!)

Prosciutto & Melon with Fig and Port Wine Sauce

2011-09-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

Oh...my...GAWD! Shlamazing. For realz. MAKE THIS!

Ingredients:
a melon - cantaloupe
thinly sliced prosciutto
arugula
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup port wine
7 fresh mission figs OR 8 dried mission figs (which is what I used) cut in half
Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, bring the sugar, port wine, and figs to a simmer and keep simmering until it has reduced to about 1/2 cup of syrupy liquid. Let it cool a little and put it in the food processor or blender and pulse until the figs are broken up but not totally pureed. Then let warm back in the pot on the stove.

Cut the melon into chunks, wrap each one with some prosciutto, arrange over a bed of arugula in a super fancy way as pictured, and drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil. Artfully drizzle a few spoonfuls of the sauce over the whole thing and on the plate for fun, crank a little black pepper, and then go brag to your friend about how freakin awesome you are!

No Thinking Ground Lamb Curry w/ Baby Bok Choy!

2011-09-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

I do variations on this dish basically on a weekly basis - no joke. I'm obsessed with curry of all kinds, and do not feel like taking the time or money to figure out the 234871847238965 spices I would need to make my own. SO! I like to buy jarred curry sauce and dress it up and make it seem like I made it myself. It turns Indian and thai cooking into a 20 minute project that tastes AMAZING! You could use whatever meat, fish, veggies you like, I normally throw in whatever looks like it has limited time left in the fridge.

My favorite brand is Tiger Tiger, Its like $2 more then the others, but I think they have the best variety and flavors. For this dish I would either buy the "Mild Korma" or the "Butter Chicken" flavor.

Ingredients:

1 Jar of curry

1/2 can of unsweetened coconut milk

1 lb of ground lamb (or beef, or turkey, whatever, go nuts)

4 baby bok choy

3 potatoes (i don't think it matters what kind)

String beans (a handful)

1 yellow onion

1/2 cup of chicken stock

olive oil, salt, pepper

Directions:

Peel, slice, and boil the potatoes in a separate pot - this step will take the longest. Drain and set aside.

In your main pot, brown the meat with salt and pepper and then remove from the pot and set aside to add back later. Then cook the onions in some oil until soft, and add the rest of the veggies and cook them until they are almost soft. Add the meat back in along with any juices that are in the dish. Then just toss the rest in - potatoes, jar of curry, coconut milk, chicken stock and simmer away for about 10 minutes. Serve over rice!

Here's a shot of the lamb version. The other day I made a version with the Thai Red Curry and diced salmon. It was just as good! No photo though.

Spicy Coconut Lentils

2011-09-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

I'm BACK! A new work schedule means that hopefully I will have more motivation to blog it up. I kept up the cooking, I was just too lazy to type anything up after sitting at a computer all day.

Recipe #1 of my comeback is Spicy Coconut Lentils! Mostly a recipe from a cookbook I have, but done a little more free hand. So be FREEEEE and experiment with amounts and additions. : )

Ingredients:
2 cups of lentils (after you boil them it will be more like 3, I used french lentils, but whatever)
2 tomatoes diced
3 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
1 large jalepeno sliced longways (no seeds)
2 whole red dried chilis
1 small yellow onion diced
1 tbs whole cumin seeds
1 lime (for juice)
3 tbs chopped cilantro
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Directions:
Simmer the lentils in a pot of water until tender which will probably take about 15 minutes (I keep mine al-dente because once you pass that point they can move into the "mush" stage, and I'm not into that) Then drain them and set aside.

In a medium pot, saute the onion for 3 minutes until soft, and add the cumin seeds and dried peppers. Salt and pepper as you see fit. Once the onions are translucent and the cumin is toasty (like 3 minutes?) add the jalepeno and shredded coconut and cook for another 2 minutes before adding the chopped tomato. Once the tomato begins to soften and juice up the dish, add the lentils and juice of 1 lime. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the chopped cilantro.

Serve hot, room temp, or as a cold salad! This would be a great BBQ side dish for my fellow granolas out there. And its not too spicy, just a touch of heat.

Vegetarian Pot Pie! SICK YA'LL!

2011-04-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I already typed this via email to my friend Margaret, so here's my email.

Ok woman. Here's the recipe! (oh and btw, weh weh! toilet duck lol)

So I looked on google and typed in "vegan dinner' and this was like literally the first thing that came up, but its not vegan the way i made it because i just bought ready-made puff pastry instead of making vegan dough. F that man.

Ingredients:
8 ounces of extra firm tofu (but its comes in 10oz cubes, so whatever, use it all)
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1/2 a large yellow onion
1 russet potato
2 garlic cloves
1 baby bok choy (i totally added that myself)
a handful of slices mushrooms (also added myself)
1/4 cup of flour
2 tbs soy sauce
1 & 1/4 cup veggy stock
1/4 cup white wine (also added that myself)
1 tsp nutritional yeast (probably not totally needed)
1/2 cup frozen peas
chopped sage and thyme - however much you like
olive oil

Ok so dice the tofu small and fry in a pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Then remove.
Dice all the veggies the same size-ish.
Saute all the veggies, in a manner that makes sense to you. I did the onions, carrot, celery, garlic first, then I added the mushrooms, potato and bok choy. I add mad pepper yo.

Once everything is tender but not totally mush, add the white wine for a few minutes, then add the flour and yeast. It got totally crazy-looking at this point, but then add the stock and soy sauce and it immediately thickens up like gravy. Turn off the heat, add the peas and herbs.

So i don't have ramekins so i threw all the goo into a pie dish and covered with 1 sheet of puff pastry, and put in a 400 degree oven for like a half hour-ish, until the dough looked cooked.

it was pretty awesome. I am totally gonna make it again. I keep burping it up though, so that's kinda gross LOL.

Let me know how it comes out! I feel like any of the veggies can be left out, or any others can be added. I just kinda went with it.

I kept it real with the photos guys. Its messy but pretty.

Mediterranean Couscous

2011-03-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

My 1st try at Israeli Couscous, which should pretty much be called pasta. Again if you just buy MOSTLY store bought (but really good) ingredients, its barely and effort to make. I will easily be making this again for any kind of BBQ, or summer activity. We had it slightly warm the night I made it, and I ate it cold the next day for lunch. Both were great.

I just followed the directions on the container, and while it was cooking I mixed some easy stuff in a bowl:

Leftover sauteed zucchini
Chopped green and black olives
Marinated artichoke hearts
Diced tomato
Fresh arugula
Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper

Just toss in the couscous after its cooled off a bit! It was a great vegetarian main dish since I put so much stuff in it, but its perfect for a healthy side dish.

Mushroom Parm Sandwiches

2011-03-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is a simple "buy store bought stuff and assemble it into good grubbin".

Store bought pesto
Store bought jar of organic marinara
Store bought organic smoked mozzarella
Store bought ciabatta bread
and 2 portobello mushrooms (i mean derrr, you probably got them at the store too unless you foraged for them yourself, in which case - cool! can I come next time?)

All you do it cook the mushrooms in a pan with olive oil until they are mostly soft, slice them up, put them on bread with all the other stuff, and stick the bread in the over so that everything gets hot and the cheese gets melty.

WOO! filling, vegetarian, and totally guido. Personally this would be something I would make and bring to the beach as a lunch for me and the hubs. Its as good cold as it is hot.

BEST Turkey Burgers

2011-03-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to Ina for some great wisdom when it comes to turkey burgers.

Turkey burgers to not have to be dry, crumbly, and lacking in taste. These are super easy, and I make them in a pan since my grill is a pain in the butt to deal with in the winter, (however, the classic Webber rules in the summer).

Take all white meat ground turkey (I buy enough for 4 burgers), add finely chopped parsley, a tbs of dijon mustard, 2 tbs of olive oil, a little salt, and plenty of crack black pepper. Mix with a fork at first to not make the meat too gummy, then mix the rest of the way with your hands, and form patties.

Cook in a pan on each side, trying to only flip once. The oil protects the burger and keeps it nice and moist, and the mustard adds just enough spices to make it very tasty without tasting like mustard. Both keep the patty together.

Its key to top this burger with awesomeness. I used herb brie cheese, tomato, pickles, lettuce and ketchup.

Saffron Risotto and a Cocktail

2011-03-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

RISOTTOOOOOOO!

I love risotto. Its amazing. This one features saffron, asparagus, peas, and sauteed chicken.

In a pot, heat up a container of chicken stock to ladle into the rice each time all the liquid is soaked up.
In the ACTUAL pot the dish will be cooked in, soften shallot and onion in olive oil, add 1.5 cups aborio rice and stir until rice is coated with oil, deglaze with white wine, add a pinch of saffron, and start introducing liquid to the pot. 1 ladle full at a time, each time waiting and stirring until the last amount of liquid seems absorbed.

Once all the liquid is cooked and the rice is tender, add a pad of butter, 1/2 cup of parm cheese, frozen peas, and steamed asparagus that should probably be chopped. We also added chicken that we cooked in a pan and then diced.

To complement our aromatic rice, an aromatic bevvie. White wine (Sauvignon blanc) with a splash on St. Germain (an elderflower liquor) garnished with frozen fruit to keep things chill! PS: I got wasted.

Pistachio-Crusted Halibut

2011-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Last night's dinner was something new and fun. Another stolen idea from my favorite new cook book, served with a side salad ("if its not on the side, I send it back!" - anyone else watch The Office too much?)

I bought whatever the fish guy said was enough for two people, cut it into 6 rectangular chunks, and made like I was making chicken cutlets:

Salt and peppered the fish
Dipped each one in a beaten egg
tossed it in a mixture of cornmeal and pistachios that I put through a food processor to achieve a chunky-breadcrumb consistency

Fry in veggie oil for roughly 2 minutes on each side. Serve with a nice salad of your choice!
It was easily one of the juiciest fish dishes I've ever had. Came out great and looked pretty awesome with the green nuts. (HA! nuts)

Rice and Beans - Mateus' Style

2011-02-16T17:55:00.000-08:00

I request this dinner of Mateus regularly. I am a big rice fan, and bean bean fan, and and a MAJOR FAN of nights when Mateus cooks dinner and I don't have to. (I know, I know, I clearly love to cook. But a break here and there is always welcome.)

Mat makes a mean bean by just cooking up some pancetta (or bacon) in a pot, adding some onion, garlic, bay leaf and spices (like adobo, salt and pepper), throwing in some canned black beans and cooking the hell out of it. Sometimes we add cilantro, sometimes some chilis. But we always serve over rice.

Since there is already starch and a little meat involved, I came up with the salad on top. We like a little cool lettuce and tomato with a squeeze of lime it top it off (I may have stolen that from how we would eat our salads in Costa Rica - just thrown on top of everything else).

Make it for yourself and thing of hearty lunches in Brazil or Costa Rica. You come in tired and waterlogged from the beach, shovel some rice and beans in your mouth, and sleep off the hottest part of the day. Amazing.

Mulligatawny Soup - A Curry Adventure!

2011-02-16T17:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had no clue what to make for dinner. But I knew I didn't want the same old thing. So, once again, I reached for The Cook's Book of Intense Flavors and fished around for some inspiration. Out popped Indian mulligatawny soup. Something I have NEVER eaten before, and never thought to make. When I noticed that it had very few and easy to come by ingredients, it was a winner.

It took maybe 40 minutes to make, and MAN WAS IT GOOD! Great new flavor, very comforting spices and hearty texture. Perfect for a cold evening, or a night you want something a little more exotic. One MINOR draw-back was that I wasn't such a fan of the color of the soup. As you can see from the photo, the general "whiteness" of the ingredients, and brownness of the spices gave it a sort-of grey, dishwater color. Not amazingly appetizing upon looking, but don't let it fool you. The flavor was great.

Ingredients:
1 onion - diced
1 garlic cloves - diced
2 granny smith apples - diced
2 COOKED chicken breasts - diced or shredded (think chicken soup)
3 bay leaves
1.5 tablespoons garam masala
1/2 cup of dry white wine
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup of cooked white rice
1.5 cups of unsweetened coconut milk
EVOO
Salt and pepper

Directions:
In a soup pot, sauté the onion, apple, and garlic until soft in olive oil. Add some salt and pepper and the bay leaves. Once softened, add the chicken, wine, stock, and garam masala. Start that boiling (you can cook the rice at this point) and once you feel the flavors have incorporated, add the coconut milk and cooked rice. Simmer for a few minutes to let the broth thicken, and you are ready to eat!

SO EASY! Totally worth a try. Like I said, not much to look at, but looks can be deceiving!

Salt and Pepper Tilapia

2011-02-14T16:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday we wanted fish. That was the only part of the plan when we went to the market. Decided to see what was good, and combine with what we had at home. What we came up with was some pan-seared tilapia, with seared tomato and blanched asparagus. We ate it with a little toasted bread. MMMMM!

Directions:

Salt and pepper some tilapia, and cook it in a non-stick pan with some olive oil. Once cooked, take it out of the pan, and plate it with some lemon squeezed on top. Cut a tomato in half, salt and pepper, and stick it cut-side down in the pan for a few minutes.

For the asparagus - stick it in some boiling and salted water for 3 minutes, then take it out and put it in some ice-water to shock it.

Pretty easy! (this clearly is a plate for 2 - we divided it after the photo-op)

Cranberry-Spice Maca Raw Cookies (Rookies?)

2011-02-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

MORE MACA COOKIES!

I've been making raw maca power cookies here and there. This time around I switched it up for fun, and made them a little spiced up. The original recipe can be found in an earlier post, but this time I added:

a small handful of dried cranberries

a tablespoon of cacao nibs

a teaspoon of vanilla extract

a teaspoon of cinnamon

a teaspoon of cardamom

I topped them with a TINY sprinkle of fleur de sel. YUM!

my original recipe here!!

Gnocchi with White Wine and Cress (or whatever's in the fridge)

2011-02-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

Saturday night came around, and Mateus and I went back and forth about what to do for dinner, that before we knew it, it was 9pm and we were delirious with hunger and making no sense. The entire day we pondered where to go out to dinner, until finally I just got up and friggin cooked something.

So, we checked out the fridge and freezer to see what was still left after a week of no food-shopping and we had:

Frozen Gnocchi
a little watercress
a shallot
a tomato
sliced mushrooms
parsley
a lemon
and the rest of a bottle of white wine

Thus was born the following dinner, which I'm sure could be made with just about anything you find in the fridge...

I cooked the shallot in some olive oil and butter, added the mushrooms for some browning. Once the shrooms were brown, I added a squeeze of lemon, and a cup of the wine, and let that simmer down for a few minutes. Then I added the tomato (diced up), the gnocchi (which I had been boiling a little bit in water, derrr), and some of the liquid from the gnocchi, since it was full of starch and helped to make the sauce nice and creamy. Once everything was tossed together I added the parsley and cress so that it would stay fresh and green/ SERVED IT UP!

Don't worry, upon eating we returned to out "normal" selves. : )

Jeni's Ice Cream

2011-02-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Go here:
Jeni's Ice Cream

Order ice cream. It will be worth it. Its amazing. We got 6 pints in the mail for valentines day. Amazing. All the cool people are doing it. Me, Mateus, Vanessa, Jess, Beth, Manny...we are all obsessed. My favorites are the lime-cardomom yogurt, and the Roxbury Road, and the Wildberry lavender.

Vanessa's favorite: Salty Caramel

Vegetable Sushi Rolls

2011-02-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

VEGGIE SUSHI!

Tonight I decided to make some sushi rolls while on my 90% vegan kick this week. And while they were SUPPOSED to be raw-live, unfortunately the jicama I had planned to turn into the "rice" component had gone bad in my fridge. SO! Real rice it is. Actually this worked in my favor since it meant less prep.

I didn't use sushi rice. I always use jasmine rice for everything. I'm addicted. I love it. I made is and when it was done I added just a splash of rice vinegar, a squeeze of half a lime, and some black pepper.

In the center I loaded up some veggies. Shaved carrot, avocado, steamed asparagus, red pepper. I also stuck in some apple for extra flavor and crunch factor. Everything got rolled into some nori-rolls (yes, i do have that little bamboo thingy, but it cost me like $2)

Ummmm, that's it. Can't get much easier. We enjoyed some soy sauce and pickled ginger. They look good don't they?

Raw Zucchini Pasta with Basil Cream Sauce

2011-02-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Another raw-vegan entry. This one was lovely, and far less complicated then almost any raw entrée I've made. Although I must say, I ate it for lunch at work today, and about 2 hours later was so starving all over again that it felt like I hadn't eaten anything. Still trying to overcome that problem when eating only veggies. I'm a carb gal. Always have been, always will be.

I <3 bread.

Ok, so zucchini on a mandolin slicer to make spaghetti-like strands, some tomatoes, and some pine nuts, topped with the following lovely sauce...

Combine in a blender:
a large handfull of fresh basil
1 cup raw macadamia nuts
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast (this makes it taste semi-cheesy)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 coconut water (or plain water, but I had just split a coconut and had the water on hand, HA! That's friggin random as hell)

Salt and pepper.

YUMMY! And very pretty too.

PLEASE NOTE: the garlic clove also had the expected effect on my breath. Soooooo, if you plan on making out, please have your partner eat this as well. 2 garlics cancel eachother out.

Cheese and Pesto Palmiers

2011-02-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

These are a Barefoot Contessa recipe from my favorite Food Network chef (actually the last remaining one that I love still on TV these days). OH INA! NEVER LEAVE ME!

Her lovely palmiers have been big hits at office holiday parties, Thanksgiving, and my BFF's bridal shower. Made by me, and both of my sisters, you can't go wrong! Everything is store bought, and the shape comes out perfect every time.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry Sheets

Store bought pesto

pine nuts

goat cheese

sundried tomatoes

All you do is spread out the puff pastry on some parchment paper, spread on the pesto, sprinkle goat cheese, pine nuts, and chopped sundried tomatoes, then fold. For the folding, take 2 sides of the pastry, fold each side in about a quarter of the way in, then each side again folded in (this time so that they almost meet in the middle) and then fold it again in half. So you end up with a basic roll shape.

Then wrap it in the parchment and freeze the roll for about 20 minutes so that it becomes firm, thus easier to slice. When ready, make slices like you would a roll of cookie dough, place them on cookie trays, and bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they puff up and get brown pretty quick. SERVE!

Please excuse this photo. This is a tray I made for the afore-mentioned bridal shower, upon which a gift fell in the car and damaged some of the treats. OH WELL! Still tastes good!

Raw Thoughts and Raw Pancakes!

2011-02-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

So I have been experimenting a lot with raw foods. While I don't think I will ever go fully in that direction at this time, it is really fun to try new ingredients, new methods of preparation, and new flavors! Here's my breakdown of feelings at this time on the RAW:

Why I like raw food:

Its totally fun and new to make.
It has broken me out of a "boring ingredient rut" and allowed me to introduce at least 20 new foods I had never used before.
It feels good knowing that everything I make is somehow great for me.
The experimentation has led to my endless research of nutrients and ingredients, and why they are so good.

Why I can't go totally raw at this time:

I still freakin love everything else too much.
The recipes claiming to taste "just like ____ or ____" really don't. Sorry. I would rather not try to replace things I love, but eat them a little less because I'm making room for new experiences.
So far, unless I want a salad, preparing raw foods takes a lot of planning for me, sometimes a lot of prep work, and sometimes a lot...A LOT of time in a dehydrator. And I really don't totally have the patience for that on a daily basis.
Some of the things I cook now I cook for therapy and self healing, and I haven't found a raw recipe yet that makes me feel as good as tending to a big pot of butternut squash soup does.

That all being said, I will continue with my experimentation. I mean check this out!...

Raw Pancakes!

The above is a variation of a recipe in Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney. His pancakes feature fresh blueberries. When I 1st made them I felt like they were too sweet, so mine feature goji berries and barberries, which are very tart and were a nice complement to the sweet badder.

Pretty much all they are made up of are soaked pecans and pine nuts, bananas, maple syrup, water, vanilla bean and a little salt, all in the blender. I stir in the berries at the end. You then have to dehydrate them for 24 hours (for soft) or 48 hours for a more cookie-like consistency (my preference). Its a raw food worth the time. They are a great sweet treat.

Maca Raw "Super" Cookies

2011-02-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

I'm going to pretty much take full credit for this new invention. After making those crazy raw granola bar thingies the other day, I now have a jar of maca powder that I don't know what to do with. And lemme tell ya, maca smells really freakin weird and unpleasant (at least to me).

So I looked online to find some uses for this crap, and found some blog recipe on making balls out of them for a snack. Then, OF COURSE, I didn't print it, and never saved it, so tonight I couldn't find it again. I'm awesome. Whatever. But I'm pretty inventive in the kitchen and decided to take what I kinda remembered from it, and knowledge of doing stuff in the kitchen sans recipe, and I came up with the following (which taste pretty awesome, I might add. and when I say "awesome", I mean that by raw food standards, which sometimes takes a willingness to explore and put down your "this doesn't taste like a real cookie" attitude)

What I'm calling them: Maca Super Cookies
What they are: Little "raw" cookies that take like 6 seconds to make in a food processor
What they taste like: Chocolaty, nutty, coconut cookie dough.

Here's what I did:
I put the following into my tiny food processor: like 7 dates, 7 dried apricots, 1 tablespoon each of cashew butter, cacao butter, and coconut butter, and 2 hefty tablespoons of maca powder. Pulsed a few times until combined into a dough, rolled it into balls and pressed them into unsweetened coconut flakes. They then went into the fridge for a few hours to allow the various butters to firm back up. VOILA!

I purposely made a tiny batch of these because I wasn't sure if they were going to taste like crap. But I assure you that they are very nice and are made of the finest raw ingredients to fill you with energy. I will double the recipe for sure next time I make them.

Raspberry Vinaigrette and Berry-Bleu Salad

2011-01-30T17:22:00.000-08:00

I hate salad dressing! And when I say that, I am referring to almost every store-bought or restaurant weirdness with tons of preservatives and sugar and flecks of unidentifiable crap that will last in the fridge until the apocalypse. Pretty much the only dressing I like is the carrot-ginger dressing you get at a sushi place (which they sell at the supermarket and is acceptable in my book).

Home-made salad dressing is another story. I LOVE to make my own dressings for many reasons. For one thing, its freakin easy. You can pretty much always make it taste however you want, and...ready?...YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHATS IN IT! Normally mine are simple vinaigrettes with herbs, or peppers and lemon, but this time I stole yet another recipe from "The Cook's Book of Intense Flavors".

Raspberry Vinaigrette. It came out soooooooooo good. Although the overall look makes me feel like it should be going on ice cream. Just zip the following in the food processor:

1/4 cup EVOO (ew, I hate Rachael Ray)

1/4 Grape Seed oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup of raspberry vinegar

1 tbs. dijon mustard

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 tbs. honey

1 tbs. sugar

2 tbs. each of fresh raspberries and blackberries

salt and pepper

See the dressing below, featured on an AMAZING salad of baby greens, fresh berries, orange and grapefruit segments, walnuts, red onion, and crumbled bleu cheese. This was one of the best salads of my life. And it happened today. What if I can never top it? OMG! It could be only down hill from here! : (

Steph's Most Famous Shrimp Linguini

2011-01-30T17:06:00.000-08:00

Being the good Italian wife that I am, I have spent the whole weekend making great lunches and dinners. I decided to end the weekend with my most notorious recipe.

Mateus and I call this “shrimp scampi”, but my friend John told me that its not true scampi, so whatever. Anyway, this is Mateus’ all time favorite dinner that I make, and I used to make it A LOT in our old apartment. Truth be told, I haven’t made it in like a year, and that is WAY TOO LONG! Its easy, f-ing delicious, and the longest part of the cooking is boiling the water for the pasta.

Ingredients:

Shrimp, peeled and deveined (whatever size, or however many, who cares)

2 lemons, zest and juice

1 BIG cup of white wine (Pino is perfect for this)

9238472473 garlic cloves, minced (more like 6-8 cloves)

1 shallot, minced (optional)

1 big handful of parsley, chopped

Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (amounts you can handle)

Butter and olive oil

Whole wheat linguini (trust me, the whole wheat tastes so much better!)

Parmy cheese

Directions:

1^st off, get your pot of water going on the stove for the pasta around 15 minutes ahead of time. The whole sauce should take about as long as it does for the pasta to cook. Maybe a tad longer. So if you time it right, once the pasta is done you toss it right in with your completed sauce.

In a large pan that will ultimately be big enough for your shrimp AND the pasta, heat up 3tbs of both butter and olive oil. Add in the garlic, shallot, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook on low to medium heat to soften the garlic without burning it. Add in half of the lemon zest and juice and start to crank up the heat. Add in the wine and simmer for about 2 minutes, then toss in the shrimp. They should only need to cook for about 4 minutes depending on their size. While they cook pour in the rest of the lemon zest and juice, and all the parsley. Turn off the heat and add the linguini.

Top with cheese, serve with garlic bread for juice-dipping. Please drink wine as well. This is a step that makes pretty much ANY meal better. Seriously. I would drink wine with sloppy joes. (uh oh, idea for another post!)

A quick note on whole wheat pasta: Its great. Don’t knock it. It’s a little nutty, a little bit more texture, and a lot more better for you (more better? Heh?).

A note on shrimp: Today I used pretty small shrimp, which worked well. But normally if I buy large shrimp I like to slice them down the center to make 2. That way there's more pieces to go around and I don't need to spend too much $$$.

Hemp Milk Rules!

2011-01-30T06:38:00.000-08:00

1st thing's 1st - I love milk (skim milk only actually, super cold), but there's a few reasons I don't drink it very often:

Even though I don't dispute that real milk, in moderation, has health benefits, I do think that other "milks" can be healthier.
Even though I love the taste of real milk, I like the variety of tastes in other "milks".
Even though I'm not a vegetarian or vegan (yet haha), I do worry about the treatment of animals, and try often to cut down on my participation in that machine.

So I always buy soy milk because that's what I like in my smoothies for the most part, and I find that vanilla flavored soy milk is a great thing to have around when I'm craving dessert. I also like rice milk a lot because its light and the closest to real milk I've found so far.

But did you know that there are 2 more milks that are super easy to make at home?? Almond milk and hemp milk! Both raw vegan, both great for you.

ALMOND MILK - all you have to do is soak a cup or 2 of almonds for a day in water, then pour it all in a blender, add more water and whizz away! Ones the almonds are about as broken as they will ever get, just strain out the milk with a strainer, and throw the almond bits back in the blender with a little more water to repeat the process again. When I did it I got about 3 rounds in the blender out of the almonds. I also added a little vanilla and cinnamon to give a little spice. It was very VERY good.

HEMP MILK - Yesterday I did the same with hemp seeds. Although with hemp seeds I read online that you don't have to strain it, so I didn't. They didn't quite break down all the way (probably because right now I refuse to spend $400 on a Vitamix) but still drinkable. The hemp milk has a much stronger flavor that might not be for everyone. But hemp seeds are great for you, so drink up!

"Hemp seed nutrition is remarkable. It is a perfect protein supplement because it contains all the essential amino acids our bodies need (ones our bodies can not make). No other single source of plant has all of these proteins that are so easily digested.

Hemp seed is a great source of omega-3 and omega-6 (essential fatty acids) and provides an ideal balance between the two. It is also a very good source of omega-9."

These are hemp seeds (duh) and I use them a lot. Making milk, adding to smoothies, sprinkling on salads or in granola bars. I wonder actually if eating them so often is gonna make me fail a drug test one day. I guess I should look into that.

You can see the milk has a little "texture", but this is a great option if you can have dairy, or you feel bad for the cows!

Orange-Drenched Asparagus

2011-01-29T17:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was another dish out of "The Cook's Book of Intense Flavors". I bought asparagus the other day and forgot to make it all week, and tonight was pretty much its last chance before the trash. So I made it the main event. The highlighted flavors for this were asparagus (derrr), oregano, and orange.

Again, I must say, this book is so great. It has so many awesome ideas in it, and nothing too off the wall. Since I think its probably some kind of copyright infringement to give the entire recipe here, I will give the Cliff's Notes version.

Blanch some asparagus so that its still pretty firm.
Hard boil 2 eggs, peel and dice.
Toast and chop 2 tbs of almonds.
Segment 1 orange (I actually only used half an orange, I think thats enough)

Make a dressing with the following:

small shallot, diced small
2 tbs Champagne vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 tbs fresh oregano leaves, chopped
salt and pepper

Add the almonds, egg, and orange segments to the dressing, and pour over the asparagus on the plate! Mateus was a little freaked out about the flavor combo, but once he tried it he was a big fan. It came out delish. It didn't say in the book if this is meant for a side dish, but with the egg and everything we thought it was a great main course.

We also bulked it up by splitting a small toasted cheese on the side, mostly because we have amazing bread in the house right now. If you ever see the brand "Bread Alone" in your market, BUY IT! Their "peasant bread" is my favorite bread ever.

"Thick as Ice-Cream" Smoothie

2011-01-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

Do you crave ice-cream like EVERYDAY? Are you not a big fan of protein shakes?
Do you like Jamba-Juice but think that the calorie content of their smoothies is way too high??

THIS IS FOR YOUUUUUUUUU!

I like making this shake for breakfast on the weekends, or at night when I want ice-cream but don't have any (or feel bad eating it). Its freakin awesome and super good for you.

Every few weeks when I go food shopping I buy a butt load of berries, bananas, and most recently I've added grapes to the mix. I get home, set aside a little bit to eat fresh, and then freeze the rest in a big bag.

So I freeze the whole bag so that when i want a smoothie i just go in there and grab a handful of it for the blender. The fruit doesn't have to be frozen, but I prefer my smoothies super duper cold, and everything being frozen makes it feel less like a smoothie and more like dessert.

So everything in a blender with the following: a handful of baby spinach (you won't even taste it!), vanilla soy milk, a small scoop of spirulina protein powder of any fun flavor, a spoonful of hemp protein powder, and a spoonful of Kyo-Green.

Pulse it, pour it, DRINK IT! I eat it with a spoon. Sometimes I put unsweetened shredded coconut or cacao nibs on top for fun. OMG. I kinda want one right now! Dessert!

The Easiest Tortellini Soup EVER!

2011-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

I stayed home from work yesterday because there was a 5 foot wall of snow at the end of my driveway, so Mateus and I had a nice lunch to help us warm up after shoveling the driveway for the 324982304823 time this winter.

I think you should ALWAYS have ingredients for this in the house. It’s perfect for nights when you want something hot but only have a half hour. And its so freakin cheap to make, it probably hits my table about twice a month. You can buy the little frozen bags of tortellini’s (I use 1 bag of cheese, one bag of meat) and keep them in the freezer until you make the soup.

Ingredients:

2 bags of tortellini – your choice

1 jumbo can of chicken stock

2 large carrots – diced small

2 stalks of celery – diced small

½ yellow onion – diced small

1 jalapeño – diced (optional)

1 tbs Adobo

2 chicken bullion cubes

1 lemon (juice)

1 handful cilantro – chopped

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Water

Directions:

Soften all veggies in a large soup pot with olive oil, bullion cubes, salt, and pepper. The bullion cubes will eventually breakdown on their own, don’t worry. Add Adobo, all the chicken stock, and lemon juice. Fill the empty stock can half way with water and add that too (you need enough liquid to boil the tortellini in. Cover and bring to a boil.

Once the soup is at a full rolling boil, add the frozen torties, and cilantro. Once the pasta starts to float, its done. Turn off the heat and its ready! I like sprinkling parm cheese on top. Whatev.

BE CAREFUL! Those tortellini are HOT little bastards filled with molten innards! Let it cool a bit, unless you enjoy that numb tongue thing where you can’t taste anything because you’ve murdered half your taste buds (hey man, whatever you’re into, right?).

Looks fab, right? You want it.

Mateus likes more broth, less torts.

I like less broth, more torts.

Shrimp Summer Rolls for Robert

2011-01-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

This post is at the request of Robert (the Donger), fellow lover of Asian cuisine and answerer of all my lame "you should know this already" questions at work. SHOUT OUT!

Tonight we made "Vietnamese" Summer Rolls. The past few posts may not have been that good for the wasteline, so I felt like some veggies were in order tonight. These became my obsession at mall restaurants everywhere. They used to have them at Stir Crazy, they have them at Cheesecake Factory, but did you know they are easy to make at home?? And totally healthy, so you should! Its pretty much a salad wrapped in rice paper. Exotic tastes, looks cool, fun activity if you are making them with someone else.

All you need it the rice papers, stuff to put in them, and stuff for a sauce. Here's whats I like in mine:

Fillings:
Shrimp (i split them in half so they are more flexible)
Shredded carrots / cucumbers / zucchini / red pepper (any combo or all of the above)
Sliced avocado
Cilantro
Chopped peanuts??
Tonight we used up some lettuce in them.

Sauce:
A little soy sauce
A little sesame oil
A little ginger (buy pre-minced in a jar - WHATEVER!)
maybe some garlic?
A tad of honey or Mirin if you have it

Directions:
Fill a pie dish or shallow pan or something "ricepaper-shaped" with warm water. Stick a towel down next to it on the table. Take a rice paper sheet and dip it in the water until it gets all soft, pull it out and lay it on the towel. Fill it with goodies and roll it up like a burrito. Stick it on a plate, dip it in the sauce when you eat it!

We followed dinner up with Raw goji-maca-cacao bars with a cacao/coconut oil drizzle (or plop since it was rather chunky). The recipe is too ridiculous to type up but can be found in the EverydayRaw cookbook by Matthew Kenney. They are pretty good!

Brazilian Dirty Water Dogs - for Emily!

2011-01-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

Let me preface this post with the fact that tomorrow we will be making a very healthy dinner, and I am currently dehydrating some raw "super goji-cacao-maca bars"in the Excalibur. 100% excellent for you.

That said, I would like to dedicate this post to Emily, who many years ago would boil hot dogs on the stove after school on the regular. : )

Tonight Mateus cooked dinner, and made the Southern Brazilian version of a NYC Dirty Water Dog. This is something that we have eaten, drunk, late late LATE at night, while standing on a street corner in Erechim, Brazil. It is also something his mom has made for us, and something we like to make once in a blue moon.

Basically take a pack of hot dogs, cut them up, boil them on the stove in a sauce of water, tomato paste, seasonings, and this time we added a little beer. Add corn and peas, and serve on a soft bun with your choice of condiments. In Brazil, the "completo" (i dont know if i spelled that right) is served with potato sticks, mayo, onions, and god knows what else. We just do onion, maybe some mustard, and some crushed chips.

DON'T KNOCK IT TILL YOU TRY IT! Freakin good. Drunk food. Grub food. Takes like no time to make. And if you make it you can say its "ethnic food" haha. You don't need a recipe. Throw it all in!

Enjoy a photo of Mat enjoying one in Brazil at his sister's house, and then one of the ones we made today! They aren't pretty, they are messy, but they are super fun and pretty much the only way I will eat a hot dog (unless purchased at Yankee stadium for a ridiculous amount of money).

Stay tuned for Vietnamese Summer Rolls tomorrow! YUUUUUUUM!

Avec Eric and an Omelette

2011-01-24T17:52:00.000-08:00

WATCH THIS CLIP! Be educated about the awesomeness.

This is one of my favorite things to watch on youtube. Erip Ripert (we already know how much I love already) and his show that either was an internet show, or PBS, or what, I don't know really. I kinda found them by accident when stalking his life.

Anyway, Avec Eric. A show. Like only 3 minutes long usually. He makes provencal food, everything looks amazing and gourmet, and wonderful, but here's the catch...he cooks EVERYTHING in a tabletop toaster oven! We are talking seafood of the highest quality, things you could easily serve for guests. Everything in this Cuisinart Brick Toaster Oven (the exact model he uses is discontinued - i checked because I WANTED IT!)

Come on, you TOTALLY have 3 minutes to learn how to make a dish that a Michelin Star recipient would cook at home.

So the above link is a recipe I've made (in my regular not so awesome, not so tabletop oven) And it was fantastic. Frittata with zicchini, fresh mint, and parm. LOVE. I wanted it tonight, but didn't feel like going to the store, so I made an omelette instead. Still awesome.

Omelette with zucchini, parsley and black pepper. I love breakfast for dinner. On the side is some polenta cakes with a little crumbled blue.

Goji Berry Pudding - ehhhh

2011-01-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

So I read online today about this super easy pudding good for beginner raw food people. I have 3 raw "cook" books, and have made countless recipes from them, most coming out really nicely. So I figured I had a half hour and the 3 ingredients, let's give this a try.

All it was is 2tbs each of chia seeds and dried goji berries, soaked in 3/4 cup of water. Chia seeds get all slimy and gelatinous on the outside when when (you may know this if you have a chia pet actually), so this is what made this a "pudding". So this was a little weird. It was not for everyone. Mateus was NOT a fan. It tasted pretty good (i added a tiny bit of agave to sweeten it), but the texture was ehhhhhhhh. I'll try it again though. The website suggested this for weight-loss because chia seeds curb appetite, so of all the things you can do to lose weight (like busting your ass at the gym, barely eating anything you actually enjoy, and not drinking alcohol) this seems like a pretty harmless and non-evasive addition to the regimen.

What it easy? - Yes.
Did it taste good? - More or less.
Did it have a good mouthfeel? - Only if you like mushy jello, or boogers.
Would you eat it again because of its health factors? - Totally.

Some Fun Factiods:

Chia seeds have more antioxidants than blueberries, are an excellent source of vegan calcium: 6x more calcium than whole milk, 15x more magnesium than broccoli, 25x more dietary fiber than flax seed, 8x more omega than salmon, 3x more iron than spinach, 2,5x more vegetable protein than kidney beans! And the best thing is that they are truly delicious. The taste is more subtile than flax or hemp seed.

Goji berries are another super food. They are extremely rich in anti-oxidants which help protect the cells in our bodies from diseases like cancer. They're also an excellent source of vitamin C and soluble fiber. They have more amino acids than bee pollen, more beta carotene than carrots, more iron than spinach and have 21 trace minerals. Goji berries contain 13% of protein! Goji berries are a powerful anti-fungal and anti-bacterial food.

Anthony Bourdain and Beef Bourguignon

2011-01-22T15:34:00.000-08:00

Anthony Bourdain is one of my all time “food” heroes (along with Ina Garten and Eric Ripert), and “No Reservations” is easily one of my favorite shows of all time. I probably cook more recipes and learn more from those 3 people then all other chef/authors combined. They each teach me different things, they each have a different perspective, and I love them all. Everything I’ve ever cooked that has come from watching or reading something from them has been an absolute success without ever being difficult or stressful.

No Reservations had a unique episode where they featured several world renowned chefs demonstrating how to cook some “basic” (basic meaning things every chef should be able to do perfectly) dishes that they love. Throughout the episode, clips would cut back to Anthony, in his kitchen at Le Halles, cooking Beef Bourguignon. This was super exciting for me, because while he is a chef on tv, you rarely get to see him actually cook.

Back to the Bourg. This is a dish I had never attempted, the name leading me to think it was complicated and stuffy. Quite to the contrary, it seemed perfectly simple, relaxed, and delish. So the very next day I made it. It was perfect. So easy, in fact, that I made it again a month later, and am making it again now!

Ingredients:

The 1^st thing you need is 4 hours. If you don’t have 4 hours for this to cook this then it’s not going to come out the way you want it. Out of the 4 hours, only 1 hour of it total is active time from you.

Cheap meat, enough for 2 people +leftovers – I prefer boneless beef short ribs. Something cheap with fat, because you are about to cook the HELL outta that sucker. So cheap meat, cut into large chunks (I used 3 long boneless short ribs, each cut in half and that seems to be perfect)

A whole bottle of red wine (burgundy is traditional. I like cab)

2 large carrots - cut into hearty chunks

1 yellow onion – chopped

2 garlic cloves – chopped

Butter, oil, salt and pepper

(Bourdain stops here. The following I add just for fun.)

1 bay leaf

1tsp dried or fresh thyme

2 cups sliced button mushrooms

Directions:

Salt and pepper the meat pretty liberally. Heat up a large pot pretty hot with some butter and oil in the bottom, and sear off the meat in small batches, getting each side nice and crusty brown. Once done, set the meat aside in a separate bowl, turn the heat to medium in the pot and add a little more oil to coat the bottom. Add the all the veggies and herbs to the pot and cook until the onions are soft.

Add the meat back into the pot with any juices that collected, and pour in almost the entire bottle of wine (you will need enough to cover the meat) let it start to boil to de-glaze the bottom of the pan. At this point, I prefer to transfer it to a smaller pot. One that’s just big enough to hold everything, but it’s probably not totally needed if you are using a nice quality pot with a heavy bottom. I just like to so that I can clean the large pot, and keep the operation on a smaller scale for the rest of the day.

Once it’s in the pot you want to use, cover it, turn the heat as low as possible, and leave it there for AT LEAST THREE HOURS. The longer the better. Just stir it every 20 minutes. Uncover it for the last hour. The sauce will reduce down. At this point I like to sauté the mushrooms in a separate pan with butter and then add them in as well. When you are ready to eat, add a tablespoon of butter. Serve it up alone, or over mashed potatoes, or polenta, whatever. The meat should fall apart. The juice should be a thick, dark syrup. %&$* it’s good.

Tonight mine came out a little runny still, if this happens you can just use a fork to combine a tablespoon of butter to a tablespoon of flower into a paste and dump it in. It should thicken right up. I didn't feel like it.

Things you can do for 4 hours while this cooks:

Clean the bathroom

Do some yoga

Do your laundry

Watch Gone With the Wind

Play Monopoly

The Hero's: Anothony, Ina, and Eric

Fish, Fennel, and Olives or “Giada is Captain Obvious”

2011-01-21T14:46:00.001-08:00

I stole this recipe from Giada, she may have a ridiculously huge head on a tiny body, and her show may be entirely centered around her cleavage, but she’s got some good recipes. I’ve made this one twice now. It’s so easy, it’s ridiculous. And I feel like any time you make fish it always seems so elegant and special (with the exception of fish sticks, or fish and chips – which I LOVE, don’t get me wrong).

Ingredients:

4 filets (or chunky pieces) of white fish – tilapia/sea bass/cod

2 heads of fennel – thinly sliced

1 small white onion – thinly sliced

1 garlic clove - minced

½ cup of pitted calamata olives – chopped roughly

1 large orange

½ cup of white wine

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 370.

In a bowl, combine wine, the zest of the orange, the juice of the orange, and the minced garlic. Add salt and black pepper.

In a baking dish, drizzle bottom with olive oil, and layer the veggies, olives, and chunks of fish. Top with the wine/orange mixture and drizzle with a little more olive oil.

Cover with foil and bake for ½ hour (or until fish is cooked). The fennel may stay slightly firm – but that’s ok.

Serve over rice. I think I serve too much stuff over rice…but I love rice!

Some Giada Thoughts: Why does she always feel the need to state the COMPLETELY OBVIOUS? Like it really bothers me when she is tossing a salad (ha!) and says “ok so now just toss the salad, because we really just want to combine things in the salad” – like no sh*t! Is THAT why you toss a salad? (ha, again). Or when she says that she likes strawberries because they are red, or that she’s adding lemon to achieve a lemon-y flavor. Yeah, derrrr. Also it bothers me when she picks and chooses when to have an Italian accent. I literally cannot listen to her say “pancetta” without gagging. But that’s another story.

Easy Garlicky Mussels or Clams

2011-01-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

This is a super easy way to make mussels (or clams) and takes like 20 minutes to make, and seems super fancy when you make it. I made them this way for like the 100^th time this past weekend. Again, bread is a must. And after you’re done you will no doubt have about 2 cups of liquid left over, which is awesome heated back up and used as a sauce over pasta the next day.

Ingredients:

Bag of clams or mussels (or combo of both!) – cleaned up nice

5 cloves of garlic chopped small

2 cups dry white wine

1 small can of diced tomatoes

1 cup of chopped parsley

1 lemon (zest and juice)

3 tbs butter (or olive oil I GUESS!)

Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

In a pan big enough for the fish, heat garlic in the butter on medium until soft. Add red pepper flakes. Add the white wine, lemon zest and juice, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Strain about half the liquid out of the can of tomatoes, and then add the tomatoes and remaining liquid from the can. Throw in the mussels/clams, cover, and simmer for 5+ minutes, checking ever few minutes to see if everyone is opening up. Once they have, throw some parsley on there and dig in! The past weekend when I made this, Mat and I pretty much ate everything right out of the pan on the table. We are classy.

Like I said, if you have liquid left over, save it! Throw a can of clams in there and use it for linguini and clam sauce! PARM CHEESE ON TOP!

Tip for mussels/clams! I learned on Barefoot Contessa that if you put your mussels in a big bowl of cold water and add a tbs of flower, and mix it, the mussels will spit out the sand they are holding (so you don’t have crunchy mussels). I always do this now. It works really well. So thanks Ina! LOVE YOU!

So I forgot to take photo's until AFTER we polished this one off. So here's photo's of the damage : )

Thai Seafood Adventure!

2011-01-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

Mateus got me this awesome cook book for Christmas this year. Its called “The Cooks Book of Intense Flavors”. I highly recommend it to people who are looking for a little more variety and experimentation in their kitchens. Basically each recipe starts with a description of 3 flavors that go awesome together. 1 dish in particular stuck out to me because it featured lemon grass, which I see in the store all the time but never know what the &*%$ to do with it. I thought you could just chop it up and stick it in some stuff – tried that, it’s a no-go. It’s possibly the hardest, most fibrous veggie I’ve ever attempted to eat.

So anyway, a recipe for Thai Style Mussels was in the book, but while shopping and cooking I modified a few things to make up for ingredients I didn’t have, and things I wanted etc. It came out great, and was definitely a new flavor for us. I would never have stuck shellfish and coconut milk together on my own. It was really easy, and took about 40 minutes start to finish. So here’s MY version, which Mat and I polished off in one sitting (that may have been unnecessary, but I don’t really care!).

Ingredients:

1 lb mussels - cleaned

¼ lb shrimp (I peeled mine, but you could leave the shell on)

½ lb some kind of white fish (I used cod, but probably would recommend tilapia since the cod pretty much fell apart completely)

2 stalks of lemon grass – chopped into 1 inch pieces

1 inch knob of fresh ginger – chopped small

3 shallots minced

Handful of basil (I forgot to buy it, but I bet it would only improve the dish

1 cup dry white wine

Tsp of saffron threads

1 can of coconut milk

2 tbs olive oil

Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (or whole chilis) to taste

Directions:

In a medium pot, put the coconut milk, lemon grass, and ginger to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit for 10 more minutes (about as long as it takes to do the next steps).

In a large pan (big enough for all your fish), heat up olive oil on medium and cook shallots until soft. Once soft, add the wine, saffron, and red pepper flakes. Simmer liquids for about a minute.

Strain the coconut milk mixture into a bowl. Add all the fish to the pan and then pour the coconut milk over all the fish. Cover the pan, and shake it a few times over about 5 minutes to help the mussels open. After the 5 minutes it up, remove the lid, make sure everyone is cooked, throw some basil on top, and serve it up! We just dipped crusty bread into ours to soak up the juices, but I bet it would be great over jasmine rice as well. The cookbook describes the juice as "liquid heaven" - not sure i would go that far, but it was pretty delish.

These photo's aren't the greatest, but the food was!

Brazilian Carne em Molho e Polenta

2011-01-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I attempted to re-create one of my mother-in-law’s dishes. My in-laws live in South Brazil, and are Italian in heritage. When we last visited, she made carne em molho e polenta (basically a beef sauce over polenta), and it was easily my favorite thing we ate while there. Due to both language barriers, ingredient discrepancies between countries, and a 2 year gap between when I last ate the dish, I wasn’t sure how to go about making it. But I got creative, came up with a recipe, and it came out fantastic. My husband, the Brazilian, loved it. So here’s the sauce recipe to be put over basic polenta:

Ingredients:

1 flank steak – cut into 4 strips with the grain, and then sliced thin against the grain

½ yellow onion diced

½ green bell pepper diced

4 scallions chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 cup green peas

2 tbs tomato paste

1 cup tomato puree

½ cup red wine

1 cup chicken stock

2 bay leaves

1 tbs Adobo

2 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Brown sliced meat in a pan on high in batches (so that it doesn’t end up boiling in its own juices and browns). Pour each batch out into a bowl, conserving the juices. I added salt on only some of the batches – I didn’t want things to get too salty.

Once meat is done, turn pot down to medium heat, add olive oil, onions, peppers, garlic, bay leaves and Adobo. Cook until soft. Add red wine and tomato paste. Cook for 3 minutes, then add back the meat with all the juices, chicken stock, tomato puree, scallions, and peas. Cover and cook 15 minutes.

The whole process took about 40 minutes. We used a box of quick-cooking polenta, following the directions on the box.

If you give it a shot, let me know how it turned out!

While I forgot to take a photo of MY molho, here's some photo's of my mother-in-law Anita and Tia Ignes's creation, straight from Brazil. : )