Archive | January, 2010

Heather’s Everything-In Risotto

29 Jan

My friend Heather made this risotto for me many moons ago when she and her partner Becci lived in Greensboro. They now live in Madison (which I’m sure you know if you are a MMoM regular like Heather) but were gracious enough to share the recipe. I made this Sunday night and enjoyed it all week for lunches and dinners. Next time I might use half chicken broth and half white wine but it sure is tasty as is! Thanks HH!

Ingredients:

  • 28-32 oz diced or canned tomatoes in their juice (if using whole canned tomatoes – chop or puree)
    1 bottle dry white wine (we tend to use Trader Joe’s 2-buck-Chuck Chardonnay)
    1-2 tbsp olive oil
    1 lb sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed (both pork and turkey sausage work well)
    1 large onion, finely chopped
    2+ cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
    1-1/2 tbsp dried Italian seasoning (or just basil if you prefer)
    Coarse salt and ground pepper
    1 cup Aborio rice
    1 can artichoke hearts (do not drain)
    1 small can tomato paste
    6 oz+ sliced crimini or Portobello mushrooms
    9 oz+ bag of fresh baby spinach (or if using regular spinach – chop roughly and remove tough stems)
    ½ cup+ grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for serving if desired)
    2 tbsp butter                                                   
     
    Serves 4 (we tend to double the recipe for leftovers). Takes about an hour to prepare. Quite a crowd pleaser and although a bit fussy not difficult!
     
    Directions:
    -          Combine tomatoes with juice and wine in a saucepan and bring just to a simmer. Keep warm over low heat.
    -          In a larger saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add sausage, onion and garlic – season with salt & pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook, breaking up sausage 3-5 minutes until sausage is opaque and onions are softened.
    -          Add rice to sausage mixture. Stir until well coated, 1-2 minutes. Add 1 cup of tomato-wine mixture and stir until absorbed, 1-2 minutes.
    -          Add undrained can of artichoke hearts, tomato paste, mushrooms and 2 cups of the tomato-wine mixture. Stir well until tomato paste is incorporated. Then, simmer over low heat stirring occasionally until absorbed. Continue adding tomato-wine mixture until only 1 cup of tomato-wine mixture is left. Rice should be getting creamy and just tender – about 25-30 minutes.
    -          Add spinach and remaining tomato-wine mixture and stir until liquid is absorbed and spinach is wilted.
    -          Remove from heat and stir in cheese and butter, season with salt and pepper.
    -          Serve immediately (will thicken as it cools) and sprinkle with additional cheese if desired.

Ina’s Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

27 Jan

The trusty weatherman is predicting snow again this weekend in the Triad. If it does, soup is always a fun and warm project on a cooped up day. Ina’s Roasted Tomato Basil Soup is great with a grilled cheese sandwich. Add a fire in the fireplace, a book and a white puppy to snuggle with and you have a perfect afternoon. Enjoy!

PS: I made this the last time they predicted snow and it didn’t come!

Off Mendenhall: Super G Mart at Fanta City

26 Jan

All this for around $15!

To me, there is no worse day at Harris Teeter than Triple Coupon Day. I inevitably get stuck behind someone who has a giant handful of coupons, cheers at the end of the long and tedious checkout and on top of it all pays by writing a check. I would say that I don’t have time to clip coupons but really I have no patience for the process. I’d rather be doing a million other things on a Sunday morning including watching infomercials and made-for-tv movies.

This brings us to the Super G Mart where everyday is Triple Coupon Day without the Coupons!  Yesterday I was in need of a new bottle of fish sauce and thought a trip to the Super G was a great field trip for a rainy Sunday. I found limes 5 for a dollar, a variety of peppers and onions, Cafe Du Monde for less than $5 (it’s over $10 at Earth Fare), the spicy ramen I’ve been searching for (stay tuned for an upcoming Spicy Ramen test kitchen), dried shiitake mushrooms for under $2 and my fish sauce all for around $15!  I don’t recommend the Super G for all your regular grocery shopping but it is a great place to find new ingredients and things you can’t find on the international aisle at Harris Teeter. During the next couple weeks, I’ll be posting some recipes with some more unusual ingredients like fish sauce and red curry paste. If you are interested in making these recipes I highly recommend a trip!

Giada’s Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto Pasta

25 Jan

If you really like smokey flavors this pasta is for you. I’ve made Giada’s Smoke Mozzarella and Prosciutto Pasta about two times and both times I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the smokiness of the cheese. The great thing about this dish (like all sauceless pastas) is that you can reheat it and enjoy it throughout the week. I like how the mozzarella reheats and stretches more and more. I think I had this pasta for three nights in a row.

The only change I made in the dish was a sautéed the asparagus and garlic while the pasta was boiling. I would much rather do this than deal with an ice bath. Also, I used just half of the mozzarella because I’m not crazy about all the smoke.

PS: Christmas in Florida Madness

22 Jan

My sister sent me these videos from Christmas last year and I can not resist posting them. While food is always of top importance in my family (see the stone crabs we devoured on Christmas Day), the value of being fun is probably what we celebrate the most when we are together and one I hope that will always carry weight in my life.

Cracking Stone Crabs with Uncle Jerry

Thompsons Dance

Tricky Timing Tiramisu

22 Jan

To complete our cooking extravaganza, Beth and I made a huge flat of tiramisu. We used the recipe from Cooks Illustrated (I record the show America’s Test Kitchen every Sunday). In retrospect, I should have planned a couple things differently. I should have consider making only half the recipe (although my friends and coworkers benefited from all the leftovers) and making the tiramisu first rather than last. We finished making the tiramisu around 7pm and then noticed that it needed to set for 6 to 24 hour before eating. My motto these days is – you live and you learn.

On top of it all, if you eat tiramisu at 12 midnight you’ll be up all night long from the caffeine. So, time your tiramisu right – its tricky but completely worth it. This may be the best dessert I’ve ever made.

Tiramisu from Cook’s Illustrated

Brandy and even whiskey can stand in for the dark rum. The test kitchen prefers a tiramisù with a pronounced rum flavor; for a less potent rum flavor, halve the amount of rum added to the coffee mixture in step 1. Do not allow the mascarpone to warm to room temperature before using it; it has a tendency to break if allowed to do so. Be certain to use hard, not soft ladyfingers.

2 1/2 cups strong black coffee , room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
9 tablespoons dark rum
6 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 pounds mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream (cold)
14 ounces ladyfingers (42 to 60, depending on size)
3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa , preferably Dutch-processed
1/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , grated (optional)

1. Stir coffee, espresso, and 5 tablespoons rum in wide bowl or baking dish until espresso dissolves; set aside.

2. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat yolks at low speed until just combined. Add sugar and salt and beat at medium-high speed until pale yellow, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once or twice. Add remaining 4 tablespoons rum and beat at medium speed until just combined, 20 to 30 seconds; scrape bowl. Add mascarpone and beat at medium speed until no lumps remain, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down bowl once or twice. Transfer mixture to large bowl and set aside.

3. In now-empty mixer bowl (no need to clean bowl), beat cream at medium speed until frothy, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Increase speed to high and continue to beat until cream holds stiff peaks, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer. Using rubber spatula, fold one-third of whipped cream into mascarpone mixture to lighten, then gently fold in remaining whipped cream until no white streaks remain. Set mascarpone mixture aside.

4. Working one at a time, drop half of ladyfingers into coffee mixture, roll, remove, and transfer to 13 by 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. (Do not submerge ladyfingers in coffee mixture; entire process should take no longer than 2 to 3 seconds for each cookie.) Arrange soaked cookies in single layer in baking dish, breaking or trimming ladyfingers as needed to fit neatly into dish.

5. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers; use rubber spatula to spread mixture to sides and into corners of dish and smooth surface. Place 2 tablespoons cocoa in fine-mesh strainer and dust cocoa over mascarpone.

6. Repeat dipping and arrangement of ladyfingers; spread remaining mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers and dust with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa. Wipe edges of dish with dry paper towel. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours. Sprinkle with grated chocolate, if using; cut into pieces and serve chilled.

Yield: 10 to 12 serving

Spaghetti Bolognese

21 Jan

To compliment the garlic confit adventure, we thought we could prepare some Italian treats for dinner that night. In retrospect, we probably should have considered the time requirements for all these meals – and made the tiramisu first, then the bolognese and then the garlic confit. But like all things, we live and we learn.

I did my research and got the expert advice from the contributors on Chow.com and was advised to use Marcella Hazan’s recipe for Bolognese Sauce. It is super simple – but I’ll warn you: it looks like vomit for at least the first two hours of cooking. The only major change I made the recipe was that I chopped the celery, carrot and onion in the food processor to make it finer of a chop. I think this helps with the end consistency.

All in all, it was delicious. We ate this on both Saturday and Sunday night for dinner.

Michael Psilakis’s Life Changing Garlic Confit

20 Jan

This Christmas Dad received Michael Psilakis’ new book “How to Roast a Lamb” from my sister and I immediately fell in love with it. I’m not the type of person that makes New Years Resolutions, but one thing I’d like to do this year is cook more from the cookbooks I own. Psilakis says that if you take one recipe from his book it should be his recipe for Garlic Confit. I have been eyeing the recipe since December 25th and thought this would be the perfect project for a long weekend with my dear friend Beth. We set aside most of the day on Saturday for this project. And of course, we made the mistake of buying twice as much garlic as needed and had to run back to the store for jars for a second batch! This process went from mid day to late night.

I’ve never run a marathon before but I imagine it is similar to peeling 350 cloves of garlic.

About 100 cloves in, we were feeling good. Laughing, drinking and perusing a copy of The Slammer (don’t ask).

200th cloves in, Beth and I called our good friend Alison (aka Big Al) who we also grew up with. While sitting outside in the California sun on an ironing board eating fried chicken, she told us that the trick to keeping the garlic smell off your hands was to run them under cold water without rubbing them together. She was 200 cloves too late. And on top of it all, Beth was operating with a cast on her arm from a snow boarding accident…so both her hands and her cast went back to Florida smelling like garlic!

Around the 300th clove while spreading the garlic on bread and moaning, we came up with a list of bonuses to this recipe including:

  1. It will change your life. Spread it on french bread, mix it in a salad, make a marinade out of it, rub it on your body. As Beth says, “I don’t think I will ever look at garlic cloves again in the same way. There is something beautiful about the way the buttery, soft clove gives easily under the pressure of the knife and spreads so smoothly.”
  2. Your house/neighborhood block will smell like a sumptuous garlic treat…therefor you will become very popular.
  3. Like all preserved foods, this will be helpful if/when the apocalypse and/or the rapture comes.
  4. Handling the oil will vastly improve your cuticles.
  5. This will help keep away vampires, or at least the bad ones (this does not include Edward from The Twilight Series).

At 11pm that night, the marathon was over. All the garlic was in tiny beautiful jars.

I’ll finish this post acknowledging that on Monday at 1pm Beth snuck a jar in a carry-on bag on a flight back to Florida.

Life Changing Garlic Confit

Ingredients:

  • 12 heads of fresh garlic (about 150 cloves or 3 cups), peeled
  • 1 cup good olive oil
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 10 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 20 black peppercorns
  • 1 fresh bay leaf or 2 dried bay leaves

Assembly: Grab a good friend and a bottle of wine. Peel the garlic. Add the garlic and remaining ingredients and put them into a Dutch oven. Bake at 300 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until the garlic is golden and tender. While it is hot, I recommend smearing it on fresh bread and dusting it with Maldon sea salt – this will change your life. Jar the rest, pressing a square of plastic wrap on the oil each time you use it. Make sure to use clean utensils each time and it will last about a month.

Long day of cooking over a long weekend.

19 Jan
 

After a long day of cooking...

My best friend from childhood, Beth, came up from Florida this weekend to visit. Beth is the kind of friend that requires very little when she visits – her only request was to stay the majority of the time in sweatpants and to cook a lot – this was of course not difficult as that is how most of my weekends are spent in the winter! 

We spent half the day shopping for groceries on Saturday – jumping from Earth Fare to Harris Teeter (twice) and Giacamo’s Italian Market (where we also had a delicious lunch). We embarked on cooking around 2:00pm and didn’t get done until nearly 11:00pm! Two batches of garlic confit, one large pot of spaghetti bolognese and a huge flat of tiramisu later – we crashed hoping to sleep well and dream of Anthony Bourdain.I’ll post the recipes and the craziness of the long weekend this week.

Flaming Greek Pasta

14 Jan

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my dad and I watched an Alton Brown Good Eats episode about flammable liquors. My mother was probably regretting in her head that we saw it because we immediately starting thinking about what we could light on fire the next night. We had already planned on throwing a pasta dish together with shrimp, olives and feta cheese and I remembered that I had a bottle of ouzo in my kitchen. Ouzo is a anise flavored liquor that is popular in Greece so it was a perfect complement to the Greek inspired dish we were already making. With that, we had an excuse to light the dish on fire! Like all pasta dishes, the ingredients can be changed depending on your preference. Feel free to be creative! But, please be safe when lighting liquor on fire.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound shrimp
  • 1 pound linguine
  • kalamata olives, pitted
  • feta cheese
  • olive oil
  • ouzo, white wine or lemon juice
  • salt and pepper

Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and saute in a pan with olive oil. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Once the shrimp are cooked though remove them from the pan. Turn off the heat. Add the ouzo and then light using the flame from the stove or a lighter. BE CAREFUL not to add the liquor while the heat is on. And don’t sue me if your eyebrows are burnt off! Reduce the liquor and add the cooked pasta, olives, feta cheese and shrimp.

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