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Spring Greening
Mother Nature must have heard my whining last time because Spring appears to be coming to us up here, slowly but surely. Since the time changed a few weeks ago, the days are so much longer and it feels like we are finally starting to thaw out. Yesterday the temperature reached 66 degrees! Not quite Southern California, but I’ll take what I can get. In a happy spring state of mind (and with some asparagus left to use up), last night I happened upon the Spring Green Risotto from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics Cookbook. This recipe features English peas, asparagus, fennel, and leeks in a risotto that is wonderfully fresh-tasting, thanks to the addition of lemon zest and lemon juice, but also very creamy and comforting, thanks to the mascarpone and parmesan cheese. I tried to do about 3/4 of the recipe because I had 12 oz asparagus rather than 16 oz and it worked pretty darn well.
First, set about 4 cups chicken stock simmering in a small saucepan. Also, boil some salted water for the asparagus and English peas. Then, begin sauteing about 2 and 1/4 cups leeks and 3/4 cup fennel in 1.5 tbsp good olive oil and 1.5 tbsp butter until tender. You want to do this in the same pot you will use for the risotto- a 4 qt saucepan works great.
When tender, add 1 and 1/8 cup arborio rice and stir for a minute so that rice is moistened.
Next, add 1/2 cup dry white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring until wine is almost fully absorbed. Add chicken stock, two ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and adding more every time the liquid is almost fully absorbed. When you have been adding stock for about 5 minutes, prepare an ice bath, then throw asparagus which has been chopped diagonally into 1.5″ pieces into the boiling water. Wait a couple minutes and add English peas. (Remember to keep stirring the risotto when necessary!) When asparagus is bright green and peas have lost their starchiness, remove from boiling water and throw in ice bath to halt cooking.
When you have been adding stock to the risotto for about 15 minutes, drain asparagus and peas and add to risotto pot with 1 tbsp lemon zest, 2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Keep cooking and stirring and adding rice when necessary until the rice is tender but still firm (the stock portion of the recipe should take 25-30 mins).
Whisk together 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese and ~2tbsp lemon juice in a small bowl. When rice has reached desired texture and stock is absorbed, remove from heat and stir in mascarpone-lemon mixture, 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, and about 2 tablespoons minced chives.
Allow flavors to combine for a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with extra chives and parmesan cheese.
For the wine last night I used the Vin Koru Pinot Gris from Trader Joe’s ($5.99, at least here in the Northwest) and it was excellent. I drank some as well with the dish and they paired wonderfully. As Ina Garten says, this recipe is super cathartic after a hectic day, so just pour a glass of wine and stir, stir, stir. It was so springy and delicious and elegant- perfect for guests! The amounts above come out to about 3 full-size servings or 4-5 first course servings. Bon Appetit!
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Hello? Spring? Are you there?
Happy Spring everyone! The signs are everywhere…tulips are in the markets, more than half the nation is experiencing record high temperatures, the days are longer, and the world of produce is telling us- SPRING IS HERE. Asparagus, shelling peas, strawberries…slowly but surely the ground is thawing and these wonderful riches are making their way to our markets. But in Seattle, Spring is having a tougher time making itself known. Record high temps? Not here…the beginnings of sunshine? Not that I can tell. Tonight the forecast calls for snow. SNOW. This California girl is positively ACHING for spring.
I feel like this kid...
So what to do when you’re ready for Spring but it’s not ready for you? Try to make it yourself…
This weekend I went to the beautiful Pike Place Market in search of some goods for the week and some color in the midst of this dreary, dreary world. I found the color easily enough, in these beautiful double daffodils…
I also picked up a beautiful jumbo artichoke to prepare in my favorite preparation…steam for 40-60 minutes until tender, cut in half lengthwise, then heat up a grill or grill pan until very hot, drizzle olive oil all over halved artichoke, and grill on both sides until grill marks appear. I like to serve grilled artichokes with a small bowl of mayonnaise and melted butter, or melted butter with parsley and garlic mixed in, or some kind of variation on an aioli. This one was about the size of a softball and oh so delicious.
Faced with the unending seafood richness of Pike Place, I was having a tough time deciding what to go with. Halibut or oysters? Sashimi or clams? Everything looked so good. I found myself in Market Spice with an array of spice mixes around me, and their signature spice called out to me. With garlic, herbs, paprika, and a smattering of other things, it is a perfect spice for adding to stock for soup or rubbing on meat. One sniff and I knew what to do. I picked up some halibut bones and mirepoix (yellow onion, carrot, celery, and this time mushrooms) with which to make fish stock (also throwing in a clove and bay leaf and white wine), some cherrystone clams, some shrimp, orecchiette pasta, and extra of the mirepoix veggies to make a delicious shellfish soup. The market spice was the perfect addition and I ended up with a shellfish soup that was at the same time comforting and fresh and springy tasting. And nothing beats the smell of stock simmering over the fire (oh, I mean the electric stove).
I’ll be back next week to make some Grilled Scallops with FRESH English Peas (http://foodiesdilemma.com/2011/09/a-new-chapter-and-the-triumphant-return-of-twffc.html). Maybe the sun will come with me!
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Fish en Papillote- A WOW Dish Requiring Minimal Effort
Happy New Year to all! In the season of New Years Resolutions I am both returning to my blog and also trying to provide some healthy and/or money-saving recipes and challenges!
One of my favorite fish recipes to prepare is fish en papillote because it is super easy, pretty quick, very flexible, and has an extremely high elegance-to-effort ratio! You can prepare fish en papillote with really any filet-ing fish. I have made it with sea bass and salmon (my personal favorite), but it would also be delicious with swordfish, halibut, or trout. I think sole would be too thin, but otherwise, any filet-ing fish should work pretty well.
Here is the process:
Step #1: Prepare ingredients. Chop herbs and veggies and lightly salt fish. Open a bottle of white wine and pour a glass for yourself before moving forward…
Step #2: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step #3: Lay fish on one half of parchment paper.
Raw Salmon on Parchment Paper covered with Lemon slices, garlic, olives, capers, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper
Step #4: Cover fish with various herbs and other ingredients…here I used capers, olives, lemon slices, white wine, parsley, thyme, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Step #5: Fold over parchment paper and fold around edges so that heat is sealed within packet. Place in oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes then remove and cut in an X.
Cooking en papillote is such an easy cooking method but it is delicious and very impressive for guests. This salmon was just delicious…lots of flavor and well cooked, not to mention beautiful! It is a great weeknight fish dish to change up your rotation because you can use whatever you have in the fridge…bell peppers, onions, chiles, tomatoes, and other herbs, or leafy greens like spinach or kale, would change the flavor profile but would probably taste delicious. I encourage you to give it a try! New Years Resolutions never tasted so good.
Finished Salmon Cooked en Papillote
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The Art of Braising (and a twist!)
One of the most valuable lessons I learned during my cooking class this year was the process and techniques for braising. This cooking technique is most often employed in cold winter months with warm, comforting dishes like Boeuf Bourgignon, Braised Short Ribs, Coq au Vin, Osso Bucco, etc. These are some of my favorite dishes in the world because of the way braising makes the meat moist and tender and comforting. Braising is also one of the most economically elegant ways of cooking because you can use the cheap, tough cuts of meat (short ribs, chicken thighs) and by braising turn them into tender heaven (and aren’t restaurant chefs smart by braising short ribs and charging an arm and a leg for them- it costs them nothing!) The great thing about braising, though, is that you can really do it with any ingredients you like if you follow the main steps. I haven’t tried braising any vegetables yet so I’m not sure how that turns out but in the words of Julie on Julie and Julia, “braised cucumbers are a revelation”…I’ll have to give them a try. For now, we’ll just talk meat:
First, make sure you have evenly sized pieces of meat, whether cubed or on a bone, as shortribs often are. Remove any tough, fatty or grisly bits, make sure the meat is dry and season it heavily with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in a dutch oven or 6-8qt deep sided pan (dutch ovens are preferred) until it is smoking and, in batches, sear the meat heavily on all sides to almost burning (beef should be black). Do not try to crowd the meat in the pan or else it will steam and not sear.
When you are finished searing the meat, use the same pan and toss in your aromatics (onions, garlic, celery) and cook until soft and caramelized. Add some oil to the pan if it is too dry. Next, “deglaze” the pan with some kind of acidic liquid- wine is very common. Pour the liquid in and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the “fond” (browned bits on the bottom of the pan from the meat).
Next, add the meat back into the pan and add braising sauce (beef stock, chicken stock, more wine, juice, tomato sauce, etc) and whatever herbs you like (you can use a bouquet garni- a tied bundle of thyme, parsley, and/or rosemary, peppercorns, and a bay leaf- or you can just throw whatever herbs you like straight into the sauce). Bring the whole thing to a boil and then either put it in the oven at 325-400 degrees or keep it on the stove at a low simmer. It will cook usually for 2-4 hours until the meat is fork-tender. If you want to add vegetables, add them with an hour or so to go because they cook faster than the meat. Carrots, peas, mushrooms, cipollini onions, green beans…all are good. When the braise is done, you can either fish out whatever people wouldn’t want to eat (a whole bay leaf, bouquet garni) or you can strain it, skim fat off the sauce, reduce the sauce, and serve the meat with the sauce poured over. Makes you hungry, doesn’t it?!
Last night, I cooked a recipe that was a kind of variation on braising I’d found for Turkey Chile Verde. It’s a great recipe from www.simplyrecipes.com and is both flavorful and healthy. First, make salsa verde from tomatillos, garlic, chiles, cilantro, lime juice, and some salt and a pinch of sugar. Then, you mostly follow the steps above with turkey, searing the meat, then putting onions, cumin and garlic in the pan to saute. One step that I thought was missing that would have helped was deglazing, which I guess I would do with a light white wine. The recipe said to just scrape up the fond while sauteing the onions but the pan was far too dry (I paid for it this morning with some elbow grease trying to scrub the seared turkey off the bottom!). Next, I added back the turkey meat with the salsa verde, chicken stock, chipotle powder, oregano, bay leaves, and some ground cloves. I brought it to a boil then lowered the heat to allow it to simmer for about three hours (I had used turkey breast meat because I could not find turkey thighs so it didn’t need as much cooking time…the recipe said you could go to four hours). The sauce will reduce a bit while simmering which is good. When the meat is tender, remove the bay leaves and serve with garnishes such as cilantro, avocado, crema fresca, sour cream, etc. You can also serve it burrito style or over rice. This is an excellent recipe because the salsa verde makes it somewhat refreshing and fresh-tasting but it is still comforting like a traditional braise.
I challenge you to go out and braise confidently! Try one of the traditional dishes or let your imagination run away with you!
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A New Chapter, and the Triumphant Return of TWFFC!
I am going to blame my absence on two things:
1) The proliferation of spam comments on my blog which just makes me exhausted every time I think about them…seriously people- who spams?! If I didn’t have 500 spam posts staring me down every time I wanted to add a post, maybe I’d do it more often!
2) On a lighter and much more important note, I got an exciting promotion at work and moved to Seattle about a month ago!
So my apologies, hopefully I will be more frequent in the future (not sure what else i’ll have to do when it’s raining 24/7!)
Now that we’ve got that over with, I can get to the good stuff! So, some fun culinary adventures I’ve had in the last couple months:
The end of May marked both my promotion and the end of my cooking class. For our last class we had to use the ingredients available to us to create a 3-course meal for our class. My partner and I made a lovely salmon en papillote (salmon enclosed in parchment paper with various herbs and veggies- the parchment paper keeps it very moist- this is VERY EASY to do!), beef with a nice pan gravy and mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach (there was an unbelievable shortage of butter for our last class- an intentional challenge, perhaps?- but somehow we made do and while the pan gravy came completely out of my head and not at all from a recipe, i’d say it turned out pretty darn well), and Madeleine cookies with Lemon Curd (oh, I could just bathe in lemon curd…). What fun, and what a great accomplishment! Next up: Sommelier school, hopefully!
June I believe marked the second class of my new Wine Club, which has been such a treat for me. In our first class, we had Burgundy wines and their American counterparts, and in the second, we did Bordeaux. Together with 14 friends and family, I made some yummy appetizers (perfectly paired, of course!) and we sampled various wines to find out what this thing called terroir has to do with anything and what wine we are most drawn to. It has been such fun. A couple weeks ago, we had our third class, on Sparkling wines, and it included a wonderful Cheese pairing demonstration from my very own Cheese expert. What fun! I can’t wait for more wine clubs in the future.
The end of July brought my move to Seattle and such wonderful foodie adventures I don’t even know where to begin. On our first night in Seattle, my lovely parents and I enjoyed three dozen oysters of all different varieties from the Pacific NW. The fish up here is incredible, and the oysters are just perfection. I could sit out at Elliot’s Oyster House on the waterfront and eat oysters for hours and hours on end…I just wouldn’t have any money left over.
Since moving to Seattle I have enjoyed a few outings to Pike Place Market which is now officially in my top 5 favorite places on Earth. It is beautiful- so many colors, such fresh produce, and amazingly fresh fish. Dungeness crabs, 30 lb King Salmon, endless oysters and clams and mussels…where does one even start! When I am bored I know I can just cruise around the market and enjoy a sample here and there and be inspired constantly.
I have also been blessed with trips to some amazing Seattle restaurants. The landmark Canlis, with its impeccable service, view, and presentation; Steelhead Diner with its beautifully prepared comfort foods; Dahlia Lounge with fresh doughnuts that would knock your socks off…the list goes on. I have also found it very easy to get in the pattern of happy hours here- they are huge and I am not complaining! What a great way to sample the local fare and not have to pay a pretty penny!
During a brief trip to LA for some birthday celebrations, we had a paella party in our beautiful backyard. With my 18″ paella pan, I made a stunning paella with chorizo, chicken, shrimp, clams, lobster tails, and mussels. If you have a grill and a nice sitting area, I thoroughly recommend a paella party- it is so fun to watch it cook and sit around enjoying some white or red sangria- a truly relaxing, enjoyable, quintessentially summer evening.
Finally, this last weekend I had a very special visit from TWFFC in Seattle. We had a wonderful time exploring the sights and doing a LOT of eating! Sunday we went to Pike Place Market and saw all the fresh fare then purchased a red snapper, some beautiful huge scallops, and some various veggies to enjoy. We made a delicious dinner of:
Grilled scallops with Pea, Mint, Pancetta Puree- we used canned peas but this would be best with fresh english peas or frozen peas- Puree about 1 cup of peas, 1 tbsp fresh mint, and 1/8 cup olive oil. Cook 3/4 cup chopped pancetta until brown and crispy, drain fat, and mix in pea puree. Heat until warm, and season to taste. Meanwhile, heat a grill or grill pan until hot. Marinate 1/2 lb scallops in olive oil, salt, and pepper for a few minutes. Grill scallops for a few minutes on each side until opaque. To serve, put about 3/4 cup pea puree on a plate and place scallops on top. Garnish with fresh mint. (This served two- use a pound of scallops and 2 cups peas, etc, for four)- This was delicious and so fresh-tasting. The mint and pancetta add a lot of depth.
Classic Caprese- Caprese is hands down my favorite salad and such a beautiful tribute to summer- slice one or two tomatoes (heirlooms in summer are the BEST) and top with sliced fresh (packed in water) mozzarella di bufala or burrata. Top with fresh basil leaves (equal number of tomato slices, mozzarella slices, and basil leaves), drizzle with good olive oil and just a splash of good balsamic, and season with salt and pepper. Alternatively you can make a pesto of sorts with a bunch of basil leaves, olive oil, and a couple cloves of garlic and just a dash of balsamic. This is better when you’re using burrata.
Whole Snapper Baked in Salt- I learned this in cooking class (we used trout) and it is a great method for any type of whole fish- wonderful flavor and awesome presentation. You will need a whole 2-3 lb fish, gilled and gutted, 6 cups kosher salt, 2 egg whites + 1/4 c water whisked until frothy, and whatever you want to stuff the fish with- chopped fennel, lemon slices, thyme, and dill work great. Preheat the oven to 450, and mix together the salt and egg/water mixture until it has the consistency of wet sand (use your hands but be careful of cuts!). Stuff the fish with the fennel, lemon slices, and herbs and pepper the cavity well. Prepare a sheet pan with some parchment paper and enclose the fish in the salt mixture, starting with a layer of the salt mixture about 1/2″ thick on the parchment paper the size of the fish, and laying down the fish and wholly enclosing it with the rest of the salt until you can’t see the fish within. Bake the salt-enclosed fish for 30 minutes until the salt has hardened and is starting to turn golden-brown. You will need to break the salt with a hammer or rolling pin, remove the salt from the fish, fillet the fish, and serve. What a delicious and fun way to cook fish! This is best served with some beurre blanc or perhaps tartar sauce.
What a wonderful meal celebrating the bounty of Pike Place Market and the Northwest! Looking forward to many great meals (and blog posts) ahead!!
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Deliciously Useful Tips for a Delicious Result on the Table
To continue on with my last post about what I’ve gained from my cooking class experience, I’ve also learned some best practices for cooking which have made me a more organized chef and less likely to make mistakes. They seem somewhat straightforward but it’s good to do a mental checklist every time you’re about to prepare a dish. Use of these steps can turn a good meal into a great meal, and make your life easier as well.
- Have a clean area in which to work ready before you begin. Since most recipes require chopping of some sort, that means a large cutting board, clean tools, a big bowl in which to throw your scraps (onion skins, fatty pieces of meat, food wrappers, etc), and a plate or some bowls on which to put finished ingredients so that you can keep your cutting board clean. It’s important not to have a cluttered cutting board because not giving yourself enough space is a great way to accidentally chop your finger off.
- Before you even turn on the stove, make sure you’ve prepared all the ingredients for the dish you’re making. This means that if the recipe asks for a chopped onion, chop it, and if it asks for sliced bread 6 directions in, slice it before you even start. Measure your liquids, trim your meat, and have all the necessary tools out and ready to use. This will require reading your recipe a few times through before beginning so you know exactly what you need. The French term for this preparation of ingredients and workspace is mise en place.
- Schedule everything. Reading the recipe is also very important in order to plan out cooking time. Since I’ve started cooking for others frequently, preparing whole meals at a time, I’ve learned the importance of scheduling out preparation and giving the food adequate time to cook. Water does not boil just because you’re stressed out and running late! If you’re cooking a large meal, it’s a good idea the day before to sit down with your cookbook(s) or recipes, look at all the steps, and plan out step by step how you’ll prepare the meal. Keep in mind cooking time, cooling time, marinating time, etc. Figure out what time you’ll need to start in order to get all the steps completed by the time you’d like to serve, and be sure to include mise en place. Write this all down! Try to do as many steps as possible before “crunch time,” but don’t do anything in advance which might undermine the quality of the final product.
As an example of this, when I was preparing the meal from my last post I received notice that a surprise guest (one whom I really wanted to impress with my culinary skills) was going to arrive quite soon. When I realized that I would have to get ready more quickly than I’d originally thought, my family immediately started crying out with offers of assistance, saying “What can I help you do? Is there anything else you need to do?” and I was able to say quite calmly that everything was pretty well set. When my dad came in and saw the meal I’d prepared mostly ready to go and my mom said “Look at all this food Emily prepared!” he said, “Wow…and you’re not even freaking out!” I’m telling you…Plan! Write it down! It will change your life!
- Presentation is everything. If food doesn’t look good, people are inclined to believe it won’t taste good either. Take time in preparation to plan out your presentation. This means heating up plates on which you’re serving hot dishes, placing the plates for cold dishes in the freezer before serving, thinking about the most aesthetically pleasing way to get the food from the cooking vessel to the serving vessel, providing the appropriate utensils, and also taking into consideration the ease of eating. It would be cruel to your guests to serve spaghetti at a ladies luncheon without providing a knife with which to cut your noodles. Yes, that sounded very 1950s housewife of me, but it’s true. Anyway, the little touches of presentation go a long way. Cheddar Cheese Please gave me a copy of Amy Sedaris’s book I Like You, which is a hospitality guide, and in the book she talks about how the reason you entertain is because you are telling your guests “I like you, and that’s why I wanted to have you over.” Think how liked you would feel sitting at a table with a nice fresh salad and noticing that the plates it’s been served on are ice cold. Personally, I would think to myself, “Wow, my friend took the time to chill the plates because she really cares that I’m here and she really likes me. What a nice touch.” See? It’s the little things in life.
- The quality of the ingredients you put in is the quality of the dish you’ll end up with. We’ve all heard it before but it is true. Steer clear of tomatoes in the dead of winter, kale in the middle of summer, and sashimi grade ahi that you found on the side of the road (Okay, I don’t think anyone would cook with that, but just in case). Take the time to get to know your ingredients, and be observant at the grocery store. Handle your produce before purchasing to make sure its ripe, check your meat to make sure it’s not spoiling, and try not to substitute in recipes with lesser ingredients unless its something that doesn’t really matter (for example, do NOT substitute dried herbs when a recipe asks for fresh. The result is wildly different in many cases and if the recipe wants dried, it will tell you dried).
A lot to digest, I know. But putting these practices in place when you cook really makes all the difference. When you can focus on following directions and tasting rather than running around your kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off, the final result will always be better. It also gives you the opportunity to pay attention to what you’re doing and pay attention to what the food is doing, which allows you to think about it and maybe even create your own masterpieces. It’s just like that advice teachers gave you in college that I rarely followed…if you give yourself time to write a paper or do a project, you’ll have all the more opportunity to be creative with it and allow your knowledge and gifts to shine through it. They may have been onto something there…
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Slowly But Surely…Learning Something New Every Week
When you shell out a significant percentage of your income for a class of one sort or another, you want to know that it’s paying off. I’ve asked myself a few times over the course of my cooking class whether what I’m learning is going to affect the way I cook from now on. Over the last few weeks, I have noticed that it certainly is affecting not only my knowledge of recipes and ingredients, but my cooking habits as well.
Take Sunday for example: I was cooking a big feast for my family of homemade spaghetti (obviously a skill gained purely from my class), turkey meatballs, marinara sauce, and cauliflower soup (yes, sort of out of left field, but I really wanted to use my new immersion blender!). TyFlo told me that I should try this soup if I was a cauliflower non-believer and it would convert me. Well, I would certainly consider myself a cauliflower non-believer, so I thought it would be a good thing to try. I started making the soup, which requires heating up whole milk, throwing a chopped-up head of cauliflower and some onion and various herbs and spices in, allowing it all to soften, adding a few things here and there, and blending the whole thing. The soup is topped with herbed brioche croutons and toasted leftover cauliflower florets.
Well, I got to the step where you blend the soup and, after using my fantastic new immersion blender, thought to myself that the soup might just be a little too thin. I tasted it and it tasted great, nice cauliflower and cream flavors, but just needed a little more thickness. The old me would have said “Well, this sucks, my soup is too thin but there’s nothing I can do about it,” but the new culinarily aware me said, “Well, what could thicken this soup?” and I landed on a potato.
I quickly peeled and chopped up a russet potato (using my new chef’s knife and stellar, school-acquired knife skills) and boiled it (I chopped it up because I had limited time and the more surface area something has the quicker it will cook…a lesson that seems quite obvious when you think about it but for me required someone pointing it out, namely the chef who teaches my class). I added it to the soup and re-blended.
Because I’d added in an ingredient that was rather bland, I threw some more seasonings in and tasted again. The result was a perfectly thickened, flavorful, creamy soup. It still had the nice cauliflower flavor but now boasted a wonderful texture as well. I thanked my luck for having a potato around, thanked TyFlo for his insight that this soup would make me a cauliflower believer, and made a mental note to thank my teacher for giving me the wisdom to know that I could improve my result. Now try for yourself! -
The Pasta Chronicles
First, let me say with renewed motivation that I have made a resolution to write in my blog once a week. I know…I know… you’ve heard it all before…but this time I’m really hoping I can stick to it.
With that, it’s time to get into the good stuff. I’ve been taking cooking classes since October at a culinary school in West Hollywood. The class is 24 weeks long and based on French Technique. So far we’ve done stocks, soups, vegetables, two rounds of sauces, pantry, and starches. As you can imagine, the starch class was, in one word, phenomenal. We made corn and grit timbales, garlic mashed potatoes, risotto, rice pilaf, potato pancakes, twice-baked potatoes, and three types of pasta- from scratch! The pasta was definitely the most fun, and far easier to make than I thought. I went right to Amazon on Thursday morning and bought myself a pasta press; I’ll be a pro in no time! Imagine the possibilities for WTHAWHFDP!
So to make pasta, you combine semolina flour with a couple eggs and whisk them together into a good dough. Instead of eggs one could use spinach puree, beet juice (imagine- bright pink pasta!), or any other liquid that would provide a good dough texture. You can crack a bunch of black pepper into the dough to make black pepper pasta, put some herbs in to make herb pasta…the possibilities are endless!
So after making the dough, you wrap it in plastic wrap and it has to sit for anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours depending on how long you’ve got. Then, you break it into two pieces and start working it through the pasta press. You start with the widest roller setting and work it through until it’s the texture of “soft leather.” When you’ve reached the appropriate texture, you start making the rollers tighter and tighter until it’s the right thickness. Then, you switch the crank to the side that makes noodles and, in batches, press it through that side. As I learned, you really can’t have too much flour, because you don’t want the noodles to stick together. If you don’t want to make spaghetti or linguine or a long noodle like that, you can just use a knife to make pappardelle, ravioli, tortellini, agnolotti…again, the possibilities are endless!! When you’ve made the noodles, you boil them in salted water as normal, but only for 3-5 minutes. Also, you can freeze the frozen noodles and just pull them out whenever you’d like to use them.
It’s just so easy! And fun!! And you feel like an old Italian mama making others’ culinary dreams come true, warming hearts with warm bowls of pasta. For real.
After my amazing pasta experience at cooking class, this weekend back to good old Georgetown and had a lovely weekend with TWFC, CCP, and Pasta Mamma. And oh the culinary adventures we had! On Saturday night we went to Liberty Tavern and I had one of the most amazing pasta dishes of my life. It was garganelli (which is basically penne but with smooth sides rather than ridged) with sweet pork sausage, speck, porcini, sage, and a taleggio cheese cream sauce. Yum yum YUM. It was delicious, quite modern but with simple and quality ingredients. The taleggio cream was a total game changer. Other culinary adventures shall come soon enough.
Before I go, I’ll leave with you one of my favorite new pasta dishes:
Spinach linguine with Italian Sausage and Ricotta
1 package spinach linguine or penne
1 package hot italian sausage, casings removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
~1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
good olive oil
1 bag spinach leaves
Boil a pot of salted water for the pasta. Meanwhile, pour a 2-count of olive oil into a saute pan and throw in the garlic to sweat for a minute. Throw the pasta in when water is boiling. When oil and garlic are fragrant, put the sausage in and begin to break up with a fork. Cook until well-browned and fold in the spinach leaves. Drain the pasta and separate into four pasta bowls. Top each with the sausage and spinach mixture, a good scoop of ricotta cheese, a generous sprinkling of parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and fresh black pepper. Buon apetito! Or in the words of the Barefoot Contessa, how easy is that?
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When time and inspiration run out…
Yes, it’s true, my inspiration has run a bit dry. This whole full-time job thing has really thrown me for a loop… and while I’m thinking about food and wine all day, lately there hasn’t been anything overwhelmingly motivating. That being said, sometimes all you need is a few ingredients and a little creativity and you can really create something great! A few of my recent creations…
It was me and old dad (mom was playing bridge) and we didn’t know what to have for dinner…a definite “what the hell are we having for dinner” moment…and I thought, why not braise some chicken into submission and see what happened. We chopped up some of our (home-grown!) tomatoes, half an onion, and some garlic. We heated up some olive oil in a deep saute pan, and browned some chicken breasts. Then we threw in the tomatoes, the onion, the garlic, some capers, and a little more olive oil. We covered it up, and let it sit there for a while while we caught up on our TIVO. We boiled up some penne pasta and about 30 minutes after we had set the lid on the chicken, it was done. After putting the chicken on the pasta with its braising sauce and sprinkling on some parmigiano reggiano, well, pure heaven.
Every Monday, my friend BZ and I go to our “neighborhood grocery store” and pick up some things for lunch for the week. We try to be cost savvy and make it something quick that we can eat for the rest of the week. We had sandwiches, wraps, and last week (during an odd California cold spell), we made some delicious tortilla soup (http://foodiesdilemma.com/2010/02/the-easiest-way-to-comfort.html). This week, we decided to go with some stirfry. Some frozen stir fry vegetables (green beans, snap-peas, baby corn, waterchestnuts, and broccoli) and a frozen seafood blend (calamari, shrimp, and scallops) and a dollop of olive oil later, we had ourselves a fine lunch, and we will have a couple more days!
Tonight, home alone for dinner, I decided I wanted some bruschetta (for the record, pronounced “Broo-sket-uh,” not “br00-shet-uh”). I chopped up two tomatoes, some basil, and a clove of garlic, and mixed in some good olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. I toasted up some slices of baguette and voila– bruschetta!
Don’t let anyone tell you cooking is hard or takes a lot of thought…just throw some good, fresh ingredients together and you’ll have a delicious meal in no time!
Cooking class starts Wednesday…who knows what may come!
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Delicious in that California Way…
Given my profession, I have recently been given the job of writing a wine guide for employees of a grocery chain so that they can know what they’re talking about when customers ask them about wine. This assignment, beyond helping me learn a lot about wine, has given me a lot of time to think about what it is that I like about wine, and has also given me much reason to experiment with various wines and decide for myself what I like best.
Tonight, I met with a young man who recently started his own catering company. We have similar backgrounds so it was great to talk to him about the various steps he had taken in his life to end up where he was now. In our lovely conversation about food and wine, he asked me what my favorite bottle of California wine was. While my initial answer was Coppola Diamond Claret (a fantastic wine and a great value) I think I would actually change it to Rombauer Zinfandel- a wine that I don’t have occasion to drink very often as it is quite pricey, but a wonderful wine nonetheless. At the same time, it’s hard to limit myself to just one wine, as my favorite is really the Zinfandel varietal over all. And what I love about this wine, I could extend to California food and really all of California itself…
Alright. I’m getting a bit out of hand. But really, I believe that Zinfandel wholly and proudly represents California as no other wine or food can. And being a big fan of all things California, it only makes sense that Zin would be my favorite.
You may not know that the Zinfandel grape is grown only in California. Now I don’t know or care to know a lot about White Zinfandel, but red Zinfandel is a wine that is generally spicy, peppery, rich, and velvety. It has deep red fruit flavors and usually a beautiful ruby color. Imagine a great rib-eye. Juicy, medium-rare to medium, beefy flavor with just some salt and pepper to finish it off. What would I pair with that perfect ribeye? A Zinfandel. Now imagine a spicy Italian pasta, maybe a rigatoni with sausage and peppers and lots of parmesan. What would I pair with that pasta? A Zinfandel. Finally, imagine a perfect carne asada taco, with cheese and guacamole and some beans and rice on the side. If I were sticking to wine, what would I pair with this great taco? A zinfandel.
I will not say that Zinfandel is the most versatile red wine, because its probably not. I will say that all the foods that remind me of home, the foods that remind me of California, primarily pair marvelously with Zinfandel. And beyond that, Zinfandel has so much flavor, so much life, that its just marvelous on its own.
It is this wine’s liveliness, its boldness, and its spice that really make me think it represents the California food and wine scene so well. California has never been a state to back down or bow to tradition. We want to meet tradition, we want to test it, and we want to create the new and modern. And we won’t shy away just because people tell us the tradition is set and there’s nothing we can do about it. We want to see what WE can do.
And THAT is what I love about California wine, California food, and California itself.
