Weekly Dish

Spring is in the air and the end of the semester is here, which means the less time I spend in front of a hot stove, the happier and less stressed I am. Normally, I am not much of a television person–we don’t even have cable. But there are a few shows David and I love to watch, and the more involved I become in my academic work, the more of a break those shows offer.

Gilmore Girls is one of our weekly favorites, and these nachos evolved out of a need to find a quick, throw-together dinner before 7 pm one Tuesday night (when the show comes on here). If you watch the show, you’ll understand why we felt that these nachos were appropriate Gilmore-watching food; no utensils were used to eat them. Of course, making my own tortilla chips was a very un-Lorelai thing to do, but I had corn tortillas and no chips on hand, so what choice did I have? These nachos, for us, are the perfect TV-dinner food: messy, fun, and a lot like take-out (except I control the amount of oil used to make them!)

Chorizo Nachos

Tortilla chips, enough to cover 2 dinner plates (directions for making your own follow)
1 pound chorizo* sausage, bulk or removed from casings
Half a large yellow onion, sliced into thin rings
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 15-ounce can yellow corn, drained
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. seasoned salt
4 ounces queso fresco or other soft, mild cheese
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 lime

Brown the chorizo in a large skillet, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. When it’s brown (about 10 minutes), remove from skillet. If there’s excess oil standing in the skillet, pour it off; you still want a tiny bit to remain to cook the onions and pepper, but you don’t want the vegetables swimming in grease. (My chorizo was very lean; I had to add a drop of olive oil.) Add the onion and jalapeno to the skillet, and cook over medium-high, until the onions begin to caramelize. Season with the cumin and seasoned salt. Return the chorizo to the skillet; add the corn and reduce the heat to medium-low. Lay a single layer of tortilla chips on each plate; then, spread the chorizo mixture on top of each bed of chips. Crumble (or grate) the cheese on top, and finish with the sliced avocado. Squeeze lime over the whole plate. Serves 2 hungry people.

*Chorizo is Spanish sausage. If you can’t find it at your grocer, ground beef with extra cumin, chile powder, and seasoned salt would probably work.

To make your own tortilla chips: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut corn tortillas into triangle-shaped wedges with kitchen scissors. Spray each side with canola or vegetable oil cooking spray. Spread in a single layer on baking sheets. Sprinkle with seasoned salt and chile powder. Bake for about 20 minutes, but watch carefully. They should be crisp, but they will brown quickly at the end.

If you have any of the chorizo mixture left, it also makes a good filling for quesadillas or soft tacos.

In warmer weather, I have been known to let my husband spend more time standing over the grill than I spend over the stove. I love the smoky flavor a charcoal fire imparts to meat, but I haven’t been very adventurous in my grilling of vegetables.

Last time we grilled chicken, I decided to give veggies a try. I marinated an eggplant and three portabellos in a basalmic-honey mixture, grilled them until tender, and cubed them when they were cool enough to handle. For a quick and easy side dish, I tossed the chopped vegetables with some cubes of fresh mozzarella and a basalmic vinaigrette. I loved the combination of the smoky grilled mushrooms and eggplant and the sweet-tartness of the dressing. Later, David admitted his skepticism (he’s not the world’s biggest fan of eggplant), but said he’d been pleasantly surprised by the end result.

I can imagine all sorts of additions that would make this grilled salad even better: red bell pepper, slivers of red onion, artichoke, asparagus. This version was even better the next day; I think it will serve us in the future as picnic fare or a simple make-ahead side dish.

Grilled Eggplant and Portabello Salad

1 small eggplant, quartered
3 large portabello mushrooms, halved
For the marinade:
1/2 cup basalmic vinegar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey

For the dressing:
3 T. balsalmic vinegar
3 T. olive oil
2 T. honey
1/2 t. Kosher salt

1/4 pound fresh mozzarella, cubed

Mix up the marinade in a large baking dish. Add the vegetables, cut side of the vegetables down, cover, and refrigerate for at least a few hours. Turn and stir at least once, to make sure the veggies are soaking up the vinegary juices.

Grill the eggplant and mushrooms until charred and tender, over a medium-low flame, this took us about 20 minutes for the mushrooms about 40 for the eggplant. You can also cut the vegetables into smaller pieces if you like, which will help them to become tender quicker (before the outside is completely black).

Allow them to cool completely. Meanwhile, mix up the dressing in a small bowl: whisk together the honey and vinegar, and then incorporate the oil a drop at a time, whisking vigorously until the dressing emulsifies (thickens and doesn’t separate). Stir in the salt.
When the vegetables are cool, chop them into cubes and toss them with the mozzarella cubes and the dressing. Serves 4-6 as a side.

This veggie recipe is my contribution to ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks. For more great good-for-you recipes, visit her site.

I guess technically, the Sugar High Friday event is supposed to be dedicated to dessert. But, Lick The Spoon’s theme for this month, “Candy is Dandy, but Liquor is Quicker,” just happened to be the perfect fit for my most recent favorite Saturday breakfast concoction, replete with liquor and plenty of sugar.

I loved French toast as a little girl; my favorite way for my mom to fix it was drenched in egg, fried, and then coated in cinnamon and sugar. Yum! But standing over the stove flipping batches of toast is just not my idea of a relaxing Saturday morning. Plus, the first batch is always a little too lukewarm by the time I finish with the second batch, and the process makes a big mess. So, this recipe is the perfect solution. You assemble everything the night before, and the only thing you have to do in the morning is mix up the syrup in a baking dish, place the soaked bread slices on top, and slide the dish in the oven. Slice a few strawberries while you enjoy your coffee, and you have yourself a pretty perfect way to start the weekend.

I love the flavor of almond and honey, so the syrup for this French toast, baked right in with the bread, is made of honey, almonds, and Amaretto. Decadent, I know–I don’t eat it for breakfast every day–but, oh my, it’s good. The bread puffs up with the egg mixture, and the result is a gooey, sticky mess of almond-soaked goodness. Tart strawberries are a particularly nice complement to the super sweetness of the syrup.

Overnight Honey-Almond French Toast

4 slices bread of your choice (I used sourdough that was approaching staleness–if you’re bread is really soft, you might want to toast it for a few minutes before proceeding with the recipe)
4 beaten eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 T. + 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 t. + 1 T. Amaretto
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sliced almonds

The night before: In a square baking dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, tablespoon of brown sugar, and teaspoon of Amaretto. Arrange the bread in the egg mixture by first dipping one side, and then flipping, making sure that each slice is adequately soaked with the liquid. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the bread from the baking dish to a plate. In the same dish, combine the melted butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, honey, almonds, and tablespoon of Amaretto. Lay the bread slices back in the dish on top of the honey mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the bread slices are puffed and golden brown. To serve, turn toast out onto plate upside down; top with sliced strawberries and drizzle with any extra syrup. Serves 2 or 4, depending on how much you eat for breakfast. We usually can only eat one slice each (so we eat the rest on Sunday morning!)

Every girl knows that a plain old salad needs the proper accessory to stand out. This sherry mustard vinaigrette is one I learned how to make at the restaurant where I waited tables in college; it was a house favorite. I think I ate a salad coated in its tangy sweetness nearly every workday for lunch. The greens in this photo came from our backyard (arugula, I think?), and the grilled chicken is made according to this recipe. It’s busy around our house, and this salad was the perfect throw-together springtime dinner.

Sherry Mustard Vinaigrette

3 T. cooking sherry (sherry vinegar will do in a pinch)
1 T. cider vinegar
2 t. cane syrup or honey
1 T. dijon mustard (I used the sweet-hot kind, but any mustard you like will do)
5 T. olive oil

Whisk together the vinegars, syrup or honey, and mustard. Whisk in the olive oil a drop at a time, stirring constantly, to emulsify. You can also do this in a food processor or a blender (but I would double the recipe; this amount hardly warrants a dirty blender, in my opinion).

Notes about the recipe: Many people prefer their vinaigrettes with a higher ration of oil to vinegar, but I like mine almost 1 to 1 for a couple of reasons. The first is that it slightly reduces the fat content of the dressing. Secondly, if the dressing is very flavorful, I am apt to use less of it, which also helps to reduce fat and calories. After all, if you’re going to eat salad for dinner, it might as well be as good for you as possible. Right?

The other night we invited friends over for dinner. We wanted to grill and sit outside–the spring weather here has been lovely. So I was looking for a dessert recipe that I could make ahead of time, put in the fridge, and forget about until later. Three pints of gorgeous Louisiana strawberries from the morning’s market visit begged to be part of whatever I concocted, so I decided to turn my Basalmic Strawberries and Mascarpone Cream into a tart.

Because I had time, I made the crust from scratch (see my notes about making the crust below), but a refrigerated one would work just fine too (although you should read Aunt Prissy’s warning below before you make that decision).

Seasonal, sweet strawberries are the stars in this dessert: the creamy filling and basalmic syrup are really just glitzy accessories. Once you’ve made the crust, the tart comes together quickly, and then you can slide it in the fridge and concentrate on your guests. Just the kind of make-ahead dessert that’s perfect for an evening of grilling for company. Or perhaps for Easter brunch?

Basalmic-Mascarpone Strawberry Tart

1 recipe Aunt Prissy’s Basic Pie Crust (see below)
2 pints strawberries
2 T. sugar (or less, depending on how sweet the berries are)
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Roll the dough into a circle, lightly working from the center to get it as even as possible. Carefully lay the circle of dough on your tart pan, letting the excess hang over the edge. Gently press the dough into the pan, using your fingers to trim it to fit and to press it into the fluted edge. Pierce all over with a fork. Cover with aluminum foil, pressing it lightly to make sure it stays put (or if you have pie weights or beans, you can use those to keep it in place.) Bake for about 12 minutes, then remove the foil, and bake for 10 minutes more, or until lightly golden brown.

Meanwhile, wash and hull the strawberries. Dry them, and then cut them into quarters or slices, whichever you prefer, toss them into a bowl, sprinkle with sugar, and set aside. Whip the mascarpone and powdered sugar together until well-combined. Add the cream in a steady stream with the mixer running on medium-low speed. You want to whip the cream so that it’s thick but not stiff; it’s easy to overmix it. It should still be pourable so you can spread it onto the tart crust.

In a saucepan, bring the vinegar and 1/4 cup sugar to a slow boil; reduce the heat, and cook for another few minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside; it will thicken as it cools.

To assemble: spread the mascarpone mixture evenly over the bottom of the crust. Top with the strawberries. At this point, the tart can be covered and refrigerated for several hours. When ready to serve, drizzle the basalmic syrup over the top (this looks pretty; sorry I don’t have a picture, but I think it’s rude to make guests wait to eat while I do a photo shoot!).

Aunt Prissy’s Basic Pie Crust
1 1/4 cups flour
3/8 t. salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
3 1/2 T. cold butter
4-5 T. cold water

In a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, shortening, and butter together until crumbly (pea-sized crumbles). Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, continuining to pulse, until the dough forms into a ball. You want to be careful not to overprocess it, but it takes a few minutes for the dough to stick together. Just don’t leave the motor running. Pull the dough out and form into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap, flattening it into a disc, and refrigerate for about an hour (this time, I only waited 45 minutes before rolling it out, and it was fine). Roll out onto a floured board, but take your time; you don’t want to put too much pressure on it. Proceed to pie recipe.

Notes about the crust: My Aunt Prissy wrote this recipe on an index card to go into my Aunt’s Recipe Book I received when I got married. I have halved the recipe because I rarely make a double-crusted pie and because only this much will fit into my small food processor. If you have a big one, please feel free to double the recipe. If you have never made a homemade pie crust and you are scared, I will leave you with these words that Aunt Prissy wrote on the back of the recipe card: “Please do not be afraid to make pie crust. Flour, crisco, butter, and salt do not have souls. You do not have to win them to Christ. They are just ingredients that happen to make all pies taste fabulous as opposed to pies made with store-bought, already-made pie crusts that only taste good. Do not be afraid, have courage, take up the fight to learn how to make your own pie crust and go forth!!”

Happy Easter, everyone!

I love to learn about new foods. One of the great things about reading other people’s food blogs is that I often come in contact with ingredients that are unfamiliar to me, and then I end up running into them somewhere else.

The weekly ARF/5-a-day event over at Sweetnicks keeps me trying to incorporate vegetables into our diet, and with spring upon us, I’d been searching for new veggies to love. Then, last week, I read Rorie’s post about her favorite spring risotto, with shallots, red onions, and fava beans. I’d never seen fava beans, much less cooked with them, so when I saw them at my farmer’s market on Saturday, I grabbed them.

I intended to make Rorie’s risotto, but, as often happens with my good intentions, I didn’t quite have everything I needed. No red onions or shallots to be found in my pantry. Besides, I didn’t have any homemade vegetable stock on hand either, and it’s really getting too warm outside to leave a burner on for that long in my kitchen. So, I set about prepping my beans, dug around in the fridge and the pantry, and ended up with this pasta.

What I didn’t know going into it is that preparing fresh fava beans for cooking is a bit of a process. They look like gigantic, engorged snow peas or butter beans in their shells, which are my very favorite springy green color (my kitchen is almost the very same green as a matter of fact!) Once you unzip their little pouches, you’ll find large, kidney-shaped beans buried inside, resting on pillows of blankety fuzz. After you pop them from their shells, then you blanch them, and then, you must peel the individual beans, removing the translucent casing on the outside. The outer peeling slides right off, so it’s not difficult, but it would be fairly time-consuming to go through this process for more than one armload of favas.

In the end, it was worth it; this pasta tastes as bright and springy as it looks, bites of sweet-salty ham and soft, caramelized sweet onions alternate with the earthy crunch of the edamame-esque beans beneath a light coating of cream and freshly grated Parmesan.

If you spy some fava beans at your local market, grab them while you can; the farmer who sold them to me warned me that their season is fleeting.

Spring Bean Pasta

1 cup of fresh fava beans, shelled (the amount in the picture above yielded about a cup of beans)
1 t. olive oil
1 cup ham, diced (I used honeybaked ham)
1/2 a sweet yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
3/4 pound pasta (I used rotini)

First, prepare your beans. After they’ve been shelled, fill a pot with about 2 inches of water (just enough to cover the beans), and bring the water to a boil. Add the beans and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Immediately drain and plunge into cold water. Let the beans cool. When they’re cool enough to handle, run your fingernail or a small knife around the outer casing, removing it from each bean.
Set the cooked, peeled beans aside. Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain, and set it aside too.

In a large skillet heat a teaspoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the ham and cook for a minute or two. Add the chopped onion and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the onion turns golden and soft. Add the carrots and garlic and reduce the heat back to medium. Cook until all the vegetables are soft and the onions are nice and caramelized, about another 5 minutes. Add the beans, and sprinkle with salt.

Pour in the wine, stirring until it evaporates. Douse the skillet with the cream, continuing to stir until the ham and vegetables are nicely coated. If you prefer to have a saucier pasta, you can add milk or more wine here. Serve the ham-vegetable sauce on top of a handful of noodles; top generously with grated Parmesan. Serves 4.

This recipe is my contribution to ARF/5-a-day Tuesday over at Sweetnick’s.

The first time my husband saw me eat a raw oyster, I wasn’t sure if our relationship would make it. I have treasured these sea-dwelling delicacies for as long as I can remember. But David? Not so keen on the texture. And, he cringed every time I slid one off of a cracker into my mouth. But oysters are supposed to be so romantic, I said, the ultimate love food. How could we be in love and not enjoy oysters together?

Thankfully, David bravely overcame his oyster-phobia and even enjoys them raw (or so he says) these days. But one of his favorite ways that I fix them is this way: baked under a layer of bread crumbs, butter, and blue cheese.

Because I love them so, we often have oysters on various special occasions. It just so happens that I made these about a month ago, in celebration five years of marriage to the man who has learned to endure many quirky things about me, including my passion for these slippery little mollusks. For that alone, I love him so.

This recipe is adapted from Blue Cheese Oysters in (fittingly enough) Martha Hopkins’ and Randall Lockridge’s aphrodesiac cookbook, Intercourses.

Blue Cheese Oyster Gratin

2 dozen oysters (I buy them already shucked, packed in liquid from my fish market)
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 T. butter, softened
Sliced bread (I used sourdough)
2 large cloves garlic, halved

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; spray a square baking dish with cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine the butter, bread crumbs, and blue cheese. Lay the oysters in a single layer in the bottom of the baking dish. Top evenly with the blue cheese mixture. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the bread crumbs are browned and the cheese is soft and melted. Toast the bread slices while the oysters are baking. Rub each side with the cut side of a garlic clove; serve the oyster gratin with the toast.

I served a simple salad on the side: raddicchio, baby lettuce, carrot, halved grapes, and blue cheese crumbles, under a sherry mustard vinaigrette (for which I promise to post a recipe soon; I always forget to measure quantities when I make it!)

Every cook must have her proverbial thorn-in-the-side dish. You know, the one you’ve tried and tried and tried again only to fail miserably each time. My most recent thorn has been the little Italian potato dumplings called gnocchi. I once bought premade gnocchi from the grocery, and they were pretty good but really expensive for just potatoes and flour. So I tried to make my own. How hard could it be to bake a few potatoes and combine them with flour? I made a huge, sticky mess, and the dumplings (if you could call them that) tasted gluey and bland. My next attempts, using various recipes, were no different. So I decided to throw in the towel. If we were to eat gnocchi at our house, it would have to come from an expensive plastic package, much to my chagrin.

And then, the lovely and talented Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice posted a gnocchi recipe during her Piemontese foods series in honor of the Olympics. She swore it was easy and fool-proof, and her instructions, complete with pictures, looked as if they might end my gnocchi woes.

With some sideline coaching from Ivonne, I’m happy to report that the gnocchi turned out just as she describes: the dough was elastic but not too sticky, and the dumplings floated to the top when they were ready, just as they were supposed to. Mine aren’t quite as pretty as hers; I couldn’t quite get the hang of the fork indentions, but they tasted lovely nonetheless. I tossed the hot dumplings with butter and a combination of fontina and Parmesan cheeses, as Ivonne suggests. To make the meal a bit more substantial and add some color, I topped each serving with a spoonful of chunky oven-roasted tomato sauce. The end result was a delightfully simple and satisfying supper.

Notes: The problem, I discovered, with my earlier gnocchi attempts was that I was using regular baking potatoes that are entirely too starchy. Waxy potatoes make a huge difference! I used Yukon Golds for this recipe. Also, refrigerating the dumplings before adding them to the boiling water also helps a great deal. They hold their shape nicely after having some time to firm up in the fridge. If you’re looking for a fool-proof way to try gnocchi, I urge you to try Ivonne’s recipe. I’m already thinking of variations for my next attempt…