Chilled Cucumber Avocado Soup

Soooo, you know those days where you are either A) too hot to cook, or B) too lazy to cook?  I have those days.  All the time.  And sometimes, you just want to throw a bunch of s#!t in a blender and call it dinner.

So I did.

And it was amazing.  And easy.  No heat required.

Ingredients (serves 2 larger portions): 

2 cucumbers (from my CSA), peeled and seeded

2 avocados, peeled

1 C lite cocount milk

1 tbsp thai green curry paste

2 scallions, diced for garnish

I know.  Its so easy.  You're welcome.

First, prep all the ingredients.  

The cucumber:

Then the avocados:

I love avocados.... hello gorgeous....  yeah, you know who you are.... stop playing coy....

 Mmmmmm....

Moving on.

Throw these beauties in a food processor and whiz around until pureed.

Move the puree to a bowl, add the coconut milk and green curry paste and mix.  Top with scallions and serve.

 Try it.  It was fresh, light, healthy, refreshing, surprisingly filling, AND EASY.  So, so easy.  Seriously, if this takes you longer than 10 minutes, I think we need to have a talk.

Pistachio Pesto Potato Salad

Ahhh, the ever-present summer picnic and BBQ staple - Potato Salad.

I gotta be honest, I feel like I've been blog-free for so long that I've forgotten how to type!  I was so excited to be able to actually participate in this month's Daring Cook's Challenge despite all the craziness.

Boyfriend and I were invited to a BBQ last weekend and it hit me, "OMG, I'M MAKING POTATO SALAD!"  Boyfriend was confused at my excitement, especially since the invite also read, "you bring the booze, we'll provide the food."

I didn't care what the invite said, I was bringing potato salad dammit!

And I knew just what little twist I'd put on it to make it "mine": Pistachio Pesto.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been doing a ton of "pantry cooking" in preparation for what will soon be known as "the move that never happened."  One night, I wanted to make something quick and simple, yet fresh reminiscent of spring, so I threw the only nuts I had (pistachios), some garlic, Parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil and basil into the food processor and gave it a good whiz.  I tossed the resulting pesto it with capellini, white beans and sauteed swiss chard.  It was AWESOME.

So here goes, my rendition of a healthy potato salad - PISTACHIO PESTO POTATO SALAD (ha! say that 5 times fast!)

Blog-checking lines:Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

The first thing to do was to make the pesto.  I've made pesto from just about any herb-nut-cheese combination and I gotta admit, they were all pretty amazing.  My love of pistachios might have taken this version to the top o' the pile for me though.

Pistachio Pesto:
2 cloves garlic
1/2 C toasted pistachios
1/4 C grated Parmesan
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 large package of fresh basil
1/2-3/4 C extra virgin olive oil, depending on your tastes
salt and pepper, to taste

1) Add the garlic, pistachios and Parmesan to the food processor and whiz it around to finely chop everything.
2) Add the basil, lemon juice and some of the olive oil, then whiz it around again for a few seconds.
3) With the motor running, slowly pour the remaining olive oil into the processor in a nice stream until the pesto comes together.  Some people like their pesto with lots of olive oil, I prefer mine more "dry"... add and taste until it fits your personal preferences.
4) Add salt and pepper if it needs it and give it one more spin to mix thoroughly.
** Make ahead: You can easily prepare this up to 3 days ahead of time and keep it in the fridge, or store it in the freezer for longer.

Potato Salad:
2lbs small potatoes (I used Yukon Golds), chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/4 C rice wine vinegar (any acid will do, this is what I had on hand)
Pistachio Pesto
2 sweet Italian red peppers
1 C white beans, cooked (or you can used 1 can of drained, rinsed beans)
1 1/4 C nonfat plain Greek yogurt (feel free to add more depending on how "creamy" you like your potato salad)
1/4 C mozzarella cheese, shredded

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the potatoes.
2) Roast the red peppers, peel off the charred skins then dice into 1/4" pieces

3) Once the potatoes have cooked to al dente (beware the mushy potato!), drain into a colander and sprinkle with the vinegar.  The potatoes will soak it in, giving them a little flavor and adding some depth to the final dish.  Let the potatoes cool to room temperature before adding the other ingredients.
4) Once the potatoes have cooled, add the remaining ingredients and mix using a spatula, trying not to break up the potatoes too much.
5) Allow the potato salad to rest for a few hours so that the flavors can come together.  If you have time, let it go overnight... it is wayyy better the next day!

With a little chiffonade of basil on top for garnish

We never actually made it to the BBQ (it rained all day... sad), but we grilled up some hamburgers anyway and had a nice indoor picnic while we watched the Bruins pummel the Canucks in an exciting Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Sports.  Burgers.  Potato Salad.  #WINNING

Moroccan Lentil Salad

Sorry I haven't been posting much.  I've been cooking plenty, but most of the time the meals are tasty but not extraordinary, and therefore I haven't felt like you'd be interested in them.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I felt like if I wasn't all that into them, you wouldn't be either.

With that said, I've had a mini-creative streak and have whipped up some serious deliciousness lately.  I'll try to post more often, and if you see something you like, please comment on it (everyone needs a little positive feedback now and again).  I've started to learn that this "being a blogger" thing is a bit of a mind-fuck.  I create these little tidbits about me and my food, send it off to cyberspace, and am left wondering if it ever reaches or inspires anyone.  Its a lot like talking to yourself.... you wonder if someone might be just around the corner listening, unbeknown to you.... or if you're just plain ol' crazy.

Ok, blathering on about myself... on to the cooking!

Always in search of a vegetarian meal that Boyfriend will enjoy, I decided to make a lentil salad using stuff I know he likes - grapes (check!), feta (check!), pistachios (check!), and arugula (check!).

The result: I loved it (had it again for lunch today actually).  Boyfriend thought the ratio of lentil:arugula was a little heavy on the arugula side, but he liked the spice it provided.  Boyfriend also decided to throw in a small (and predictable) comment, "You know what would make this better?... MEAT!"

Gotta love the guy.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb dry lentils
2 leeks, white and light green parts thinly sliced and washed
2 tbsp sherry
2 tsp spicy brown mustard
1 1/2 C red grapes, halved
1/4 C chopped roasted pistachios
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 dried fig, diced into small pieces
1/4 C mint, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 oz reduced-fat feta, crumbled
3 C reduced sodium chicken stock (or use vegetable broth for totally vegetarian)
1 tsp olive oil

1) Cook the lentils in the chicken stock until tender (~15-20min). 
2) Drain lentils, keeping any remaining cooking liquid. 
3) Heat olive oil in a medium skillet, add the leeks and brown for about 5min.  Add the leftover lentil-cooking liquid (no more than a 1/2 C) to the leeks and allow them to braise until soft, approximately 10min.
4) When the leeks are tender, remove from heat and stir in the sherry and mustard.
5) Combine the lentils, leek mixture, grapes, fig, pistachios, sesame seeds, mint, and parsley in a large bowl.
6) Season with salt and pepper if needed.  Top with crumbled feta.

I served this warm on a bed of arugula.  Boyfriend and I opened a Malbec and enjoyed our light dinner in front of the TV.  He watched the Celtics destroy the Sixers, I graded papers.  So romantic, right? 

Pear and Squash Soup = 2 Dinner Ideas

Sooooo, I've had these winter squash hiding since the end of the CSA season, theoretically "in storage" until needed at some point during the winter.

Yeah.

It was randomly like 60 degrees the other day.

Also, I've already signed up for my CSA season that starts June 2011.

So, the moral of the story is: If I plan to use these squash I better do it soon because the next thing I know I'll be overloaded with beets and greens again.  Already.  

Wow.  Where did my year go?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving on.  So we're makin' some soup, yes?

First, roast an acorn squash (or squash of your choosing) with some salt, pepper, and butter in the oven at 400F until soft and delicious smelling, 30-45min.

While the squash is in the oven, cut 3 pears in half and core them.  Place the cut/cored pears flesh-side down in a baking dish and cover with a slighly sweet and floral white wine (I chose a lovely Gewurztraminer that my boss made me for Christmas).  Bake for 30-45min until the pears are soft.  Check on it now and then to check to make sure all the liquid hasn't evaporated.

While the pears and squash are roasting, start sweating some diced onions, carrots and celery (mirepoix) in a tablespoon (or so) of olive oil.  I failed to take any photos of the next step, which would be to put all the flesh from the baked squash and pears into the pot with the mirepoix.  Season with salt, pepper and a little cream and anything else you think it might need.  Blend it smooth with an immersion blender and prepare for the eats.

DINNER #1: SQUASH AND PEAR SOUP WITH A GORGONZOLA-HONEY CROUTON

The night I made this soup I wanted to taste-test it in the simplest form possible.  I topped it off with a crouton made by melting some gorgonzola cheese onto a slice of french bread and drizzling it with honey and parsley.

LOVED the addition of salty/sweet to the soup.  I admit, however, if you put gorgonzola on anything I'll be a  happy girl.

DINNER #2: BLACK FOREST HAM AND GRUYERE SAMMIE WITH PEAR SOUP

I wanted to keep playing with this idea of pairing the sweet soup with something salty and perhaps somewhat savory.  While I was at the store, black forest ham was on sale and it occurred to me that the lovely thing about black forest ham is that it is both sweet and savory/salty.  Hmmmm... this could be the winning match, no?

The magic of this soup and sandwich combo wasn't JUST the perfect pairing of salty ham, creamy gruyere and sweet pear soup.  OH NO NO.  I toasted the ham n' cheese sandwiches in something AMAZING.  And yes, butter was involved.  But not just butter.  OH NO NO.  Curried butter.  Yeah.  I said it.  I mixed curry powder with the butter, then melted it in the skillet, then toasted (fried) the sandwiches.  OH NO SHE DIDN'T.  Oh yes, I did.  And. It. Was. Breathtaking.  A perfect combination of flavors and textures.

I was pretty damn proud of myself for this one.  I'd serve this to company.  I'd serve this at a dinner party.  Yeah, crazy right?  Soup and sandwich?  Yeah.  And you should too.  Trust me on this one.

Cold Soba Noodles and Veggie Tempura

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com

When I was a vegetarian, every time we would go to a Japanese restaurant for lunch or dinner, I would always order tempura vegetables.  I loved them, especially the sweet potatoes.  I was always curious how they cooked the vegetables perfectly encased in a crunchy, slightly fluffy batter.  Ohhh, and with the dipping sauce... om nom nom.  The eternal trick was always trying to bite a large piece of sweet potato or zucchini in half, after dipping it in the sauce, while tenuously holding it with your chopsticks.  And trying not to dribble the sauce ALL. DOWN. YOUR. CHIN.

Minds out of the gutter people.

Clockwise from the top: snap peas, sweet potato, shrimp,
mushrooms, and red bell peppers in the middle

I was so glad that tempura was part of the challenge this month because I may have never tried it otherwise.  Not nearly as hard as I anticipated.  (that's what she said!).

Great, now you've really got me going.

Moving on.

The directions in the challenge were spot-on and I felt that luckily, my chopstick-skills were up to snuff.

For the Soba:

12 oz Soba (buckwheat) noodles
2 qts water

1) Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water, approx 7-10min, read the package.  Wow, that was easy wasn't it?
2) Once they are done, drain the noodles and rinse under cold water to cool and remove the extra starch.  Keep them in the colander covered by a damp towel until you're read to use them.

Mentsuyu (the noodle sauce):

2 C Kombu dashi (I just heated some nori in hot water and then filtered it, lazy me)
1/3 C soy sauce
1/3 C mirin (sweet rice wine)

1) Put mirin in a sauce pan and heat gently.  Add soy sauce and the dashi soup stock (or if you're lazy like me, the nori soup stock).  Bring to a boil.  Take off the heat and cool.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Tempura
1 egg yolk
1 C iced water
1/2 C flour, plus extra for dredging
1/2 C cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
vegetable oil, for frying
ice water bath, for the batter
cold, sliced vegetables/fish:

• sweet potato, peeled, sliced and blanched
• carrot, peeled, sliced
• green beans
• snap peas
• bell pepper, sliced
• mushrooms
• eggplant, sliced
• zucchini, sliced
• shrimp, shelled

1) Place ice water in a mixing bowl.  Lightly beat the egg yolk and gradually pour into the iced water, stirring (with chopsticks!) and blending well.  Add flours and baking powder all at once, mix with the chopsticks until loosely combined.  The batter should be runny and lumpy.  Keep the batter cold by placing it in the ice water bath.

2) Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan (320F for veggies, 340F for seafood).

3) Starting with the veggies, use your chopsticks to grab a veggie, then dip it into a shallow bowl of flour, then into the tempura batter.  Slide the veggie into the hot oil, trying not to overcrowd the pan and drop the temperature of the oil.

4) Place the finished tempura pieces on a wire rack or paper towel to drain. 

5) Continue frying the other items, frequently scooping out any bits of batter to keep the oil clean.

6) Serve immediately with dipping sauce (recipe below)

Spicy Dipping Sauce:

3/4 C soy sauce

3/4 C scallions, finely chopped

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp English mustard powder

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

salt and pepper, to taste 

2 tbsp water

1) Put all the ingredients in a covered container.  Close the lid and shake the S^&T out of it until the solids (sugar, salt, mustard) are dissolved.  Add and shake in the water and re-season if necessary.

Serve the tempura and soba noodles for dinner.  Pat yourself on the back for making something that seemed so hard and was actually quite easy.  Pop open the special bottle of saki that you bought just for this occasion and make a toast.  To Soba!  To Tempura!  To Laura!

Back in time... Chiles Rellenos

I miss living in Arizona (sometimes).  The sun.  The dry heat.  The food.

Everytime I go back I make sure I hit up my favorite food and drink spots.  No Anchovies, Rosa's, Nico's, The Shelter, The Buffet, Taco Bron (now called Papas y Beer, I think).

As if I needed to tell you this, but the Mexican food in Boston is... well.... to put it lightly... crap.  It's either over-Americanized or over-thought, and never nearly as authentic.  Maybe its the lack of lard?  The boring tortillas?  And even though I might seem like I'm complaining about this... like I expect someone to *finally* open the ideal taco stand, I'm perfectly happy about this situation.  Why?  Because food tastes best when it grows near where you live.  When you find me an avocado tree or some Hatch green chilies growing in Massachusetts... then I will start to get antsy for some real Mexican food.  But that's not what we do here.  We do lobster and clams.  They grow here.  Its why our Lobster Rolls and Clam Chowder are famous and why you can't really reproduce them anywhere else.

But that doesn't mean I can't try.... :)

I haven't had chiles rellenos since I left AZ, so I think that puts it at around 4 years.  When I was at the farmer's market last week, you won't believe what I saw.  POBLANOS.  Yeah, that's right. So I snatched them up and was on a mission to make some delicious Mexican food because a smart woman once said,

"....food tastes best when it grows near where you live.  When you find me an avocado tree or some Hatch green chilies growing in Massachusetts... then I will start to get antsy for some real Mexican food."

Seeing poblanos sitting in a bin having traveled only 50 or so miles to Boston from my CSA farm made that statement true as day.

Ingredients

Poblano peppers

cheddar cheese (I bought a block and cut it in slices.  If shredded works better for you, fine)

cojita cheese

soy-rizo (or use real chorizo, up to you, but I think Trader Joe's soy chorizo is the bomb)

eggs (1 egg per pepper)

flour

Seems simple, right?  Actually, it is.

1) Roast the poblanos until the skin is charred and black.  Put them in a covered bowl or plastic bag to steam for at least 15-30min (until the skins peel off easily).

2) Once you've peeled the poblanos, cut a slit in them lengthwise and remove the seeds and ribs carefully, trying not to tear the pepper up.

3) I sauteed my soy-rizo in a skillet to bring out some of the flavor, but this is optional if you just want to use cheese only.

4) Stuff the peppers with cheddar cheese and soy-rizo, but not so full that you can't get them closed.

5) Separate the eggs into yolks and whites and beat the whites into stiff peaks.

6) Mix the yolks with flour (1 tbsp per 3-4 eggs) to make a paste.

7) Add the yolk paste to the beaten egg whites to form a homogeneous but fluffy batter.

8) Heat 1/4" oil in a skillet (for frying).

9) Carefully roll each stuffed poblano in a coating of flour, then dip in the egg batter.  Place in the hot oil and fry on all sides until golden brown and delicious looking.

I served these over some cilantro brown rice with a sprinkling of cojita cheese.  Delicious!  And, better yet, the poblanos had some serious kick to them.  Now, I'm very tolerant to spicy food.  Love me some spicy food.  But even I ended up chugging water and eventually going to the kitchen for a swig of milk because my mouth was on fire.  Boyfriend said his weren't nearly as hot as mine (maybe I missed some seeds?).

Still, next year when CSA season is cranking, you can bet your hot peppers I'll be snatching up some more of these darlings to satiate my Mexican cravings.

Arizona.  Mexico.  I miss you.

Beet Gnudi with Portobello, Shallot & Fig Cream Sauce

Right, I know... totally random.

I've been reading a TON of molecular gastronomy blogs lately (shout out to Salty Seattle and Alinea at Home) and I thought that for once, instead of relying on my usual ideas of Italian-means-tomatoes-and-basil and Greek-equals-feta-and-olives, I decided to try to think about flavors.  Now, the reason these traditional cuisines are so delicious is exactly because a long time ago people discovered that basil and tomatoes balance each other terrifically.  So, I have been trying to come up with a way to use up the rest of my beet gnocchi (gnudi actually, because they are ricotta-based instead of potato.... details, details) and be slightly more creative about it and the flavors that come with it. 

Here's about how it went in my wine-addled brain:

"Beets.  Beets are earthy.  What else is earthy?  Mushrooms.  Yes, mushrooms!  I love mushrooms.  Mushrooms make me want a nice glass of pinot noir.  I love wine.  Mmmmm shiraz is also tasty.  Shiraz is peppery.  Pepper! Yes, pepper.  How do I make this a sauce?  Cream.  Can't go wrong with cream.  Beet gnudi with mushrooms in a peppery-cream sauce.  Seems to earthy.   I mean, I love the earth and all... but hmmm... too much of the same.  Maybe something sweet?  I do have to dried figs in the pantry... oh, and by the way, I need to figure out what 'figgy' pudding is..." 

Aren't you sad you now know how I think?  Imagine working with me.  Tangents.  Everywhere.  No wonder my students always look so confused....

Moving on. 

I tossed some sliced portobello mushrooms, garlic and shallots into an oiled saute pan over medium heat to get soft and start browning.  Once I got some nice color on the 'shrooms, I added the chopped figs and about 3-4 tbsps brandy to the pan and turned the heat up a little to bring it to a simmer. 

I started a pot of salted boiling water for my gnudi, they only take like 2 minutes to cook, even from frozen.  Yay for fresh pasta!

Once the brandy evaporated off and everything was smelling fantastic, I added about a 1/4 C cream, some beef stock and a healthy dose of cracked pepper.  While that was amalgamating and getting all happy, I cooked the gnudi.  About 5 minutes later I had the gnudi plated and was pouring delicious earthy-figy-goodness over the top.  A sprinkle of thyme to seal the deal.

Yum.  I thought this turned out great.  Boyfriend liked it too, but thought that next time I should add less figs and/or chop them up a little finer.  I agree (although how often to I make things twice... yeah, the answer to that would be, "extremely rarely").  But just in case, I will heed his advice :)

Southwestern Fritters

I've discovered another way to squeeze some of your seemingly endless summer squash into a few more dishes.  I made these fritters fairly quickly and wanna know the best part?  I was able to freeze a whole batch of them, take out a few for dinner a day or two later, put them in the toaster oven to bake for 10min or so and Ta-Da! Just as tasty as when they were fresh out of the frying pan!

Soooo.... this post will be the test as to whether or not Boyfriend actually reads my blog.  See, he hates zucchini.  Hates.  The problem is that I get tons of squash in my CSA box every week and I'm sorry, but I personally can't manage to consume it all alone.  So I attempted to sneak it into a meal and see if he could taste it.  Tricky, I know.  To be completely honest, I'm feeling pretty confident after the Incognito Beets adventure.

Ingredients

1 large or 2 medium zucchini
1 medium-large potato
1 small onion, diced finely
3/4-1C flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsps milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp lime zest
2 tbsps fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

First, grate the zucchini and the potato and place into a colander with some salt to pull out some of the moisture.  I wish I had a box-grater because using my hand-held grater got pretty old, pretty quick.

Let the veggies sit and drain in the colander for about 10min or so while you prepare the other ingredients.

Dice up the onion and cook it for about 5min in an oiled and heated skillet.  Once the onions are done, add them to a medium mixing bowl.

Grabbing small amounts of the potato/zucchini mixture in your hands, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and add this mess to the onion and mix.  Add the remaining ingredients (flour, egg, etc) and stir to combine.  Be careful with the flour, you'll need more or less depending on how much liquid you were able to remove from the squash and potato.  Basically, you want a smooth, almost pancake batter-like dough - but slightly thicker in consistency.

Let the batter sit for about 30min to rest and mingle.

Heat 1/4" of vegetable oil to "shimmering" for frying your fritters.  Drop large spoonfuls (2 tbsps?) of the batter into the hot oil, without crowding, and fry for approximately 4 min per side until golden brown and delicious.

I drained these on paper towels and once cool, placed them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer for 2-3 hours.  Into a freezer bag they went, and now I can have them anytime the mood strikes me.

Oh, and I'm sure you're curious... but I told Boyfriend that the green "flecks" were cilantro :)  He ate them right up, and so did I.  They were very tasty, similar in texture and taste to hush puppies.  Next time I might try to add some corn or black beans to the batter to boost the nutritional value.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting the rest of our dinner soon.

Beets Incognito Trial #1 - Gnocchi with Sage Cream sauce

Boyfriend loathes beets.  I was roasting some the other day and he said that the smell alone made him nauseous.

Crap.

Because I get a lot of beets in my CSA box this time of year.

The difficult thing about trying to sneak beets into food is that they turn everything bright pink/red.  Its a dead giveaway!!  And for the life of me I can't think of very many pink/red meals where you might not notice the color change from the beets.  Meatloaf maybe?  But eww... meatloaf...  I mean seriously people, its a loaf of meat.  I don't know how that meal ever became famous.  Although, it did originate in the days of tuna casserole, spam burgers, and jello molds... so I'm guessing Americans were willing to try anything back in the day.

Sorry, I got off on a little tangent there.

Man, I'm really hoping to get some golden beets soon because I think they'll be easier to mix into other foods unnoticed.  For reasons of color (not red) and flavor (milder than regular beets).

Last year I made beet bread that turned out OK.  This was, however, back when I truly believed I couldn't bake a loaf of bread to save my life.  I might try it again this year now that I have more experience and a KitchenAid mixer....

So, even though he'll probably guess that there is something different about this meal, I figured I'd give it a try anyway.  I've made sweet potato gnocchi before, why not beet gnocchi?  Maybe I'll just lie a little and say I dyed them pink with food coloring to show how much I loooove him. Puh-leese, he'll never buy that, it's way too sappy.  I don't even pull out that much sap during Valentine's Day.

Sorry sorry... distracted again... back on task:

Making the gnocchi:
I've tried making potato gnocchi in the past.  It was good, light, fluffy, etc.  I just screwed it up in the end with some too-aggressive sauce mixing which resulted in turning my beautiful gnocchi pillows into lumpy mashed potatoes.  With Gorgonzola cream sauce.  So, not a total failure seeing as anything covered in Gorgonzola cream is damn tasty.

Still, I'm feeling culinary-confident these days, so why not try some ricotta "gnudi" instead of potato gnocchi?  North vs South, baby (Italy, that is).

I mixed together 1 package (4oz?) of Vermont Creamery Goat cheese and the remainder of my homemade ricotta (3/4C?) in the KitchenAid along with 2 eggs, some S&P, and a pinch of nutmeg

I then added 1 cup of roasted, peeled and pureed beets:

The final addition is 2 cups of flour in 1/2 cup increments until a loose, sticky dough formed.  I tried not to overknead it, but this was a super-wet dough and I think I may have used more flour than I wanted to.  Anyway, HEAVILY flour your work surface and roll handfuls of the dough into a long snake:

Then, I just cut 1" pieces down the length of the "snake" and indented with a fork for that traditional "gnocchi" look:

I agree, these aren't the prettiest things ever, and I was still crossing my fingers that they would turn out ok despite the "heavy" flouring.

I dumped my gnudi (in batches) into a pot of salted boiling water and waited until they floated to the surface.  Once floating, I let the cook another minute or so then removed them with a slotted spoon and placed them on a baking sheet to dry a little.



I wanted to give them a little texture and decided to pan fry them in some butter and olive oil to crisp them up:

Once they were "crisped", I took them out of the pan, and added 1 tbsp of flour and a little more butter to make a roux for my cream sauce.  Wow, I just realized how terribly unhealthy this dinner turned out to be....  I added 3/4 C milk to my roux and some fresh sage and whisked over medium heat until it thickened up, similar to making a bechamel.

Season with a little salt and pepper, and pour over the gnudi.  Served with homemade bread (toasted) and some wine. 

And the best part?  Boyfriend liked it!  Ate the whole thing, didn't even flinch.  I never said a word... well... until now [insert sneaky grin here]

Another bonus: I'll quickly discover whether or not he actually reads my blog as he claims :)

Radish and Beet Greens Risotto

There are a few basic meals that make good vehicles for disposing of extra vegetables.  Risotto is one of them.  I love making risotto, despite the fact that you literally have to stand over a hot stove for about 30 minutes.... stirring....

Yes, I've always done it the "old-fashioned" way and probably always will.  I've read plenty of articles on "no-stir" methods of risotto, but to be honest, isn't that just making regular rice?  Its the stirring that breaks up the starches and give risotto that creamy texture, sans cream.

I'd been craving risotto for a while and figured now was as good a time as any.  I still had a plethora of radishes from my CSA box last week along with some beet greens that still needed to be used.  And I just picked up more this past Sunday.  Something needed to be done.

Unfortunately, risotto is one of those things that I've been making for so long now that I never measure anything.  I'll guess-timate, but honestly, you'd better rely on your own tastebuds to tell you appropriate quantities.

Ingredients: (for 3-4 servings)
1C Arborio rice
1 onion, diced
1/4 - 1/2 C dry white wine (I used Sauv. Blanc)
2-3 C chicken stock/broth
Radishes, sliced
Beet greens, washed, chopped, and cooked down
1/4 - 1/2 C Romano cheese, shredded (could probably use just about anything - Parm, Asiago, Chevre, etc)
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Butter

First things first, prep the radishes and greens:

You'll need 2 saucepans to make risotto.  I usually start by heating one saucepan over medium heat and melting together 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter.  In the other saucepan, I warm my chicken stock over med-low heat, you don't need it boiling, just warm.

I add my onion (to the first pan) and cook until soft, about 5min.  Add the rice to the pot and stir to coat all the rice kernels with the butter/oil mixture and slightly toast them, 2-3min or so.  Add the white wine and stir until the rice has absorbed it all and the bottom of the pan is dry, like so:

Now, you'll start adding the chicken broth.  I usually start with about 1cup, but for future additions use only 1/2 cup each time.  Add the broth and stir.  Keep stirring until the rice has absorbed all of the stock, then add more (1/2 C).  And stir.  Stir.  All absorbed?  Add more stock.  Stir.  Stir.  Add stock.  Stir.  Stir. Add.... you get the pattern :)

 * You can see my chicken stock in the back pot *

This will continue for about 20 minutes until your rice is almost cooked through and surrounded by creamy, starchy-ness.  At this stage, add the radishes, beet greens, and cheese.  The radishes give the risotto a slight pinkish hue... cute!

Let this cook for maybe another 2-5 minutes so that the flavors come together, then season with S&P as needed.  Ladle into serving bowls, top with a little extra cheese, and enjoy.

I served this with a salad (lettuce and cucumbers from the CSA box as well) and the remainder of my Sauvignon Blanc.  The crispness of the wine really balanced the creaminess of the risotto.  I really liked the combination of slight peppery bites of radish along with the earthy notes of the beet greens.  I'm thinking this easily could have stood up to a light pinot noir or petite syrah as well.