I am a huge Top Chef fan. So much that my parents bought me the Top Chef cookbook a few years back. However, when I moved, I stored it away and completely forgot about it. I recently found the cookbook again and came across Ilan’s dish: Fideos with Clams and Saffron. My CSA share this week came with broccoli, cauliflower and onion so I thought this would be a perfect way to use these ingredients. Note: I switched up the way this recipe was cooked, used less cream, and added onions and Parmesan. Otherwise, the recipe is pretty close to the original printed version.
Yes. Another salmon recipe. I can’t help it, I love the stuff. And when you are able to purchase a salmon fillet that looks as gorgeous as this one did, you have no choice but to keep it simple and let the natural delicious salmon flavor shine through. This recipe takes less than 20 minutes, and can be made even more quickly if you make the basil oil the day before.
Ingredients (serves 4):
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound salmon fillet, skin still on
Salt and pepper, to taste
Basil oil
1/2 cup fresh basil, firmly packed
1/4 cup olive oil
I am in a pasta salad making mood, so I decided to make one more batch for this weekend. I already made one pasta salad for this weekend, but I have a bunch of these ingredients on hand from other recipes and I don’t want them to go bad over the long weekend. I used a recipe from My Recipes as a base and substituted ingredients I already had, and ended up with this Pesto Pasta Salad!
Ingredients for the pesto:
1 or 2 bunches of packed fresh basil
1 bunch of packed fresh parsley
4 garlic cloves, minced
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup walnuts (or toasted pine nuts)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Ingredients for the salad:
1 box gemelli or other short pasta
1 small container plain 2 percent Greek yogurt
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 small cucumbers, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
Add the pasta and vegetables and toss to coat.
Because I am making this for the weekend, I only made a tiny batch fully mixed so I could taste it. The pesto mixture is so so creamy that you honestly might not even need the feta. The tomatoes and red onions add a wonderful contrast to the pesto and the cucumbers add a nice crunch to the salad. I will try to take some photos this weekend of the fully assembled salad, but if it is anything close to what I just sampled, I think my friends will be happy.
Cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the package. Drain and run under cold water. Set aside.
To make the pesto, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and walnuts in a food processor. (I ended up being just short of 1/3 cup walnuts, so I also added in a few toasted pine nuts.) Blend until smooth. Pour in olive oil and blend until there is a thick paste. Add the Parmesan and combine until blended. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.
Prepare all of your vegetables. After chopping the red onion, run it under cold water to remove some of the bite. Slice your cucumbers and halve your tomatoes.
Combine the pesto and Greek yogurt in a large bowl.
It’s almost July 4th weekend, so I am preparing a bunch of dishes for me to trek down to the beach.
I tend to make food that can marinate for a day or two so that I have time to make it without rushing around right before we leave. This time around, I decided to make a pasta salad based off my mom’s version.
There is a restaurant in Philadelphia called Zahav that serves modern Israeli food. I went there for my birthday last December, and am still thinking about their tasty hummus and absolutely fantastic salatim, a selection of 8 little salads that you scoop up with their house baked laffa. All of the salads were really delicious, but the pureed beet salad was by far the happiest surprise offered. So when my CSA share came with beets this time around, I knew exactly what I was going to make… or try to make at least. I basically made a hummus, substituting in roasted beets for the chickpeas. My version is probably not all that close, to the one served as Zahav but I’m still happy with the results.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of beets (mine came with 5)
2 tablespoons tahini
The juice and zest of 2 lemons
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Walnuts, for topping
To roast the beets, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Remove the tops, wash to remove all dirt, and arrange on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and add a generous amount of salt.
Cook for 40 minutes or until you can easily stick them with a fork. My beets were on the smaller side, so you may need to up the time to 1 hour.
Allow to cool completely. Remove the skin of the beets by rubbing them with a paper towel. This is surprisingly easy, I promise.
Roughly chop the beets.
Add the beets, tahini, lemon juice, lemon zest, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper to a food processor.
Process until smooth.
Transfer to a serving dish and top with chopped walnuts. Serve with cucumbers, pita, broccoli, cauliflower, or anything else you’d like to dip in this lovely little dish.
If you’d prefer, you can add in a can of rinsed chickpeas to make a beet hummus. Another alternative would be to add some Green yogurt, to taste, to make a creamier version of this dish. Enjoy!
I had some left over goat cheese from my Orecchiette with Swiss Chard, Red Peppers and Goat Cheese dish. When I was looking for recipes, I came across this one for Shrimp Tomato Basil Linguine with Warm Goat Cheese Rounds from Cooking Light. I had no clue how seafood and goat cheese would be together, but was willing to find out!
Pea tendrils (or pea shoots) are the leaves from a snow pea plant. They have a bit of a spinach-pea taste, delicate and very tasty. Before receiving them in my CSA share, I just thought they were used in a stir fry or as a topping. But these little guys are really delicious in a simple saute.
Ingredients:
Pea tendrils
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed and cut in half
Salt, to taste
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook for 2 minutes, until sizzling but not browned.
You can either remove the garlic, or keep it in there to add more garlicky flavor. Add the pea tendrils and salt to taste.
Saute for 1-2 minutes until slightly wilted but still maintaining its shape. That’s it! So simple, so yummy.
I can never have enough hummus, it is one of my favorite snacks (although I tend to eat so much of it, it’s not really a snack!) I’ve had hummus on the brain for a while now. Be Well Philly must have read my mind, because they posted this great Cilantro Lime hummus recipe that I just had to try. As a plus, cilantro came in my CSA share this week!
I think I’m on a hummus kick. Or maybe I’m feeling particularly lazy dinner-wise this week, and hummus is a quick and easy thing to make. Whatever the reason, it is hummus overload on this website. I have a good feeling no one is complaining though. One of the most appealing things about hummus is how versatile it is. Here is my version of roasted red pepper hummus.
Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1/3 cup tahini
The juice and zest of 1 lemon juice
1 jar of roasted red peppers (about 3 peppers)
1 garlic scape, chopped (or 2 garlic cloves)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
For dipping:
Grape tomatoes
Pita bread
Cucumber
First, prepare your red peppers. Remove the peppers from the jar. Take two of the peppers and roughly chop. You will use these in the actual hummus. Finely chop the remaining red pepper as a topping for the hummus. Set the finely chopped red pepper aside.
Combine everything (chickpeas to salt and pepper) in a food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Top with some of the remaining red pepper. Serve with pita, cucumber slices, or tomatoes.
Roasted red pepper hummus is one of my favorite. It always ends up tasting so smooth and creamy, it makes me so happy. The tiny addition of cumin gives a light heat to the hummus which I really enjoy. If you’re not a fan, feel free to omit the cumin. I loved the scapes in this hummus. Raw minced garlic can sometimes be overbearing in hummus, so the subtlety of the scapes was perfect.
I was so excited to receive red potatoes in my CSA share this week. I love roasted red potatoes with fresh herbs, but I had a little bit of white truffle oil left that I wanted to use. I found this recipe for Truffled Roasted Potatoes from Cooking Light which sounded delicious.
Ingredients:
1 small container of red potatoes, washed and quartered
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic scapes, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon white truffle oil
1 teaspoon each of chopped fresh thyme leaves, sage leaves, and rosemary
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Wash your red potatoes thoroughly, but gently. (The skin of red potatoes is fragile). I used a little brush to lightly buff off the dirt under warm running water.
before
after
Cut the potatoes into wedges: quarters for the larger potatoes, and halves for the smaller potatoes, and arrange on a cookie sheet.
Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle with garlic scapes, salt and pepper.
Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are brown and slightly wrinkled.
While the potatoes are cooking, chop your thyme, sage, and rosemary. Combine.
Remove the potatoes from the oven, drizzle with truffle oil, and sprinkle with the herb mixture.
This was fantastic. I honestly couldn’t stop eating the potatoes. Truffle oil is such a great ingredient, although it is a bit of a splurge. Truffle oil is usually added at the end of a dish, the oil is too delicate to be subjected to high heat. A little bit of truffle oil goes a long way though so do not overpour! When I make this recipe in the future, I plan on using normal minced garlic (2-3 cloves), the garlic scapes were quite burnt from the oven so I didn’t get any of the garlic taste from them. Boo.
I’m not going to lie. Broccoli is not my favorite vegetable. I have a tendency to pass over it for more favored choices. But I received broccoli in my CSA half share this week, so I decided to give it another try. I used this recipe from Oxmoor House as a starting point, and adapted the recipe for my tastes.
My CSA share came with Swiss chard this week. I wasn’t in the mood to do another leafy green side, so I looked for a recipe that incorporated the Swiss Chard within the main dish. I found this recipe in the Health section of the New York Times and thought it was worth a try.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of Swiss chard, stemmed and washed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 red bell peppers, finely diced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 garlic scapes, thinly sliced
Salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram
1 box of orecchiette
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
To begin, boil a pot of water over high heat. While the water is coming to a boil, prepare your Swiss chard. Add ice water to a bowl. When the water boils, add salt and the Swiss chard.
Boil for 2 minutes and remove using a slotted spoon and transfer to the ice water.
Reduce the heat of the leftover boiling water to a simmer. Drain the chard and squeeze the excess water out. Chop the Swiss chard and reserve.
In a saute pan, heat the olive oil and add the finely chopped peppers and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring often.
Bring the pot of water to a boil again. Add the pasta, cooking until al dente as directed on the box. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and set aside.
In the saute pan, add the garlic scapes and salt, stirring to combine.
When combined, add the chopped Swiss chard and marjoram.
Stir and lower the heat to warm. Add the 1/2 cup of pasta water and stir in the goat cheese.
Add the orecchiette to the mixture and serve.
This was a nice alternative to the normal pasta with tomato sauce. The orecchiette helped catch some of the Swiss chard, peppers, and goat cheese so definitely use this type of pasta or another kind that can catch the ingredients. This made so much pasta, it will also be my lunch tomorrow. I have a feeling this will be better the next time around!
I wanted to challenge myself this weekend, so I decided to try to make paella. I don’t own a paella pan, and I honestly have no idea how to cook paella, so this should be quite the experience. I used a mixture of a recipe from Tyler Florence and one from Cooking Light, keeping my personal taste in mind.
Ingredients:
2 Spanish chorizo sausages, thickly sliced
1 Spanish onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons parsley (fresh if you have it)
1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 cups rice, whatever you have (long, short, doesn’t matter)
2 quarts plus 2 cups water
1/3 cup flour
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon saffron threads
1 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice
1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
2 pounds mussels, debearded and scrubbed
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed (optional)
Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)
Begin by cleaning and de-bearding the mussels. I couldn’t handle doing this, so thankfully my boyfriend was willing to help.
That wiry-looking thing on the right side of the mussel, that’s the beard. To remove, pull towards the hinge part of the mussel and tug.
yuck
The beards won’t hurt you if you eat them, but they don’t look particularly appetizing. Scrub the mussels to remove any gook that might be left on them. Discard any mussels that are open or cracked. Do the same with the clams. Put the clams and mussels in a mixture of 2 quarts water and 1/3 cup flour for 20 minutes. This helps to remove any sand that may still be in the mussels and clams.
Add the chicken broth, 2 cups water, 1 cup white wine, clam juice and saffron to a pot over medium heat. Simmer, without boiling, then reduce to low to keep warm.
Heat a tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Place the cut chorizo in the pan and cook until browned. Remove and set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the chopped onions, garlic and parsley. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and paprika and cook for 5-10 minutes until fragrant.
Add the rice, stirring to coat the rice.
Pour in the saffron broth, simmering for 10 minutes.
Add chorizo, clams and mussels, tucking the clams and mussels into the rice.
Cook for 15 minutes without stirring, until the rice is fluffy and you can smell the rice at the bottom beginning to toast. (This is known as socarrat… paella is supposed to have a toasted bottom.)
Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes (it will be really, really hot). Serve with lemon wedges and peas if desired. Season with salt and pepper if needed.
I have to give myself a little pat on the back for this one (as well as my boyfriend for his wonderful de-bearding skills). Although I was craving a bit more saffron taste, this dish really turned out well overall. It is quite a bit of work, but it produces a whole lot of food, at least 8 servings. As always, don’t eat any clams or mussels that don’t open. A bunch of my clams didn’t open, kind of a bummer. I also think the next time I make this, I would reserve the liquid from the tomatoes and add that in as well for a little extra flavor.
For Father’s Day, I wanted to make my dad a somewhat traditional sangria. He is a man who has nothing and wants nothing (which is probably a result of having two daughters and a wife who want everything), but he does love a good sangria. I hope he likes it!
Ingredients:
1 bottle of Rioja wine
1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup triple sec
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cranberry juice
3 table spoons simple syrup
1 apple, cored
1 orange, cut into thin slices
1 lemon, cut into thin slices
1 lime, cut into thin slices
1 peach/nectarine, pitted and cut into wedges
Ginger ale, to taste
Combine the wine, brandy, triple sec, orange juice, cranberry juice and simple syrup. Stir.
Prepare all of your fruit.
Add the fruit to the wine mixture and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
When ready to serve, pour sangria into a glass and top with the ginger ale to taste.
I took only one sip of this, so my dad will have to be the true judge of this recipe. It seemed to taste good to me: not too sweet and still a hint of actual wine. You can make a bunch of substitutes for this recipe. If you don’t have the time to make simple syrup, just use 3 tablespoons sugar and stir until it dissolves in the wine mixture. Feel free to substitute or eliminate some of the fruit choices: blackberries would also be a nice addition in the sangria.
I have wanted to try to incorporate ROOT into my cooking for a while now. ROOT is basically the alcoholic version of root beer. For the history/back-story, check out their website. Here is also a video on the stuff:
The spirit contains birch bark, smoked black tea, cinnamon, wintergreen, spearmint, clove, anise, orange, lemon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and pure cane sugar so I thought it would go really well in a chocolate cake. I used this rum cake recipeas a starting point, and substituted in ROOT and dark chocolate, as well as a little instant espresso coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor.
Ingredients for the cake:
6 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso coffee
5 ounces (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup ROOT
4 large eggs, separated
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup flour
Pinch saltIngredients for the chocolate glaze:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces roughly chopped dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon espresso powderIngredients for Chantilly cream (optional):
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon sugar or to taste
Small pinch salt
