Back from a hiatus with a Berry Galette

 

So, it's been a looooong time since the last blog post. But frankly, things have been busy! Since September, Chris has had his gallbladder removed, we moved from Madison, WI to Seattle, WA, started a new job, undergone IVF treatment, gotten pregnant, bought a house and moved. So, to say we've been a little busy is a slight understatement. I expect that I'll be able to restart the blog for a short while, but all bets are off in late September when we're expecting our first, a baby boy. Couldn't be more excited (and terrified)!

The rental we were in when we first moved to Seattle was pretty sad. Certainly not inspiring. Nor functional. But, this weekend we hosted my mother in law, sister in law, and brother in law in our new house (and awesome kitchen) for a Mediterranean feast of chicken pita sandwiches, steamed artichokes, hummus, tabbouleh, and this delicious berry galette for dessert. 

I love how the pastry dough turned out. I made it with the food processor, which really made the prep super easy, and I think contributed to the flakiness of the crust. I also love how I just kind of plopped the fruit in the center and folded the edges up messily around the pile of berries for "rustic" style if you want to call it that. Original recipe calls for blackberries or blueberries, but those were all sort of expensive at the store, so I added in the strawberries for a more economical choice. I think making this with peaches will be phenomenal as well. 

Here's the original recipe, courtesy of Williams-Sonoma.

Ingredients:

For the flaky pastry dough:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 24 Tbs. (3 sticks) plus 3 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup ice water

 Filling:

• 4 cups blackberries, blueberries or a mixture
• 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tbs. flour

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine the flour and salt and pulse briefly to mix. Scatter the butter over the top and pulse just until the mixture forms coarse crumbs about the size of peas. Drizzle the ice water over the flour mixture and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface, divide into 3 equal pieces and press each into a flat disk. Set 1 disk aside and wrap the remaining 2 disks in plastic wrap for future use.
3. Preheat an oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out into a 13-inch round. Fold the round in half, transfer to the prepared sheet and unfold the round.
5. In a bowl, lightly stir together the berries, lemon juice, sugar and flour. Spoon the filling onto the dough, leaving a 2-inch border uncovered around the edge. Fold the edge up and over the filling, forming loose pleats. Bake until the filling is bubbling and the pastry is golden brown, about 25 minutes.
6. Transfer the galette to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Cut into wedges and serve. Makes one 9-inch galette; makes 3 pastry dough disks total.

 Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Baking, by Lou Seibert Pappas (Oxmoor House, 2006).

Kale Lasagna Rollups

So, the blogging has really fallen off in the last month. Here's the big news...WE'RE MOVING TO SEATTLE!! So, given that Seattle is two-thousand miles away from where we live now, and involves me quitting my job, finding a new place to live while getting our current home ready for sale and figuring out how the heck we actually get ourselves and the dogs across the country, I haven't been doing much cooking. Sadly, my CSA veggies were mostly eaten in super simple, non blog-worthy food (or even worse, not eaten at all) and our diet for the last several weeks has consisted of a lot of eating out (insert frowny face here).

But, as I realize I can't end the month of September without blogging SOMETHING, I thought I'd dig up a recipe I made a while back (before my life got turned upside down) and share it. This recipe is based off of one on Skinnytaste.com for Spinach Lasagna Rolls. Since I had Kale on hand from the CSA, I thought I'd use that here. The original recipe called for frozen spinach, thawed and drained. Since my kale was fresh I
just chopped the kale, wilted the in a saucepan with about an inch of water with a covered lid, and then drained off the excess liquid. Overall, this was fairly simple to make, however I still managed to forget the Parmesan cheese in the mixture and so my rolls were lacking in salt. If I made this again, I'd highly recommend using a lot of sauce. I skimped because I didn't have a ton of sauce on hand and because ricotta tends to be a drier cheese this just was a little dry for my taste.

This would make a great freezer meal!

Here's the recipe, modified to include Kale instructions
Ingredients:

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 1 bunch of kale (or use swiss chard, or spinach)
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese (I like Polly-o)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz tomato sauce
• 9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. 
2. Chop the kale into small ribbons or pieces. In a large saute pan with a lid, fill bottom with a little water (about 1/3-1/2 cup or so) and add kale, heating through until kale is softened to your liking. Drain out any excess liquid.
3. Combine kale, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.
4. Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.
5. Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.
6. To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Chicken Tikka Masala from Scratch

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted. Frankly, life has been crazy and a crazy life means I'm making recipes that just aren't blog-worthy. But, I wanted to spend some time cooking this weekend and tried two recipes out. This one, from the blog Use Real Butter, is completely worth the wait you've endured since my last post. 

I love chicken tikka masala. Love, with a capital L. Most Indian recipes are a bit daunting to me, usually calling for a pinch of a spice (or several spices) that I don't have, or a laundry list of ingredients and a whole lot of time. This recipe I found for Chicken Tikka from scratch did have a bit of a lengthy list of ingredients, but as I looked closer all the ingredients were ones I had on hand, and by prepping the chicken in the marinade the night before there wasn't a ton of work to be done to actually make this dish. 

This is so yummy. And now it's ultra dangerous for me to have this recipe in my arsenal because Chris declared it better than Swagat (one of the best Indian restaurants in Madison). Now, I'm not going to say that this is better than the Chicken Tikka Masala from Swagat, but man, it's really really good. 

Here's a note - double up the sauce recipe. Trust me, you'll need a lot of it to sop up with your naan bread.

Recipe from Use Real Butter

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe chicken kebabs (see below)
• 3 tbsps vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tsps minced garlic
• 2 tsps peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
• 1 fully ripe tomato, chopped
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsps sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick (approx 1-inch or 2.5-cm)
• 2 tbsps butter
• 1/2 lime, juice of (about 1.5 tbsps)
• 1/4 cup (65 ml) heavy cream
• 3 tbsps water

Chicken Kebabs:

• 1 lb. chicken breast or chicken thigh, boneless and skinless
• 4 tbsps vegetable oil (or 3 tbsps if grilling the kebabs)
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 3/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsps plain yogurt

Directions:

1. Make the chicken kebabs: Cut the chicken into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes. Mix 3 tablespoons of the oil and the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl or ziploc bag. Add the chicken cubes and mix well to ensure even coating. If in a bowl, cover the chicken with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 1 day (I let it marinate for 24 hours). When done marinating, remove the chicken from the refrigerator. If baking the chicken then preheat oven to 450°F and spread the remaining tablespoon of oil over a baking sheet. If grilling, clean and lightly oil the grill, then fire it up! Skewer the chicken with pre-soaked bamboo skewers or as I prefer to use, stainless steel skewers. Try not to squash them too closely or they won’t cook evenly. If baking, set the skewers on the baking sheet and bake 8 minutes, turn and bake another 7 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle. If grilling, grill over high heat for 4 minutes, flip the skewers and grill another 3 minutes until done. Remove the chicken from the skewers. At this point you can refrigerate the chicken for a few days or freeze it for up to a month.
2. Make the masala: In a medium saucepan (or a large one if you double or triple the recipe), heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger. Sauté until the onions become golden brown, stirring frequently for about six minutes. [Mine never got to golden brown, they got to translucent yellowish slightly brown.] Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the chopped tomato. Cover and simmer for a few minutes until the tomato softens, stirring occasionally. Mash it with the onions until it becomes a sort of mushy paste. Stir in the cumin seeds, coriander, paprika, red pepper, salt, black pepper and sugar. Let the masala simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour the sauce into a blender (take care not to burn yourself as it will be hot) and purée until smooth.
3. Put it all together: Return the masala to the saucepan and stir in the cinnamon stick, butter, lime juice, heavy cream and water. Set on high heat. Let it come to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Add the chicken and let simmer 5 minutes. Stir it every minute or so. Serves 3 to 4.

Garlic Scape Pesto Linguine

So, you just got garlic scapes from your farmer's market or CSA box, and you just made garlic scape pesto. What shall you eat it with? Pasta, of course!

This is a pretty versatile recipe in which you could use traditional basil pesto, and it is yet ANOTHER way to make a pesto sauce for pasta. Typically my pesto pasta recipes can be made with straight up pesto and pasta water to thin it out. However the sharpness of the garlic scape pesto warranted the pesto being cut with a little heavy cream and some cheese. What's wrong with a little heavy cream?

I garnished mine with some tomatoes and leftover pinenuts, which you can certainly omit. But, I like the color they add and the different flavor and texture they provided. This would be really good with Summer Zucchini Pasta with Pesto too.

The recipe written below will make enough sauce to coat 1/2 box of linguine.
Ingredients:

• 8 ounces dried linguine, pasta water reserved
• 1/4 cup garlic scape pesto
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup shredded provolone or parmesan cheese - whatever you've got. I had provolone so that's what I used
• 1/4 Diced tomatoes (optional)
• 1 Tbs Pine nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. In pot of salted boiling water, cook linguine until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain. 
2. In large skillet on medium, heat pesto and heavy cream until bubbling. Add cheese, pasta and 1/4 cup of pasta water. Quickly stir and saute the pasta until sauce thickens. If sauce thickens too much, thin it with another splash of cream or pasta water. 
3. Serve immediately, top with diced tomatoes and pine nuts.

Garlic Scape Pesto

A couple weeks ago I got garlic scapes in my CSA box. Not having cooked with garlic scapes before led me on a search for 1) what they are 2) recipes (of course). Apparently garlic scapes are just the green curly tops of a growing bulb of garlic. They have a fresh, mellow garlic flavor and hands down the most popular recipe made with garlic scapes is a pesto. Perfect! I love pesto!

I didn't have too many scapes on hand, so I essentially halved the recipe as my starting point and added more of whatever I needed as I went. My guiding recipe was from Dorie Greenspan in which I subbed pine nuts instead of the almonds in the recipe. Despite the garlic scape's supposed "mellow" flavor, my pesto was quite pungent and required a little more oil, cheese, and nuts than the recipe called for. Pesto is one of those things you need to taste as you go and tweak to your liking. I ended up tossing in a couple basil leaves too, since I had them growing in the garden.

Ultimately this is a delicious way to use garlic scapes. It made about 1/2 of a cup and was delicious made into a pesto pasta, and would be equally yummy as a dip for veggies, topping on crackers, or stirred into a pot of italian tortellini soup (which is what I plan to do with it in a couple days).

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan, halved below
Ingredients:

• About 5-7 garlic scapes with the "bulbous" part cut off, discarded and remaining stems rough chopped
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 1/8 cup of pinenuts
• 2 basil leaves
• About 1/3 cup of olive oil
• Salt, to taste
• Squeeze of lemon juice (optional. If added will preserve green color and punch up the freshness)

Directions: 

1. In food processor combine garlic scapes, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and basil leaves. Pulse to chop up ingredients. With olive oil ready, turn food processor on and add olive oil and process until combined and smooth. Stop processor, taste and season with salt, lemon juice and any other ingredients you feel need increased...this is where you taste as you go, adding more as needed. 
2. The pesto can be pretty pungent, but will mellow after a day or so in the fridge. Store in the fridge for a couple days tightly covered, or for a couple months in the freezer. 

Homemade Pasta Dough

I recently purchased a pasta roller after one of my cooking classes at Orange Tree Imports. Making pasta seemed like something that should be easy enough to do. And, honestly it really was! I think the most difficult thing about making the pasta is just having enough hands to coordinate the rolling through the machine, especially when you're using a hand-crank version and not one that attaches to your Kitchen-Aid.

The recipe I used wasn't one that I spent tons of time looking for. So, are there better, more authentic pasta recipes out there that DON'T use all-purpose flour? Probably. But, I was looking for something I could make quickly with ingredients I had on hand.

Results were pretty good! I thought these noodles would be a little more delicate and light, and would therefore do well in a carbonara sauce. However, these turned out a bit thicker and stronger than I expected and could have held up to a much heartier sauce. Probably would make a great lasagna noodle!

I think this recipe,while not perfect or uber-traditional, is a great starting point for learning how to make pasta. Next time I'll roll the dough even thinner, make sure I don't over-knead, and continue to refine things!

Recipe from Cooking Channel, makes 4-6 servings.
Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Mound the flour on a clean work surface. Hollow out the center making a well in the middle of the flour with steep sides.
2. Break the eggs into the well. Add the salt, and olive oil to the hollow center and gently mix together with a fork. Gradually start incorporating the flour by pulling in the flour from the sides of the well. As you incorporate more of the flour, the dough will start to take shape.
3. With your hands or a bench scraper continue working the dough until it comes together. If the dough is too dry, add a little water; if too wet or sticky, add a little flour.
4. Begin kneading the dough and keep kneading until it becomes smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. At this point, set the dough aside, cover it with plastic, and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. You can store the dough in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, but allow it to return to room temperature before rolling it out.
5. Divide the pasta dough into 4 even sections. Keep each section covered with plastic wrap or a clean towel while you work with each one. Flour the dough, the rollers of a pasta roller (or your rolling pin), your hands, and the work surface.
6. If using a pasta machine: Flatten 1 of the of the dough pieces between your hands or with a floured rolling pin until it forms a thick oval disk. Dust the disk, the roller, and your hands with additional flour. Flour a baking sheet to hold the rolled out finished pasta.
7. With the roller on the widest setting, pass the pasta through the machine's rollers a few times until it is smooth. Fold the dough over into 1/3, and continue to pass through a few more times until the pasta is smooth again. Begin adjusting the pasta machine settings to become thinner, passing the dough through a few times at each setting.
8. If rolling the pasta by hand: Flatten a dough piece into a thick oval disk with your hands. Flour a baking sheet for the rolled out finished pasta. Place the oval dough disk on a floured work surface, and sprinkle with additional flour. Begin rolling out the dough with a floured rolling pin working from the center of the dough outwards, constantly moving the dough and lifting it to make sure it's not sticking.

Orecchiette Pasta with Sausage and Kale

Kale was the latest leafy green veggie I had to contend with in my CSA box. I've cooked with kale before, briefly steaming it and tossing it into the Mediterranean Israeli Couscous Salad. But, when I got the kale in my box last week, I was sort of perplexed since it was a different variety than what I'm familiar with...it wasn't the lacinto kale or curly kale that you typically see in the produce department. It was a variety that had dusty reddish, purple-colored leaves which I learned was called Russian Kale. It's a more tender variety and being that I didn't have a ton of it, I thought it would be perfect in a pasta dish.

My inspiration for this dish comes from two places. First, although the only thing that I have ordered at Lombardino's in Madison is the Spaghetti alla Bolognese, I have tasted (thanks to Chris) the Orecchiette with Fraboni's Sausage & Rapini and it is delicious! And, I don't even like sausage! Rapini (aka, broccoli rabe) is a green veggie that can be cooked very similarly to kale. So, I thought this might work. Apparently others like the combo of pasta, sausage, and kale as I found a few recipes as my starting point. Ultimately I used the recipe for Fettucine with Sausage and Kale from Gourmet as my primary recipe.

For how quickly this dish came together, the results were very good. To prep the kale, I removed the tough lower portions of the stems and really rough chopped into big pieces. The sausage I used was hot Italian sausage from the Italian grocery store, removed from the casing, crumbled and cooked. Super spicy! Ultimately I ended up using more chicken broth than what was called for in the recipe to make sure I had enough sauce. Be sure to finish your noodles in the saute pan reserving the pasta water.

Recipe from Gourmet, modified below for approximately 3 servings
Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 lb hot italian sausage, casing discarded and sausage crumbled (two big links)
• 1/4 lb kale, tough stems discarded and rough chopped into big pieces
• 1/2 lb orecchiette pasta
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
• Fresh grated parmesan, pecorino ramano, or gran padano cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet and brown the crumbled sausage until cooked through, approximately 5-7 minutes
2. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente and drain, reserving a cup of cooking water
3. While pasta cooks, add kale and broth to sausage, scraping up any sausage bits from the pan. Cover and cook the kale until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add drained pasta to the sausage & kale mixture, using reserved cooking water to thin to desired consistency. Stir in cheese and thin with additional water if desired.
4. Serve immediately