Sorry, I was reading to two very cute kiddos today and I’m channeling my inner Seuss. I got back late from the kitchen last night and after a brief wedding catch-up with David, it was time to start cooking. I’m using the term “cooking” loosely since this took two seconds to make. As David took our dog Cricket on a walk, I had these d.o.n.e. done. This felt so super indulgent but actually, the tapenade and the tomato filled the sandwich so much you got just enough cheese to feel satisfied. Plus, what a fun and different twist on a grilled cheese! If you are mouthbreathing like a champ and want something slightly decadent but actually a little good for you – tomatoes, olives, whole wheat bread – keep this recipe on hand.
Grilled Gruyere and Olive Tapenade Sandwiches (Photo by John Autry)
Well, you will with this Sautéed Chicken with Olives, Capers and Roasted Lemons from the gentle Italian lamb and talented Chef Lidia Bastianich. This hails from the same great line-up of female chef recipes I tried last week and was so lovely in every way. The lemons were muted a bit due to roasting them in olive oil and were contrasted by the briny olives and capers. I also loved the crispy breadcrumbs and arugula (it calls for spinach but I wanted a bit of spiciness to this) that made it feel like a substantial but not too filling meal. The one thing that really gave a “zing” to the chicken was the simple light dusting with flour before sautéing. A simple but effective step that made the chicken slightly crispy while still retaining its moisture. I felt the simplicity and bright, clean flavors of the dish is what really made this a winner for us. Serve this to your loved ones or at a dinner party, trust me, their will be licked plates.
Sauteed Chicken with Olives, Capers and Roasted Lemons (Photo by Tina Rupp)
Bucatini all’Amatriciana, try saying that three times fast or if you are me, at all. I’m going to go ahead and tell you right now that Bon Appetit is batting a thousand in our house this week as this was also an Emily and David favorite, hands down.
Still with me or have you gone to the store to get the ingredients? Good.
I looked up the translation of this dish and of course the first link that comes up on Google is from none other than the Italian Chef god, Croc wearing and super gentle Mario Batali from the Babbo restaurant website. Let’s all gather around and see what they have to say:
This dish is one of the most celebrated in Italian cuisine and a favorite here at Babbo. Named for the tiny town of Amatrice, located 100 miles east of Lazio from Abruzzo this dish can be made both with or without tomatoes. Ever since Abbruzzese shepherds begin the tradition of eating this spicy pasta after a day in the chilly mountain air, the cooking process has always begun with the rich smell of a fatty piece of pork bubbling in the pan. At Babbo, we use our homemade guanciale, or cured pig jowls, with its distinct pork flavor, to achieve the same rich taste that comforted the shepherds of old.
If you count shepherding around a lot of pie plates, Crimps, bags, ties, labels and then cooking in the kitchen for hours, I was one tired shepherd last night. I decided to prep the sauce before I left and then came home to boil the spaghetti. I simply combined the drained spaghetti with the sauce and dinner was d.o.n.e. We ate this with abandon. Like there was no tomorrow and this was our last meal. OK, a little dramatic. But we did slurp this and both went back for seconds. So rustic, so deep in flavor, so simple and so authentically Italian. Make this, now, no, no, go on, go to the store. I want to hear your reviews after you’ve tried it for yourself!
Tuesdays are my late night in the kitchen, but I still find it very important that we get a good meal on the table. Before I left to bake, I mis en placed (yes that’s a word…) all of the ingredients for this Spicy Pork with Asparagus and Chilefrom Bon Appetit. So, I combined the soy sauce, dry sherry and cornstarch; trimmed the asparagus, minced the red jalapeno chile and garlic; and finally, combined oyster sauce, honey and remaining soy sauce.
I’m so happy I did this prior to leaving because when I got home this was done in about 10 minutes. I was a little worried that this might too heavy given it’s a little hot outside, but actually it was really light and refreshing. The flavors were delicious and it had a great spicy zing.
If you want a SUPER quick meal that’s delicious, light and spicy make this tonight!
Spicy Pork with Asparagus and Chile (Photo by Nigel Cox)
So lambs, it’s a quiet week, a little too quiet if you ask me. Since there is some time to take a breather, this means I can get back in the kitchen and cook my little heart out. In fact, I’m sitting in our newly cleaned and organized kitchen right now. Sweet.
Below is what we are having this week and last night we had this Soba Noodle Salad with Salmon and Asparagus, or as I called it, “Health on a Plate.” Full of good for you salmon, avocado, spinach, ginger, asparagus and buckwheat noodles and it was still flavorful to boot. It was absolutely delicious and much needed after a wedding filled weekend full of gorging on fabulous food and beverages! Huge congrats toour gentle friends Justin and Carrie on a beautiful wedding and here’s to a lifetime of happiness together.
Monday Grilled Pork Chops with Cherry Peppers, Cipolline Onions, and Balsamic Vinegar (in the April Bon Appetit, I’ll post here if it’s gentle.), Olive Oil-Mashed Potatoes with Spinach and Basil
So I had to share this photo of me with my new favorite t-shirt ever. Yes, it’s a brontosaurus eating tree leaves that says “Nom Nom Nom.” Thanks to my friend Kari for an awesome t-shirt. You know, it’s the little things that make me a happy panda, er, brontosaurus.
Nom, Nom, Nom!
Speaking of nom nom noming, this Chicken with Cornmeal Dumplings recipe from Everyday Food magazine was spectacular. I love dumplings. I grew up eating my Mimi’s chicken and dumplings dish when I was little – my gosh she made the best I’ve ever tasted! I’ll have to share the recipe with you someday won’t I?
This dish had tons of flavor with a wonderful blend of carrots, celery, green onions, green bell pepper, thyme, beer (!) and chicken thighs. What we couldn’t get over was the texture and taste of the sauce; it was thick, creamy and packed a delicious punch.
I pretty much followed this to a “T” but did include about a 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic with the veggies, and I threw in a pinch of cayenne pepper when I added the vinegar to give it a little spice.
This was one of David’s first experiences with dumplings and he loved them. YAY! And as he likes to state after a successful meal, “Absolutely blog worthy.” The recipe is not online so here you go lambs. As the magazine states “This stew has a zesty New Orleans feel,” well, I say let the good times roll with this one poodles, it ROCKED.
Chicken with Cornmeal Dumplings, Everyday Food, April 2011 (p.114)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (1 ½ pounds), cut into 1-inch pieces
Coarse salt and ground pepper
½ bunch scallions, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced medium
2 celery stalks, diced medium
2 medium carrots, diced medium
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 bottles pilsner or another light-or-medium bodied lager (12 ounces each)
1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 recipe Cornmeal Dumpling Dough
In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, add to pot, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer chicken to a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons butter, scallions, bell pepper, celery, and carrots to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until scallions and celery are soft, about 4 minutes. Stir in thyme and flour and season with salt and pepper; cook 1 minute. Return chicken to pot and whisk in beer. With your hands, roughly tear tomatoes and add to pot along with juices. Bring to a rapid simmer and cook, uncovered 30 minutes. Season to taste with vinegar.
Reduce heat to a medium simmer and drop dough by rounded tablepoons on top of stew. Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through 7 – 10 minutes.
Cornmeal Dumpling Dough
In a medium bowl, whisk together 2/3 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), 1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal, 1 ½ teaspoon sugar and ¼ teaspoon coarse salt. Using your fingers, work in 1 tablespoon unsalted butter until small crumbs form. Stir in ½ cup buttermilk.
Yay! I cooked lambs! Our Tuesdays typically run pretty late in the kitchen assembling our little Crimps, but before I left for the evening I made the glaze and the hominy mixture for this meal from Bon Appétit,. I got home pretty tired but was so happy that I had to simply glaze the salmon and roast for 10 minutes in the oven. I reheated the hominy with a 1/3 cup of milk to give it a little bit more body and bam! dinner was served.
This took exactly 30 minutes to put together and was DELICIOUS. I served a little bit of fresh cilantro on top of the salmon to give the plate a little more pizazz. We loved this for its flavor, freshness and the unique blend of cumin, red wine vinegar, apricot jam, and chipotles on the glaze! Plus, according to the magazine, you get a good dose of Vitamin D through the salmon – winning. And with that, I might have just killing “winning”…good.
Roast Salmon with Sweet Chipotle Glaze and Hominy Puree
3 chipotle chiles (about) from canned chipotle chiles in adobo
2 tablespoons apricot jam or preserves
1 1/4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 6- to 7-ounce salmon fillets with skin (scant 1 inch thick)
1 15-ounce can hominy, drained, juice reserved
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°F. Using back of spoon, press enough chipotles through fine sieve into small bowl to measure 2 teaspoons puree. Mix puree, jam, vinegar, and cumin in bowl; season glaze to taste with salt.
Coat small rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Arrange salmon on sheet; sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Spread half of glaze over each fillet. Roast until just opaque in center, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, puree hominy and 3 tablespoons reserved juice in mini processor until almost smooth. Transfer to small skillet. Add butter and cilantro. Stir over medium heat until warmed through, mixing in more reserved juice by teaspoonfuls if too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide hominy between 2 plates, top with salmon, and serve.
Bless my mother. Not only did she have to tolerate a crazy little Emily (my nickname wasn’t Tricky for nothing), but we had a home cooked meal on the table every night after she worked all day long. Besides great Southern food each night, before snuggling me into bed she would ask what I wanted for breakfast the next morning so she could ensure I would go to school with a full belly. Lamb. I think my response each night was “ORANGE MUFFINS PLEASE!”. She would grin and politely inform me that I couldn’t eat orange muffins every day. See even as a youngin’ my food loving brain couldn’t comprehend the “you can’t eat this every day” scenario; kind of how I feel about bacon as an adult.
When I did get orange muffins, usually on Saturdays as a treat, I would run into the kitchen snag about four and watch morning cartoons – especially Rainbow Brite. Something about them was just so delicious to me. They are a little more dense than a regular muffin and the slight orange taste is perfect. Slap some melted butter or honey on these and you’ve got a delicious breakfast.
I’ve been talking about these to David so much that I finally decided to make them this morning. Since I yapped about them at length I was a little nervous for him to try them! I followed my Mom’s recipe pretty much to the letter except a few additions of my own which I’ve marked in the recipe below. I got back from Pure Barre class and if you’ve ever taken this class you know (1) you can’t feel your entire body (2) you are going to be insanely sore tomorrow (3) you might kick something (if you could move your leg) if you don’t eat. I scarfed down two in a matter of minutes and the taste of the muffin warped me back to my little Emily days. Ahhh, don’t you love food items like these? David loved them too. I’m hoping we can make our own special memories in our house with my Mom’s orange muffins (and all of her other delicious recipes). Sniffle.
Mama Ingle's Orange Muffins
Orange Muffins
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup of flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt*
3/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together salt, flour and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until very well blended. Add eggs, then add dry ingredients alternatively with juice. Add vanilla. Pour into greased muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes.
*I added in a little bit of salt and also marscapone cheese, about 1/4 cup after adding the last of the orange juice, to give it a little richer flavor.
Right after David finished eating this dish from Bon Appétit, he exclaimed “totally and absolutely blog worthy.” I couldn’t agree more. Hailing from Cabana restaurant in West Palm Beach this simple dish packs a lot of flavor and it was incredibly easy to assemble.
What we liked most about this was the sauce – bell peppers, onions, capers, green olives, oregano, cilantro, and tomatoes all under juicy Mahi-Mahi. I took it a step further and served the whole thing (sauce and fish) over Cooking Light’s Creamy Polenta. I highly recommend doing the same if you are going to make this. It really added another layer of flavor and texture to the whole dish. The recipe is not online so I’ve inlcuded it here, heart you!
Mahi-Mahi with Tomato, Pepper, and Caper Sauce – Bon Appétit, March 2011
16 garlic cloves, divided
½ cup plus ¼ cup olive oil
6 8-ounce mahi-mahi or black cod filets
1 large white onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 large yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup sliced large pimiento-stuffed green olives (about 24)
4 bay leaves
½ cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups crushed tomatoes with puree
1 ½ tablespoons drained capers from jar
Puree 10 garlic cloves in mini processor; transfer to 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Ad ½ cup of oil, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and 1 ½ teaspoons pepper to garlic; whisk marinade to blend. Add fish to marinade, cover and chill 2 hours, turning fish occasionally.
Chop 6 garlic cloves. Heat ¼ cup of oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped garlic, onion, and next 7 ingredients. Cook until vegetables are soft, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add wine; stir 1 minute. Add tomatoes with puree and capers; simmer 2 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to skillet with marinade still clinging. Cook until golden and just opaque in the center, about 5 minutes per side.
Discard bay leaves from sauce. Divide sauce among plates. Top with fish. (I also spread a little bit of the sauce on top of the fish and garnished with fresh cilantro)
I think Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup might be one of my favorite comfort food combos of all time. My reigning favorite still has to be Luna Park’s in Los Angeles Cheeselitz and Tomato Soup, but a homemade version with Kale? Sign me up! I chose this Grilled Cheese-and-Kale Sandwiches with Tomato Soup from Everyday with Rachael Rayfor a fun kid’s night at Casa Kealey. To be honest, I don’t have too much to say except this was simple, fast and easy to make, and absolutely delicious. The havarti cheese was super melty. You know the kind of grilled cheese that you pull away from the sandwich and strings of gooey cheese come out? Yeah, that kind and here’s your drool cup. Also, the soup was creamy and a perfect complement to the sandwich. I actually kept dunking my sandwich into the soup. Finally, there was kale. I’ve professed my undying love for kale again and again so I won’t bore you with the love poems or sonnets I have for it. This was a fun, delicious and quick meal that’s perfect for all ages.
Now about this artic chill. There are icicles on our porch. Icicles…ACK! I do hope it snows though so I can go outside and make snow angels!
Grilled Cheese-and-Kale Sandwiches with Tomato Soup (Photo by Dan Roberts)
