Giada is my Hero

After a ridiculous 4-course prix fixe Valentine's dinner at Domaso in Rosslyn, VA, we were ready for lighter fare on actual Valentine's day. Healthful, colorful, flavorful, this is Giada's Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Lemon, Basil, and Salmon from her Giada's Kitchen New Italian Favorites.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 pound whole-grain or whole-wheat spaghetti (I used whole-wheat thin spaghetti)

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt, plus more for seasoning

1/2 freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

1 tbsp olive oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil here, too)

4 (4-ounce) salmon fillets (mine were probably more around 6 ounces each)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves (store was a no go on fresh basil, so I subbed 3/4 tsp of dried)

3 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves

Cook

Bring a large pot of slated water to a oil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and transfer to a large bowl. Add the garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper and toss to combine.

Meanwhile (like when the pasta has 5 minutes left to cook or so), warm the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Add the fish to the pan and cook until medium-rare, about 2 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish (for our 6-ouncers, I did 2 and a half minutes on one side, 3 on the other). Remove the salmon from the pan.

Add the basil, capers, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the spaghetti and toss to combine. Set out 4 serving plates or shallow bowls. Place 1/2 cup spinach in each bowl. Top with one quarter of the pasta. Top each mound of pasta with a piece of salmon. Serve immediately.

Served with a glass of Meridian Chardonnay. So so so so so good. Enjoy!

Sweet and Savory Crostini x 2

Crostini is one of those things that's so incredibly easy, but looks and tastes impressive! Perfect for dinner parties, or when you're in the mood for something different than chips and dip. Two different kinds of cheese, two different kinds of sweetness, two different recipes for crostini! One of these is from Giada De Laurentiis' Giada's Family Dinners book, the other is my own creation.

Giada's Crostini with Gorgonzola, Honey, and Walnuts

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

24 1/3-inch-thick diagonal baguette slices

6 oz. creamy gorgonzola cheese, coarsely crumbled

2/3 cup walnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped

3 tbsp honey

1 ripe fig, thinly sliced crosswise (optional, I did not use, you'll see why below)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Lightly

brush the baguette slices with oil. Toast in the oven until the baguette slices are golden, about 8 minutes. (You can toast the baguette slices 1 day ahead. Cool, then store them at room temperature in an airtight container.)

Toss the Gorgonzola with the walnuts in a small bowl. Spoon the cheese mixture onto the baguette slices and press lightly to adhere. Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the cheese melts, about 8 minutes (I think I only did 5 and it appeared to be melted). Arrange the crostini on a platter. Top each with a slice of fig, if desired. Drizzle with honey and serve warm.

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

24 1/3-inch-thick diagonal baguette slices

4 oz soft goat cheese

fig spread

Toast the baguette slices as above. Spread a thin layer of the fig spread on to the toasts. Top with a slab of goat cheese (see picture for approximate amount). Serve!

So precisely what I did was splice each recipe in half, so from one baguette, I made two different kinds of crostini. I found a nice Pinot Grigio at the store that I wanted to try. It did not pair well with the crostini hahaha. I think that a crisp Sauvignon Blanc would have been more appropriate for the fig-goat cheese crostini, and maybe a fruity young red for the gorgonzola, something to really balance it out.

Dave's only complaint was that I didn't throw in a third kind of crostini with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers. Maybe next time!

One-Pot Wonder

We did make this once last year, and it was so good! We had some left over sausage and fish, and thought we'd give it a try again. Alas, again I forgot to take a picture! At this point, I'm going for 1 for 5 on the picture... but I digress. The first time we made this meal, we saw Rachael Ray make it on her show on Food Network and improvised based on what we saw, but this time I went by the recipe. Since the recipe is available online, I will just add some pointers and things I did differently.

Sausage and Fish One-Pot

For Rachael Ray's 30-minute meals, I find that they always take me longer or stress me out because I'm trying to take only 30 minutes. So, I try to pre-chop as much as I can; I would recommend starting by chopping anything which needs to be chopped.

Ingredients I used or changed:

I swapped mild italian sausage for hot because that's what I had; in retrospect, I could have thrown in some crushed red pepper to make up for the lost heat. Perhaps next time...

I used larger red potatoes.

I probably used 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 of Meridian Chardonnay (reminds me of home - SLO).

We had cod in our freezer, so that was the fish of choice.

I think I followed the directions pretty much spot on. We didn't have bread this time around, and I did miss it as an extra utensil for scooping things on to my fork, but didn't miss the starch. I would recommend sourdough if you decide to go for bread.

The absolute best part of the meal? One pot!!

Oh Pasta, How I Love Thee

My mom gave me Giada De Laurentiis' book Giada's Kitchen New Italian Favorites for Christmas and marked a recipe that she had made some weeks before. She said it was so hearty and flavorful. There was just one problem... I don't really care for most kinds of beans. But I decided to give it a try and, I'll admit, I've found another type of bean I don't mind eating! Unfortunately, I'm bad at taking pictures and even worse at keeping New Years' resolutions, so no picture, but I'm determined to blog anyway! Here is Giada's Orecchiette with Sausage, Beans, and Mascarpone.

This recipe is super super tasty and takes as long as the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta!!

Ingredients

1 lb orecchiette or other small shaped pasta (I used shells)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lb turkey sausage, casings removed

1 small onion, chopped

1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano leaves

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

salt and pepper

Cook

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and salt the water and cook until tender, but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. (For me, the sauce was done before the pasta, so I added a couple ladlefuls of the water and then just took the pasta out of the water with a strainer and dumped it directly into the sauce.)

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onion and cook, using a wooden spoon to break up the sausage into bite-size pieces as it browns. Continue cooking until the sausage is golden and the onion is tender. Add the beans and oregano and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the reserved pasta cooking water and stir, scraping up and brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the mascarpone cheese and stir until it dissolves into a light sauce. Season with salt and pepper and add the pasta. Stir until coated and serve.

Serves 4 to 6 (I think we got 5 dinner servings out of it)

Enjoy!

Chicken Biryani, Take Two

While we've made this recipe of Chicken Biryani more than a few times (it's so easy and it only takes one pot!), this is only the second time I've blogged about it, AND this time we actually used the precise ingredients the recipe called for. In the past we've used regular raisin (in lieu of the golden) and substituted an extra cinnamon stick for the cardamom. The result of using cardamom pods and golden raisins was phenomenal! The golden raisins are much more subtle than regular, and they're the same color as the rest of the dish! The cardamom brings a unique flavor and takes away some of the sweetness that the extra cinnamon added before. With it, we drank a bottle of Cristalino Cava Brut. It balanced the spices of the dish wonderfully, and the bubbles are a nice palate cleanser!

New Year, New Mission

Having been inspired by both Julie & Julia and a friend from college, and in spite of the fact that I will probably have no readers, I am going to diligently blog about all the meals I cook this year. In addition, with the exception of this first post, I am going to try to include a picture of the meal.

Note: I am a terrible photographer; consider yourself forewarned.

For my first meal of the year, I decided to make the entire meal from the Tyler's Ultimate Holiday Table episode. I decided to do this for the following reasons:

1. When I first saw the episode, my mouth was watering the entire time.
2. It was New Years Day, a holiday!
3. I hadn't cooked in a very long time (save a few Christmas appetizers).
4. I am insane.

The episode contained 5 recipes:

1. Horseradish and Garlic Prime Rib
2. Creamed Pearl Onions
3. Creamed Spinach
4. Crispy and Creamy New Potato Pie
5. Candied Carrots

Throughout the cooking process, I believe I uttered the phrase "But it looked so easy on TV" more than a few times. After ~2.5 hours of cooking, though, my husband and I had a New Year's feast worthy of the Obamas! Instead of writing out the recipes, I will just list any substitutions and pointers which you can use to supplement the recipes linked to above!

Horseradish and Garlic Prime Rib
Start this first before anything else. For the rub on the roast, don't feel the need to use it all, just slather on a thin layer. Also, you may not want to use the entire amount salt called for. 20 minutes per pound was just about right in my oven to bring the roast to 125 degrees F. Make sure that you take it out at 125 (check using a meat thermometer). As it rests it will continue to cook to a beautiful medium-rare; you can always put it in the microwave if that disgusts you!

Creamed Pearl Onions
Make these while you are making the mushroom sauce for the prime rib, they seem to take around the same time. This is the easiest recipe ever and the onions were delicious!!

Creamed Spinach
This came out tasting kinda funky to us. I used frozen spinach, which I thawed and squeezed excess liquid from, at 10 oz. per pound of fresh spinach called for in the recipe (a conversion I found somewhere online...). I don't know if the spinach was too watery, or if it was just too much spinach, but the recipe was not very flavorful, and we did not save it for leftovers the next day. If you do decide to try this recipe, I recommend using fresh spinach!

Crispy and Creamy New Potato Pie
So... I'm an idiot. Haha the recipe just said 2 lbs. of potatoes, and I found it strange that it didn't specify which kind, and I couldn't remember what Tyler used on the episode, so I bought russets. Then, after I got back from the store, I re-read the title of this recipe. Whatever! The russets worked fine, but I suspect it might be a little creamier with new potatoes. In any case the only thing about this recipe was how long to leave the potatoes in the oven in the pan until it browns. I think I left them in a Calphalon non-stick pan for 15 minutes, and it came out golden on top, probably could have used some more time. But these potatoes were super yummy!

Candied Carrots
I just used normal carrots. The carrots and glaze were fantastic, though, they didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the meal. Note, the carrots can roast while the prime rib is cooking (same temperature).

Good Luck!

Porkchops and App... Orange Sauce?

In Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats cookbook, every recipe page has 2 check boxes: "Try This Later" and "It's a Keeper". Well this one is a KEEPER! Here's the recipe for "Citrus Lover's Menu: Rosemary-Orange Pork Chops and Lemon-Butter Broccolini".

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of one navel orange
3 tbsp light brown sugar
1 cup chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I used cayenne, maybe... 1/4 tsp?)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 1-inch thick center-cut pork loin chops (ours were 1 1/2 inch thick)
1 1/2 lbs broccolini (we used asparagus)
3 tbsp cold unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped (Caution: looks like cilantro, double check!)

Crusty bread

Cook:

In a medium sauce pot over high heat, combine the zest and juice of the orange, brown sugar, chicken stock, rosemary, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil , then lower the heat to a simmer and cook until reduced by half (I pretty much started this and simmered it the entire time while cooking everything else).

Heat a large skillet over mediu-high heat with the EVOO (twice around the pan). Season the chops with salt and pepper, then add to the hot skillet. Cook the chops for 5 minutes on each side (I think due to the THICK chops, I did 7 min a side).

I think at this point I put the oven on low and put the baguette in there to warm and crisp up a bit.

While pork chops are cooking, trim the broccolini (asparagus) ends. Place the thing stalks into a skillet and cover with water. Cover the skillet and bring to a boil. Add salt and reduce the heat. Simmer the broccolini for 5 to 6 minutes, until tender and bright green (ok, so I just boiled the asparagus for about 3 minutes instead, perfect).

Drain the broccolini and return the skillet to the stove over medium heat. Add the butter, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Add the broccolini to the skillet and stir and toss until butter melts. Season the lemon-butter broccolini with salt and pepper.

Add the parsley to the reduced rosemary-orange glaze. Pour the glaze over the cooked pork chops. Toss to coat and transfer to a serving platter. Serve along with the lemon-butter broccolini and some crusty bread.

(Serves 4)

Enjoy!