Category Archives: Food for Thought

Cook, Eat, Think

Salt & Pepper Shrimp: A Scissor-Worthy Recipe

17 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

The other day I wrote about the trove of clipped recipes I’ve managed to amass over the years. In my effort to separate the wheat from the chaff, I’ve decided to pluck a recipe at random from time to time and post it on the blog if I deem it to be “scissor-worthy.” Today, courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch (and the McClatchy-Tribune news syndicate), I bring you what I’m calling “Salt and Pepper Shrimp.” The original title is “Wok-Flashed Salt and Pepper Shrimp” but since John and I need to purchase a wok, I made this in a skillet instead. It worked just fine.

The recipe as published in the paper was adapted from one created by television chef Ming Tsai. I’ve made a minor adjustment of my own, which I’ll explain in a moment.

This recipe is supposed to serve two people, but John and I—hearty eaters both—found that we had enough left to have for lunch today. (I did use slightly more than a pound of shrimp, which I purchased at my favorite seafood store, Yellow Umbrella. I also bought shrimp that was already cooked.) I should add that whenever a recipe gives me a choice between a dried herb or spice or its fresh incarnation, I always opt for fresh. The tartness of the lemon zest in the rice is enhanced by the wonderful intensity of the minced ginger in this dish.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp

1 pound large, easy-peel shrimp
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
6 scallions, thinly sliced

Place shrimp in a bowl of water to soak while you prepare the other ingredients. (This step isn’t necessary if you’re using cooked shrimp, although I always give seafood a rinse under the tap.)

Mix the cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Remove shrimp from water (if uncooked) and add to the cornstarch mixture. Toss well to make sure all of the shrimp are covered with the mixture.

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet on high heat. When the oil is smoking, add the shrimp, ginger, garlic, and scallions. Stir-fry four to five minutes until the shrimp have turned pink. (The timing will be the same if using shrimp that has already been cooked; just be sure to stir the shrimp well while the other ingredients are cooking so they don’t burn or stick to the skillet.)

Serve over Lemony Rice and Peas.

Lemony Rice and Peas

1 package microwavable white rice*
1 teaspoon canola oil
Zest of 1 lemon (grated skin) plus 1 tablespoon juice
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook rice according to package directions for the microwave, or use my method for Basmati rice below. Measure one and one-half cups of rice into a bowl (I used about 2 cups), saving any extra for another meal. Add the oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and peas. Toss well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

*Here’s where I veered from the recipe. I’m not a fan of using the microwave for anything other than melting butter, warming coffee, heating leftovers, or making popcorn—with kernels, not the packaged kind. Instead, I prepared 1 cup of white Basmati rice in a pan on the stove:

(1 and 3/4 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon of butter. Bring all to a boil, turn the gas down low and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Simmer for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat for about 15 minutes more.)

Serve with Salt and Pepper Shrimp.

Scissor-Worthy Recipes and the Great Clip-Cookathon

10 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Remember the other day when I bemoaned all the clipped recipes that were spilling out of my stash-all drawer? Here they are. I’ve decided to do something about them.

First, I’m going through the pile once more to determine whether or not I really and truly want to invest the time, labor, and expense in making a particular recipe. Here are some of the rejects currently residing in my recycling box:

Runny Eggs on Creamy Grits. I had just moved to the South. That’s my only explanation for why I thought this would be remotely interesting to eat.

Pomelo, Escarole, and Candied Bacon Salad with Meyer Lemon Dressing. What’s a pomelo? I’m sure the complete article would have told me, but I clipped the recipe without saving the explanation.

Paw Paw’s Birthday Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting. Again, I plead geography. Otherwise there’s no rational reason why I would have taken the time to clip this. Especially since I don’t like caramel.

I think you get the general idea.

Here’s where I’m going with this. The recipes that make the cut (pun most definitely intended), are going in a file from which I’m randomly going to pull at random moments of desperation. I will make said recipe, and post it here, along with John’s and my assessment of whether or not it was, indeed, scissor-worthy. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cake, a salad, or a main dish; if I pull it, I cook it and we eat it. End of story.

(If this is not a test of marital compatibility, I don’t know what is.)

The recipe I’m sharing with you today was made by me on Thursday, and we had leftovers last night and will likely have this for lunch today. The unanimous verdict was that this one’s a keeper. I have to say that while I was making it, I wasn’t so sure; it seemed as though it was going to be one of those oh-so-good-for-you meals with healthy ingredients that I’d end up fiddling with on my plate, like Randy and his mashed potatoes. And yes, I’m aware that this is the second time on the blog that I’ve referenced A Christmas Story. Guess I’m a pushover for movies filmed in Cleveland.

So here, without further ado, making its debut on the Great Clip-Cookathon, is …

Creamy Carmelized Onion Pasta
—Serves eight

3 pounds yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound fettuccine pasta
1 8-ounce container crème fraîche
1 5-ounch container arugula (I mistakenly bought arugula blend, which had radicchio in it…didn’t matter. I used it anyway.)
1 cup thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

In a large slow cooker, combine the onions and olive oil. Stir well to coat, then cover and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours, or until well browned and caramelized. (This kind of caramel I like. I also love using my slow cooker. I simply stirred the onions around each time I walked into the kitchen to make sure they caramelized uniformly.)

When the onions are done, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain, then return to the pot. Add the onions, crème fraîche, arugula, and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir over medium heat until the arugula just begins to wilt, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Chicken Parmesan

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

There’s no meal quite so satisfying as Chicken Parmesan, which I prepared last Sunday with linguini aglio olio (linguini in a sauce of garlic and olive oil) and roasted asparagus. The Fresh Market had a sale on chicken breasts—$1.99 per pound—and I planned our dinner around that bargain. There’s also nothing quite so satisfying as knowing you’ve spent less than $15 on ingredients that will yield three meals (if you’re cooking for two and love leftovers). You should also get two to three lunches from the breaded cutlets that didn’t fit into the baking pan. That, my investment-savvy friends, is a fantastic ROI.)

If you’ve got the basics in your pantry—extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, Italian-seasoned bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese plus good Parmigiano-Regianno, pasta, red pepper flakes, and canned tomato sauce—you shouldn’t have to buy much else other than chicken, provolone, your vegetable, and flat-leaf Italian parsley (for jazzing up your pasta). Two whole chicken breasts (or four halves, depending on how you tend to size things up) formed the foundation for this dinner. I started the day before by preparing my breaded chicken cutlets; all I needed to do to serve it the day was assemble and cook the recipe, make my pasta with garlic and olive oil, and roast the asparagus. A crusty baguette and a bottle of wine rounded out the meal. Delizioso!

CHICKEN PARMESAN

—Serves six, with extra breaded cutlets to make sandwiches for three lunches

For the breaded cutlets:
2 whole boneless chicken breasts
3 to 6 Tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 cups seasoned Italian bread crumbs
1 to 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 eggs, beaten with a whisk
1/2 half shallot, minced

Slice the breasts down the middle, then slice off the side end of each half-breast so that each piece lays flat on your cutting board. With a meat mallet, gently pound each piece of chicken until the pieces are about one-half inch thick. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Whisk the eggs and add the minced shallot. Blend the bread crumbs and cheese together on a baking sheet.

Dip each piece of chicken in the eggs, then dredge in the crumb and cheese mixture. Place each breaded chicken piece on a separate baking sheet and continue until all of the chicken has been breaded.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cutlets and cook until they are golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add extra oil to the skillet as needed. You’ll likely have to cook the cutlets in batches; after each cutlet is cooked, remove it to a tray or plate lined with paper towels.

When finished, you can either cover the cutlets with aluminum foil and store until the next day, or continue with the recipe.

For the Parmesan:
3 16-ounce cans good quality tomato sauce
7 to 8 breaded chicken cutlets
7 to 8 slices Provolone cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Regianno cheese

Preheat the oven to 475-degrees F. Spread some of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan, then arrange the breaded chicken cutlets on top, adding more sauce in between each cutlet. Top each cutlet with a slice of Provolone cheese, then add a dollop of sauce to the cheese. Sprinkle the Parmigiano-Regianno over all.

Bake until the cheese melts and the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes or until nice and bubbly. Serve immediately.

(You will find, to your delight, that you should have unused breaded cutlets, which will be wonderful the next day for lunch, served on crusty Italian bread.)

(Would you like the recipe for the Linguini Aglio Olio? I can arrange that!)

Lentil Soup with Smoked Turkey

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I am an inveterate recipe clipper. One of the drawers in our home is filled to overflowing with recipes culled from the New York Times, the Plain Dealer, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and all the usual suspects among the food magazines. Why do I do this? It’s not for lack of cookbooks in my collection. Stumped for a way to prepare fish, I’ll troll various sites on the Internet. I could begin, today and each day thereafter, to cook my way through every clipped recipe I own and find myself cooking until 2040—if standing on my feet in front of a hot stove doesn’t kill me first.

The thing is, I’m a sucker for well-written food articles. They satisfy my hunger for evocative language and delicious meals in one convenient, non-reheatable packet.

This recipe, included in an article by China Millman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and recently reprinted in our local paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, caught my eye for two reasons. First, the headline was a real grabber: “Humble staples make one exquisite soup.” Second, I have a shelf of repurposed White Cat Popcorn jars filled with dried beans, split peas, and lentils. Why not, I asked myself, cook something that I don’t have to fill a cart from Whole Foods to prepare? The only item I didn’t have on hand was the smoked turkey, which I found, you guessed it, at Whole Foods.

A great big thank you goes out to cookbook author Eugenia Bone, who created this delicious and satisfying soup recipe in the first place; it was originally published in the December 2009 issue of Food & Wine magazine. I reached Ms. Bone via email through her website. If you go there, you’ll find it has a most scientific name—Mycophilia.com, because it is devoted to her love of mushrooms and her new book, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms. I love mushrooms, and so of course I’m going to have to look into this. Eugenia Bone also writes a blog, Well-Preserved, for the Denver Post.

Lentil Soup with Smoked Turkey *
—Serves 4 to 6

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 16-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped and juices reserved
1 bay leaf
1 cup green or brown lentils **
3/4 pound smoked turkey wing and thigh
4 small red potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving ***

In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the garlic, celery, carrots, and onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until softened, 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, lentils, smoked turkey, and 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender, 1 hour. Add potatoes and simmer until tender, 10 minutes.

Remove the turkey meat from the bones and return it to the soup; discard the skin, bones, and bay leaf. Add the parsley and season the soup with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve, passing the cheese at the table.

Make ahead: The lentil soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

* I doubled the recipe for this session, which is why there’s an extra onion and 2 extra celery ribs in the mise en place photo, along with a 28-ounch package of tomatoes.

**I used all the green lentils that I had on hand, and supplemented with brown in order to get to 2 cups—remember, I was doubling this recipe. I added only 3 and 1/2 quarts of water, though, which made for a nice, thick soup.

***The article noted that adding a Parmigiano-Reggiano rind to the pot would add richness. I did this and it did. Rinds of this cheese keep well in the freezer.

Recipe used with permission of Eugenia Bone.

The Godmother’s Italian Wedding Soup

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, Nostalgia, Relationships and Family Life

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

I was not at a wedding the first time I ever tasted Italian Wedding Soup. My recollection is surprisingly sharp, given I could not have been more than eight-years old. My mother, who was of Sicilian descent, had cousins in Warren, Michigan. My father drove the three of us up from Elyria, Ohio—a nearly three-hour trip—for a day visit, the purpose of which eludes me (here my memory is as dense as a cumulonimbus cloud). We gathered for a delicious dinner in the cousins’ formal dining room. I suspect there are two reasons why I remember any of this at all: First, we never traveled anywhere as a family, and second, I had never seen soup with what looked like cooked lettuce in it. It wasn’t lettuce at all, of course, but rather escarole. (I had no idea what that was, so the distinction was lost on me at the time.) All I knew was that the concoction was wonderful, punctuated by the most charming little meatballs I’d ever seen outside of a plate of spaghetti. This sense memory has stayed with me for years.

The name comes from the Italian word for soup, minestra, and the fact that the flavors “marry” well (maritata); hence, wedding soup. This recipe comes from my godmother Fannie, an excellent cook. You’ll remember meeting her in my story “Marlo & Me—Act I.” Aunt Fannie, thank you for sharing this recipe with me, and for allowing me to include it in the blog.

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP
Serves 4

FOR THE MEATBALLS:
2 pounds ground chuck or round steak
3/4 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
3 eggs, whipped with a whisk
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder, or 1 minced clove of garlic
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil, for frying

Mix all of the ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Cover and let stand at room temperature for one and one-half hours.

Roll the meat into 1/2-inch balls. Brown in olive oil and drain on paper towels. (At this point the meatballs can be frozen for later use.)

THE SOUP:
One-half batch browned meatballs for 2 quarts broth. Freeze the rest of the meatballs for the next time. (If you wish to use the entire batch of meatballs, double the following quantities):

1 bunch escarole (fresh spinach can be substituted)
2 quarts chicken stock (I had homemade stock in my freezer)
Two eggs, beaten
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Wash, trim, and cut the escarole (or spinach) into small pieces. Place in a pot of boiling water for about eight minutes (five minutes if using spinach). Drain well.

Bring chicken broth to a boil, season with salt and pepper to taste, and reduce heat to simmer. Add the meatballs and escarole (or spinach) and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, allowing the flavors of the meatballs to infuse the broth. Add the beaten eggs and cheese. Serve immediately, with extra cheese at the table.

Simple Poached Salmon

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

If you got married in the 1970s, chances are one of your shower gifts was a “Crock Pot,” now more commonly known as a slow cooker. The outer shell of mine was in the popular color of the day—avocado. (Don’t you agree that styles and color trends often change for the better?)

That particular Crock-Pot, shaped rather like a pickle barrel without the center bulge, was more upright than roaster-shaped, which is to say you couldn’t fit in all that much. I recall making exactly one dish in it—kielbasa sausage and sauerkraut. I recall not making it very often. Relegated towards the back of a cupboard, the Crock-Pot eventually made some unknown bargain hunter quite happy at a garage sale.

Flash forward to this millenium, and an article that caught my eye in the January 29, 2003 edition of the New York Times. Noted cookbook author Mark Bittman’s “Low and Slow is the Way to Go” made me rethink my antiquated notions of slow cooker cooking. (His recipe for short ribs with Chinese flavors is off-the-hook delicious. I haven’t made it in a while but I should move it up in the rotation. Just re-reading this article made me want it.)

Reading his article for the first time made me covet the kind of slow cooker he was using. Unfortunately, the photo isn’t included in the online version of the story, but you can see it in my mise en place photo for today’s recipe. With its gleaming stainless steel shell and spacious oval shape, it’s one of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment. I bought it nearly 10 years ago. I’m still using it. I love it. (But not as much as I love John.)

This recipe for poached salmon is delectable. I never prepared fish all that much back in Ohio; even though we lived near Lake Erie, I never made fried perch. I’m just not a huge fan of fried food. I also didn’t live near a good seafood store. I know people who rave about the seafood at Costco, but I prefer a small shop where they truck the fish in fresh daily, and everybody knows your name. Since moving to Richmond, I shop at Yellow Umbrella, where they truck their fish in two or three times a day. (I love Yellow Umbrella as much as I love my slow cooker.)

I bought a one-pound fillet of organically raised, low-density New Zealand salmon for this—it’s one of our favorites. The recipe comes from volume two of Lynn Alley’s wonderful book, The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Regional Comfort-Food Classics, published by Ten Speed Press. My thanks to Lynn for giving me permission to include her recipe in TMSW!

Copyright © 2006 by Lynn Alley. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the author.

Simple Poached Salmon

—Serves 4

1 cup water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 yellow onion slice (I typically use 2)
1 lemon slice (I typically use about 3 slices)
1 sprig dill (If seasonal and the bunch is large. If using a packaged herb, I use about 4-5 sprigs…and I always buy organic)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I use Kosher)
4 (6-ounch salmon fillets…for two people I buy a one-pound fillet)

Combine the water and wine in the slow cooker and heat on high for 20 to 30 minutes. Add the onion, lemon, dill, salt, and salmon.

Cover and cook on high for about 20 minutes, until the salmon is opaque and cooked through according to taste. (Since I didn’t portion out the fillet, what you see below actually took longer than 20 minutes to cook—closer to 45 minutes.) Serve hot or cold.

From Lynn Alley’s notes to the recipe:

Poaching salmon, or any fish for that matter, in the slow cooker is a no-brainer. Although it isn’t a traditional dish for long, slow cooking, it is one of the things that the low, even temperatures of the slow cooker does well with. Poached salmon, needing no oil to cook, makes a light lunch paired with lemon rice. steamed vegetables, and salad, or a sumptuous dinner with herbed mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. SUGGESTED BEVERAGE: Salmon, a classic Pacific Northwest ingredient, generally fits like a glove with pinot noir, Oregon’s most beloved grape.

My notes:

I serve this hot with rice pilaf and either roasted asparagus or sautéed spinach. Our wine that evening was James River Cellars’ Chardonel. 

Baked Kibbee (With a Memory Side Trip to Sittoo’s Kitchen)

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

, , ,

It’s time for equity in ethnic cooking here at The Midlife Second Wife. Regular readers of the blog know that I’m half Sicilian and half Lebanese, and that I’m proud of both aspects of my heritage. But yesterday, when I was compiling an index to the recipes, which you can find at the top of the site, I was struck by an egregious oversight: Italy and Sicily are represented, but Lebanon has nary an olive or a slice of pita bread to acknowledge its treasured place in my lineage. That changes today. I’m proud to share with you two recipes that, when combined, create a whole that is deliciously greater than the sum of its parts. I’m talking about Kibbee Bis-Sayniyyi, or Baked Kibbee.

My Grandmother Abookire prepared kibbee regularly, along with other wonderful dishes such as tabouli, homus, stuffed grape leaves, and kousa. I also have sublime memories of her baking, in her basement summer kitchen, what we now call pita bread, but which she called Syrian bread. The aroma filled the old, American Foursquare house. Sittoo (Arabic for Grandmother) employed an assembly line technique: the small, round discs of dough, having adequately risen, waited beneath kitchen towels on a long folding table for their turn in her antique Magic Chef gas oven. Using a worn, long-handled bread paddle, she pulled the piping hot loaves out of the oven and set them on a separate table. At this point I’d make my move: I’d grab a hot loaf with a spare towel, carry it upstairs to the main kitchen, slather it with butter, and settle on the front porch glider. There, in a carbohydrate-comfort food-stupor, I’d watch the summer traffic roll by on Route 20.

After Sittoo and Jiddu, my grandfather, moved from Ohio to Southern California, she would write to my mother and me regularly n her spidery, upward-slanted hand—often including some of her recipes. Her command of English was remarkable; she and my grandfather had been born and raised in Lebanon, but she was educated at American Christian schools. Nevertheless, I found it difficult to decipher her instructions. To compensate, over the years I’ve acquired substitute recipes that are just as delicious. (In truth, the ingredients and methodology are fairly universal.) I do believe, though, that watching her cook during those impressionable early years left their imprint on the way I squeeze water out of bulgur and use my hands to assemble tabouli. Or maybe all of this is simply embedded in my DNA.

These recipes are from a wonderful cookbook compiled by members of St. Anthony’s Maronite Catholic Church in Glen Allen, Virginia. I purchased the cookbook at their annual Lebanese Food Festival, held each May on the church grounds. In fact, the festival was the first place John took me during my first “official” visit to Richmond. If I  was thrilled to discover that a thriving Lebanese community existed in what would soon be my new hometown, imagine my delight when I tasted the food! If you live in or near Richmond (or plan to visit), mark these dates on your calendar: the 28th Annual Lebanese Food Festival takes place May 18 through 20, 2012. You can visit the church’s website for more information. My thanks to Father George for giving me permission to include these cooking instructions, ever-so-slightly adapted, from Timeless Lebanese Recipes.

Kibbee Bis-Sayniyyi
(Baked Kibbee)
Serves 8-10

To make this recipe, you actually have to make two other recipes first:

1 basic kibbee recipe
1 basic hashwee recipe
Canola oil

Let’s do that now, beginning with

Hashweh
(Meat and Pine Nut Filling)

1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 pound ground lamb or beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
salt and pepper to taste (I use Kosher salt)

Brown the pine nuts in butter until golden. Then add meat, onion, and spices. Sauté for 10 to 12 minutes. Recipe may be increased if more filling is needed.

After preparing this, I keep it in the refrigerator, in a covered bowl, until I’m ready to use it later that day.

Kibbee
(Basic Recipe)

1 and 1/2 cups bulgur #1 (if you’re using lamb, add an additional 1/2 cup)
1 large onion, pureed in blender
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional…I’d never dream of omitting this!)
1 teaspoon allspice
2 pounds (4 cups) extra lean lamb or beef (I prefer using lamb)

Cover bulgur (wheat) with cold water. Rinse three times. Drain and press between palms of hands to remove excess water. Work onions and spice together with fingers. Knead meat and spices thoroughly. Add crushed wheat and continue kneading. Dip hands in ice water while kneading in order to soften kibbee. (Ingredients must be kept cold.)

Optional: Run the kneaded mixture through a meat grinder, if available, for a finer consistency. (I don’t own a meat grinder, but I remember my grandmother had one permanently affixed to her kitchen table.)

Now, with both recipes prepared, it’s time to make the baked kibbee:

Cover the bottom of a 9 x 12 cape pan or glass Pyrex dish with canola oil. Spread a half-inch layer of kibbee on the bottom of the pan. (It is easier to take several large balls, pat them flat, and place them in the pan, piecing the kibbee to form an even layer on the bottom of the pan.) Then, go over the kibbee with your hand and smooth it evenly.* Spread the hashwee stuffing evenly over the kibbee layer. Place the remaining kibbee over the hashwee, using the same method. (The top layer should be thicker than the bottom.)

With a sharp knife, score the top layer 1/2 inch deep in a diamond-shaped design 1 inch apart. Pour a bit of canola oil across the top. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 25 minutes. Lower the heat to 300-degrees and bake for 20-30 minutes more. The baked kibbee should be golden brown. When serving, cut along the diamond-shaped wedges.

*Important: When smoothing the layers of kibbee by hand, keep dipping your hands in cold water so the kibbee will not stick to your hands. Smooth well.

I like to serve this with rice pilaf and tabouli. (I’ll share my recipe for tabouli with you at a future date.) Don’t forget the pita bread. Sadly, I’ve never tried to bake my own. I should; there’s a recipe for it in the church’s Timeless Lebanese Recipes! If I do, you can be certain I’ll let you know.

Bil-hanā’ wa ash-shifā’!*

*Bon appétit!

Greek Penne Pasta

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Do I love pasta? Of course I do—I’m half Sicilian! But this recipe, with its decidedly Greek flavors, is one of my favorite ways to prepare it. It’s quite simple to make, with only nine ingredients. (Remember the block of frozen spinach I disparaged in one recent recipe? It makes an important appearance here. Sometimes frozen works just fine.)

Because this dish has so few ingredients, each is essential to its success; this is not the time to skimp. Pine nuts are expensive right now, but you’ll only need two tablespoons’ worth for this—buy a small package, keep them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator, and they’ll last you for months. The feta cheese should be the best you can find; Ellwood Thompson’s, in Richmond, has a Bulgarian feta made from sheep’s milk. It lends just the right bite. Don’t substitute canned tomatoes for fresh; if tomatoes aren’t in season—or you can’t find good quality plum tomatoes in the produce section—wait until summer to make this. Serve it warm, as soon as it’s ready, but know that it keeps beautifully for several days in the refrigerator, and also tastes delicious cold.

Greek Penne Pasta

—Serves 6

12 ounces penne
5-1/2 teaspoons good olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
4 large plum tomatoes, chopped (about 8 ounces)
8 ounces feta cheese
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain and set aside. If necessary, cover to keep warm.

Heat a large non-stick skillet with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, then add 3 teaspoons more to the skillet; heat the oil over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and garlic. Cook and stir about 5 minutes, or until the pine nuts are lightly golden. Then stir in the spinach (be sure it’s well-drained—I squeeze it in my hands to get rid of any excess moisture) and tomatoes. Cook about 3 minutes or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

 

Meanwhile, using a pastry blender, crumble the feta in a medium-size bowl and set aside.

To serve, place half of the hot pasta in a large bowl and drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the remaining olive oil. Gently toss until coated. Add the remaining pasta, drizzle with the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil and gently toss. Then add the spinach mixture and toss. Finally add the feta cheese, additional salt and pepper to taste, and toss until well combined.

Adapted from Healthy Homestyle Cooking by Evelyn Tribole (Rodale Press 1994)

One Skillet, Three Power Foods (Hint: One of Them is Spinach)

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Food for Thought, The Healthy Life

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Before …

While there are certain vegetables that leave me cold no matter how they’re prepared (can you say Brussels sprouts?), I have always loved spinach. I’ve gone on the record before about the excellence of my mother’s cooking and baking. Nevertheless, the cooking going on in her kitchen circa 1950s and 1960s often gave preference to the convenience factor; her method of preparing spinach, for example, consisted of thawing a block of Birdseye. To her credit, she did spritz the cooked green mush with fresh lemon. How many nutrients we ended up with I cannot say.

When I began to cook, I reached back a generation for my Sicilian grandmother’s approach to cooking the leafy green vegetable: sautéed with garlic in olive oil.

This recipe—such a nice, bright accompaniment to grilled fish or meat—is so simple and swift as to be laughable. And exactly how good is it for you? Let’s take the three ingredients one by one, shall we?

Spinach

  • Rich in minerals such as potassium, manganese, zinc, magnesium,  iron, and calcium
  • Source of such vitamins as folate, niacin, Vitamin A, B6, and C
  • Packed with thiamine and riboflavin, and such beta carotene and lutein
  • Low in fat

Translated, this means that spinach is good for your eyesight, as it protects you from age-related macular degeneration and cataracts; it’s good for your blood pressure and helps prevent atherosclerosis and heart attack; it strengthens your muscles and helps with bone mineralization; and it includes other neurological, antiulcerative, and anti-cancerous benefits.

Garlic

  • Boosts our natural supply of hydrogen sulfide, which acts as an antioxidant, relaxing blood vessels and increasing blood flow
  • A garlic rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate, and colon cancer

Olive Oil

Yes, olive oil is a fat. But it’s a good fat, just like Glinda in The Wizard of Oz is a good witch. The reason the fat in olive oil is healthy is because it is a monounsaturated fatty acid, which helps to lower your total cholesterol.

… and After

As for simple and swift, you’ll have this prepared in under 10 minutes. Don’t believe me? Go ahead, time it.

Sicilian Sautéed Spinach

—Serves 4

1 bunch of fresh (preferably organic) spinach
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt to taste

Wash and rinse spinach, remove stems, and tear into medium-size pieces

Preheat your non-stick skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds, then add olive oil. Increase the heat to medium-high and heat the oil for about 30 seconds more.

Add garlic to hot oil, stirring quickly. Don’t let it burn or brown.

When garlic looks translucent, add a handful or two of spinach, stirring quickly with tongs. The spinach will cook down quickly; add the rest in batches until it’s all cooked down and bright green. Sprinkle kosher salt, to taste, to bring out the flavors. Serve.

Republican Fudge Even a Democrat Could Love!

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Food for Thought, Indulgences

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Having already established my feelings about chocolate in this venue, I won’t restate them other than to add an important point I neglected to make at the time: I am a bipartisan chocolate lover. When it comes to chocolate, I suffer no compunctions about crossing the aisle. Indeed, I so appreciate the essential characteristics of milk as well as dark chocolate, that I sometimes combine both in a baking recipe. Perhaps it’s best not to tell anyone. Especially Fox News.

Today’s recipe is vintage—so old that I suspect it’s in the public domain. I saved this recipe for “Mamie Eisenhower’s Million Dollar Fudge” ages ago, and I have the yellowing newspaper clipping to prove it. (I hope that the estate of Mamie Eisenhower does not sue me for copyright infringement. If they do, I’ll offer to settle the case by shipping the Eisenhower descendents batches of their matriarch’s incredibly decadent fudge.) Christmas might be over, but you can still sneak this in before your New Year’s resolution has you abstaining from sweets. You’re welcome.

Mamie Eisenhower’s Million Dollar Fudge

—Makes about 2 pounds

4 and 1/2 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips (My preference is for Ghirardelli‘s)
3 4-ounce packages German sweet chocolate (I used Baker’s brand)
2 7-ounce jars marshmallow cream
2 cups chopped nuts (I had pecans in the freezer so that’s what I used for this recipe)

Boil the sugar, salt, butter and milk in a large, heavy saucepan for 6 minutes.

Put the chocolate chips, German chocolate, marshmallow cream and nuts in a large bowl (I used the bowl of my KitchenAid mixer.) Very carefully, pour the boiling syrup on top and beat until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a greased 9-by 13-inch pan. Let stand a few hours before cutting. Store in an airtight tin. (I find that the fudge keeps best if I leave it in the pan—covered with foil and kept in the refrigerator—and simply cut into squares what I need for serving or gifting.) Even if I do store it in a tin, it’s best to keep this refrigerated.