Zucchini 'Pappardelle' with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes

This meal is basically ‘how to eat a meal of nothing but vegetables and still make it taste great.’ Spoiler alert: the answer is to add a good bit of extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese. This is also really quick to cook, since everything can be done in one pan at the same time.

For 1 serving:

~ 2 zucchinis, peeled

Handful of asparagus

Handful of cherry tomatoes

½ onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Lemon Juice

Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Basil

Cut off the rounded ends of the zucchini and using a mandolin (or a knife if you want to be Mr./Mrs. Precision McKnifework) slice into 1/8” thick ribbons. Cut the ribbons in half down the middle. Lay out the slices of zucchini in one layer on a tray (or anything that will hold them) and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim the asparagus by removing the woody stem ends. Then, take a paring knife and peel off layers of the remaining stem, from the head on downward. Your asparagus stalks should look like shaved poodles when you’re finished.

Halve the cherry tomatoes, cut up the garlic and onions and your prep work is done.

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add in a good lug of extra virgin olive oil and toss in the zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, onion and garlic. Cook over medium for about 7 minutes, then sprinkle on some lemon juice. Season with a pepper and a little salt if you think you need it.

Chiffonade your basil by stacking a few leaves on top of each other, rolling them up like a cigarette and cutting into thin strips.  Serve the veggies with the basil, parmesan cheese, and an extra squirt of olive oil.

Sweet Potato and Tomatillo Soup

I didn’t know there was such a thing as white sweet potatoes until I saw them at the market this weekend, and I’m a sucker for novel vegetables. This can easily be made vegetarian/vegan by using vegetable stock, however since I made chicken stock this weekend that’s what I went with.

Recipe:

2 large white sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

½ large white onion, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

2 poblano peppers, diced

4 cups chicken stock

6 tomatillos, husks removed, halved

3 tomatoes, stems removed and halved

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground thyme

1 teaspoon black pepper

For garnish:

Cilantro

Jalapeno slices

Diced shallots

Preheat your oven to 450°F.

In a dutch oven or other decent sized pot, heat over medium and add some oil. Add the onion, garlic and poblano peppers and sweat for about 5 minutes. Add the stock and the sweet potatoes, then add the salt and spices and taste to adjust. Cover the pot and bring to a simmer, cooking for 20 minutes or so, until the potatoes have softened.

Meanwhile, place the halved tomatoes and tomatillos on a baking sheet (cut side down) lined with foil and sprayed with cooking oil. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. The tomatillos will have some color on them. Remove from the oven, take the skins off the tomatoes, and add to a blender.

When the potatoes have softened add them to the blender as well. Blend smooth and adjust seasoning. Garnish with cilantro, jalapeno pepper slices and shallots.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Butter and Sage Sauce

The theme for this week is cheap meals, and this is a great way to save money but still cook a hoity-toity gourmet meal. I’m somewhat guestimating, but I think the recipe as written below costs about $5 to make, and that’s for 2 servings plus a bunch of leftover raviolis. I didn’t make enough dough, but I’ll write the recipe as if I actually knew what was doing and made enough pasta to go with the filling. Since butternut squashes are pretty hefty vegetables, you can’t really downsize, but you can have some great leftover. The sauce is enough for 2 servings, even though there’s extra ravioli.  Leftovers are dead simple when you already have the ravioli assembled and frozen – just add to boiling water (from frozen) and simmer for 4 minutes.

Pasta dough:

9 ounces all-purpose flour

3 large eggs (6 oz)

1 tbsp olive oil

Filling:

1 butternut squash

3 cloves garlic, unpeeled

¼ cup parmesan cheese (plus more for garnish)

Salt and pepper

Sauce:

4 tbsp butter

1 shallot, diced

Sage leaves

Heat your oven to 375°F. Cut the top off the squash, and split it in half. Scoop out the seeds and gloopy bit (just like carving a pumpkin, but with 10x less). Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour. You can either roast the garlic (in its husk) along with the squash (should take 10 minutes or so) or in a dry pan over medium heat, flipping as blackened spots form.

Meanwhile, make a well out of the flour and crack the eggs into the center. Add the olive oil on top of the eggs. Whisk the eggs, slowly incorporating the flour bit by bit until a dough forms.

Knead the dough for approximately 8 minutes on a floured surface, until the dough is silky smooth. Take a piece of plastic wrap and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place the dough on the plastic, and give it a spray as well. Wrap the dough in the plastic and refrigerate for half an hour.

Is the squash done roasting? Great, scoop out the flesh and add to the bowl of a food processor. Dice the roasted garlic from earlier, and add to the food processor, along with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Process to a puree.

Back to the pasta. Roll out the dough in 3 batches. Start on the lowest (widest) setting, and pass the dough through 4 times, folding like a letter each time. This helps knead the dough. Then, pass the dough through the machine, increasing the setting each time until you reach the thinnest setting. You may want/need to flour the dough lightly during this process. Repeat with remaining dough. Split into 6 equal sized sheets.

Place a spoonful of filling  for each ravioli, giving yourself enough space between each spoonful. Add filling to 3 of the pasta sheets. Get some water in a small bowl, and using a brush, ‘paint’ around the filling. This will make them easier to close. Place one of the pasta sheets that doesn’t have filling on it directly on top of one that does. Seal up each ravioli, pressing out any excess air. Use a biscuit cutter or similar to separate each ravioli from the dough. 

Place any raviolis you don’t plan on immediately cooking on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the freezer until frozen. Transfer to a Ziploc bag.

For the raviolis you are cooking, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the raviolis, cooking for 1 minute, then removing with a spider/slotted spoon to the pan with the sauce.

Sauce:

Melt butter and add diced shallots, allowing them to get some caramelization. Add the sage and cook for about 1 minute. Add in the cooked pasta, and toss to coat. Serve with additional parmesan cheese.

Chiles en Nogada

I've been meaning to try these for a while and finally got around to making the recipe. I deviated from the traditional in a few ways; first, chiles rellenos are usually battered and fried, which I'm sure is delicious, but also not particularly healthy. Secondly, the stuffing usually involves pork, but I opted for a vegetarian (hell, this meal is even full on vegan, thanks to using almond milk instead of dairy) version for no particular reason. Usually the pork is accompanied by fruits like apples and pears, for a sweet and hearty flavor, and I think mine are in that same spirit. Finally, it seems like all the recipes I read garnish the dish with parsley, but I wanted the sort of penetrating fresh flavor cilantro brings to the table.

Chiles Rellanos:

10 poblano chilis

½ large eggplant, diced

2 small zucchini, diced

1 apple, peeled, cored and diced

1 pear, peeled, cored diced

½ large yellow onion, diced

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic, diced

1 tablespoon cumin

½ teaspoon allspice

2 teaspoons chili powder

Nogada Sauce:

2 cups walnuts

¾ cup almond milk

½ cup beer (I used a Victory Festbier)

1 teaspoon sugar

Pinch of salt

To Finish:

Pomegranate seeds

Cilantro

First, we need to char the poblanos. You can do this directly over a gas burner, on a cast iron pan with no oil, or stick them all under the broiler. I used the broiler. They will take a few minutes each side – flip them when they start to blacken and char. Remove from the oven and drape a towel over them for a few minutes. Once they cool, remove the skin (it should come right off). Cut a slit down the middle, and remove the seeds – it’s best to try and keep the stem intact so that the chilies stay together when stuffed.

Moving on, hope your knife skills are up to snuff because there is a good amount of chopping to be done. You’ll need the eggplant, zucchini, apple, pear, onion, and garlic diced and the mushrooms sliced.  Add these all to a large bowl or two.

All these ingredients are going to be sweated down, and you’ll need to do this in 3 batches. Heat a large pan over medium, add a little oil, and the diced ingredients. Season with salt, and sweat for 5 to 7 minutes, until much of the water in the vegetables is released.  Repeat with remaining batches.

Once you’ve sweated the veggies, add them all to a bowl along with the cumin, allspice and chili powder. Stir to mix.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spoon the stuffing into each of the chilis. Place on a backing sheet/roasting pan lined with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Before saucing

Sauce:

Combine the walnuts and almond milk in a blender, and puree. Add the beer, and season with salt and taste. Add sugar as appropriate. The sauce will have some texture to it.

Serve the baked rellenos with sauce and sprinkle pomegranate seeds and cilantro on top. Serve with corn tortillas or white rice.

Succotash Burgers

I’m more familiar with succotash as half of a Looney Toons catchphrase rather than a dish, but I saw a recipe for succotash burgers that seemed like a great summer meal. Being unfamiliar with succotash, much less making it into burgers, I didn’t deviate too far from the basic recipe although I did opt for a remoulade sauce that was an amalgamation of what I had around the kitchen.

It should be noted that shaping the patties – and keeping them from falling apart – is not the easiest task in the world. The original recipe called for 1 egg to help bind the mixture, but I ended up needing 2. Also, I had a few uncooked patties I left in the fridge overnight – these seemed to stay together a little better, so if you have some extra time consider extending the 30 minutes of refrigeration that the recipe calls for.

Burgers:

2/3 cup uncooked lima beans

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 ears corn (about 1.5 cups)

2 green onions, sliced thin

½ cup diced red pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 cup panko bread crumbs (plus more for dredging)

1 cup Monterrey jack cheese, shredded

2 eggs

Salt

Pepper

Sliced Vidalia onion

Tomato slices

6 kaiser rolls

Remoulade (recipe follows)

Heat a pot of water and drop in the lima beans. Bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand, covered for 1 hour.

Place the beans in a food processor with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and pulse until finely chopped (but not mush).

Meanwhile, shuck the corn and remove the kernels. Place in boiling water for 3 minutes, drain and rinse under cold water. Place in a large bowl along with the gren onions, red pepper, garlic, bread crumbs, cheese, eggs, lima beans, and some salt and pepper. Work the mixture with your hands, and make 6 patties. Cover and refrigerate the patties for half an hour.

Heat a skillet over medium, and add in a splash of olive oil. Cook for onion slices for a few minutes, until softened and they get a little color to them. Remove from the pan, add a little more oil if you think you need it and add the burgers (you’ll need to do this in two batches) and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes a side.

Toast the rolls/buns while the burgers cook. Top each burger with a slice of tomato, onions, and spread some remoulade on the bun.

Remoulade:

1 cup mayonnaise

½ teaspoon bbq seasoning

¼ teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon relish

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 teaspoon deli style mustard

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in small food processor. Pulse to combine. Refrigerate extra.

Goose Egg Quiche

This week’s theme is local ingredients, so I hit up a store which has nothing but local/organic ingredients in search of emu eggs, which they’ve carried before. I guess it’s not emu egg-laying season, because they were all out, but I settled on goose eggs from Newberry, Pa. and proceeded to fork out as much for 2 of these bad boys as 2 cartons of chicken eggs would cost. Luckily, the always fantastic Iovine Brothers produce also had local ingredients, so I was able to get some local squash, mushrooms, and bok choy to add to the proceedings.

The gruyere is the secret ingredient here – this was the best tasting quiche I’ve ever had and the cheese is the reason why. The goose eggs taste like chicken eggs, so don’t waste the money on them unless you’re looking for a novelty post for your food blog…

Tart Shell (Pate brisée):

6 oz. all purpose flour

1 stick (4 oz.) butter

1 to 2 oz. ice water

¼ teaspoon salt

Add the flour, butter and salt to a food processor and pulse. With the processor running, pour in the water – start with 1 oz. (about 1/8 cup) and go from there until a dough forms.

Remove the dough from the processor, wrap it in wax paper, and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Flour a working surface and roll the dough out into a circle big enough to fit in a 9.5” pan. Butter and flour a 9.5” pie pan, and lay the dough into it. Cut off any excess overhang. Place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place a piece of tin foil over the dough and weigh down with beans or small stones. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and pie weights, and bake for 5 minutes more.

I forgot to take a picture of the tart shell after blind baking it, so this will have to do

Filling:

2 goose eggs (or 4 chicken eggs)

½ green squash, quartered lengthwise then sliced thin

5 crimini mushrooms, chopped into chunks

1 bunch of bok choy – separate the leaves from the stems, chop the stems into pieces similar sized to the squash, and the leafy bits into a few pieces each

1 clove garlic, diced

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup gruyere cheese

Salt and pepper

Cut your veggies, then preheat a 12” pan over medium heat. Add in 1 tablespoon olive oil and add in the mushrooms, squash, and bok choy stems. Season lightly with salt. Sautee over medium for 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and bok choy leaves and cook for 2 minutes longer.

Add the cooked ingredients to a bowl along with the heavy cream and gruyere. Beat your eggs until all the yolks/whites are incorporated and add to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake at 425°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it at around the 20 minute mark – if you notice the top starts to brown, lay a piece of tin foil over the quiche so the top doesn’t get too dark.  

Goose vs. Chicken

Here's what these bad boys look when they're cracked open - yes I did notice the piece of shell/membrane right after taking this picture.

Other filling ingredients

Before cooking

Fresh out of the oven