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Watermelon Basil Granita

August 7, 2011 By 3 Comments

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen recipes for granitas on the Food Network website and scoffed at them, thinking they’d be a waste of time. Of course, as I almost always am when I decide to dislike something based on nothing factual, I was wrong. I finally decided to give in because I had 3/4 of a watermelon leftover from a cookout and wanted to make sure I used it all up. I’m so glad that I did – this granita is a delicious summertime dessert and even though it’s a bit fussy, it’s well worth the effort.

Watermelon Basil Granita

5 cups watermelon, pureed
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup loosely packed basil

In a small pot, combine water and sugar and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat, add in the basil leaves and let simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes until the mixture has thickened to a syrupy consistency. Allow to cool to room temperature, discarding basil leaves. Mix watermelon puree and simple syrup and pour into a 9×13 pan.

Place pan in the freezer take out every 45 minutes or so, to scrape at the top layer of icy slush with a fork. This is how the granita achieves that light, fluffy texture. My granita took about 6 hours to freeze all the through, but that is because my refrigerator is old and doesn’t work that well. It should probably be closer to 4 hours in a newer freezer.

When I made my granita, I only used 1/3 cup of basil and it wasn’t enough, so I’ve doubled it in the above recipe. This should be enough to bring out the really herbal notes of the basil and cut the sweetness of the watermelon a bit. This granita is basically watermelon candy, it’s so sweet and fun to eat.

watermelon basil granita

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Baked Plantains

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I think I figured out what my (blogging) problem is: I’ve been making really simple things and I haven’t felt like I should put them up. Sometimes I get caught up in the idea that ‘good’ cooking is and I focus on things with a lot of ingredients or steps or that sounds impressive. That doesn’t always end up in good food though. I can’t count the number of times that my husband has complimented a dinner that I’ve thrown together in 20 minutes more than a dinner I’ve spent on preparing? [Note to husband: this is not your fault, I blame the internet. Hi, internet!]

This is a conclusion I reached while eating the plantains I made on Monday night. They were just so good: slightly sweet, slightly spicy, with a bit of salt to balance it out. As you can, I’m still obsessed with cumin and cinnamon. Either way, this dish is great, it’s quick and easy, perfect for a weeknight dinner. We had this with jerk shrimp and broccoli.

Baked Plantains

2 yellow plantains, with a large amount of black spots and just starting to soften
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
scant 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon butter, melted
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Slice plantains about 1/3″ thick. Combine the butter with the spices, and then toss with the sliced plantains. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan and bake the plantains for 30 – 35 minutes, slipping once. The plantains should be caramelized on both sides. Serve immediately.

baked plantains

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Balsamic Strawberries with Basil

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I don’t like basil very much. I don’t know why, but it’s never been an herb of which I’ve been too fond. A few weeks ago I was sent a potted basil plant in my Boston Organics box, so I decided I better get over myself and put the plant to use. First, I [of course] made tomato sauce, then a few other savory dishes. Then I realized how well the basil went with my favorite balsamic vinegar, which led me to thinking about adding basil to the strawberries with balsamic vinegar I make when strawberries are finally back in season.

It was a genius idea.

No, seriously, it was: the balsamic/strawberry combo is one that’s a perfect harmony of sweet and tangy, while the sweetness of the basil has a peppery bite that pairs so well with it. And please, for the love of all that you call holy, use a good balsamic. While yes, store brand balsamic will work in a pinch, a good aged vinegar is what will work best here. The aged stuff has a deeper, mellower flavor that is just so decadent tasting when paired with fruit. The mass produced commercial stuff is far too acidic and has too much of a bite.

Balsamic Strawberries with Basil

2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 – 3 tablespoons of aged balsamic vinegar
10 large basil leaves, chiffonade

Toss the strawberries and balsamic vinegar together. Let sit in a covered bowl for about 20 – 30 minutes. Uncover, add in the basil and mix well. Cover again and chill for at least an hour prior to serving.

That’s it! Three easy ingredients, minimal prep, and you have a tasty dessert. You could serve this with a barely sweetened homemade whipped cream, or you could take it in a different direction and add some feta cheese to it for a salad. The salty feta would go incredibly well with this. If you happen to have any strawberries left, this will keep in the fridge for a few days.

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Tapas Party!

May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Let it be known that I’m not above shilling for companies in exchange for wine and cookbooks: I recently won a ‘house party’ from Tapena, a company that makes Spanish wines. Tapena kindly sent me an Amex gift card for wine and a box of decorations and favors for my guests. I think I went a little too ambitious, as I ended up feeding about 13 people, but it was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. Thank goodness that Katie, wonderful friend and blogtographer, was there to help.

We went with a lot of simple recipes that each had a small number of ingredients. It seemed like it was the best way to cook that much food at once and not have to end up serving dinner at midnight. I also started well in advance to make sure that I wasn’t rushing around last minute (like I am wont to do).

While I made about 10 different recipes, I’m only featuring one on here for now. I would put up more, but I can’t guarantee that I followed the rest of the recipes to the letter, and Katie mentioned to me that she kept adding honey to things, so I don’t want to put up inaccurate recipes. To give a better idea of what I did though, I’ll list out some of the stuff I made. I mixed a batch of sangria with red wine, spiced rum, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and oranges. To make things easier, I had a lot of food that was good served room temperature: sliced chorizo, roasted asparagus, mushrooms sauteed with garlic and rosemary, manchego cheese with browned honey butter sauce, melon wrapped in speck and/or prosciutto, and spiced almonds. I also made a platter of meatballs and chorizo braised in red wine (omg so good!).

The recipe I’m going to share is best served room temperature or cold, so it’s perfect to make ahead for this type of party. It’s incredibly versatile as well and can easily be adapted to any type of cuisine to fit into any menu.

Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Tortilla)

1.5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, par-boiled and diced.
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red pepper, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream
2 cups freshly grated Manchego cheese
1 teaspoon Spanish paprika
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons good quality olive oil

Heat oven to 400 F. Heat olive oil in a large pan until shimmering. Add in the onions, peppers and potatoes and cook for 5 – 6 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in the garlic and continue to cook for another 3 – 4 minutes until fragrant and everything else is soft and golden. Take off the heat and set aside. Beat together the eggs, sour cream, cheese and salt and pepper. Add in the vegetable mixture. Grease 9 x 13 pan and then add in the egg mixture. Sprinkle paprika evenly over the top and bake for 18 – 20 minutes until top is golden brown and the eggs are set. Let cool completely and then cut into squares. Serve the tortilla espanola room temperature or cold.

We served ours with a chipotle aioli that Katie made, for the sake of presentation and for an extra pop of flavor. The aoili is absolutely not necessary and I enjoyed the tortilla with and without it. Next time I want to play around with the ingredients and add something else in there, maybe some chorizo or some other meat. Thanks to Tapena for all the fun party favors and the inspiration for this party!

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Honey-Rosemary Carrots and Parsnips

April 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been in a cooking funk lately. I think I’ve just been bored with what I’ve been making and haven’t really gotten into planning weekly menus around my Boston Organics delivery every week. The one big flaw in my cooking is that I rarely (properly) plan ahead for it. That obviously works out pretty well most of the time, but I tend to stick with the same flavors and seasonings. I need to branch out.

Of course, the recipe I’m about to share with you in this week’s very special blog post is not at all branching out. It’s more damn root vegetables. I cannot wait until summer when the vegetables ninjas deliver things like…lettuce. And tomatoes. And peppers. And… not carrots. Anyway, this is what I made for Easter dinner today.

carrots and parsnips

Honey Rosemary Carrots and Parsnips
My name for it is shorter than what epicurious has, which is where I got it.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 3×1/4×1/4-inch sticks
1 pound parsnips, peeled, halved lengthwise, cored, cut into 3×1/4×1/4-inch sticks
Coarse kosher salt
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 tablespoons honey (such as heather, chestnut, or wildflower)
pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add in the carrots and saute for 2 – 3 minutes, until just beginning to turn barely golden brown on the edges. Add in parsnips and add in salt and pepper. Continue to saute for another 10 – 12 minutes until both the carrots and parsnips are cooked to your liking and are starting to brown around the edges [if you prefer them more caramelized, this is your chance to do it].

Add in the honey, rosemary and butter. Evenly coat the vegetables and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until you have a nice glaze. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed.

honey rosemary carrots and parsnip

I really enjoyed this dish. The honey accentuates the sweetness of the parsnips, but it’s saved from being cloying by the rosemary. This went really with the ham that we had and would be great alongside any pork dish because of how well rosemary complements it. If you want to dial back the sweetness a bit, I bet turnips would work well in this as well.

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Italian Wedding Soup

April 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

So I accidentally almost killed my husband tonight! I may have not been as careful as I could/should have been with some shrimp shells and they ended up in his bowl. So, note to self: prepare seafood more carefully in the future. Some food blogger I am!

Ha, and speaking of being a less than awesome blogger: I was too busy hanging out with my friend Sarah while making this soup to take any pictures of the process. This means that not only will you be getting a shorter than normal post [I'm not sure why; let's call it laziness?] but only one picture of the end product. What a cruel, cruel world it is. But it’s not really, because this soup is tasty and pretty easy to make on a work night.

Italian Wedding Soup

For the meatballs:

1 pound ground turkey
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg, scrambled
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
1/8 cup milk
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (to taste), minced
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together all of the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Form into golf ball size [I use a cookie dough scooper] and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes until browned and cooked all the way through.

For the soup:

10 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine
3 carrots, diced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 Parmesan rind
3/4 – 1 cup orzo, to preference
1/2 bunch kale, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the carrots and cook for 3 – 4 minutes, until softened, then add in the oregano and basil and heat until fragrant. Next add in the liquids and rind, and let come up to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for about 30 minutes. At this point, you’re ready to add the pasta into the soup dry or already cooked; if you add it dry, be prepared to add in more liquids upon reheating leftovers as the orzo will soak up most of it. Add in the meatballs and kale, then let everything come back up to a simmer again for another 10 minutes. Serve immediately, with Parmesan cheese grated on top.

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Butternut Squash Pasta

April 6, 2011 By 4 Comments

The other night I was at my friend’s house and we were talking about squash [my friends and I talk about food A LOT] and how delicious it is. And that reminded me that I made this really quick and tasty butternut squash pasta over a month ago and hadn’t posted it yet. Kind of makes me wish I listened to my husband’s advice of always having a backlog of blogs ready to post every week. It makes so much sense, and yet.. I still haven’t done it. Nor, to be perfectly honest, will I. For some reason I just like to make things difficult.

Luckily, this recipe is pretty easy and since I had a giant mutant squash, I was able to make both the pasta and an unfortunately dense butternut squash bread as well. Note to self: there actually is a reason to use baking powder. But we’re talking about a success here, not fail bread. The first step to this is to roast a butternut squash until tender, to build the right base for the sauce.

Butternut Squash Puree

1 butternut squash, halved
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix together spices and set aside. Spread softened butter on both halves of the squash and then sprinkle with the spice mixture. Pour water into a 9 x 13 pan and then add the squash, cut side up. Roast for 50 – 60 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from oven and let cool.

Once the squash is cool enough to be handled, scoop out the insides and add it to your food processor in batches. Puree until smooth. Set aside until ready to make pasta. [Please note awesome cat measuring cups that my friend gave me for Christmas!]

Butternut Squash Pasta

8 oz spaghetti
1.5 cups butternut squash puree
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup reserved pasta water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced rosemary
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a pot of salted water to boiling. Add in pasta and let cook until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 pasta water. In a medium sized pot, heat the butter until just starting to turn foamy. Add in the minced rosemary and cook until fragrant. Add in the milk and let that come up to temperature, stirring frequently to avoid a skin forming on top. Then add in the butternut squash and the cheese. Let that come up to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until combined well; slowly add in some of the reserved pasta water until the sauce is the right consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine sauce with the drained pasta and serve immediately.

This is a great way to get more vegetables into your diet. The sauce is silky thanks to the milk and coats the pasta perfectly. The spices in the squash worked really well in flavoring the dish overall. This would also be great with some shrimp or grilled chicken served alongside it.

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Root Vegetable Ragout

March 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

This week my produce delivery was a much better mix of stuff: tomatoes, lettuce, collard greens, bananas and oranges plus some other goodies. This means, of course, that I’m no longer getting the box of stuff that is locally sourced – I just couldn’t eat any more root vegetables. Every day for dinner I was trying to come up with some other way to use them. I figured as long as what I’m getting is at least organic I’m still thinking of the earth and being a better person [or something].

While I was still up to my eyeballs in root vegetables, I made this great ragout that I served alongside a tasty rosemary crusted beef tenderloin. The recipe came from epicurious and was originally from Gourmet magazine. While this is not vegetarian in its current state, it could very well be made so by subbing the meat stock called for in the recipe with vegetable stock. While I think you could probably make it vegan by dumping the butter for another fat, I do think butter really adds something to the overall dish.

Root Vegetable Ragout
Adapted from Gourmet magazine, January 1999

1 medium turnip, peeled and diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
4 medium parsnips, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup beef stock (4 fluid ounces)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. In a shallow roasting pan, toss vegetables with oil and roast for about 25 minutes or until the vegetables and tender and just starting to caramelize. Take out of the oven.

In a large pan, heat the butter until it foams and then reduce heat to medium. Add in the roasted vegetables, stock and salt and pepper. Bring this up to a simmer and continue to cook until the stock becomes a glaze over the vegetables. Serve immediately.

I was really happy with how this came out. The sweetness of the parsnips and carrots evened out the turnip, and there was just enough glaze over everything. This is something I’ll definitely be making again, it was so easy! It also works out well in larger quantities, as a friend of mine made three roasting pans of vegetables for a pot luck not too long ago.

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Honey Apple Pie

March 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

I’ve been swimming in apples lately. Every week, like clockwork, I get two pounds of apples dropped on my doorstep by the local produce ninjas. I’ve made a lot things with them so far: last post’s pork, apple cinnamon mini muffins, chicken salad with apples, cabbage with apples and onions … I’m like Bubba from Forrest Gump. The apples have all been really delicious, but I’m pretty eagerly awaiting not-apples.

Since I had all these apples, obviously pie had to be made. I figured I’d make it with the local honey I got, which is apparently made pretty close to my house [which is kind of alarming - have you seen my neighborhood?!]. I had wanted to make a pie that was a little less sweet than my normal one, so I figured using honey (and less of it) would be a good way to achieve that. Well, honey and a good dose of ginger and cinnamon.

Honey Apple Pie

7 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons butter, chilled and diced
1 pie crust, homemade or store bought

1 1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, toss apples with honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. Place in the pie crust and then sprinkle diced butter pieces over the apples. For the topping, mix together the oats, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the pie and bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until the pie is bubbling and the top is brown. Let cool and serve at room temperature.

This is really good; I should have let mine cook longer, but the flavor was just what I wanted. It was slightly spicy from the ginger and had a nice warmth to it from the other spices. While the honey lent some sweetness, it wasn’t cloying which I was slightly apprehensive about. And to give you a better idea about its taste: it was mostly gone within 3 days. There are only two of us that live here.

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Crockpot Pork Shoulder

March 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

I don’t use my crockpot enough. I don’t know why, because I’ve always had success with any recipe I’ve tried, so it’s nothing there’s been anything to deter me. More likely than not it’s laziness; even though crockpot cooking is easy, it still involves a level of commitment to preparing things well in advance which I sometimes lack. I got a nice 3.5 qt crockpot for Christmas and it’s the perfect size for myself and my husband, so I really should start utilizing it more.

I had an abundance of apples from my Boston Organics delivery, so I decided to use them in a savory application with some onions and a pork shoulder. This was such an easy dish to put together: I got it ready after I made dinner one night and my husband turned on the crockpot in the morning. It cooked for about 9 hours total and it was so good. The pork was tender and infused with a wonderful apple flavor and the onions were a golden brown and so sweet.

Crockpot Pork Shoulder

3lb pork shoulder, bone in
2 apples, sliced in eighths
2 onions, sliced in thick rings
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 cup apple cider
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
salt and pepper to taste

Place one layer of apples and onions on the bottom of the crockpot and then arrange the pork on top of those. Scatter the rest of the apples and onions around the pork shoulder and add in the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 8 – 10 hours, drain liquids off and serve the pork along with the apples and onions.

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