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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!

Filed Under: vegetables Tagged With: , , , ,

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.

Filed Under: meat Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dill Carrot Couscous

February 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

For some reason, my husband and I decided to buy a giant container of couscous when we were grocery shopping last month. It’s not that we dislike couscous, it’s more that I’m wondering what the hell I’m going to do with 2lbs of it. I mean, couscous is pretty small, right? And 2lbs is not an insignificant amount. So… we’ll see, I guess.

This is a very quick side dish and I almost feel guilty posting about it because it was so easy. It was just something I threw together to go alongside some steak tips and it all came together in less than 20 minutes.

Dill Carrot Couscous

1 cup couscous
1 3/4 cup vegetable stock
1 large carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a small, heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil. Add onions and carrots and saute until tender, then remove from pan and keep warm. Add in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add in couscous, dill and Parmesan cheese if using. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes until all of the stock is absorbed and couscous is light and fluffy when run through with a fork. Add salt and pepper as needed.

This is good; it’s simple and satisfying. It’s also very versatile since there are so many options for seasonings and vegetables that can be used. It’s a nice vegetarian dish and can also very easily be made vegan without sacrificing any of the taste.

Filed Under: Grains & Rice Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Nothing says fall like squash!

December 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

Especially squash stuffed with sausage.

Man, Kevin Smith is a terrible actor. I totally get the fact that he’s in his own movies – I mean, he’s the boss of them, right? But why is he in Live Free and Die Hard? Actually, now that I’m thinking of it, how is Justin Long a working actor?! Or, the better question is, why am I still watching this movie? I DON’T KNOW.

What I do know, is that this dinner was particularly tasty. I am big on stuffing things with other things [I won't even make the obvious joke], and I feel like squash and sausage is a combination that works incredibly well together. Clearly the rest of the internet agrees with me, as there were eleventy billion stuffed squash recipes that came up in my Google search. And which one did I go with, you ask? Well, none of them! Mostly because I printed out a recipe and left it on my desk at work that night.

This is a near impossible dish to ruin; you’re taking something that is delicious on its own [squash] and stuffing something else delicious [sausage] into it. I’m pretty sure that’s a recipe for success every time. Not only that, but the finished product is not only attractive, but it is essentially its own serving platter. I really can’t think of a way you can go wrong here. Unless you don’t make it.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Sausage

2 acorn squash, halved and seeded
1 lb sausage, cooked and crumbled (your choice; I used sweet Italian)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat the inside of each of the squash halves with butter, then season with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 – 40 minutes, or until tender.

While the squash is roasting, heat the oil in a pan and then add the diced onions. Cook slowly, on medium-low heat, until starting to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant and then remove from heat. In a mixing bowl, combine the bread crumbs, the cooked and crumbled sausage, and onions and garlic with remaining oil. Add in the beaten egg, the seasonings, and cheddar cheese.

Pile all of that into each of the acorn halves. I’m not gonna lie, you’re going to have leftover stuffing. The smart thing to do would be to either increase the squash or scale back on the meat/panko ratios, but what I did was just cooked it in a separate pan so that husband could eat it later. Cook for an additional 20 minutes, until the stuffing is golden brown.

Filed Under: meat, vegetables Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Gnocchi is a funny word.

September 5, 2009 by 1 Comment

All I’m saying, is that I hear about ten different pronunciations of it every time it comes up in conversation. Which, strangely, doesn’t happen often. I wonder why that is? Well, around these parts, it’s because the husband dislikes gnocchi immensely. I conveniently forgot that he disliked it when I made this dish. But, beggars can’t be choosers and all that; it’s not like he was going to get up and cook something.

Anyhoodle. [I'll have you know that I just stopped and stared at the screen and tried to decide a) if it's douchey to say anyhoodle, and b) if I cared enough to change it, and realized c) It is and I don't, but I do apparently feel the need to explain my every thought process to you.]

I like gnocchi well enough, but it’s one of those things that I rarely ever think about eating because there are so many other things I like better [see: onions, caramelized; eggs, poached; etc., etc.]. But I saw a package of the vacuum packed gnocchi when I was in Trader Joe’s last week and decided to give it a shot. In my head, I wanted to pan fry them in some pancetta fat and hope for the best. So when we were trying to figure out what to have for the lunch the other day, I decided to give it a shot.

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I got the gnocchi cooking in a big pot of salted water, then cooked some diced pancetta in another pan. Once the pancetta was done, I removed from the pan to crisp up, and left the fat in the pan. In another pan, with equal parts butter and olive oil (about a teaspoon each), I started cooking some diced onions, carrots, and garlic.

Once the gnocchi were done, I put them in the pan with the reserved pancetta fat along with some red pepper flakes, and let them crisp up on the outside and get all golden brown. Meanwhile, the onions were starting to just caramelize and the carrots were tender with still a little bite in them, so they were perfect. I added those to the pan with the gnocchi, added back in the pancetta to get it back up to temperature, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then all of that went into a bowl with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

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I liked this; I thought the sweetness of the onions and carrots worked well with the saltiness of the pancetta and the cheese, the pepper added some welcome heat, and the gnocchi having more texture and bite made it more appealing to me. The husband . . . not so much. He liked everything but the gnocchi. He’s so silly.

Filed Under: pasta, vegetables Tagged With: , , , ,

A happy steak is a well-cooked steak

June 28, 2009 by 3 Comments

Well, I suppose the happiest steak would be the one on a still breathing cow? But then I’d be unhappy, because I wouldn’t have had this awesome dinner. And I’m pretty sure my feelings trump the feelings of a farm animal. Also, vegans/vegetarians/etc, don’t hate. I love animals, I really do. I just love me some red meat as well.

But before we get to the goods, let’s have a Food Shenanigans moment of cooking safety. You see this plate? This is what happens when you put a styrofoam plate on a still hot burner. You probably shouldn’t do that. And if you do unthinkingly follow my poor example, you might want to hide it in the trash better than I did, so that maybe your husband [or wife] won’t find it. Of course, the burnt bits of styrofoam on the stove probably would have given me away eventually.

ANYWAY. On to the cooking. I had the best of intentions in following recipes for this dinner, but ended up just doing a mish-mash of the various recipes I had read.

First, I got the onions going, since they were going to take the longest. My goal had been to do an onion jam as a topping for the filet, but I couldn’t wait that long. So we ended up with delicious balsamic caramelized onions that were just short of the time and effort involved in becoming a jam. I sliced one vidalia onion and added it to a pan with 1 tablespoon of salted butter. They cooked over a low heat for about 20 minutes until they were a nice even brown, and then I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar. Then they continued to cook another 20 minutes or so, basically right until the steak was ready to be served.

Next, I halved and then parboiled a package of brussels sprouts and in another pan started cooking 4 ounces of diced pancetta. After about three or four minutes, I removed the brussels sprouts from the water and drained them. The pancetta was likewise removed from the pan, and put on a plate to crisp up. At this point, the sprouts go in with the pancetta fat and a tablespoon of salted butter for good measure. The sprouts were cooked until they were nicely browned and starting to caramelize, and then the pancetta went back into the pan along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

The best part of the meal, in a cruel twist of fate, was the easiest one to cook. I oiled the two steaks, put some Montreal steak seasoning on them, and then slapped them into the cast iron pan. They cooked about four minutes on each side, so my pan definitely wasn’t hot enough [I still need to experiment with it more], but I had my trusty meat thermometer out and cooked it to 120 degrees and then let it rest until it came up to 125.

Everything came out really well, and I was happy to have finally cooked a steak perfectly; I almost always ended up cooking it to more of a medium, than a medium rare, and it makes me sad. But not anymore! Now, I shall always have perfectly cooked meats. Also, because I’m a jerk, I sent this picture to co-workers last week to taunt them with its awesomeness:

 
Also, another indicator that the dinner came out really well? It’s husband approved! [He's eating noodles that I made for him along with everything else that are not posted because they're from a boxed mix.] Aww, isn’t he precious?

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I sound pretentious when I say frittata.

June 14, 2009 by 1 Comment

For my birthday (30, shh!) the husband (he’s the one that calls himself Roach — don’t ask me, he had that name before I married him) got me a cast iron pan, since I’ve wanted one forever. Upon receiving it, my first thought was “wow, this is gonna hurt when I drop it on my foot.” In a poetic twist of fate, the first cast iron pan injury was somehow smashing my fingers into it. Also? Ow.

Anyway, the first thing I made in it was bacon (of course). But this bacon! This bacon had a purpose. It’s mission? To make the base for an awesome frittata.

I’ll admit, it doesn’t look exciting. But we all know that under that dull exterior, there is bacon fat rendering and waiting for me to do this:

Those onions never knew what hit them. As a side note, it’s at this point in the cooking process that I realize: it’s time to add the spinach, and immediately following was the thought that it’s time to add the spinach and I haven’t even rinsed it yet. There will be a day, I swear, when I ready all of the ingredients in their appropriate amounts before I start cooking. I mean, it’s the reasonable thing to do, and I am nothing if not reasonable.

Er… wait. Hm. Anyway, it is my goal that I will one day be more organized while cooking (and living). Regardless, I did get the spinach in the pan and wilted with the onions still in there.

With that on low heat, I did a rough chop of the bacon to add back into the pan along with the eggs. Once all of that was in the pan, I gave it a quick stir and let it sit for about three or four minutes.

Once it had started to set slightly, I added some mild cheddar and mozzarella on top, and threw it in the oven at 425 degrees. It cooked for about 7 minutes, and came out looking like this:

Weirdly enough, our rats didn’t seem to like this very much, but I feel like that’s not really indicative of whether or not I should make it again. I mean, I’ve seen them eat Peeps with poop on it, so what do they know? We both liked it a lot, and I’m thrilled that I got to trick the husband into eating spinach (albeit by flavoring it with bacon, which may or may not negate the good intentions of the spinach). This will be made again, especially now that I have a pan that I am actually supposed to put into the oven. Yay, cast iron!

Bacon, Spinach and Cheddar Frittata:

6 eggs, beaten with 1/3 cup of milk
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cups of washed and torn spinach
6 slices of bacon
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (I used half cheddar and half mozzarella, ’cause that’s what I had)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Cook the bacon in a heated pan that can be transferred to the oven. Once the bacon is done, remove from the pan and add the onions. While the onions are cooking, do a rough chop of the bacon. Cook the onions until translucent and beginning to brown, then add the spinach. Let that wilt for a minute and then add the beaten eggs. Mix everything together in the pan, and then leave it alone. Please resist the urge to move anything around, and just let it cook. Give it three to four minutes, then add cheese on top of it and put it in the oven. Mine took about 7 minutes, but basically you’re looking for your desired doneness for the eggs. Take out of the oven and let it rest a few minutes, before slicing. Makes four servings.

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