Steamed Clams and Pasta

No, not together. The first night I did my standard steamed clams - butter, white wine, garlic, lemon, finished with parsley. We ate them, as always, with good crusty bread to dip into the "sauce".

When we were done, we had about a 1/2 cup of sauce left. So the next day, my husband cooked up some pasta and fried some really good smoky bacon from Tip Top Meats, and tossed it with the clam sauce.

Quick, easy, delicious.

Lamb Ragu

With the weather being cold and nasty (well, for southern CA, anyway), I wanted something meaty and hearty. I came across this recipe for Lamb Ragu from the kitchn, and knew it was exactly what I was looking for. I also knew that my slow cooker would be perfect for the job.

I'm still wary of my slow cooker. I don't want to plug it in and and leave it on while nobody's home. I know, I know, thousands of people do it all the time. Maybe I'll get to that point eventually. But since I'm not there yet, I let the ragu cook overnight, then put in in the refrigerator in the morning. Reheated for dinner, it was amazing.

I altered the recipe only slightly, using dried herbs instead of fresh. The lamb was perfectly tender - I didn't need two forks to shred the chunks, just one smoosh and it fell apart. Acid from the tomatoes, sweetness from the carrots - everything blended together nicely. You could serve the ragu over polenta, potatoes, rice, whatever. I served it over this pasta because it reminded me of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (and it was also the perfect shape, almost like a Scoop chip, to hold the ragu).

My slow cooker may win me over yet...

Egg Balls

What the heck are egg balls? They're delicious eggy cheesy puffy things with a terrible name.

My best friend learned to make them from her father, and she passed the recipe on to me, but only after getting permission from her son, who has insisted that the recipe remain a family secret. She asked him if she could show me how to make them, and he said "of course, she's more a part of our family than some of our blood relatives". How warm and fuzzy.

So since it's a secret, I can't give you proportions. But it's not too hard to figure out. Make bread crumbs from a fresh French or Italian loaf. Mix in parmesan (NOT the green can, for God's sake), chopped parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Some chopped basil if you so desire. Beat in eggs, until you get something with the consistency of polenta that needs to cook a little longer. Kind of like a thin Cream of Wheat.

Heat about an inch of oil (vegetable, canola or corn) in a skillet. Use an ice-cream scoop or two large spoons to scoop up dollops and slide them (gently!) into the oil. Fry, flipping to cook all sides. As they're done, remove them from the oil, drain briefly, then put them in your tomato sauce.

On this particular night, we also had meatballs in the sauce, topped with sautéed mushrooms, along with fettucine.

But my favorite? Leftover eggballs and meatballs on a sandwich with provolone and torn basil.

So, there you have it - egg balls. Anyone have a better name?

Things I've Cooked Lately, Part III

Well, that's a little of an untruth, because my husband cooked this for me one Saturday morning. He rarely cooks, and did this with zero pressure, input, or involvement from me. Fried pork chop, sauteed mushrooms, overeasy egg, with tortillas and green chile. I normally would've broken the egg yolk for the picture, but I was still in shock from the fact that the man cooked.

Getting back to normal, next up, braised cabbage with smoky bacon, recipe courtesy of Almost Bourdain. I used a Hungarian bacon given to us by friends that is absolutely amazing.

This time I remembered to crack the yolk.

This carbonara is from way back, when I made duck prosciutto. No cream. Don't you dare add cream.

Butter and store-bought bread. Why post this? Because I made the damn butter. And it was good.

Things I've Cooked Lately, Part II

So this is a clean-out-the-camera post. Some of these I made quite a while ago, some pretty recent. And now, for your viewing pleasure:

Corned Beef Hash. Egg is not optional.

Adobo made with country-style pork ribs.

Indian spiced pickled kumquats.

Tomato & blue cheese soup repurposed as a pasta sauce.

OK, Sami, I finally posted something. Are you happy now?

A Random Collection of Food

Once again, I bring you a random collection of stuff I've made.

Crab and green onion quiche, courtesy of Kathy from Cooking on the Side.

Some layered potato thing. It wasn't very good, except for the top layer.

Some sort of spiced glazed chicken. Meh.

Spicy tomato and blue cheese soup, from Leite's Culinaria via Desert Candy. Served with a grilled cheese sandwich, of course. I like that you can see the steam.

Macaroni and cheese (blue box) with ground beef, courtesy of my Youngest.

Yakisoba

Youngest wanted yakisoba. I had never made it before, so I did a quick search, and found that the big bottle of Bulldog sauce in my fridge would work perfectly.

I cooked the soba noodles that I just purchased 48 hours ago (hint, foreshadowing), then rinsed them in cold water.

I stir-fried up some chicken, removed it to a plate, then stir-fried chopped bok choy stems, minced garlic and ginger, followed by some absolutely gorgeous brown beech mushrooms, and finally the bok choy leaves. Isn't it pretty?
















The mushrooms were as local as you can get, grown right here in San Marcos at the Hokto Kinoko facility. Check out their cool shrooms! They're seriously delicious.

To assemble, I heated up a little more oil really hot. Added the wet noodles, a bunch of Bulldog sauce, a little soy sauce, and (of course) some Sriracha. Stir and toss, stir and toss. I was aiming for a little crispiness to the noodles, like you get with fried rice. (Unfortunately, that wasn't happening.) I added back the chicken and vegetables, along with a handful of bean sprouts. More stirring and tossing until everything was heated through.
















Topped with sliced pickled ginger and chopped up nori. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to chop up nori? Even my ceramic knife had problems.)






























Youngest said it was good, she plans on bringing the leftovers to school for lunch, her only complaint was that the noodles broke easily and she couldn't use chopsticks. I thought there was something off about the noodles as well, not just the breakiness, but also in their flavor. Hubby was super-impressed with the dish (he especially loved the mushrooms)....except for the noodles.

Maybe they were old? You'd think not, since I just purchased them (but dummy me didn't check for an expiration date). Maybe they were inferior? Don't think so, I picked the mid-price-range ones from Marukai market.

This was one of those happy-sad dinners - happy that I was able to cook something so delicious, but sad that it was tainted by crappy noodles. I'm definitely going to try again, I think with udon, but Hubby says I should just cook the chicken/veggies/sauce and put it over rice. We'll see.

Linguine with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Olives and Capers

Given the success of my sautéed tortellini salad, Hubby requested another pasta dish.

This time I went with linguine, some hot Italian sausage, zucchini, black and green olives, capers and tomatoes. And parmesan cheese, of course.

















The recipe that follows is what I did, but I think next time I might add 2 more chopped tomatoes, at the same time the sausage is added.

Linguine with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Olives and Capers

3/4 lb linguine
3-4 links Italian sausage
1 zucchini, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
small handful black and green olives
2 t capers, drained
parmesan
olive oil
salt

Cook linguine. Drain, saving some of the pasta water. Parboil sausages, remove casings, and chop into bite-size pieces. In your largest skillet, fry the sausages to cook all the way through and to start getting some nice caramelization. Drain on paper towels.

Sauté the zucchini, garlic and tomatoes in the sausage fat remaining in the skillet, adding more olive oil if necessary. When the zucchini is done to your liking, the tomatoes will most likely have broken down and started to create a sauce. Add the sausage, olives, capers, some parmesan (or a lot), and salt to taste. Splash in some pasta water, enough to create as much saucy goodness as you like.

Add the cooked pasta to the skillet, and toss. Serve with more parmesan cheese.

Here's proof that children will eat this, even if they do pick out the olives.

Sautéed Tortellini Salad

My parents have made this tortellini salad for as long as I can remember. Cooked tortellini, crisped up in a skillet with some veggies, the obligatory pork, and topped with parmesan cheese. Yum.

My brother recently made this dish for the first time, and said it just didn't turn out the same - my father told him he didn't use the secret ingredient - ground fennel! I immediately shuddered when I heard that's what made the salad taste so good. I hate fennel. With a passion. It was (I thought) banned from my house. I hate fennel so much that I don't eat Italian sausage too often, because of those horrible little seeds that crazy people like to put in their sausages. Ick.

But...apparently when fennel is ground to a powder, it's completely different. I raided my spices, and found a little baggie of fennel seeds. How the heck did they get there? I swear I didn't buy them. I ground some up. Yeah, it smelled like licorice. I almost didn't put the powder in the salad. But I persevered, trusting in the wisdom of my parents, and the fact that I had eaten it before, fennel and all, and loved it.

















I've given the quantities that I used - if there's no number by the ingredient, just add to taste.

Sautéed Tortellini Salad

1 bag small tortellini, any flavor
olive oil
butter
1 onion, sliced (next time I'd probably add a 2nd small onion)
~<1/4 c pancetta, sopressata, bacon, etc., diced small
carrots, julienned
frozen peas
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 teaspoon fennel powder
parmesan cheese
red pepper flakes
black pepper

Cook the tortellini according to package directions, but subtract a couple minutes from the boiling time.

Caramelize the onions, along with the chopped cured pork, in some olive oil mixed with butter, until the onions are brown and silky. Or not that brown, if you prefer them that way.

Raise the heat, and add the garlic, carrots and cooked tortellini. Mix it up, then let it sit undisturbed for a bit to get some crusty parts on the pasta. Sprinkle with the fennel, some parmesan, a lot of black pepper, and some red pepper flakes if you wish. Toss it around, then let sit some more. Keep doing this until the carrots are cooked and the pasta has yummy brown spots, about 5-10 minutes.

You can add a little pasta water to thicken the "sauce" if desired - the water, combined with the parmesan, gives a lovely coating to the pasta. You can also add some additional olive oil or butter.

Throw in the peas at the last minute, and let heat through. Serve with more parmesan & pepper flakes.

When I told Hubby I was going to make this dish, he didn't sound too enthusiastic. As a matter of fact, after dinner he told me that when I first explained the dish, he thought it "didn't sound good at all" and that while I was cooking, he was already making plans to get something out.

But...the man needs to learn to just shut up and eat what I cook him, because after his first bite, he couldn't stop raving about it. He even packed the leftovers and took them to work for lunch the next day. (That rarely happens.) And he did the dishes.

Macaroni & Cheese with Bacon & Tomatoes

A month or so ago, I read Kelly's post on Macaroni & Cheese with Bacon and Tomatoes over at Sass & Veracity. Pasta, cheese, tomatoes...bacon! Bookmarked immediately.

Digging through my fridge the other day, I saw some cheddar, some blue cheese, and some feta. And I knew there was bacon in the freezer and pasta in the pantry. Off to the store to get colby jack and a few (sorry-looking February) tomatoes, and I was in business.
















You could use practically any combo of cheeses here, although I'd shy away from something really funky like bierkäse or raclette. The bacon (obviously) adds some deliciousness, and the tomatoes add some sweet acidity to cut the richness of the cheese sauce.

I love crunchy toppings, so of course I was digging on the idea of the panko-parsley mix spread on top of all the creamy cheesy loveliness.

Verdict? Absolutely heart-stoppingly-tasty. (Yes, stoppingly is a word, I just made it up, so there.) I deliberately didn't add any salt to the cheese sauce, and served the mac&cheese with a sprinkling of some flaky pink Australian salt, which not only supplied the required NaCl, but also enhanced the crunch factor.

Like Kelly said in her post, you could add cauliflower or spinach, and/or enhance the dish with red chili flakes. Heck, you could completely change the flavor profile and add some smoked trout. Or you could go totally porky and add some shredded carnitas or smoked pork shoulder. The world is your oyster. (Hey, maybe you could add chopped smoked oysters!)

Whatever you add or don't add, this recipe is a very good mac & cheese. So go make it already!

Israeli Couscous Soup

I had a bag of Israeli couscous in my pantry, and finally put it to use, by making Mograbieh, from Anna of Morsels & Musings.

Mograbieh, from what I gather, is the name for Israeli or Lebanese couscous. It's bigger than your "normal" couscous, about 1/4" in diameter.

The recipe was simple - saute garlic and onion, add parboiled couscous and chicken broth, simmer until done, then add herbs, lemon and butter.

One of the called-for herbs was mint. I honestly don't think I've ever cooked with mint before - all I can think of is mint gum, and who wants that in their food? (Turns out I was wrong, and I'm so glad I didn't leave it out! I am still a little miffed, however, that I spent $2 on a stupid plastic package of mint.)


















This soup? Wow. Parsley, cilantro, mint, lemon zest and juice, added to the chicken broth, made for an amazing soup. (Hubby drank almost all the broth, Youngest finished it off.)

The couscous, unfortunately, wasn't so great. But I think that's because the bag I had was probably past its shelf life - the centers never really got cooked (little bit crunchy, little bit crumbly), while the outsides were ready to fall apart.

I can't wait to try this again using fresher couscous. I can also see using the broth minus the pasta, with shredded chicken and green onion.

I love soup weather.

Spaghetti and Mussels

OK, I'm sure everyone has tried (or at least heard of) linguine and clams. I make a pretty good version with garlic, white wine, clam juice, canned clams and parsley. (Note to husband: curly parsley is a garnish that no one eats, flat Italian parsley is for cooking.)

But have you ever tried spaghetti and mussels? Same premise as linguine and clams, but I used canned mussels from Trader Joe's instead of clams, and spaghetti instead of linguine because it was leftover in the fridge.

I won't be buying canned mussels again, because the texture was something I really didn't appreciate. I don't know whatever possessed me to buy them in the first place, I should have known they'd be all mushy and weird.

But it still tasted good. Can't wait to try it with real mussels.

Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Basil

I finally cooked something! And...wait for it........I took pictures! OK, not very good ones, but whatever.















My yellow grape tomato plant graciously decided to give me enough ripe tomatoes all at once to make a pasta dish. I also had 2 golf-ball-sized ones from my Early Girl plant, which is starting to yellow. :-(

I bought some basil ($2 for a plastic package, but I can't grow my own to save my life) and some zucchini on my way home.

I cut the tomatoes in half while a minced clove of garlic sauteed in olive oil, threw the tomatoes into the pan, and simmered on low heat while the pasta cooked. I drained the pasta, saving some of the water, then added the pasta to the skillet on top of the tomatoes along with the water. Added some shredded basil, tossed around a bit, then served with parmesan cheese and hot chili flakes.















For the zucchini, I sauteed them in olive oil with garlic powder, paprika, s&p, until slightly browned but still a little crunchy.

Nice and simple, and the whole thing was done in the time it took the water to boil and the pasta to cook.

And, while I love pork in all its delectable forms, this meal was thankfully pork-free.

Since this is pasta and it was definitely presto, I'm submitting it to Presto Pasta Nights created by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast. This week it's being hosted by Katie at Thyme for Cooking.

Angel Hair Croquettes with Cheese

Challenge recipe #3 was another difficult one. The book, The Renaissance of Italian Cooking by Lorenza De'Medici is gorgeous. Pictures of the different regions of Italy, beautiful houses, stunning food photos. But when it came to choosing a recipe to cook....

Spinach Sautéed in Garlic (Spinaci all'Aglio)? Boring. Not very challenge-ish.

Fresh Sardines Baked in Breadcrumbs (Sarde al Pangrattato)? Sounds good, but I have never seen fresh sardines here (or anywhere, for that matter).

Stuffed Rabbit (Coniglio Ripieno), which isn't really stuffed like you'd stuff a chicken, but instead laid out flat, topped with pancetta, egg frittata and mortadella, then rolled up and baked. Sweet Jesus, I want this right now. But have you seen the price of rabbit these days?

So I settled on Angel Hair Pasta Croquettes with Cheese (Crocchette di Capelli d'Angelo). You cook angel hair pasta, mix in eggs & parmesan, shape into balls, and stick a cheese cube in the middle. Coat in egg, then in breadcrumbs, and deep fry. Sounds good, a little like arancini, stuffed leftover-risotto balls (delicious), but with pasta instead of rice.

STOP! Don't try to make these. There was no way these were ever going to be shaped into "walnut-sized balls". I tried cutting the pasta into shorter pieces. I tried chilling it. I tried adding more egg. Then more cheese. No dice. I ended up frying the pasta in a skillet, with the cubes of cheese nestled into the pasta. Even that didn't work too well, because the 2nd side burned a little because I didn't add more oil when I flipped it. And it tasted like, well, fried pasta.

I should've made the rabbit.

Post #66 - Foglie d'Autunno

I so wish my camera was working. Not because this dish was particularly photogenic (actually, it most definitely was not). But because then I could show you a picture of the pasta I used, rather than using this photo I took from MSN's shopping site:




















I used a different brand, whose name I forget, but it was the same multi-colored happiness. I had some pasta left over, so you may want to increase the amounts of everything else. The pasta itself was texturally pleasing, and although I didn't notice any flavor imparted by the different colors, they were still nice to look at.

Foglie d'Autunno with Zucchini

1 package foglie d'autunno pasta
2 zucchini, cut in sticks about 2" by 1/4-1/2"
1 tomato rescued from the back of your veggie drawer, seeded and chopped
some diced onion
minced garlic clove
some broth
grated parmesan or romano or whatever
red pepper flakes

Set water to boil. Boil your pasta until done, saving some of the starchy water.

Meanwhile, sauté onion, then garlic, then tomato. Throw in the zucchini, some hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook it until the zucchini's almost where you want it, and the tomato isn't recognizable.

Add a cup or so of pasta water and some broth, and the grated cheese. At this point I also added some spinach leaves I had torn up. OK, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. Cook & stir until the sauce reduces & gets absorbed by the pasta.

Serve with more grated cheese and hot pepper flakes.