Orecchiette

I pulled everything out of my pantry today, painted the walls a lovely orange and the shelves white.  After putting everything back it was already 6pm.  My plans for dinner tonight involved making a pizza dough, which I didn't accomplish today.  So, a change of plans.  I couldn't find broccoli rabe at the grocery store, so again, a change of plans.  This was good.  It was also very quick.  It may be Italian, but I don't think they would ever eat a big bowl of pasta for the main course.  But a one pot meal was what I was looking for.

Orechiette with chicken, tomato and ricotta.

Bring a pot of water to boil.  Salt.  Cook orechiette until al dente.

Season small chunks of chicken breast with dried thyme and dried parsley, salt and pepper.  Cook in a little olive oil.  Set aside.

In a bowl, dice 2 pounds tomatoes.  Add 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. 

In a small food processor add 1 cup ricotta, 1/2 cup basil, 1 tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper.  Process until smooth.

Add the ricotta mix and the chicken to the tomatoes, along with the orechiette.  Garnish with sliced basil.

Sick Day

Sanford was sick today, so all bets were off.  He has a fever of 102.  Whenever he is sick and runs a fever, he wants something with big flavors and lots of spice.  So for lunch today I made a chicken, coconut milk and green curry soup.

Soup:  Chop 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast and saute in a little olive oil.  Remove.  Add 1 chopped onion, 4 chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped zucchini, 1 chopped bell pepper, a cup of frozen peas, 2 chopped serranos, and an inch of ginger, minced.  Salt and pepper.  Saute until soft.  Add 1 tbsp brown sugar, a couple of shakes of fish sauce (I used soy sauce since I was out of fish sauce).  Stir.  Add a couple of tbsp of thai green chili paste and a squirt of lemongrass paste.  Stir.  Add 1 can coconut milk and 2 cups chicken broth.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add chicken back to pot.  Cook until chicken cooked through.  Serve with a sprinkle of cilantro.

For breakfast this morning I decided to turned the cracked wheat from the other night into a breakfast treat.  I took about 1 1/2 cups of the prepared cracked wheat and mixed with 1 tbsp or so of flour, 1 egg,  1 tsp each cumin and coriander, a sprinkle of baking powder and salt to taste.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan.  Make the mixture into small patties, dredge in flour then cook for a couple of minutes on each side.  Tasty.

Another falafel dinner

Last night's dinner has all been blogged before.  It has become one of our favorites.  Falafel, roasted cauliflower and tzatsiki, from earlier this summer, along with sliced tomatoes, feta, and olives.  We served it with homemade pita, from Sept 11, which we have been making weekly and leaving the dough in the fridge.  We pull off what we need for each night's dinner.  Last night we cooked in the oven, but sometimes we heat a cast iron griddle and cook it on that, or Sanford likes to fry it in a little olive oil late at night.

Mixed grill with cracked wheat and tomatoe

I love tomatoes in the summer in Missouri.  These were dressed with goat cheese, basil, olive oil, balsamic, and salt and pepper.  Perfect!

Another try at bulgar, which I got wrong again.  This time I bought cracked wheat, which is close, but not bulgar.  Wikipedia explained it to me.  Bulgar is cracked wheat that has been parboiled, so the cooking time varies.  There are also different grades, but I will tackle that later.  So tonight I started by sauteing a chopped onion, yellow squash, celery, garlic cloves in olive oil.  Season with oregano and salt to taste.  Cook until soft.  Add white wine to deglaze the pan.  Stir in the 1 1/2 cups wheat and cook stirring for a couple of minutes.  Add 3 cups chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes.  Turn off heat.  Let sit 10 minutes.  Stir in chopped parsley.  Not a lot of "wow factor" but it was a nice addition to dinner. 

Grilled chicken and lamb chops, marinated in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin (tiny bit), oregano, herbs de provence.

Italian ground beef

Tonight's dinner came from the website spinachtiger.com  I was interested in it because I had all of the ingredients in the house and it talked about the simplicity lending to the deliciousness.  I found it boring, as did Sanford, so we did a little adjusting.  It was much better, probably due to the cream!

Italian beef.  Saute 1 chopped onion in olive oil.  Add ground beef which has been salted and peppered.  Cook until med rare.  Add a couple of cups of frozen peas and red chili flakes.  At this point, I thought it was boring so this is where we embellished the recipe.  Add 1 tsp each dried thyme and dried oregano.  Cook a little longer.  More salt and pepper to taste.  Add about 1/4 cup heavy cream.  Cook.  When off of heat, add minced basil and grated parmesian. 

We served this with steamed cauliflower, tomatoes, aioli and a baguette.  It worked surprisingly well together!

A break from the Mediterranean, sort of

I promised the boys that during our year of Mediterranean food, that once a week I would make something different.  This morning - tortilla espanola and a peach, Lunch - greek salad, hummus, those little meat balls from earlier in the week, so for dinner I was attempting something Mexican inspired.  This was partly because of their love Mexican food and their recent withdrawal symptoms, but also due to the fact that there were poblanos and tomatillos and pork shoulder in the house.  What I ended up with was not really Mexican, due to the added Barley Pilaf (from earlier in the week, which I called bulgar pilaf.  That recipe called for bulgar, but I had barley on the brain, so I used it.  No wonder it took longer to cook.  I will try that recipe again using the correct grain.  I am sure it will be much better!)  Anyway, back to dinner, tonight's was really tasty, even if it wasn't what I started out making.  It did follow the Mediterranean concept of using what is available to you.

Pork Stew

Cut 1 pound pork shoulder into one inch pieces.  Brown in a couple of tbsp olive oil.  Remove.  Add 1 chopped onion (half of my onion was bad, so I also used a couple bunches of chopped scallions), 1 chopped zucchini, 1 chopped poblano, 5 chopped tomatillos, 4 minced garlic cloves.  Cook til softened.  Add the pork back to the pot, along with enough chicken broth to cover.  Season with about a tbsp each cumin and coriander.  Add 1 cup or so of white beans (these were still in their cooking juice so I added the juice too.) and a couple of cups of the cooked barley.  Season with hot sauce to taste.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until pork is tender, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle with minced cilantro.  I served it with corn tortillas with melted pepper jack.

Yesterday  to celebrate back to school and Julia Child's birthday, I surprised the boys with Madeleines.    This was really quick, which was good since I only had about 25 minutes from the time I got home from work til the bus arrived.  The recipe was taken from epicurious.com  They were really great, but the cooking time was a little too long, so I have shortened in the following recipe.

Madeleine

Butter and flour 2 madeleine pans.  I think you could probably use muffin pans if you are not lucky enough to have in-laws that send you cool things like madeleine pans.

Melt 10 tbsp butter, cool slightly.

In an electric mixer, beat 2 large eggs with 2/3 cups sugar just to blend.  Beat in 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel and a pinch of salt.  Add 1 cup flour.  Beat until just combined.  Gradually add melted butter in steady stream.  Beat until just combined.  

Spoon 1 tbsp into each cup in pan.  Bake 14 minutes, until puffed and brown at 375 degrees.

Dust with powdered sugar.