July 15, 2014 by Andrea

Arugula Pesto

In my morning routine I like to sit with a cup of coffee and read the news and a few blogs. There are a variety of them, but one I really like is The Wandering Gourmand and one recent feature gets me thinking each month – the Wine vs. Beer Challenge.

I am definitely a wine girl and Bob leans towards being a beer guy so we are each a little biased with these. I can appreciate what a good beer would bring to a dish, just like I can appreciate dessert wines even though I don’t like them. When I saw this month’s challenge I really wanted to try it even though we were not going to be home over the weekend for me to cook. But rarely one to give up (won’t say never, there are a few endeavors I now pass on) I decided to make it work. So Monday, the last day of the challenge I went ahead a made an arugula pesto and started thinking wines. I don’t know enough about beer to contemplate it here, but that was Bob’s job before dinner.

Pesto is incredibly simple to make. In this case one package baby arugula, half a cup chopped walnuts, salt and pepper. I put all that into the food processor, turned it on and drizzled olive oil in until it had the consistency I wanted. I pulled it out and added Parmesan cheese (quarter cup), chopped garlic (2 cloves) and grated fontanelle cheese. As a last touch I zest end a bit of lemon and squeezed the juice of half the lemon into the mix. It came out a vibrant green that needed just a touch of salt.

The pasta part of this. I didn’t want to go traditional penne or spaghetti. I wanted something that could work as a main or a side so I went with orzo. Ok, it is also what I had on hand except for shells but I loved the idea anyway. I sweated a bit of onion, added some chopped garlic and carrot to the mix then added the orzo and water. I let it all cook for seven minutes then took it off the heat, folded in the pesto and added another squeeze of lemon.

It came out really well for a no recipe dish. Yes, it’s simple but those are sometimes the best.

For the pairing. I discounted reds almost immediately. The pesto, while peppery from the arugula would only stand to a light red, maybe a chianti or really light Pinot. I have a light Pinot on hand but decided against it. I didn’t want a Zinfandel – too intense for the pasta; same for merlot. I almost went with a dry rose – something a touch sweet to offset the pepper – but it just didn’t feel right. I narrowed it down to two whites – a Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Gris. At this point I’m just guessing. I leaned towards the Sauvignon because it tends to be a little less on the grapefruit flavor than a Pinot. (This may be totally wrong, but it sounded right in my head.) I waited for Bob for the final decision. I gave him the full range to choose from – beer, reds, pinks or whites. He tossed the reds and beer almost immediately and then decided on whites. I showed him the two I was thinking about and he picked the Sauvignon also. Great minds and all.

So how did it work? Really well. This particular Sauvignon was light and dry with a touch of citrus. It was pretty good on its own but when paired with the pasta, both were better. The peppery arugula in the pesto contrasted with the citrus but it didn’t overpower it. The wine added another layer to the pasta and brought out the lemon in the dish. The orzo was more a vehicle for the pesto than a star of the dish and that let the wine shine even more. I’m not a huge white wine drinker. I tend to go for Zinfandels or Pinot Noirs, but I’m really glad I went with the Sauvignon on this one. I’m even thinking this will be a great cold pasta salad (again a good pair for white wine) and I don’t like cold pasta salads.

The best part about this challenge is that it isn’t about beer or wine or even food. It got me to think about beer and wine and food in more than one dimension. Yes, I like red wine and Bob likes beer, but we thought about the dish as a whole and came up with something that surprised us both – a wine we might not have enjoyed nearly as much with a dish that would not have been as good without it. (It was good – don’t get me wrong – but it was better with the wine.) So thank you to the Wandering Gourmand for taking me out of my wine comfort zone and to Wander and Wine for a great idea!

July 9, 2014 by Andrea

Summer

It is summer. No two ways about it. It is humid, hot and pretty sticky outside. Florida is seeing our daily afternoon (and sometimes morning or evening) showers which just adds to the sticky feeling. Make no mistake, summer in Florida is hot, but realistically not any hotter or stickier than DC or Jersey. I loved living in those places, but when Mom would call in July or August and it was hotter there than in Florida you have to wonder why Florida gets the bad “but it is so hot there” rap. Maybe it makes people feel better to think Florida is worse in the summer, but it just isn’t. And we don’t have snow. I’ll trade hot and sticky for no snow.

The other nice thing about July is that I don’t go into work every day. Say what you want, give me grief for it, but yes, I get a month off. I do not feel guilty for it – I cram enough hours into the other eleven months that it more than makes up for it at my salary level. It is the way the system is (stupidly in my opinion, but then the powers that be never asked me) and I deal with it. But I get to experiment in the kitchen this month. And I have a list of things I want to try (including the Korma sauce that I have failed on several times thus far). This week I started out with inspiration from Robert Irvine for a vegetarian dish that just looked amazing. I say I took inspiration because I (of course) didn’t follow the recipe. After reading the reviews I decided to go with the polenta recipe I really like – substituting white onion for red, vegetable broth for chicken and eliminating the butter. I also made a basic sweet pepper sauce that I know Bob will eat instead of the coulis from the original recipe. I wanted something lighter, so I tried it.

The sauce is pretty easy – one red bell pepper, a pat of butter – simmer until the pepper begins to soften then add a half cup of water and a sprig of thyme. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Pull out the thyme, blend in a food processor then strain through a fine strainer. Thus eliminates the harsh taste of the skin while keeping the subtle flavor of the pepper. Add a dash of cream, a little salt and pepper and let thicken over a medium low heat for about ten minutes. It’s a pretty perfect sauce I think.

I did the vegetables pretty much like the original recipe said. It was pretty good, but it still wanted more sauce. The polenta really stole the show here – rich, creamy with a ton of flavor. It was so good I’m thinking about making more today.

I did try home made tahini sauce this week too. The flavor was fine, but I hate the consistency. It is not saucy enough for what I want and it doesn’t work too well in the magical cilantro sauce. But I tried, and I can use it for something, I’m sure. But for tahini – I will stick to the industrial stuff – I just like the consistency much better.

Obligatory cat picture. She is just too cute even if she hates having her photo taken.

June 30, 2014 by Andrea

Chickpea Wraps

Whenever I do a complete and total experiment for dinner I make the caveat that if it doesn’t work, we order pizza. This is my way out if dinner doesn’t work and it let’s Bob off the hook of pretending to like something I make. In the six years I’ve been in a Florida we have only needed this twice.

I wanted to do something with the leftover cilantro tahini for the purple potato salad of the other night. It was just too good to not use. So I looked around for what I could make that would still let me spend most of the day watching Wimbledon. (It began the second week today … I had to watch.) I didn’t want falafel and didn’t have parsley to make it on hand, didn’t want another kale salad and wasn’t interested ongoing to the grocery store. So I dug through cook books but didn’t come up with anything that looked like what I was after. The closest I came was a chickpea salad sandwich but I hate mayo. I mean, really hate mayo. But it did give me an idea.

I cooked up a bag of chickpeas. Soaked them in cold water for seven hours then cooked for another hour and a half. This was plenty of non attention cooking to let me enjoy the tennis. And perfect timing since the last match ended about the time I needed to start putting stuff together.

I cut cup a two inch chunk of cucumber, halved about eight grape tomatoes and thinly sliced a quarter of a small onion. Combine all of those, squeeze half a lime over it, add a touch of salt and pepper and mix. Let stand.

I took out the magic cilantro lime dressing, grated one medium carrot and added about one to one and a half cup of the cooked chickpeas. I didn’t measure this – I just put three serving spoonfuls of chickpeas in the bowl with the carrot. To that I added a teaspoon and a half of olive oil (for consistency) and mashed with a fork.

I added about a quarter cup of the cilantro tahini to this and a little salt and pepper. Mix well.
For greens, I chopped five large spinach leaves into ribbons. To assemble, take one flour tortilla, coat with a tablespoon cilantro tahini. Add spinach

then the chickpea mixture

and top with the cucumber mixture and a little more tahini.

Roll together, cut the tortilla in half and there ya go. Dinner.

Bob and I each ate one and a half of these, but we figured they are actually pretty food for you. No added sugar, very little fat and, except for the tortilla (which I could change out for homemade bread or keep the spinach whole) nothing processed. I was really pleased with this one. It is a definite make again.

Ingredients
For the sauce:
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 bunch cilantro (leaves only)
1/2 lime
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

For the chickpea mix:
1 carrot, grated
1 – 1.5 cup cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini sauce (above)
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the chickpeas and carrots. Mash with a fork. Add oil and stir together. Add 1/4 cup tahini sauce and mix together, mashing the chickpeas a little more.

For the wrap:
3 flour tortillas
1/4 small red onion, sliced thin
2 inch chunk of cucumber, sliced into small sticks
8 grape tomatoes, halved
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Rest of cilantro tahini sauce
5 large spinach leaves, sliced into ribbons

I was pretty proud of this one. It isn’t falafel. It isn’t an ordinary recipe and it is easy to alter for lunches for work days. Best of all, Bob liked it and didn’t complain about eating the food his food eats. Now to figure out what I’m going to too it with tomorrow …

Happy Monday everyone!

June 29, 2014 by Andrea

Thai Lettuce Wraps – Vegetarian Version

A few months ago in our Hello Fresh box we had a Thai Beef Lettuce Wrap dinner. Bob and I both really liked it, but I wanted a vegetarian version. I don’t think I will ever totally give up meat, but I prefer to limit it and this, I thought, would lend itself nicely to a vegetarian dish.

The ingredients are pretty simple. In place of ground beef I used a bugler and quinoa. Half a cup bugler wheat with 1 cup water and half cup quinoa with 3/4 cup water. Boil then turn to low heat for about ten to fifteen minutes. I like to turn the heat off and let them set for another five minutes, just to make sure they don’t burn, but have cooked all the way through.

While those were cooking I made ribbons from a medium sized carrot and thin slices from half an orange pepper. I took the leaves from a few stems of cilantro and mixed it all together with the juice of one lime and a little salt and pepper. I let this sit while the grains cooked and I chopped two cloves of garlic and one can (drained) of water chestnuts.

Once the grains were cooked I combined them in a large pan with three tablespoons soy sauce and three tablespoons hoisin sauce over medium heat. Two of each would probably do it, but I wanted to make sure I had enough. Once those were coated, I added the garlic and chopped water chestnuts and combined everything until it was warmed through.

For plating, I took lettuce leaves and put a good amount of the filling in the middle, topped with the carrot and pepper and then added a little chopped peanut. The result …

A pretty little dish that (I think) is fairly healthy. The flavors worked really well here and the grain mixture made a great substitute for ground beef. I was a little nervous about this, but Bob really liked it and didn’t miss the meat. The best part is that there is enough left over for lunch today for both of us. In the future I will probably use a lettuce other than Romain – butter lettuce would work better – or just make it as a salad since eating this as a “wrap” is very, very messy. Not first date food at all. But I like this version, maybe even a little better than the beef version and I feel better about eating it, so that is a bonus.

Ingredients
Half cup bugler wheat (plus one cup water for cooking)
Half cup quinoa (plus 3/4 cup water for cooking)
1 can water chestnuts
1/2 pepper (red, orange or yellow)
1 medium carrot
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup peanuts
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons hoisin sauce (use same amount as soy sauce)
Lettuce leaves
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste
(Optional – sesame or peanut oil for pan – 1 tablespoon)

June 26, 2014 by Andrea

Purple Potato & Kale Salad

Kale has a reputation as a fad food or as a bitter garnish in some restaurants, but I love the stuff. Prepared properly I don’t get the bitter taste usually associated with it (and I always taste the bitter). Not prepared properly it can be awful, but given the right preparation, accompaniments and dressing and it is a winner.

I found a recipe for Purple potato and kale salad (Forks Over Knives cookbook – recipe changed slightly) that looked interesting and fairly light. As much as I loved the food in Chicago, I wanted something lighter and less dense. Lower calories is a side benefit as I am fairly certain I ate more in one meal in Chicago than I do in an entire day normally. So I hit the grocery store, found my ingredients and started. I used:

1 bunch kale, chopped
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
5 purple potatoes
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 lime
1/2 bunch cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
Oil for the pan

Wash the potatoes, slice in half (or quarter for larger potatoes) and place in a pot, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt and put over medium heat. Once boiling, cook about 15 minutes until done.

As the potatoes cook clean and chop the kale and tomatoes.

Combine the tahini, cilantro, garlic, cayenne pepper and a pinch of salt to a food processor. Squeeze the juice of the lime into the mix (leave a little for the kale) and blend until combined.

In a large pan heat a little oil (I used sesame since I was making a tahini sauce). Add the kale and tomatoes and cook, tossing frequently, until the kale is wilted. Squeeze the remaining lime juice over the kale and tomatoes, add a pinch of salt (if desired) and toss. Add the potatoes and mix together.

For plating, I just divided this among two plates and topped with the tahini mixture.

The results? Not as good as the magical kale salad according to Bob, but I really liked this. There is a ton of flavor in this dish and it is pretty healthy. This was another ‘I don’t miss the meat’ dishes. I think this one is going into the weeknight rotation for then the school year starts again. If I chop everything the night before, I can have this done in twenty minutes. Now to figure out if I can make my own tahini. … I feel an experiment coming!

June 21, 2014 by Andrea

The Unpronounceable Restaurant … With Amazing Food

Full disclosure, I love Top Chef. I know it is highly edited, slightly fake and total tv food porn, but I love it. I’ve been hooked since season one and even generally like Top Chef Masters. Given the chef star power in Chicago we searched and searched restaurants for our limited time here, but one was a complete “we have to” for both Bob and I – Rick Bayless.

I was pretty impressed with this chef I had not really heard of during that season, especially considering the other heavy hitters there. But the moment I knew I had to eat at his restaurant was when he talked about spending 20 years perfecting a mole sauce. The respect for the culture and food of Mexico is evident in everything he says, but that discussion has stayed with me since. So we decided Topolobampo was the one we were going to do while in Chicago. Thankfully we were able to get reservations (late, but I didn’t care) and we had an amazing time.

For this meal Bob and I got to create our own tasting menu since that is how Topolobampo has their menu set up. We decided to do seven courses with wine pairing (next time I’m doing five so I’m not totally stuffed) and it was perfect. I didn’t have a bite of food that I didn’t love – one that was super spicy for me, but still great – but the highlights were a deconstructed tamale that had the most amazing broth. Silky, creamy masa with a savory, deep broth.

The other must have you can guess – the mole. I could not do a Rick Bayless restaurant and not do the mole since this was the dish that got me hooked. Bob and I both had this as one of our courses.

I did trade one of my pieces of beef for Bob’s green beans – they were amazing in the mole sauce. I cannot begin to describe the sauce – it was totally unexpected and unlike any mole I’ve ever had. It did not taste like chocolate but there is chocolate there; there are so many flavors in this dish but they do not compete with each other. It is incredible and worth the trip to Chicago. (Of course all the food here has been incredible, but there really is something special about this sauce.)

Chicago is an amazing food city and we have not scratched the surface. Chicago itself reminds me of Philadelphia (with wider streets) but the draw here is the food more than the history. It doesn’t tempt me the way some cities do, but the food … oh the food. I think I would gain fifteen pounds if we didn’t walk everywhere and it would have been totally worth it.

June 20, 2014 by Andrea

Chicago

When I looked around at what we wanted to do in Chicago I came up with a few things. Most involved eating, but there are some landmarks and buildings that I really wanted to see. I know we are not going to see and do everything in one trip, so I wanted to see if there was a way to hit the highlights. We found a tour through the Chicago Architecture Foundation that fit the bill.

While a Chicago, like a lot of major cities, is known for skyscrapers, it has a great history of smaller buildings too and is often on the forefront of design concepts. So we saw buildings from the 1880s and then the early 20th century to mid century modern and late 20th century. It was a great experience, but I think my two favorite stops were Robie House and the student center at IIT.

I never quite got Frank Lloyd Write from books and pictures. It always looked interesting, but … nothing special. But in person? To see the detail and thought that went into each part I finally understood why his designs are so special.

The Student Center on the IIT campus was a really cleaver mix of firm and function. The L trains run right over the location of the building, so the enhanced the feature of the train tracks and integrated it into design. I hated the fake zebra wood on the outside, but the use of space and design elements were great. It also has the most unique bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Seriously one lady and I had a whole discussion, in the bathroom, about the bathrooms.

But this trip is mostly about food and high on my list was Slurping Turtle. Japanese comfort food from an incredibly respected chef. We went with tapas and small plates for this lunch, but it was so good, we went back the next day with Brad and Emmie.

After lunch we wandered around the city more. We went through Millennial Park, down Lake Michigan to Navy Pier.

We were exhausted by the time we meandered back to the hotel, but made sure we rested a little before heading out for fancy dinner number two. That dinner gets it’s own post tomorrow. For now I’m going to rest my feet and get some sleep.

June 20, 2014 by Andrea

It’s All About Service

The school year ended for me and the next morning Bob and I headed for Chicago for a little vacation. We planned this for a few months – I’ve spent less time planning our trips to Europe – so we were very excited about this. I’ve never been to Chicago and since it has some amazing restaurants I just could not wait.

The trip did not start well. I think I texted something about hating United Airlines more than a few times as we were traveling. From a mess up with seating (Bob and I were not seated together despite the email confirmation that said we were … but we could purchase an upgrade if we wanted to sit together) to the horrible boarding process to the minuscule seats (could not have my arms next to my body at the same time without hitting the poor lady next to me) that we had to wait in since there was a delay (that they knew about before we boarded) to the half hour waiting for a gate in Chicago, it was a rather bad trip. I could deal with a lot of this – the delay, bad weather and the gate issue were not United’s fault necessarily – but the way the treated customers and the very “we don’t care” attitude made everything worse. Good customer service could have made this trip ok if not good, but poor customer service made it horrible.

Adding to my stress (as this ended up being a two hour delay in total) … dinner reservations. I have read about and wondered about Alinea for a while and Bob and I decided to go for it. I read every review I could find (and I do mean every) and one review made up my mind to spend the money. “Alinea will ruin you for five star dining.” With that I had to try it.

We should have had more than enough time to land, check into the hotel, relax, change and get to dinner. Instead we raced off the plane, changed in a stall in the airport bathrooms, hailed a cab and went straight to Alinea. You can probably picture me trying to get my dress and heels out of the suitcase in the stall while getting out of my jeans and top and into the dress. I did brush my hair but went without the make up to save time. We got a great cab driver and a little lucky with traffic and arrived 13 minutes late.

From the moment we walked in, it was incredible. The maître’d simply took our bags, told us to relax, got our name for the reservation and led us to our table. He asked where we were coming from, said they were glad we were there and started everything on a great note. He could have commented on our late arrival, made a big deal about the bags or been stuffy or unpleasant but he wasn’t. This foreshadowed the rest of the evening. The wait staff was relaxing, engaging and fun. The food was not just beautiful it was perfection. Each course was unique and made me smile, but nothing more than when I realized Bob was getting seafood (caviar, skate and lobster) while I had alternatives to the seafood. For anyone who does not do tasting menus, this is highly unusual; in most restaurants everyone at the table has the same dish, so Bob does not get seafood since I don’t.

But not at Alinea. There we each got our own versions of the dish and it was just perfect. I can say I had probably the best meal, start to finish, of my life. Was it expensive? Yes. More than I am comfortable paying, but I would do it again. It was worth ever penny and if I ever have the opportunity to do it again, I will. The food was that good, but the service made the experience.

The final detail. When we were seated the maitre’d asked if we would need a cab after dinner; we said yes. So after the meal ended we were brought downstairs, thanked for coming, given our bags and walked out to a waiting cab. Not one we had to wait for, but one that was waiting for us. It was details like that really show what good service can do for an experience. It really is all about the service.

June 15, 2014 by Andrea

June a Cheese Box

There are distinct advantages to knowing your local cheesemonger. The very fact that I have a local cheesemonger still makes me giggle two years after finding the shop. I know I extol Louise’s virtues every time I make a cheese post, but she, and the other ‘cheese gals’ are wonderful. I will also (as usual) say if you have any interest in cheese and will be near Sarasota you need to check out Artisan Cheese Company and chat with Louise or any of her staff. The shop has a very friendly feel and they really do take their time to get to know their customers and each person’s likes and dislikes.

This month’s box included a Smoked Blue cheese from Kentucky.

It is the prettiest blue cheese I’ve seen, but I really, really don’t like blue cheese. (More on that and the advantages of knowing your cheesemonger in a second.) Bob, however, loves blue cheese and so Louise did include this one in our box. Bob loved this one. As the name indicates, it is smokey but not overpowering with a mild blue flavor. This is according to Bob as I did not have any. It has a creamy texture and beautiful veining. Bob gushed about this one so much he wants to pick up more before we visit his parents next month. (By the way, Nan and Bud …. We are thinking about visiting next month.)

Now because Louise knows I don’t like blue cheese (and she has had me try several to see if there is a type I do like) she gave us less of the blue, but added a Kentucky sheep cheese for me. Good Shepard is the very cute name and this cheese was about as perfect a cheese for me as you can get.

The flavor isn’t strong, but it is deep. It almost melts in your mouth and is perfect by itself or with nuts, crackers or a little blackberry jam. I will have an excellent lunch the next few days at work with this gem.

Also in our box this month was an ash goat cheese from Goat Lady Dairy. We had a goat cheese log from them last month (which I totally forgot to post) which was good, but not spectacular. This one was amazing. Creamy and mild but it had a great flavor. I’m still coming to terms in my own head that mild and bland are not the same thing. Bland is the absence of flavor, I suppose, and mild is subtle flavors. This definitely falls on the subtle flavors side of the coin and I liked it best by itself on bread.

Our last cheese this month was from France – Montboisse du Haut Livradois. This one is pretty incredible too. It has a stronger smell than taste, and a slight texture (possibly from the ash layer) to it, but it is creamy and silky and all the wonderful things you want cheese to be. I liked this one with the cranberry hazelnut crackers and a touch of the black tea jam. It has a slight nutty taste to it which lets it stand up to other flavors.

This month (like almost every other month when we get our box) I get super excited and simply amazed what milk, enzymes and time can create. The sheer variety of cheeses are incredible and I feel very lucky to have a local cheesemonger that knows our tastes and really emphasizes quality – both in products and service. We love our cheese club so much, Bob and I already signed up for a second year of it – and we are leaving the choices of cheese to Louise each month. It’s a mini Christmas and a great ‘date night’ for us.

June 14, 2014 by Andrea

Summer Stir Fry

I had every intention of making Pad Thai this afternoon. I picked up some pretty veggies and cilantro at the farmers market this morning and was super excited by this. (It’s also cheese night so double excitement for food today.) What I didn’t consider was that I was almost out of soy sauce. I thought I had another bottle in the pantry, but I didn’t. To make pad thai I need four to six tablespoons of soy sauce; I had two. So rather than going out for Indian or heading down to the grocery store, I improvised.

I went with what I had on hand:
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1.5 tablespoons grated ginger
1 tablespoon chili garlic paste

I mixed all of that together and set it aside. I slice up some form tofu, seasoned it with salt and pepper and pan fried it in a little peanut oil.

Meanwhile I chopped the vegetables:
1/4 red opinion, sliced thin
1 carrot, cut into match sticks
1 handful sugar snap peas (end cut off)
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

After the tofu was done I beat one egg and quickly scrambled it so it wasn’t cooked completely and added it to the tofu. I used a little more peanut oil and added the vegetables. I used one tablespoon of the sauce to help season the vegetables and added some chopped peanuts and half the cilantro. To that I added the rice noodles and then half the remaining sauce. Once the noodles were coated and everything was mixed together, I added the tofu, egg and the rest of the sauce. Toss it all a little longer over medium heat then squeeze a slice of line over everything.

I was a little nervous about this one. I didn’t have a recipe and was pretty much winging it. It came out really well, however. Bright flavors and enough depth of flavor to keep both Bob and I eating. I really did love this so I will chalk it up as a win.

Sixteen Paws

The random adventures of Andi, Bob, and four furry creatures

Category Archives: Food