Monday, December 29, 2008
Chicken Romano
This chilly weather has got me thinking in layers- sweater, scarf, coat, chicken, cheese, sauce. This is a take on pretty straight forward chicken parmesan, except I used romano cheese and layered in a few sauteed veggies. All we had in the kitchen for breading were whole-wheat panko flakes and which had more of a consistency like Grape Nuts. So I pounded them down a bit and added dried herbs- basil, oregano, parsley. We had homemade marinara still frozen from last summer, and which had roasted-red peppers blended in. I smothered the top of the breaded chicken breasts with sauteed onions and swiss chard, and then covered the whole lot with more sauce, mozzarella, and romano.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Arugula, Cuc, Radish and Tomato Salad
Hey it's 13° outside today! Let's celebrate with a summery salad! We found these cute little blushy radishes at the winter farmer's market, along with some hothouse tomatoes and arugula. I topped it off with shavings of parmesan and for the dressing I used e.v.o.o., fig-infused balsamic, lemon juice, salt and fresh ground pepper. We had this with pasta and the last of the lamb meatballs and marinara we froze last month. Oh, and did I mention that its 13° outside today?
Monday, November 24, 2008
40 Clove Garlic Chicken
We saw this recipe on Ina's show, but when I googled it there were several variations online. For a creepy and cozy Halloween dinner, what could be more perfect? The garlic gets sweet and deep, the longer it cooks. The cous-cous was tossed with lemon zest, currants, and cashews and was a great sauce-soaker to the chicken. Lovely table decorations by Beth!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Sweet Potato and Ricotta Soup
This sweet potato soup is spicy, herby, sweet, and creamy. It starts with a combination of white onion and shallots sauteed in olive oil until soft, to which I added the cubed (and peeled) sweet potatoes (about 2 large ones). When the potatoes were a little seared, I added the spices and herbs: nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme and sage. Then I poured in 5 cans of low-sodium chicken stock and brought it up to a simmer. When the potatoes were very soft, I then pureed it with the emersion blender. When it was nice and evenly smooth, I added a pint container of low-fat ricotta cheese and 1/3 cup of grated parmesan. Then I blended to soup again to break up the cheese solids. Here it's served with a little arugula salad and a chunk of french walnut bread from out favorite farmers market vendor. Very autumnumnumnal!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Soup, Salad, Apple Crisp
Monday, November 3, 2008
Pappardelle alla romanesco
T and I have been eyeing these weird little green fractal things at the farmers market for the past few weeks and discovered they are called romanesco, ancient relatives to cauliflower. After a little online research, we decided to just steam them and drizzle with olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. They have a nutty flavor, much deeper and sweeter than I expected. They were a perfect 'meaty' accompaniment with this dish of spelt flour pappardelle (Trader Joe's) with chopped salami, garlic and olive oil.
Great description of romanesco here at Almost a Chef:
http://www.almostachef.com/2008/04/romanesco-cauliflower/
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Family-Style Nummy Italiano
Last night we had dinner for twelve at the N3 kitchen. It was a tight squeeze, but we love an excuse to put the leaf in the dining room table and break out the extra long linen. In the hustle and bustle of service, it was hard to get images of all the menu items. Everything was served in big bowls and platters, family-style. Here is the full menu along with the cannoli filling recipe.
Antipasto: Prosciutto, salami, sopressa, olives, roasted peppers and pepperoncini, figs, radish, provolone, and mozzarella.
Green Salad with cucumber, red onion, and tomato and a fig balsamic vinaigrette
Polenta
Lamb and Beef Meatballs with Marinara
Italian Sausage with Onions and Peppers
Baked Butternut Squash Parmesan
Roasted Golden Beets
Sauteed Kale, Spinach and Swiss Chard with Garlic and Olive Oil
Cannoli
Filling: Two small containers of skim ricotta; 1 pint heavy cream, whipped; 1/2c. powdered sugar; 1 tbsp. Cointreau; 1/2c. chocolate chips; 3/4c. dried apricots and rind of 2 lemons pulsed in Cuisinart until minced;1tbsp. lemon juice; 1tsp. cinnamon
Fold all ingredients together with a spatula and chill. Fill cannoli shells just before serving and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
5 Spice Baked Tofu and Acorn Squash
The secret to deeply flavored tofu is in the pressing, prior to the marinating. We always get the extra firm style for baking or broiling cutlets like these. After you open the package, rinse the tofu block and then layer between paper towels and two plates. Weight the top plate with a heavy cookbook and let it press for about 20 minutes. After most of the water is expelled, then slice and marinate. Here we used sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce, black pepper, chili oil, and Chinese 5 spice. I marinated in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then baked them off at 450° for 25 minutes or so.
We served the tofu along with slices of steamed and braised acorn squash, rice, and arugula with a sesame, garlic, and rice vinegar dressing.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Tart and Tangy Udon Noodle Salad
This fast and easy udon noodle salad (15 minutes start to finish)is a real party on the lips. While the noodles are cooking chop mizuna greens, tomato, and firm tofu, along with a few sheets of dried nori (I like to use kitchen scissors to cut the nori into strips). When the noodles are finished, drain them and rinse in luke-warm water, shake off most of the water, then toss into the other ingredients. To dress: sesame oil, fig vinegar and rice vinegar (umbeboshi would work too), a few shakes of chili oil, hot sauce, black pepper, and black sesame seeds.Yumbo deluxe.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Rustic Marinara
The evening of my flight home from San Anton, TPY surprised me with this tasty rustic marinara. He oven roasted the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers and then gave them a light pulse with the hand-held blender. I think he then added a little wine, garlic, basil, and olive oil and simmered them a bit in a shallow saucepan.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Texas Breakfast
Friday, September 19, 2008
Operation Deflation Salad Days
It's no secret that the past few months of traveling, business, and general kookiness has added on a few nummy pounds. So since I got back on my home schedule, I've been on Operation Deflation. The OD is generally a calorie management thing, where I try to manage not to inhale everything that comes within orbit of my face. (You can still watch Paula and Ina on the Food Network, you just can't put that pound of butter on your morning fried-egg-chocolate-chip-sandwich-scone anymore. At least for awhile.)
So, I've turned my attention to the elegant world of frozen veggie cutlets, which I've discovered to be the perfect hearty addition to a fresh salad. This one is drizzled with a homeade dressing of dijon, fig infused balsamic, tabasco, and a swiggle of olive oil- just enough to taste, but not enough to thwart the efforts of those of us trying to keep out BMI's in the green zone.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Contemporary Quinoa Salad Art
We took a weekend trip to the Windy City for art, shopping, and numnumnums. While checking out the Jeff Koons show at the MCA we had a delightful lunch at the Wolfgang Puck cafe. The presentation of the dishes we ordered lived up to the context of the location. This sculptural quinoa salad was surrounded by a little moat of a mint-laced vinaigrette. Eating it was akin to an archaeological dig, uncovering layers of micro-greens, marinated mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and purple potatoes.
We also had a great experience at this tapas bar: http://www.mercatchicago.com/
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Oven Roasted Summer Veggies and Salmon
The marinade for our roasted veggie mix started with lots of fresh ginger along with sesame oil, mirin, soy, rice vinegar and chopped garlic. We tossed it with baby bok choy, summer squash, and a variety of eggplant. We reserved some to also marinate the salmon. The veggies were roasted in a 450° oven for about 20-25 minutes, followed by the salmon for about 15.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Summer Mix
Since we've been back in town and getting up to speed for fall, dinners have been small easy dishes of this and that. Here is a salad of mixed greens with fat slices of an heirloom tomato that had been holding court on our kitchen counter for the past week. It was dressed with a little balsamic and lemon juice. Next is sticky rice with baked tofu slices, and in the background are potstickers that TPY picked up at CostCo. (Gasp! I know! We have a total transparency policy here at N3 about the store-bought nums we occcccasionally put on the table. And we have to admit that Trader Joe's is currently rockin' our world).
We are also both currently on "Operation Deflation"- so stay tuned for lots of low-calorie, high-nutrition, numnumnum posts in the coming weeks!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Koreana
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Simple Nummy Vegs
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Marinara Rustico
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Pork Chop with Mango Compote
Monday, May 12, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Fettucine with Ramps and Oyster Mushrooms
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Chicken Green Curry
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Warm Lentil Salad
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Double Chocolate Pudding Parfait
Parfait. Parfait. Parfait. What more can one say?
We tried this recipe from the "Quick" section of February's Gourmet Magazine for a small dinner party we had a few weeks ago. It was indeed a fast prep. We made the pudding ahead of time, but waited to whip the cream and invited our guest to help layer the parfait just before serving. We also added a tablespoon of Cointreau to the whipping cream. Thumbs up all around!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Seared Scallops with Bucatini
This past week we improvised a roasted onion cream sauce to go with this scallop dish. First we roasted small yellow onions (whole, skin on, one cut side down) and garlic cloves. After they were finished and cooled slightly, they were de-skinned and lightly chopped, and added to a medium-hot skillet with two tablespoons of butter. Then we added about one cup of white wine and cooked that a bit, then a small container of skim ricotta. We brought that to a low simmer, added a little water to thin and spiced with cayenne, nutmeg, parmesan, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Panko-Breaded Snapper
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Miso-Grilled Tempeh and Kale
This simple nummy combo is both healthy and macro-licious. The tempeh was marinated in a paste of sweet white miso, tamari, sesame oil, white pepper, and rice vinegar- then broiled for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so. On the side, we served spicy, steamed kale and brown rice, the prince of grains.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Hot Mess Curry Noodle Soup
This party in a pot started with a little sesame oil, onion, bok choy, green beans, garlic, ginger, and mushroom. Then we added the chopped tempeh and sauteed a few more minutes on high-ish heat. Next came four cans of chicken stock, one can of lite coconut milk, half a can each of chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, a few dashes of Sriracha chili sauce, curry powder, tamari, and a little brown sugar. After bringing it to a simmer we added the rice noodles and cooked for another ten minutes. This definitely keeps the cold out.
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