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Archive for the ‘pasta’ Category
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Fresh off the heels of the Cayman Cookout, I went to the Farmer’s Market completely inspired. I picked up various ingredients: lemongrass, cilantro, shallots, salmon. I had no plan though until I got home and started flipping through Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking. I didn’t follow any of the recipes but saw one that was for shrimp with cilantro and another that was a chicken pot a feu with ginger-cilantro vermicelli. That got my brain movin’.
I simmered lemongrass, ginger, shallots, garlic, lime rind and chicken (I didn’t have any chicken stock made but I had a couple of drumsticks in the freezer so I tossed those in). I let that simmer for about an hour. It would have been better if I had much longer but I didn’t and it was quite flavorful even after such a short time.
Next I skinned the salmon and put it in a dish with garlic, cilantro, a little oil and a splash of white wine. I turned it a few times while I was working on everything else.
 
I didn’t have any vermicelli but I did have spaghetti so I broke a handful of that into thirds and boiled it up. When it was done I tossed it with cilantro, shallots, lime juice and a little olive oil.
I removed the salmon from the marinade and dried it off. I wanted the flavor but since I was going to be searing it on high heat, I need to get the garlic off as much as I could so it wouldn’t burn. I heated canola oil until it was almost smoking and added the fish. I let it cook on the first side for 3-4 minutes, until it had a nice brown crust starting to happen. Then I flipped it an only kept it about another minute on that side.
To serve I put a small pile of sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces. I placed the pasta on top of that. Scattered some sunflower sprouts from our wonderful microgreen and mushroom folks at the farmer’s market around the pasta. Topped that with the salmon.
I strained the simmering broth and ladeled that over the pasta. To add some crunch I added a few more sprouts to the top, not in the broth. Then a generous squeeze of lime juice over the whole thing.
Posted in amateur, dinner, eric ripert, pasta, recipe, recipes, Salmon, santa cruz, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Greens
Fort Mason, Building A
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-771-6222
 Spring Rolls A friend and I were meeting up to see Tim Minchin at the Palace of Fine Arts…Brilliant show by the way. We needed food first so she got us into Greens at the last minute. I thought I hadn’t been there but as soon as I parked and started heading past the harbor boats I had a de ja vu. Yeah, I’d been there but it had been years and years and I think we were there for lunch. I really don’t recall anything about the meal then so this was a brand new experience!
 Sampler Plate We ordered a number of things and split them all, starting with the Spring Rolls (with grilled tofu, carrots, jicama, Thai basil, mint and rice noodles. Served with hoisin, grilled shiitake, beech mushroom and radish salad). These were good but I’m going to rename them Mint Spring Rolls…not a subtle flavor.
The sampler was great because we could easily split the things between what I like and don’t like! My friend got the beet salad, olives and marinated Yarra Valley feta, we shared the taboulleh, grilled artichoke, mummous and pita. All very tasty.
 Paparadelle wiht Peas The Green Gulch Lettuce and Little Gems salad (with Hidden Star Orchard cherries, Point Reyes Original Blue, slow roasted almonds and golden balsamic vinaigrette) was lovely and the cherries were a nice addition.
The Pappardelle with snap, snow and English peas, pine nuts, spring onions, meyer lemon butter and chives tasted like spring. I know it’s July but we had winter here through June so we’re just getting our spring! It was wonderful to have pine nuts again. I haven’t had them in ages since there is apparently a shortage although that’s hard to believe when I drive around California surrounded by pine trees! I know, they’re from a certain type of pine…but still! I miss them.
The dishes at Greens aren’t complicated. They aren’t piled with a million conflicting flavors. They are vegetarian. They are flavorful, fresh, seasonal, beautiful. You can’t beat the view—the boats in the harbor with a peek at the Golden Gate behind them if the fog lifts enough.
Parking can be a challenge if there is event at Fort Mason but if there’s not, the large parking lot should have a space available somewhere. I love that Greens set the standard for locally source, vegetarian fare *years* ago and it still going strong. It’s a classic.
Posted in dinner, food, organic, pasta, restaurant, review, San Francisco, seasonal menu, table dance | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Take the leftover chicken meat, I had 2 legs and 1 breast left, and cut it into chunks. Put it in the food processor with some sauteed garlic and shallots, some chopped herbs, salt and pepper. For the amount of chicken I had left I used 2 shallots and 2 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon or so of chopped marjoram and a tablespoon of chopped thyme. Blend that all together until it’s an incorporated minced up ravioli filling.
This was a quick weeknight meal for me so I didn’t make my pasta dough, I just used gyoza wrappers. They’re quick easy ravioli wrappers and they’re perfectly square so they’re quick to fill and fold! You only have to boil them for about 2-3 minutes on low boil so they don’t break open.
For my husband and I, I sauteed up some kale in coconut oil (a tip I got from a friend, it’s yummy!), sprinkled it with some chili flakes and served the raviolis on top of that with some butter and cheese (on his). For my son i just put butter and cheese on them. Easy for the whole family!
Posted in chicken, pasta, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
It’s gotten cold and rainy. When that happens, I start making more pasta and soup. More comfort foods. More warming, cozy foods. One of the easiest is usually pasta with red sauce.
2 onions, chopped
3 oz pancetta, diced (optional for vegetarians…not optional otherwise!)
Cook down until onions are soft and starting to brown.
Add 1c. white wine and 2 cloves minced garlic. Cook off almost all the wine.
Add 3 cans of tomatoes (not sauce).
Rehydrate some porcinis. I put as many into my 2 cup measuring cup as I could comfortably do. It’s not 2 cups of dried porcini per se because they aren’t packed in but they add great flavor so if you have them, use them! We have a few.
Chop up the porcinis once they’re soft and add them to the sauce. Let that reduce for, oh, awhile. You want to cook off most of the water bit of the tomatoes so you have a good thick sauce. When almost all of the liquid is cooked off add a huge handful of minced herbs. I use thyme and marjoram.
When the sauce is saucy and not watery, dump it into a food processor and zap it until its perfect.
Once again, I ate before I snapped a final picture. I wish I had smell-o-vision. This is one of my favorite smells in my house: garlicky goodness.
Posted in amateur, pasta, porcinis, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring, tomatoes | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Simple and delicious.
Grill salmon with just some salt, pepper and olive oil. In a grill basket, toss some broccoli florets and chopped summer squash. Cook all that until it’s done.
Meanwhile (on the stove not the BBQ) sauté up some chard with garlic and chili flakes. When the grilled veggies are done, mix those into the cooked chard. When the salmon is done, separate it into small pieces and mix that into the veggies. When that’s all tossed together, put it on top of some pasta…penne or something else short works best.
Chiffonade some basil–I had this gorgeous purple basil from my CSA–and top the pasta with a generous amount of it.
Yum.
Tags: basil, broccoli, chard, squash
Posted in pasta, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
I needed to cook as much produce as I could for dinner. I’m picking up my first CSA box today and it’s going to fill my fridge. I had a huge bag of spring onions from my dad’s garden and a head of napa cabbage that were taking up the most space. Pasta time!!
2 cups chopped spring onions
1/2 head of napa cabbage
2 garlic cloves
1 c. white wine
1 package of prosciutto cut into 1″ slices
1 lb shell pasta
1/2 c. toasted pine nuts
I chopped the spring onions into 1/2 inch chunks (just the tender white parts…i cut down a little too far into the green and got some tough pieces). Put those in a large pan with some olive oil and salt. Cook for what seems like forever. When they look soft, add the wine and cook that until the wine is almost gone. Add the garlic and cabbage. It will be a huge pile, but will quickly reduce. Once the cabbage is soft, fold in the prosciutto.
Toss the cabbage-onion mixture into the cooked pasta. Top with the toasted pine nuts.
This turned out to be far tastier than I imagined. It was just a clear-out-the-fridge meal for me but the result was really, really good. We had a 2004 Ridge Syrah with it that was great!
Tags: Ridge wine, syrah
Posted in pasta, proscuitto, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
As I pointed out in my last article, we were a bit late for porcini season this year. But not so late that we didn’t get any at all. We had a couple of beauties! On the first night we didn’t have the time or the materials for a barbecue so we just sautéed the porcini in a little olive oil and shallots and tossed it with some farfalle pasta. I’m a big fan of not doing much to the mushrooms and just enjoying their earthy flavors on their own.
 
Day two however allowed for a trip to the store to pick up some mesquite for the barbecue. This is my favorite way to enjoy porcini. Once it was cleaned up, we just sliced it, basted it with olive oil and herbs and grilled to perfection. Once off the grill we squeezed a little bit of lemon juice and sprinkled a little bit of salt on them. Heaven!
 
We went back to one of our spots thinking we’d probably struck out but I stumbled upon two pretty little friends. The caps were destined for the dehydrator but the stalks were gorgeous grillers.
Having exhausted the porcini stash, we still had an insane number of chanterelles to consume. Along with Thanksgiving leftovers, we had chanterelles cooked in butter on toast. I felt a bit Top Chef-like serving chanterelles and bread two ways (on toast and in stuffing). ;-)
 Day three — or was it day four — I decided to venture out into the chanterelle territory again. Who knew I missed a whole patch of them!? I had to think of another way to cook them. I thought, “I wonder if they grill well?” Since it’s my favorite way to eat porcini we decided to try it. It is now my favorite way to cook chanterelles too!!
If you have access to any of these lovely golden fungi, you must make this recipe.
Spinach tossed w/ dressing of:
Chopped shallots
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Cook french green lentils in chicken stock w/ a clove of garlic
Slice each chanterelle and half, toss with olive oil and pepper and grill. I used 3 large mushrooms for 2 people.
Chop and cook bacon to make lovely little bacon bits.
Assemble into the most beautiful warm mushroom salad ever created. Spinach first, then lentils, the shroomies, then bacon, then love….love the whole time actually, including with every fabulous bite.
Posted in bacon, chanterelles, hardcore, pasta, porcinis, recipe, spinach | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
I twittered this recipe the other night but don’t want to lose it, the sauce was great!! It was the first time I’d ever made Bolognese. Can’t say it’s quick but it’s still easy and rich and so yummy.
1 lg onion, 2 stalks celery, 6 cloves garlic.
Add about 1c. chopped pancetta:
Add 1 lb ground beef, 1/2 lb italian sausage. Cook until brown.
Add 1/2 glass red wine, reduce. Add 2 can tomatoes, 1c. chicken stock, 3T fresh thyme, 1/4 c cream
Bolognese then simmered for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.
The final product. I stirred in a big handful of fresh basil off the heat. Had a fabulous 2002 Ridge Syrah with it.
Posted in pasta, recipe, self pleasuring, tomatoes | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
This is one of those “what’s in the fridge/garden” meals.
1/4 c. small dice pancetta
1/2 a red onion, diced
2 small leeks, diced
1 small fennel bulb, diced
 Caramelize the heck out of all that. If you have a good range hood/fan and the nerve, deglaze with vodka. I tried it, it flamed up in an awesome, cool, spectacular room. My 5-year-old thought it was really awesome. I blew it out and still have my hair and eyebrows (and kitchen) but easily could have caught everything on fire so BE CAREFUL!!! Do not say I told you to do this!
Once the vodka is cooked down, add:
A handful of baby spinach
A few tablespoons each of thyme and marjoram
2 minced garlic cloves
Cook until spinach is wilted.
Turn off heat and add:
3 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes
1/3 c. chopped basil
salt and pepper
Toss the mixture with penne pasta and enjoy!
Posted in gardening, pasta, recipe, seasonal menu, self pleasuring | No Comments »
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