Pasta for comfort

Friday nights are all about comfort food. By the time I get home, I don't have enough time or energy to do much, but I need to make something that satisfies and fortifies. Tonight I came home to a big bunch of broccoli rabe from the farm share and the memory of a pasta dish that I had at one of the more upscale Italian restaurants in the area.  This was my chance to try to recreate it.

While the pasta water came up to a boil, I toasted pine nuts and soaked some golden raisins.Then I sauteed 3 or 4 small cloves of garlic in olive oil. I coarsely shredded the rabe and added it to the skillet with the garlic. I let it cook down for a little while and then added a splash of balsamic vinegar, a little chicken stock, a few cranks of the pepper mill, along with the raisins and their soak liquid and let that simmer to bring the flavors together. When the penne was just about finished, I drained it and added it to the skillet. I threw the pine nuts over the top and folded it all together, letting the pasta absorb most of the remaining liquid in the skillet. I served it with lots of fresh Parmigiano Reggiano and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

This dish is so easy to throw together and it's incredibly satisfying. The pungent flavor of the garlic and the slight bitterness of the rabe blend perfectly with the woodsy taste of the pine nuts and the sunny sweetness of the raisins. Served with a glass of Spanish red, some good rustic bread, and the last of the garden's tomatoes, it was a perfect way to end the day.

Breakfast for Dinner

Today has been a long day in the middle of a long week. As I drove home, I couldn't imagine being able to muster up the energy to make a pot of chili, which is what our menu says for tonight. So when I got home, I asked the kids if they were in the mood to have breakfast for dinner. They get a kick out of eating cereal and eggs in the evening so they were happy with the suggestion. While Nina ate scrambled eggs and Rita filled herself with cheerios, I made my own dinner. 

Breakfast foods are what I crave when I want comfort food and this was just what I needed to restore my equilibrium tonight. I minced some onion and garlic and started them in olive oil in a skillet while I shredded and rinsed a big bunch of kale and Swiss chard from my farm share. I threw the wet greens in with the onions and garlic and then added some chicken stock, a little coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, and covered it to let it cook down. With the greens underway, I fried a farm-fresh egg over-easy (these are incredible eggs, a gift from chicken-raising friend, writer BJ Roche). Finally, I toasted up an English muffin and slathered it with butter. I served the egg over the greens and dotted the top with Sriracha chili sauce. When I cut into the egg with the side of my fork, the perfect, bright yellow yolk just oozed out over the greens. I was in heaven.

I know this is no one's idea of "cuisine," but for me this is one of the most satisfying meals that could land on my kitchen table. I am almost revived enough to make that pot of chili for tomorrow's dinner.

Fall dinner

As I'm stirring, Paul asks, "Aren't you sick of risotto?"

Stirring the risotto

"I don't think that's possible," I reply. We're making dinner. He is responsible for grilling the pork chops. I am making pumpkin risotto with smoked paprika and a side of sauteed zucchini.

I was driving home from work tonight, thinking about what to do for dinner (I swear that I do most of my best cooking while I'm in the car).
I knew I didn't have time to make pumpkin ravioli with Romesco sauce, which I have been craving. It will have to wait until the weekend. However, I really wanted to do something with the pumpkin from the farm share. I had baked, scraped and mashed it on Saturday.

While I was driving, I was thinking about the amazing dinner we had last night at Venus and the Cellar Bar, in our hometown of Easthampton, MA (I promise to write about it soon). I was re-living the quinoa risotto that I had savored, then I thought about the pumpkin puree in the fridge and thought, "Hmmm, that would work really well in risotto and would pair nicely with those chops."

For me, the act of making risotto is almost as wonderful as the eating of it. You saute minced onions in olive oil until they are translucent, then you add the arborio rice (one of the most versatile and luscious ingredients imaginable) and cook and stir until it glistens, then you slowly add the liquid - first some white wine, then some chicken stock and pumpkin puree - just a little at a time and keep stirring until it's incorporated, then you add some more - until it's absorbed about 3 cups of liquid per one cup of rice. Then, you finish it with at least a tablespoon of butter, a little coarse salt and some freshly cracked pepper.

The beauty of arborio rice is that it can handle being combined with an array of flavors. It takes them on and makes a subtle, complex dish. Tonight I made pumpkin risotto, seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin, allspice and a little cocoa powder. Another night, I might use soaking liquid from wild mushrooms, along with white wine and chicken stock and season it with sage. I've made scallop and saffron risotto and risotto with Parmesan, prosciutto and peas. I've had an incredible dish of risotto flavored with white truffle - subtle and spectacular. The rice itself lends itself to any number of combinations, becoming creamy and absorbing the flavors. It's really remarkable. Mostly what it takes to make a good risotto is patience.

Plate and present...

So, for our dinner tonight, Paul grilled the pork chops to perfection while I stirred the the risotto. I piled the rice on our plates and topped each with a chop. We ate the zucchini out of a communal bowl between us. And there it was, dinner.

P.S. Thanks to our friends, Lauren and Aidan, who invited our kids over for an impromptu dinner play date tonight. We owe you one.

Lazy morning breakfast

On the weekends, I'll often make a big batch of pancakes. I reheat the leftovers for a quick breakfast during the week, or I'll freeze them to use another time. This recipe is one of my family's favorites. They go over well when they are covered in maple syrup with some bacon on the side.

Carrot Cake Pancakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 TBSP granulated sugar
1 heaping TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP ground flax seed (optional)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash cloves

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 TBSP melted butter
1 medium carrot, finely grated

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Lightly beat the egg with the milk and butter, then add the grated carrot. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until just combined. Pour onto your pre-heated griddle. Serve. Eat.

Garden Overflow - Part I

Over the weekend, I started harvesting my pole beans. I plant two different kinds - the standard Kentucky Wonder and an heirloom variety, Rattlesnake Pole Beans. I get the Rattlesnakes from a friend who grows them and saves the seeds each year. I like to plant both varieties together and see what happens. Well, this year, what happened was a big crop!

Bringing in the goods.

Even after I shared some of the harvest with my neighbors, I still had a lot of beans. While I like to say that I've never met a vegetable I didn't like, my kids, unfortunately, do not have this same attachment to green things. This means I have three options: steam and freeze, give some to friends, or make a big batch of something that will last a while in the fridge and continue to improve in flavor over time (and take it for lunch all week). Luckily, I found Sheila Lukins's Three Bean Salad with Lemony Dressing from her U.S.A. Cookbook (1997, Workman Publishing). I mostly follow her recipe...

First you, clean, snap and steam a pound of beans. Then rinse them under cold water so they stop cooking.

These are the Rattlesnakes, aren't they gorgeous?

Unfortunately, they do lose the purple streaks after they are cooked.

Then you whip up a dressing of lemon juice and zest, dijon mustard, a little sugar, salt and pepper, and whisk in some olive oil. Put the green beans in a big bowl and add two other kinds of beans - I use red kidney beans and chick peas. To that you add some finely diced onion or scallions and parsley. Pour the dressing over the top and stir to combine.

I love how the dressing makes the salad glisten. It's sooo good!

Sunday Night Supper

I do try to plan out our weekly meals - even though I think I do better when I cook on the fly (hence the "Mama's choice" category). You can see here that on Sunday night we were planning for chili, so that's what we did.

We don't use the meal chart all of the time. I'm really not that organized...

My dinner - without cheese

This is skillet chili. First I cut up and sauteed some garlic and cheese sausage. Then I added onions, red and green peppers, and garlic, along with some cumin. Next in was a can of diced tomatoes and a can of pinto beans. I added chili powder, oregano and salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

I topped it with some fresh cilantro, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream. On the side there was homemade corn bread. Made with the recipe off the back of the Quaker corn meal container - except I replaced the oil with melted butter. A glass of Berkshire Brewing Company's Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale for the grown ups and water for the littles.

Paul's dinner  - with cheese

The three year old at least tried it. She's on the white food diet these days - bread, butter, cheese, bananas, the occasional apple (peeled of course). But, it did get rave reviews from my spouse, and the six year old kept saying, "Mama, I love your chili!" and then she asked to have it in her lunch the next day. That is high praise indeed.

Visions of Meals Gone By or Tales of Past Repasts

I have an odd habit of taking pictures of meals and dishes I've created. Maybe it's because the food tends to disappear in much less time than it takes to put it together and somehow I'd like to capture it before it goes. Maybe it's just because I'm obsessed with food and this is my version of porn (btw -I do call it food porn when I'm trolling my favorite foodie sites on the web). Either way, I've accumulated a lot of pictures of food and I thought I'd share a few here.

Ginger pear scone - funny thing, it began it's life as a recipe for cheddar-chive biscuits. It's strange how sometimes one recipe will just morph into something completely different.

.Swiss chard, ham and potato saute with onion and garlic. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow of the farm share.

This was a simple lunch of fennel, celery, carrots, onions, sauteed with mint and lemon and served over quinoa with a generous dusting of Parmesan cheese.

Crumble top carrot coffee cake with raisins

Smoked trout pate

We got a bunch of yellow watermelon at the farm. I pureed some with fresh mint, added simple syrup, a few squeezes of lemon and enough water to get it to the right consistency. Then I poured it over ice.

This is just a start, there's more to come... 

P.S. I want you to know that I do realize that words like saute and pate are supposed to have accents over the "e". I just haven't figured out how to make that work in Blogger - any tips on this?