Cauliflower, Broccoli, leek and Fava bean Salad

Luke, I am your Fava, where have you bean?!

Fava beans....always scared the hell out of me. Not that their disgusting or hard to cook, it's just that I didn't really grow up on them and to be honest (whats the point in lying about a damn pea looking bean thing) have only had them a few times in my life.

so this is a fly by the seat of my pants, quick salad that I think ruled!

what you need:

broccoli

cauliflower

leek

fava beans

lemon juice

EVOO

red pepper flakes

S&P

Step 1: blanch un-peeled fava beans till outer layer startes to turn a light color, pull out of water and put in a ice bath. Repeat with the broccoli and cauliflower (blanch till they are tender). 

Step 2: add a bit of EVOO into a pan and saute chopped leeks till they are soft.

Step 3: de-shell fava beans and add to the saute pan with the leeks, cooking for only a few moments.

Step 4: in a bowl add leeks and fava, then add broccoli and cauliflower (make sure to cut into bit sized pieces if you haven't already done so, otherwise it could be awkward).

Step 5: make the vinaigrette by adding 1:1 ratio of EVOO and lemon into the same pan you used to saute the leeks in- to that add the seasoning and whisk together, the residual heat from the pan is all you need, no need to return it to heat. Once vinaigrette is emulsified add to salad and give a toss! 

sorry for lack of photos, I have some how misplaced my memory card in the heat of the moment......iphone will have to suffice fava the time bean.....

Creamy Potato, Fennel, Celery root Soup!

warm, easy and nutritious....shall I say more? 

What you need:

2 1/2 C. Cubed peeled yukon gold potatoes 

1 C. Celery root peeled/cubed

1 Bulb Fennel diced and divided

1 Leek (white part) chopped

1 shallot 

2 cloves garlic

2 T. EVOO

1 T. butter 

6 C. hot broth (veggie or chicken)

1/2 C. white wine (optional)

1/2 C. Soy/Almond milk

1 tsp Cumin

pinch of red pepper flakes

fresh parsley and sage

Step 1: Heat 1 T. EVOO in a heavy bottom pot, add in leek and sweat about 6 min. Then add butter, finely chopped shallots, garlic and 1/2 chopped fennel bulb, cook for a few more min. until browning starts to happen throw in S&P at this time.

Step 2: Add in celery root and 2 C. potatoes, gently sauté for a few min.

Step 3: Raise heat and de-glaze pan with white wine, a little at a time until absorbed. You will start to notice the starches being released and becoming almost sticky.

Step 4: Add in 4 cups of broth and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover for 30min.

Step 4.5: While you are simmering get out a saute pan and add 1 T. EVOO and remaining potatoes and chopped fennel, allow to saute till lightly caramelized.

Step 5: Once veggies are tender blend quickly (this meaning don't over blend unless you want glue)

Step 6: Bring puree back to stove and a gentle heat, add in milk and the gradually add remaining broth until it gets to a consistency you like, dump in sauteed potatoes and fennel, add cumin, red pepper flakes, fresh herbs and S&P to taste, cook on med. heat till potatoes are completely soft.

Step 7: put in bowl and garnish with fresh herbs and creme fraiche or croutons if desired.

bon!

King Trumpet and his merry friend Spaghetti!

When I hear the name king trumpet mushrooms I have flashbacks to this weird place in San Diego, but unlike waffles with a crown these are actually very meatie fungus sans crown...confusing? Not really, I am just typing for typing sake...anyways here is what I did with some majestic King Trumpets last night...I thought it was pretty damn good!

What you need:

1/2 lb. King Trumpet Mushrooms

2 Tlbs EVOO

2 Tlbs Butter

1 Shallot chopped

1 Stalk green garlic or 3 cloves garlic chopped

fresh oregano, parsley and thyme roughly chopped

a splash of lemon

enough pasta for 2 or 1 really hungry person (any strand pasta would be fine)

Step 0: boil a pot of water give it a bunch of salt

Step 1: in a large saute pan add EVOO, and toss in shallots cook till tender.

Step 2: add in garlic, butter and a pinch of salt- saute till lightly brown NOT BURNT!

Step 2.5: put pasta in rapidly boiling water, cook till just above al dente

Step 3: toss in mushrooms (if they are long and thick, slice down the center, smaller ones leave whole) cook for 5-7min. until lightly brown, reduce heat.

Step 4: you will notice the mushrooms sucking in all the moisture from the pan, at this point add your lemon juice and rough chopped herbs. (you can also de-glaze with a bit of white wine if you have some, I didn't so that's why I am not including it).

when pasta is ready...don't drain!

Step 5: bring pan heat back and add pasta straight from pot to pan with mushrooms, toss lightly, then grab 1 C. of pasta water and gradually add to the Mushroom/pasta pan,  at first it should be absorbing quickly if not the pan is too low, toss pasta gently and allow to cook for a few moments- add more liquid if you prefer more of a sauce-add S&P to taste and red peppers if you like a bit of punch.

Step 6: Place pasta in a bowl and sprinkle with Parm.

delish!

POM-mond Feta Salad

No Dinner is complete without a Salad, however I am really into the K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) style of Salads; I hate it when I find the kitchen sink in a leaf of lettuce. This salad is simple but delicious, the creaminess of the sheep's feta and the nice textual elements from the pom arils and almonds really work well together. I made this salad for 8, please use your discretion for the amount and measurements you want.

What you need:

Field Greens

Toasted and chopped Almonds

Pomagranate Arils

Valbreso or any Sheep's Milk Feta 

Pepper

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Vinaigrette:

POM Wonderful Juice

Walnut Oil

squeeze of brown mustard

EVOO

dash of Apple cider vinegar

Step 0: Toast and chop raw almonds, set aside.

Step 1: Rinse and place greens in a large mixing bowl.

Step 2: Add Almonds, Feta and Arils to greens. Sprinkle with pepper.

Step 3: make vinaigrette by adding 1/4-1/2 C. POM Juice, cider vinegar, and mustard into a bowl, then whisk in EVOO and Walnut Oil (equal parts about 1-2 T ea.). Finish with S&P and add to salad.

Step 4: Give the Salad a toss and serve on plates.

Enjoy!

Check out my POM Wonderful dinner party here!

Blini with Creamed Goat Cheese and Mascarpone Spread with Pomegranate Caviar

Blini are essentially small buckwheat pancakes from Russia, commonly they are topped with real caviar and sour cream; I am not to into common, more jazz hands and pizzaz!

I had made these show stomping appetizer for my Pom Wonderful dinner party last week, when racking my brain over what I should serve I realized I didn't want the same old bread and dip type of stuff; I wanted to create something that made the pomegranates shine and hold their own. The combination of the pomegranate caviar, creamy cheese, and the soft pancake really lent its self to a bright and textually pleasing bite, with a fun pop of pomegranate seeds to finish it off. 

Complex, but not uptight. Like me. Wait....

Blini

What you need:

1 C. Buckwheat flour

14 oz. Sour Cream

.7 oz fresh yeast (I used dried yeast)

1 tsp Sugar

•••••••••••••••••••

3/4 C. Milk

1 tsp Salt

2 T melted Butter

1 egg yolk

1 egg white

Step 0: prep your yeast if you are using dry.

Step 1: Heat Sour Cream till it is warm, then add Sugar and yeast.

Step 2: In a mixing bowl (with a lid if you have one) add Buckwheat flour and sour cream contents (remember always wet to dry never reverse). Mix.

kinda messy, oops!

Step 3: Leave on the counter covered for about 2 hours or do like I did and put it in the fridge over night. Helps brake up a full day cooking mania!

this is what it looks like right after you mix.

Step 3.5: Take the dough out from the fridge and let it get back to room temp.

this is the scary post fridge version. I like to call it "when yeast attacks"!

Step 4: Heat Milk, Butter and salt in a pan, add to the dough and mix. Mix egg yolk and add that into the dough. 

Step 5: Whisk egg white into peaks, fold into dough. Your batter may look slightly runny, don't worry.

Step 6: Heat non-stick griddle or if using a pan add a bit of butter. Make silver dollar sized pancakes, flip when batter stops making bubbles. Remove and let cool.

Creamed Goat Cheese and Mascarpone Spread:

Step 1: In a mixer add goat cheese, mascarpone, and a dollop of sour cream (if you have any left over from the blinis) blend till smooth. 

Step 2: Put cream in a piping bag (or zip lock bag with corner cut off) and pipe your beautiful pancakes, make sure the pancakes aren't too hot or they will melt the cheese.

Pomegranate Caviar

Step 1: Remove fresh ariels from a fresh Pomegranate, place 3-4 on top of cheese mixture.

Step 2: Serve, Eat and be Admired!

Check out the full POM Party Here!

The blini recipe was borrowed from www.glutenfreeday.com

Pomegranate Dolmas!

What's this? Vegetarian Dolmas that aren't boring and lacking in texture?! No way! But it is true...while working on my Pom Wonderful Dinner party I was trying to come up with a way to incorporate pomegranates in a meaningful historical context, most of my meal has a very Middle Eastern/Mediterranean feel, but my California vibe... 

translation: pomegranate dolmas....

what you need:

1 C. Long Grain Brown Rice (cooked) 

1 Lemon Zested

2 Lemons Juiced

1 shallot finely chopped

1/2 C. Fresh Mint chopped

1/2 C. Pomegranate Ariels

2 Green Onions chopped

S&P to taste

Cumin (a dash)

Paprika (a dash)

EVOO

Tea Kettle full of hot water

30-40 Grape Leaves (in a jar, don't let Whole Foods tell you they don't have them, because they do, next to the pickles!)

Step 0: un-jar and un-wind grape leaves, place in a shallow dish and pour hot water over, cover and start working on the filling.

Step 1: In a large pan heat 2 T. EVOO, saute shallots till they are soft. Remove from heat and add cooked rice, lemon zest, 1 lemons worth of juice, mint, green onions, Pomegranate Seeds, cumin, paprika, and S&P to taste. Mix till all of the rice is coated with Olive Oil.

Step 2: Drain and rinse leaves. Place in a bowl and clear out the shallow dish, you will be placing the dolmas in it.

Step 3: The Making of...place 1 leaf or enough broken pieces that equal one leaf in front of you, veins up and stem towards you. place about 1/2-1 T. worth of filling in the center.

Step 4: The Fold: fold both side ends in then roll up from the bottom. Place them in the dish stem side down. Make sure you crowed the dolmas, they hate having room. Fortunately for me my boyfriend is a dolma rolling wizard, he graced me with his skills and worked on them while I took a much needed chill pill.

excuse the messy kitchen, I was marathon cooking.

Step 5: Once they are all done, cover with more lemon juice and a drizzle of EVOO, followed by more boiling water (just to cover). Cover with foil and place in a 250˚ oven for about an hour. You want them to simmer and get soft. Once they cool transfer them to a smaller dish, drizzle with more lemon and EVOO and place in the fridge. 

the ugly ones are most likely mine.

Deux Cheese and Green Quiche!

I was having a hankering for quiche last night, and figured what the hell, why don't I try and make my own. Never done it before but how hard can it be? I looked online for recipe after recipe and in every cookbook I own, everyone has their different take on it. One thing I did realize that cream is usually used and anywhere from 2-4 eggs. Since I wanted the richness of cream but not cream I used whole milk and a few dollops of goat cheese to thicken it up. I got a pretty clear consensus that my quiche kicked some major taste bud butt! 

Crust! Prepare a pie crust before you start this, here is my recipe it's pretty simple and the steps can be done while you are sautéing and custarding. Remember you will want to par bake your crust at 400˚ for about 10 min. and let it cool before adding the filling. You can cheat and use a box, but essentially making one from scratch will be about the same amount of time, and you will be putting less unknown ingredients into your body.

What you need for the filling:

1 1/2 C. Whole Milk

Bunch of Spinach

Bunch of Kale or other Green

1 Leek

Pepper

Mushrooms

3 Large Eggs or 4 small

1 Tomato

1 Clove Garlic

1 oz. Goat Cheese

1/2 C. Cheddar (or cheese of choice)

S&P

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

mixed fresh herbs of choice (parsley, thyme, oregano, marjoram, sage)

EVOO

Step 0: Pre-heat oven to 375˚ and start your pie crust.

Step 1: Chop and rinse Leeks and saute in 1 T EVOO, once they are soft add garlic. DON'T BURN!

Step 2: Add Chopped Mushrooms, peppers and greens (cut greens into thin ribbons and rinse well) to the saute pan a pinch of S&P, cook till all of the excess water is out. In the meantime start the custard.

Step 3: The Custard! Gently whisk Eggs, then lightly mix together Goat Cheese, Milk and Herbs S&P and Nutmeg.

Step 4: Building! On a cooled Pie Crust sprinkle some shredded cheese on the bottom, then add sauteed green mixture, more cheese and then the custard. 

crust, cheese, greens, cheese

custard on top

Step 5: Put in oven for 30 min. when the quiche is at the 20min. mark remove and place sliced tomatoes on top, sprinkle with pepper. Put back in oven for the remaining time or until it is brown and firm to the touch.

out of the oven par cooked

par cooked with tomatoes

Step 6: Remove from oven and cool, slice and serve with a salad to someone you love!

cooling

ready to eat!

 and for your listening enjoyment my favorite song about Quiche!

Urban Peasant Soup

I often get home pretty late from work and the idea of soup sounds great, but very time consuming...however loaded with pre-made chicken stock in my freezer and veggies dying to be used I just decided to go for it. This soup is super hearty and reasonably quick. I have decided to use buckwheat groats since they are a no fail type of grain, they won't get too soft for left overs like most rice, and they have a nice earthy flavor that lends itself to this type of urban peasant soup. You can use practically any type of earthy vegg. you have laying around and any type of broth IE mushroom, veggie, chicken...water?

You may be asking yourself what a Buckwheat groat is exactly, well in in short they have a texture similar to rice and are most commonly known as kasha, they are gluten-free, cheap and cook pretty quickly. 

What you need:

Mushrooms (crimini, shitake, trumpet)

Kale

Broccoli Rabe (stems and leaves)

Two Turnips and a microphone...

garlic

leaks

Carrots

potatoes (fingerling)

sweet peppers

3-4 C. Broth (chicken)

1/2 C. Buckwheat Groats

S&P

cumin

bay leaves

fresh mixed herbs from the garden

EVOO

Step 0: Heat your stock to a boil, you will be using it later.

Step 1: Heat a pot on med with 1 T of EVOO, clean leaks and throw in pot. Once leaks are soft add 3 cloves of chopped garlic, chopped mushrooms and all herbs cook for a couple of minutes.

 Step 2: Chop remaining root vegetables and stems of broccoli rabe into bite sized pieces and throw into the pot- cook for about 10 min, till their natural starches and juices begin to release and they start to get soft and cumin and S&P to taste, be generous with the seasonings.

Step 3: Rinse and add greens to the pot, wilt down- this should take 2 min.

Step 4: Add Buckwheat groats and hot broth to the pot, you want enough broth to cover the vegetables about 2" the groats will expand. Cook to a rapid simmer for about 20 min. till groats are puffy and al-dente 

Step 5: Spoon into a bowl and add chopped parsley and/or fresh grated parm.

Enjoy!