Escarole with Chickpeas

I picked up escarole from my grocery, largely because it was the only leafy green that was on sale. I had seen it on menus and in things before, but had never cooked with it personally.

I borrowed the recipe from "Ezra Pound Cake" which I found through Foodgawker. It combines the leafy and slightly bitter escarole with raisins and caramelized onions. I replaced the raisins with dried cranberries.

I'd definitely make this again. The chickpeas and cranberries really complemented the greens well and made it a hearty dish.

Mango Smoothie

Mango mango mangoes! Mangos are definitely one of my favorite fruits. So when I saw them on sale, I definitely bought too many - and they were all ripe. So hence today's recipe, which combines mangos and other fruits into a delectable smoothie (or shake, depending how you think about it).

Mango Smoothie
Yields 4 cups - 2 large servings

2 ripe mangoes
2/3 banana
1 apple
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened yogurt
Optional: 3 tablespoons vanilla ice cream (it had to be eaten - it was getting all crystallized. So sue me.)

1. Peel the banana, core and cut your apple into large chunks. Toss into the trusty blender and pulse a few times.
2. Peel and dice the mango - this will be messy. Toss into blender with the yogurt, milk, and maybe the ice cream. Blend until smooth.
3. For a thinner shake, use more milk. For a thicker shake, use more ice cream, ice, or less ripe mango.
4. Enjoy!

Zucchini "Pasta"

Zucchini is a really versatile vegetable. I love its texture and its light sweetness and you can use it for practically anything. I've incorporated zucchini into stir fry, crudités (as in raw), tempura fried, as stuffing for peppers, and its often used in baking. The zucchini fruit is low in calories (approximately 15 food calories per 100 g fresh zucchini) and contains useful amounts of folate, potassium, manganese, and vitamin A. 


Zucchini pasta actually does not include ANY pasta. Instead, the zucchini is julienned into thin strips and cooked quickly so that the zucchini obtains the flexibility and texture of spaghetti. Technically, this is a more difficult dish - especially if you don't have a mandolin - and will require really good knife skills. Or, you can cheat and use a vegetable peeler. Note that the recipe can easily be made gluten free by omitting the homemade croutons.

Zucchini "Pasta"
Makes 2 side dish sized portions


1 zucchini
1 tomato
1/2 red onion (or 4 inches of leek for me)
Olive oil
1 mozzarella stick
2 slices white bread
Handful walnuts

1. Prep ingredients. Mince garlic. Slice onion (leek) into thin strips. Julienne the zucchini into linguine sized strips. Dice tomatoes and a mozz stick. Dice bread (think croutons) and chop walnuts. To make the zucchini and leek uniform in size, take a vegetable peeler and make long even strokes. This way, you get even lengthwise slices, which you can slice into narrower strips on a cutting board. This works great with leeks, carrots, and other fibrous vegetable. This cannot be done with the onion, however, as they have too much water.
2. Turn saute pan to medium heat. Add a teaspoon of butter. Toast bread and walnuts until crunchy and fragrant. Sprinkle with salt and oregano.
3. Remove croutons and walnuts from pan, allow to cool on a plate lined with a paper towel. Try to avoid eating them all while cooking zucchini.
4. In same pan, add a teaspoon and a half olive oil. Saute garlic and onion/leek. 
5. Allow to cook until translucent, then add tomatos and zucchini. Cook until zucchini is soft. Immediately remove from heat and plate (the zucchini will continue to cook). Top with diced mozzarella, croutons, and walnuts.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta (Ratatouille Version)

I love roasted vegetables, but I'm not a fan of waiting forever or using the oven for just one purpose. So I like to make this recipe when I'm baking or toasting and maximize my home's utility. This pasta dish is super easy and you can literally forget about it in the oven, which makes it almost fool proof!

The roasted vegetable pasta can be served hot or cold. Since there is no sauce, there shouldn't be any worry about overly soggy pasta. Mix and match your favorite vegetables and toss in fresh herbs as desired.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta (Ratatouille Version)
Serves 3 entree portions, up to 6 side portions
Cook time: 2 hours (really you're only working 30 min)

1 small eggplant
1 zucchini
2 red peppers
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
Teaspoon dried basil (or several large leaves of fresh)
Half teaspoon dried oregano
Half teaspoon paprika
Teaspoon salt (add more to taste)
2.5 cups dry elbow or bow tie pasta
Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Optional: mozzarella cubes, sage, diced onion, fresh tomato, mushrooms, etc

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the middle.
2. Wash and prep the vegetables. Cut the eggplant and zucchini into 3/4 inch cubes. Slice red peppers into 2 inch long strips. Basically, keep things around the same size as your pasta. Crush and rough chop the garlic.
3. Toss the vegetables and garlic into a glass baking dish. Slowly drizzle two tablespoons olive oil over the vegetables, then season the vegetables with the basil, oregano, paprika, and salt. Mix. Drizzle with more oil until all vegetables are coated evenly. Try to keep all the vegetables in a spread out, thin layer in the pan. Scrape vegetables away from the sides of the dish.
4. Roast the vegetables for 40 minutes. Take out the vegetables, stir the mixture, pat down into a thin layer, and continue baking for 20 minutes, until all vegetables are tender. (I needed a smidge more baking time than this, so do tweak as you see fit)
5. While the vegetables finish roasting, prepare pasta as per instructions. (Usually, 2 quarts water to boil with a teaspoon of salt. Toss in pasta, stir, and cook until al dente, or cooked through with some chew still in it). Drain and rinse under cold water to stop cooking process. Toss to avoid it sticking together.
6. In a large serving dish, spread drained pasta. Add the vegetable mix (including any residual olive oil/veggie matter) to the pasta and mix well. The olive oil in the veggies should keep the pasta from sticking to itself.
7. Add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, mix, and taste. Tweak seasonings as you see fit.
8. Add mozzarella, parmesan, or whatever you like! Serve hot or cooled.

Pear and Walnut Brown Rice

Today's post is inspired by... cafeteria food! Last week they had this awesome wild rice with pecans and apple - it was fresh, just a pinch sweet, and had a great richness because of the nuts. It reminds me a little of stuffing, but cleaner and completely vegetarian. I've decided to adapt it for my kitchen and I bet you'll love it too!

Pear and Walnut Brown Rice
Makes about 3 side servings

1 cup brown rice
2 cups water (or as otherwise directed by the instructions for your rice)
1 pear, washed and diced into cm cubes, skin on
2 handfuls crushed walnuts (so they're smaller than the pear cubes)
1 handful dried cranberries

1. Prepare your rice as per the package. Mine says take 1 cup rice to two cups water and boil, then immediately turn down to a simmer. Mine cooked in about 15 minutes (because I let it boil a bit too long - oops!).
2. While the rice is simmering and the water is mostly evaporated and absorbed, toss the dried cranberries on top. 
3. Dice the pear. Heat up a separate skillet and toast the walnuts a smidge. (a teaspoon of oil in a hot skillet, toss in nuts, turn and coat in the pan on medium heat. Toast until fragrant)
4. When the rice is done, add the pear and stir to incorporate. Serve and top with walnuts. (If you add the walnuts in too early, they won't be crunchy later!)

Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche

A few weeks back I reaaaaaaaaaaally wanted to make chicken pot pie. So I bought pie crust and all the ingredients and made a really awesome filling! Then I went to preheat the oven and... it was dead. Suanne was sad. Really really sad.

So then the oven got fixed, but Suanne had gone through all the chicken stew. So what to do with the pie crust?

Spinach Quiche
Makes 3 small servings


Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, made into paste
2 sundried tomatoes, minced
6 mushrooms, cut into cubes
1 1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach
Dried basil, oregano, salt
1 mozzarella stick, shredded and chopped
1 roll pie crust (Pillsbury for me!)
3 jumbo eggs
1/4 cup milk
dash sriracha

1. Heat tablespoon olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add garlic and dried tomatoes. (Optional: add sausage or bacon here)
2. Reduce heat to medium after garlic is fragrant. Add frozen spinach. When mostly defrosted and loose, add mushrooms, basil, oregano. Cook on medium heat until the majority of water has evaporated (or you get runny quiche). In the meantime...
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Move the rack to the middle of the oven.
4. Prepare your ramekins (the ceramic dishes you see souffle come in?). I used three 3-inch-wide ramekins which were about 3.5 inches deep. Use wider and shallower ramekins for easier cooking! Take the pie crust and divide into 3 equal triangles. Trim the triangles to create a crust for each ramekin. Pinch and remove crust as needed to flatten crusts flush to the sides.
5. Crack your eggs into a bowl and beat. Add the 1/4 cup milk and dash of sriracha. Mix well.
6. If necessary, season the filling with salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to add a little more salt - the egg will soak up a lot of it.
7. Spoon filling into the pie-crust ramekins (don't pack it down). Mix in shredded cheese.
8. Pour egg mixture into the ramekins - fill just enough to cover the filling. Do not fill all the way to the top - the egg expands and may overflow! 
9. Take a deep baking dish and place the ramekins in. Add water into the baking dish until the water is a) halfway up the baking dish or b) halfway up the sides of the ramekins (whichever comes first). Adding water to the dish helps the ramekins distribute heat, prevents messy spills from quiche volcanoes, as well as keeps the baking dish from warping in the oven.
10. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a chopstick/toothpick inserted through the middle comes out clean and not goopy with uncooked egg. If using a wider/shallower ramekin, try lowering the heat to 400 degrees and bake for 15 and check frequently.
11. Remove from the oven and let cool. Be really really careful removing the baking dish from the oven - please don't spill boiling water over yourself. If you're paranoid, let the whole thing cool in the oven.

Clam and Cabbage Soup

Chinese people have a communal meal called "huo guo" (hot pot) or "dai been loh" which is basically a lot of people sitting around a soup pot. The take turns tossing things in and taking them out and trying them with various sauces. Its not very exciting culinary-wise, but its very satisfying socially.

Today's dinner was borne of a conversation about hot pot. I was nostalgic and wanted to make my own hot pot for one (with maybe some leftovers).

Clam and Cabbage soup
Serves one

5 live clams (I love clams, I bought manila today)
6 leaves napa cabbage (its light green and oval in shape. Sweet and soft in soup. Bok choy is also great)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 generous coin ginger
1 clove garlic smashed
1 pinch red chili pepper flakes
1 scallion, sliced thinly in coins (cilantro or parsley are also great)
Optional:
1 serving noodles (egg noodles for me but vermicelli is great for this!)
3 ounces cubed tofu for extra meatiness
Spinach or watercress if you want extra green

1. 30 minutes in advance, brush the clam shells under running water to remove sand. Then soak the clams in cold water to allow the clams to open up and you to get any extra sand out of the inside.
2. Meanwhile, take out two pots - one for the soup, and one to just steam the clams. (The clam pot should be wider rather than tall as we want the clams to sit in a single layer.) Place the chicken broth in one and bring to a simmer as you prep other ingredients.
3. Wash and chop your napa into 1 inch slices, cut the coin of ginger, smash the garlic, and slice the scallion.
4. Toss in the garlic and the napa into the pot and let it all simmer.
5. Take the other pot and toss in 1/2 a cup of water. (Personally I'm using beer, you can also use white wine). Add the garlic and red chili and bring to a simmer. Place the clams in a single layer and cover.
6. Come back in 2 minutes and see if they have opened. If not, cover and give it another minute. If the clams don't open on their own, don't force it open - it may be dead and full of sand!!
7. Shake the clams in the remaining water/alcohol to remove any remaining sand. Transfer the open clams to the soup pot. Take the residual clam brine and pour through a coffee filter into another bowl. Add as desired to soup stock. (I promise its delish!)
8. Top with scallion, add salt and pepper as desired. Serve.