Kid-Friendly Recipe: Pasta with Browned Butter

This is the best thing there is. Period. End of discussion.

Grace’s hippie sister here, popping in with a quick, kid-friendly recipe.

Remember when you were little, and you hated spaghetti sauce, so you’d bug the crap out of your mom to get her to let you eat noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese instead? Yeah, our mom wouldn’t let us do that very often, either. Most of my adult life has revolved around doing crap Mom wouldn’t let me do when I was little.

The whole skip-the-sauce-and-go-straight-for-the-noodles thing gained an air of legitimacy about 10 years ago, when I had my first encounter with the Old Spaghetti Factory’s awesome spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra cheese, which — the menu assured us — was a great favorite of Homer (the blind poet from ancient Greece, not the fat guy from The Simpsons) while he was writing The Odyssey. As an English teacher, I considered this complete justification for eating as much of the stuff as I wanted.

I was pretty amped when the Old Spaghetti Factory decided to share its recipe for this awesomeness in the Riverfront Times’ annual cookbook. I was even more amped when I found out how ridiculously easy it was to make.

This is the part you throw away. Unless you're me, in which case you savor its salty, buttery goodness while nobody's looking.

Start your pasta. I like capellini because it cooks fast and has a nice texture, but a fatter pasta will work just as well. While the pasta cooks, melt a stick of butter — realbutter, not margarine or “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Toxic Waste” or whatever else you’ve got — over low heat. Stirring constantly, bring the butter to a boil. It will froth and bubble and do all kinds of outrageous things. Just keep stirring until it settles down, takes on an amber color, and smells like heaven. At this point, remove it from the heat and pour it through a strainer to remove any scorched solids. (Have you ever eaten browned butter residue out of a strainer? If not, then, uh, I haven’t either.)

Cheese + butter = awesome.

Drain your pasta, top with embarrassing amounts of grated cheese — the restaurant uses mizithra, a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk that tastes better than anything else on the planet, but Parmesan will work just fine in a pinch — and drizzle with the browned butter. One stick of butter makes two servings. Unless you’re me, in which case, we’re going to need a bigger boat.

Seasonal Recipe: Homemade Salsa

Snack of champions: chips and homemade salsa.

Grace’s hippie sister, Emily, here, surfacing for the first time in months to share a recipe that should come in handy for anybody who has a vegetable garden (or a neighbor with a garden).

That’s right, kids: It’s salsa time.

Use an entire head of garlic. Seriously.

Start by throwing a big handful of cilantro (one bunch from the grocery store or whatever you have in your garden will do) into a food processor and pulsing it until it’s nice and fine and feathery. Next, take a head of garlic, separate and peel the cloves, cut off the ends, and throw ’em into the food processor. Give ’em a good whirl to mince them, then add hot peppers to taste. Four serranos will give you a nice medium-hot salsa; adjust the quantity to suit your taste, and feel free to substitute whatever peppers you prefer (or need to use up).

I like red onions, but red or yellow will work as well.

Next, add three cored, quartered bell peppers in any color and a peeled, quartered onion, processing after each addition. Add the juice of two or three small limes — proportions aren’t critical, but you want to get a little extra acid in there for canning purposes — and process to mix.

Tomatillos look like little green tomatoes with husks.

If you can put your hands on some tomatillos, peel and core about five of them and add them to the mix at this point. If you can’t, don’t worry about it; they aren’t absolutely necessary, but they do add a nice flavor if you happen to have them. Process, then dump the mixture into a large bowl to make room in the food processor for your tomatoes.

Core and quarter about three pounds of tomatoes (Romas are ideal, but any kind will do; just be aware that the juicier varieties will make a finished product that’s more like picante sauce than salsa) and chop them in the food processor.

Now, here is a neat trick: If you have extra cucumbers that you need to use up, you can add a couple to your salsa at this point, and nobody will be any the wiser. Just chop them finely and stir them in. You’ll never notice them by the time they’ve absorbed the other flavors. You could probably do this with zucchini, too, although I wouldn’t use too much, lest it compromise the texture.

Unless your food processor is huge, you'll have to do half the tomatoes at a time.

Stir everything together in a huge bowl. At this stage, the salsa will probably look kind of bubbly and unappealing. Remedy this by stirring in ground cumin until the froth goes away, then stirring in chili powder until the color looks nice and red.

Salsa cans well in a boiling-water bath.

You can either eat the salsa now or pack it into clean pint jars with an inch of headspace and process in a boiling-water bath for 15 minutes. Serve nice and cold with plenty of tortilla chips or fresh vegetables for dipping. Makes about three quarts.

I like to bring this salsa to office parties. It always impresses people, and it’s safe for vegetarians, diabetics, and various other dieters, especially if you bring celery sticks and cucumber slices for low-carb dipping.

Vegetarian Recipe: Linguine Pesto

Like dining out, only cheaper. And faster.

Grace’s hippie sister, reporting in from Oklahoma with a knockoff of a recipe from her favorite upscale Italian restaurant.

I knew I’d spent way too much time hanging out with Italians when I caught myself adding red wine and olive oil to a batch of Hamburger Helper.

Grace and I grew up surrounded by Italians: Alegnanis, Berras, Calcaterras, Camaratos, Cerniglias, Colombos, Dell’Eras, DeTomasis, Ferraris, Garavalias, Garegnanis, Garnatis, Gualdonis, Marlows, Pisonis, Quaglias, Ranchinos, Sollamis, Spezias, Trapanis, Venegonis … you get the idea.

Somehow, I managed to land in Tulsa — where the Mexican and Lebanese influences tend to dominate the culinary landscape — but while you can take the girl out of Herrin, apparently you can’t take Herrin out of the girl: A cursory glance at the cabinets on a recent Friday afternoon revealed that while I was out of milk, bread, and most other staples, I had plenty of garlic, two kinds of olive oil, and at least seven different types of pasta on hand.

I heard the basil plant on my windowsill calling my name, so I pinched off some leaves and broke out the food processor. It was pesto time.

Seasonal Recipe: Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

For a text-only version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

This was so tempting I forgot to take a photo until after I’d already eaten half of my brownie. My bad.

So I casually posted my status on Facebook yesterday as “pumpkin cheesecake brownies in the oven…”, and by bedtime I had a whole list of messages from friends asking for the recipe.

I guess they just really sound like a good idea. Which, incidentally, they are. So, here goes…

Cheap Recipe: Broiler-Kissed Apricots & Sweet Vanilla Glaze

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

This glaze could make an old army boot palatable. So just imagine what it does for farmstand-fresh fruit.

I picked up some fresh apricots at Save-A-Lot the other day. They seemed so bright and cheery and just, well, summer-y.

Until I took a bite. Yowsa, were they sour!

I don’t mean a little tart, either. I mean that type of sour bite at which your tonsils spontaneously cramp up, clench down, and begin to twist inward on themselves as they create a gravitational singularity within the event horizon you previously referred to as your neck.

A black hole of sourness just devoured my tonsils. (Photo from gwu.edu)

That’s right. I’m talking “your-digestive-system-just-became-a-black-hole” SOUR.

And yet, they still looked good. They had plenty of flavor and a good, firm texture, if one could just get past that whole sourness issue–which, with a little creativity and some homemade vanilla syrup, I finally did.

The easy solution with sour fruit is to peel it, slice it, sugar it up, and leave it sitting out until it makes its own juice. The problem with that method, however, is that 99 percent of the time, your fruit comes out of its sugar bath completely limp and texture-less. Not to mention that it takes forever.

Cut apricots in half, leaving skin on but removing pits.

My way is quicker, healthier (leaves more pectin/fiber intact for your body to break down), and makes for a perfectly festive little summer side dish/dessert.

Flip upward to retain more firmness & tartness.

Convert oven to BROIL setting and turn on. Slice 6 fresh apricots in half, leaving the peels on. Remove pits.

Place apricot halves in a deep, broiler-safe pan. (In retrospect, the ceramic dish I used probably is not considered broiler-safe, so you might want to stick with metal or glass.)

Now, depending on how soft or firm you prefer your fruit (and how ripe it was to begin with), you can prepare the apricots one of two different ways: 1.) Arrange halves pit-side-up to keep a firmer bite, or 2.) flip them over (pit-side-down) to absorb more moisture and soften up.

Rest centers face-down for a softer, sweeter result.

After placing the apricots in the pan, take a measuring cup with a spout and fill with about 1/2 cup very hot tap water. (Or you can take lukewarm water and nuke it for about 45 seconds.)

Vanilla, sugar and hot water are all you need for this easy syrup.

To the water, add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (cheap imitation will do fine, too). That may seem like a lot of vanilla. And you’re right. It is.  🙂

Stir the mixture until sugar dissolves, forming a thin syrup. Pour syrup over the apricots in the pan.

Drizzle apricots with the warm syrup before broiling.

If you’re broiling them center up, Be sure to fill the pit cavities with liquid. Pour over all parts of apricots and allow syrup to collect in the bottom of the pan surrounding the fruit.

If you want, you can garnish the centers with smaller fruits (like berries) at any point, but you might want to let the apricots broil a few minutes first before adding; the berries tend to broil (and scorch) faster than the firm apricots.

Garnish with berries if desired.

(You can alternatively just garnish the completely cooked fruit with berries after it comes out of the oven, or leave the garnish out altogether. Doesn’t matter.)

 By the way, your kitchen will smell SO heavenly when the broiler temps hit that vanilla sauce, too. Man, oh man. You may feel your cheeks flushing red, it smells so wonderfully delicious.

Serve as a side dish alongside cottage cheese or green salad; or spoon a little bit of whipped cream over it for a fresh, light dessert. I served mine in place of applesauce alongside a slow-cooked pork roast (shown below).

Adding color and variety to a platter of seasoned pork roast.

(Cheap) Low-Carb Recipe: Java Latte Mushroom Sauce

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

We were having flank steak for dinner last week and I wanted to try something new. I almost always cover it with onions, mozzarella and green peppers, which is one of my favorite low-carb options, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to think outside the box for one night and experiment a bit.

So glad I did, too. Hubby raved about this sauce, and asked me if I would make it again soon. It was so simple and so rich–I’ll never use condensed mushroom soup in recipes again. And what a lovely way to serve coffee with cream, don’t you think?

Itsy bitsy veggie pieces.

Heat 4 Tbs. butter or margarine in a large, deep skillet. While butter warms, chop 1 celery rib and 1 small onion into very small bits.

♥Chef’s Note: Old celery is much easier to finely sliver than new celery. About 2-3 weeks old is best for making gravy and sauces; before it turns yellow, but after it starts to lose its rigidness. You can chop it so thinly you could read a newspaper through it! 🙂

Sliced, fresh mushrooms.

Throw the chopped vegetables into the hot butter and sautee over MEDIUM heat for a couple of minutes. Add a package of sliced fresh mushrooms (about 8-12 ounces) and about 1 tsp. minced garlic (or powder).

Stir-fry mushrooms with 1 tsp. dried oregano and add a healthy dash of hot sauce, if desired. Add salt/pepper to taste. When the vegetables have softened, pour about 2 cups leftover brewed coffee over the mixture, increase burner heat and bring to a simmer for about fifteen minutes, leaving the skillet uncovered.

Don't let leftover coffee go to waste!

(This is a good point to start broiling a steak if you’re serving it that way.)

Simmer until coffee is reduced.

When at least 1/3 of the liquid has evaporated from the sauce, reduce heat back to MEDIUM and stir in 1 cup heavy cream or whole milk. Evaporated milk would probably work well, too.

Continue to simmer uncovered, stirring every few minutes to prevent scorching.

At this point the sauce should resemble a thin gravy. The longer it simmers uncovered, the thicker it will become. It will also thicken a little more after being removed from heat, so keep that in mind.

You could easily pass this off as a soup appetizer, too!

If you’re serving the gravy over a London Broil, slice beef into slivers about 1/4″ thick and ladle gravy over the top. This would also be nice paired with baked or grilled chicken. For an even less expensive meal, heat roast beef lunchmeat and arrange on a plate and pour Java Latte Mushroom Sauce over the top.

Gravy on a low-carb diet! Who’d have thunk it?

Caution: Extremely rich and awesome.

Low-Carb Recipe: Pureed Cauliflower

Two main ingredients are all you need to make this yummy side dish.

Grace’s sister here, invading the kitchen with a quick recipe that is both low-carb and vegetarian.

On a trip to Santa Fe several years ago, my husband and I treated ourselves to dinner at the Coyote Cafe, where my dinner came with a serving of a soft, delicately flavored something-or-other that sort of looked like mashed potatoes but definitely wasn’t.

I’ve never forgotten that first encounter with pureed cauliflower — or my delight at discovering how easy it was to replicate the dish at home.

Like most cruciferous vegetables, cauliflower normally has a tendency to taste a little too … well … cruciferous. You can douse it with cheese sauce and mask part of that unappetizing smell that accompanies cooked brassicas like broccoli or cabbage, but at the end of the day, it’s still going to taste like a slightly less obnoxious version of broccoli.

Pureed cauliflower changes all that. I have no idea why, but when you drain it and run it through a food processor with a stick of butter, cauliflower takes on a flavor that is vaguely reminiscent of mashed potatoes, but smoother and more complex.

Process cooked cauliflower with a stick of butter.

Bonus: It’s incredibly cheap and simple to make. Start by dumping a bag of frozen cauliflower into a big saucepan and covering it with water. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer until the cauliflower is tender (usually 20 to 30 minutes), adding water as necessary to keep it from boiling dry and scorching.

Drain the cauliflower, dump it into a food processor, and add a stick of butter. (You can use less if you’re worried about fat content, but I like it good and rich.)

Process at high speed until the butter and cauliflower have blended into a thick puree and serve. If you’re a carnivore, this goes well with steak and salad; at our house, where the resident vegetarian (yours truly) does most of the cooking, we just swap the meat for a big pile of sauteed mushrooms and call it good.

This recipe stores well for make-ahead meals.

The finished product looks prettier if you serve it from nice dishes like Grace does, but I was cooking in advance, so mine went straight into an ugly Rubbermaid tub to be stored in the fridge until just before dinner, and it tasted so good that I forgot to photograph it on my plate before I ate it.

Pureed cauliflower is a good choice if you like to cook things ahead of time and store them for later use, as it will keep in the refrigerator for several days and can be reheated quickly in the microwave.

Low-Carb Recipe: Inside-Out Egg Rolls!

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

This ain't your grandmama's homemade cabbage roll. Unless she was a low-carb dieter back in the old school, of course. And also possibly Chinese.

Yesterday I couldn’t stand the cravings I had all day for a Chinese egg roll–a real, honest-to-blog, greasy, salty, chewy, “carby,” restaurant-style, deep-fried, now-I-can-meet-Jesus egg roll dinner.

But alas! I’m low-carbing it right now and eating such a sinful goodie;was a complete non-option.

Nonetheless, by the time I picked up the family and pulled into the driveway last night, I knew I had to try–one way or another.

An hour later, I was sure glad I did.

Cabbage leaves.

I’ve never been much on the standard Italian-seasoned, soup-covered, vintage beef & rice cabbage roll. But these…these were something else entirely. Not to brag or anything, but DANG was this a great idea!

Shred the remaining cabbage core.

Not only was the filling in these cabbage rolls a dead ringer for regular egg roll centers, it was easy to make, low-carb, lowfat, low-cal, and even vegetarian! And cooking them uncovered at half-time meant in addition to being speedier than their traditional counterparts, the rolls’ outer “shells” kept a wonderful firmness that separated them from your average, soggy, run-of-the-mill stuffed cabbage.

Toss cabbage, carrots, celery and green onions.

Chef’s Note: It is infinitely easier and produces infinitely prettier results if you freeze a head of cabbage overnight and then fridge-thaw & core it before peeling the giant leaves off for roll wrappers. Plus, you don’t have to waste time boiling the cabbage then, either.

Add eggs to filling and keep stir-frying until less wet.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and warm 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a large skillet over MEDIUM heat. While stove heats up, core a thawed, previously-frozen head of cabbage and remove stem.

Spoon filling mixture into each cabbage leaf.

Slowly peel away 8 to 10 large cabbage leaves, keeping them as much intact as possible but cutting away any stiff parts that were near the stem. (You want the leaves to be kind of floppy all around.)

Take the remaining portion of cabbage left on the head and shred it with a large knife. (You’ll get about 2 or 2-1/2 cups left on a medium-sized cabbage after stripping the best leaves.) Throw shredded cabbage in a large bowl.

To shredded cabbage, add about 1/3 cup shredded carrots (♥see note!), 1 petite-diced celery rib and 4 petite-diced green onions (scallions). Toss all of the chopped vegetables together.

Roll leaf around filling mixture.

♥Note: While carrots are generally discouraged during the induction phase of many low-carb diets (Atkins, South Beach, etc.), the small amount (1/3 cup or about 1-2 small handfuls) I used in this recipe is fairly benign, particularly when you look at a bag of shredded carrots and notice how much empty space is actually in that bag.

Meanwhile, if you feel uncomfortable having them in there during induction phase, just leave ’em out. It’s no biggie. They just add a little bit of extra texture and some welcome color to the filling, but they’re still expendable. Throw the veggies into your warm, oiled skillet. If you’re making this vegetarian (I did), add 1 cup dehydrated texturized vegetable protein (TVP)♥ (What’s TVP, you ask?) to the skillet, along with 1 cup of water.♥Chef’s Note: If TVP isn’t available at your discount store, you can easily make this recipe using a pound of ground turkey or other (ground) meat instead; just add it to the skillet first and throw in veggies once meat begins to brown.

Sprinkle stir-fry mixture with: 2 teaspoons ginger, 2 teaspoons minced garlic, 1 teaspoon Oriental 5-Spice Blend (or your own choice of cinnamon/nutmeg/anise/whatever), and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Shake in about 2 tablespoons soy sauce and crack 2 eggs into skillet. Break yolks immediately with spoon and continue to stir-fry until vegetables are tender but firm and TVP or meat has fully browned. (No pieces of egg should be discernible.) Remove skillet from heat.

Mix oil & soy sauce for basting.

Place 2-3 spoonfuls stir-fry mixture in the center of each cabbage leaf, stopping to roll each one before moving onto the next. To wrap, first roll leaf like a tube around the filling and then tuck each cabbage end underneath the “tube” you just made. Place rolls side by side, tucked side-down, in a greased baking dish.

Raw, basted cabbage rolls.

Baste the tops of the uncooked wraps with a mixture of 1 tablespoon oil & 1 teaspoon soy sauce before placing UNCOVERED into hot oven.

Browned & ready to eat!

Bake approximately 25 minutes, or until cabbage glows bright green and filling mixture can be seen through the now-translucent leaves.

Remove from oven; use tongs to distribute rolls onto plates. Allow to cool about 2 minutes before eating. Freeze or refrigerate leftovers.

Inside-out is very delicous!

Make a pouch.

Cheap Recipe: Mexican-Style Stuffed Peppers

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

An ethnic variation on a classic oven-baked dish.

A sale on stoplight-packaged bell peppers last week was timed perfectly with some leftover rice I had sitting in the refrigerator. On a whim, this version of an old standby (usually prepared with Italian seasonings and ingredients at my house) was born.

You can whip up a small amount of chili sauce for this recipe (like I did), use thawed leftover chili (this batch variation freezes quite nicely), or even substitute a can or two of Hormel in its place. My version is vegetarian, but obviously you can use ground beef or shredded chicken in the chili or even in the rice mixture if you like.

Thanks, Pfaltzgraff, for my adorable new casserole dish!

Begin by preheating oven to 400 degrees. Remove stems/caps from and hollow out the insides of 4 bell peppers (green, red, whatever) but try to leave shells intact all the way to the top opening, forming a sort of tall bowl.

 

Meanwhile, mix 1 can of black beans (drained) with 2 regular cans diced tomatoes (undrained) over medium burner heat in a large pot. Stir in 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Tomatoes, beans and spices.

When mixture is thoroughly warmed, incorporate 1-1/2 to 2 cups leftover cooked rice into the bean mixture. Stir well until heated through.

Leftover rice. (Mine was saffron rice but it really doesn't matter.)

The excess liquid from the tomatoes will prevent the rice from drying. Cover warm mixture and remove from burner heat.

Stand the hollowed peppers upright in a square casserole dish so that each pepper helps to hold the others up. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup shredded cheddar/jack cheese in the bottom of each pepper.

Rice and chili mixture.

Spoon enough rice/bean mixture over the bottom cheese layer until almost level with top openings of peppers.

Cheese in the bottom.

Smush about 1/4 cup additional shredded cheese over rice mixture, or as much as will fit without spilling over.

Use a small spouted pitcher or cup to pour about 1/2″ water into bottom of casserole dish.

Rice and beans in the middle.

Place uncovered dish in preheated oven; cook 20-25 minutes or until cheese is entirely melted and peppers have begun to soften slightly.

Cheese on top and water in the pan bottom.

A fork inserted into the outer skin of one of the peppers should indicate doneness.

Serve in small bowls or freeze individually in small, lidded containers.

Microwave frozen leftovers individually on HIGH for about 3 minutes each. These travel well to work for eat-at-your-desk lunches! (Just remember to pack a knife!)

Top with sour cream if you're in the mood...

 

Cheap Recipe: Ranch Pita Pizza

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

Tidbits of leftovers morph into one of my favorite meals.

This is a variation on a breakfast dish that was offered many years ago at a now-defunct Carbondale restaurant called MacClelland’s Bistro. As they were the only place in town that delivered real breakfast food, I was an immediate fan.

When they went out of business, it was left to me to try and replicate their “Portabella Pita” at home. Over time, I discovered there were many different base ingredients that would produce similar results: pitas, pocket bread, refrigerated pizza crusts, sandwich flat rounds–the list goes on.

Similarly, I also discovered this made just as excellent a lunch/supper/snack as it did breakfast. We eat these pretty often at my house, around the clock, made from whatever bread base I find on sale at our local grocery store that week, or whatever’s been sitting on the counter a while at home. (I think the most awesome version I ever made was with miniature Boboli refrigerated pizza crusts, but I haven’t seen them available in years, at least around these parts. Such a pity.)

The simplest of ingredients.

The recipe here is for one single serving; you can replicate it as many times as you like. I made this batch out of small sandwich rounds, so I count two pieces as one sandwich round (a top and a bottom split apart). The two halves are about equal in size to one regular pita or individual-sized pizza crust, so the other ingredient ratios even out that way.

Remove from heat before mushrooms begin to reduce in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt a couple of tablespoons butter/margarine over medium-high heat in a skillet. When skillet is hot, toss in a handful of fresh, sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle on liberal dashes of garlic powder and dill weed if desired. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon until heated but not shriveled.

Jamie pointing at which piece will be his.

Meanwhile, dice half of a small tomato into 1/2″-sized pieces and toss with a dash of fresh parsley (optional). Lightly oil (any kind) the surface of the flatbread and spread about 2 teaspoons of cheap ranch or buttermilk dressing evenly over the oiled bread.

A good rule of thumb: A large smiley face is just about the right amount of dressing.

Sprinkle a small handful of shredded cheese (any kind) over the dressing.

Spoon hot mushrooms and diced tomatoes onto the “pizza” and top with another small handful of shredded cheese.

Layer the toppings.

Place open-faced breads in oven and cook about 10 minutes, or just until cheese melts and bread is hot. (You don’t want a crispy crust on this.)

 Remove from oven and serve.

Chef’s Note: If flatbread pieces are large,

The plain one in the back is Jamie's, of course.

 serve folded over like a gyro. If round servings are small, like sandwich rounds, you

Seal it on with additional cheese.

can either serve open-faced or stack two into a “sandwich.”

Also good to know? Leftovers make perfect microwaveable traveling companions. 🙂

Mmmm. Delicious!

 

 

Hot from the oven.

I want one right now.

Make yourself a leftover "to go" sandwich.