Menus and Odes

Casual Easter Menu

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Menu

Appetizers
Lima Bean Bruschetta

First Course
Spinach Salad with Buttermilk Poppyseed Dressing

Second Course
Baked Ham with Rosemary Hurricane Glaze
Scalloped Potatoes
Asparagus with Gremolata

Dessert
Lemon Curd Muffins

For many, Easter (and the end of Lent) means lamb, but in our family Easter always meant ham.  Mom was usually on the task of prepping the ham with cloves and halved oranges, and Dad was in charge of carving – whomever was circling around the kitchen during carving time was lucky enough to get a small bite before the ham made it to the table.  Now that my sister and I are grown, it’s usually my parents pug and puggle that vie for a bite of ham.

As soon as I learned to make a bechamel, a task learned from my mom and her homemade mac and cheese recipe, I became enamored with the ways in which butter, flour and milk could be coaxed into a luscious sauce.  One of my favorite uses of my tinkering with bechamel was a recipe for potatoes au gratin.  Tender potatoes layered with a velvety cheese sauce were baked in my parent’s Le Creuset dutch oven until tender.  The dish became the perfect accompaniment to the ham and thus, an Easter favorite.

I’ve rounded out the menu with some tastes of spring that require little to no effort.  Frozen lima beans and mint become a silken puree for crostini.  Spinach, eggs and bacon are dressed in a tart buttermilk dressing.  Tender asparagus spears are dressed with a bright and zippy gremolata.  Finish the meal with the simplest, most gorgeous lemon curd muffins – they are way impressive in terms of looks and people will be hard-pressed to believe how easy they were to construct.  Whether you celebrate Easter, the bunny, the onset of spring or just a tasty slice of ham, this feast is comforting on all levels.

 

Lighten Up, Recipes, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Purple Potatoes Vinaigrette

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This salad is the perfect tribute to summer, giving traditional mayo-laden potato salad a run for the money.  Tender potatoes soak in a vibrant dressing full of basil and garlic, imparting mounds of flavor.  Give this one a twirl at your next barbecue – it’s the perfect partner to grilled meats.

Purple Potatoes Vinaigrette

1 lb of purple creamer potatoes, halved
4 tbs. of pesto, homemade or jarred (here’s a recipe for Watercress Pesto)
2 tbs. of red wine vinegar
1/3 c. of olive oil
1 cl. of garlic, minced
salt and pepper (to taste)
3 plum tomatoes, diced

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in potatoes and then cook until fork tender. Drain the potatoes well and toss into the fridge to cool.

Whisk the pesto, vinegar, olive oil and garlic. Toss potatoes with tomatoes and dressing. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve.

Cheese Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Enchiladas Suizas (Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas)

Enchiladas Suizas is one of Dennis’ all time favorites – combining tender, white meat chicken with a green chile sauce cooled by cream cheese and sour cream, these babies rarely stay on the plate for too long when Dennis is around.  His favorite version were from Cafe Frida in New York City and it was ne’er a visit that he didn’t order both the Enchiladas Suizas and the Tres Leches.  Incredibly, the dish originates from Swiss settlers in Mexico contributing swiss cheese to the traditional enchiladas verdes, or corn tortillas rolled and sauced with tomatillos.  The dish now refers less to the use of swiss as the inclusion of a creamy sauce with white cheese.

This version, which is loosely based on Dennis’ favorites, is incredibly versatile for all palettes and spice levels.  Make the version below for a relatively mild experience or kick it up with a chopped jalapeno in the chicken mixture and a hotter green chile sauce (which are available at the market in both mild and spicy varieties).  Poaching the chicken before mixing with the cream cheese helps to keep it super tender and moist, and the scallions add flavor.  It’s a nice diversion from straight up red sauced enchiladas, but if you feel like a fiesta, make these along with the red variety and call it a party.  I don’t know about you, but I loooooove an impromptu party. Continue reading Enchiladas Suizas (Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas) →

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Quick Caldo Verde

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Like Italian Wedding Soup, Caldo Verde is a celebration of meat, greens and broth, with the star carb as tender, simmered potatoes.  This soup is as hearty as it is easy to make, and a great use of winter kale when in season, cheap and plentiful.  The soup, Portuguese in origin, traditionally uses linguica for the sausage, but I’ve made this in a pinch with kielbasa, andouille, chorizo and even Bruce Aidell’s chicken sausage.  Regardless of what ingredients you employ, you can expect a warm, nourishing bowl of comfort that is both simple to prepare and good for you.

Recipe for

Quick Caldo Verde

Ingredients
3 qts. of chicken stock
6 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 lb. of mild sausage, removed from casings
1 bunch of fresh kale, ribs removed and chopped
1 tsp. of black pepper

Bring quarts of chicken stock to a boil.  Toss the potatoes, garlic and kale into the pot.  In a sauté pan, brown the sausage until crumbly and no longer pink. Drain the grease from the sausage and add the meat to the soup. Simmer until the potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the stock pot until the potatoes are loosely mashed. Serve.

Baked Goods, Cakes, Pies and Tarts, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Savory Meat Pie

From empanadas to pasties to pastel, the world loves a good meat pie.  This version, though similar in construction to the French Canadian tourtiere, is all its own – a hearty blend of meat, vegetables and spices that produce a pie that looks gourmet.  And yet, it only takes a few minutes of actual work – the meat becomes meltingly tender from simmering in milk and wine for a little under an hour, which you can leave bubbling away while you take care of other things.  Not a bad deal at all.

I use all beef in this version, but the pie holds up to absolutely any type of protein or game.  Pork works exceedingly well, as does bison or buffalo.  Venison, too.  You can even make a blend of what you’ve got on hand – ground turkey would be exceedingly happy in this pie when combined with beef or pork.  When you seal up the pie, you brush it with a simple egg wash to elevate store-bought pie crust to photo-worthy culinary majesty.  Truly, it’s a couple of little tricks that make this pie something worth keeping on hand for a rainy day.  Comfort food at its best 🙂

Recipe for

Savory Meat Pie

Ingredients
2 lbs. of ground beef
1 onion
1 stalk of celery
1 clove of garlic
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme

1 tbs. of worcestershire sauce
2 tbs. of ketchup
1/4 tsp. of allspice
1/8 tsp. of cloves
1 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1/2 tsp. of dried sage

2 c. of milk
1/2 c. of dry white wine

1 c. of bread crumbs
3 eggs
1 tbs. of milk or cream
2 pie crusts (can be store bought)

In a dutch oven, brown the beef (or ground meat of your choosing).  When it’s no longer pink, add the onion, celery and garlic and stir.  Add the bay leaf and thyme and let cook until the vegetables start to release liquid, which should take about a minute.  Add the worcestershire sauce, ketchup, allspice, cloves, salt, white pepper, black pepper and sage and stir.  Pour in the milk and white wine and let simmer away on medium heat until all of the liquid has been absorbed, about 45-60 minutes.

Take the meat off the heat and let cool slightly.  Stir in the cup of breadcrumbs and let sit while you prepare the pie crust.

In a 9 inch round cake pan that’s at least 3 inches high (this is a deep crust pie) and grease with cooking spray.  Press one of the crusts on the bottom and sides of the pan.  Tear a slight bit of crust off the second pie crust and press into the pan so that there is more dough to cover the entire pie pan.  If you have slight tears, mend them by easing the dough together to repair.  Take your meat mixture and stir in two of the eggs.  Pour the meat into the pie crust.  Top with the second pie crust and crimp the edges.  In a small bowl, beat together the remaining egg with the milk or cream.  Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.

Bake in a 375° for 25 minutes or until the top is gloriously golden.  Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Egg Dishes, Main Courses, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Broccoli Fritatta

My alma mater was pretty awesome all around, but the cafeteria was a different story.  Not exactly the paramount of culinary majesty, let’s just say that I was uber-happy to have a kitchen in my dorm room for my junior and senior year.  The cafeteria was certainly manageable if you knew exactly what you liked that was safe to eat – limited salad bar, yes but grilled cheese and cheese fries, no.  On my safe list was a broccoli frittata made on weekends for breakfast – they doled out huge spoonfuls of fluffy eggs, broccoli, shredded carrot and cheddar cheese.  For a cafeteria where cheerios and milk could prove dangerous, I adored the broccoli frittata.

Years later, jonesing for that good ol’ recipe, I came across a similar version on the Whole Foods website.  Who knew?  Maybe my school wasn’t so bad after all!  Or at least whomever was making the broccoli frittata back there in the kitchen was holding it down.  This recipe is uber-simple and works well hot or warm, so break it out for a breakfast, lunch or brunch option.  It also holds up with other varieties of veggies, so feel free to raid your produce bin for other stars of the frittata.


Recipe for

Broccoli Fritatta

Ingredients
2 crowns of broccoli
1/4 c. of chopped onion or shallots
2 tbs of butter
1 c. of milk
1 c. of cheddar
1/2 c. of swiss
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
6 eggs
1/4 c. of flour

Chop up the broccoli and shallots (or onions) finely – I do mine in the food processor.  Sauté the veggies in butter in a frying pan until tender, about 2-3 minutes.  Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt, black pepper, white pepper, flour and nutmeg until smooth.  Stir in the broccoli mixture, cheddar cheese and swiss cheese.  Turn out into a greased baking pan, 13x9x2 for a thin frittata or a 9×3 inch round pan for a thicker frittata, on 350° for 25-30 minutes, or until set in the middle.  Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

Easy to Prepare, Holiday Dishes, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes

Cranberry Relish

The much-aligned cranberry gets a bad wrap – only typically broken out at the holidays in the form of a canned cylinder of fright, these tart lovelies are so much more.  A long while back, my paternal grandmother decided to have a more cooperative Thanksgiving and assigned the kids recipes to bring.  My sister and I were assigned a Cranberry Relish recipe that she had snipped from a magazine.  The recipe itself seemed kind of wacky as we were making it, from the use of a whole orange (peel, pith and all) to the use of crystalized ginger, which we had never heard of at the time and had to look up (and this was well before “Google it” became a catch phrase).  Turns out the spicy treats were considered candy in Australia and could be purchased with the other McCormick spices in the baking aisle.  Who knew?

Well, knowledge begets power and powerful that first batch of relish was in transforming our opinions of the lowly cranberry.  Once an afterthought next to the turkey, potatoes, stuffing and green beans, this relish had star quality.  It’s ingenious in its ability to freshen up the heavy meal and enliven your palette.  Best of all, it requires not a lick of cooking – just pulse everything in the food processor, pour out into a bowl and put it on the table.  Done.  For such freshness and flavor with absolutely no work, those cans of cranberry gelatin are looking mighty good for target practice right about now.

Recipe for

Cranberry Relish

Ingredients
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 small orange
1 tbs. of crystallized ginger (candied ginger) pieces
1/3 to 1/2 c. of sugar, to taste

Cut the orange in half and then into 1 inch pieces.  Add all ingredients to the food processor and pulse until it forms a chunky relish.  Pour mixture into a bowl and let sit for at least 5 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.  Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Easy to Prepare, Low Brow Treats, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Sandwiches

Ham Salad

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Ham salad or deviled ham is seemingly pedestrian, but man, is it good.  Just as a rotisserie chicken can be transformed by dijon mustard, tarragon and apples, into sumptuous chicken salad, so too can baked ham be blended into deliciousness with rosemary, shallots and mayonnaise.  To truly make this some devilish goodness, add some paprika and cayenne to make things a little more fiery.  We used to make this after Easter with the tons of leftover ham from the feast the day before.  It kept incredibly well in the fridge for quick sandwiches and was always a treat…for as long as it lasted.

This recipe makes a pretty dry salad, like I like it, but if you want things a little more moist, add a few more tablespoons of mayo to smooth things out.

Recipe for

Ham Salad

Ingredients
1 lb. of ham (leftover baked ham or deli ham works fine)
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1 tbs. of dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1 tbs. of minced shallots
1/2 tbs. of dijon mustard
3 tbs. of mayo

In a food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth.  Spread on crackers or eat as a sandwich spread on crusty bread.

Friends Recipes and Hacks, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Pasta Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Italian Wedding Soup

Just as ancient tales are easily bungled by funky translations (like Charles Perrault’s original story Cinderella, with confusion over a slipper of glass [verre], squirrel fur [vair] or even iron [fer]…a hot mess that Cinderella was), so too do recipes often have translation mix ups.  Although Italian Wedding Soup, a popular dish in this country, hints at origins surrounding Tuscan weddings, the actual name of the soup is minestra mariata or “married soup” – a reference to the melange of greens, broth, meat and cheese.  An apropos name, given that all of the flavors in this soup blend together into something akin to a warm hug.  I’m all about that marriage, if I do say so myself.

Traditional versions of the soup involve a slow simmering stock that can include soup bones (prosciutto to be super authentic) and a variety of greens and broccoli.  I love this soup with pastina, or little pasta pearls that puff up in the broth, but this version, as inspired by the cracked-out craziness of the Canadian show “Bitchin’ Kitchen” uses cheese tortellini.  If you don’t have tortellini, you can swap it out for ditalini (short pasta tubes) or any mini pasta you’d like.  You call the shots – this is your wedding and I don’t want you getting all bridezilla on me.

Recipe for

Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. of ground beef
1 lb. of pork
1 small hoagie roll
1/2 c. of parsley leaves
1 egg
1/4 c. of parmesan
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
1 clove of garlic, very finely minced
pinch of oregano

8 c. of chicken stock
baby spinach
cheese tortellini or ditalini

In a food processor, grind up the hoagie roll, parsley leaves and garlic.  Toss into a standing mixer or mixing bowl and blend with the beef, pork, egg, parmasean, salt, pepper and oregano.  Roll into very small meatballs, about 1/2 of a tablespoon of filling at a time.  Set aside.

In a pot, bring the chicken broth to a boil.  Add the meatballs and let simmer away in the soup for at least 20 minutes.  Grab another pot, fill with water and bring to a boil.  Salt the water and chuck in the cheese tortellini or ditalini pasta, cooking according to the package directions.  Drain.

To assemble the bowl of soup, add a handful of baby spinach and 1/2 c. of pasta to a large soup bowl.  Ladel over the broth and meatballs, top with some cracked pepper and parmasean cheese.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Holiday Dishes, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Post-Thanksgiving Stuffed Mushrooms

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Thanksgiving leftovers go from absolute wonder to total boredom as the days pass after turkey day.  By day three, you’re still hiding under mounds of potatoes and gravy, but so over the leftover sandwich.  You don’t want to waste, but you’d like a taste profile different from the original meal.  While mashed potatoes are easy to repurpose (shepard’s pie, pierogies, croquettes), stuffing gets old.  But yet, with a little bit of ingenuity, you can make a glorious appetizer out of the remnants of the holiday.

These mushrooms are stuffed with a combination of ground beef, spinach and cheese to make a mini-meatball as a baked, one-bite delicacy.  Feel free to chuck in leftover vegetables (roasted red peppers or caramelized onions work well) or different greens (kale or swiss chard) to make the same deliciousness with whatever solid ingredients you have on hand.  You’ll be most pleased with the increased fridge space and the dying of the rumble in your tummy, not to mention the end of turkey malaise.

Recipe for

Post-Thanksgiving Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
1/2 lb. of ground beef
1 c. of leftover stuffing
1/4 c. of spinach leaves, defrosted and squeezed of liquid
1 lb. of mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed.
1/2 c. of parmasean
1 tsp. of fennel seeds
1 c. of mozzarella cheese

Wipe the mushrooms clean and remove the stems.  If you’d like, chop the stems and add to the filling that you’ll mix in a bit.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease with olive oil or melted butter.  Place the mushroom caps on the cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 375°.

In a standing mixer (or with your hands in a mixing bowl), blend the ground beef, stuffing, mushroom stems, spinach, parmasean and fennel.  Fill the mushrooms with a few tablespoons of filling, using a spoon to smooth the mounds into round balls.  Sprinkle with parmasean cheese and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, until the mushrooms are golden on top and cooked through.  Serve with toothpicks.

Foodie for Life—Delicious to Death