Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Ginger Beef with Snow Peas

Let’s talk about food worth lauding over.  The kind of dishes that don’t mess around with excesses and hit a balance of flavor and texture right on the nose.  Ingredients that are versatile – equally sassy doing the roger rabbit by themselves or the kid ‘n play with a friend.  This dish wants to rock right now – it’s Ginger Beef and it came to get down.  It’s not internationally known…okay, that’s probably enough of that.

Keeping the cooking on this one a breeze involves doing all of your chopping before even thinking about heating up your wok.  Call it your mise en place.  Call it your OCD.  Either way, you’ll be ready to wok and roll (and spout out bad puns, apparently).  Also, to get the beef to cook quickly, you’ll want to slice it so thinly, it’ll seem as if your shaving off pieces.  A trick to make this process easier is to slice the flank steak while it’s partially frozen.  The meat holds it’s shape and gives your knife stability as you cut away.  Yes, yes y’all. Continue reading Ginger Beef with Snow Peas →

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Ginger Scallion Sauce

Seriously, ginger scallion sauce, just stop.  You have definitively rocked my socks.  And all to the point that I say bad words when I see you.  You. are. greatness.  When Escoffier sang the praises of his transcribed mother sauces, he missed the mark with you.  If bechamel and hollandaise and and velouté rule the roost, you built the roost from ashes and sheer will.

It’s no secret that I’ve always been enamored with ginger, but this sauce paints it in the finest of lights.  Grated ginger and minced scallion are barely cooked in hot oil, taking away all of the bite from the aromatics and leaving behind a condiment that can make the most stubborn palate sing.  This sauce is BFFs with poached chicken as the dynamic duo, “Ginger Scallion Chicken”.  I don’t limit the stuff, though – string beans, skirt steak, steamed fish, my fingertips.  I’ll attack this sauce with calculating ruthlessness.  It’s mine, and I don’t want to share.  Ok, I’ll share, but you bring the ginger and scallions next time.

This sauce isn’t hard to make, but it’ll seem a little scary the first time you make it – don’t fret.  You’ve got this.  When you add hot oil to wet ginger, you’re gonna get a bit of sizzle.  This subsides quickly, and if you make this expecting a science-fair baking soda volcano, you’ll be underwhelmed rather than shocked.  This is a good thing.  Just make sure to use a heat-proof bowl or 1-qt saucepan for the ginger-oil reunion and you’ll be golden. Continue reading Ginger Scallion Sauce →

Easy to Prepare, Egg Dishes, Main Courses, Recipes, Soups and Stews, Vegetarian Dishes

Hot and Sour Soup

Hot and sour soup gets the bum rush – most places that craft it poorly do so by phoning it in.  It’s so simple to the point that it’s ludicrous that it could be butchered, and yet I’ve been affronted with some shady knockoffs standing in for the real thing.  Rather than flirt with disappointment, I just whip a pot up myself and call it a day.  No more fishing out rubbery tofu and incredulously huge pieces of celery (what the eff?) Just hot and sour action at its best. Brilliant!

The soup is comprised of savory vegetable stock studded with slivers of bamboo shoots, scallions and tofu.  An essential for me, and what separates the real deal from the imposters, is the use of wood ear mushrooms.  Sometimes referred to with the not-so-pleasant monniker of fungus, these pleasantly chewy mushrooms can be purchased dry in many upscale markets.  If you can score some, get on it, because their texture and color lend an air of the exotic to the soup. Continue reading Hot and Sour Soup →

Menus and Odes, The Daring Kitchen

Gnocchi Feast Menu

Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
When I first learned about The Daring Kitchen, I was excited to join a group that would provide me with monthly culinary inspiration. This month’s assignment (and my very first with TDK) was created by Steph from Stephfood, our Daring Cooks’ July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with! Steph also encouraged us to make noodles that celebrated our culinary heritage.

In that I had just done quite a bit of pastamaking as part of the Feast of the Seven Boars (along with doughs of all kinds for all of my potsticker exploits), I asked Steph if gnocchi were legal within the strict rules of the challenge. She explained that they were and off I went on a journey into dumpling majesty on a whole new level. Continue reading Gnocchi Feast Menu →

Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Pasta Dishes, Recipes, The Daring Kitchen

Malfatti with Bolognese

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Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
When I first learned about The Daring Kitchen, I was excited to join a group that would provide me with monthly culinary inspiration. This month’s assignment (and my very first with TDK) was created by Steph from Stephfood, our Daring Cooks’ July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with! Steph also encouraged us to make noodles that celebrated our culinary heritage. See Full Gnocchi Feast Menu
Malfatti, despite the aggressive name (“poorly made” in Italian) are a revelation. I first tasted these babies at a restaurant off of the Piazza del Campo in Siena. Trying to get away from the tourist traps lining the heart of the city, we stumbled into Serafino’s, a small family restaurant run by the daper patriarch of the place, Serafino himself. We made fast friends with the owner/head chef and fell in love with his culinary prowess. Sampling the malfatti, dumplings made of spinach and ricotta held together by sheer will, I knew that we’d stumbled upon something special. How the hell were they made? Continue reading Malfatti with Bolognese →

Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, The Daring Kitchen

Gnocchi alla Romana with Italian Sausage, Cavolo Nero and Provolone

Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
When I first learned about The Daring Kitchen, I was excited to join a group that would provide me with monthly culinary inspiration. This month’s assignment (and my very first with TDK) was created by Steph from Stephfood, our Daring Cooks’ July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with! Steph also encouraged us to make noodles that celebrated our culinary heritage. See Full Gnocchi Feast Menu
Not all gnocchi are created equal. While the potato variety are the industry standard, gnocchi can be constructed with many other grains to glorious effect. In fact, in Rome gnocchi are made from semolina and never with potato – think polenta cakes baked like a gratin rather than sauced (Ha! Those gnocchi are drunk, y’all!) These gnocchi are pretty forgiving and require a heck of a lot less rolling than the classic potato variety. Better yet, they are perfect for parties in that they can wait on you while you do other things. When you are ready to eat, simply pop the tasty buggers under the broil to finish them off and then serve. Continue reading Gnocchi alla Romana with Italian Sausage, Cavolo Nero and Provolone →

Easy to Prepare, Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Pasta Dishes, Recipes, The Daring Kitchen

Instant Potato Gnocchi with Prosciutto, Peas and Chanterelle Mushrooms

Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
When I first learned about The Daring Kitchen, I was excited to join a group that would provide me with monthly culinary inspiration. This month’s assignment (and my very first with TDK) was created by Steph from Stephfood, our Daring Cooks’ July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with! Steph also encouraged us to make noodles that celebrated our culinary heritage. See Full Gnocchi Feast Menu
Shortcuts in the kitchen vary rarely lead to splendid results.  Garbage in, garbage out, and no glory in between.  It was with this sentiment and a whole lot of skepticism  that I approached the idea of a pillowy, toothsome gnocchi made of instant potatoes.  How could that be?

Given that this recipe was to become a part of a cluster of gnocchi recipe all undertaken together for The Daring Kitchen, I decided to approach the recipe as just that – a dare.  How could I turn fake-me-out mashed potatoes into gourmet glory.  The base recipe was fairly simple, reconstituting the dried flakes and then adding the traditional gnocchi add-ins of flour and egg.  I then swaped out the boiling water for the soaking liquid from some dried chanterelle mushroom, adding a gloriously nutty flavor to plain old potato dumplings.  I then dressed the little treasures in one of my favorite sauces of prosciutto, peas and cream.  Perfection! Continue reading Instant Potato Gnocchi with Prosciutto, Peas and Chanterelle Mushrooms →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Cheese Dishes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Green Chile Bean Dip

Ah, the joys of simplicity.  Particularly when the tummy starts rumbling and snacks must be pursued.  This tasty dip comprised of refried beans, green chiles and shredded cheese is too easy to be as good as it is.  And yet, 9 times out of 10, if I’m at my parents house rummaging through their pantry for a bite of something, I’ll end up making this dip.  And 10 times out of 10, whomever is around will stop what their doing and help to polish off the entire dish of the stuff.

I’ve been making this bean dip for longer than I remember, but the addition of the chiles I can specifically recall.  I was visiting my grandmother in Arizona for the summer, and she called from work to say that she was bringing her boss (and our family friend) over for cocktails and a bite to eat.  Could we make something quickly and preferably spicy?  My mom got to work and I watched her make this bean dip with the addition of piquant roasted hatch chiles.  Mom wasn’t messing around.  Happy hour was a success and I got to mimicking her technique from that day on.  Momma don’t play 😉  And neither should you, so try out this dip. Continue reading Green Chile Bean Dip →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Cheese Dishes, Low Brow Treats, Sauces and Condiments

Chile con Queso

What do you call cheese that’s not yours?  Nacho cheese!  Hahahahaha!!!

What? Not funny?  There’s no accounting for taste these days.  But know that regardless of your sense of humor, you will adore the creamy, spicy goodness that is this chile con queso.  Because it is scandalous in its majesty.  Escandalo!

This recipe is my mom’s passed down to her from my grandmother.  We used to have this dip around Christmas and New Year’s, devoured as quickly as we could while still hot.  More than your typical melted cheese with peppers, the base of this sauce comes from smoky bacon.  To make matters even more dangerous, we’d occasionally dip pork rinds (!) into the cheese in addition to tortilla chips.  Say wha?  Don’t knock it till you try it. Continue reading Chile con Queso →

Beverages and Cocktails, Impressive Dishes

Homemade Limoncello

Foodbuzz 24 x 24 | An Ode to Orvieto

This recipe was a part of a special menu for Foodbuzz’s June 2011 food blogger party, 24×24. Showcasing posts from 24 Foodbuzz Featured Publisher bloggers, the monthly Foodbuzz 24 highlights unique meals occurring around the globe during a 24-hour period. Read more about my meal along with all of the other recipes at An Ode to Orvieto.

I know some folks might be surprised by this claim, but the majority of limoncello offerings here in the states are straight rocket fuel.  Sure, the lovely bright taste of lemon is first and foremost on the palette, but most immediately smack you in the face shortly thereafter with bitterness and pure, unmellowed alcohol.  My very first trip to Italy included a tour of Sorrento, the dreamy southern town known for their luscious lemons coaxed into deliciously smooth limoncello.  And yet, the gorgeous lemon liqueur doesn’t really seem to be available here other than a whole lot of fully-loaded (to the point of noxious) imposter cousins. Continue reading Homemade Limoncello →

Foodie for Life—Delicious to Death