Weekly Cooking (and related issues)Thread

[Jamestown1630]

One of my favorite television chefs is Nick Stellino. He has a wonderful, warm presence and engaging presentation - the sort of person who, when you watch him on television, makes you feel as if you've known him forever; and he manages to pack a LOT of information into a very short video without becoming boring or didactic.

This recipe is from what I believe was his first book 'Cucina Amore', in which each recipe is accompanied by family memories of his youth in Sicily. I wanted to try the recipe this week and didn't have time; but I will soon, and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, the combination of ingredients is intriguing, especially to those of us who are fans of 'sweet-and-savory'. At the end there's a link to a video of Nick preparing Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Mixed-Up Cauliflower (Nick Stellino)

Serves 4

5 tablespoons raisins

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound fresh cauliflower florets, cut into 1-inch pieces, parboiled and patted dry

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons pine nuts

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 1/2 cups Tomato Sauce

1/2 cu water or Chicken Stock

1/16 teaspoon saffron powder

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Place the raisins in a bowl of hot water to plump fo 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil into a large nonstick skillet and heat on high until the oil is almost smoking, about 2-3 minutes. Add the cauliflower florets and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the garlic, stir and cook for 2 minutes more. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Wipe the pan clean, raise the heat to medium-high, add the remaining oil, drained raisins, pine nuts and red pepper flakes and cook for 3-4 minutes, Add the remaining salt, the tomato sauce, water or stock, saffron, balsamic vinegar-sugar mixture and cocoa powder. Bring to a boil and simmer until most of the sauce has been absorbed, about 4-5 minutes.

Serve with slices of hearty Italian bread.

Here is Nick's website, with lots of recipes:

http://www.nickstellino.com/

and one of his videos, where he does Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MhHp6YZA4Q

-JT

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I love biscuits and gravy but occasionally you have people over who can not have either the sausage or meat for some reason.

So I make a mushroom gravy.

Take an ounce of dried wild mushrooms and soak in about six ounces of water.

Put a half cup of flour into a dry pan and cook over medium heat whisking constantly. Do this for about six minutes. This makes toasted flour and it gets rid of the raw flour taste and adds depth of flavor.

Pour the toasted flour into a bowl and set aside.

Chop an onion and saute in four tablespoons of butter until soft.

Take two pounds of mixed mushrooms (the more types the better) and give them a rough chop. Add to pan and continue with to saute until nice and soft.

Add two cloves minced garlic.

(Don't burn the garlic!)

Add the toasted flour and mix until the contents of the pan look "dry".

Now add in the soaked mushrooms and soaking water.

Continue to whisk until mixed.

Add in about a teaspoon of thyme and a half teaspoon of sage.

Now add about a cup of half and half.

(I never said this recipe was low fat!)

Lower the heat and cook until thick and bubbly. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over Parmesan biscuits.

I have also added green peppercorns to the gravy for a bit more spice.

[boatbums]

You’ll need:

1 pound box lasagna noodles
1 16 oz container of whole milk ricotta cheese
2 large jars prepared sauce
1 pound ground chuck
1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage
2 16 oz. bags whole milk mozzarella cheese
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
large bag baby spinach
2 large eggs (beaten)
salt & pepper

When my hubby begs for lasagna, and I don’t have all day to invest in the sauce, I reach for a few large jars of Ragu chunky onion and roasted garlic sauce and pour it into a pound of cooked and drained ground chuck and hot Italian sausage. Heat it up and simmer while boiling the lasagna noodles (cut 2 minutes from cooking time on box so they don’t get mushy when they bake longer in the oven). I also steam a large bag of baby spinach until wilted then drain and squeeze out all the excess water. Chop it up and add it to ricotta cheese (I use whole milk ricotta just because of its richness). To the cheese mixture add 2 beaten eggs, salt and pepper and about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese. Set aside.

When noodles are done, drain them and lay them out to dry on paper towels or clean dishtowel. I make a large dish of lasagna so I find that three layers of four noodles across works well (cook a few extra for any bare spots or broken ones). Now we’re ready to assemble. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In lasagna pan (or large glass 11x13 dish) ladle enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the pan. Line up four noodles side-by-side in the sauce. Spread over that about 1/2 of the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle over that about 1 cup mozzarella cheese then ladle sauce over that. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup parmesan. Continue in that order for the next layer. Noodles, rest of the ricotta, mozzarella, sauce, parmesan. For the top layer, lay down noodles, rest of sauce, rest of the mozzarella and parmesan. Make sure there is a little room on the sides of the pan for expansion. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until cheese on top gets a nice golden brown (my favorite part!). Take out of oven and let rest 10 minutes then slice and serve. Yummy!

[SkyDancer]

I’m on my way to the store. Thanks!

[boatbums]

We had some Georgia sweet corn the other night and it was SO good. Instead of boiling or grilling it, I tried a little trick I saw Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) do and it turned out wonderful. In a large mixing bowl, hold each ear of corn by the large end and with a chef's knife slice off the kernels down into the bowl, scraping them clean to get all the juice. I used 5 ears and it was plenty for four people. Then pour the corn into a saute pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and a few tablespoons butter. Cover and heat on medium, stirring a few times. Once it starts to simmer, you only need to cook it about 5 minutes. You don't need to add any water as the corn cooks in its own juice. This is really good and the corn is sweet and crisp and you won't need any dental floss afterward!

[boatbums]

I have fond memories of summer dinners of just sliced fresh picked Ruskin tomatoes and sweet corn. Maybe a few slices of Vidella onion, to boot. It doesn't get much better than eating corn and tomatoes you picked yourself that day and I still remember us girls sitting on the back porch shucking that bushel of corn!

[boatbums]

What’s that country song???

There’s only two things that make life worthwhile - true love and home grown tomatoes!

[Grampa Dave]

Sounds good!

We are big on charcoal grilling corn. In the winter, my wife wraps a damp paper towel around an ear of corn. Then she zaps it in a microwave for 1.5 to 2 minutes depending on the size of the ear.

We spray olive oil or spread butter and salt on the ear before wrapping it with a damp paper towel.

Use tongs to get each ear out of the microwave as the ears and damp paper towel are steaming.

Ina has great recipes and advice. My wife has two of her cookbooks, which I gladly bought and gave to her.

[Jamestown1630]

LOL!

My low carb cauliflower is mashed with some butter and cream cheese, and then I put shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon on top and stick it in the oven until the cheddar melts. It’s like a ‘loaded potato’ and people who don’t even like cauliflower ask for the recipe.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t think we’ve ever tried an Ina Garten recipe that didn’t turn out great.

-JT

[Califreak]

No worries. :) (Witness me!)😄

[Liz]

Did you ever try Nigella's lamb cutlets from her Nigella Express cookbook? Nigella says "No one does lamb cutlets better than the Italians. The nuggets of pink meat are so tender and flavourful, you want to gnaw every morsel right off the bone. I can't tell you how heavenly these cutlets are, snatched straight from the fridge the day after--should you be lucky enough (and it's unlikely) to have leftovers."

ITALIAN LAMB CUTLETS

METHOD Flatten 12 lamb rib chops between saran gently w/ rolling pin or mallet. Layer in large dish chops in single layer, 4 tb ol/oil, sliced garlic, tsp ea chilli flakes, dried oregano, zested/juiced lemon. Sprinkle w/ tsp Maldon salt, 15 sliced black olives, turn/coat chops in marinade. Cover/steep 20 min at room temp.

Saute/color a bit 2-3 min per side on high heat in 2 tb heated ol/oil. Reset heat to medium; add reserved marinade, 2-3 tb water; cook 5 min for rare or more for well done (depending on thickness).

Plate chops, pour on pan juices; sprinkle w/ chp fresh red chilli (enhances dried chilli).

[Trillian]

I don’t have a recipe written down for my basic marinara sauce since I make it once every week or two.

In a large sauce pan, add about half a tablespoon of olive oil. Dice finely a small carrot, half a stalk of celery, three cloves of garlic, half a small sweet white onion and a couple tablespoons of fresh parsley. Sauté for a few minutes and then add about a pound of diced tomatoes (fresh or canned). Then add a large can of crushed tomatoes (102 oz). I then add water to the can to get the rest of the tomatoes out and pour it into the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. I add about 1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons of salt.
Bring to a small boil and reduce heat to low and simmer for a few hours stirring every 10 minutes or so.

This fills about 6-8 large jars. Once they are at room temperature, I store them in the fridge for the week for anything that requires tomato sauce, including soups.

When I have a ton of fresh tomatoes instead of canned, I like to add fresh basil to the above recipe.

If you want to make a Bolognese sauce, sauté the amount of preferred ground meat you like after the step of sautéing the onions.

I made some yesterday and today I used it for stuffed eggplant rolls and to pour over a couple of Italian style meat loaves.

[Trillian]

I’ve been making these since I was younger. My mom taught me. My kids LOVE them.

[Trillian]

The best lasagna is with freshly made lasagna noodles. If I can’t make them from scratch, the Barilla lasagna noodles are the next best thing.

When I make mine, I use this ricotta mixture:
2 lbs of fresh whole milk ricotta, 2 large eggs, salt to taste, fresh parsley, minced, parmesan cheese and mozzarella.

I layer it in between noodles, tomato sauce, more parmesan and more mozzarella and repeat. I use homemade Marinara or Bolognese sauce, which I just posted a recipe for.

One of my husband’s favorite ways to have it is with vegetables. I sauté the following with garlic and olive oil and add in between lasagna noodles and ricotta:
zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. If I have fresh spinach leaves, I throw some in layers, uncooked.

If you want the top recipe meatier, just add more sautéed meat mixed in with the tomato sauce. It’s all good :)

[Trillian]

I forgot to add 1 small clove of garlic, minced for the ricotta mixture.

[Jamestown1630]

That sounds very good. One of my favorite things is Eggplant Parmigiana, and we usually buy bottled sauce when we make it.

I will save your recipe. Even with canned tomatoes, a fresh sauce is better.

-JT

[Liz]

A ramekin of marinara sauce on the side is good.

[Liz]

This Asian cauliflower dish makes a nice presentation.... Nick should like it, too.

Bang Bang Cauliflower / Bang Bang Sauce

METHOD Dip bite-size cauliflower pieces in egg; roll in panko to fully coat. Set on
parchmented sheetpan---use fingers to press/adhere coating. Bake 400 deg 20 min--coating
is golden brown and crunchy. NOTE: You could par-boil the florets first.

Plate--drizzle w/ Sauce. SERVE garnished with minced fresh parsley, ramekin of Sauce as dip.

SAUCE whisk smooth 2 tb Asian sweet chili sauce (omit seeds), 2 tsp sriracha, 1/4 cup mayo, tb honey.

[Liz]

These might be good alongside the Bread Fritters.

CORN FRITTERS

METHOD combine 1 1/2 c pan roasted corn kernels, 1/4 c diced green onion, red bell pepper, cilantro, 1-2 tbl diced jalapeno. Stir in 2 beaten eggs. Stir in 1/4 c flour. Add sparingly up to 1/2 cup flour--just bind. Season w/ cracked pepper, 1/2 tsp gar/powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne, pinch salt. Add 1/2 tsp sugar or honey. Drop spoonfuls batter into heated ol/oil. Cook thru golden crisp slowly on med; drain. Serve piping hot.

[AloneInMass]

I need help. I used to buy herbs and spices from Penzey’s until I started getting email from the owner about global warming and the morons (like me) who question it. Anybody have a reliable source?