Egg salad

As you read this, I'm riding a train to Leukerbad, in the Western side of Switzerland, where I'll spend a couple of days skiing and hanging out at the beautiful thermal baths. In case you are wondering, no, I'm not always on vacation, as one of my friends said the other day. It's just a little weekend getaway, which will make the coldest days of the year easier to bear. I know it may sounds a little crazy to go to the mountains during the chilliest week of them all, but I'd rather be cold ina place where nbeing in cold weather is fun, rather than freezing my ass off by the lake, with the humidity killing me and making me shiver to bone.

Before leaving I didn't bothered going grocery shopping, so I had to get a little creative with my lunches. Egg salad sandwich sounded like a good idea - I hadn't had the stuff since I left the U.S. in April of '10 - so I improvised with what I had in the fridge. It turned out great, exactly what I had in mind: to make it low fat, I used yogurt instead of mayo, added some paprika for flavor and capers and for saltiness.

EGG SALAD:

1 hard boiled egg, minced
1 tablespoon of capers, minced
2 small pickles, minced
2 tablespoons minced onion
Salt and paprika, to taste
3 tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt (or more if you need it)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.

Asian lettuce wraps

                   

Happy Dragon year everyone!

I thought I'd take a little break from posting travel pictures and post a recipe, just to remind myself 8and all of you) that this still is a cooking blog after all. Travels are cool, but unfortunately I don't travel every day. On the other hand, I do tend to cook on a daily basis, especially in the winter, especially when I'm trying to get back in shape after over two months of food and drink orgies.

Since the world is celbrating the Chinese new year, I thought I'd cook one of my favorite Asian recipes, one that I used to eat at PF Cheng's when I lived in Florida. I know, Cheng's isn't exactly a real Chinese joint, but their lettuce wraps rocked and they are light enough and veggie packed enough to satisfy both my weight loss challenge and my healthy habits- eat more veggies! challenge.

So here it is. Maybe not the most adventurous Chinese recipe, but a good, solid one.

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

1 pound ground chicken

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon siracha

1 tablespoon sweet and sour sauce

To serve:

Lettuce leaves

Bean sprouts

Shredded carrot

Shredded cabbage

Cooked brown rice

Heat a non stick skillet or a wok. Mix soy sauce and next 4 ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken to skillet and stir to crumble. Pour sauce over it and cook for about ten minutes, until chicken is done. If the meat should get dry, add a little more sauce. I added siracha because I love the heat it gives to the dish!

When chicken is done, cover and remove from stove.

Serve with lettuce leaves.



Healthy habits: Eat more veggies! Vegetable frittata

Since apparently I didn't have enough stuff to do with my other challenge, the Indie travel challenge, I decided to embark in a healthy eating challenge as well. "Cooking Light's 12 healthy habits" seemed like a good option, since it isn't too demanding but at the same time it does push you toward a better way of eating and living.

January's challenge (I know, I'm a bit late, aren't I?) is to eat more vegetables, specifically to "Add 3 more servings of fruits and vegetables to your diet each day". Since I'm intolerant to most raw fruit and I don't really care for cooked fruit, I have decided to add vegetables to my daily diet and call it a day. It isn't too much of a challenge for me, as I really like veggies anyways, but I have decided to concentrate on some good vegeterian recipes that I can take to the office with me and eat for lunch.

Today I brought a nice frittata packed with tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and fresh herbs. Easy to make, delicious to eat and, most of all, nice and light, so I didn't feel that after-lunch fatigue overcoming me.

VEGETABLE FRITTATA:

2 eggs
1 teaspoon butter
1 small zucchini, cubed
A few cherry tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper

Cook vegetables in a small pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a bowl beat eggs, add salt, pepper and thyme. Add vegetables.

Heat butter in a small skillet, pour egg mixture into it and cook, about three minutes per side, or until desired degree of doneness.

Baked eggs... and a happy new year to everyone!

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and all that. As for me, I was fighting a cold, so it wasn't spectacular, but other than that I can't complain. 2011 was a good year for me. Lots of positive changes came along, and although it wasn't always easy to stay optimisitc and smile, it wasn't too hard either. I've found a job a like and friends I love, traveled to Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic and Germany... so, seriously, what's not to love?

And here I am again, super excited because the day after tomorrow I leave for a nine day vacation in Paris and London. How cool is that? I can't wait.

Of course I hope I'll find plenty of wi-fi connections so I can keep you posted while I'm visiting the cities and eating all that delicious food... but in the mean time, I want to leave you with a recipe I made on New Year's, a simple, no fuss dish that tastes great and is very comforting: baked eggs.

BAKED EGGS

(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Cooking spray

4 (1-ounce) slices French-style country bread, cut into (1/2-inch) cubes

1 thinly sliced onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper, divided

2 tablespoons water

6 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

Dill

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Lightly coat 6 (8-ounce) ramekins lightly with cooking spray. Spread bread cubes in an even layer on a baking sheet, and lightly coat with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until bread is crisp and lightly browned, stirring after 5 minutes.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to pan; cook 10 minutes or until onion is tender. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir in 2 tablespoons water, and cook 5 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Evenly divide onion among prepared ramekins; top with croutons. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper evenly over croutons.

Carefully break 1 egg into each ramekin on top of croutons; drizzle 2 teaspoons milkover each egg. Arrange ramekins in a roasting pan lined with a dish towel (to anchor them in the pan). Pour boiling water halfway up the sides of the ramekins to make a water bath. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until the whites are almost set. They should be slightly underdone as they will continue cooking in the hot dishes when you take them from the oven. Garnish with dill sprigs, if desired.

Grilled vegetables mock lasagna

 

One thing I miss about summer the most once fall sets in is eating flavorful fresh vegetables. Fall veggies are fine, but they are definitely not the same, not just because of their color, but also because of their flavor. Let's face it: parsnips are ok, but they are no fresh baby zucchini.

Still, I have promised myself that I wouldn't buy out of season vegetables that come form the other side of the world this year, that I would make more sustainable choices in the months ahead. And, to be honest, summer veggies don't taste that good when you eat them in the fall, they just aren't the same.

Unless you grill them, of course.

See where I'm going here?

I bought a last batch of summer veggies -zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant- grilled them and used them to make this mock lasagna. Again, I call it "mock" because it's not made with lasagna noodles, but with pane carasau, a Sardinian flatbread.

 

This isn't really a recipe. I just grilled the vegetables, chopped them and alternated layers of flat bread, layers of veggies and sprinkled them with shredded mozzarella. Then I baked it at 350°F for ten minutes and... voilà. Dinner is served!

 That's all floks. I won't be around for a few days, I'm going to Prague tomorrow... so have a great weekend everyone, and see you on Monday!

Acquacotta... much more than just "cooked water"

Acquacotta in Italian means, literally, cooked water, but as you can tell by the picture, there's much more to this Tuscan soup than just cooked water. There's a poached egg, there's a rich mushroom and tomato broth and, underneath it all there's a thick slice of bread sprinkled with Pecorino cheese. It's a very comforting dish, easy to make and, above all, it's very cheap. Mushrooms are plentiful in this season, but I had so many bags of dried porcini (don't ask, I'm not sure why) in the pantry I used those, and it turned out great.

ACQUACOTTA

Serves 4

2 large onions, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

Extra virgin olive oil

2 pounds mushrooms, sliced

5 tomatoes, cubed

5 cups tasty stock

Grated Romano cheese

4 eggs

4 large slices country bread

Salt and pepper

Dried marjoram

Heat a bit of EVOO in a large dutch oven, add onions and sautee on medium heat for a ten minutes, stirring so it doesn't burn. Add garlic and mushrooms, sautee for three minutes. Add tomatoes, season with salt, pepper and marjoram and cook for about ten minutes. Add broth, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

In the mean time, toast bread and place each slice on the bottom of a large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Pour very hot soup in each bowl. Crack an egg in each one. The broth will cook the egg. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Open faced pulled pork sandwiches

I've been kind of lazy with my blog lately, but I have a good excuse. At least, I think it's a pretty good one. With my parents being here visiting from the U.S., we have dined out a lot, especially since it's venison season and most local restaurants serve all kinds of delicious dishes.

Also, I've just been out of town for the weekend. I went to... drumroll please... BERLIN! I had always wanted to go and, finally, I've made it there. It was amzing trip, although a short one. I'll tell you all about it in a different post, though, with pics and all that other fun stuff.

For now I'm just going to share a recipe with you, the first ever made with my brand new crockpot. You have to know that slowcookers are not popular in Europe. I know, I know. It sounds crazy, since they are so awesome and useful... still, you cannot find them anywhere. Most people don't know what they are. I missed mine so much, I started thinking about having my mom ship it to me from Florida. But then I found one on Amazon.it and forwarded the link to my sister asking her to give it to me as a birthday present. And the rest is history. I now have a crock pot and it came just in time for me to make some good slowcooked, fall recipes.

I decided to inaugurate it by making spicy pulled pork. It turned out great, and when I came home from work the house smelled delicious.

PULLED PORK
Adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com

• 2.5 lb pork shoulder
• 6 cloves garlic cut into slivers
• cumin
• garlic powder
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2-3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
• 2 bay leaves

Season pork with salt and pepper. In a medium sauté pan on medium-high heat, brown it for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Using a sharp knife, cut small holes into meat and insert garlic slivers. Season with cumin and garlic powder all over.

Place chicken broth in the crockpot, add bay leaves and chipotles. Add pork in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. After 8 hours, shred meat using two forks and combine well with the juices that accumalated at the bottom. Adjust salt and cumin. Let it cook another 15-30 minutes.

Meatloaf with onion sauce

For the whole month of September I have eaten and drunk as if it where the holiday season, partly because I was trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer, party because my birthday is on Spetmeber 29th, which means that I feel entitled to party for the whole month.

The result is that now I feel full even before I start eating and that my clothes are a little tight on me, especially my beloved jeans. This, of course, means that I have to lose a couple of pounds and that I have to watch what I eat for a couple of weeks.

What does all this have to do with meatloaf, you might ask? Well, everything, if the meatloaf in question is nutricious yet low fat. And tasty, of course, because I'm a firm believer that if somethig tastes horrible it won't help your diet.

TURKEY MEATLOAF WITH ONION SAUCE

Cooking spray

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup minced mushrooms

6 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs  

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground turkey breast

1 large egg   

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

For sauce:

• 3 onions, chopped
• A glass of white wine
• Chicken broth

Preparation

To prepare loaf:
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

Combine onion, breadcrumbs, and next 7 ingredients (through Tabasco) in a large bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons ketchup.
Shape mixture into a loaf shape. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat a large pan over medium high heat, coat with cooking spray. Sautee loaf on all sides, turning carefully. Add onions to pan and wine. Let onions cook for a few minutes. Continue cooking loaf for about 30 minutes, basting with broth if sauce gets dry.

Corn fritters with fresh tomato sauce

Another great summer recipe. This year I'm definitely trying to hold on to summer more than last year, although I have to say that it feels pretty damn great to sleep under the covers with the windows open. Last night I enjoyed a glorious rainstorm, one that made the temperature dip from Saturday's 81 degrees to a high of a mere 68F and a low of 52F. I know it's not freezing by any means, but it was quite a shock. The ten day forecast looks good, though. Today is still a little chilly, but from tomorrow on we are going back into the low 80s, hopefully until the 29th, when I'm hosting my birthday party at an outdoors venue.

But enough about the weather. Let's talk about food, shall we?

I had toyed with the idea of making corn fritters for a while, but for some reason I never got around to actually make them. Something would always come up and I'd cook something else, postponing the fritters indfinitely. I mean, between cookbooks, cooking magazines and blogs, how on earth is one supposed to try all the delicious recipes one finds? Seriously, how do you guys deal with this recipe overload?

Anyway, I finally made the fritters... and now I wish I had made them earlier on because they are de-li-cious! Also, they are very easy and quick to make, so I definitely suggest you try them as well.

CORN FRITTERS WITH FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

1 large can of corn (or you can use fresh, if you have it)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red chili pepper, minced
2 scallions, finely chopped
A bunch of basil, chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons of water
Salt and pepper

2 tomatoes
1 scallion
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil, torn into pieces

To make sauce, cube tomatoes, slice scallion, mix together with fresh basil and season with salt and pepper.

To make fritters, place corn in a large bowl. Add garlic, basil, scallions, chili pepper, soy sauce, flour, eggs and water. Mix well.

Heat some oil in a large skillet. Spoon batter into skillet, one tablespoon at the time, then, using a wooden spoon flatten the batter and make the fritter as round as possible. Cook for two minutes, then carefully flip and cook on the other side for two minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with tomato sauce.

Oven-fried zucchini chips with basil dipping sauce

The end of summer is near. Yesterday the weather was hot and humid, the kind of day that makes you run to the nearest gelateria for a good ice cream cone or to the bar for an ice cold beer. Today there's a high of 69 and the rain is falling heavy upon Lake Lugano, making it look like the midst of November.

Seriously, it's quite a shock. Yesterday flip flops and a sun dress. Today leggings and boots. As the old people would say, where the hell have the half seasons gone?

Nobody knows.

Still, yesterday I went grocery shopping and, since the weather was still nice out, I bought a bunch of summery ingredients, mostly fresh produce and such. By the time I got home, the clouds where rolling in, the wind had picked up and the lake was white capping. But I had no choice. It was too late to make stew or a roast. So I made this recipe that I found a while ago on Reeni's blog, which is wonderful and you should visit if you have never done so.

I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I didn't have the exact ingredients. It turned out great. As soon as the chips where out of the oven they were all gone. 

OVEN-FRIED ZUCCHINI CHIPS WITH BASIL DIPPING SAUCE

1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup vegetable broth
2 small zucchini cut in 1/4-inch-thick slices
Cooking spray or vegetable/olive oil

Preheat oven to 425° F. Grease a large oven-proof wire rack set on a baking sheet.

Whisk together bread crumbs, Parmesan, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Place broth in a separate shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in broth then in breadcrumb mixture patting the crumbs on. Place slices on wire rack. Repeat until all are coated.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with basil dipping sauce if desired.

BASIL DIPPING SAUCE

1/2 cup plain yougurt
A big bunch of fresh basil, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Use a blender or food processor to combine all ingredients except salt and pepper until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Veggie and mozzarella pie

If you think that I'm obsessed with savory pies, you are 100% right. I am. My obsession springs from the harsh reality that more than once savory pies have saved my ass when I had to throw a meal together at the very last minute. Also, another great quality of theirs is that you can fill them with virtually anything you have at hand so there's no need to run to the store and get ingredients when you are already running late.

As you might have guessed by now, I happen to run late a lot in the kitchen. I always have these grand plans of prepearing everything in advance so that I have time to clean up the kitchen and take a shower and welcome my guests happy, clean and relaxed... then I usually end up greeting them looking like a freak with food all over my hands and half the stuff still in the oven or on the stove. But I guess they love me anyways, because they keep coming back. And they love my savory pies, even though I admitted to all of them that the only reason there's almost always one on my table is that I'm incredibly disorganized.

Oh, well.

In case you have missed my other savory pie recipes, here they are:

Zucchini blossom savory pie
Spring vegetables savory pie
Zucchini savory pie
Savory yogurt pie


VEGGIE AND MOZZARELLA PIE

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 yellow bell pepper
1 small eggplant
1 onion
2 small zucchini
1 mozzarella, cubed
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh or dried oregano

Chop all vegetables. Heat some olive oil ina large skillet, add vegetables, season with salt and pepper and saute for a few minutes, until crisp tender.

Unroll pie crust, scatter half of mozzarella on it, add vegetables, then other half of cubed mozzarella. Season with oregano.

Cook in 350F oven for about 25 minutes.

Herbed roasted chicken with root vegetables

There's something in the air. Mornings are brisk, and so are nights. Alas, the end of summer is near. The days are still bright, sunny and warm, yet you can tell that in a month or so, it will be over. It will be time for coats and socks and autumn ingredients.

When I was little, I used to be kind of glad when summer was over. It meant going back to school, but it also meant that my birthday was coming up, that I would be able to play with my best friend again, that ski season was approaching fast.

Last year I was even more excited. It was my first "real" fall after nine years of Florida. I was thrilled to see the leaves going yellow and reddish and brown. I couldn't wait to put on my winter clothes and spend evenings reading in front of the fire.

This year, things are a little different. I've found myself more than once wishing summer could last a little longer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that while last year I traveled a lot between June and Spetember, this year I only went to Greece for a week. Which was fabulous, of course, but didn't last long enough.

Enough with the whining, though.

To get ready for the change of season I'm slowly incorporating "fall" recipes in my diet, so that when tomatoes and basil are no longer tasty and delicious it won't be too much of a shock.
Which brings me to today's recipe: an easy, simple roasted chicken with root vegetables, with a kick: the bird is smothered in fresh herbs. Just to make summer last a little longer ;)

HERBED ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ROOT VEGETABLES

1 whole chicken
1 lemon, quartered
Salt and pepper
1/2 stick of butter
Fresh herbs, such as basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 glass dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400F.

Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper, then place quartered lemon into it. Truss chicken.

In a food processor pulse butter and herbs until you obtain a smooth paste. Being careful not to rip the skin, place a little herbed butter between the skin and the breast, then use rest to rub chicken all over. Season with salt and pepper.

Place chicken in a oven safe baking dish. Scatter chopped vegetables around it. Pour wine and broth into baking dish.

Cook for 45 minutes in preheated oven. Should the top of the chicken brown too fast, cover with foil.

Chicken cutlets with balsamic bell pepper sauce

First things first, I apologize for the poor quality of this photo. See, the thing is, I took it with my phone because I couldn't find my camera for the life of me and the food was getting cold, so I had to use the phone. Then, of course, as soon as I was done eating my camera reappeared, but it was too late. The food was all gone.

Saturday morning my friends and I went grocery shopping in Italy. With 100 Euros I bought groceries (and wie, of course) to last me at least 10 days, so I was really excited to get back in the kitchen. After being so lazy for the whole month I kinda missed cooking and enjoying my meals at home. Now I don't have an excuse anymore: my fridge and my pantry are busting with all kinds of food. So beware, readers, I'm going to start posting like crazy again!

Also, the weather is not as hot as it was last week, when it was pretty much unbearable. It's still sunny and beautiful out, but it cools off enough at night that I actually feel like standing in front of the stove. Which brings me to this chicken dish I made for the first time the other night. I had the most beautiful and plump red bell pepper I'd seen in a while, but I didn't want to use it in the usual way, i.e. grilled or baked in the oven with potatoes. So I made a sort of sauce out of it, that I served with sauteed chicken cutlets. While it cooked it smelled divine and once it was ready it was a big hit with everyone. It's definitely one of those dishes that tastes better than it looks!

CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH BALSAMIC BELL PEPPER SAUCE

Serves 4

8 chicken cutlets
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 red bell peppers
1 small onion
EVOO
2 tablespoons capers

Season cutlets with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet sautee chopped onion and bell pepper in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Place vegetables in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Set aside and keep warm..

In the same skillet cook chicken, two minutes per side, then add balsamic vinegar and let it reduce for 30 seconds. Add bell pepper sauce, capers and cook for a minute or two.

Curried cabbage

This is an entry for Reeni's Saturday Side Dishes. You can check it out here: http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/

• Cabbage is another one of those ingredients, like cauliflower and broccoli, that I have discovered and incorporated in my life embarrassingly late. And when I say "late" I'm not talking about the 7th grade or my teen years. I'm talking about one or two years ago. I know, right? What the hell is wrong with me? What makes this even worse is that, unlike beets, I don't have any childhood trauma that explains my cabbage loathing. Nobody ever forced me to eat the stuff. My mother never cooked it, therefore I cannot even bitch about the house smelling like cabbage. I just assumed that cabbage —raw or cooked didn't matter— was bad. It had to be bad because it kind of looked like salad to me and, in case I haven't mentioned this before, I don't eat salad. None of it. No exceptions. 
• 
  
• And then one day I was at a friend's house and she had made homemade slaw and wanted my opinion. I tried to tell her that I knew nothing about slaw and that my opinion didn't really count on the subject, but she had people coming over for dinner and was a nervous wreck so I gave in. The slaw was fine. And what was even finer was the fact that raw cabbage didn't taste like salad at all. It was quite an epiphany, I tell you. The next time I went to the grocery store I made another amazing discovery: cabbage was dirt cheap. From that day on I've been making it in a zillion different ways, both raw and cooked. This particular recipe I have found on Cooking Light's website, tweaked it a little bit to my liking and bookmarked under my favorites.
• 
  
• CURRIED CABBAGE
• Adapted from Cooking Light
•    
• 1  tablespoon  vegetable oil
• 1/2  cup  minced shallots
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 3  tablespoons  whole-grain Dijon mustard
• 2  tablespoons  curry powder
• 1  teaspoon  ground turmeric
• 12  cups  thinly sliced green cabbage (about 3 pounds)
• 1/4  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4  cup  apple cider vinegar
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add mustard, curry, and turmeric; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in cabbage and remaining ingredients; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.

  
  

Tortilla de patatas

As you might have noticed from my recent posts, I have gone to Madrid for a few days and fallen in love with Spain. Not only I enjoyed the trip, the people and the city itself, I also discovered many dishes I absolutely love and rediscovered others that I loved already but had forgotten about. One of them is tortilla de patatas, an amazingly simple yet satisfying and delicious dish my dad used to make for me when I was little. Just so we don't get all confused, the term "tortilla" is Spain refers to what Italians call frittata and Americans (and many others) call omelet, not to what you make tacos or burritos with. How the two terms ended up meaning two completely different things is lost on me, but if someone knows it, please do tell —I have been wondering about it for years.

I made the tortilla using a recipe I found in a book I bought at the Madrid airport, because god forbid that I go somewhere without buying a cookbook. What can I say? I'm obsessed. Plus, our flight back to Milano was delayed a couple of hours and I was bored. So there, I have a good excuse this time. Anyway, the tortilla turned out great and made happy a crowd that is very difficult to please. See, I have these girlfriends, most of whom I've known since the 6th grade, who are a walking and talking collection of allergies with a plethora of food related problems and ideas that make it pretty much impossible finding something that we all can eat. There's two vegetarians, there's a dairy intolerant, two who have to eat gluten free and then there's me —I'm only allergic to crab, which makes me by far the easiest to feed. But I had promised I'd cook them a meal, so I started going through cookbooks, blogs and magazines like crazy. And then it dawned on me. Tortilla de patatas was the perfect solution to our little situation. Everyone loved it (or so they said) and I even got to use my brand new book. Perfect, right?

TORTILLA DE PATATAS

3/4 cup olive oil
6 large potatoes, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1large onion, thinly sliced
6 large eggs.


Heat the oil in a 9-inch skillet, add potato pieces, and onions and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally until potatoes are tender.

Beat eggs in a large bowl with a fork. Salt and pepper to taste.

Using a slotted spoon transfer the potatoes in the same bowl as the beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Discard most of the oil from the pan, reserving 2 tbsps of it. Heat it back up, add potato-egg mixture, and cook on medium-high heat. When the potatoes start to brown, put a plate on top of the skillet and flip to cook the other side. Cut into wedges and enjoy!

Penne with Calabrese style pesto

Surprises. You either like them or you don't'. I don't. And that isn't because I'm sort of grump that doesn't enjoy the spontaneous moments in life. Au contraire, I don't like surprises mainly because I have some type of sixth sense that tells me there is something going on —a surprise namely— and because I'm generally such a hopeful, positive person I tend to imagine said surprise to be something awesome, something a lot more awesome than what it actually is. And that, my friends, means that when I'm face to face with said surprise I have to act all happy and cheery, much like when I was nine and my great aunt gave me a house plant for my birthday. I mean, can you imagine being nine, hoping to get some cool Lego or a cuddly teddy bear, and getting a begonia instead? But of course I had to act all happy about it because my mom, from across the room, was giving me that "look happy" look. Faking happiness is not my style, but sometimes, alas, especially when it comes to surprises, one has to do it.

The other aspect I don't like about surprises is the suspense. Don;t you hate it when you walk into a room and everyone in it is on to something you don't know? They look at you, all expectant and barely able to contain themselves, and then —of course— someone yells "Guess what?"

Seriously, spare me the guessing. I loathe guessing. But you have to do it anyway, because they are relentless and everyone calls you a party pooper if you don't. So I guess. My guess usually is "you just got a promotion!", said with genuine enthusiasm and a tiny little hint of envy. Nope. I never guess it right. These days, because my friends are apparently getting old of the sudden, the only possible answers to their guessing game are either "We're getting married" or "We're having a baby". And since I'm not a wedding or a baby person there goes my "look happy" face, the one I learned to make when my great aunt gave me house plants for my birthday.

Of course there is such a thing as a good surprise, one that doesn't involve secretly planned birthday parties or guessing what happened. As it often happens in my life, most good surprises come from the kitchen —either mine or someone else's— or, in this case, from a cookbook I bought a while ago when I realized I was missing my cookbooks like crazy. Yes, people, the two things I miss the most about Florida are my boyfriend and my collection of cookbooks. 

Anyhow, when I think of pesto, I usually think of the traditional Ligurian kind made with fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. Little did I know that other regions —Sicily and Calabria for example— also make their own versions of it and use it over pasta or over toasted bread. The following recipe hails from Southern Italy, from Calabria, and let me tell you, it was so good it made me want to go there...


PENNE WITH CALABRESE STYLE PESTO
Serves 4

3/4 pound penne pasta
3 garlic cloves
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp capers
10 black olives, pitted
10 sun dried tomatoes
1/2 pound cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
A bunch of basil
Salt


Cook pasta according to directions. In the mean time wash and cube the cherry tomatoes. Place garlic, pine nuts, capers, olives, basil and sun dried tomatoes in a mixer and pulse until you obtain a coarse paste.

Heat olive oil in a large pan, sautee cubed cherry tomatoes for a couple of minutes, add the garlic and basil mix and season with salt if needed.

When pasta is cooked al dente, drain it, add it to the pan, sautee for one minute, stirring to combine with sauce and serve immediately.  

Snapper Veracruz style

Cooking dinner last night made me realize that there are certain ingredients that I will miss dearly once I'm in Europe. They are not what most people would miss, I tell you.

For instance, I won't miss the mind boggling variety of sodas you can buy in this country, mostly because the only two types of sodas I occasionally consume are club soda and tonic water, respectively as a mixer to vodka and gin.

Also, I won't miss the mesmerizing selection of breakfast cereal because, you guessed it, I never really enjoyed cereal. I tried, mind you, several times. As a kid, every time we stayed on vacation for longer than 5 days in any U.S. city, town or state I'd beg my parents to buy me Fruit Loops or Coco Pops or Frosted Flakes. My parents, I have to admit, knew better. They usually fed me those miniature cereal boxes that you find at breakfast buffets in mid-range hotels. What followed was comical. I very ceremoniously dumped half the content of the tiny box in my bowl and splash it with the equivalent of two and half tablespoons of milk. Then I would take two, maybe three bites, and declared I was full. Similar behavior, at home, would have developed into a full fledged family drama —I was never allowed to leave anything in my plate— but because we were on vacation and we we had an airplane/boat/bus tour to catch my parents, very forgivingly, muttered something about that back in their day they didn't even what cereal was and hauled me away from the breakfast tabel, so that we could "make good time", something my parents felt very strongly about in the mid 80s.

So what the hell are you goning to miss once your gone, you might ask? If you are thinking about fast food, you are wrong again. Although I was born in 1980, my mother had a very futuristic, very progressive, very 2010 if I may say that, approach to feeding her child. I'm proud to say she never spoon fed me that baby-food-out-of-a-jar-crap that I see so many infants swallow. She made my meals from scratch —each and one of them— and turned me into an incredibly happy and healthy baby. And as I grew older, while other kids at preschool were dreaming of drinking Coca Cola or Sprite, all I wanted was water. And fast food to me meant a meal my mom would cook from scratch in less than 30 minutes. So no, I'm not going to miss fast-food in the McDonalds-good-knows-what's-in-your burger way.

Enough with the guessing. I'm going to stop telling you what I'm not going to miss and tell you one thing I will miss dearly: freshly caught snapper from the Gulf of Mexico. Because I'm pretty positive no one will stop by my house in Milan, Italy, and drop off something that they have just caught nearby. And if they do, I'll run for my life.

SNAPPER VERACRUZ STYLE

 Adapeted from Cooking Light
Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds of snapper fillets
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Olive oil
1/4 cup chopped green olives
1/4 cup bottled salsa (I used hot, but you can use whatever you prefer)
1 15-ounce can good quality chopped tomatoes, such as Del Monte Organic
3 tablespoons minced cilantro
1/2 lime
Cayenne pepper

Season the fish on both sides with salt, pepper and cumin. Lightly grease a large baking dish with olive oil, place fish in baking pan and broil in preheated oven for 4 minutes, then flip and broil for another 4 minutes.

In the mean time mix remaining ingredients in a bowl. When fish is ready serve it smothered with prepared salsa.

"Cream" of cauliflower with turmeric

After failing miserably at eating healthy both during January and February, I'm currently trying to make March my best month yet. We'll see how long that lasts. I figured I have about 4 to 6 weeks before taking off to Italy and I'd like to be as healthy and productive as possible between now and then. Of course it's a little tricky, being productive before moving, I mean. Moving is stressful and when you are moving across an ocean the stress tends to peak to new heights, so the logic response to that —for me— would be to sit around, drink wine and eat cheese. But, alas, I can't. For a number of reasons. The first one might sound shallow and vain. I really don't want to move to Italy with an ass the size of Brazil and my clothes not fitting me anymore. The second reason, I admit, I care less about. I have been told that I have to pack and organize before I leave —something that I could do while drinking wine and eating cheese, but requires me to get up from the couch.

Mind you, I'll still drink wine. Because let's be honest: I don't think I can stay sane, pack and organize without a little help. But the food, I've decided, has to be healthy. And good for me. Hence this "cream" of cauliflower, that contains no cream at all. I invented it after having a long conversation about anti-cancer foods with my mom, who's reading a very interesting book on how to prevent it by eating the right things. Cauliflower, turmeric and black pepper are all ranking high in preventing cancer and I have to say, after taking a first spoonful of my new creation I was incredibly pleased with the result. It's great for you and it tastes amazing. What else could one want?

CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER WITH TURMERIC

2 pounds cauliflower florets
2 cups vegetable broth
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons turmeric
1 1/2 cups plain natural yogurt

Place broth and cauliflower in a large pot and bring broth to a boil. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with turmeric. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, until florets are tender.
Puree with an immersion belnder. Stir in yogurt, adjust seasoning and enjoy hot or cold.

Stuffed onions

 

Let's take a break from soup, shall we? I'm also taking a break from organizing and cleaning the house and today I'm mostly dedicating my time to one of my unfinished novels (writing it, not reading it). Six days into unemployment and still I haven't finished doing any of the things on my to-do list, which could be attributed to the fact that I haven't written a list yet. So here it goes. I'm going to hear back from graduate school at the end of March, which means that until then I have no schedules, no deadlines and no obligations —the perfect time for taking care of all those projects I never took care of before because I was too busy.

To do:

Finish novel

Send novel to publishing house

Organize closet

Sell clothes to Plato's Closet

Organize pantry

Organize bathroom

Bake a cake for Tommy's birthday

Buy a new coffee maker 

Post on blog once a day

What do you think? Will I be able to post once a day... we'll see. Only time can tell.

STUFFED ONIONS

Serves 6

6 large golden onions

1 1/4 cups (125 g) bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Olive oil

Grated pecorino romano

Salt & pepper to taste

Peel the onions and briefly blanch them in salted water. When they have cooled cut them in half horizontally, then scoop out the middle sections. Mince what you scoop out.

Heat oil in a small pan and cook the minced onion in it, season with salt ans pepper and let cool. Wet the bread crumbs thoroughly in the milk, and stir them into the sautéed onions, together with the eggs and the parsley.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Fill the onion halves with the filling, sprinkle with cheese, and bake them just until they brown.

Pork, lentil and cabbage soup

 

That's right! More soup! I know January is supposed to be soup month, but the weather continues to be crummy and soup is usually an easy and cheap dish to put together, so you will probably see more soup recipes coming. As The Kitchen Witch wisely suggested, I should concentrate on recipes that are on the cheaper side now that I'm unemployed. It helps a bunch that I have all the time in the world to scout the local farmer's markets for inexpensive fruit and veggies, plus I will also have the chance to go to Costco and buy me some of that delicious pork tenderloin at $2.99 a pound. I mean, that's wicked cheap. If I buy it at the grocery store I have to dish out something close to $7/lbs. so, well, you do the math. 

Another thing that I have time to do now is clean and organize the house, and I cannot tell you how much it needs it. I started yesterday by attacking my closet —which was much worse than any closet I've ever seen. I kid you not, it was so bad that I didn't dare taking a "before" picture". I'll just take the "after" once I'm done with it and then I'll cart 10+ bags of clothes to Plato's Closet to see if they want to buy any of my crap. After I'm done with that there's the rest of the house to take care of, a thought that makes my knees feel weak, but at the same time makes me feel strangely comforted in a "at least I'm not gonna sit around and be depressed about it" kind of way.

And of course there will be some crazy cooking and baking —once we get the new dishwasher installed, that is. Because yes, on the same day I got canned, my dishwasher broke. As in forever. Cannot be repaired. But as soon as the new one comes in I'll have all day to cook and photograph all kinds of recipes so, if you have suggestions, please tell me. What should I attempt to cook now that I have all the time in the world?

PORK, LENTIL AND CABBAGE SOUP

Serves 6-8

Olive oil

One pork chop, deboned and cubed

Pork chop bone

2 onions, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery ribs, sliced

1 cup lentils

1 can chopped tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, minced

7 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3 cups finely sliced green cabbage

Salt and pepper

Minced parsely to garnish

Heat oil in a large dutch oven. Toss in the pork bone. Season cubed pork with salt and pepper and cook in heated pot until lightly browned. Add onions, carrots, celery and cook, constantly stirring, until vegetables are starting to brown.

Stir in lentils, tomatoes and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and add the stock and the thyme. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about a half hour. When lentils are tender add cabbage and cook for five minutes. Discard pork bone. Garnish with parsley just before serving.