Giada's Fusilli with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes and Sausage

We eat a whole lot of Fairway's grilled artichoke hearts around here. They're just one of those tastes I constantly crave, and always find satisfying. Meanwhile, Bill, for his part, would happily put sun dried tomatoes in pretty much everything (if he had his way) -- so this simple, tasty pasta lets us both have exactly what we want.

I've added a little chopped Citterio Fresco Rosmarino Ham to Giada's recipe, and that one change added tremendous depth of flavor. Prosciutto would do just as well. When there aren't any fresh herbs around, I substitute that great Fairway pizza seasoning blend of dried basil, oregano, red pepper, garlic etc.

3/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, sliced, 2 tablespoons of oil reserved
1 pound spicy Italian turkey sausages, sliced
Small amount chopped rosmarino ham.
2 (8-ounce) packages frozen artichoke hearts
6 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
16 ounces whole wheat fusilli or penne
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan, plus additional for garnish
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
8 ounces water-packed fresh mozzarella, drained and cubed, optional
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil reserved from the tomatoes in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the sausages and cook until brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a bowl. Add the artichokes and garlic to the same skillet, and saute over medium heat until the garlic is tender, about 2 minutes. Add the broth, wine, and sun-dried tomatoes. Boil over medium-high heat until the sauce reduces slightly, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the fusilli in boiling water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta (do not rinse). Add the pasta, sausage, 1/2 cup Parmesan, basil, and parsley to the artichoke mixture. Toss until the sauce is almost absorbed by the pasta. Scatter the mozzarella on top. Season, to taste with salt and pepper. Serve, passing the additional Parmesan cheese alongside.
Serves 6

Vietnamese Ginger Chicken

I'm on a roll! Great meals all week.
Bill's a very happy camper.
I guess I should start thinking about trying to fit into a wedding dress one of these days...
This flavorful chicken was my humble attempt at replicating the gorgeous ginger chicken Lan Tran Cao turns out down at V Cafe. Man, that woman can cook.

12 oz raw chicken, sliced into scallops
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. chopped garlic
2 tsp. chopped shallots
2 tsp. julienned fresh ginger
4 tsp. vegetable oil

Spicy Honey Lime Sauce
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. Soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Honey
2 Tbsp. Lime juice
1 tsp. Thai chili sauce

Marinate chicken in a mixing bowl with the salt, pepper, sugar, soy and sesame oil. Allow to marinate, in the refrigerator, for at least 30 minutes. Heat a medium sauté pan over high heat. Add the vegetable oil and sauté the shallots until lightly brown. Next add garlic, chicken, ginger and sauté until chicken is fully cooked. Transfer to plate. Spoon the Kaffir-Honey-Lime Sauce over the chicken and serve with steamed rice.
Serves 2-3

Chinese Stir-Fried Shrimp with Snow Peas and Cashews

Oh, yum...
This weeknight experiment -- an amalgam of two stir fries I often crave: Cantonese Shrimp with Snow Peas and Ginger Chicken with Cashews -- came out even better than I expected. Full of gingery heat and sweet shrimp; crunchy snow peas and velvet cashews. Oh - and quick! And healthy!
Keepin' it.

2 T cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, sliced
ginger, minced
2 scallions, sliced into thin rings. White and green parts separated.
2 cups shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 1/2 cups snow peas, blanched
1 cup chicken stock
1 hefty glug of hoisin sauce
1/2 cup salted, roasted cashews
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Heat the oil in a saute pan or wok. Saute the garlic, ginger and white scallion rings until they are fragrant. Add the shrimp and snow peas and toss to combine. Add 3/4 of the chicken stock and the hoisin sauce. Saute until the shrimp are cooked through. Add the cashews, green scallion rings and cook just until heated through. Add the cornstarch mixed with the remaining chicken stock and bring to a boil just until thickened.
Serve over rice.

Steak and Semi-German Potato Salad

There was a request for steak salad for dinner tonight. The results were very memorable - a good example of how a dish can somehow magically exceed the sum of its component parts.
I started with a composed salad of mixed greens and herbs, endive, fennel, cherry tomatoes, minced red onion, and grilled marinated artichokes as the foundation. Then I took a hot baked Yukon Gold potato and sliced it up and tossed the slices with a squeeze of lemon juice and a few tablespoons of mustard vinaigrette and then layered the warm dressed potatoes on top of the composed salad. I sliced and heated the leftover steak and fanned out the slices on top of the potatoes, pouring the accumulated steak juices over everything, and voila! A little extra vinaigrette on the side, and dinner was served...

Cod and Asparagus En Papillote

This came together in a flash.
Light, easy, elegant, quick. I might put the fish on a bed of very thinly sliced potatoes and shallots next time, and steam it all together.

3/4 lb cod filets
1/4 t minced lemon zest
Salt and freshly ground pepper and (believe it or not) Fairway's pizza seasoning to taste
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 pat of butter
juice from 1 half a lemon
1 short glug of white wine
lemon slices
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
8 - 10 spears of asparagus

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place fish on a large square of parchment paper or tin foil, on top of a baking sheet.
Smear with zest and spices, sprinkle with lemon juice and wine. Arrange the asparagus around the fish and scatter the garlic and butter over all. Place the lemon slices over the fish and stre the chopped cilantro over everything. Tightly crimp the foil so the packet is air tight. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Serves 2

Vietnamese Steak

Oh...my...god...
This was insanely good. This precise mix of flavors: charred, salty and rich, is pretty much exactly what you want to taste when you're craving steak. The recipe came out of a back issue of Saveur. In Vietnamese its called Thit Bo Bit-Tet (pronounced Teet Baw Beet-teht).
Photo by Andre Baranowsky

3 tbsp. Maggi seasoning sauce
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 top sirloin steak (about 1 1/2 lbs. in all)
Rice

1. Stir together Maggi seasoning sauce, oil, pepper, and garlic in a wide, shallow dish. Add steak; rub all over with marinade. Cover; let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Remove steak from marinade; scrape off most of the garlic. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add steak and cook until well browned, 3–4 minutes; flip steak and cook until medium rare, 2–3 minutes more.

3. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil. Thinly slice both steaks across the grain. Serve with rice, and any accumulated juices.

Serves 2-3

Salmon Tacos...

...for lunch!

Roast Salmon with Avocado Salsa

Its Cinco de Mayo and we had a bunch of limes, cilantro, avocados and a habanero pepper hanging out in the fridge, along with a defrosted salmon filet...
I marinated the salmon in lime juice, chopped garlic and salt, and then roasted it at 375 for ten minutes. Perfect.
There really isn't much of a recipe to record -- just the memory of a cozy dinner in front of the tv with Bill, watching House MD on a Monday night.

Granola Batch # 1

This first batch of house blend granola falls somewhere between the Lawson and Bittman camps.
I left out the oil altogether, used only what we had in the house and forgot to add ground flaxseed, which I will definitely add to the next batch, along with some ground ginger. The pepitas/pignolis were an off flavor in the mix, and I wouldn't use them again. Slivered almonds instead of any and all other kinds of whole nuts and seeds, next time. I'll toss in some cereal flakes when its all cooled off.

Dry ingredients:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup Trader Joe's pignolia, pepita and almond mix
1/2 cup roasted salted cashews
1 tsp. ground cinnamon


Wet ingredients:
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup honey

Add Ins:
1 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
1/4 cup dried golden raisins

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well. In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients. Stir to mix well. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones, and stir well.

Spread the mixture evenly on two rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. Set a timer to go off every ten minutes while the granola bakes, so you can rotate the pans and give the granola a good stir; this helps it to cook evenly. When it’s ready, remove the pans from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and set aside to cool. The finished granola may still feel slightly soft when it comes out of the oven, but it will crisp as it cools.

Mix in dried fruit and scoop cooled granola into to a large zipper-lock plastic bag or other airtight container. Store in the refrigerator indefinitely.

Yield: about 7 cups

Thai Seafood Noodle Salad

Bill cooked this up for dinner last night, inspired by the cover recipe on this month's Food and Wine: "a delicious tangle of chewy rice noodles, shrimp, squid and cashews." Fiery hot and satisfyingly full of all the exciting sweet-salty-tangy-herbaceous flavors we crave in Thai food. Mr. Toles was very pleased with himself -- and even more so today -- after the leftovers turned into spicy summer rolls for lunch.
(Photo by Dana Gallagher)
Ingredients

6 ounces rice vermicelli
2 red Thai chiles, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 pound bay scallops
1/2 pound small squid, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings and tentacles halved
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup mint leaves
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salted roasted cashews
6 lettuce leaves, for serving
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
*

directions

1. In a medium bowl, cover the vermicelli in cold water and soak for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a mortar, pound the red Thai chiles and garlic cloves to a paste with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, boiling water and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and pound until the sugar is dissolved. Let the dressing stand for 30 minutes.
3. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook until white throughout and curled, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to the ice water. Add the scallops to the boiling water and cook until white and firm, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the scallops to the ice water. Add the squid to the boiling water and cook just until firm, about 45 seconds. Transfer the squid to the ice water. Drain all of the seafood and pat dry.
4. Bring a fresh saucepan of water to a boil and refill the bowl with ice water. Drain the vermicelli, add to the boiling water and cook just until al dente, about 1 minute. Drain and transfer to the ice water. Drain again and pat dry. Cut the vermicelli into 3-inch lengths.
5. In a large bowl, toss the seafood with the vermicelli, tomatoes, bean sprouts, mint, red onion, cashews and chile dressing. Line a platter with the lettuce leaves and top with the seafood salad. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

MAKE AHEAD All of the components can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Toss the salad just before serving.

Roasted Salmon with Sweet and Hot Mustard Dill Sauce

This recipe came courtesy of Robin Miller, whose plan-ahead methods for feeding a family are, in my opinion, pure genius. The hot mustard is necessary here, not to be left out. I served this with Nigella's roasted potatoes last night, minus the goose fat...

Cooking spray
1 lb salmon fillets, skin on and pin bones removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot mustard powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper. Place salmon in prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the Dijon, honey, water, lemon juice, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Remove 1/2 cup of the mustard sauce and set aside. Pour the remaining sauce over the salmon fillets in the pan. Roast the salmon, uncovered, until fork tender, about 10 - 12 minutes.

Stir the dill into the reserved mustard sauce. Serve 1/3 of the roasted salmon (4 fillets, each about 4 ounces after cooking) with the dill-spiked mustard sauce spooned over the top. Refrigerate the remaining salmon up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months; thaw it completely in the refrigerator or microwave for 3 to 5 minutes on LOW before using.

Coffee Creme Brulee

Begin preparing this a day before you plan to serve it.

Ingredients
4 cups whipping cream
1 cup plus 8 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely ground espresso coffee beans
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder or coffee powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
Preparation
Place eight 3/4-cup custard cups in large roasting pan. Combine cream, 1 cup sugar, ground espresso beans, instant espresso powder and cinnamon stick in heavy large saucepan. Using small sharp knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into mixture; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar and espresso powder dissolve. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 30 minutes. Strain through fine sieve.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk egg yolks and egg in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in cream mixture. Divide among custard cups in pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of custard cups. Bake custards until center moves only slightly when cups are gently shaken, about 55 minutes. Remove custards from pan. Cool; refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Preheat broiler or set up propane torch.. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over each custard. Place custard cups on baking sheet. Broil or torch until sugar is brown and caramelized, rotating baking sheet to broil evenly and watching closely to avoid burning, 1 to 2 minutes. Chill custards 1 hour. Serve.
Yield: 8 servings

Chicken Piccata

After a monster day I called Bill from the office and asked whether maybe he could hit the blog and turn out this quick chicken piccata for dinner, since I was running late. By the time I got home an hour or so later, he was in a state of giddy near hysteria, with raw chicken spread out all over the table and a maniacal gleam in his eye as he pounded cutlets, danced around the kitchen and yelled into the phone to Cherrie about how there was no way this was a real recipe. This was obviously an impossible obstacle course I had set up to teach him a lesson about how much I go through to cook dinner every night...
(Luckily, Cherrie had my back. Thanks Cherrie!)
It really is an easy recipe...and scrumptious...

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 6 ounces each
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon drained bottled capers, rinsed and chopped
1 cup of canned quartered artichoke hearts
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Thin slices lemon and chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Sprinkle a small amount of water on a large plastic sheet of plastic wrap. Place the breast halves on top of the plastic and sprinkle again with water. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin or meat pounder until about 1/4-inch thick.

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a shallow pie plate. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Working in 2 batches, place the chicken in the flour mixture and turn to coat on all sides. Shake off the excess flour and add to the skillet. Cook until lightly browned and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate or platter and cover loosely with foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.

Pour off the fat from the skillet and return the skillet to the heat. Add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring to pick up and browned bits in the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 3 minutes. Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer, turning often, until warmed through and the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and the capers. Season with salt and pepper and heat just until the butter has melted. Serve on warmed plates with a spoonful of the skillet sauce, topped with lemon slices and parsley.

Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Warm Chive-Horseradish Sauce

My mom makes this all the time. Its incredibly simple (and elegant and satisfying.)
Florence Fabricant wrote the recipe up in the NY Times years ago, in an article on new dishes for the Seder table.

She wrote: "Though Le Bernardin, unlike some restaurants in New York, will not be serving a special Passover menu, Eric Ripert, the chef and one of the owners, has come up with an appropriate dish: steamed halibut in borscht with warm chive-horseradish sauce.
It is a delicious and visually stunning dish that hits the correct flavor notes for the holiday menu ... One could chill the sauce and, instead of the halibut, substitute ovals of gefilte fish ..."

I generally use prepared borscht, making this a 30 minute main dish.

Steamed Halibut in Borscht with Warm Chive-Horseradish Sauce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adapted from Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, julienned
1 cup julienned fennel
2 tablespoons sliced garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped savoy cabbage, plus 3 of the darker outer leaves, finely julienned
1 quart well-seasoned chicken or vegetable stock
4 cups peeled and julienned fresh beets (about 1 1/2 bunches)
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
1 cup creme fraiche, sour cream or mayonnaise
1/4 cup prepared white horseradish
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon minced chives
8 halibut steaks or fillets, each 4 to 6 ounces, or 8 portions chilled gefilte
fish

1. Heat oil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add onions and fennel and cook
slowly about 5 minutes, until softened. Tie garlic, thyme, parsley and
chopped cabbage in a double thickness of cheesecloth and add it to
saucepan along with stock and beets. Simmer 15 minutes. Season to
taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Discard cheesecloth and
its contents. To serve the dish chilled, refrigerate beet mixture at least 4
hours or overnight.

2. Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add julienned
cabbage leaves, cook just until bright green, then drain. Set leaves aside,
covered, to keep warm; for a cold dish, refrigerate.

3. Mix creme fraiche, sour cream or mayonnaise with horseradish, sugar
and chives. If using mayonnaise, thin it beforehand with 2 tablespoons
water. This sauce can be gently warmed in a small saucepan or chilled to
serve cold.

4. To serve, steam halibut until fully cooked outside and just warm inside,
6 to 8 minutes. Keep warm. Reheat beet mixture, spoon into warmed
shallow soup plates, sprinkle with julienned cabbage and top with fish.
Or spoon chilled beet mixture into shallow soup plates, add cabbage,
and top with gefilte fish. Serve horseradish sauce, warm or chilled, on the
side.

Yield: 8 servings.

Steak Salad

My mom is a huge steak salad fan...or she was, anyway, before she went 95 percent vegetarian. I bet the steak salad I whipped up tonight would still tempt her though. It was Bill's first steak salad. He gets it. The tastes of corn and tomatoes and basil and seared steak seem imperative right now, to gt us through this looooong cold early spring.

Steak and Marinade:
1 lb flank steak
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup sugar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced

Slice the steak into a few pieces. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix all marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Marinate the steak, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to two days. Preheat the broiler and broil the steak until medium. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then slice thinly across the bias. Serve warm, along with any accumulated juices, on top of the dressed salad. Pass extra vinaigrette at the table if anyone wants it.

Salad:
Mesclun
grape tomatoes, halved
cucumbers, sliced into half moons
chopped scallions
fresh herbs: cilantro, chives, basil
canned corn, or corn cut from the cob
cooked garbanzos
diced fennel

Herb Vinaigrette:
balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
dijon mustard
minced garlic
salt and pepper
chopped basil
chopped cilantro
minced chives