Confident Kitchen

Sometimes you just want something simple that doesn’t require a set recipe. The sausage in this photo is made of pork, feta, and spinach. Mashed potatoes made with garlic, butter, and a splash of whole milk. The green in the photo: steamed broccoli. The gravy was made with a mix, I admit, but there were no additives, just dried starches and spices, mixed with the juices from the sausage, with a spoonful of mustard.

I definitely need to learn to make gravy from scratch.

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Mike and I explore Quinn’s for lunch the other day. This post just contains photos.

Mmm.

This is one of the lights. Funky.

Taps.

Mike’s sausage sandwich.

List of specials.

Taste of Pink Killer.

Wild Boar Sloppy Joe.

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On a whim, I asked my favorite vegetable vendor what I should try. He recommended baby artichokes. I found the best website with instructions on how to prepare these tasty little treats. I sauteed them in a little olive oil with some salt and garlic, cut into smaller pieces, then added to a risotto. I will definitely buy these again.

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It’s pretty easy to make pasta from scratch. We take the basic recipe of 100g flour for each egg to make 3 servings of pasta (200g flour + 2 eggs for 5 servings, 300g flour + 3 eggs for 8 servings, and so on). Gently mix until you reach the right consistency (which I am still learning, I currently make Carl do this part). Let “dough” rest for a few minutes, then roll through the pasta maker until you reach desired thickness (or thinness, depending on how you look at it).

We dry our pasta for 30-60 minutes on clothes hangers in the kitchen. Kind of silly, but it work!

Remove from hangers and combine into one big bundle. Add to boiling water with a glug of olive oil for 3-4 minutes or until you reached desired texture (al dente 2-3 minutes, soft 3-4 minutes).

Layer with red sauce, or toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, green herbs. Also great lightly mixed with oil, salt, pepper, anchovies, and shallots.

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After making two Jamie Oliver recipes this week, I decided to use a few of the skills and flavor combinations to make a new sauce. I found the spinach gnocchi at a local Italian grocer (DeLaurenti).

• 4-5 tomatoes (I used 3 regular, 1 large heirloom.  Heirlooms generally have more flavor than normal hothouse tomatoes but cost more, thus why I mixed the two.)
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1.6oz tin anchovies fillets, diced
• half a yellow onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/3 cup marsala
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste (watch the salt on this one, the anchovies will add a significant amount of salt on their own)
• 1 Tablespoon (or to taste) red chili pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• fresh basil and parsley
• Parmesan cheese, grated

One quick note:  when adding tomato paste, it is best to remove it from the tube or can.

To prepare the tomatoes, remove the core (stem area) with a tomato/strawberry shark or knife, cut a large “X” into the bottom of each tomato, and add to boiling water for 30-60 seconds, or until you notice the peel cracking. Remove from hot water, place into cold water, then remove the peels. Cut into quarters, remove seeds/guts, and chop into small pieces.

Heat a pan or pot on the stove, add olive oil when warm.  When oil is heated, add onions and saute until soft, 3-4 minutes.  Add garlic and anchovies, cook for 1 minute.  Add Marsala and bring to a vigorous simmer (Carl teases me and says this is technically a boil, but I think it’s actually still a simmer), stirring everything together.  Add tomatoes and bell peppers and, stirring occasionally, reduce until tomatoes fall apart and the bell pepper is soft.  Add salt and pepper, red chili pepper flakes, tomato paste, and oregano after 15 minutes.  Add small amounts of water, 1/4 cup at at time, if needed.  When mixture is soft, about 20 minutes, it’s ready at this point if you like it chunky, or you can use a food processor, immersion or regular blender to smooth the sauce out.  This is what I did.  Place back on stove after blending and heat through.  Layer over gnocchi, add fresh parsley,  basil, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

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I found it on The Kitchn yesterday.

1 large bulb fennel
1/2 head green cabbage
1 head red radicchio
2 lemons (preferably Meyer lemon)
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Finely chop the fronds of the fennel bulb. Thinly slice the stalks and bulb with a mandoline (or finely chop with a chef’s knife). Do the same with the cabbage and radicchio, and toss all the vegetables together. Zest the Meyer lemons and toss with the vegetables. Season to taste with salt and pepper.Whisk the dressing ingredients together, taste, and adjust. Toss with salad and refrigerate for an hour before serving.

It’s not like your typical “coleslaw”. There’s no mayo for one. It’s light, refreshing, and a little zingy (or maybe I put in too much black pepper, who knows!??!) anyway I just love it which is good because I made a ginormous bowl of it.

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Sometimes I take pictures of the food I make but never get around to posting the recipe. I think I will make more of an effort to add them to this blog, even if I don’t transcribe the recipe from the source (just cite it).

Lately we’ve been taking a break from a lot of Internet use, and I’ve been trying to use my collection of cookbooks more. This is the result of a few dinners this week.

Ligurian braised rabbit and rosemary with olives and tomatoes

Vermicelli with a simple sweet tomato sauce and shrimp.

Both are from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie’s Kitchen.

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