Day 5

Fava beans... They've been staring at me since Tuesday. I've been avoiding them all week, hoping to come up with something creative. Everything I could think of required making a puree, and these favas were too fresh to mess with their texture. Just look: I've been wanting to make gnudi for a while (and reminded by last week's gnudi dish on Top Chef) so I thought I'd try it out and just add the fresh favas! Gnudi is a type of pasta made with ricotta cheese and it has the texture of a fluffy dumpling. My gnudi recipe is based on one from Epicurious, with a few tweaks.

Whole Wheat Gnudi, Fava Beans and Bay Leaf Wine Sauce
Serves 2 (with a few leftovers)

Gnudi:
1/2 pound ricotta cheese (strained overnight)
1 fresh egg
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Zest from 1/2 lemon

Pinch of salt and pepper
1/2 cup whole wheat flour, plus additional for coating

1.)Mix ricotta, egg, cheese, salt and pepper in a bowl and sprinkle with flour. Stir to combine and chill 1 hour.
2.)Gently roll a small spoonful of ricotta dough into a ball. Toss lightly in extra flour forming into a log or ball. Place aside and chill.
3.)Boil gnudi in salted water until tender, around 7-8 minutes.

Fava Beans:
2 cups fresh favas, shelled

1.)Blanch favas in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Shock in cold water and slip favas from their bitter skin.

Bay leaf Wine Sauce:
1 cup dry white wine
2 large bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 cups heavy cream
Salt and white pepper to taste

1.) Simmer wine, bay leaves, and garlic until reduced to a syrup, around 15-20 minutes. Add cream and keep warm. Remove bay leaf before pouring sauce over the gnudi and fava beans. Enjoy!

Sorry about the lighting, it was getting dark outside!

Cinco de Mayo

Cumin, cilantro, jicama, and lime....All of these ingredients MUST be present for me to throw a good Tex-Mex party! The piquant smokey cumin combined with the fragrant tang added by cilantro and can transport you to the most tropical of locations. Now add the sweetness of jicama and the tart lime and you have a complex and balanced dish. Seth wanted to have a dinner for his crew, so I planned a mini fiesta last weekend. After reading an inspiring recipe about grilled pineapple and onions in Food and Wine Magazine, I sought to create a pork taco utilizing all of my favorite ingredients. If you're looking for an added flavor, soak the onion slices in vermouth for a couple of hours before grilling; it adds a nice complexity. Overall, people brought some fabulous food and one guy even handmade a plane pinata. It was one fun evening!

Pork Tacos and Fixins'Pork:

5lbs boneless pork shoulder

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup orange juice

Juice from 1 lime

2 to 3 squirts of Sriracha, or chili sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp garlic powder

2 Tbsp oregano

1 Tbsp cumin

1 cup chopped cilantro

24 white corn tortillas

2 red onions, cut into 1 inch rings

4 cups pineapple, cut into 1 inch rings

1.) 24 hours in advance, combine the meat, juices and spices in a plastic bag and marinate in the refrigerator.

2.) Heat up a grill and cook the pork for approx 45min to 1 hour. Each grill cooks differently so cook until the internal temperature of the pork registers 156 degrees. Let meat rest for 10 minutes, while grilling the onions and pineapple. Slice the pork and serve with tortillas.

Jicama and Tomatillo Slaw:

5 tomatillos, paper outer layer removed

1 onion, cut in half

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 softball sized jicama, cut into 1 inch slivers

1 small head of green cabbage, shredded

1.) In a 350 degree oven, roast the tomatillos and onion for 1 hour. In a food processor, blend the roasted vegetables with the lime juice. Pour over the zest, jicama and cabbage. Serve with the tacos.

Note: Instead of roasting your own tomatillos or onion, you can use salsa verde or another green salsa.

Cumin Sour Cream:

1lb (16oz) container of sour cream

zest of 2 limes

1 T cumin

1/4 tsp Kosher salt

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1.) Combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for an hour (or more) before serving.

Oh yes and what to drink with these tacos.... We did make margaritas, but my favorite drink of the evening was my Lime and Cucumber Spritzer. Rick Bayless' recipe calls for tequila, but I wanted to tweak the recipe and make it non-alcoholic. Mint isn't exactly a classic Latino flavor, but I had to add a tiny bit to bump up the refreshing factor. Enjoy!

Cucumber and Lime Spritzer:

1 6inch English cucumber, peeled and chopped

1 cup lime juice

1 cup mint simple syrup, mint leaves strained out

3 cups sparkling water

1.) Puree the cucumber, lime juice and syrup until thick. Pour into serving pitcher and add sparkling water.

Mint Simple Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1/2 cup mint leaves

1.) Boil the sugar and water until dissolved. Add mint leaves and cool.

Chicken Paillards

Hello again! My sister scolded me for my absence from the blog world. Like most everyone, my life has been busy busy busy. The to-do list is out of control and a pile of unread magazines continues to grow. When I finally had the chance, I picked up a few magazines and proceeded to weed them out. Sometimes I flip through a magazine and a recipe just jumps off the page. This article from Martha Stewart Living was one of those articles, and I have no real reason why. It’s not flashy, but it appeals to a rich homey feeling that I must have been craving. I didn’t exactly follow the recipe, but I didn’t want to mess with Martha too much. We cooked bacon that morning and saved some of the drippings for the sauce. Not the healthiest of options, but it added a pleasant smoky flavor. To make the paillards, I used the website's directions. This dish would be well complimented by a serving of wild rice and sauteed leafy greens, mmmmm!

Chicken Paillards
2 Tbsp bacon drippings (or butter)
4 chicken paillards
1 small shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup dry white wine
Juice from 1 lemon
1 Tbsp chopped thyme
1/2 cup chicken stock
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

-Heat the bacon drippings (or butter) in a large skillet. Add chicken to the skillet and sauté for 3 minutes or until browned. Flip and sauté another 3 minutes or until cooked through. Set chicken aside.
-Add shallot and garlic to pan and cook until soft (may need to add more butter) and deglaze with white wine. Add juice, thyme, and stock and simmer another 5 minutes, until thickened. Serve chicken drizzled with sauce.

Something Spicy

The other day I was craving flavor, in a bad way! Seth drove me all around Oak Harbor trying to figure out what I was craving...Seafood? No. Steak? Sadly no. I wanted spices, Indian spices! Unfortunately Oak Harbor is short on Indian so we usually settle for anything on the Asian continent. Too bad it was Sunday night because our Thai and sushi restaurants were both closed and I ended up ordering a tuna and sesame appetizer at Flyers, a local burger joint. Needless to say, that didn't satisfy my cravings. That next day, I made my own version of Chicken Tikki Masala. Its not totally authentic, but it sure brought some flavor!

Chicken Tikki Masala

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 chopped red onion (or 1 cup)

4 cloves of garlic

1 Thumb size piece of ginger, finely minced

2 ribs lemon grass, minced

1/2 lemon

1 6oz can tomato paste

2 Tbsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chili powder (more if you'd like)

1 cup yogurt

1 can unsweet coconut milk

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

chopped green onion and cilantro, optional

1. Heat oil in a dutch oven (or stockpot) and cook onion until soft, around 5 min. Add garlic, ginger, and lemongrass (how to prep lemongrass) and saute for another 10 min. Deglaze pan with lemon juice. Add tomato paste and spices and cook for another 3 min.
2. Add yogurt, coconut milk, chicken broth, cilantro, and chicken. Cook for another 30-45 minutes until the chicken is done. Garnish with green onion and cilantro.

Serving Options
Basmati rice with a mix of vegetables

Baked puppodums crisps, sprinkled with curry salt

Tumeric-Roasted Cauliflower (not in the picture)

Pizza!

I have the oddest food cravings and recently one of those cravings has been Hawaiian pizza. There is something about the acidic fruity-ness of pineapple, combined with the salty ham and smooth melted cheese...mmmmm satisfying! I've always been an extra-cheese kinda pizza girl, but I think as my taste buds are growing up, I'm craving more flavor and texture (but still with extra cheese). And now that its rainy and cold outside, I really have a hankering for warm and soothing foods. I guess Hawaiian pizza is a new comfort food for me!

After a visit to California, Seth's sister gave me her honey wheat pizza dough/foccacia recipe. Its really easy and makes a lot of dough. I used half whole wheat flour and the crust had nice texture without tasting like cardboard. Give it a try next time you're making pizza and have fun trying to toss the dough around. Pizza Dough:

Makes 4 large pizzas or 12 mini-pizzas (unless you drop some while tossing like I did)

1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp baker's yeast

10.5 cups flour

3.5 Cups water

6 Tbsp olive oil

3 tsp salt

1.Run tap water until the water is warm and comfortable to the touch. Fill a glass bowl with water, add the honey and yeast. Don't stir, just sprinkle the yeast over the water and drizzle the honey through it. Let it bloom for several minutes.

2. In a mixing bowl, toss together flour and salt. Make a well in the middle and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Knead dough by hand for 10 minutes or until its smooth. You can also use the dough hook on your mixer.

3. Let dough rise until doubled and punch down. Divide into fourths and put in four oiled gallon sized bags. Refridgerate, but bring to room temperature before using.

Hawaiian Pizza:

1/4 lb chopped proscuitto

1 can chunked pineapple, in juice

3 cups mozzarella cheese

2 cups tomato sauce

1. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the prepared pizza dough. Sprinkle with ham, pineapple chunks and top with cheese. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until crust is crispy and cheese has melted.