Chocolate Salami DeLuxe

Deluxe Chocolate Salami for the Holidays... I am well aware that chocolate salami is a rich dessert as it is, even in its plain form, so why make it even more decadent by adding some extra goodies? Well, that's exactly why: for me, chocolate can never be TOO decadent... 

Here's how I tweaked a holiday classic for this Christmas.

Ingredients:

8 oz dark (85%) chocolate, broken in pieces

3 tablespoons cocoa

5 oz butter biscuits

5 oz Amaretti cookies

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2-2/3 cup walnut pieces

zest of 1/2 medium orange

2-3 tablespoons rum extraxt, or Jamaican Rum or brandy

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

dried fruits: 4 dates, 4 apricots, 5 prunes (all chopped) and a handful of raisins

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup fine sugar

4 oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the almonds and walnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and bake them in the oven, until almonds began to toast (6-8 minutes). Set aside, and let cool completely. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over simmering water, blend in the cocoa, then set aside and let it cool.  In the meantime, crush the biscuits: put them in a large freezing bag and roll them with a rolling pin, but be careful not to turn them into dust. Crush the almonds and walnuts the same way. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs one by one. Blend in the melted chocolate, the vanilla extract, rum extract (or Rum or Brandy), orange zest and the dried fruit, then fold in the crushed biscuits and nuts. Divide the mixture into three. Place one third of the mixture on a plastic wrap, then pulling the sides of the plastic wrap up, make a roughly salami shaped log. Cover it completely in plastic then firmly roll it up and down several times, to form a perfectly round sausage. Twist the two ends of the plastic wrap and tie it with a string. Repeat twice (to yield 3 logs). Refrigerate the logs until firm, for 1-2 hours. (Will keep in fridge for up to 2 weeks and in freezer for 2 months).

Note: you can roll the logs in powdered sugar (or walnut meal), to make it look more like a salami.

Mushroom Stuffed Zucchini

I turned some unused fresh zucchini from last week into Christmas Eve dinner... This was a first even for me, skipping meat altogether for Christmas Eve (we'll make up for it today, though, with some stuffed wine leaves: http://izaskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/06/stuffed-wine-leaves.html). But it turned out to be not such a bad idea after all: it was really delicious, and quick AND easy to make, saving me a lot of time in the kitchen. Again, not an original recipe, there are many great recipes on the internet, I just combined 2 or  3,  with the following result:

 Ingredients for two:

2 medium (6-8 oz) zucchinis

1 shallot, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

6-8 oz brown button mushrooms, chopped

1/2 orange bell peppers, chopped

1 Roma tomato, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoon breadcrumbs

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence or Italian Seasoning

A handful Italian Parsley, chopped (1-2 tablespoons)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

A few slices of Cheddar or Parmesan

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Halve the zucchinis lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and some of the flesh, do not discard. Place the shells cut side up in an oiled 9 inch baking dish, season with salt and pepper. Finely chop the reserved zucchini flesh, the mushrooms and the rest of the vegetables. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium, saute the onions and garlic until translucent (3-5 min), then add the mushrooms, bell peppers and tomatoes. Add the seasoning: pepper flakes, Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper, and cook until mushrooms release their juices, and the juices evaporate (5-10 minutes, but honestly, I didn't clock it). When the veggies are done, fold in the breadcrumbs and the chopped parsley, then stuff the zucchini boats with the stuffing, don't worry if the stuffing seems too much, just pile it over the zucchinis, the shells fit so tightly in the baking dish, the stuffing will stay on the top. Cover each shell with Cheddar or Parmesan slices, then bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. Serve with a green salad and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Note: DO NOT precook the zucchinis. These small zucchinis will cook perfectly without pre-baking.

Cream of White Asparagus Soup

I forgot to  write down the recipe for this soup the first time I made it, so I had to improvise a little, again... I forgot the bay leaves, of course, but they were my own addition in the first place, anyway, so I don't think much harm was done.

This and all my cream soups are not for the purists, I tend to add so called "filling" vegetables to them in order to achieve a thick consistency without using too much cream, the flavor might suffer, but it's better for our waistlines. For this soup however I used a fair amount of half and half: I think the soup would be too bland without it.

Ingredients: 

2 bunch white asparagus, approx. 1 kg (2 lb)

4 medium white potatoes

3-4 stalks celery

2 shallots

2 tbs butter

2 l (32 oz)  chicken or vegetable broth

a dash of nutmeg or 4-5 fresh bay leaves

3/4 cup half and half

croutons, crispy bacon and parsley or basil to garnish (optional)

Preparation: Wash and trim the asparagus, setting aside the tips. Peel the potatoes and dice them. Wash the celery stalks and slice them. Roughly chop the onion and saute in 1 tbs butter on medium for a couple of minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables with 1/2 cup water, and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until all vegetables are cooked through. Add the nutmeg then let the soup cool a little before pureeing in a food processor or a blender. Add the half and half and heat the soup through before serving. Use the asparagus tips to garnish the soup along with croutons and chopped parsley/basil and/or crispy bacon (I'm using turkey bacon to cut down the calories and fat a bit). Just saute the tips in 1 tbs butter for 5-10 minutes, until they're tender. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Style Braised Eggplant

Rice U's Mediterranean grill has a wonderful Turkish eggplant salad/appetizer, which I've decided to replicate it at home. I was sure I can find the recipe online, but unfortunately the internet failed me this time. So I had to use my imagination again (hoping that my taste buds won't fail me) in trying to reconstruct the dish from memory. As a starting point I used the Imam Bayildi (The Priest Fainted) recipe, but stripped it down to its very basics, and instead of stuffing the eggplants with the onion-tomato sauce, I braised everything in the oven for 1.5 hours. As I understand, the Turkish secret to the perfect eggplants is cooking them for an extended time, until they become melt-in-your-mouth creamy. They also serve it at room temperature, rather than hot, straight out of the oven.

So, brace yourselves, my friends, this is what I came up with.

What I used:

2 large eggplants

1 onion

2 large ripe tomatoes (it's summer, so I used local, Texan heirloom tomatoes)

1.5 tablespoon sugar

Juice of 0.5 lemon

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

a lot of olive oil. I didn't measure it, but I must have used about 1/2-3/4 cups.

How I made it:

First I washed and peeled the eggplants, cut them lengthwise in 1/2 inch slices, salted them, and left them drain in a colander for an hour. Then I rinsed them in cold water, patted them dry, and fried them on both sides in 1 tablespoon olive oil at a time, adding more oil as they soaked it completely up. I placed the eggplants in a greased ovenproof dish.

After that I prepared the sauce:

I chopped the onios, blanched the tomatoes, removed their skins and sliced them. Then I caramelized  the onion with 1 tbs sugar in 1 tbs olive oil, on medium high heat (5 min), then I added the tomatoes, lemon juice, 1/2 tbs sugar, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, seasoned the sauce with salt and freshly ground balck pepper and coked it for 10 minutes. When the sauce was ready, I poured it over the eggplants...

...then I added 1/2 cup water, covered the dish with aluminum foil, and braised it in the preheated oven (at 325 degrees) for an hour, then uncovered it and baked it for 20 minutes more.

Serve it at room temperature as an appetizer, or as a side dish with baked chicken.

Note: the result tastes different than the dish served at Rice, but it's darned good nonetheless. Next time, for a more similar taste, I might skip the onion, and increase the amount of sugar and lemon juice, for a more pronounced sweet-and-sour flavor.

Potato, Kale and White Bean Soup

I adapted some Spanish/Portuguese Kale Soup recipes found on the internet, to make the soup just a little lighter, without skipping the meat altogether. So, instead of chorizo I used smoked turkey legs. A few weeks back, when I made this soup for the first time, I actually used turkey bacon, which made it even lighter. This picture was taken then, and as you can see, the vegetables overpowered the kale a little - so at Peter's suggestion (who wanted a kale soup more similar to my Lettuce and White Bean Soup, recipe to follow), I increased the amount of kale from 1 bunch to 2.

Ingredients (makes 8 servings):

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 bunches of kale, cleaned, thick stems removed, and cut in 1-1.5 cm strips

3 medium potatoes, diced

4 medium carrots, sliced

1 (14 oz) can white beans (or any beans of your choice, really), rinsed

1 smoked turkey leg, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced

64 oz chicken broth

2 Tbs olive/sunflower/vegetable oil

Preparation:

Heat the oil on medium in a large soup pot, saute the onions for 5 minutes, add the turkey, and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the carrots and the potatoes, add a little water (about half a cup) and cook covered for ten minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. In the meantime, in a large skillet wilt the kale, until almost done  - just add a little water (about 3/4 cup), and cook covered for 5-7 minutes. After ten minutes of sauteing, add the broth to the vegetables and turkey, cook for 15 minutes, then add the wilted kale, the minced garlic and the rinsed beans, and cook for another 5 minutes. It's best served with freshly grated Parmesan (we skipped it now, but maybe we won't next time). Enjoy!

Savoy Cabbage Salad with Sauteed Chicken Thighs

Peter was craving some Savoy Cabbage salad his Aunt in Austria once made him. It's supposed to be a very basic creamy cabbage salad. Since I couldn't find anything simple and basic enough on the internet, I borrowed some ideas I found on the web, and added caraway seeds, mustard and some lemon juice to the the dressing. The honey is my own idea (and I might need to use more next time, because I feel the dressing needs something sweet to offset the tanginess of the sour cream and lemon juice)

Ingredients:

1 Savoy Cabbage

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground carraway

freshly gorund black pepper to taste

3/4 - 1 cup sour cream

1.5 tablespoon mustard of your choice (you can use Dijon, I just don't like Dijon mustard)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon honey (use more, if you like the sweetness of coleslaw)

Preparation:

Finely chop the cabbage, season with salt and leave to rest for half an hour. Prepare the salad dressing: mix the sour cream, mustard, honey and lemon juice well together, season with freshly ground black pepper and the caraway. Rub the salt into the cabbage with your hands, pour the salad dressing over and toss well. Leave to cool in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight. Serve with baked/grilled/roast chicken or pork. We served it with sauteed boneless chicken thighs seasoned with caraway, and mashed potatoes.

How to make the sauteed caraway chicken: season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and cook them in a little olive oil on both sides for about 2 minutes, add a teaspoon of caraway seeds and 0.5 cups dry white wine, then cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the juices have reduced by half, then remove the lid and cook the thighs uncovered a few minutes more, until they're nicely browned.

Domaine Amido, Lirac 2009

Another great French wine for the price (in the $10-15 range). We discovered it on Central Market's French Festival. Unfurtunately,  last week when we tried to restock our supplies CM was out... and I'm afraid they might be out for foog. What a shame that would be!

Baked Chicken Patties

I tweaked an Italian "polpette" recipe a bit for these baked chicken patties/meatballs. The original recipe called for beef instead of chicken and was a very basic meatball recipe: using only milk soaked bread, egg and meat, then topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and anchovies. I added onions and garlic and modified the seasoning az well: instead of fresh oregano I used dried Herbes the Provence (Italian seasoning works just as well).

In this process, I think I've found the secret to the best (juicy and flavorful) meatballs... It's onion, lots of it (and garlic, of course).

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken

4 cloves of garlic

2 medium yellow onions or 4 shallots

1 slice of white bread, crust removed

4 tbs milk

1 large egg
2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tbs breadcrumbs for the meat

1/2 cup breadcrumbs for dusting the meatballs

Olive oil for frying

2 large ripe and juicy tomatoes

fresh mozzarella

1 can anchovies

About 1 tbs Herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently heat the milk with the bread, until all milk is absorbed by the bread. Let cool slightly. Chop the garlic, bread and onions in a food processor then mix them together with the meat, 1 egg, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tbs breadcrumbs, 1 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper. Shape the mixture into medium sized patties. Spread the remaining breadcrumbs on to a plate, and roll the patties in them to coat thoroughly.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and fry the patties for about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer the patties into a greased baking dish, and top each of them with one slice of tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence, then place the mozzarella slices on top, then finish with one-two strips of anchovy. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown. Serve hot with mashed potatoes and a mixed salad.

Serves 6.

Chicken Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Bean Chili

My (composite) recipe for Mexican stuffed peppers with bean chili. Most likely it's not very authentic (apparently beans and chili don't exactly mix), but it's a great dish nonetheless.

My husband asked me to serve some kind of a chili with the peppers, when I first made Mexican stuffed peppers, so I combined a few recipes I found on the internet, and this is what I came up with (roughly  - recipe can be freely altered, ingredients added or left out, quantities changed to fit your personal taste).

The dish will serve four hungry people.

Ingredients for the stuffed peppers:

4 poblano peppers

1 lb chicken breast or chicken thigh meat, cubed in small, 1/4 inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 peeled and chopped tomatoes and 4 oz tomato sauce, or one 14 oz can chopped tomatoes

0.5 lb mushroom (optional), finely chopped

0.5 teaspoon ground cumin

0.5 bunch cilantro

1 cup grated Cheddar

1 tbs lime juice

2 tbs olive oil or vegetable oil

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Ingredients for the chili:

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1  (14 oz) can black beans, drained and washed

1 (14 oz) can kidney beans, drained and washed

1 cup frozen corn (thawed) or 1 (14 oz) can corn

1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce

prepared chili con carne seasoning, or: 

1 teaspoon chili powder or crushed pepper flakes

1 teaspoon ground cumin

a pinch of cayenne pepper

half a bunch of cilantro

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

Preparation:

Position oven rack 4 inches from boiler, and heat broiler on high. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slit the poblano peppers from stem to tip, remove the seeds, place them on the baking sheet and broil them turning once, until skin is blackened and charred all over (approx. 10 minutes). Place the peppers in a zipper bag or in a small glass bowl with a lid, and let them cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove the blackened skins and place the peppers in an oiled baking dish.

Prepare the meat: In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil on medium high heat, and saute the onion and garlic until softened and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the meat and cook on medium until meat is no longer pink. Season with salt, pepper and cumin, then stir in the tomatoes and the tomato sauce, bring to a boil and add mushrooms. Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the mushrooms and the meat are fully cooked. Stir in the cilantro and the lime juice.

Divide the filling among the peppers, stuff them and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is melted and begins to brown (about 30 minutes). You can speed up the process by using the baking sheet you broiled the peppers on and just broiling the stuffed peppers for about 10 minutes (in this case, you might want to prepare the chili before broiling the peppers):

Preparing the chili: saute the onions and garlic in 1 tbs olive or vegetable oil for 5 minutes, add the chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin and cook for 1 minute, making sure not to burn the spices. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato sauce, cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the beans and the corn and cook for another 10 minutes. When ready, stir in the cilantro and serve the chili with the peppers and steamed rice of your choice.

A great find

We purchased this Bordeaux at Central Market's French Wine Sale a couple of weeks ago... We served it with a really nice Camembert, they were perfect together... It's a very smooth, wonderfully balanced, medium bodied wine, a great find all in all. Deserves a mention in our food and wine blog.

Stuffed Wine Leaves

"Dolmas" with minced meat... In Romania it's made with mixed pork and beef meat, or just plain minced pork, though originally, I think the meat of choice  was lamb. As usual, I adapted it for chicken. It's great served with cornmeal and sour cream. It's fairly easy to make, although a little time consuming. Great for guests, as it can be made ahead, you only need to reheat it in the oven when the guests arrive.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

1 lb minced chicken breasts

1/2 cup white rice (any kind is good)

1 large yellow onion, or 2-3 shallots, very finely chopped

1/2 can (8-10 oz) tomato sauce (next time I'll add 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste as well)

1 jar wine leaves (last time I used Mezzeta, and I used all 27 leaves up for stuffing. But it's better to have a few spare leaves for covering the stuffed  rolls)

1 bunch fresh dill, finely chopped

4-5 fresh bay leaves

1/2 cup white wine

2 tbs olive oil or  sunflower oil

water, salt  and pepper to taste.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Thoroughly wash the wine leaves, cut the stems,  and put them aside while making the meat mixture: mix the minced meat with the finely chopped onion, rice, dill, half of the tomato sauce and 1-2 tbs tomato paste, then season with salt and pepper. Work everything well together with your hands. Stuff the wine leaves with the meat mixture. In an oiled ovenproof casserole layer some wine leaves if you have leftovers (I didn't, so I skipped this step) then place the little rolls in one layer. Put some bay leaves between the rolls, then cover with spare leaves (again, I skipped this step), and cover the the rolls with water mixed with the remaining tomato sauce and paste. Bake covered at 425 degrees for about an hour, checking occasionally and adding more water if necessary. Then pour over the wine and cook uncovered for another 30-45 minutes, reducing the heat to 350 degrees. Serve hot with cornmeal and sour cream and a glass of nice dry white wine.

Chunky Guacamole

One of the things I'll miss most when we  move back to Romania is Hass avocado. No other avocado has the wonderful nutty flavor and soft, creamy texture that Hass avocado has... And it follows that for a really flavorful guacamole you need Hass avocado...

Here's a traditional guacamole recipe I've been making for years.

Ingredients:

1 large ripe Hass avocado

1/2 Serrano pepper, finely chopped (more if you like your guacamole spicier)

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 ripe flavorful tomato, chopped

one big handful of cilantro, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

juice of 1/2 lime (to taste)

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Finely chop the tomato, Serrano peppers, garlic, onion and cilantro. Halve and pit the avocado, scoop out the flesh into a small bowl and mash with a fork, making sure to leave it a bit chunky. Add the chopped ingredients, fold them in, then season with lime, salt and pepper. Serve with tortillas of your choice.

Some kind of Château...

Central Market had a French Festival recently, which included - among other things - a French wine sale: 20% off for six bottles or up...

We couldn't resist the temptation (not that we tried very hard). Here's our proud acquisition:

We've already tried two of them. Posting photos here, because they are really, really worth the price (below the $15 mark:

Goat Cheese Baked in Tomato Sauce

This is one of our favorite dishes, if not THE absolute favorite... We first served it at a tapas restaurant here in Houston, and after our friend Aniko recreated it successfully at home, we decided to try it ourselves... It's been a permanent presence on our dinner table ever since. It's a fairly easy dish to make, perfect for a quick casual dinner for guests, too: it's quite presentable without having to spend hours in the kitchen, it only takes half an hour to make, using ingredients that I usually have lying around in the fridge and the "pantry". After experimenting for a while with different kinds of prepared tomato sauces, I chose the most basic tomato basil sauce, this is what I always go back to: Monte Bene Tomato Basil Sauce, available at Central Market. You can prepare your own tomato sauce if you like, but for a quick dinner it's better to have a jar of prepared tomato sauce on hand.

As usual, I tweaked the basic recipe just a tiny bit, to make it my own, by adding sun-dried tomatoes to the tomato sauce. Here's how I make it:

Ingredients (for 2):
12 oz prepared tomato sauce of your choice (Marinara, Tomato Basil, Roasted Garlic, etc.)
4 oz goat cheese (Chevre)
8 sun-dried tomato halves, diced

4 cloves of garlic, crushed (3 will go on the garlic toasts, 1 in the salad)
1 baguette, sliced or  8-10 Ciabatta slices
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 handful of basil leaves
mixed salad for serving.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop the sun-dried tomatoes, then form the goat cheese into a ball, and place it in the middle of a small round oven safe baking dish. Ladle the prepared tomato sauce around the cheese, making sure that the cheese doesn't get covered with the sauce. Mix the sun-dried tomatoes into the tomato sauce, and pop it in the oven, for 20-25 minutes.

While the sauce is baking, prepare the toasted garlic bread. In a small bowl mix together the crushed garlic and the olive oil. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and brush them with the olive oil and garlic mixture.

Bake the garlic bread for 10 minutes: just slide it next tot he sauce in the last 10 minutes of baking.

When both the sauce and the toast are ready (25 minutes total), remove them from the oven and serve the sauce on the toast with chopped basil and a nice mixed salad: I usually make a garlic vinaigrette adding 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sugar or 1/4 teaspoon honey to the remaining garlic-olive oil mixture.

Serving suggestions:

Asparagus and Chicken with Whole Wheat Orzo

It's asparagus season! And as a fairly newly converted fan I can't resist the temptation, and on every Saturday, when we do our weekly grocery shopping I pick up a bunch from the store.

I've been quite busy lately, so dinner has to be quick and easy... Last night I threw together this light asparagus-orzo pasta (as you can see, I'm now a fan of orzo, too): it's much the same as the mushroom-asparagus orzo I made a few weeks ago, it just uses chicken instead of the portobello mushrooms. I omitted the shallots (truth be told, I completely forgot about them), and added some cherry tomatoes in the mix. Let me tell you, it was delicious!

I'm writing down the recipe quickly before I forget.

Ingredients (3 servings):

0.5 lb chicken breast fillets, cubed
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut in 1 inch pieces
5 garlic cloves (yes, I know, we love garlic. Amount can be adjusted to taste)
8-10 pieces sun dried tomatoes, sliced
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup whole wheat orzo pasta
2.5 cups water or chicken broth
0.5 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
1 cube chicken bouillon (optional)
3 tbs olive oil

Note made on June 29th: last time I made it I used 1 lb chicken and 1 lb asparagus, and 1.5 cups orzo for 4 servings. I left out the cherry tomatoes as I didn't have any, and they turned out perfect that way too, it was a really nice variation.

Preparation:

In a large skillet heat 1 tbs olive oil, add chicken, season with salt and pepper and cook on medium until chicken pieces are no longer pink in the inside (5-7 minutes). Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook the chicken one minute longer before adding the orzo pasta. Add 2-2.5 cups water or chicken broth, bring to a boil, add chicken bouillon if using, 1/3 of the garlic (optional - I only added them to the pasta because I realized I chopped up too much garlic for the asparagus, but eventually it turned out to be a good idea), and half of the Herbes de Provence. Cook uncovered until pasta is ready, 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, in a separate frying pan heat the remaining olive oil, add the rest of the garlic and the sun dried tomato strips, and cook for 2-3 minutes, being careful not to brown the garlic. Add the asparagus spears, season with salt, pepper and the remaining Herbes de Provence, and saute on medium to high until asparagus is softened but still firm and bright green (5-7 minutes, at the most). For the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the halved cherry tomatoes to the asparagus. When then pasta is ready, mix in the asparagus and tomatoes, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan and a green salad. Enjoy your quick dinner!

Chicken Meatball Soup

This is a variation on the Romanian Meatball Soup (ciorba de perisoare), usually made as a sour vegetable soup (chorba) with pork meatballs. Hungarians in Transylvania will tell you that the sweet version of this soup is a traditional Hungarian dish... They're quite similar, but I bet every Central European nation has their own "traditional" version of meatball soup. And who can really say which nation invented it in the culinary melting pot of that region?
 

This is my first attempt at adapting this recipe to our needs: we try to avoid pork and beef in our diet, so I made it with chicken.

I've always loved my mother's version, which uses pork, of course, but I'd have a hard time replicating it here in the States without the home canned vegetables she uses for her chorbas. Admittedly, substituting chicken for pork makes this variation a little less flavorful, but you can compensate for that by adding more spices to the chicken meatballs, maybe using thigh meat instead of chicken breasts.

As always, I don't seem to be able to make a thin soup, I always keep adding and adding ingredients, until one pot can't hold everything, and I need to cook the soup in two pots.
 

Ingredients:

For the meatball:

1 lb minced chicken or turkey or pork or beef or any combination (I used minced chicken breasts)

0.25 cups white long-grain rice

1 large egg

salt and pepper

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon marjoram (optional)

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon breadcrumbs (optional)

For the soup:

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

3-4 carrots thinly sliced or cubed

2 celery stalks (if you can't find celery root/celeriac), cubed

2 parsley roots, cubed or sliced

1 bell pepper (any color will do, I used 1 green and a quarter red, leftover from a salad), cubed

3-4 flavorful tomatoes, skin removed and chopped, or 1 14oz can chopped tomatoes

3-4 yellow potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup frozen green peas (optional)

Optionally, any other vegetable you have in the fridge (such as green beans, white cabbage, zucchini). Chorba is not a very restrictive recipe, feel free to be creative.

1 handful fresh  lovage, finely chopped, or 1 tablespoon dry lovage (don't skip this, this will give the Chorba it's unmistakable flavor). If you really can't find it, use chopped Italian parsley instead, but it will not be as good. 

Juice of 1 lemon (ideally one should use Romanian "borsch", but here in the US you'll have to substitute lemon for it) 

64 oz chicken broth, and extra water if the soup is too thick

1 tbsp vegetable oil (for soups, I prefer sunflower oil, whenever I can get it)

Sour cream, chili peppers, garlic and extra lemon juice for serving (optional)

Method: First prepare the meatball mixture, by working together all ingredients (if you can spare the time, put the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours, this way the flavors will come nicely together). When you're ready to prepare the soup, first chop all vegetables, then make little, smaller than walnut-sized meatballs out of the meat mixture and set aside. In a large soup pot heat the sunflower oil and saute the onions on medium high heat, until they become translucent (3 min.), add carrots, celery, parsley root and bell pepper. Saute the vegetables about 5 minutes, until they soften slightly, add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, then add the chopped tomatoes and cook for about five minutes. Add the meatballs to the boiling soup. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the potatoes and cook the soup until the vegetables and the meatballs are fully cooked. In the last few minutes of cooking, add the green peas. Just before removing the soup from the heat, add the chopped or dry lovage and the lemon juice. Serve with bread, a teaspoon of sour cream, chili peppers, crushed garlic and 1 teaspoon of lemon or white wine vinegar (only if needed).

Grilled Chicken Breast With Balsamic Glazed Onions

I saw this recipe for glazed vegetables (pearl onions) on Food Network's website, and I just couldn't resist the temptation to try it. So this last weekend I bought some multicolored pearl onions at CM, some boneless, skinless chicken breast, and last night I tried it... let me first say, don't ever try this with fresh, unskinned onions! Use frozen pearl onions instead, which will save you a huge amount of preparation time! I didn't realize what a pain it could be to clean 50 tiny onions - well, Peter was the designated victim for the task, but after he managed to skin only 5 onions in about 10 minutes, I went to the web for help, and luckily I found some instructions on how to skin them in almost no time at all. But it was still a little messy, so next time I'll just use frozen onions for this (this says a lot about what a great cook I am, right?).

What I ended up making was not FN's exact recipe, I only used it as a guideline along with some other recipes I found on the internet.

First I blanched the onions (about 14 oz) in their skin, in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, which made them easier to clean, and also had the advantage of  shortening the actual glazing time, as my onions were already pre-cooked. After skinning the onions, I heated 1.5 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon raw cane sugar in a frying pan, until the butter started to foam, and the sugar melted, then added the pre-cooked onions, about half a cup of a good dry white whine, and about 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar. Quantities are really approximate, and next time I might skip the sugar. I think the balsamic vinegar will give it enough sweetness. It wasn't bad this way either, those with a sweet tooth would definitely prefer it with a dash of sugar in it. After adding all the ingredients in, I cooked it on high until the liquid thickened and became syrupy.

We served it with grilled chicken breast, creamy mashed potatoes and a nice green salad with a honey-balsamic vinaigrette.

Portobello Mushrooms and Asparagus with Orzo

We bought some beautiful Portobello mushrooms last Saturday for grilling (broiling) with goat cheese, but my oven is still out of service, so I decided to use it up in a pasta dish together with the asparagus left over from Saturday's salmon. I almost felt proud for coming up with this recipe, but after a quick Google search I realized there's already a plethora of wonderful asparagus-mushroom pasta/risotto recipes out there, and there's virtually nothing I could possibly add to them.

Anyway, this is how I made it... I didn't follow any particular recipe, but I won't vouch for its originality. I'm posting it because we liked it so much, we plan to include it in our regular diet.

Ingredients for 4:

3 large Portobello mushrooms, cut in half an inch cubes
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 lb asparagus (I cooked with leftovers, so I used only half this time),  broken in 1-2 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8-10 sun-dried tomatoes cut in thin strips (I'll use cherry tomatoes next time)
1.5 cups orzo pasta
2-2.5 cups water
0.5 cups fine dry white wine
1 small bunch parsley
1 tablespoon Herbes de of Provence
1 chicken bouillon (optional)
freshly grated Parmesan to taste (1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:
Saute the shallots with the garlic on medium until shallots become translucent (1-2 min.). Add Herbes de Provence and mushrooms and cook until browned (approx. 10 min). Meanwhile, in another frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil and stir fry the asparagus for about 5 minutes. It shouldn't be fully cooked, you want it crunchy and bright green. Add the sun-dried tomatoes tomatoes and pasta to the mushrooms and cook stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes, then pour in water and wine, bring to a boil, add chicken bouillon if using, and cook until al dente (7-8 minutes), adding more water if necessary. When ready, add the asparagus and the Parmesan, adjust the seasoning for salt and pepper, and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Serve with a nice leaf salad for a a main course, or with grilled chicken for a great side dish.
Enjoy!

Italian Wine for Pasta Dishes

Another fairly inexpensive wine ($15) we like. It's quite dry, but great with pasta.

Green Bean Soup with Tarragon

I found the recipe for one of my favorite soups on a Hungarian website (http://www.szantal.hu/index.php?link=news%2Fnews.php&parentid=249&topic=6), and tweaked it a little, by adding some carrots to the recipe and skipping the unhealthy roux (called rántás in Hungarian) as a thickening agent...

Here's my version:

Ingredients:
1.5-2 lb fresh green beans
5-6 tomatoes, or 1 (14 oz) can chopped tomatoes when they are not  in season, or a combination of the two
4-5 carrots
1 shallot
4-5 cloves of garlic
2 (32 oz) chicken stock (or 64 oz water and 3 cubes chicken  bouillon)
2 cups kefir
1 bunch fresh tarragon, or 1 tbsp dried tarragon
a pinch of sugar
salt and black pepper to taste,
1 tbsp vegetable oil, or olive oil, or sunflower oil
1 tbsp flour

Preparation:
Clean and cut the beans into 1-1.5 inch pieces, cut the carrots into thin rounds, finely chop the onion. In a large soup pan heat the oil on medium, add the onions, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the carrots and green beans with 1/2 cup water, and cook for 10 minutes. In the meantime, bring the chicken broth (or water) to boil, and add it to the pan (and the chicken bouillon, if using). Simmer the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes, until beans are almost done. Add the tomatoes, and cook another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, combine 1 tbsp flour with the kefir, crush the garlic and add it tot he mixture. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the flour-kefir mixture, bring to boil,  cook for 1 minute, then adjust seasoning for salt and pepper, add the sugar and tarragon, and you're done. This is a very light, very flavorful, great summer soup. Enjoy!

Asparagus and Tomato au Gratin, with seafood

This is one of the very first dishes we were introduced to here in the US, more than seven years ago. And we have to thank Martine for it. Back in the day, she was a French graduate student at Peter's department at Caltech, and we shared an apartment with her for our first month in Pasadena. We also shared our love for garlic, cheese and wine (though understandably her knowledge of cheese and probably wine, too, far exceeded ours).

For this wonderfully simple asparagus-tomato au gratin you only need a bunch (approx. 1 lb.) of asparagus spears, cleaned, trimmed, and broken in 2 inches pieces, 3 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced, a lot of minced garlic (as many as you like) - for this dinner I used 7 cloves, 2 tbs olive oil,  freshly ground pepper and sea salt, and 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence. In a greased 8 inch baking dish simply layer the asparagus spears, half the garlic and seasoning, then the tomatoes, remaining seasoning and garlic, drizzle withe some more olive oil, and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until tomatoes are softened. Serve with baked fish, or pan fried shellfish and rice. We usually serve it with mixed shellfish (or just scallops), but today I've decided to try it with baked salmon.

However, as simple as the recipe sounds, my life got a little bit complicated this evening, when my oven died on me just as I was about to pop in the prepared vegetables and fish... "What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?" Here I was, on the verge of a panic attack, when I suddenly realized I could after all cook everything on the stove top... So I quickly heated some olive oil in two skillets, threw all the vegetables in one, placed the salmon in the other one, and everything was ready in 10 minutes (5 minutes for the vegetables, 10 for the fish). So what you see in the picture is not asparagus au gratin, but stir fried. It was still very good, and in the future, when I'm pressed for time, or it's too hot outside for baking, this is how I'll prepare it for a quick dinner.

Added July 15th:

It's July already and we still can't get enough asparagus... Today, after getting some great Gulf shrimps at a reasonable price at HEB, we decided to serve it with sauteed asparagus and tomatoes.

Shrimp is fairly easy and unbelievably quick to prepare, it takes (much) longer to peel and devein it than to cook it. I usually just sautee 3-4 cloves minced garlic in a little olive oil, add some pepper flakes and the shrimps, season with salt and some black pepper, and cook them turning once for 2-3 minutes, then add the juice of half a lemon, cook 1-2 minutes longer  and it's done (you can season it with chopped parsley, I just didn't have any today). 

My Tuna Salad

Back in the day, when SDI had its offices on Wilshire Blvd in L.A., and I used to commute from Pasadena every day, there was a nice deli on the first floor of the building, where they served an amazing tuna salad plate... I've tried to recreate the flavors of that tuna salad for years, but never quite succeeded. After a while, I just gave up trying and decided to create my own version. And I got help from the most unexpected quarters: George from Seinfeld, form the episode "The Trip", when they're trying to track down Kramer in Los Angeles. At one point, George has a tuna salad sandwich, and wonders if they have put tarragon in it. This gave me the idea to season the tuna salad with tarragon, and I got reinforced in my idea when I discovered a tarragon chicken salad here at Central Market deli section. If tarragon can be used for seasoning chicken, why not for tuna as well?.

So here is my tuna salad:

Ingredients:

1 can solid white tuna in water

1 celery stalk finely chopped

2-3 dill pickle0

1 shallot, chopped (optional, lately I'm not using any kind of onions for this salad, especially if I know there's gonna be leftovers),

dry tarragon to taste

1-2 tbs homemade mayonnaise

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together, being extra careful with the mayonnaise: you don't want the other ingredients to swim in, but you don't want your salad too dry either. Serve on toast.

Chicken Liver Meatloaf

Lamb meatloaf ("drob de miel"), made with lamb organs, is a traditional Romanian dish served on Easter... My mother in law makes it every year. Occasionally my mother would prepare it too, though she uses it as a stuffing for roast lamb more often (which seems to be more of a Hungarian way of preparing lamb in Transylvania.)

I thought I should finally try the chicken version, since it would be quite a challenge to find lamb organs here is the States, and I prefer to cook with chicken, anyway. The basic recipe is fairly simple, and although it is quite time-consuming, the result is well worth the effort: for the lamb version, you cook all the organs of the poor animal, chop or mince it along with 1-2 bunches of scallions, 1 bunch each of dill and parsley, some hard boiled eggs, wrap the mixture in the animal's stomach (sounds appalling, I know, but it really is good, and my version skips this step anyway, so please stick with me), then bake it.

There are plenty of recipes out there for the chicken version, too, mine is a little different, in that I used a smaller number of eggs, and covered the meatloaf in a butter pie shell, which actually makes it a pie, I guess, not a meatloaf. The modifications were due to necessity: I ran low on eggs on Easter, of all days, when every grocery store is closed, so I had to make a butter pie crust, instead of one with eggs, while hoping that the two raw eggs I put in the liver/gizzard mixture would hold the whole thing together. They did, but next time I think I'll increase the number of raw eggs for the recipe, to at least 3, or even 4. I should also say that the hard boiled eggs are optional: this time I added them to the recipe, because that's the way my mother and mother in law (both Romanians) do it.

The recipe I'm posting serves 8, but it can easily be halved.

Before baking

Ingredients:

2 lb chicken liver, cleaned

1 lb chicken gizzard, thoroughly cleaned

(If you can find some chicken hearts, please use some - I couldn't find any)

2 bunches scallions, chopped

1 bunch dill, chopped

1 bunch Italian parley, chopped

3 hard boiled eggs (optional)

3 raw eggs (maybe even 4)

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter
2 pie shells

After baking, on first serving

Ingredients for the pie shells:

2 and a half cups all purpose flour, more for dusting.

1 cup cold butter cubed

1/2 teaspoon salt

4-6 tablespoons ice cold water.

*Preparing the pie shell:
Cube the butter, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes -1 h. In a large bowl combine flour and salt, cut in butter until the mixture has the appearance of coarse crumbs (I'm always using my hands, you can use a food processor, it needs only a few pulses), drizzle with 4 tablespoon waters and start working the dough together, adding more water as you go. Don't overwork the dough, work it only until it just comes together. Also, be careful with he water: too much water will make the dough tough and not flaky. When the dough comes together, shape it in a ball, cut it in half, flatten each half lightly with the ball of your hand. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 30 minutes before rolling. When you're ready to make the pie, remove from the fridge, and let rest 5-10 minutes before actually rolling.

Preparing the meatloaf:

Put the gizzards and the liver in two separate pots with cold water, add some salt to the gizzards' water (don't add salt to the liver), bring to boil and cook until done (15-20 minutes for the liver, about an hour for the gizzards). Hard boil 3 eggs. While meat and eggs are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, add scallions and saute them on medium for 5 minutes.

Second serving

When the liver, eggs and gizzards are ready, finely chop everything in a food processor or meat grinder: liver, gizzards, scallions, dill, parsley and boiled eggs. Season with salt and pepper, mix in the raw eggs. Butter a 9 inch round, or 8x8 inch square glass baking dish with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, line the dish with one pastry shell, prick all over with a fork, add the meat mixture and cover with the second shell, prick with a fork (if you have some eggs left, brush the pastry with an egg wash). Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the pie crust is nice and golden. Serve with mashed potatoes and a green leaf salad (or tomato salad), and a glass of full bodied red wine.
Leftovers are great in sandwiches, it also freezes well.