What's cooking at Jerk Castle . . .

Artichoke Pasta Salad

My computer has been out of my life for a few weeks as my brother worked on it getting it back shape. . (basically by taking everything off that i had put on which messed it all up and starting over from scratch). . . he even added a new keyboard. i am therefore seriously behind on letting you all know what we have been eating here at jerk castle- never even posting about all of our thanksgiving sides. . .

oh well, i must move on as the new holiday season has arrived. . .coming soon i will post about our potato pancake fest that we had last weekend during the snow storm, but that is jumping ahead just a bit. First I need to tell you about Steven's birthday meal we had here at home. . . a grilled porterhouse with sauteed swiss chard and this tasty and easy to make artichoke pasta salad.  

Although the steak was the star of the meal, the artichoke salad was a lovely and different side . . .salty and hearty, i would definitely make it again. . . and i don't even really like olives very much.

here is the recipe thanks to sunny anderson and her show cooking for real (from the "speed dating" episode which, besides the salad, didn't seem like the food was all that quick to prepare but thats just me)-i do enjoy her show from time to time however she talks too much for my liking . . .(please just stop telling me personal stories for a few minutes and talk about the food). anyway, props to her salad- here is the recipe and a peek at ours:

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/quick-artichoke-salad-recipe/index.html

 

Tip-the recipe makes a ton (not sure who she was feeding on date night) so if you are only cooking for two or three people and making this as one of a few sides, halve the measurements and you will still have plenty of leftovers. . . 

Now here come the latkes! wooohoo. 

Salad Nicoise

I was super lucky this year to receive the entire collection dvd set of Julia Child's, The French Chef, for my birthday . . . watching the show has been an absolute delight. Last weekend, we watched the Salad Nicoise episode and I was inspired to attempt it for lunch- (however, we we were hungry, and too lazy to go outside, so a couple of ingredients got tweeked- like we had to use baby spinach instead of lettuce and we added cucumber b/c we had some that needed to be eaten. . . and we left out the anchovies)- ok, so i guess it was loosely based on Child's salad nicoise, yet still hearty, fresh and delicious. . . .and a great weekend lunch option.

here is a link to Child's recipe:

http://www.ochef.com/r189.htm

and a peek at our version:

And btw- if you need a gift for someone obsessed with cooking, the dvds were a fantastic present (shout out to my husband Steven).

Bread and Butter Pickles

Its been a slow month over at jerk castle in the cooking department. . . mostly because we've both had to work on the weekends, we went away for our wedding anniversary and then had my sister's wedding last weekend . all good things (except for the work) so i cannot complain, but i am missing our cooking time and am excited now that thanksgiving recipes are everywhere.

We did have a chance to buy a perfect mason jar for pickling at a great little kitchen supply store, The Chef's Shop, in Great Barrington where we were celebrating our anniversary. I had already bought many kirby cucumbers this summer only to never get around to pickling but last Saturday we finally got the job done.

here is a pic of what it looks like before adding the brine mixture:

And after adding all the liquid and set to go into the fridge- spices settle on the bottom but move around once jar is mixed a bit:

We used a Tyler Florence recipe from his show Tyler's Ultimate-

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/homemade-bread-and-butter-pickles-recipe/index.html

The pickles are very tangy and sweet. i like a garlic pickle better than a bread and butter, but these were good and fun to make. . . next is the garlic variety so keep posted.

Summer Rolls and Pad Thai

As you may have guessed by now, I am a huge asian food fan. In fact, i think i once after a few glasses of wine, I actually teared up over my love for lemongrass. I've wanted to make summer rolls for a long time but never got it together to get all the ingredients and summon the courage to try. These were delicious. Not that easy only b/c there a lot of things going on at once  (and yes, i know you can buy them for like $5.00 but that takes the fun out if it) . . .very satisfying at the end, tasty and super fresh. I encourage you to go for it. . . .

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Summer-Rolls-with-Baked-Tofu-and-Sweet-and-Savory-Dipping-Sauce-352777

tips: we used shrimp instead of baked tofu- mostly because i went to 5 stores in my neighborhood and couldn't find it and because we had the shrimp.  also, i thought the sauce was a little too much hoisin and not enough peanut- when making it again i will change the ratio.

Now for the pad thai. . .check it out- looks like pad thai, doesn't it?

The dish came out pad-thai like, a bit ketchup-y. Steven said I should call it ketchup pad thai. . . suprisingly, the ketchup flavor was much more subdued the next day when i ate the leftovers for lunch.  In the end, i liked it and would make it again but will look for a way to just use a little less ketchup.

This recipe is from cooking light so supposed to be a few less calories than most pad thai recipes and it does require fewer ingredients making it easier to manage. . .

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1867549

tips: try and keep the tofu as intact as possible when frying. . . ours was all crumbly and a bit weird. also, and this is a big one, do not use any more corn starch then the recipe calls for- not even a smidge- it gets all goopy when fried and adds a weird consistency to the tofu.

i would make this again, but i am keeping my eye out there for pad thai recipes. Send me any suggestions. . .

Summer salad with watermelon, tomato, cucumber

and a few other things such as onion, advocado, mint and lime. Summer salad season is upon us (check out the Minimalist's 101 Simple Salads for the Season)

For this one, I improvised with what we had in the house and suprisingly, it worked pretty well. . . (we did not have any feta cheese which i've learned from a quick internet search of summer salad recipes many people believe is essential to a watermelon salad. . .i didn't really miss it too much but i'm not a huge feta fan-you'll have to decide feta or no feta on your own).

Here is a rough summary:

Watermelon chunks, sliced cherry tomatoes,  thinly sliced kirby cucumber, advocado slices and chopped onion (use red if you have it).  Then dress with a squeeze or two of fresh lime juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and chopped mint and salt to taste and there ya go. . . .

 i'm looking for many more summer salads coming my way. . .but for this coming week we will be in cape cod on vacation. . there is a lot of corn (you know how i feel about corn) and ice cream in my future. See you in a week.  

Spinach and Parmesan Dip

Lots of rave reviews of this dip at my sister's bridal shower last weekend. . . if you don't mind squeezing thawed cold spinach, this is the dip for you. Very easy to make and if you use reduced fat sour cream, somewhat low fat-ish.

I forgot to take a picture  but honestly, it looked just like the picture in the magazine-

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/spinach-parmesan-dip-00000000016160/index.html

Happy dipping. . . .

Also, continuing with this whole self absorbed blog thing, i thought i'd start posting food related articles i enjoyed reading mixed in with the recipes (that way you don't have to look far)  i recently enjoyed reading this article in food and wine magazine about the owner of Le Pain Quotidien. . . will definitely be stopping in to try their breads, jams and wine.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/farm-fresh-french-recipes

Cucumber and Celery Salad

Please excuse my slow posting these days- June has been a work nightmare but the summer is here and we are back on to the recipe clipping madness.

This salad was light and refreshing although a bit vinegary for me. . . next time i'd add more yogurt and less white wine vinegar. honestly, not too much to say about this salad so i won't bore you with rambling except it is easy and quick and a cucumber salad always feels good.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/grilled-salmon-cucumber-celery-salad-00000000015722/index.html

 

man, did the color of this picture turn out weird. . . anyway, you get the point- cucumber, celery, parsley and yogurt (and how nice looking are our new countertops).

Homemade Bread and Spanish Romesco dip

it was a lovely lazy sunday- we had my mother in law, brother in law, sister in law and nephew over for lunch and had a full day of eating, hanging out in the apartment and pretty much not doing much. . . steven made homemade bread which came out just perfect- crunchy crust and super soft inside.

Steven has made bread many times before using the no-knead bread recipe which was posted in the ny times on November 8, 2006- we had a bit of a breakthrough because he split the dough and baked it in two separate smaller dutch ovens so we had two perfect smaller loaves.  He also replaced one cup of the flour with wheat flour . . . i loved it and ate plenty. . . Here is the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

And I made this romesco sauce for the first time- salty- almondy and red peppery- easy and perfect to put out for an appetizer before we sat down to chicken with saffron rice (post coming your way with that recipe so don't you worry).

This will be a party stand-by:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/romesco-sauce-00000000008613/index.html

Pan Fried Smashed Potatoes

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/03/panfried-smashed-potatoes

These were delicious. . .salty from the parmesan and super peppery. we ate all of them. . . and i lucked out with this recipe- was flipping thru the March issue of gourmet on the subway home from work last night and not sure what to do about dinner . . . i broiled some salmon for Steven (the other amateur cook) and a chicken cutlet for me (you know how i feel about fish) and sauteed some spinach-we had a lovely dinner.

A peek at how ours turned out:

The only caveat- this is listed as a quick recipe- honestly, i didn't find it to be all that quick- it could be that the water took forever to boil and my potatoes were a bit larger than those called for in the recipe. . who knows- regardless, i am craving them again already.

Goat Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms

Well we haven't made any real noteworthy recipes at my house since the beignet/BBQ fiesta. . .brown rice and black beans with lots of veggies the following  night (to detox) and tacos out at the local taqueria last night. . .my friend however mentioned having made this stuffed mushroom recipe for friends last weekend so I just had to post it. I will be trying it out very soon and she gave it a thumbs up. . .

Recipe Adapted from Lori Narlock, Author of Small Plates, Perfect Wines and the Wine Lovers Guide to the Wine Country

Ingredients:

12 large mushrooms (my friend suggests using two containers of small mushrooms instead so that they are bite size)

2 tbsp butter

1 large shallot, minced

6 oz baby spinach leaves, washed, dried and chopped

2 tbsp white wine

4 oz goat cheese

2 oz prosciutto, chopped

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 c panko crumbs

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat over to 375 degrees

Wash the mushrooms under cold water and remove stems. Set upside down of a flat surface.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, stirring to cook evenly, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook until all of the liquid is gone, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the goat cheese, prosciutto, salt and pepper. Wipe out the skillet and set aside.

Spoon equal amounts of the spinach mixture into the bottom of each mushroom.

Return the skillet to medium heat and add the olive oil and bread crumbs. Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to cook evenly. Spoon equal amounts of the bread crumbs on top of the spinach filling in each mushroom. Place mushrooms on a baking sheet and sprinkle parmesan on top. Bake until mushrooms are tender and top is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!