Salad Baby: Little Lettuces Fresh & Crisp

In my last post on Osso Buco I mentioned that I served a salad.  The look of it seemed to appeal to a few readers who have requested a reposting with more info.  So by popular demand, this will be a quick and easy one.  

When I was planning that birthday meal for my parents I knew that the Osso Buco would be rich, the pasta would be filling and the vegetables sweet from oven roasting.  Therefore, I wanted to have a salad that would be crisp, clean and simple with only a few ingredients.  We have a lovely Italian market near our home and they offer up beautiful baby lettuces.  I gravitated toward the two different colors and textures and knew these would be a winner.

Lola Rossa Lettuce

Tango Baby Lettuce

Baby Romaine 

Ingredients

Lola Rossa baby lettuce
Baby Romaine
Tango Baby Lettuce
Persian cucumbers, sliced thinly
Celery stalks, sliced thinly
(Amounts you can determine depending on the size salad you need.  I used 1 each of Lola Rossa & Baby Romaine, 2 Tango Baby, 4 Persian cucs, 3 celery for 10 people.)

I cut the baby lettuces carefully into mouth sized pieces and began arranging them to highlight their stunning colors.   After I placed the Lola Rossa and Baby Romaine around the sides of the bowl, I placed all the Tango Baby lettuces in the middle ensuring that the ones on top would be standing straight up in the middle.  I then sprinkled the sliced cucumber and celery around the center to create a moat, if you will.

The dressing was equally simple.  

Juice of a lemon*
juice of 1/2 lime*
2/3 c Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper
1/4 t whole grain mustard
* Note: start with this amount of citrus and taste.  Depending on the size you use will determine if you need to add more acid.  Remember, taste, taste, taste.  You can follow a recipe but your taste buds are your truest guide.  Learn to use them and trust them.  You are your own best judge.

Whisk them together until they are beautifully combined and pour over the salad.  This will be crisp and light and pair perfectly with any rich meal.

Oh So Yummy Osso Buco

I know there are carnivores out there who have been reading my blog.  Thank you for your patience.  I can only imagine how you have been waiting, maybe a bit anxiously, wondering when some meat dishes might appear as you lovingly, shifted through and endured dozens of veggie and fish dishes.  I see you gingerly raising your hand. I hear you asking, 'Where's the Beef?'  And my answer is: Go big or go home. Which is why I am starting off with a hearty meat dish like Osso Buco.  Don't be afraid.  This is not a difficult meal to create. In fact, it's a one pot wonder, but it does take some cooking time.  This dish is perfect for this time of year, plus it's the ideal, plentiful dish to serve during the holidays.  Usually when we make this in our house it's for a special occasion or just to make my mom and dad feel as special as they truly are. Such was the case as we celebrated both their birthdays last week.  Typically, my husband JC, is in charge of making it.  Not because I won't or can't, but simply because I'm usually making a dozen other dishes. So again, thanks for your patience. And now, the MEAT.

These are pork shanks.  Traditional Osso Buco is made with veal but both are equally good. (Photo credit: asithappens.me)

Ingredients

8 pieces Osso Buco shanks (Veal or Pork)
4 yellow onions, quartered
4-5 small carrots (Keep 2 whole, rest diced)
2 celery stalks, thick slices
6-8 cloves garlic, smashed & minced
4 whole plum tomatoes (roasted or fresh)
Fresh thyme, 8-10 whole sprigs
1/2 bottle white wine
8 oz. water
Magic 3 (oil, salt, pepper)
 

Instructions

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure that you have removed or moved the racks to accommodate the size of the pot.  In a dutch oven or large stock pot, sauté vegetables for about 15 minutes under tender.  Add salt and pepper.  (We use a large Le Creuset which is ideal for holding in the heat for slow cooking.)

Photo credit: asithappens.me

The preparing of any protein is important in order to achieve the best cooking results.  So it goes without saying that these shanks will need a little love.  Rinse them in cold water and completely pat dry.  All protein should always be as dry as possible prior to cooking.  

Photo credit: asithappens.me

Then oil the shanks and place them in the dutch oven standing upright and pushing the vegetables out to the sides and also placing on top.  

Photo credit: asithappens.me

Then lovingly but with gusto add the wine and water.  Turn the heat on the stove up and bring the pot to a boil.   Once at a boil, turn off the heat, put the lid on and place the entire pot in the oven.  

Photo credit: asithappens.me

Cook for approximately 4 hours.  Check at the 2 hour mark to make sure there is enough liquid.  Only if it is really dry should you add a glass of water since the goal is to cook this slowly so the meat falls off the bone. This requires liquid.

And how do you know when it's done?  The sides of the pot are brown, the meat falls off, the vegetables are soft and beautifully broken down into the sauce.  I guarantee you that as this cooks it will fragrant your entire home with the sweet vegetable aromas that will have your guests running to the table. 

Photo credit: asithappens.me

With tongs, carefully remove the shanks and place onto a serving platter, pouring all the good stuff around and on top. Serve this with polenta, or pasta, as we did.  Pour an earthy glass of Barolo and share the love.  We also offered up oven roasted carrots, asparagus and crisp green salad with Persian cucumbers and celery. 

(This cooking technique can be used with a variety of other types of meats.  Spare ribs, short ribs, rabbit. Pretty much anything you want to fall off the bone and mingle in with the sweet liquified vegetables.  Please wear a bib!)

Did I say serve it with pasta?  Heck, yeah and guess what kind of tomatoes those are?  I know you all know the answer... Oven Roasted.  Photo credit: Tom Nadolski

 Photo credit: Tom Nadolski

 Photo credit: Tom Nadolski

Garlic Rice with Sautéd Zucchini & Tomatoes

I adore starch of any kind. So it should come as no surprise that I love rice.  All kinds of rice. Depending on what I am serving usually informs how I serve up the rice.  For this particular dinner party I wanted something warm and cozy.  In my world that usually means pasta but in this instance I had my heart set on rice, so the I chose a short grain grain to be sautéd with garlic.  I also needed to serve a vegetable and in keeping with the warm and cozy theme, I immediately thought of zucchini and roasted tomatoes.  All those flavors together make me think of diving into a soft, sweet dish of yum.

Our stars of the evening.

This set up should come as no surprise to you. Roasted tomatoes are versatile little jewels.

Ingredients

2-3 Zucchini, cut in small pieces
2 Yellow Squash, cut in small pieces
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
cherry tomatoes
Short grain rice, either paella rice or aborio
1 shallot, chopped
7-8 cloves garlic, 3-4 thinly slices, the rest for roasting whole
Magic 3 (oil, salt, pepper)

Instructions

Roast the tomatoes, as I know you know how to do by now.  But if you need a little recall, click here.

While the tomatoes are roasting, cook your rice according the package, making the amount you need.  I have been loving this paella rice.  I pick up several bags at Despaña so my cupboard is always stocked.

While the rice is cooking, prep your vegetables.

Once you have everything chopped, sauté the onions and shallots until soft then add the zucchini, squash, salt and pepper.   The goal is to not make them too mushy but to get a nice caramelization going.

After the zucchini is cooked and removed from the pan, use the same pan to sauté the rice.   Add a generous amount of oil and sauté the garlic until lightly browned, add salt and pepper to release the aromas. Then add the rice and toss until coated.  Finally, plate your entire dish.   This is how I presented it, but certainly you can serve in separate platters or find your presentation style.

This was exactly what I hoped it would be... warm and cozy, sweet and savory.  It paired beautifully with arugula and warm mushroom salad and fish that was served.  It's rustic with a tad of elegant.  Oh who cares about that, it tasted delicious.

Printable Recipe Version

Kale, Potato, Lentil, Cauliflower... Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup

This is a little story of what happens when I decide to pull everything out of my refrigerator and start cooking.  Yesterday was just such a day, as the chill of autumn has descended upon us, I thought I would make soup.  Since I had cauliflower I was figuring on making my old standby (and very first blog post) Faux Creamy Cauliflower Soup.  Alas, and I will say thankfully,  I opted to go back to my roots of not repeating recipes too often but instead exploring new territories.  

As I've said before, when I go shopping I buy what looks fresh without necessarily having a plan for how to cook them. Such was the case during last week's shop.  As I took these ingredients out and placed them on my board, my first thought was to make separate dishes with each.

Here's what I found: Cauliflower, Kale, French Lentils, Fingerling Potatoes, Red Onion and Garlic

And because the original plan was individual dishes and use the cauliflower for soup, that soup idea grabbed a hold of me and wouldn't let go.  It was just then when the it dawned on me that EVERYTHING I had could indeed be SOUP. Now here's the triple play of culinary delights:  
I didn't have to make separate dishes.
I was still sticking to my original idea of soup.
Plus the big bonus of throwing it all together...  ONE POT!

I had to think this one through to make sure that I cooked this one in the correct stages without having to switch pots.  Also fair warning for this recipe, I won't be giving amounts as this one really harkens back to my something from nothing style.  Use what you have in the quantities you have.

ingredients

Cauliflower
Kale (chopped)
French Lentils
Fingerling Potatoes (cut in bite size pieces)
Red onion (cut in small pieces)
Garlic
Magic 3 (Oil, Salt, Pepper)

Instructions

I started out as if I were making the cauliflower soup (click on the link for recipe reference) but cut the onions small since these were not going to be blended up but in fact be a supporting player in the soup.

When the cauliflower was about cooked about ¾ done, I added the potatoes pieces and lentils. 

Once everything was tender, I pulled out about half of the cauliflower because I didn’t think the soup needed that much cauliflower.  I figured I would blend up the removed portion and still have faux creamy cauliflower soup.   Then I realized that adding some of that back into this soup would add thickness and richness. (But by that time I ate some I only had about 2/3 cup to add to the main soup. Add as much or as little as you want to achieve a 'creaminess' level of your liking.)

 I then added the kale, checked for seasoning and turned the heat off.  The soup is warm enough at this point to wilt the kale.

This came out hearty and earthy and a really lovely blend of a handful of odd and ends from my fridge.  So, let’s recap.  You can follow this recipe as I stated.  Or you can look through your kitchen and create a soup out of what you have.  Here are some ideas for replacement options for the ones I used.

other potential leading characters

Kale = spinach, escarole, mustard greens
Cauliflower =  broccoli, cabbage
Potato = sweet potato, turnip, yucca
Lentil =  chick peas, cannellini beans

Well, you get the idea.  Try my version or play around with any of the above suggestions to make your own version of the “Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup”.  Falling into the crispness of this season isn’t so bad when you can be warmed by a soup like this.  

Footnote:  As you can see this made a nice big pot of soup which left enough for the next day.  I made jasmine rice and added it to the day old soup.  Yup, it made it even yummier.

Polenta Stuffed Peppers

Some people call it grits, some say cornmeal, others call it porridge. But in Italy they call it polenta, and it's one of those versatile grains that can be used for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Heck, I've used it as an appetizer, that's just how useful these golden kernels are.  For those who haven't made polenta, it is ground cornmeal. You can make it creamy, or more solid which you can then cut into small pieces and fry, grill or bake to create a perfect delivery vehicle for various toppings.  This time around I asked more from my polenta by using it as a stuffing.  

Last week I found some yellow peppers (among other goodies) at the farm stand and asked my niece, Gabrielle, who is staying with us this summer, if she liked stuffed peppers.  Since her answer was yes, I grabbed a few knowing that I would evidentially figure out what to stuff them with.  

My bountiful picks of the week. Yes, I got cauliflower and made 'Faux Creamy' Cauliflower Soup. Plus I created another topping for the white eggplant. That will be coming soon. (P.S. It was my niece, Gabrielle's idea to take our abundant finds and photograph them outside. Good idea

My mom used to stuff peppers with ground beef, rice and tomatoes, but I don't eat meat, so toss that idea down the drain.  All week long I had different ideas ruminating in my head .  Among them...

• Potatoes/Peas/Carrots

• Chicken pot pie in a pepper (but I don't eat chicken either)

• Rice and something else??

• Something and something else...

None of those had any real chance of winning a spot as the stuffing. Then when JC used the fresh English peas for another dish, peas were no longer an option either.  However, when I discovered some mushrooms in the fridge I knew just how well polenta cozies up to them.  A real earthy combo. My niece, Gabrielle, suggested adding spinach, which I thought was a great idea but I already had kale in the house, so why buy something else. Remember what I always say; recipes can be followed exactly or used as a guidelines. So USE what you have and don't fret, which is exactly what I did.  The plot thickened, as did the polenta.  Here is the plan to stuff some peppers with polenta.  Say that 3 times fast!

INGREDIENTS

6 yellow, red or orange peppers
3 c mushrooms, cut into small pieces
2 c Kale, chopped
5 T chives, chopped
1/2 t crushed garlic
1 c polenta
2/3 c Feta cheese
4-5 T milk or cream (optional)
Magic 3 (olive, salt, pepper)

Instructions

Cut the tops and seeded middle out of the peppers, wash, and let dry. In a skillet, sauté the mushrooms in oil. Do not salt them until they are cooked as doing so early on releases their liquid and they become mushy.  Add 3 tablespoons of chives and salt toward the end of the cooking process. Once nicely browned, remove from the pan and set aside.  In the same pan, sauté the kale quickly.  You just want to wilt this but not overcook it. Remove and set aside. 

Nicely browned mushrooms with garlic and chives.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the polenta according to the package. You want a creamy consistency.  Remove from heat and stir in the milk or cream.  Once combined add the feta, mushrooms, kale and the rest of the chopped chives.  

Fill each of the peppers with the stuffing mixture placing them in a baking tin and bake for 45 minutes or until the peppers are tender and slightly browned.

If you like a bit more cheese, about 5 minutes before they are done crumble some feta on top and let brown. Serve them warm.  

(Since I was also preparing a few other items for this dinner, I cooked these ahead of time and then warmed them right before serving.)

As you can see these are quite big and filling, so for a more proportional serving size as a side dish to your meat, fish or chicken, cut them in half. That was the case the night I originally made these.  We had so many other yummy offerings that there were left over peppers.  Do you hear me crying?  I think those are cheers of joy because...

 ...the next night we warmed them up and enjoyed the stuffed peppers with the left over roasted veggies and a fresh salad for dinner, and that was plenty.  Any way you cook it polenta pulled off another useful way to serve it up.