Kitchen Diary 2012: Roasted Broccoli

Slice broccoli at an acute angle to get lots of flat surface area.
- On a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle a little olive oil. Slide the broccoli around to make sure their slice sides get oiled.
- Anoint with red pepper flakes and a bit more olive oil.
- Roast in a 350-450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
- Toss a few sliced Kalamata olives and a thinly-sliced (or mashed through a press) garlic clove.
- Let the heat of the broccoli and the pan warm the garlic.
- Serve.

Kitchen Diary 2012 – supplement: rice

Sometimes, when the rice has finished cooking, some browned (not burned) bits will stick to the bottom of the pot. Do not despair. Turn off the heat, put the lid back on, and let the rice sit for another 10-15 minutes. The steam and heat left over will loosen things up.

For brown rice, the usual ratio is one part rice to two parts water – it will take about 40 minutes to cook.

Really fresh brown rice tends to need less water, so we lowball it.

Kitchen Diary 2012 - Riso con Spinaci

1/3 cup brown rice
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup frozen, chopped spinach
Water
A smashed and peeled garlic clove

- In a small saucepan: toast brown rice and pepper over medium-high heat.
- Pour frozen, chopped spinach into a Pyrex measuring cup. Top with boiling water so that the water comes to the 2/3 cup mark.
- Pour water and spinach over the rice. Give a quick stir. Lower the heat – as low as it will go. Throw in the smashed garlic clove, sprinkle with salt.
- Cover and cook for 40 minutes, or until rice is tender and has absorbed all the liquid.

(Obviously, the rice must be prepared before starting the puttanesca sauce.)

Kitchen Diary 2012 - Cod Puttanesca

Cod Puttanesca

Before any recipe for puttanesca, there is a coy note about the origin of the sauce and its name. It merely means “in the style of your mom.”

Make puttanesca sauce:
½ can tomatoes (whole)
Pepper flakes (Aleppo, red)
A couple of canned anchovies (or a dollop of anchovy paste)
Several Kalamata olives, seeded and chopped
A couple of garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
A half-dozen capers, rinsed, and chopped if you have the patience

- Put a colander over a bowl and plop in the canned tomatoes. Trim off the stem end and get rid of any tomato skin that may still be hangin’ around. Squish the tomatoes in your hands to break ‘em down a bit. Put half in the fridge for later.
- Put olive oil in a pan, toss in the pepper flakes and heat. When the oil is hot, it will start to bring out the heat of the chilies.
- Add the anchovies (or paste – much easier) and sauté until they melt down.
- Crush the garlic and toss it in. We give it a quick stir (so it won’t burn – like 2 seconds) and add the tomatoes, capers, and olives.
- The whole thing can be anointed with some Italian herbs, if one is so possessed.
- Simmer until the sauce reduces a bit.

Add the Cod:
- We had a fillet of ling cod that we sliced into 3 pieces. The idea was to get all the pieces to cook at the same speed.
- Nestle the cod in the sauce. Cover, and cook for a few minutes (aim for the 5-10 minute range).
- Serve over whatever. We made brown rice with spinach.

Kitchen Diary 2012 – An Idea, Later Put on Hold.

There are no sour cherries around. But there are dried sour cherries in the pantry. The idea is to reconstitute these and use them in a puff pastry with almond paste and cream cheese. How about soaking them in applejack, the American version of Calvados?

In a teacup: heat dried cherries that have been doused in applejack in the microwave. Let sit overnight.

Now one has boozy soft cherries that taste like rum-soaked raisins. We don’t see these working well with our pastry idea. They sit, in a puddle of booze, in a plastic container.

Kitchen Diary - 2012: Apple Tart

If we’re going to go through the trouble of making homemade PUFF PASTRY, why focus on the savory tart?

Prepare the puff pastry and pre-bake the same way one would for the savory tart. Mix about a cup of fresh ricotta (we used Bel Gioioso’s Rocotta con Latte which is – as it claims – sweet and milky) with some vanilla sugar and a dash of almond extract. Spread this over the pastry shell and fan a thinly-sliced apple over the ricotta. Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over everything. Bake until the pastry is golden brown on the bottom.

Kitchen Diary 2012 – Caramelized Onions, and a Savory Tart

Caramelized Onions

The reason we made caramelized onions was because we wanted to try our homemade PUFF PASTRY in a savory tart. Our friend said “caramelized onions and gruyere”. After making the caramelized onions we wondered why we don’t make them all the time. They are cheap, easy, and insanely delicious: slice up an onion, toss it in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle over some salt and a pinch of sugar, turn the heat to medium-low, and let heat and time work their wonder. A splash of cognac at the end is acceptable, as are dashes of cayenne pepper and ground black pepper.


This, of course, leads us to our next recipe.

Savory Tart with Caramelized Onions, Bacon, and Gruyere.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out PUFF PASTRY (homemade, obvs) into an even rectangle, about ¼-inch thick. Then: bring out the knife. Make those edges square. Now, go in about a quarter inch and run the knife along the inside border – making a windowpane. Don’t cut all the way through. Pound a fork all over the inside. Bake until golden, about 10-15 minutes. Take out of the oven and gently press down on the raised inside part. Strew caramelized onions, a few chopped Kalamata olives, some crisp bacon, and grated gruyere. Pop the business back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Check the bottom crust to make sure it’s golden. Cool slightly. EnjoyAny leftover onions can be kept in the fridge for about a week.