Spaetzle, Zucchini and Peppers with an improvised Green Curry Sauce

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with! I appreciated her willingness to let everyone experiment with their own variations on the theme based on their personal preferences, dietary requirements and/or financial restraints.

Since the spätzle was her Dad's recipe, and it was estimated to take 30-minutes, I chose to tackle it instead of fresh egg pasta. My previous attempt at spaetzle involved squeezing it through a potato ricer and resulted in brain like squiggly masses; the tablespoon method Steph and her Dad endorse treated me better. The resulting spaetzle reminded me of dumplings, though not as soft to the bite and sans butter.

As in our house no meal is complete without a vegetable or two, I decided to drop chopped squash and yellow bell pepper into the boiling water during the last minute or so. This made it simple, summery and minimized the number of additional dishes used. The green curry sauce gave it some added zest, thank goodness as the lemon zest I had thrown in did nothing to add flavor thus it is missing from the spätzle recipe below. I would happily revisit this again, though perhaps with a revised or different sauce, and suggest that you consider trying it as long as you like dumplings and/or gnocchi.

Thanks for the reminder to not give up on spätzle, Steph! 

German Spätzle
Yields approximately 15 spätzle pieces

2 Large Eggs
1/2 cup Milk (Any type works - I used Coconut.)
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (I needed 1/4 cup extra.)
1 tablespoon chopped Basil (up to 1 tablespoon of any herbs and spices can be used.)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon chopped Basil (for decoration)
1 medium Zucchini, chopped
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, chopped

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and any herbs and spices.
3. Sift in 1/3 of the flour into the liquid mixture and stir until incorporated. Continue adding the flour until the dough is elastic, smooth and very hard to stir.
4. Dip a tablespoon into the boiling water, pour the water out. Scoop up enough dough to fill the moistened tablespoon halfway and drop the dough into the boiling water. Continue until all dough is in the water.
5. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes. If desired, add the zucchini and squash for the last minute to minute and half to blanch it. While the spätzle boils make your sauce.
6. Drain the spätzle and veggies thoroughly.
7. Place the them in a dish and pour a little sauce over each spätzle (you want just enough to dress them lightly). Top with the the chopped basil. 

Improvised Green Curry Sauce
1/2 cup Coconut Milk
2 teaspoons Green Curry Paste
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Shredded, Unsweetened Coconut

1. Whisk together coconut milk, curry paste and cornstarch in a bowl. Heat in the microwave for a minute. Whisk again. Continue until it has reduced/thickened to the desired consistency.
2. Stir in shredded coconut.

Peas with Roasted Garlic Chicken and Whole Wheat Pasta

This was my first meal of 2011 and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it took me 10 days to post about it. Sorry! I was busy with last hurrah's in NYC before settling down in Virginia. I also wanted to make it again to be sure I really liked it. I was afraid I might have transferred the excitement over having the clarity of mind to put a meal together the morning of the first to excitement over this meal. I've had some brutal New Years Day hangovers in the past... *shudder*

Anyway, this dish kept things simple and was filling and flavorful. It also helped use up the remaining frozen items in Fort Greene, so no food was left behind when I moved. The peas and herbs give it brightness while the roasted garlic, the chicken and its broth are rich, rich, rich without being overly indulgent.

Unfortunately I followed it up with an obscene number of Pretzel M&Ms so getting back on track with better eating had to wait until the following day. But that's the joy of each day being a new one right? The opportunity to make different choices and have different experiences. Happy (Belated) New Year!

Peas with Roasted Garlic Chicken and Whole Wheat Pasta
Yields approximately 6 servings

5 Chicken Drumsticks, skin on
6-8 Garlic Cloves, peeled and halved
1 Small Onion, diced
Salt and Pepper

4-5 cups Frozen Peas (approximately 1.5 one pound bags)
2 cups Whole Wheat Pasta (I used leftover macaroni the first time and fusilli the second)
Salt
1/2 tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Thyme, dried
1 tsp. Rosemary, dried

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Dice the onion and place it in the bottom of a glass baking dish big enough to fit the drumsticks.
3. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half, removing the little green stem should it appear. Place these into the bottom of the baking dish as well.
4. Sprinkle the drumsticks with salt and pepper on both sides. Place them in the baking dish.
5. Cover the baking dish with foil. Bake for 45 minutes or until meat by the bone is no longer pink and the juices run clear.
6. In the meantime bring a medium pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta and when there is about 4 minutes left add the frozen peas. Your boil will die.
7. After the peas and pasta come back to a boil, turn off the stovetop and drain the mixture. Place it in a medium bowl and swirl in the bit of butter.
8. Once the chicken is done remove the chicken's skin and tear the remaining chicken into pieces, then add it to the peas and macaroni. Now add the garlic and drippings/chicken broth to taste. Add rosemary and thyme. Mix, then salt to taste. 

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Thanksgiving, October's Pasta Night and a Troubled Spaetzle Attempt

As Britt sings when I'm lucky, Happy, Happy, Happy Turkey Day! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you've all found many things to be thankful for and that you are enjoying time with your family,  biological or chosen. My family is feasting on Friday and Sunday, so I am not indulging yet but there's no reason not to be thankful in advance of the trimmings. I am grateful to my family and friends for their ongoing love and support, the experiences I have had this year including visiting Lizzie in Minneapolis and checking out the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens, touring Glacier National Park and attending fun weddings among others. 

One of my favorite things in NYC has been thematic cooking events. First there were Dana's where my urge to share my cooking trumped my nervousness about being somewhere surrounded (mostly) by strangers. Then there has been the new version organized by Meg. Our most recent was Pasta Night i.e. making use of her Kitchen-Aid Mixer's Pasta Roller. Everyone contributed something - Leslie's awesome meat ragu was the star in my opinion - and we learned that there is a limit to how many times you can run pasta through the roller without losing its tenderness while chatting, eating and drinking. Perfection.

My contribution was freshly grated Parmesan and Fettuccine Alfredo sauce, my favorite childhood food other than ice cream. I returned to All Recipe's Fettuccine Alfredo V something I made in college with these notes "a little buttery, use less margarine (what I substituted), rich enough to give a little stomachache, it got rave reviews from my roommates and sisters, possibly could use a bit more garlic and have to stir upon reheat then it is a bit grainy but still flavorful. That also mixes the butter back in" for the occasion. I'm pleased to report it no longer gives me a stomachache, even though I traded up to butter. It is just delicious. If you like Fettuccine Alfredo when dining out, trust me, the linked version beats it.

The following Monday I used the leftover Fettuccine Alfredo sauce, blanched zucchini, basil chiffonade and spaetzle with lemon zest to create something similar to my memory of a dish I ate at B-Bar in May. The flavor was good, but I learned the hard way that a potato ricer does not work to make spaetzle. Mine did not cook as evenly as April's and looked a bit like brains, if their tissue were white.

Vanessa and Meg made the pasta from scratch.

We all took turns running the pasta through the pasta roller. 

Erin made lovely bow ties.

The rest of the dough turned into fettuccine.

Bow Ties with Leslie's killer ragu. This was only the start of what I ate.

My attempt at spaetzle, though not lovely, was delicious.

Homemade Pierogi's

Seeing how I'm due to fly out from JFK in, oh, less than six hours this will be the shortest Daring Cooks write-up to date. This month's challenge was versatile, affordable and tasty -- my favorite traits in a challenge. Thank you to Liz and Anula for hosting it. Now for the required text - the August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

My pierogi's won't win any beauty contests but they were delicious, especially when browned in olive oil for added flavor. They take some time to make but are well worth the effort. In the future I'm going to skip "simple" wonton ravioli's and make peroigi dough instead as it doesn't waste my time with egg wash or create a disasterous explosion of insides when you skip the said egg wash. Not that I've done that.

I chose to follow the Russian Style Pierogi dough recipe provided, free forming them by hand and filling them with the Heidi at 101 Cookbooks' fresh, light and lemony Plump Pea Dumpling filling. When my pierogi's wouldn't accept more than a half teaspoon of filling I made up for it by heating a bit of cream and adding the filling to it to create a simple sauce. On the side I mixed corn cut fresh off the cob, minced dill and lemon juice for a simple salad.

It was a great summer dish that reheated splendidly for work. If you don't like dill, don't mingle the pierogis with the simple salad as the dill takes over. Personally I liked the mingling as it added texture to the overall dish and an additional kick of flavor.

By the way, I'm experiencing the great outdoors in Big Sky Country i.e. Montana and Canada 8/13 to 8/24, so any responses will come when I return. Thank you for your patience and wish me luck seeing a moose with a rack.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Feta Pasta

Inspired by the delicious roasted asparagus earlier this month and this Smitten Kitchen recipe for Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta I bookmarked ages ago and didn't bother rereading, I put together a colorful, spring pasta dish with Roasted Asparagus, Lemon and Feta.

Roasting the asparagus takes time but it does such a great job sharpening its natural sweetness that I think it is worth the effort. The asparagus provides an excellent counterpoint to the lemon and feta's tanginess - right when they seemed almost too much its sweetness kicked in. I found the balance of flavors very satisfying, even though I forgot to add the shrimp I meant to toss in for some protein.

This dish was sunny, bright and made me smile with each bite. If you're in a hurry, you can definitely blanch the asparagus by cooking it with the pasta for the last few minutes of its cooking time instead of roasting it. The result will likely be pretty similar.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Feta Pasta
(3-4 Servings)

1/2 Pound Pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
1 Pound Asparagus
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1 Medium Lemon, zested and juiced (if you want less tang, use less juice)
1/4 to 1/2 C. Crumbled Feta


1. Put on a pot of water, bringing it to a boil. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet or two with foil (for easy clean-up).
2. Wash asparagus, snap it off where it breaks naturally to remove woody ends, then cut into thirds. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on sheets and roast in oven for 12-15 minutes.
3. Once the water comes to a boil cook pasta according to the package's directions. When it is finished reserve 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta.
4. While the pasta and asparagus cook, zest the lemon and juice it into a large bowl. Add the crumbled feta. 
5. Remove asparagus from oven to cool slightly.
6. Add pasta water and pasta to the bowl containing the lemon/feta mixture. Add asparagus. Toss to combine and enjoy. The pasta water, lemon juice and feta will make a light "sauce."

Pasta with Ramps

When spring hits the city ramps are one of the first items to arrive at the Greenmarket. I always have ignored ramps as I didn't know how to prepare them but this year I saw too many posts and was too eager for fresh, local, spring food not to try them. As I enjoy the straightforwardness of Sally Schneider's recipes, which tend to be rich and healthy, I made with her Pasta with Ramps.

While simple this recipe took some time to prepare. My ramp bulbs took much longer than 10-15 minutes to soften perhaps because they were gargantuan? This pasta dish felt very earthy, appropriate given that ramps are found through foraging. The cooked down ramps and ramp oil lend a raw, strong flavor that lingers on the palate long after eating. It was interesting but I'm not going to lie my favorite aspect was the Parmesan Reggiano Cheese and memories of being kid.

As a child I spent a lot of time in our backyard playing in my "Australian Indian Fort" making up stories and "meals" with sand, dirt, leaves, water and wild onions, which the taste of ramps brought to mind. The fort was a makeshift teepee formed from screened porch sides leftover from a Florida Room conversion and a wooden crossbar. I carefully wrote out its name in my favorite turquoise and fuschia crayons on the crossbar and passed all sunny days there (and all rainy ones playing dress up and "imagine" in the basement). It was a simple, good time...

While I didn't love ramps I was pleased to recall my time in the fort (thanks Mom and Dad for giving me the fort and good memories of childhood!).

The cut off root ends looked like headless octopuses!

Gnocchi with Red Cabbage, Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes and Garlic

Gnocchi's texture lets me imagine I'm eating cookie dough while feeling healthy since being savory it skips sugar. Obviously that's awesome and makes it one of my favorite foods. I received a potato ricer for  Christmas, requested with the goal of making my own gnocchi, and just put it to use Sunday night.

I followed 101 Cookbook's recipe for Cooking Gnocchi Like An Italian Grandmother and found the instructions easy to understand. Riced potatoes are light, fluffy and look like Play Doh hair. While time consuming making gnocchi was easier than expected... For a first attempt I figure the most important thing is that they floated after being cooked, didn't disintegrate and had the requisite doughy texture. :) I definitely need to keep practicing to get the appropriate size and shape.

Instead of keeping it simple and pairing the gnocchi with tomato sauce, I decided on Red Cabbage, Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes and Garlic, a tasty mixture on the slightly sweet side of savory. The cabbage's crunch, roasted garlic's richness and the slightly peppery, nutty finish of the Jerusalem Artichoke contrast well with  Gnocchi's smoothness but the "sauce" needed to be a bit thicker or to not exist. I'm not sure which yet.
Approximate recipe for my accompaniment... Preheat the oven to 475 while dicing a medium onion, not too finely, peeling and thinly slicing Jerusalem Artichokes and Garlic. Toss these items with Olive Oil, Salt and freshly Ground Pepper, then roast approximately 30 minutes until slightly crisp and caramelized. Set aside  Jerusalem Artichoke pieces to top the plated dish. Next add half a head of thinly sliced red cabbage to the roasting pan and pour in roughly 2.5 cups of Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Stock, salt generously if you use low sodium broth. Roast this mixture in the oven for approximately 30 minutes taking it out and turning the cabbage occasionally so it cooks evenly.

Next time I will probably saute the onion and red cabbage, set it aside, and then use the broth to make a real sauce that would coat everything better. I may also try veggies that impart less natural sweetness. Anyway, if you decide to try the rough recipe don't put the gnocchi in until you are ready to eat as mine turned a bit lavender, which tasted fine but looked strange.

Ziti with Tuscan-Style Cauliflower

I knew I wanted to make something with Cauliflower last weekend, but didn't know what. Soup was my first thought since my stockpile of broth was/is taking up most of the space in our petite fridge, but all of my bookmarked soup recipes called for expensive extra ingredients i.e. blocks of cheese, creme fraiche, wine, and all that good stuff. I could have roasted it, which reminds me of healthier popcorn, but it would have only filled me up for a night.

No good. I wanted an economical meal option. Once again the internet solved my problems by turning up a recipe for Ziti with Tuscan-Style Cauliflower. I purchased the ingredients for a half portion, which actually resulted in four meals. I don't know what kind of servings they think people need!

Once the cauliflower was cut, the dish was quick and easy to put together. I couldn't taste the mint (at least it added color), but the hint of red pepper provided a pleasant kick to a simple, satisfying meal. I blocked out the ziti part when purchasing ingredients, illustrated below, but followed the recipe exactly otherwise. I would highly recommend it, especially as for the second week in a row Lauren found something I cooked appetizing in appearance.

Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter

I have had this recipe for Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter bookmarked since Laura found it in, oh, I don't know, 2004? I finally made it this week and I'm so glad I did. The dish took less than 45 minutes to prepare, which is a kitchen miracle in my book, and it used asparagus. In the spirit of attempting to eat locally, I am enjoying asparagus while it is in season.

One my favorite college memories was sophomore year dinners (never mind that I no longer am in touch with 2 of the 3 other participants). On occasional Fridays, Beth, Roxanne, Renee and I would cook a fabulous dinner, drink a box of Franzia, and then either go watch the free movie in the Commons or force our neighbors to have a dance party. Yeah. The guys next door loved that. Or at least they did the one night I managed to split my jeans. The food was always great and by the end everything was amusing. Anyway, Beth pointed out that asparagus makes your pee smell at one of these dinners and it is true. For a long time I avoided eating asparagus, but now I just figure it is temporary and really who else is affected by the smell? No one. Back to this dish now that I have ruined your appetite.

The flavors blend well together - the sauce is slightly sweet, the pasta is nutty, and the asparagus adds a pleasant firmness. I actually reduced the butter by half without any trouble. It reheats okay, but would be best to eat in one go.