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.

September 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge: Applebutter Canned!

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

This challenge was very intimidating! Canning has been an idea that interests me but also one I've found a reason to avoid. John's challenge left me with no excuse but to face my fear and his meticulous instructions must have left no room for error because I'm the proud owner of a pint of canned apple butter.

My biggest struggle was how to extract the canned applebutter, keeping it level, from my stockpot after the boiling and cooling... I'm very lucky it sealed as I dropped it on its side several times back in the water before realizing I needed to carefully use both the tongs and the spatula, which barely worked. Water creates a lot of drag. Any tips on how to get canned goods out of the water?

In retrospect, I should have purchased two 3 pound bags of apples if I was going to go through the whole process but even having one successfully canned item is exciting. Nevermind that I never want to open the jar as staring at it makes me so happy. Fortunately, I saved the other half of the applebutter and am enjoying it homemade baguette slices, plain yogurt and/or by the spoonful. It's a delicious, cinnamon spiced fruit spread that is perfect for Fall without any added sugar. Even if you don't want to can it, you should make some applebutter to celebrate the new season.

Seared Scallops with Sesame Panko Eggplant and Plum Salsa

I had already started drooling over Just Food's Let Us Eat Local tasting line-up next Thursday, September 16 when I saw Cathy at Not Eating Out in New York post a contest where an amateur cook could win a ticket and have their recipe published Just Food’s upcoming Veggie Tipsheets book. The idea of tasting food from restaurants I have tried and loved as well as many on my restaurant wish list in one night lured me into creating the recipe below, which I attempted to document with more meticulousness than usual.

What started as a Plum Salsa turned into a fairly seasonal festive tower that packs a lot of punch. The salsa mixes sweet and savory thanks to juicy plums, silky sesame oil and bright mint in addition to the usual salsa ingredients. Its soft texture contrasts pleasantly with the Scallops’ caramelized exterior and the crispy Sesame Panko Eggplant rounds. This dish melted in my mouth.

If you don’t enjoys Scallops or want to be frugal, this still tastes great without them. I had plenty of the Sesame Panko Eggplant topped only with Plum Salsa and can tell you with confidence that Scallops aren’t required to make this dish enjoyable though they certainly take the appearance and taste up a notch.

Plum Salsa
3/4 cup plums (approximately 4)
1/3 cup tomato (approximately 1 medium; I used yellow for color and the low acidity)
1 teaspoon mint
2 tablespoons cilantro
1 tsp jalapeño
1/4 cup white onion
1/4 tsp sesame oil
salt to taste

1. Rinse plums, then cut in half, remove pits and chop roughly into small dice. Place 3/4 cup of plums into a small bowl.
2. Rinse tomato, cut across the equator and remove seeds with your finger. Cut out the inner walls (which still taste great so eat them as you go) and then chop the outer skin into small dice. Add roughly 1/3 cup to the bowl.
3. Rinse mint and remove leaves from stem. Lay leaves on top of each other and chop it finely until you have 1 teaspoon. Repeat this step with cilantro until you have 2 tablespoons. Add both to the bowl.
4. Rinse the jalapeño, cut in half and remove stem and seeds. Mince enough for 1 teaspoon and add to the bowl.
5. Remove skin from outside of onion, cut in half through the root end. Dice half of the onion or enough to fill 1/4 cup and add to the bowl.
6. Measure out ¼ teaspoon sesame oil and add it the bowl. Stir everything together gently. Salt to taste. Put in the refrigerator to chill and develop the flavor.

Panko Sesame Eggplant
(based on Chef Richard Ruben’s methodology for baked, crispy eggplant)
1 eggplant

1 cup Panko (or bread crumbs)
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
salt to taste

2 egg whites
1 tablespoon olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheight and cover a baking sheet in foil.
2. Peel eggplant and cut into 1/2 inch rounds, discarding ends. Salt and place in a colander for 15 minutes.
3. While eggplant sits, combine Panko, black sesame seeds and salt on a small plate or in a shallow bowl.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together egg whites and olive oil.
5. Rinse eggplant and pat dry. Dip eggplant in egg white and olive oil mixture until coated. Then dip in the panko mixture. Place on prepared baking sheet.
6. Once all eggplant is resting on the baking sheet, place it in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly browned and crispy. (For me the top never browned though unbeknownst to me the bottom did.)
7. Remove from oven and set to the side.

Seared Scallops
Olive Oil
Salt
Scallops (I defrosted New England Scallops from Trader Joe’s)

1. Pat scallops dry and salt them.
2. Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil. When the olive oil becomes fluid enough to spread through the pan, add scallops to it.
3. Cook 2-4 minutes on each side. The scallops are done on one side when they move easily when touched by the spatula.
4. Remove caramelized scallops to paper towel to drain.

To Assemble the final dish…
1. Place a scallop on the eggplant, then top with plum salsa.
2. Enjoy

*I actually tried a few ideas but this was my biggest success. One was so awful that I couldn’t even make myself eat the leftovers. Major fail.

Mint-Parsley Pesto with Peas and Sauteed Chicken

Nothing to say really, except I was using up parsley yet again when I made this impromptu dinner of Mint-Parsley Pesto with Peas and Sauteed Chicken for good friends.

There isn't a recipe for the pesto... I just combined garlic, olive oil, parsley, mint, walnuts and Parmesan cheese in the food processor using portions similar to your typical pesto. For some reason I chose to saute the chicken before cubing it into the pasta, which made it take forever. It tasted good, but in the future I'd just bake the chicken while the pasta was boiling. If you put the peas in the pasta water about 2 minutes before your pasta is done, then you don't have to dirty an extra dish.

Less cleanup is always awesome, even at a friend's house with a dishwasher.

Tomato Sauce

I've been taunted by the 28-ounce can of peeled, whole plum tomatoes on my shelf for almost a year. I purchased a few after reading Superfoods last year (good book!) and made soup with most of them, but none of the recipes I have selected since required non-diced canned tomatoes.

Hungover and tired, I decided I really wanted spaghetti and somehow my fuzzy thought process remembered seeing this recipe for Tomato Sauce on one of my favorite food blogs. It was an excellent rediscovery that made for a tasty, easy dinner.

It wasn't so good that I will stop buying pre-made spaghetti sauce, but I will make it again one day I'm sure.

P.S. Save the onions and eat them. Yum. They were almost better than the sauce.