Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Lickety Split Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter

RECIPE: Lickety Split Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter
Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter

Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter under a Shower of Parm

I just made such a good dinner, I had to share it with you in time for you back home to make it tonight.  I love Brussels sprouts.  This is such a simple dish: spaghetti tossed with shaved fresh Brussels sprouts and nutty brown butter, under a shower of Parm.  Some toasted pine nuts would be great too, but I’m fresh out.  This is nutty and different, and light, and really good.  Plus, it’s ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta.  Bon app!

Lickety Split Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter
serves 4

Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts and Brown ButterINGREDIENTS

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Really good Parm

PROCEDURE

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, and cook the spaghetti until al dente.  Be sure to reserve 2 cups of pasta water before draining.   While the pasta cooks, slice the Brussels sprouts by feeding them through a food processor fitted with a slicing attachment (mine came with a thick and a thin side—I used the thick side).   Heat a wide nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil.  Add the Brussels sprouts, and season with salt and pepper.  Sauté over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until the sprouts are just tender.  Set aside.   Make sure you reserve your pasta water, then drain the spaghetti.  Put the pasta pot back on medium heat, and let any excess water evaporate.  Add the butter, and cook until the butter stops foaming and the butter solids turn a nutty hazelnut brown.  Take the pan off the heat, and add 1 cup of pasta water.  Add the spaghetti and the Brussels sprouts.  Toss.  Add more water to moisten if needed.  Season with salt and pepper one last time, and serve with fresh grated Parm on the side.print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Cheap, Eat, Main Courses, Recipes, Sides, Starches, Vegetarian, Vegetarian
 
Monday, February 20th, 2012

The Secret Ingredient (Parsley): Spaghetti with Green Parsley Pesto

RECIPE: Spaghetti with Green Parsley Pesto
Spaghetti with Green Parsley Pesto

Spaghetti with Green Parsley Pesto

There are funky pestos out there, pestos where basil isn’t the star. Arugula pesto. Spinach pesto. I’ve even made a tarragon pesto. But I’ve never seen a pesto that has put parsley at center stage, and really celebrated what parsley’s all about: grassy light freshness.

This pesto is made simply from parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, olive oil, and garlic–more garlic than usual because parsley can really take the flavor. Toss that with hot spaghetti, and nestle it down as a side next to some charred and grilled sliced steak. It’s different and light and summery and fresh. Nobody puts parsley in the corner!

Excerpted from my weekly column The Secret Ingredient on Serious Eats.

Spaghetti with Green Parsley Pesto
serves 4 to 6

Spaghetti with Green Parsley PestoINGREDIENT

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 3-ounce bunches of flat leaf parsley
  • 2/3 cup chopped walnuts
  • 2/3 cup grated Parmesan
  • 2/3 cup olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper

PROCEDURE

Cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente.  Drain, and reserve a cup of pasta water. Blast the garlic in the food processor until it’s smashed.  Add the parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Whiz until it forms a thick paste. Toss the pasta with the pesto, and add reserved pasta water as needed.  Serve right away.  You can also spoon the pesto over grilled steak.print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Cheap, Easy, Eat, Recipes, Series, Sides, Starches, The Secret Ingredient, Vegetarian
 
Friday, February 17th, 2012

French in a Flash: Romantic Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White Chocolate

RECIPE: Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White Chocolate
Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White Chocolate

Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White Chocolate, à la Berthillon

Paris is a romantic city.  But the most romantic place in the whole of that romantic city is the tearoom at Berthillon.  Berthillon is an ice cream shop on the tiny and quaint Île St. Louis.  But it’s not like other ice cream shops.  It recognizes the wonder that is ice cream, and situates itself among the pomp and circumstance that ice cream requires: brass bars.  Marble tables.  Silver cups.  Line up and get a scoop to go.  Or, do something dreadfully romantic, and get a table for two in the tearoom.

There, you can order one of their coupes composées: or, sundaes.  They’re not like ours.  They’re far more petit.  A scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of chocolate or raspberry sauce, and then a gorgeous mound of fresh whipped cream that has no competitor in the whole world.  They even do a kind of French affogato where they drown your ice cream scoop in thick hot chocolate.

But I always order the raspberry-rose.

When I say always, I mean in summer, because all the myriad Berthillon flavors are available by season only.  And in the summer, they do a famous sorbet made of bright, fresh raspberries and sweet, fragrant roses.  It’s unlike anything you’ve ever tasted.  I cover it in that drizzle of chocolate sauce, and that mound of whipped cream, and I enter into a kind of reverie.  For me, it is the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti and meatballs.  The most romantic, delicious, indulgent thing you could ever share with anybody.

And here is my version.  Very French in a Flash.  A bit too late for Valentine’s Day, but Mr. English make a point to never celebrate Valentine’s Day on actual Valentine’s Day, so if you want to do something romantic a bit out of step with the calendar, I can’t think of an easier, more delicious, more Parisian way to do it.  Drizzle your raspberry sorbet with rosewater, and shave curls of white chocolate over the top.  Voilà.  A cup of sweet, flowery romance.

Excerpted from my weekly column French in a Flash on Serious Eats.

Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White Chocolate
serves 4

Raspberry-Rose Sorbet with White ChocolateINGREDIENTS

  • 4 big scoops of raspberry sorbet
  • 1 teaspoon rosewater, divided
  • Excellent white chocolate, for shaving over the top

PROCEDURE

Take the sorbet out of the freezer ten minutes before you want to scoop it.  Then, scoop big, perfect scoops into four waiting small ramekins.  Drizzle each scoop with 1/4 teaspoon rosewater  (or more to taste).  Use a coarse Microplane to shave bits of white chocolate all over the top.  Serve right away with high expectations!print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Cheap, Desserts, Easy, Eat, French in a Flash, Frozen, Recipes, Series, Vegetarian
 
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

The Secret Ingredient (Parsley): As-Good-As-Cole Slaw Cabbage and Parsley Salad

RECIPE: As-Good-As-Cole Slaw Cabbage and Parsley Salad
Green Cabbage and Parsley Slaw

Green Cabbage and Parsley Slaw

I’m so excited about this month’s unsung hero: parsley.  I know, I know.  But hold back that skepticism.  Parsley is on the rise, and it’s not being shy anymore!

There was a time when I didn’t like parsley. Not even a sprinkle on the plate. What? Did the chef think that I couldn’t taste it?

That’s just the thing most people don’t get: parsley has a lot of flavor. It tastes like grass, mixed with a minty freshness, and an almost lemony brightness. It tastes like the word verdant would taste. And one day, seemingly overnight, as these things happen, I began to love it. And then, I still couldn’t understand why a chef would just sprinkle it on a plate. Relegating parsley to the garnish corner is criminal. It should be an ingredient.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite parsley recipes, starting with this light cabbage and parsley slaw. Green cabbage is shredded finely, but still retains its crunch when it’s tossed with loads of fresh, grassy parsley, sweet cider vinegar, briny anchovies and capers, biting chives, and a downpour of olive oil. It is bright and light and a health-giving alternative to cole slaw. I love serving it next to charred or blackened fish sandwiches. I just can’t get enough.

Excerpted from my weekly column The Secret Ingredient on Serious Eats.

As-Good-As-Cole Slaw Cabbage and Parsley Salad
serves 4

Green Cabbage and Parsley SlawINGREDIENTS

  • 1 1 1/2-pound green cabbage
  • The leaves from a 1 3/4 ounce-bunch of flat leaf parsley
  • 1 tablespoon crème fraîche or sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
  • About .15 ounces (exact I know) snipped chives
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped capers
  • Salt
  • Pepper

PROCEDURE

Core the cabbage and slice into 6 wedges.  Feed through the food processor, fitted with the thin slicing disk.  Feed the parsley in after it. In a large bowl, whisk together the crème fraîche, mustard, anchovy paste, olive oil, vinegar, chives, and capers until combined.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Add the shredded cabbage and parsley, and toss to thoroughly combine.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Serve.print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Cheap, Easy, Eat, Recipes, Salad, Series, Soup & Salad, The Secret Ingredient, Vegetarian
 
Monday, February 13th, 2012

Red, Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew for Valentine’s Day

RECIPE: Red, Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew
Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew

Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew

Mr. English and I are celebrating our fifth Valentine’s Day together today.  I say today, because long ago we decided to start observing on the thirteenth.

We were both students at Oxford on our first Valentine’s day, and we’d been dating about four months.  We went to this really lovely restaurant called Gee’s.  It’s an old Victorian glass greenhouse converted into a restaurant.  Really cool.  There we were, a couple sandwiched between couples.  We could hardly even talk to each other without feeling like we were having pillow talk with six other people.

I’ll never forget what Mr. English ordered that night: chorizo and calf’s heart.  The red from the paprika in the chorizo leached out onto the plate and made it look like the baby cow heart was bleeding.  I think it was supposed to be some sort of romantic culinary pun, but it was more sociopathic than romantic.

Since then, we’ve been celebrating on the thirteenth.  To avoid the couple sandwiches.  And the bleeding cow hearts.

This year, Mr. English and I went to one of our favorite London restaurants on Saturday night, J. Sheekey Oyster Bar, where I had, stop-my-heart, squid and wild boar cassoulet.  Amazingly delicious.  And tonight, we’ll be heading to our favorite local pub to celebrate the thirteenth with a steak and ale pie and a glass of wine.  But tomorrow, we’re just going to stay home, and this is what I’m going to make: a simple, kind of cheat’s paella.  It’s perfect for the week because everything can sit in your pantry or freezer, and it takes like 15 minutes to toss together.

I start with chorizo, for some nostalgic rib-jabbing, and add some garlic and spring onions, and then a medley of seafood–shrimp, scallops, even calamari if you like it.  Then, I throw in Spanish pantry staples: roasted red peppers, peas, green olives, and artichokes.  I stew that together, and throw it over some yellow rice, which you can buy or make.  It’s a great way to stretch a buck and to make something romantic and exotic for Valentine’s.  Plus, the whole dish is red and pink from the chorizo, peppers, and shrimp.  Serve with a rosé Rioja if you can get it.  To love!

Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew Close Up

Happy Valentine's Day to all you love birds out there...

Red, Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew
serves 4

Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood StewINGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ¼ pound dry Spanish chorizo, cut into half moons
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 1¼ pounds mixed seafood: any combination of large peeled and deveined shrimp, bay scallops, and calamari rings*
  • ½ cup frozen peas
  • 4 roasted red peppers from a jar, sliced
  • 15 pitted Queen olives, halved
  • 7 canned artichoke hearts, halved
  • 1 huge handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • Spanish yellow rice, to serve

PROCEDURE

Heat the olive oil in a wide, high-sided braising pan over medium heat until the oil shimmers.  Add the chorizo, and cook until the red oil has leached out and the chorizo starts to crisp up: 5 minutes.  Add the green onions and garlic, and cook 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the seafood, from fresh or frozen.  Season with salt and pepper, turn the heat to high, and cover.  Cook until the shrimp turn pink and the scallops and calamari just turn opaque.  About a minute before the seafood is done, stir in the frozen peas, and keep covered. Stir in the peppers, olives, artichokes, and parsley.  Serve with yellow rice!

NOTE

* You can use fresh or frozen seafood, and you can cook them from fresh or from frozen.print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Easy, Eat, Fish, Main Courses, Recipes
 
Monday, February 13th, 2012

Spanish Yellow Rice to Serve with the Spanish Valentine’s Day Chorizo and Seafood Stew

RECIPE: Spanish Yellow Rice
Spanish Yellow Rice
serves 4, to go with the Red, Red Spanish Chorizo and Seafood Stew

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 cups Bomba paella rice
  • 1/2 teaspoon tumeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon piment d'Espelette
  • A nice pinch of saffron
  • 4 cups water or chicken, seafood, or vegetable broth or stock
  • Salt
PROCEDURE In a nonstick saucepot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the rice, and stir to coat.  Toast the rice until it just starts to turn golden brown.  Add the spices and the water or stock.  Season with salt.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Cover and lower the heat to low.  Cook, covered, for 20 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is fluffy.print this recipe
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Friday, February 10th, 2012

French in a Flash: Artichoke and Green Olive Pantry Tapenade

RECIPE: Artichoke and Green Olive Pantry Tapenade

Artichoke and Green Olive TapenadeWhen I come home late from work, as I have been lately, I don’t really want a full dinner.  I don’t want to spend an hour in the kitchen, and I don’t want to spend an hour at the table.  I want something vibrant and light and life-giving.  Something that will get me till morning, and brighten up my evening.  No more, and no less.

This tapenade is my weeknight winner.  It’s unorthodox.  Most tapenades starts with black niçoise olives.  This one uses briny, bright green olives.  And, even more unique, while olives are usually center stage in tapenade, this tapenade is a double act of green olives and artichoke hearts.  The artichokes add their own texture and flavor, and they cut through that strident saltiness of the olives with a mellow Mediterranean creaminess.  I make a point to use the artichokes and olive that can sit for weeks in jars or cans in your pantry.  The rest of the flavors are always on hand and easy to keep: anchovy paste, herbes de Provence, garlic, Parmesan, lemon, and parsley.  For me, those are all pantry items that I have at home always.

So when, like tonight, I come home at nine o’clock wondering what I will scrape together, I have this bright, vegetal, versatile thing that I can whip up in the food processor in five minutes.  Then, I can pile it high on toast, mix it with canned tuna, dollop it on grilled fish, smash it with melty mozzarella in a Panini, or serve it with crudités and a well-deserved glass of white wine.  That is truly French in a flash, in a pinch.

Excerpted from my weekly column French in a Flash on Serious Eats.

Artichoke and Green Olive Pantry Tapenade
serves 6

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 medium clove of garlic
  • 3/4 ounce excellent Parmesan
  • 1 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts in water or brine, drained
  • 1 12-ounce jar pitted green olives, drained
  • 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
  • 1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
  • Zest of half a lemon
  • Juice of 1/4 lemon
  • 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Handful of flat leaf parsley

PROCEDURE

Blitz the garlic and Parmesan in the food processor until they’re smashed to smithereens.  Then, add all the other ingredients, and pulse for a chunky tapenade, or run until smooth.  Serve with lightly toasted excellent bread.  Or, put in a Panini with fresh sliced mozzarella, or spoon over grilled fish.print this recipe
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Categories: 15 Minutes, Bread & Butter, Cheap, Dips, Spreads, Preserves, Easy, Eat, French in a Flash, Recipes, Series, Vegetarian
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