Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Feta Potatoes + Garlic Quorn

POTATOES WITH FETA
Ingredients:
5 medium baking potatoes
10 pimento-stuffed olives, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup half and half
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

Preperation:
Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tender. Drain well and cool. Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Combine potatoes and next 6 ingredients; gently toss. Spoon into lightly greased 10x6x2 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.


GARLIC QUORN
Ingredients:
1 box (4 peices) Quorn cutlets
4-6 Tablespoons butter
1 large clove garlic (minced or crushed)
handful chopped herbs (I usually use rosemary, but basil would also be great in this)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
Lemon rounds for garnish

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat medium baking dish with spray oil. In medium bowl, mash butter with a spoon until smooth. Add garlic, herbs, and seasonings. Make several slashes on the top of each piece of Quorn and fill cuts with butter mixture. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with lemon garnish.

NOTES:
Feta Potatoes are a staple at my parents' house, and are a wonderful accompaniment to most meals. If you eat meat, we often used to serve it with steak or other beef dishes, which it compliments nicely.

VERDICT:
As always, I quite enjoyed this comfort food and will certainly make it again. Perhaps Carrie is better equipped to answer this one.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Homemade Pasta and Pesto

Recipe: pasta

Homemade Pasta-


Ingredients:

4 c. flour
4 tbsp. olive oil
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt

Method:

Make mound with the flour on your work surface and scoop out a well in the middle. Pour the eggs into the hole, add the salt, and work the eggs and the flour together till you have a smooth dough, adding just a drop of water if necessary, and no more. Knead the dough for ten to fifteen minutes, until it is smooth, firm, and quite elastic. Don't skimp on the kneading or the dough will tear while you're rolling it out.

You are now ready for the hard part: separate the dough into two pieces. Flour your work surface (the marble counter tops in Italian kitchens are ideal for this, though wood or Formica work as well -- a pastry cloth gets in the way) and start to roll out the dough, rolling from the middle, flipping it occasionally, and flouring it as necessary to keep it from sticking. To keep the sheet from breaking, once it has reached a certain size, roll it up around the rolling pin and then invert the rolling pin; you can, as you are unrolling the sheet, gently stretch it by holding the unrolled part firm and pulling gently away with the rolling pin. Keep on flipping and rolling till you have a sheet that's almost transparent -- as thin as a dime, or thinner, if you can manage it (the pasta will almost double in thickness while cooking). The Emilians, acknowledged masters of home-made pasta, say your backside should work up a sweat as you're rolling out the sheet.


Pesto--

Ingredients:

1 c Basil, chopped well
2 c spinach, chopped roughly
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
5-10 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4-6 cherry tomatoes, chopped to quarters
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

So, I wasn't really sure how much of everything I put in, I just made a guess. If you have it, put more basil than spinach. I use the spinach to create more volume when I don't have enough basil.

1.In a pan, heat oil. Add garlic on low heat and simmer until the garlic starts to become translucent. Add basil, and sautee for about 3 minutes. Add spinach and cook until soft and limp.

2. Pour into a bowl and use hand mixer to blend. I like mine still with chunks, so I don't blend very well. Also, you can skip this step, but it allows for a finer sauce to more evenly coat the pasta.

3. Put sauce back in the pan. Add the butter and the tomatoes, cook until soft.

Verdict:
I didn't spend enough time kneading or rolling out the pasta, so it was a little crumbly and too thick. I also remembered why I really need a pasta machine. It's hard work. And I hate kneading things, and pasta has to be kneaded for at least 15 minutes, more like 20. It's backbreaking and our cabinets are too high so I can't get all my weight on it. Other wise, there is nothing better in the world than fresh pasta! And the sauce was nice and light and perfect for a hot day! I sprinkled it with fresh parmesan cheese and we had a nice Chardonnay that didn't quite match, but was still good.