Linguine with Scallops and Lemon-Butter

This recipe isn't finished yet. It was good, and it could be better. It holds great promise - I mean, anything involving scallops AND butter is, well, kind of unstoppable.

I'm not quite sure yet what to do differently with it. Maybe more butter - I really only used a pinch. Less lemon? Adding the lemon at a different time? More ginger? None? White wine? Red pepper flakes? Sadly, the answer probably is just more butter.

Anyway - if you have ideas, send them my way!

Here's how I made it. For one, with lunch leftovers:
1/2 lb linguine
A glug or two of olive oil
1/4-1/2 tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
Very small piece of ginger, minced (honestly, though, I couldn't really taste it)
1/2 lb bay scallops
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste
Parsley for garnish

(Get your pasta cooking. The sauce cooks fast.) Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high, and add the garlic, ginger, and butter. Before the garlic starts to get too golden (don't let it get brown), add the scallops. Let them just start to cook, then add the lemon juice. Scallops cook very quickly - they're done when they're not longer translucent. Turn off the heat and add the drained pasta into the pan. Stir to combine, add salt to taste, garnish, and serve!

UPDATE: A delicious-sounding variation from my Pa!

Here's an idea:  saute a good amount of finely-chopped garlic in olive oil with some pepperoncino, chopped parsley and black pepper; when the garlic just starts to brown (you want it to stay sweet) add about a half cup of dry white wine and cook till the wine reduces. At about the same time you throw in the pasta (spaghettini would work too), quickly add the scallops, taking care not to overcook them.  When the pasta is done, add to the sauce to coat, with some of the pasta water if it's too dry.  You could add the parsley at the end, if you like the taste.

You could also experiment with some bread crumbs.

Alternately you could use the same recipe (without breadcrumbs) but just add a small amount of crushed Italian tomatoes to give it color.

Baked Pork Chops

(Adapted from www.tasteofhome.com) 

Phew, time for some recipe catch-up, here! I have three great recipes that I'm excited to post, and I'll start with these, probably easiest possible pork chop recipe I could find. I've gone on before about how I wasn't a pork chop fan, then I bought some because they were so cheap, and now I buy them regularly because they're not only cheap, but they can actually be quite juicy and delicious.

This recipe is a perfect example. These were so juicy and the flavor - and the smell wafting out of the oven - was fantastic. I wasn't sure about dipping the chops in milk - but it turned out great. And seeing as how I picked this recipe by googling "pork chops", then narrowing down the list until I found something fast that used only ingredients I had left around the house at the end of the week, you can probably make them without a trip to the grocery store.

I almost forgot about the side - I just sauteed a little garlic in olive oil and then added some eggplant (half-skinned, chopped, salted, and rinsed first) and chopped tomato and let it all sautee and simmer together. Unfortunately, I can't remember if I put some onions in there or not, too...from the photo, looks like maybe I did!


The ingredients listed are for four chops, but I made two and just had some left over. Since the ingredients are mostly for dipping, you can choose how much or how little you want.


1/4 cup fat-free milk 
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 
1/4 cup bread crumbs 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (I think this is the secret ingredient)
1/8 teaspoon pepper 
2 center cut bone-in pork chops

Preheat oven to 375. Put the milk in a shallow bowl. In a shallow bowl or rimmed plate, combine the cheese, bread crumbs, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Dip each chop in the milk, then dip in the bread crumb mix to coat.

Place the chops in the oven on a baking sheet (cover the baking sheet with tin foil to save a mess; spray with cooking spray if you have it, which I didn't). Bake at 375 for about 10-11 minutes on each side.

Radio Silence

The stove's been awfully quiet the past week plus - I've been in Denver for a conference (the food out here has been great: lamb meatballs with polenta, shredded beef arepas with sweet plantains...mmm). To tide you over, here are two quick eats ideas:

1) Orzo with Goat Cheese: orzo pasta, goat cheese crumbles, a splash of milk - mix/melt, and eat!

2) Couscous Plus: Near East Mediterranean Curry couscous, 1 can of rinsed chick peas - cook according to couscous package instructions, but with an extra 1/4 cup of water; add chick peas when you add the spice pack.

Slim pickins, but they'll do in a pinch!

Creamy Polenta with Gorgonzola

(adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking) 

I love polenta. Joef hates it. I honestly cannot understand this, but that doesn't make it any less true. So, while Joef's away, expect to see me indulge in recipes with his least favorite ingredients - polenta, lentils, gnocchi (I know, he's crazy), etc. Fortunately, it's not really a long list, but I can indulge nonetheless.

This isn't so much a recipe as a suggestion from Marcella. She casually mentions how hot, soft polenta is great with some gorgonzola, butter, and parmesan cheese melted into it. Of course it is.

I didn't have any parmesan, but this was still delicious. Very comforting. It came out a little like grits, actually. Very creamy, very soft. What surprised me is that the texture of the polenta actually got a lot lighter with the cheese added - I expected it to get heavy. Not to say that this isn't filling, but it had a fluffy consistency.

Also, it takes like five minutes to make, so what do you have to lose?

1 cup instant polenta

1/4-1/2 tbsp butter

0.4 lbs (or so) gorgonzola crumbles

Make the instant polenta according to the package instructions. When cooked, remove from heat and immediately add the butter. Add gorgonzola crumbles in batches, gradually, stirring after each addition until melted and mixed in before adding the next batch. Taste periodically until it has the flavor you want. Sprinkle a couple gorgonzola bits on top for style, and cozy up with some nice hot, melty food on a blazingly hot day!

Salmon with Asian Pesto

 (from Williams-Sonoma's Fish for Dinner)

I love fish and seafood. It's delicious and somehow, I feel great when I eat it. In spite of that, however, I cook very little fish. Maybe some seafood. But very little fish. This is because I have no idea how to cook it. I don't know what kinds of fish are which, I don't know how to pick it out, and I'm afraid I'm going to kill myself or, at a minimum, make myself violently ill if I cook it incorrectly. Because my wonderful husband knows all this about me, he bought me the perfect cookbook, Fish for Dinner, which not only contains all kinds of delicious recipes, but also walks you through all of these things I've been trying to figure out. I mean, the first page is titled, "Understanding Fish", so this cookbook and I were kind of meant for one another.

The next barrier to overcome was having enough presence of mind to actually plan out a meal involving fish - you know, going to the grocery store, having a recipe in mind, buying the right ingredients, and following through on actually making the meal that night. It's much less challenging with, say, chicken - if you decide you're too lazy to make it that night, you just throw the chicken in the freezer. With fish, you want it fresh. So, you know, it's a big commitment in the cooking department.

ANYWAY. As you can see, I finally was able to pull myself together and see that commitment through. And I'm so glad I did. This was delicious, different, nourishing - all that good stuff. Also, turns out salmon is really easy to cook, at least like this. I mean, really easy.

The original recipe, which I've provided below, makes four servings (four salmon filets). I made one salmon filet, cooking for just myself, and halved the rest of the recipe for the sauce. Next time, I would probably reduce the amount of fish sauce. That stuff is really salty. It definitely provides the unique flavor the recipe calls for, but wow, that stuff is powerful. Let's just say Pancake got a little too excited about the smell it made while it was cooking, which, knowing dogs, is not always a good thing.

On that appetizing note...this is a delicious recipe. And it looks fancy, too.

For four:

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 jalapeno chile, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

3 tbsp peanut oil

2 tbsp Asian fish sauce (again, you could probably halve this)

Juice of 1/2 a lime (plus slivers for garnish)

1 tsp sugar
4 salmon filets, about 6 oz each

Salt and pepper

Combine the garlic, chile, green onions, cilantro, basil, and 1 tbsp water (I actually added an equal part of peanut oil) to a food processor blender and blend to make a paste.

In a small frying pan over medium heat, warm 2 tbsp peanut oil. Add the herb paste and saute for about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce, 2 tbsp water, lime juice, and sugar. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes.

Season the salmon filets with a little salt and pepper.

Heat a large frying pan of high heat until very hot, and then add the rest of the oil (1 tbsp). Add the salmon right to the pan, and cook until golden brown on the underside, about 3 minutes. Flip the filets and do the same on the other side, about three more minutes. (The recipe wants you to keep it a little rare in the center, but I guess I'm still not 100% comfortable with cooking fish, so I just made sure it cooked through - it should get lighter in color and flaky when poked with a fork.).

Transfer the filets to plates and drizzle with the pesto. Serve it up!

Chicken Baked with Lemon

 

(adapted from Loukie Werle's Italian Country Cooking)

I love when I actually manage to make a complete, balanced meal - you know, with multiple food groups, side dishes, etc. Like this meal, lemony baked chicken served with aglio e olio and a side of broccoli rabe. It barely all fits in the photo!

The most fun part about this dish was making the "aromatic salt"...or, you know, seasoned salt. It's kind of a recipe unto itself, and it makes a lot of it - so you can keep it around for a few months, refrigerated, to use in other dishes. I'd call it a lemon-garlic salt, but you can taste a good bit of the rosemary in there. You should pay better attention to Werle's recipe than I did, though - in her introduction, she notes that you just need a teaspoon of salt to flavor six chicken thighs. I used four thighs. What can I say, I got excited about the aromatic salt.

4 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on

1 lemon, thinly-sliced

1 lemon, squeezed

1.5 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup white wine (the recipe called for water, but wine sounds better for deglazing the pan, right?)

AROMATIC SALT (halve this if you want - it makes a lot, and certainly more than you need for the chicken):

3 cloves garlic, peeled and 2 chopped

1 cup coarse salt

Zest of two lemons

1.5 tsp chopped fresh or dried rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 bay leaf, if you have it (I didn't)

For the salt, place all of the ingredients except the 1 non-chopped, reserved garlic clove and the bay leaf into a food processor and chop until the salt is ground. Store the mixture in an airtight container, with the reserved garlic and bay leaf buried in the salt. Refrigerate if storing.

Place the chicken on a plate, season with the aromatic salt, and cover with plastic wrap to marinate in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425. Place sliced lemon in an ovenproof dish. Heat a pan over medium-high, add the oil, and add the chicken with the skin side down. Brown well on both sides, about 6 minutes. Place the chicken on top of the lemon slices in the ovenproof dish, skin side up.

Add the lemon juice and wine to the pan in which the chicken was browned and boil, scraping up any brown bits, for about four minutes, or until it gets slightly saucy. Pour over the chicken. Put the chicken in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. (I forgot the next step, myself:) Remove from oven and place on a heated platter, cover loosely with foil, and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Cooking Lesson!...and Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Strawberries

Back in April, I auctioned off a La Piccina Cucina cooking lesson to support Yale SOM's summer internship fund. Greg, a good friend of ours, was the "lucky" winner! He and his fiancee Jen came over last week to cash in on their winnings. It was a blast - for me, at least! Greg did great, too.

Greg made the excellent choice of Risotto with Broccoli Rabe and Pancetta. Not only is this delicious, but it's a useful recipe - risotto is a nice, fancy-seeming dish that's actually pretty simple, and really, once you've learned how to make basic risotto, you can really improvise with all kinds of additions. AND, this particular risotto recipe basically also teaches you how to make broccoli rabe as a side.

We also made a quick salad - Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Strawberries. Really, the name is the recipe. I wanted to do a salad to show how to make a basic olive oil/balsamic dressing. We used a bag of arugula, about 4-5 strawberries, sliced, and a healthy sprinkling of goat cheese  crumbles. We dressed it with 4 large spoonfuls of olive oil and 2 of balsamic. (2:1 ratio!) If you want the salad to stay pretty, dress the strawberries and arugula first, then just sprinkle with goat cheese. Or, do as we did (after this photo was taken) and dress it all together and mix (it won't look pretty anymore, but the cheese and dressing will coat the salad nicely).

We ended the night with a lesson from Joef on hot fudge (no Indian Ghost Pepper this time, to his chagrin) - probably one of the more fickle recipes we know, but definitely worth the effort.

Thanks to Greg and Jen for bidding on the lesson and for letting me geek out about cooking all night! Can't wait to do it again.