Redheaded Kitchen

Ina Garten's Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

Fast, simple, delicious...

 

 

 

This recipe comes from one of my favorite TV chefs, Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa. Her recipes are always so easy, comforting (though this could it be because of the copious amounts of butter used in some of her desserts), while still perfectly suitable to be served at a fancy dinner party.

I made these little gems for a neighborhood BBQ last week, and they were a big hit. Cut into quarters, they are the best finger-food. The slow-cooked sweet onions, tangy goat cheese and flaky puff pastry are awesome alone but when put together into one scrumptious tart, they are "dead, gone to heaven" delicious. 

Since they turned out to be so popular and I felt like I didn't get my fair share of them, I made them again the next day for a quick & light supper.

 

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

Recipe by Ina Garten

Happy 4th of July!!!

Corn Polenta with Sausage & Peppers

I've been going through a stage in my cooking... cooking with whole grain. Or better yet, cooking with whole grain I've never tried cooking with before. Like I've mentioned in my older posts, I live so close to Bob's Red Mill that the employees know who I am when I visit (heck, they even notice that someday I come "earlier in the day than usual"). I love it there!

Their bulk section is pretty awesome but I would always get my "usuals" - some granola, my favorite Peppy Kernels hot cereal, and 5 lbs bags of flour. I always told myself that I really need to try some of the other stuff but I never really got around to doing that. Until now...

Since I have way too much free time on my hands these days, a dire need of ideas for this blog, and more than a few whole grain cookbooks.. there's never been a better time to jump head first into the wonderfully healthy world of whole grain.

By far, my favorite cookbook on the topic is Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass which tells you pretty much anything and everything you've ever wanted to know about whole grains. Though I said it's my favorite, I barely used it in the past. So, I've picked out a couple of recipes using grains I've never cooked with before and off I went to Bob's.

Well, I know cornmeal might not be the most unusual (in fact it really isn't) ingredient, it's just I haven't used it much in my kitchen (beside a few cornbreads that I have under my belt). It turned out to be quite the success with my husband. Nothing really mind-blowing, just a comforting home-y meal that definitely made my "will make it again" list.

 

 

Corn Polenta with Sausage & Peppers

Source: Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass

 

2 cups coarse yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 TBSP olive oil

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 lb Italian sausage, hot or mild (bulk; out of casings)

4 large red bell peppers, chored and cut into 1/2" strips

1 (15 oz) can of diced tomatoes

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional: use if sausage isn't very spicy)

1/3 cup (tightly packed) chopped fresh basil leaves

1 TBSP chopped fresh mint

1 to 3 tsp balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan to garnish

 

To prepare the sausage & peppers: Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the onion and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and if using, pepper flakes, and cook for another minute.

Add the sausage, break it up and cook until browned. Toss in the peppers and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Lower down the heat, cover, and simmer until peppers are collapsed and tender, about 20 more minutes.

While the sausage mixture is simmering, prepare the polenta: In a bowl, blend the cornmeal with 3 cups of cold water. In a heavy-bottom 3-quart pot, bring 2 cups of water and the salt to a rolling boil. Lower the heat and gradually stir in the polenta mixture. Bring back to a boil.

Cook uncovered, adjusting the heat so that the polenta simmers, with big bubbles puffing up here and there on the surface. As the mixture thickens, use a large spoon to stir every few minutes, especially scraping the bottom. The polenta will be done when it becomes thick and creamy, and the cornmeal is soft with no hint of grittiness, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in a bit more boiling water if the polenta becomes very thick before the cornmeal tastes cooked.

To serve: Stir in the basil & mint. Season to taste with vinegar, slat, and pepper. Spoon the polenta onto individual plates and top with the pepper mixture. Garnish with parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

 

 

Black Bean Soup with Fried Egg + my favorite recipe search site

So, what do you do with a giant tupperware of beans that's been sitting in your fridge after you went a little crazy with the spring cleaning of your pantry? Yep, I got a little carried away last week... I was on a quest to make an easy dinner and at the time the 2 little-ish bags of beans (that I had lurking in the back of my pantry) didn't seem like they could hold enough beans to feed a small army. Yeah, I learned my lesson... dry beans can be pretty darn deceiving...

Not that beans are the kind of food people have troubles figuring out what to do with. The possibilities are endless - you can throw them into your salads, wrap them in tortillas with some cheese & tomato for a quick burrito, mix them into your soups...

Lately, I been turning to my new favorite internet site for some cooking inspiration. A little inspiration never hurt anybody, right? It's called Food Blog Search and it is what the name suggest it would be - basically a database of a whole bunch of food blogs from around the world. You just type in the name of a dish you're looking for (or the ingredient you'd like to use up) and it gives you hundreds of links to blog posts with pictures, result reviews and sometimes funny stories behind the recipe.

So, you might be asking, what did I do with all those beans? Well, not terribly exciting but oh-so-delicious... a simple Black Bean Soup with a Fried Egg and a warm corn tortilla on a side... a recipe that I found on Serious Eats website.

 A few minor tweaks and "Voilà"... dinner is served...

Tilapia with Black Beans

This recipe is another of my "search your pantry/fridge/freezer and throw a bunch of things you find together and serve" kind of meals. Like I've mentioned a few times in my past blog entries, if I didn't do any grocery shopping (well, maybe except for buying the perishable items), my & my husband could still eat like kings for many weeks and that would include a dessert few times a week.

My freezer and especially my pantry are overflowing with all different kinds of yummy ingredients just waiting for me digging my way through to them. Some of them can be thrown together for the last minute fast dinner (like that Sausage & Lentil dish I made after a long day of hiking), some will require a little bit of planning ahead...

I love beans but I really don't like canned beans. Yeah, they're pretty darn convenient to have in your pantry but I just can't get over the mushy meal-y texture. I like my beans soft but firm, still holding their shape, and also fresh home-cooked beans have this awesome flavor that with the canned beans seemed to disappear down the drain along with the liquid they've been sitting in for who-knows how long.

I've prepared a version of this dish in the past (before this whole blogging escapade). I found the recipe in the Sunset magazine but this time I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, so I improvised... instead of the zucchini I just tripled the amount of beans; besides black beans I also had a little bag of Great Northern white beans so I've thrown those in as well for good measure and I had no quinoa, so I cooked up some of the "Wild & Brown Rice Mix" I bought from Bob's Red Mill a while back.

 

All in all, it was a success. I didn't miss the ingredients that I did omit. The beans & tomatoes together with the spices (I also added a little bit of cumin on top of the paprika), lemon juice & caper are just plain delicious.

And there was plenty left for our lunch the next day...

 

 

 

Quinoa Con Pollo with Roasted Baby Beets

I have a file that consists of pictures of meals that I cook. I usually snap a couple of almost everything that I make and then depending on how the dish turns out, they either make it to my blog or get deleted when I sweep my laptop during a cleaning frenzy. This one, I made about a month ago and it turned out to be pretty darn tasty... it just got lost in the midst of "great weather hiking weekends" and "our short notice trip to Las Vegas".

I only recently discovered quinoa and immediately fell in love with this interesting little grain that Incas called "the mother grain". And there are so many things to love about it... it cooks up in a blink of an eye, it is a nutritional powerhouse full of vitamins and minerals, and my personal favorite (although a little silly reason)... when cooked, a tiny "tail" appears that is a thin germ circlet that falls from the seed.

I found this interesting version of the more traditional Arroz Con Pollo (Rice & Chicken) in the Food section of the Oregonian newspaper and it immediately went onto my "cook very soon" list. Roasted baby beets that I served alongside complimented the dish beautifully - taste-wise but especially with their vibrant color.

 

Quinoa Con Pollo

Recipe @ The Oregonian

Roasted Baby Beets

 

2 bunches baby beets, scrubbed well (no need to peel) & stems trimmed, halved if a little on the bigger side

3 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP whole fennel seeds

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

 

On a baking sheet, toss everything together and bake in 375 degree oven until tender (about 45 minutes). Enjoy... trust me even if you don't like beets, give these a try and you just might change your opinion...

Grilled Vegetables

This is one of my favorite ways of preparing & serving vegetables. It's almost unbelievable how much more flavor can a little bit of olive oil & garlic add to the already flavorful veggies.

And it's easily done year round... In spring and summer, our old trusty Weber grill gets a good workout grilling variety of meats (steaks, burgers, chicken or our favorite cedar-plank salmon) and there in no better side dish than some grilled asparagus, zucchini, red peppers or my last-years favorite find, garlic "whistles" (basically green tops of the garlic plant). By grilling some vegetables afterwards, the cooked meat has some time to rest and because they take so little time to cook, it also let's you use the still hot coals... giving you the biggest bang for your buck.

During winter one of my go-to dishes is store-bought cheese tortellini topped with oven roasted butternut squash, onions, fennel and mushrooms with a sprinkle of feta cheese & red pepper flakes.

 

 

So, today there isn't an actual recipe more of an idea for you to try next time you're bbq-ing and want something beside (or even instead of) the regular potato salad & beans. Why don't you toss some tender spring asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper or thick rings of onion with a little bit of olive oil, some minced garlic, salt, pepper and maybe some spicy red pepper flakes and throw it on the grill once the meat is done. 10 minutes later you will have a delicious side dish that will definitely won't get lost and forgotten.

 

Sausages with Lentils

Well, the weather here in Oregon finally realized that it's almost June and started to behave the way it should. No, I'm not saying that it's scorching hot over here, but you know... the perfect upper-70s. Quite pleasant. Finally I have time to do some serious hiking. Like our most recent hiking trip to Dog Mountain over on Washington side of Columbia River Gorge. It's the most popular trail if you want to see thousands & thousands (& thousands) of spring flowers.

I haven't been shopping for a while (it happened before and I'm sure there are many more times to come). But at our house you can never say out loud that there is no food around and nothing to eat. My fridge might be on the empty side with no fresh produce lurking around but my freezer and pantry always have something that can be thrown together for quite the delightful and quick supper. Quick is the important word here, especially when you get home exhausted after 7 mile trek through steep terrain. We're a sort of on a budget, so stopping somewhere on the way home was kinda out of question when you have all the ingredients to cook with ready, sitting & patiently waiting for you at home and the dish takes literally 30 minutes to prepare.

I found another food blog challenge to join... This time Susan's My Legume Love Affair (Eleventh Helping), this month hosted by Lori Lynn @ the wonderful Taste With The Eyes blog.

Sausages with Lentils

Adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson

Flavorful & satisfying - those 2 words describe this the best.

3 - 4 TBSP olive oil, divided

1 onion, chopped

2 cups of lentils (either regular brown or green French lentils)

1 garlic clove, peeled & smashed

8 smaller or 4 bigger sausages (I used 4 fat Chicken & Apple sausages)

1 glass of good red wine

1/2 cup water

salt & pepper

parsley, chopped

 

To cook the lentils, heat 2 - 3 TBSP of oil in a medium saucepan (one with lid) and add chopped onion. Sprinkle with salt (prevents browning) and cook till soft. Add lentils, stir and cover generously with cold water. Bring to boil, cover and let simmer 30 minutes or until cooked & most of the liquid is absorbed.

When the lentils are nearly ready, heat a heavy-bottom frying pan with the rest of the oil. Add the smashed garlic clove and cook for a few minutes. Add sausages and brown them on all sides. Then pour in the wine & water, cover the pan (with lid or tin foil) and cook for about 15 minutes. Using a fork, mash the soft garlic clove into the sauce. Taste for seasoning.

To serve, pour the sausages & their "gravy" over the lentils, sprinkle with parsley and dig in.

Spicy & Sweet Nuts

 We eat lots of salads at our house. I don't know why but I was never a big fan of romaine lettuce. I mean... every once in a while it's a nice change (and a must in Caesar Salad) but in my salad bowl you're more likely to find peppery arugula (my favorite), mild & delicate spinach and/or simple green or red leaf lettuce...

Pre-washed packaged mixes are my good ol' standby but for the past 3 years during the warm months I've been growing it in my backyard. I tell you if you want to grow something while not working too hard on it... grow some lettuce (oh, and try out some herbs too but more on that at some other time). I have 3 medium planter boxes that provide us with plenty of greens during the late spring and early summer. Then during the hot months we take a little break (the lettuce seeds don't like the real hot weather) when we pick up a head or two at our Sunday Farmer's Market. I plant one more "round" in the late summer or early fall. It's dead easy and it takes only 45 days from sowing to eating. This is how it looked about 3 weeks ago and this was today...

I'm quite happy with a simple salad but when I have a little time I make these nuts which make a wonderful & crunchy addition. They last for a while in a air-tight container in the fridge and make wonderful snackies. I found the recipe on Deb's Smitten Kitchen blog. I used pecans the first time but after trying it with almonds I kinda never went back..

Oh, one more picture. This is my pride and joy - my dwarf fig tree that we planted last year (after tasting fresh figs from my sister-in-laws tree) and the one lonely fig growing on it. But hey, I'm quite happy.

 

Potato Dumplings with Feta Cheese

A few months before I started writing this little blog I found "Potato Ho Down" challenge started by Cathy of Noble Pig. And since I love potatoes in any possible form - fries (my #1 choice especially if served with a side of brown gravy), mashed, baked, roasted, gnocchi, and of course these dumplings that are the national dish of Slovakia (where I was born), entering a recipe in the challenge just seemed natural.

Slovakia is a spud country. Almost all of the traditional dishes include potatoes in a one way or the other, so I have plenty more recipes for the future Potato Ho Downs...

These dumplings are pretty easy and the whole dish comes together within 30 minutes or so. Traditionally it's made with a different kind of sheep cheese - bryndza - but that proved to be pretty darn difficult to find here in Oregon. Luckily, feta cheese is a wonderful substitute (I'm so glad because it would be hard to imagine my life without these dumplings).

 

Potato Dumplings with Feta Cheese

(Bryndzove Halusky)

 

2.5 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 egg

2 - 3 cups of flour (I never really measure it as I go by the rule my Mom taught me - mix in enough flour, so the wooden spoon will stand on its own - it works every time)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 lb feta

1/2 cup milk

6 slices of bacon, chopped

chives, chopped

 

Start of with bringing a big pot of salted water to a boil. In a food processor or a blender puree the potatoes and the egg (you might have to do this in 2 batches). Pour in a big mixing bowl, add salt & pepper. Mix in the flour (the more flour you use the firmer the dumplings are going to be and the lesser chance they will fall apart during boiling; start off with about 2 cups and add more as needed - like I mentioned before, my Mom always said that the wooden spoon should stand up on its own).

 

 

Now get the cheese mixture ready... In pot or a bowl, crumble up the feta cheese and mix it with the 1/2 cup of milk, smashing it with a fork to combine. You still want it to be to be a little chunky.

When the water is boiling you're ready to make the dumplings. Now, in Slovakia we have an actual gadget that makes the whole dumpling-making process a little easier (a sort of a sieve with big holes) but since I keep on forgetting to ask my parents to send me one, I use a method my grandmother taught me - put a couple of scoops of the potato mixture on the edge of a small-ish cutting board, set it over the pot of boiling water and with a spoon pull of little chunks straight into the water. It's easier when you dunk the spoon into the boiling water every once in a while and also don't forget to stir in the dumplings every so often, so they don't stick to the bottom. Continue until all of the potato mixture is gone...

When the dumplings are done they will float to the top, I usually give them another minute or so after that. Scoop up the dumplings, let them drain a little bit and add them to the feta cheese mixture. Don't stir it at this point (I don't know why not but my Mom did it this way).

Fry up the bacon pieces and pour everything (fat too) onto the dumplings. Add the chives. Now you can stir it. Taste for salt and pepper (feta is pretty salty so you should be ok) and enjoy.

Please let me know if you try these, I really would like to know how you like them.