Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage

I don't recall ever trying one of Emeril's recipes before. I could be wrong, but I know I don't have any of his cookbooks, and I just can't think of one that I've tried. This recipe came from Everyday Food magazine, which you know I love.

Anyway, it's a great, easy recipe, and you likely have almost everything you need in your pantry. All I had to buy was fresh broccoli and I happened to be out of sausage. That's it! I will be looking more closely at Emeril's recipes too after this one...

It has a secret ingredient, which I haven't told anyone about, because people have such strong feelings about it. We've made it two or three times already! I took a batch of this pasta to a Boy Scout banquet last week, and more than one person liked it. A friend of ours even asked for the recipe, which I planned on posting here regardless.

We LOVE it. At least Number One and I do. H-Bomb picks out the sausage, Sawed Off picks out the broccoli, they trade and everyone is happy!

The text in the magazine says, "Anchovies are the secret ingredient in this dish. They give it a deep, savory flavor without a bit of fishiness, so if you're tempted to skip them, don't." I agree, DON'T. I have actually used an entire tin in one batch of the pasta, although for the banquet I stuck to the 4 fillets. The first time you make this, unless you're a huge fan of those little fishes, you should probably use 4 fillets. But a whole tin is delicious too!


On to the recipe. Enjoy!

Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage
Serves 6
Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound pasta (Emeril uses rigatoni, we've used penne, farfalle, etc.)
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets (about 4 cups)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 anchovy fillets, minced
1 pound Italian sausage (I just use a package of Jimmy Dean's Italian)
Parmesan, grated, for serving

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions. In last 2 minutes of cooking, add broccoli and cook until bright green and crisp-tender. (just cook for the 2 minutes) Carefully reserve 1 cup pasta water; drain pasta and broccoli.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice, anchovies, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Add sausage to empty pasta pot and cook over medium-high, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned and coked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, return pasta and broccoli to pot, and add oil mixture. Toss well to combine, adding enough pasta water to create a thin sauce that coats pasta (I usually end up using about 1/2 cup water). Serve sprinkled with Parmesan.

Taste & Create Partner List

It's that time again! Here is the T&C partner list for February! Please remember to submit your creations to Nicole's Taste & Create website by February 24th, 2012!

If you have any questions or problems, check out the How it Works page, or please feel free to email me at cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Have you heard of Taste & Create? It's a monthly food blog event in which participants are randomly paired off, and must choose and create a recipe from their partner's blog. It is great fun! A picture of everyone's creation and a brief "review" gets posted on the Taste & Create website, linking back to your own blog post.

If you'd would like to sign up for the NEXT event, please email me by the 8th of the month. You'll be randomly paired with another food blogger, and the fun will begin!

Can't wait to see what you all create!

Veg Junction & Pinks Recipe Diary

Searching for Spice & Vegetarian Food and Me

Samayal Arai & Study Food

No Reason Needed & The Low Fat Chick

Taste & Create: Shrimp Laksa

*Taste & Create is an amazing monthly food blog event, created by my friend Nicole of For the Love of Food. Participants are paired up randomly, and each create a recipe from their partner's blog! It is so fun! Please join us. The deadline to sign up is the 8th day of each month, email me at cowgirlmin07[at]gmail[dot]com if you're interested!

My partner this time was Vicky from Avocado Pesto. I'm sorry to say this recipe is embarrassingly late, but better late than never, I suppose.

So initially I was intrigued by these pork/dough things on Vicky's blog, called Cha Sui Bao, don't they look fabulous, and Vicky even emailed me the recipe! I decided I didn't have the ambition, let alone the ingredients, to prepare that dish now. But I WILL. Some day.

After some more searching, I decided to make Vicky's Almond Macaroons. And then that just didn't happen. Am I glad that I didn't settle for making some cookies with which Vicky herself wasn't thrilled.

I was searching again, in desperation now, when I found it. A recipe that sounded so delicious, I just had to make it that night. It is called Shrimp Laksa, and it is heavenly. A fairly simple Malaysian shrimp soup, with coconut milk and curry paste and a dollop of peanut butter, shrimp and lightly crunchy fresh vegetables. It was so good. I will definitely be making it again!

My pictures look different than Vicky's, perhaps because her cilantro appeared to be used whole, as more of a garnish, while I just chopped mine and tossed it in the pot. You can see what a colorful, flavorful soup this is! Did I mention, I'm making this again? ;-)

I do have two young boys, and although one of them eats Cholula sauce by the spoonful, he doesn't like his regular food to be spicy, so I modified a bit. Also couldn't find lemongrass (no surprise) in my teeny tiny grocery. But hey, we even had a box of rice noodles in the pantry! It was destined. You'll find my modifications below in parenthesis. Follow the link to check out more of Vicky's creations!

So the verdict from the boys: the 8-year-old loved it, the almost-6-year-old did not. We also loved it, so the 6 year old is out of luck, I'm making it again!!

a very bad, poorly lit iPod photo, but here it is served up with the noodles!

Shrimp Laksa
Serves about 6

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 small red onion, finely diced

2 teaspoons fresh lemongrass, finely diced (I used a few long strands of fresh lime peel, knowing that cilantro would be added at the end, I read online that citrus peel + cilantro is a fair substitute although not exactly the same)

1-2 teaspoons red chili, chopped (I wasn't sure which type of chile, so I didn't use any)

2 teaspoon ginger, grated, DIVIDED

10-12 oz raw shrimp, halved lengthwise (we left them whole)

1 can coconut milk (400 ml)

1 liter chicken stock

1 tablespoon chunky peanut butter

4 teaspoons lime juice (I used juice from one half a lime)

3 teaspoons red curry paste (I used 2 teaspoons)

2 teaspoons fish sauce

4 oz sugar snap peas, thinly sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

4 green onion, sliced into 4 pieces lengthwise and then into long strings (this was hard, I did it the first time but next time I'll probably just chop them up)

handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

8 oz vermicelli thin rice noodles, cooked according to package directions and rinsed with cold water

sriracha, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan and cook onions over medium heat for 3 minutes and then add lemongrass, red chili and 1 teaspoon ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. (I didn't read this, and just added everything together. It still turned out)

2. Add the coconut milk, red curry paste and peanut butter to pan, whisking until smooth.

3. Add the fish sauce, chicken stock, ginger, shrimp, sugar snap peas and red pepper. Cook until shrimp is pink and vegetables have cooked a little but are still crunchy.

4. Add lime juice, green onions and cilantro.

5. Serve with vermicelli noodles and add sriracha to taste.

C-3PO Pancakes

Santa brought my boys the A Star Wars Cookbook last year, and they have been having a blast with it! So far every recipe we've tried has been good, but I think our favorite has to be the C-3PO Pancakes. Yum. I think they would eat these almost every morning, alternating only with Princess Leia Danish Dos (that's right, they are rolls shaped like Leia's hair).

Not only does the cookbook have good recipes, the photos are particularly inspired. Princess Leia shooting her gun over a pile of Danish Dos, Han Solo squirting ketchup out of the Millennium Falcon onto one of his Han-Burgers. Fun! Buy the book for the pictures, keep it for the recipes! Your Star Wars fans will be ecstatic.

The boys think these look like C-3PO's eyes...

C-3PO Pancakes
Makes 8 pancakes

5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cans (8 1/4-ounces each) pineapple rings
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
butter and maple syrup for serving

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Put the butter in a small saucepan and switch on the heat to low. When the butter has melted, turn off the heat. Let the butter cool slightly (5 minutes).

Meanwhile, open the cans of pineapple. Drain off the juice from the cans into the sink. Set aside.

Put the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

Break the eggs into a medium bowl. Add the milk and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. Whisk until well mixed. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture until well blended.

With a pastry brush, lightly brush some of the remaining melted butter in a large skillet. Set the skillet on the stove and switch on the heat to medium-high.

Fill a 1/3-cup measuring cup with batter. When the skillet is hot, after 1 minute or so, pour in the batter. Cook the pancake until golden underneath and bubbles burst on the top, about 3 minutes.

Place 1 pineapple ring in the center of each pancake. Using a spatula, carefully flip the pancake. Cook until golden brown on the second side, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer the pancake to a baking sheet. Using pot holders, put the sheet in the oven. Repeat until all pancakes are cooked, then serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Mexican Chicken Pot Pies

I had the television on the other day, when Rachael Ray's show came on. The only reason I left it on was that she mentioned she had gone to Mexico, and we had just gone to Mexico this past Thanksgiving so I wanted to see where she went. Plus I was folding laundry, so I needed some diversion, however lame it turned out to be.

You may already know, I really don't like Rachael Ray's recipes. I just don't. Every recipe I've ever tried of hers, if followed to the letter, comes out poorly. But I just keep trying, because honestly some of them sound good. Unfortunately, some just don't work, others are just plain gross. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. And y'all KNOW I am a good cook.

She made "Mexican Chicken Pot Pies" on her show, and On Screen they looked fabulous. She had some good ideas, including poaching the chicken first, (although that is actually a Cook's Illustrated: The Best Recipe technique that I've done before) and baking puff pastry separately for a flaky, non-gooey top. She also had some bad ideas, like poaching the chicken with lime slices and cooking the vegetables too hot, and whatever that weird egg wash mixture was about. (for the record, I did ignore her egg wash recipe and made my own this time)

Some day I will learn NOT to give Ms. Ray the benefit of the doubt. Some day I'll learn that one simply MUST NOT follow her recipes to the letter, rather one must use them as a starting point, an inspiration if you will, and one must create her own recipes INSPIRED by Rachael Ray.

Yesterday, I made the aforementioned Mexican Chicken Pot Pies with Rachael Ray's recipe. They were disgusting. Boiling the limes with the chicken was likely the main problem; it imparted a bitter flavor to the chicken, and indeed the whole dish. I'm telling you, the bite of diced chicken I took after it had been poached? Gross. My husband thought it may have been the oil from the lime peel.

Still, I pressed on, hoping for the best, perhaps some of the other ingredients would mask the bitterness, for Pete's sake she has her own television show! I made the entire recipe, tasted the pie filling to "adjust" the flavors, and I kid you not, I had to open a bottle of wine just to get that taste out of my mouth! (My facebook friends can attest this is the truth!)

We made the boys hamburgers for dinner.

I should have known better than to hope at all. The pies were so disgusting that my mother-in-law took only one half of a bite, then ate the top crust washed down with 2 glasses of that lovely white wine. Number One and I only ate ours because we were simply starving, with copious amounts of wine after each bite, of course. About three glasses each, I'm guessing, just to get through one serving of that damn pie.

So with that whole episode behind me, I was left really really wanting a Delicious Chicken Pot Pie. After all, that crust was a wonderful idea. And I knew I could most definitely improve on Rachael's "Mexican" attempt, because we cook a lot of Mexican-inspired food. So I did. I used a few of her techniques, and many of the same classic pot pie ingredients but have adjusted both the amounts and some other things, so she only gets the "inspiration" credit from me.

To make ahead: Poach chicken and dice vegetables for filling. When chicken is done, dice and store separately. Cover diced vegetables. Strain stock and refrigerate all components. I'm pretty sure you could also successfully freeze the finished pie filling, then just thaw, heat and top with pastry...I will try it and let you know how it works!

This recipe is so much better than hers!
The pot pies are savory and fragrant and tangy, with just a hint of spicy heat.
Or more heat if you prefer! Not bitter in the least. ENJOY.

Mexican Chicken Pot Pies
Inspired by and greatly adapted from Rachael Ray's fiasco
Serves 4

For Poached Chicken:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 medium onion, halved
1 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, halved, seeds and stem removed
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Kosher salt

For Pie Filling:
4 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 chipotles en adobo, minced, to taste (I use 1 if I'm feeding kids)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
juice of 1 lime

For Pie Tops:
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tablespoon heavy cream



Place chicken in a pot with halved onion, carrot chunks, celery, jalapeno, bay leaves, crushed garlic and water to cover by 1/2-inch. Season with salt, bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer and poach 40 minutes. Remove solids and reduce stock over high heat for 10 to 20 minutes. You'll need about 2 cups for the pie filling.

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Dice chicken in bite-sized pieces.

Heat butter in medium skillet over medium heat, add chopped onions, carrots, garlic and corn, and cook to tender, stirring, for 10 minutes or so. Add flour and stir 1 minute, until the "flour" smell has dissipated and flour is no longer visible. Slowly whisk in about 2 cups of the reduced stock, then add cream and chipotle. Taste and adjust the chipotle, and add salt and pepper. Stir in chicken and reduce heat to low. Stir in lime juice, cover and keep warm (over low heat if needed) while you bake the pastry tops.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out puff pastry sheet on a floured surface. Cut out rounds the size of the bowls you wish to serve in and arrange them on the baking sheet. I also bake the pastry scraps right alongside the rounds. Brush pastry with egg yolk wash and bake until golden, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Serve chicken "filling" in bowls topped with pastry tops.

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes

This is a delicious, quick dinner to pull together on a weeknight, or any night you'd like a savory, exotic and nutritious meal.

I had a huge chicken breast in the freezer, so I just diced that instead of using thighs and proceeded with the recipe. The rest of my notes are in italics, as usual. I served this with rice. The stew improves with time, so it's great if you have some leftover. Incidentally, I didn't remove the cinnamon stick or ginger, I just left it in the pot and in the container we stored the leftover stew in.

I will probably try freezing this meal and see how it does.



Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes
Everyday Food, October 2007
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Serves 4

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil (I needed more oil before adding onions to pot)
1 medium onion, diced
1 piece fresh ginger (2 inches long), peeled
1 cinnamon stick
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used 1 1/2 cans)
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound total), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
Pinch of saffron, (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup couscous or rice
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish (optional)

Place flour in a wide, shallow bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper; dredge in flour, shaking off excess. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add chicken, and cook until browned, 4 to 6 minutes per side; transfer to a plate.

Heat 1 more tablespoon oil in the pot. Add onion, ginger, and cinnamon to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Return chicken to pot. Add broth, sweet potatoes, and, if using, saffron. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and sweet potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard ginger and cinnamon. Stir in lemon juice, and season stew with salt and pepper.

While stew is simmering, prepare couscous according to package instructions. Serve chicken stew with couscous, garnished with cilantro, if desired.

EASY BEEF TENDERLOIN

Christmas Eve dinner was just the two of us this year so I made a beef tenderloin with sauteed mushrooms and twice baked potatoes. Tonight that left over tenderloin will make some great hot beef sandwiches. YUMMY!

BEEF TENDERLOIN
1 (3 pound) beef tenderloin roast 
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch green onions, sliced thin
4-5 mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 cup melted butter

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
  
• Sprinkle garlic on bottom of shallow, glass baking dish and then layer green onions on top. 
• Place roast on top of onions.
• Whisk together soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and butter.
• Pour over the tenderloin.
• Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then turn the roast over, and continue cooking 35 to 40 minutes, basting occasionally until the internal temperature of the roast is at 140 degrees for medium.
• Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing

CHICKEN ADOBO

When  you look up recipes for Chicken Adobo ou have to choose between either a Phillipino recipe or a Mexican recipe.  I couldn't choose so I decided to combine my favorite ingredients from each of them and make my own recipe.

Chicken Adobo
1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  3tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced VERY thin
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon achiote seeds
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• Cover achiote seeds with boiling water. 
• Cover and set aside overnight. 
• Drain seeds discarding water.
• Place seeds, orange juice, soy sauce, vinegar, cayenne, paprika, cinnamon, honey, salt, pepper and garlic in a food processor. Grind until well blended.
• In a large wok or skillet, heat butter over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken on one side until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and sear the other side for another 5 minutes.  
• Add the onions over the chicken.
• Pour the seed mixture over chicken and heat through.
• Serve hot over rice and vegetable sides. 

Taste & Create Partner List

Here is the T&C partner list for our extended Holiday Event! I apologize for the delay. Please remember to submit your creations to Nicole's Taste & Create website by January 24th, 2012! Over the holidays, you'll have extra time to create something fabulous!

If you have any questions or problems, check out the How it Works page, or please feel free to email me at cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Have you heard of Taste & Create? It's a monthly food blog event in which participants are randomly paired off, and must choose and create a recipe from their partner's blog. It is great fun! A picture of everyone's creation and a brief "review" gets posted on the Taste & Create website, linking back to your own blog post.

If you'd would like to sign up for the NEXT event, please email me by the 8th of the month. (keep in mind the next month is actually February 2012, then every month again after that) You'll be randomly paired with another food blogger, and the fun will begin!

Can't wait to see what you all create!

Bizzy Bakes & Samayal Arai

Searching for Spice & Tasty Treats

For Such a Time as This & Seduce Your Tastebuds

Study Food & That's So Vegan

Avocado Pesto & The Bad Girl's Kitchen

Angry Asian Creations & Always Eat on the Good China

Sizzling Tastebuds & No Reason Needed

Veg Junction & Cook's Hideout

Roasted Salmon with Lentils

We have one boy, H-Bomb, who LOVES salmon (and all seafood!) and one boy, Sawed Off, who doesn't like salmon at all. We keep serving it. Last night, when I served up this roasted salmon with lentils, Sawed Off immediately said he doesn't like salmon, he didn't want to eat salmon, etc. complain etc. I asked him if he wanted sauce. He said no. Then I poured sauce on his dad's salmon, and Sawed Off said, "That sauce smells good." So I asked him if he wanted the sauce on the side or on top, and he said on top!

Sawed Off ATE that salmon and loved it, and even asked for more sauce on top! Give this recipe a try, even if someone in your family has mixed feelings about salmon. You might be surprised. And if you like salmon, try this recipe, it's a good one!



Roasted Salmon with Lentils
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves 4

3/4 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 large celery stalk, chopped
(I also added 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
4 skinless salmon fillets (6 ounces each)
nonstick cooking spray

Combine the lentils and 2 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Add the onion, celery (and carrot); cover, and continue cooking until the lentils and vegetables are just tender, 15 to 25 minutes more. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the lentil mixture to a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons of the reserved cooking liquid with the vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic and parsley; season with salt and pepper. *I prepped all these ingredients while the lentils were cooking, then added the cooking liquid at the end.* Toss half the dressing with the lentil mixture.

Heat the broiler. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange the salmon on the sheet; broil until opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes. Spoon the lentils onto 4 plates; top with the salmon, flaking it into large pieces, if desired. Drizzle with the remaining dressing.

This recipe comes from a weeknight favorite of mine, Everday Food: Great Food Fast.

It's a great cookbook for fairly last-minute dinners, and I turn to it often.