Guest Chef: Guacamole

I've decided to start a new segment entitled "Guest Chef."  Many of my friends are excellent in the kitchen as well, so periodically, we'll feature a recipe from one of them.  Today's recipe is for fresh, homemade guacamole! (Bear with these pictures, as they were taken with my iPhone and not originally intended for use in this blog)

Ingredients

2 avocados
1 tomato, diced (or you can cheat, and buy it already diced)
1/4 red onion, diced (or again, you can buy it already done for you...thank you, Publix)
Garlic salt
Cilantro
2 limes, juiced

1. Slice the avocado in half and take the pit out.  In a bowl, scoop out the flesh, and mash it with a fork.

 

2. Mix the tomatoes and the onions into the mashed avocado. 

3. Sprinkle the garlic salt and the cilantro into the mashed avocado, and blend well.  

 4. Slice the limes and squeeze the juice into the bowl.  Mix it well.

Hands in motion

 5. Let the guacamole sit for a few minutes to allow the flavors to blend together. Serve with chips.  Yum!

PointsPlus value: 2 (1/3 cup per serving)

Sweet Potato Pancakes

When I was in elementary school, one of my closest friends was Jewish. I remember the first time I had potato pancakes at her house during Hanukkah.  They were delicious. And for some reason, I had a huge craving for them the other day...and to my surprise, I found a Weight Watchers-approved recipe. Except instead of Idaho potatoes, these were made with sweet potatoes. And they were phenomenal.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, peeled
2 scallions, chopped
1 large egg (I actually used the equivalent of one egg in egg whites)
1 tablespoon of flour
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray


1. Slice the potato. Add the pieces to a food processor, and chop up fine.

2. Chop the scallions.

3. Add pureed potato, scallions, egg, salt, and flour into a bowl. Mix well.

4. Coat a baking pan in cooking spray. Create pancakes out of the potato mixture, using about 1/4 cup of the mixture for each pancake. Place the pancakes on the baking pan, leaving 2 inches between each one.

5. Cook the pancakes for 20 minutes in an oven heated to 425 degrees. Flip the pancakes over, and cook for an additional 10 minutes on the opposite side. 

PointsPlus value: 3 (2 pancakes per serving) 

Typical Thanksgiving

Here's the thing about Thanksgiving at my house. It's not your typical, all-American, brown-gravy-and-mashed-potatoes kind of Thanksgiving. It's Thanksgiving...with a twist. A very Italian twist. 

We usually start off with the antipasto, meaning, of course, that it's before the pasta.  And believe me, it does come before the pasta...but we'll get to that in a second.  The antipasto includes roasted peppers, eggplants, cold cuts, cheeses, mini meatballs, artichoke, olives.

You eat all of this with bread; bread is a very important part of any Italian holiday meal. It goes with every course.  Italians really do love their carbs!

Cold cuts, olives, and cheese...and I don't even like olives.

 The second course is always my favorite...the pasta. This year, we forewent the manicotti or the lasagna for a simple baked ziti.  Well, maybe not so simple.  There were mini meatballs, and ricotta, and layers of mozzarella cheese.

And let's not forget the meatballs. Because what Italian pasta dish would be complete without Grandma's meatballs?  If you remember, I attempted to make these a few weeks ago. After eating Grandma's meatballs again, though, I realize how much more work I have to do in perfecting them.  The texture, the taste, the subtle combinations of ingredients...it's a recipe I need to continue to cultivate. 

Then, finally, we get to the "Thanksgiving" part of the meal.  We make a turkey, but we don't have a brown gravy. We have potatoes, but they are sweet potatoes, cut into slices, smothered in maple syrup (it sounds weird, but it's delicious).  We have stuffed mushrooms, filled with breadcrumbs.  In the last three years, we've added something "American" as a concession to the friends who have joined us at the holiday: a green bean casserole. Except I think I'm the only one in my family who will actually eat it.

The stuffing deserves its own paragraph. I'm not even sure what "real" stuffing is supposed to be...some concoction with croutons? But our stuffing is a meal unto itself. Ground beef, spinach, salami, sausage, cheese...I don't even know what else is in there.  But. It. Is. So. Good.

Tres leches and cheesecake

Somewhere in there, there's a fruit course. Pineapples, grapes...I get excited when there is pomegranates.  

We always end on dessert.  My favorite part (even though it kills me a little bit every time I eat it) is this tres leches cake that one of my mother's clients gives to her every year. Three milks.  Not great for lactose intolerance.  But so delicious.

Is there any wonder why Thanksgiving is my favorite (food) holiday?

Bruschetta

If there is one part of an Italian antipasto that I absolutely love, it is bruschetta...a tomato salad on top of crispy bread. It's so easy to make, but sinfully delicious.

(Beware, this is one of those recipes that I don't use exact measurements...just do it to taste).

Ingredients

1 loaf of Italian bread (day-old bread is best)
3 tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Pecorino Romano (I prefer the saltiness of this cheese to Parmesan)

1. Slice the bread on a diagonal, to get the most surface area. Lightly coat each side of the slices with olive oil and garlic powder. Toast in oven (directly on rack is best) until golden and crispy. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the bowl) and 1 clove of garlic (minced).

3. Chop tomato into cubes. Combine with the olive oil and garlic, chopped onion and chopped basil leaves.

4. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle some more olive oil . Add a second clove of minced garlic.  Then, add a splash (just a splash!) of balsamic vinegar to the bowl.  Mix well.  Refrigerate for at least two hours to allow the flavors to mix together.

5. After two hours, spoon some of the tomato salad on to the toasted bread. Drizzle with a balsamic vinegar reduction glaze (see balasamic glaze recipe here).  Sprinkle some grated Pecorino Romano cheese on top.

Viola!  Bruschetta, a safe bet for any true Italian. 

 

By the way, basil is one of my favorite tastes. Ever!

Going Greek

I think that secretly, I want to be Greek.  I have always loved the culture and the history and the myths...but mostly I have loved the food.  The first time I tried Greek cuisine, I was in New York, visiting my uncle. I can't remember everything we ate, but I do remember two things: avgolemono and tzatziki. Since then, I've been in love with the two of them.  Whenever I go for Greek, I always get avgolemono and tzatziki.

I love them so much that I decided it was time for me to make them. 

Tzatziki

I tackled tzatziki first.  Tzatziki is a cucumber and Greek yogurt-based condiment.  It's used as the sauce in a gyro or souvlaki.  But it's also excellent as just a dip with pita. And the best part of tzatziki? It's incredibly easy to make.

Ingredients
Greek yogurt (I prefer Chobani, plain...get the big tub, fat-free)
2 cucumbers
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. Olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly chopped dill
Salt
Lemon juice
Pita (I like the pitettes...the are the perfect dipping size)

1. Peel the cucumbers. Slice them in half, length-wise. Using a small spoon, scoop out the seeds.

2. Chop the cucumber into small pieces. Use a paper towel to pat the cucumber and soak up extra water. Leave the cucumber pieces in a colander, sprinkle with salt, and let it drain out for about 30 minutes. The more water you can eke out of the cucumber, the better.

3. In a food processor, combine the cucumber, the minced garlic, the lemon juice, the olive oil, and the dill. Process until the ingredients are well blended. The ingredients should be thick if you have properly drained the cucumber (I did not the first time I made it).

4. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the ingredients from the food processor with the Greek yogurt.  Mix until well-blended.  

5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving, to allow the flavors to blend together.  Serve with warm pitas and vegetables for dipping.

PointsPlus value: 2 (1/2 cup per serving)

 Avgolemono

Avoglemono is kind of like a Greek version of chicken soup...infused with lemon and dill.  The egg makes it thicker. It's perfect when the weather is starting to get cooler, or when you are getting a cold...or for both, which is what happened to me last week.  This is a recipe adapted from "Just 5: 125 Recipes with 5 Ingredients" from Weight Watchers.

Ingredients

1 large chicken breast, cubed

1 carton of vegetable broth (32 ounces)

1 cup orzo

4 large eggs (or the equivalent in egg whites)

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp. chopped fresh dill

 1. Cook the chicken thoroughly.

2. Bring 2 cups of water and the carton of vegetable broth to a boil.  Once the liquid has boiled, add the orzo and return to a rapid boil.  Lower heat and cook until orzo are tender.

3. While the orzo is cooking, add the egg, lemon juice, and black pepper to a bowl.  Whisk lightly.  Stir 2 tablespoons of hot broth into the mixture. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the simmering soup. Stir constantly until the egg is cooked thoroughly, and forms thin strands. Use dill as a garnish. 

PointsPlus value: 5 (makes 4 servings)

...and that's all. They're two delicious but totally simple recipes. So what are you waiting for? Go make them! Opa!

Being Italian Means Family and Food

My brother came to visit me recently. We both needed a mental vacation, so we spent a lot of time talking, watching movies...and of course, eating.  We ate. A lot.  Which is one thing that any good Italian knows how to do.

Home-cooking

Of course, we cooked some food.  I put together a salad of epic proportions: spinach leaves, mandarin oranges, blueberries, cranberries, grape tomatoes, croutons, and candied pecans. All with a light raspberry vinaigrette.

Home-cooked simple dinner

We also made a simple chicken dish for dinner one night. It was marinated in a sesame ginger glaze with mandarin orange juice, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Then, Steven made some asparagus.  He drizzled it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs.  I would have added some grated cheese, too.  But to each their own. 

Chicken Tropichop with yellow rice and vegetables

Pollo Tropical
Pollo Tropical is one of my favorite places to eat. They serve mostly chicken, with Caribbean-inspired flavors. I always get the same thing (this is a bad habit I have when dining out): a chicken Tropichop with yellow rice and vegetables, tomatoes, guacamole...And then I add some condiments from the salsa bar, including the mild salsa and cilantro garlic sauce.   I'm kind of addicted. The plantains are also delicious; I enjoy them dipped into the cilantro garlic sauce. 

Bahama Breeze

Sweet Peruvian corn cakes, with pineapple salsa and butter

My brother and I have made Bahama Breeze one of our "go-to" restaurants. We go together every time he comes to visit me. This restaurant is one of the few that I will order different things off the menu every time. Everything I've ever tasted there is absolutely amazing, including their coconut shrimp and everything on their fresh fish menu. I personally really enjoy the salmon with the mojo marinade and mandarin oranges, or the almond-crusted tilapia.  This time around, we started off with the sweet Peruvian corn cakes, served with a pineapple salsa.

For my entree, I got the Paella, which deserves it's own paragraph. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish, known for it's pungent taste and distinct color, due to saffron. It's a rich dish, in the sense that there is loads of flavor and tons of stuff in it.  Paella is made with rice, mussels, shrimp, scallops, sausage, chicken, white fish, and lots of taste. It's absolutely one of my favorite dishes on the menu.  

For more information about Bahama Breeze, and to check out their menu, go to their website here: Bahama Breeze.

Taco Lu

The Carne Royale...deliciousness in a taco

Hands down, one of my favorite places to eat in Jacksonville is Taco Lu, a gourmet taco joint with a funky atmosphere. They have crazy combinations, like pork braised in orange juice and Coke or brisket braised in Dos Equis.  There's one taco that's not on the menu; you just have to know that you should order it. It's the Carne Royale.

Let me explain why this taco is so amazing. It's skirt steak marinated in soy sauce and lime juice, with brie cheese, cilantro, and a grape salsa. Yeah, it's AMAZING.  Steven tried three tacos: the fish taco, the Taco Lu verde (chicken with tomatilla salsa), and the Carne Royale. The Carne Royale was his favorite by far.  Oh, and the guacamole is phenomenal.

Check out the menu here: Taco Lu

Sweet! by Good Golly Miss Holly

Cookies and Cream

Cupcakes. When did that become such a big craze? They're everywhere...these little stand-a-lone cupcake shops have popped up all over, but this one is my favorite.  The woman who opened the shop (there's also one in Orlando) won Cupcake Wars. Twice.   I've tried a few different cupcakes, but I have two favorites: the Cookies and Cream (white cake, vanilla buttercream, crushed Oreos, and a cream filling) and the White Raspberry (white cake, white chocolate buttercream, and raspberry filling).  They have different sizes, but the mini cupcakes are perfect for a taste.  And don't even ask me how many points they are, because I don't know (or care).  

Check out the website here: Sweet by Holly

Seasonal happenings
Since it's almost Halloween, my brother and I bought a pumpkin. He did a phenomenal job carving it, transforming the face of the pumpkin into a caricature of Jekyll and Hyde.  

While my brother was carving though, I was roasting (and eating) the pumpkin seeds.  Who knew they were so delicious?

Happy Halloween and Happy Eating!

Sunday Dinner: Pasta and Meatballs (Part 2)

Let me start out with this disclaimer: my grandmother's recipe for meatballs isn't what you might expect. They're not meaty.

What I mean to say is that I they don't taste like hamburger.  And that's exactly the way I like them.  There is cheese and egg and bread and bread crumbs and it's just this wonderful mixture of ingredients.

But I've always been intimidated by the thought of actually making them.  I'd watched my grandmother mix the ingredients, acting on intuition and years of experience, making them near-perfect every single time. And the thought of making them (and knowing I was probably going to fail) absolutely depresses me.  But I gave them a shot, anyway.  Yeah, they didn't taste exactly like grandma's meatballs. But they actually came out well.

Grandma's Meatballs

(Quick disclaimer: there aren't actual amounts associated with this recipe...but I'll try to estimate what I added in to it)

Ingredients
Ground beef
Pecorino Romano Cheese
Breadcrumbs
Italian bread (soaked in water, with the crust peeled off)
Garlic, minced
Eggs
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

1. Soak the Italian bread in water, and peel off crust.

2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. I added about 2lbs of ground beef, a cup of cheese, a cup of bread crumbs, the soaked bread, 3 eggs, 2 cloves of minced of garlic and a pinch of oregano, salt, and pepper.

3. Mix them until well blended. Now, here's the kicker: I taste it. Yeah, raw egg and raw beef.  Blah blah blah.  If you don't like the taste, you need to add more...cheese, salt, breadcrumbs.  Something.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a baking pan with Pam.  Roll the meat into 1.5 inch balls and place in baking pan.

5. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

6. Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce (see previous entry for recipe) and heat on low for 30 minutes.

Granted, I did call my grandmother freaking out in the midst of the mixing of the ingredients, because it just wasn't tasting the way I wanted it to taste. My grandmother's quick fix? Add more cheese...

Buon Appetit!

Sunday Dinner: Pasta and Meatballs (Part 1)

One of the things I miss the most about home is the Italian cooking.  It's probably true that everyone thinks that their family makes the best food. But I'd challenge anyone to find something better than ANYTHING my grandmother makes.

I always keep a stock pile of cans of tomato. My preference is tomato puree. 

When I first started cooking in graduate school, tomato sauce seemed to be one of the easiest things that I could master. It seemed fairly uncomplicated.  A few years later, I still can't get it to taste exactly like my grandmother's sauce, but it is distinctly my own version (my brother thinks that the reason it tastes differently is because I use oregano...I stand by my decision).

Grandma's Tomato Sauce (for 4 servings)

Ingredients

• 2 cans of tomato sauce (I use pureed tomato sauce, but you can get crushed or whole, and puree it in a blender before you use it)
• 1/2 chopped red onion
• 3 basil leaves
• 4 links of sausage (Traditional Italian cooking demands pork sausage, but for the sake of maintaining a healthier version, I used turkey)
• Olive oil
• Dried basil
• Salt
• Pepper

1.  Coat the bottom of a sauce pan with olive oil. Heat it on medium.

2.  Saute´ the onions and sausage in the oil until onions are well done and sausage is cooked.

3.  Add 2 cans of tomato, dried basil, salt, pepper, oregano, and onion powder. Bring to a rapid boil.

4. Lower heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes.

See?  The tomato sauce isn't all that complicated.  I add the sausage to it so that it adds even more flavor. My family recipe also includes pieces of pork or even beef.  It gives the sauce both a richer, thicker texture and flavor.

Stay tuned for part two...the meatballs!

Ruminations on Recipes and Cooking

My grandmother and me

If there is one lesson that I learned from my grandmother, it's that recipes are always negotiable; they're more suggestions than an actual step-by-step approach.  That means that every time, it comes out a little bit different.  And it also means a lot of frustration when you are learning how to cook.

I didn't actually attempt to "cook" anything until I was in graduate school. Up until that point, I made things like macaroni and cheese, or frozen meals, or instant rice, and canned vegetables.  But part of me yearned for something more...something better...something that I actually made.

I started to look for simple recipes, and I managed to create some good concoctions. But as an Italian girl, I longed for the food that I would get at home. Good Italian, home-cooked meals. With lots of carbs.  So I would ask my grandmother.  This wasn't helpful.

The problem is that my grandmother doesn't cook with recipes.  Old Italian women don't follow a recipe...they just know how to make it.  Here's how it works.  Basically, she lists out ingredients, but doesn't give amounts. It's not "a teaspoon of basil" or something. It's more like ""basil...get the taste you want."  My problem was always that I didn't know how to get the taste I wanted...I wanted it to taste the same as my grandmother's cooking. 

The famous (infamous?) apple pie of Spring Break 2010.

Consequently, many of my graduate school attempts were complete failures.  But there was one day, over Spring Break, my second year of graduate school, that I think changed everything.  I decided to be culinarily adventurous (yes, I'm making culinarily a word). I decided to bake an apple pie. I followed the recipe perfectly for the dough. It didn't come out at all what I thought it should taste like, so I kept adding sugar, and flour, and water, and a pinch more of salt. Until I finally got it...I had so far completely deviated from the recipe that it was impossible to recollect what I put into the dough.

It was then that I understood how my grandmother cooks...it's not the food that makes a meal magical, it's the chef that infuses the spirit into the food.  This way of cooking, by taste, by instinct...it's become one of the things that I love most about cooking.  Creativity is not just in the presentation, it's in the way you personalize a recipe. 

There's a quote that I love: "A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe." (Thomas Keller)

Bringing soul to the recipe: this is how I have learned to cook. I look at a basic recipe, and then I always manage to tweak it. I rarely follow one strictly; a recipe is more like a guideline, a basic suggestion.  What you do with it, how you change it, how you make it your own...well, that's up to you.

Pasta and Garden Vegetable Tomato Sauce (with Sausage)

I've been slacking. It's not that I haven't been cooking; it's just that I haven't posted in a while. Admittedly, this recipe is from LAST WEEK. But life has been incredibly busy and hectic and here I am, a week later...

I'm Italian, and much of what I cook is based upon one thing: carbohydrates. Pasta. I eat a lot of pasta. I cook with a lot of pasta.  This recipe was no exception.  It was so easy to make.

Pasta and Garden Vegetable Tomato Sauce (with Sausage)

Ingredients

1/2 box of pasta (I used Ronzoni Garden Delight)

1 can of chopped tomato with extra puree

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 cup of mushrooms, chopped

3 turkey sausage links, sliced

2 cups of zucchini, sliced

1/2 cup red pearl onions

2 tbsp. olive oil

Basil

Salt and pepper

Oregano

1. Boil 4 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta. Cook as directed on box.  

2. Heat the olive oil and 1/2 of the minced garlic in a sauce pot. While heating, puree the chopped tomato in a blender. Add the pureed tomato to the sauce pot. Bring to a rapid boil.  

3. Spray a frying pan with cooking spray. Once heated, add the sliced turkey sausage to the pan, as well as the other half of the minced garlic.  Cook until golden brown.  Drain fat.

4. Set the sauce on medium heat, and add the sausage to the sauce. Season to taste with basil, salt, pepper, and oregano.

5. Chop the mushrooms and zucchini.  Saute them, as well as the onions, for 4-6 minutes, or until tender.  Add to the sauce. Cook on medium heat for 5 more minutes.

  

6. Enjoy!

PointsPlus value: 9 (makes 3 servings)