May 2010 Archives

As much as I like to cook and make elaborate meals I often battle with an internal urge to be a lazy cook.  That is to say, like most working adults, I try to balance cooking great, from scratch, meals with the amount of time I spend in the kitchen.  When I'm feeling tired and do not want to cook or clean up, I reach for some homemade or store bought crostoni (basically toast cut a bit thicker than normal) and pile on whatever condiments I have in the fridge.  Crostoni are great as a light meal or as appetizers for a dinner party.  

The crostoni I prepared recently included:

- A corn relish made with red onion, corn, parsley, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and a splash of lemon juice

- Roasted peppers (see my recipe here)

- Good, thick cut, Jarlsberg cheese.

I enjoyed the crostoni with a few glasses of cold Prosecco (you can substitute Spanish Cava for Prosecco, if you'd like <especially, in the spirit of tapas!>). 

 

(photo: left to right eggplant/feta/parsley, cheese and tomato sauce, red onion and mushroom lavash pizza)

I love stumbling onto new food items. In fact, I encourage folks to pick up a few random items at their local market and try new recipes from time to time.  One such recent food stumble included a package of Lavash bread at a local bread shop.  I'd seen Lavash as a kid (at my Armenian and Turkish friends' homes) but the flatbread always took a second seat to a crunchy baguette or pane Pugliese.  

I prepared our 500 grams of Rustichella Strozzapreti with tomato sauce and then added some finely chopped mozzarella.  I didn't bake the dish, but rather stirred the ingredients in our serving dish (this is a nice alternative to baked pasta).  

The pasta served as a primo, followed by some Niman Ranch sausage sautéed with lots of onions and parsley and a romaine salad with some locally made Greek Feta cheese.
  

In southern Italy, Orecchiette are made by way of wheat flour and the traditional method includes pressing down on dime sized pieces of dough to get the familiar dome shape.  

I prepared (well, my wife prepared) our Rustichella Orecchiette dish with brocolli, white mushrooms, and red onion.  The pasta was tossed with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (staple condiments for the Scordo Pasta Challenge).  

OK, so you know how sometimes you find a new love, maybe you start playing tennis on a given weekend in the Spring and have a realization about how invigorating it feels to drive a crisp forehand over the net or maybe, on a whim, you decide to try the local Sushi place and realize how nice raw salmon tastes with a bit of soy sauce?  Well, that level of enjoyment, across a wide variety of experiences, is just how far most folks go with a given hobby or interest (and for most things that's far enough); but what about a topic or interest like wine?  Should you, as a casual drinker, merely "play" on the periphery or should you really dive in and become a pro?  

Wine, I will argue, should not just be a weekend hobby or "corner store" type of thing (don't settle for that smelly shop around the block from you that happens to sell beer, wine, and peanuts).  Wine deserves more of your attention and more of your brain's processing time!  For example, let's just take how wine experts "taste" wine.  The wine expert usually assesses a wine on a couple of different fronts, beginning with:

- Aroma

- Taste

- Mouth Feel

On the taste front, the expert assesses what's happening in his or her mouth across three different ranges:

- Attack

- Mid palette

- Finish

If you've seen Sideways, for example, you know that Paul Giamatti is a lover of Pinot Noir because a good example of the varietal has a very long finish (the range that most wine drinkers appreciate most - it's the last thing that happens in your mouth, after all).

Wines like Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon all have very strong beginning taste as well as strong finishing characteristics.

Lately, I've been drinking lots of wine from the Mendoza Region of Argentina called Malbec.  Many "wine experts" believe Malbec has a weak finish and a strong mid palette and they are probably correct, however some experts use the way the wine behaves in the mouth (especially at the end of the tasting) to downgrade a wine.  I don't think this should be the case, after all you wouldn't judge a man's outfit simply via the tie he is wearing, you would probably have a look at his shoes, touch the fabric, and maybe even look at the quality of his dress shirt.  So, the same should hold true for a wine, in turn here are some wine tasting tips:

2. Don't just be influenced by the "attack" and "finish" stages, think about: Beginning, Mid, and Finish

3. Remember, it's not just about taste, swirl your glass to get the aromas going and take short, quick sniffs of the wine (a long sniff is going to quickly die out, so keep that glass swirling and take many short sniffs).  What do you smell?

4. Use your memory when you smell and think of things in past that smell like the wine (don't say cherry, tobacco, lemon zest); be more creative and honest, what do you really smell, if you don't smell anything that's ok, as you taste and smell more wine you'll begin to notice the subtleties).

5. Forget about "mouth feel" and "color" when you've just started to take wine seriously.

So, drink what you like but take risks and experiment with different wine regions and price points.  

I recently cooked up a batch of cheese ravioli from a local pasta company called Vitamia for the Scordo Pasta Challenge (hey, the Challenge is a special occasion!) and served the pasta with a mushroom (shitake) tomato sauce and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.  

Three cheers to the king of pasta - the mighty ravioli!

(thanks to the A Beautiful Mosaic blog for the photo.)

I view roasted peppers as the ultimate condiment; that is to say, you can include roasted peppers in your antipasto, sandwich, as a side with grilled meats, or even include them in your favorite grilled cheese sandwich or omelet.  Sound tasty; then stop buying the jarred stuff and make them at home!

- 5-6 large red or yellow bell peppers (green peppers tend to be tougher and contain less flavor in my opinion)

- 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil

- bunch of parsley or basil (if it's the summer use basil)

- dried oregano, salt, and pepper to taste.

- 1 clove of garlic

Start witf the large red bell peppers and char the peppers over an open flame (in the winter you can accomplish this right on your gas stove top <just place the pepper right on the grate!>, in the summer it's nice to char right on the barbecue).

You'll want to cook the peppers until they are fully black or singed.  You'll also want to make sure the peppers are nice and soft, if the pepper is still hard to the touch you'll need to continue roasting.

Remove the peppers from the heat source and let cool for 5-10 minutes.  DO NOT USE WATER to remove the charred skin.  Simply use your hands to get rid of the blackened skin, you shouldn't have a problem with this step if you cooked the peppers long enough (and a little bit of black skin will not kill you).  The pepper will still be hot when you begin peeling so resist the urge to use cold water (if you become a serious cook you'll eventually develop "Nonna hands" and be impervious to hot things in the kitchen <you'll be able to pick up hot pans without oven mitts and stir soup with your bare hands - just joking on the latter>).  You can place the charred peppers in a brown bag once they come off the heat (let them sit for 10-15 minutes and the skin should fall off the pepper).  

Next remove the stems and seeds (you will want to remove as many as the seeds as possible).  Cut the peppers into long 1/4 inch strips and place in a container that can store in the fridge (with a top). 

Add the olive oil, parsley, dried oregano, salt and pepper, and finely chopped garlic and mix well.  Let sit for about an hour and enjoy (the peppers should marinate before consuming).  Red peppers store well and they keep in the fridge for well over a week. 

(photo: finished product!)