Fennel-Apple Pasta Salad/ Summer pasta salad

We are off to a summer picnic with friends and decided to make a cool summery pasta salad. I have always loved the concept of a good pasta salad but never liked the mayonnaise-filled-mess which seems to be so prevalent. Developed this recipe (obviously after some search on the internet) around the juicy, delicate fennel which I picked up at the Farmer’s market in Carrboro. Fennel and apple are a classic combination. I have added some dried fennel seeds to kick up the fennel flavor and some red chilli flakes for the heat at the end of the bite. I wish I could add something more to make the sald more colorful but the flavor of the fennel is so delicate that I am always worried about overwhelming the mild sweet licorice flavor.

4 cups boiled bow-tie or any short cut pasta

Below ingredients finely chopped –
½ apple
1 medium sized cucumber
1 medium sized tomato (deseeded, seeds make it watery)
1 banana pepper
A handful of Fennel fronds for garnish

Thin slivers of ½ a bulb of fennel

Roughly chopped almonds, a handful (the more the better for me!)
1 ½ teaspoon fennel seeds – lightly crushed to release the flavours
½ teaspoon red chilli flakes
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt

For the dressing –
1 ½ teaspoon mustard
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup good extra virgin olive oil

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and set aside. Let the boiled pasta cool to room temperature before you start building the salad. Mix all the veggies, almonds, fennel etc and toss in the salad dressing. Garnish with the fennel fronds.

Tiramisu

Saw this receipe on "David Rocco's Dolce Vita" and was surprised how simple it is to make tiramisu.  Decided to try and it and above are the pictures of our first attempt.

5 eggs

5 tbspoon sugar

250 grams / 8.8 oz Mascarpeno chesse

Lady fingers

Espresso/ strong coffee with good flavor

1/2 oz Vermouth

1/2 oz Amaretto

David's rule is 1 egg yolk for 1 tablespoon of sugar!

Start with separating the eggs really carefully.  To the yolks, add sugar and beat well until the sugar melts into the smooth golden yellow yolks.  Mix in the cheese in small batches and blend with the egg yolks and sugar. 

Beat the egg whites separately till they become fluffy and stiff.  This was the first time I was doing this and even with a electric beater, it took about 6-8 minutes. 

I had heard on food shows that steel bowls work the best for eggs, so I did mine in steel bowls, but glass bowls should work well too.  Once the egg whites are ready, fold them gently into the egg yolk mixture.  The cream filling for the tiramisu layers is done.

Next up, get the coffee ready in a small bowl.  A standard espresso maker should work, we just bought two shots of espresso and mixed in about 1/2 a cup of regular coffee along with the Vermouth and Amaretto.  Soak the lady fingers in coffee before layering them in a glass baking tray.  The lady fingers absorbed a lot of coffee fairly quickly, so a quick dip is enough.  Follow the layers of the cookies with cheese-egg mixtures.  Set it in the fridge for 4 hours and then top off with grated chocolate. 

Stuffed Banana Peppers - Italian style

For 2 portions

4 small banana peppers (choose small, straight for ease of filling)
2 tablespoons ricota cheese
2 teaspoons pesto (I used home made frozen pesto, store bought will do)
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup ground roasted cashewnuts (or whichever nut you like)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 finely chopped de-seeded serrano peppe
olive oil to make a tooth past consistency stuffing

Cut the top off from the pepper and patiently de-seed it through the small opening at the top.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients to make the stuffing.  Using a piping bag (small plastic bag with a corner cut), fill the peppers with the stuffing.  It takes some patience to push it all the way to the end.  I used the blunt end of a skewer to push the stuffing deeper.

Brush some oil and bake in an oven at 350C for 10-15 minutes.

Fifteen minute, kicked-up Pasta

(Post by Avani)

Although I love Italian food, it has taken me some time to warm up to anchovies and more so to start cooking with them. Decided to brave it and developed this simple recipe inspired from Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals show.

A small can of Anchovies fillet (6-7 small fillets), chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups store bought marinara sauce
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 pound pasta (spaghetti/penne whatever you like)
10 small meatballs (I used sun-dried tomato and basil chicken meatballs from Trader Joes. Guys, dont frown...its a fifteen minute, kicked-up pasta!!)
Parsley
Shredded Jarlsburg cheese
Chopped black olives (optional)

Heat olive oil in a shallow, wide pan. Once the oil starts to ripple (dont let it smoke though), add chopped anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli flakes. Its important to add the fish before the garlic...we are not going for the burnt garlic flavor here! Feel free to change the amount of anchovies/chiili flakes and garlic to suit your palate. Whisk the mixture with a fork gently and reduce the heat to low.

The anchovies will almost melt in the oil and aroma will fill up your kitchen. At this stage, add the sliced mushrooms, chopped olives and the pasta sauce. If you have some extra time on hand, use grilled mushrooms (400C for 15 minutes in a thin layer with a splash of olive oil). Once the sauce heats through, add the de-frosted chicken meatballs and pasta. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Remember, the pasta sauce is already well seasoned. Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley and grated cheese. I chose jarlsburg for its creamy, milky, neutral taste to cut through the strong anchovy flavor.

I have to admit that I am a convert now. Anchovies are yummy and if used in the right proportion, they will give a lot of depth to your sauce.

Fifteen minute kicked-up Pasta

(Post by Avani)

Although I love Italian food, it has taken me some time to warm up to anchovies and more so to start cooking with them. Decided to brave it and developed this simple recipe inspired from Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals show.

A small can of Anchovies fillet (6-7 small fillets), chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups store bought marinara sauce
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 pound pasta (spaghetti/penne whatever you like)
10 small meatballs (I used sun-dried tomato and basil chicken meatballs from Trader Joes.  Guys, dont frown...its a fifteen minute, kicked-up pasta!!)
Parsley
Shredded Jarlsburg cheese
Chpped black olives (optional)

Heat olive oil in a shallow, wide pan. Once the oil starts to ripple (dont let it smoke though), add chopped anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli flakes. Its important to add the fish before the garlic...we are not going for the burnt garlic flavor here! Feel free to change the amount of anchovies/chiili flakes and garlic to suit your palate. Whisk the mixture with a fork gently and reduce the heat to low.

The anchovies will almost melt in the oil and aroma will fill up your kitchen. At this stage, add the sliced mushrooms, chopped olives and the pasta sauce. If you have some extra time on hand, use grilled mushrooms (400C for 15 minutes in a thin layer with a splash of olive oil). Once the sauce heats through, add the de-frosted chicken meatballs and pasta. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Remember, the pasta sauce is already well seasoned. Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley and grated cheese. I chose jarlsburg for its creamy, milky, neutral taste to cut through the strong anchovy flavor.

I have to admit that I am a convert now. Anchovies are yummy and if used in the right proportion, they will give a lot of depth to your sauce.

"Aged Parmasean Chesse and Fennel" Meatball soup

Picked up the meatballs at Whole Foods and decided to make soup since it was freezing outside. Wasnt impressed with the soup recipes I found online and wanted to keep the meatballs at the centre of attention, so I built this recipe in my head. Warning to cooks who follow recipes - strong chance that I dont do a good job with the measurements. Am not a person who follows protocols, do enough of that at work, so in the kitch its all eye-balling. And in my opinion, soup is something where anything goes.....to an extent that is!

Vegetable/Chicken stock
Meatballs (Aged Parmasean and Fennel chicken meatballs from Whole Foods)
Red Onion
Olive oil
Garlic
Green Chilly
Bay leaf
Carrots
Fennel seeds
White wine
Tomato Paste
Whole/ Skim Milk
Bow-tie or any short cut pasta


Heat some olive oil in a deep pot and saute a small red onion, 2 big cloves of garlic and one jalapeno pepper cut into 2 big slices. I left the garlic cloves intact. Once the onion was brown, I fished out the garlic and the pieces of chilly to keep the flavor mild. Add 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds, 1 cup finely chopped carrots, one bay leaf and 1/2 cup of frozen white corn kernels. You can also add celery at this stage but am not a big fan and was also worried about the strong celery flavor masking the fennel. Stir and let the carrots cook for about a couple of minutes. Then add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and mix well while stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes. Once the tomato paste has cooked, add 3/4 cup of white wine to pick up all the flavor and let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Next add 5 cups of stock, vegetable or chicken. We had a home made begetable stock made from brocolli and cilantro stems, carrots and asparagus. You can also heat up the stock separately before adding to the soup, that will reduce the cooking time considerably. Once the stock simmers, add 8 meatballs and 3 fistfuls of pasta. The cooking time beyond this point will vary depending on the pasta you have used. As the pasta is cooking, add about a 1/2 to 1 cup of milk. Garnish with parsley and more fennel seeds.

Eggplant Parmigiana

This was cooked by my wife as it's a favourite of my dad's.  My god it is yummy! Me an person who hates eggplant can't eat enough of this stuff.   In picture is some Fettuccine with parsley and olive oil, a chicken cutlet and the eggplant parm with some sauce on the side.

Reference for Parmigiana:  wikipedia entry, commonly found in Italian restaurants and amongst the wife's favorite Italian  dishes. 

Ingredients:

 1 big Italian eggplant

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Garlic

Jalapeno peppers

Onion

Parsley

Crushed tomato

Vodka

Heavy cream

All-purpose flour

Eggs

Italian breadcrumbs

Olive oil

Cut the eggplant into quarter inch thick slices, sprinkle salt and pepper and let it rest for a couple of hours, so the the excess water comes off.  Set up three dishes with all-purpose-flour + salt + pepper, beaten egg +salt + pepper and Italian breadcrumbs + Parmesan cheese powder in sequence.  Flour the eggplant slices followed by egg wash and breadcrumbs and shallow-fry in a pan containing moderately hot olive oil.  Repeat the process with all the slices.

Vodka sauce: This is not a typical marinara sauce which seems to accompany a lot of eggplant Parmesan dishes.

Mince or finely chop 4 large cloves of garlic (can use less as per liking) and 1 jalapeno pepper (can remove seeds to reduce heat).  Saute in olive oil for a half to one minute.  Do not let the gralic turn brown, else the flavor will be too strong.  Add one big finely chopped onion and saute for 15-20 minutes till the onion turns light to medium brown.  Follow this with one cup of crushed tomatoes and saute for another 15-20 minutes till the tomatoes lose their raw taste.  To this, add a cup of vodka and stir for a couple of minutes till most of the alcohol evaporates followed by 2/3rd cup of heavy cream.  Season the sauce with salt/pepper and parsley according to taste.

Assembling the dish: I personally do not like to smother my eggplant in too much sauce so the whole thing become a mess.  Instead, I assembled it as a sandwich.  On a slice of eggplant, smear some sauce and a mixture of grated mozzarella and powdered Parmesan cheese and top with another slice of eggplant.  Make a stack of three eggplant slices and top with some more cheese.  Bake the eggplant "sandwiches" in the oven at 400C for 5-7 minutes or broil. Garnish with parsley!

Mario Batali Otto Enoteca

We went on the first night in NYC to Otto Enoteca - a casual dining joint by Mario Batali.  An easy walk from the Subway station - we'd used  the A,C, E line and gotten out in miserable weather.  We used the handy Google Directions to guide us and ended up walking in a circle to get to the Restaurant.  This is a busy place that is buzzing with energy.  Lots of people, rucus atmosphere and looks like a good time.  We get seated at a table which is in a row of tables - two seaters that are right next to each other.
At this point the waiter brings us what he says are breadsticks -they are in a package (like store bought) upon opening the package (which is an italian brand) theres two thin (straw thin ness) sticks that are crispy.. hmmm I am thinking this isn't a great start. Then I look a the menu - there's three pages of wines and 1 page of food.
The food is divided up into Appetizers which are further divided into several sections some being salads, meats (cured meats), and some small plates.  The entrees are divided into pastas and pizza.  Otto Menu is quite interesting and words fool you into thinking these are simple plates - don't be fooled.
We ordered the appetizer of 'Shrimp, Ceci, Chilis'.  I thought this is kind of odd - but the dish was faboulous - extremely tasty.  The shrimp were perfectly cooked - we  found out they were poached with ginger.  A very simple but extremely flavourful dish consisting of ginger and chili flavours with offcourse fresh olive oil.  We'll definitely have to try this at home.

For the Entrees we ordered Spaghetti Alla Carbonara and Pizza Romana.  All dishes were flavourful.  The Spaghetti was strongly flavoured with Pancetta and the Pizza Romana was a pizza with a putenesca flavour. This way we got two classic italian flavours in pizza and pasta.  Both dishes hit the spot and I was willing to come to this place again the next night. 

 After having such an amazing appetizer and entrees I had to go for a desert and the menu again didn't disappoint.  The desert was pricier when compared to the entree but heck how many times are we going to be in NYC on my birthday?   For desert we had the Olive oil gelato with Lemon sorbetto, Lemon curd and Candied anise.  It also had an almond flavoured wafer, a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds and tangerines - Good lord this was an amzaing party in the mouth.  The olive oil gelato was creamy and smooth and the lemon curd and lemon sorbetto were a perfect pairing to cut through the sweet creamy texture of the gelato - this made the gelato great till the last spoonful and didn't overpower you with the creamy sweetness.

 

Two thumbs up for Otto Enoteca! A definite must go in NYC - value for money and AMAZZING FOOD.