Mediterranean Orecchiette, Cooked Risotto-Style

How great is Groupon, right?


I came across a Groupon for Fox & Obel the other day, and my fellow Chicagoans know that it's an amazing gourmet market located conveniently (dangerously?) close to my office. As if I needed another excuse to shop there, the Groupon provided me the perfect opportunity to browse the shop and pick up a few things I needed. One of the produce treasures I came across was a pack of "heirloom peppers." I had no idea if they were going to be sweet or spicy, but I am not one to turn down a pepper of any variety, and certainly not an heirloom edition.


As it turned out, they were a variety of red bell peppers, but their thin flesh made them crisper and much sweeter than your average red pepper. They also had an intriguing, elongated shape, reminiscent of Cubanelles. If you happen to find them in your local market, definitely pick some up. They're a nice change of pace.


Among the other things I found at Fox and Obel was a box of Italian orecchiette, one of my favorite pasta shapes, but it's not always available at the regular supermarket. With a few other treats I had around, I had the perfect beginnings for a pasta dish, and I had been wanting to try cooking it risotto-style ever since I saw Mark Bittman do it on his blog a few months ago.


It's exactly what it sounds like - you add dry pasta to a base of oil and butter, and gradually add liquid while stirring, just like risotto - only instead of arborio rice, you use a short pasta. Just like with the rice grains (but to a lesser extent), the pasta releases its glutens slowly, thickening the sauce you cook it in and creating a rich base - all without having to add anything but the broth.


Despite the fact that this blog's subtitle is "How To Wine and Dine Daringly," I almost never share with you my adventures in vino. What a shame! Consider this my first step toward a remedy. We enjoyed this wine (photo above) with dinner, and at about $8 a bottle at Treasure Island, it was an absolute steal! In fact, I may just wrap this up and have another sip or two...or three....

INGREDIENTS
Makes 4-6 servings

2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 heirloom red bell peppers, sliced, ribs and seeds removed
2 T. butter
~2 c. dried orecchiette pasta (or other small pasta, like shells or rotini)
zest and juice of one lemon
1 container (the box) low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes
fresh chopped thyme
fresh chopped oregano
1 can artichoke hearts, quartered (not packed in oil)
~1/2 cup frozen peas
handful olives, halved (use good quality black or green olives, or a combination)
~15 shrimp, cleaned, peeled, and deveined (if using frozen, thaw first)

STEP 1:

In a large Dutch oven or pot with lid, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper. Add a little salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook until beginning to soften. Add the butter and dried pasta. Stir unti the butter has melted and coated the pasta.

STEP 2:

Add the chicken broth about a cup at a time, stirring almost constantly (the chicken broth should be at a steady simmer). Add the rest of the ingredients except the peas and shrimp, and continue to add the broth and stir.

STEP 3:

Taste a piece of pasta. When it's just shy of al dente, add the shrimp and peas and the rest of the chicken broth, stir, and cover. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are cooked through and the pasta is tender but not mushy. Adjust seasonings if neccessary. Serve and enjoy!

Eat well and enjoy life, friends! More soon...

Maple-Honey Peanut Butter Oatmeal

I so rarely share with you the simple things I make.


But I should. Because most people don't cook with an average of 15 ingredients per meal. Most of us just want simple ways to enhance the things we love to eat. And because I love to eat oatmeal, I wanted to share with you oatmeal my way.


This is so much more filling (not to mention unprocessed) than those cloyingly sweet instant oatmeal packets (although you could start with 2 packets of plain instant oatmeal and turn it into this recipe if those were all you had around). The protein from the peanut butter will keep you full, and the fiber in the oatmeal is what makes it such a heart-healthy breakfast option.


If you use quick oats and have the basic ingredients on hand, you can even whip this up before work -as long as you don't mind opening a few jars in your morning haze. This is the kind of hearty morning meal that won't leave your tummy rumbling by 10:15 AM. And I think we could all use a little more energy in the mornings.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup water
1/2 cup steel-cut quick-cooking oats (or any quick oats)
pinch of salt
1 tsp. butter
~1 tsp. natural maple syrup
~1 tsp. honey
~1 T. natural peanut butter
freshly grated cinnamon (or jarred cinnamon)

STEP 1:

In a small pot, bring the water to a boil. Stir in the oats and reduce heat to a simmer.

STEP 2:

Stir in the rest of the ingredients except the cinnamon and cook until it's creamy - about 5 minutes.

STEP 3:

Transfer to a bowl and top with the grated cinnamon. Enjoy!

Recession: Party of One - Cabbage & Apple Saute with Kielbasa

Hunger will make you do crazy things...like lick the mayo knife, eat leftover croissants in the office kitchen that are clearly past their prime, and, ahem, start obsessive cooking blogs on which you hang your every future hope and secret dream.


And sometimes, hunger will inspire you to create something that is so utterly ridiculous, it actually comes out delectable. And that, my friends, would be the case this evening.

I had a minor fiasco at PetSmart (not worth recounting) which sent me far out of the way for cat food for my (very hungry) kitty. On the way home, I considered stopping at every take-out place I passed, and even started fantasizing about a char-dog from you-know-where. Only the drive to write this kept me going the (excruciating) 5 or 6 blocks home.

This dish is exemplary of "what-the-hell" cooking. For those of you not familiar with the technique, it's when - blinded by ravenousness - you keep seeing things in your refrigerator that you feel compelled to chop and add to your skillet.

Hence, my inner monologue went something like this:

"I still have that half a cabbage...it's like that cabbage is neverending...almost magical. And I have a little more butternut squash...and that half an apple that's wrapped in plastic...ooh! And kielbasa! More kielbasa than Poland ever DREAMED of! That could be good...maybe I'll just put it all in a skillet. Oh, and - should I serve it with a fried egg over the top? Ah, what the hell."

May I present the fruits of my (stream-of-consciousness as well as my) labor:

CABBAGE & APPLE SKILLET WITH KIELBASA AND A FRIED EGG

I'd like to tell myself that this is something that would pique my interest on the cover of Bon Appetit, but rather, I can only chalk it up to temporary hunger-induced insanity.

INGREDIENTS

1/3 kielbasa, cut into thin slices
1/5 head of red cabbage, thinly sliced
1/3 of an apple (any kind), cut into small chunks
1/4 of a butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into small chunks
juice of half a lemon
1 egg
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
salt and pepper
fresh thyme leaves

STEP ONE:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the squash and apples in a single layer in the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and allow to sit in the pan without stirring for a few minutes, until they're starting to get some color (don't be a wimp - let them get brown edges). Stir them around until they begin to get tender.

STEP TWO:

Add the cabbage to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes, then add the lemon juice and thyme. Cook for a few more minutes, until the cabbage is crisp-tender. Remove the mixture from heat, leaving the pan on, and keep warm.



STEP THREE:

Add the kielbasa to the pan in a sigle layer, and let the first side get nice and crisp and dark. Flip each piece and cook on the other side. Remove from pan and drain excess fat on a paper towel. Leave a little grease in the pan, and return to heat. Crack an egg in the pan and fry for a couple minutes on each side, until the white is set and browning at the edges, but the yolk is still runny.



STEP FOUR:

Place some cabbage mix on a plate, top with the sausage, then top with the egg. Enjoy!

This dish may seem a bit bizarre at first (and I PROMISE, this will be the last of the cabbage-and-squash posts), but it actually did have some root in classic flavors; cabbage and apples are often cooked together, and both of those things are served frequently with kielbasa (it's a very Polish-food-inspired dish). The fried egg, admittedly, was a last-minute addition, but I think it actually did work.

It was a good meal - not the best meal, maybe not even a great meal, but a good one. It was arguably healthful (I ate about half of what I cooked) - high in protein, with lots of flavorful veggies to round it out. Kielbasa is by no stretch of the imagination a lean meat - it is sausage, after all, but a lot of the fat cooks out in the pan, and if you drain it, it becomes a lot better for you.

If I were to change this meal in the future, I'd actually cut the kielbasa into little dices, rather than slices - like pancetta - and cook it during the last few minutes of the cabbage saute. In fact, this meal would be glorious with pancetta in place of the sausage - or even regular old bacon. As for the fried egg, it gave it a really earthy, rustic taste and feel; it just made it rich and filling, in a good way. I can even see modifying the dish a bit and serving it for brunch.

And lest we forget, it's time for the PARTY OF ONE PRICE INDEX!

KIELBASA: 49 cents
CABBAGE: 44 cents
BUTTERNUT SQUASH: 36 cents
APPLE: 28 cents
LEMON: 50 cents

I got about one and a half servings out of this, which brings our per-serving GRAND TOTAL to...

$1.38

Frugally delicious.

If there is a moral to this post, it would be that standing in front of the glow of the fridge and saying to oneself, "What the hell," can really pay off. I'd like to think that that's what the world's best chefs do, on occasion. (But maybe only when they're really, really, hungry.)

Thanks for reading! More soon...