Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Hop on the merry-go-round

October 6, 2011 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

So I’ve been cooking up a storm for four and a half years now, ever since my kids have grown, I don’t have help at home and we’ve moved back to the city which took place all at the same time. I will admit, as much as I’ve always loved to cook and always cooked up fancy 3-4 course meals on the weekends, this cooking every night business took some getting used to. This week, my son Zach (23) offered to cook on Wednesday, last night. Great!! I figured he’d do a simple ok dinner and I’d make a fuss about how wonderful it was, and be oh so appreciative of simply having an evening in which to get some other things done, like laundry and sewing a hook on a pair of pants.

Well let me tell you about his dinner!! At first he was going to make Chicken Cacciatore but then when we came home, he had the most beautiful boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a pan starting to brown, stuffed with mushrooms and goat cheese, each tied up beautifully in three areas with thin little string. They were so beautiful, I wanted to cry. He had decided on a Food and Wine recipe he found online.

Now let me tell you about the taste. He learned this weekend from a James Beard recipe where he was making a duxelles sauce, to squeeze the moisture out of the mushrooms. So he chopped the mushrooms for tonight, then put them through the garlic press to get all the moisture out and wow – it made for a truly rich, rich mushroomy taste that was divine!! The goat cheese added creamyness (I’m never going to lose weight) that was just yummy. He served this with steamed Basmati rice and sauteed dandelion greens with olive oil, garlic and lemon. My husband even told him that his dinner was like one of mine.

So you see, the love you put out always comes back to you tenfold. Cook! Spread the love to encourage others to as well.

Easy Friday night shrimp salad

October 1, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

This is something I threw together last evening and it was great!! I love warm cooking juices on a chilled lettuce salad, and you don’t feel stuffed after this dinner. It is clean and light – much better for you. We served it with a chilled White Bordeaux and it was very good, but a Vouvray or Sauvignon Blanc might be better.

EASY FRIDAY NIGHT SHRIMP SALAD – serves 2
5 large green leaf lettuce leaves
10 small hearts of romaine lettuce leaves
3 small patty pan squash, cut in chunks
1 medium onion, sliced in 1/4 “ slices, cut in half
3 tbs. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 1/4 “ slice of pancetta, cut in 1/8” squares
2 dried red chili peppers, minced with seeds, no stem
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 – 16 oz. can cannellini beans, drained
1 lb. large shrimp, shelled and de-veined, preferable with the tails on
2 small green zebra tomatoes, quartered
1 small red heirloom tomato, cut in eighths

SALAD DRESSING
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
French grey salt
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk together mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Slowly add olive oil by droplets and whisk until emulsified.

Wash, spin dry, and chill all the lettuce leaves. Tear into bite size pieces.

Warm 1.5 tbs. olive oil in a skillet, add onions, cover and let sweat on low heat for 15 – 20 minutes. Uncover and raise heat to medium, add squash. Toss and cook until crisp tender. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.

Wash (at least 3 times) and pat dry shrimp. Salt and pepper one side

Meanwhile, in another skillet, warm remaining 1.5 tbs. of olive oil, add garlic and sauté on low heat for 5 minutes. Add diced pancetta and cook for 10 minutes or so. Raise heat to medium, add white wine and chili peppers. Let wine cook down by one-half, add drained beans and cook for 3 minutes. Add shrimp and toss until pink on both sides. Remove from heat.

Divide lettuce up on 2 dinner plates, spoon out squash and onion mixture on top. Top with shrimp and bean mixture. Arrange tomatoes in a circular fashion on top, drizzle on salad dressing and serve immediately. You may not use all of the shrimp and bean mixture or salad dressing. I didn’t. They make great leftovers and you will use them later.

Correctable mistakes

September 29, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

We all make mistakes. And fortunately, some can be fixed.

I happen to love salt, And I like to only use French grey salt, which has so much more flavor than Kosher or regular sea salts. My husband and one son are not big on salt whereas my oldest is more like me.

So the other night I was fixing a pan of cauliflower, olive oil, salt and pepper to roast in the oven. In preparing it, I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been and I immediately knew I over salted. And my husband HATES that. I could already hear the coming comments.

So what to do? When the cauliflower was done, I pulled the pan out and lifted each piece of cauliflower out with tongs – no scraping of the olive oil and all that salt with a spatula to put on the platter. No no.Then I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over all.

It worked! No comments from the peanut gallery. They ate it all up!

Too rich

September 28, 2011 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Last night I made April Bloomfield’s recipe of Lyon-Style Chicken with Vinegar Sauce and her suggested Herbed Steamed Rice recipe that’s in the October edition of Food & Wine magazine. It was scrumptious……. but boy was it rich and fattening! I just don’t usually cook like this. Actually, at The Breslin, one of April’s restaurants here in NYC, I can only eat a half of her lamb burger. And don’t let me fool you, I can eat. So I took a look at these recipes. Six tablespoons of butter for both, plus 3 tablespoons of olive oil and no draining of the chicken fat plus a quarter cup of creme fraiche. Well I was originally going to cut back on everything and then I thought, no. I’ll make it this one time her way. Well my husband and Zach loved it and I did too but it was just way too rich in the end. I felt the fat cells expanding on my hips as I was eating, and believe me, they do not need to do that.

This is the thing. My cooking is full of flavor, clean and relatively low fat – meaning I really don’t use much butter. My big flavors come from lots of garlic, onions and all kinds of fresh herbs. I hope I can convince you that cooking this fresh way is not hard, gives you beautiful colors to play with and spreads your love to everyone around you, even in a healthy way!

Amazing lamb ragu

September 26, 2011 by Mary Frances 5 Comments

This dish is scrumptious!!! You have got to try it and see the look of love on the faces of your eaters!! Comforting and bursting with flavor, it’s a perfect Fall dish. This is the kind of dish that makes you want to crawl right inside of it, cuddle up and sigh. Really. And it’s quick, easy and special enough for guests!

PASTA WITH CREAMY LAMB RAGU & MINT
– serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground lamb
1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand, with liquid
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pound dried penne pasta or Girelle as pictured
2 – 3 tbs. fresh chopped mint (or parsley if you don’t have mint)
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Warm olive oil in a medium skillet and turn heat to low. A minute later, add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it becomes translucent, about 10 – 12 minutes. Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for pasta and salt it.

When onion is ready, add lamb and garlic to skillet and cook, stirring to break up any clumps, until all traces of red are gone, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and their juice to lamb mixture, then adjust heat so it simmers briskly, constantly. The sauce should thicken.

Put pasta in boiling water and cook to al dente – usually 1-2 minutes less than package directions.

Taste and salt and pepper your sauce. Take the sauce off the heat, add cream, stirring completely. When pasta is done, drain well, toss it with sauce, some grated Pecorino Romano cheese and half the mint or parsley. Sprinkle the remaining chopped mint or parsley on top to finish the dish. Pass more cheese at the table.

Lamb ragu with Girelle in a bowl with grated Romano cheese and cracked black pepper.

With more grated Pecorino Romano cheese and cracked black pepper

Polenta

September 23, 2011 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

After trying to make polenta numerous ways – in a pot, in the oven, with milk, with water, with a combo of milk and water, adding the cornmeal gradually, using the different grinds of cornmeal, I have decided that this is the best way for me – the way my family and I like it best. I hope you agree. This is really a combination of Mark Bittman (making the slurry part), the book HEAT (cooking a long time) and the Dean & Deluca cookbook (my first polenta recipe used). So here we go.

POLENTA – serves 4
1.5 cups coarse ground cornmeal – I use Stone-Ground Organic Fancy Polenta from Hudson Valley
5-6 cups water, or more
1 tsp. salt, plus more if necessary
Fresh ground black pepper
1.5 tbs. unsalted butter
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan

Pour 1 cup of water in a pan, whisk in all the cornmeal and make a slurry, then whisk in 4 more cups of water with 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, stirring every once in a while. Reduce heat to a simmer. You should have large bubble plops every so often. The polenta will look alive and be slow moving in its simmer. Add more water if it gets too thick. Stir every so often with a whisk to prevent burning on the bottom and use a spatula to scrape the sides of the pan. Simmer for 45 minutes or longer. It should be pulling away from the sides of the pan and taste it to make sure the cornmeal is done and tender. Add more salt if necessary. When done, add a liberal grinding of pepper. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and then the cheese.