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What to do?

September 14, 2011 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

I had a craving for some gnocchi. The weather is getting cooler and gnocchi is so warm and comforting – yummy. So that’s what I wanted for dinner and I knew we should have fish – too much meat already this week. So I ask my husband what he feels like eating and he says, “Well shrimp is always good.” He loves shrimp

Hmmmm, I ‘m thinking, Shrimp and gnocchi? I was intending something more like salmon with gnocchi as a side dish. And then I have these snowpeas that need to be used. So here’s what I did.

Everyone LOVED it!

I hope you like it too.

GNOCCHI WITH SHRIMP & SNOWPEAS
1 tbs. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 large leeks, white and very light green parts only, thoroughly washed and cleaned (slice in half lengthwise and wash all layers, then thinly slice half circles
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 Thai red chili pepper minced with seeds
½ large red pepper cut in thin long strips and then cut in half again, OR: use the 3 tops left over from your stuffed peppers
¼ cup dry vermouth
12 oz. snowpeas, cleaned
11/2 lb. large shrimp, peeled & deveined with tails left on
1 lb. gnocchi
2 tbs. chopped fresh parsley

Set a large pot of salted water on to boil for the gnocchi. Use coarse sea salt for the water.

Warm the olive oil on low heat, add leeks and garlic, cover and sweat for 10 – 12 minutes. The onion and garlic will get sweet and soft, stir every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t brown. Raise heat to medium and add vermouth and let bubble for 1 – 2 minutes, then add tomatoes and red pepper and let cook for 10 more minutes while you wash your shrimp (3 times), dry and salt and pepper one side. Add cleaned snow peas and sauté for 3 – 5 minutes, then add shrimp and toss and cook until just done and they have turned pink, about 3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste Meanwhile, cook your gnocchi in the boiling water, drain. Combine with shrimp mixture, garnish with chopped parsley.

Now I know the next night I want to make my version of a Mark Bittman recipe of pasta with a Tuscan duck sauce, but the duck takes 1.5 hours to cook so I decide to buy the duck and cook it tonight while I’m cooking this dinner and it’s easy. You just need to plan it.

Trim all the visible fat from 3 duck legs and thighs. Wash and pat dry. Put them skin side down in a non-stick skillet and turn heat to medium. When they start to sizzle, cover and turn heat to low for 60 -65 minutes, or until skin is crisp. Check every so often to make sure they are not burning. When skin is crisp, turn over and cook, covered for another 20 – 25 minutes or so, until very tender. Remove duck, cool and refrigerate. Scrape cooled duck fat into another container and refrigerate.

Sunday Night Stuffed Peppers

September 12, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

When I was a little girl, my mother made stuffed peppers as a special weeknight dinner. I always loved them and I’m not a green pepper fan. So I decided to try to recreate her recipe and use a combination of red and green peppers to stuff. (It’s an early Christmas!) I have all of her recipes, but I must admit, she’s been gone since 1995 and I have not ventured to try to find it. She was a wee bit organized but not much. I am terrible at keeping some sort of sense of my mass of recipes. (How should you categorize – main ingredient or meal part or when you served it?) Luckily I have a good memory (so far!) and there’s always the internet and online sources to go back to.

So I made this one up to the best of my memory of hers. My family thought I did a great job. I remember my Mom used to put an extra dab of tomato sauce (she used Hunt’s!) on top of the meat mixture in the peppers. I opted to put the cheese. I think here it’s better as the tomato sauce in the meat mixture is so rich with the wine, extra is not needed. I think she would think so too.

You let me know what you think.

SUNDAY NIGHT STUFFED PEPPERS – serves 4 – 6
2 tbs. olive oil
1 medium-large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes, hand crushed, with juices
2 tsp. dried Greek oregano
10 thyme springs, leaves only
½ cup dry red wine
1+ lb. bulk sweet Italian sausage
1+ lb. bulk hot Italian sausage
¼ cup chopped parsley leaves
3 tbs. chopped tarragon leaves
½ -3/4 cup cooked white basmati rice
6 large peppers, red or green or a combo
9 tbs. grated parmesan cheese
1- 11/2 cups chicken broth

Pre-heat oven to 350 degree

Warm the olive oil on low heat, add onion and garlic, cover and sweat for 15 minutes. The onion and garlic will get sweet and soft, stir every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t brown. Add tomatoes and juices, oregano and thyme, raise heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add red wine and simmer for 15 more minutes until sauce is thickened. Salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, sauté the sausage meat together, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until all pink is gone. Line a large platter with 3 layers of paper towels. When meat is cooked, spread it out on the paper towels to drain the grease.

Prepare peppers. Wash and cut off the tops. Remove the stem, wrap in plastic and save for another use. Remove the seeds from the peppers so you have nice hallowed- out cups.

When the sauce is thickened, remove from heat and fold in the cooked rice, parsley and tarragon. Add the drained meat and combine well. Fill the peppers with this mixture and stand them upright in a baking pan. Top each pepper meat mixture with 1.5 tbs. grated parmesan cheese. Pour chicken broth in the bottom of the pan to a depth of 3/8” – ½”. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 35 minutes. Remove and serve.

Enjoy!!!

You have to love it

September 11, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

I am convinced, that in order to be a great cook, you have to make something you love, to be able to put love into it and serve fantastic food. You have to be excited to eat what you are cooking. I am fortunate in that my family members are foodies. They pretty much like everything, except for Zach, who does not like fruit, except for apples. Don’t ask me why. But he does love this curry shrimp appetizer dish that I make with a mango dipping sauce. He doesn’t know it’s mango chutney in there. (hope he’s not reading this) And the older one will even eat pigs feet and sweetbreads!

But seriously, you are what you eat and you have to like what you cook. So when I’m trying to figure out what to make for dinner, sometimes I imagine myself reading a restaurant menu, trying to figure out what would appeal to me and then I go make it. I always buy what looks luscious and then figure out what to do with it later. I also cook by color – the plate must look great too. After all, I am a designer and a painter.

Food appeals to you on at least 3 levels – sight, smell and taste. Make those work to the best of your advantage. Always buy red peppers and tomatoes – you’ll probably need a little red during the week!

However, I must admit, there are two foods I cannot muster any excitement for – collard greens and kasha. Kasha tastes like little pieces of cardboard and collard greens – to be able to chew them – you have to cook them until they’re this lurid color of green that I just can’t stomach.

I am open to any ideas though.

Smells

September 10, 2011 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Our offices were located downtown near the towers at One Wall Street Court at the time. While our building was unharmed and all of our employees safe, we were not allowed in to the building or area for a full week. With all the horror with what happened down there, two things stick in my mind. The smell of burning flesh, plastics and toxins, and how long that lasted – about a year for me. It was acrid and burning in your nostrils. (I have an acute sense of smell which is sometimes not a very good thing. I had sinus surgery years ago to relive migraine headaches, which it didn’t do but it left me with this.) After about two weeks, if you were on the upper East or West side, it was as if nothing happened! While us downtowners dealt with everything for many many months. They are still dealing with it. I urge you to read Frank Rich’s article in New York Magazine – Day’s End – published Aug. 27.

I pray that nothing happens this weekend, with the heightened alerts from possible terrorists attacks again, which we all learned about on Thursday. The police are everywhere in Manhattan.

In 2006, we traveled to India. My husband was asked to give a speech at an international business conference in Calcutta. I got to travel along as the wife! We had to stop and spend the night in New Delhi, on the last leg of travel to our destination. New Delhi has that same acrid, burning smell which took me right back to 2001. Their burning smell is from the poor who live on the streets and build fires to cook and keep warm. No doubt they are burning plastics and toxic materials. I questioned the Indians about the smell – they said, “What smell?” My good friend Sumantra later explained it to me, but seriously, they don’t smell it.

Of all your senses, I believe smell is the most memorable. Which is why good smells wafting from your kitchen can create memories beyond belief for your family. We are in the country and last night I decided to make a new spice rub for pork chops. My husband called it smooth and “elegant.” Isn’t he cute? I called it very fragrant and delicious.

SPICE RUB FOR PORK CHOPS – for 6 pork chops
Make sure your spices are fresh!
1 tbs. cumin powder
1 tsp ground coriander (preferably Moroccan)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp. ground Nigerian cayenne pepper
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. garlic powder.

Combine everything together very well – toss with a fork. Wash and dry your meat. Salt one side of each chop and spread rub on both sides and massage into the meat. Grill until temperature reaches 140 – 145 degrees. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. They will continue cooking and this allows time for the juices to collect inside the meat and be totally yummy.

Let me know how you like this!

I forgot the pancetta!

September 8, 2011 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

So last night I made this fantastic dinner. I love one dish meals for a weeknight – so simple and neat. I bought the pound and a half of shrimp, texted Zach as to what time he’d be home and it turns out he’s going to his brother’s apartment in Williamsburg for dinner and they are having over Jen – their nanny! And I didn’t even know about it. How sweet is that!? And here I bought the shrimp specifically for Zach, as he had been talking about shrimp for dinner – he was craving. Go figure! But he enjoyed the leftovers when he got home at midnight.

ORECCHIETTE WITH SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI RABE
Serves 4

Trim the ends off, wash and chop the broccoli rabe into 2″ size pieces. Make sure no yellow flowers have bloomed. If they have, remove them and NEVER buy a head with bloomed flowers as they are really really bitter. Now put all the rabe in a large pot and cover with 2″ of cold water over the top. Salt the water and rabe with coarse sea salt, stir and put the pot on high heat. When little boiling bubbles start to form around the edge of the pot, remove from heat, drain and immerse in an ice cube bath of water to stop the cooking. When cold, drain thoroughly, spin (in your lettuce spinner) and then pat dry.

Warm 2 tbs. olive oil in a large skillet, add 7 (yes seven) cloves of minced garlic, one-half of medium-sized red onion, sliced on a hand mandoline. Saute all on low heat for 10 minutes to soften and get all melty. I would typically add the 1/4″ cubes of pancetta here, from one 1/4″ slice – but I forgot!

Fill the pot you cooked the broccoli rabe in with water to cook the orrecchiette. Salt with coarse sea salt and bring to a rolling boil. Cook the pasta 1- 2 minutes less than the minimum time on the package directions. Taste to be sure it is al dente properly. Save a half of a coffee cup of pasta water before draining, just in case you need a little moisture in your finished dish. (My boys always tease me about this as I often never use it – but just in case!)

Meanwhile, wash and dry 1.5 lbs of shrimp, cleaned and shelled but tails left on and salt and pepper one side of each. Add 1 seeded and minced habanero pepper and 1/2 cup of chicken broth to the garlic and onion mixture and saute for 2 minutes more. Raise your heat and add the broccoli rabe, saute for 2 minutes and then add the shrimp plus 1/2 cup dry Vermouth and cook until the shrimp are pink on both sides. When done remove from heat.

Put the cooked pasta in a large bowl, pour on shrimp mixture and add 1/2 cup of grated Romano cheese (don’t tell the Italians as they would NEVER put cheese on a fish dish, but here it is great and adds a little natural saltiness) and toss. To finish, drizzle on 2 tbs olive oil and sprinkle 1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint.

Let me know how you like this!

(Can you believe I forgot the pancetta?)

End of summer

September 6, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Welcome to my blog about great food, cooking and sharing love. I love to eat. I love to cook. I love to feed people and share it all. I’d like to share some wonderful recipes and tips and stories that come from cooking and entertaining. We have a house in upstate New York and just this past weekend, it started raining leaves. : ( Summer is over. We had our friends Margaret and Wayne for dinner on Saturday night and I served my take on an “end of summer” meal. Watermelon salad with feta and Kalamata olives (the chopped olives look like watermelon seeds to fake you out!) and fresh mint leaves. grass-fed lamb and beef cheddar burgers with a caper remoulade sauce, served with tomato and thinly sliced English cucumber on toasted English muffins, wheatberry salad with dried cranberries (to introduce us to Fall) and roasted asparagus with lemon and olive oil. Our dessert was grilled peaches brushed with olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper with Ronnybrook Farms ice cream (chocolate chip and hazelnut crunch – yummy – the cows live down the street) and a chocolate biscotti. It was a hit!