Delicious Veggie Lasange

Posted on April 6, 2012 by

Perusing our stack of Cooks, I came across the recipe for Vegetable Lasagne in the Sept/Oct 2011 edition. In the mood for a dish that would provide lunches for the week, I dove straight in.

Cooks makes a deliberate effort to “rescue” vegetable lasagne from being soggy and rubbery, as it can so often be. Reading through the recipe, which included pre-cooking all of the vegetables before baking, I was intrigued.

Veggie Lasagne
From Cooks Illustrated, Sept/Oct 2011

Tomato Sauce:
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I used dried, as fresh is out of season – about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Cream Sauce:
4 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (2 cups)
1 cup whole-milk cottage cheese
1 cup heavy cream
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Vegetable filling:
A total of about 3 1/2 lbs of any mix of the following: eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (about 14-15 cups)
5 tbsp plus 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced fresh thyme (or dried if that’s all you have)
12 oz baby spinach (I used a mix of spinach and kale)

12 no-boil lasagne noodles (Trader Joe’s sells a great version)
1/2 cup minced pitted kalamata olives (I skipped)
12 oz low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil (again, I only had dried)

Whisk together all ingredients for tomato sauce and set aside.

Whisk together all ingredients for cream sauce and set aside.

Bask in their glory, then adjust the oven rack to middle position and heat to 375 degrees.

If you have a microwave, toss the eggplant with 1 tsp salt in a large bowl. Then line a large plate with a double-layer of coffee filters (or a paper towel) and lightly spray with vegetable oil spray. Spread eggplant in an even layer over filters/towels. Microwave eggplant, uncovered, until dry to the touch and slightly shrunken, about 10 minutes. Be sure to toss once halfway through. Let cool slightly, then return eggplant to the bowl and toss with zucchini and squash.

If you don’t have a microwave (like us), you can attempt to do the same by cooking the eggplant on the stovetop. I split the eggplant into two batches, and cooked each batch over medium heat in a cast-iron skillet for 15 minutes or so. I waited until I got a similar result when it came to the texture of the eggplant – somewhat dry, and smaller in size than when I started. I set aside the eggplant after it was cooked in a bowl, mixing it with the eggplant:

This easily slipped into the second step of the process, which is also on the stovetop:

Combine 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic, and thyme into a small bowl. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a 12-inch skillet (I used the cast iron again) until just shimmering. Add half of the eggplant mixture, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and cook until vegetables are slightly browned – just over 5 minutes or so. Shove the cooked vegetables to the side of the skillet and add half of the garlic/oil/thyme mixture to the pan and cook about 30 seconds. Then mix with the vegetables, and transfer to a medium bowl. Repeat with the rest of the eggplant mixture and remaining garlic/oil/thyme.

Bring skillet to medium/high heat and bring 1 tsp oil to shimmering. Add spinach (and kale, if you’re using it!) and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until just slightly wilted. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and let drain for a few minutes before adding to eggplant mixture.

And now it’s time to combine it all for baking!

Get out a 13×9 inch baking dish and grease it  (either butter or oil works just fine). Spread 1 cup of tomato sauce across the bottom.
Add one layer of noodles on top of sauce.
Spread half of vegetable mixture (and the olives, if you want ‘em) on top of the noodles.
Add half of the cream sauce on top of the veggies.
Spread 1 cup of mozzerella on top of the whole shabang.
Repeat.
To finish, add one more layer of noodles, one final cup of tomato sauce, and the last cup of mozzarella.
Lightly spray a large sheet of aluminum foil with vegetable oil and cover lasagne.

Bake until bubbling – 35 minutes or so. I would recommend taking the aluminum foil off about 10 minutes before cooking was done to brown the top slightly. Enjoy!

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Breakfast Smoothies

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

Breakfast smoothies are a staple for Steve and I year-round. The adventure begins in the summertime, when we prepare and freeze berries by the gallon-bag-full. These berries, whether we pick them ourselves or get ‘em from the farmer’s market, are a tasty reminder of sweet berry season, which lasts here in the Northwest from early July to early September.

Upon request from our favorite temporary New Zealand resident, here are the basics of how we put together our morning smoothies:

Breakfast Smoothy
Approximately enough for 2 smoothies
2 cups frozen berries (we stock strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
1/3 – 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 – 2 cups juice (find your favorite!)
optional: 2 tbsp vitamin/protein powder, 1 tbsp lime juice

Note: all amounts are approximate. Depending on the type of berries or how much smoothie you’re making, you’ll find that you need to add a bit more juice or a bit more fruit to get the right consistency. We find that frozen berries not only mean we can use the berries we collected all year round, but that they give the smoothies the best consistency.

Place all ingredients into a blender. Depending on the type of berries you use, you’ll need to play around with the settings on your blender to get the ingredients mixed up properly. If you are adding a vitamin/protein powder, add it into the center of the mix to prevent the powder from just caking onto the surface of the smoothie.

Ensuring that all ingredients get fully blended in is important. I always wait until a hole develops in the center of the blender to indicate all ingredients are being chopped in fully. You never want to take a swig of your smoothie and get a huge chunk of frozen strawberry. Insta-brain-freeze.

And presto! Smoothie complete. You can always play around with ingredients to find what works best for you. We get bottled juice (not the stuff in the refrigerator) from our local co-op and switch it up regularly depending on what is on sale.

(Good luck smoothie-making Marth! Send us a photo when you’ve made one you love!)

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Potato Gnocchi

Posted on February 11, 2012 by

Picking up the September/October 2011 issue of Cook’s, I was inspired to try my hand at making homemade gnocchi. The recipe, titled “Light-as-air Potato Gnocchi” sounded too good to be true. So I picked up a stock of russet potatoes and got to work:

Potato Gnocchi w/Browned butter and sage
serves 2-3 as a main, or 4-6 as a side

Gnocchi:
2 pounds russet potatoes
1 large egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cups plus 1 tbsp (4 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus extra for counter
1 tsp plus 1 tbsp salt

Sauce:
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp minced fresh sage
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt

Note to cooks: putting the gnocchi together takes some time. This is not the recipe to make when you just get home from work and want to whip something up quickly. That said, if you’re only cooking for two, this recipe is great because you get twice as much as you need. You either definitely have leftovers or, like us, you can save 1/2 the recipe by freezing the gnocchi before cooking. That should make the next round of gnocchi goodness much easier to put together.

And now for the gnocchi assembly:
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat to 450 degrees. Poke each potato several times on all sides with a paring knife.  Cooks’ recommends you then microwave the potatoes until slightly softened at the ends, for about 10 minutes (turning potatoes halfway through). After microwaving, put the potatoes into the oven and bake until a skewer glides easily through the flesh (18-20 minutes).

As we don’t have a microwave, I simply did the entire process in the oven and allowed for more time. The potatoes were in the oven for about 45 minutes in total before they were baked to the proper level.

Peelin' hot potatoes!

Remove the potatoes from the oven and set on a plate (you can turn off the oven at this point – you won’t need it anymore). Pick up each potato with a potholder, and use a paring knife to peel the skin from the flesh. It’s easier than you think – the skin basically slides off the potato at this temperature.

Blending potatoes

Process the potatoes through a ricer or food mill onto a rimmed baking sheet. We didn’t have either a ricer or a food mill, but we did have this handy-dandy hand-held blender which worked just as well – you basically want a smooth consistency. Gently spread potatoes into an even layer and let cool for 5 minutes.

Transfer 3 cups (16 ounces) warm potatoes to a bowl. You might have slightly more than 3 cups on your baking sheet – either compost the rest or put them to another use (Buckley was a big fan of this step). Using a fork, gently stir in the egg until just combined. Next, sprinkle flour and one teaspoon of salt over the potatoes. Gently combine until there are no longer any pockets of dry flour. Press the mixture into a rough ball and then transfer onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth but slightly sticky (for about a minute), lightly dusting the counter with flour as you go to prevent the dough from attaching to your countertop.

Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and dust liberally with flour. (Have you noticed a theme yet? Lots of flour dusting in this recipe – the dough soaks up flour! Don’t go overboard, but prepare to have plenty of “dusting flour” on hand to keep you from a sticky mess.) Cut dough into 8 pieces. Lightly dust counter with flour (again). Gently roll each piece of dough (one at a time) into a 1/2-inch thick rope (you can do this with your hands). Cut rope into 3/4″ lengths. Holding a fork with tines facing down, press each dough piece cut side down against tines with the thumb of your hand to make an indentation. Roll the dough down the tines to form ridges on the sides.

The gnocchi process

This step serves two purposes: one functional and the other aesthetic. The ridges on each dumpling allows them to soak up the maximum amount of sauce possible, which is just what you want with gnocchi. They are tasty on their own, but they are insanely tasty if paired with a sauce that they soak up well. Additionally, the rolled-over-the-tines look is just what you get at the fancy restaurants, and your diners will be oh-so-happy with the result!

Line 'em up!

Transfer formed gnocchi onto sheets and repeat with the remaining dough. This takes a while. Please be patient, and plan ahead for time. Pour yourself a glass of wine while you do it and you’ll be pleased.

Cooking the sauce:
Melt butter in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet (if you have one) over medium-high heat until butter is browned and smells deliciously nutty (a minute and a half should do). Off heat, add shallot and sage, stirring until shallot is fragrant. Stir in lemon juice and salt, and cover to keep warm.

Putting it all together:
Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add remaining tbsp salt into the water. Using the parchment (or wax) paper as a sling, pick up the gnocchi and drop them into the water. Cook until firm and just cooked through – it takes about 90 seconds. The gnocchi will float to the surface after about 1 minute, and need just a bit more time after that until they’re done. Don’t pour into a collander – instead lift the gnocchi out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and place them directly into the sauce.

Mix up and serve! We ate this dish garnished with parsley and shredded parmesan, sautéed green beans and a big fresh salad.

The final dish!

I really loved the consistency of the gnocchi in this recipe, but found that I wanted the sauce to be a little bit…more. It was delicious, no doubt, but I think I was wanting something more classic. I’d recommend trying it with a red sauce with finely shaved parmesan.

A note about freezing gnocchi:
I’m very excited to see how cooking up the frozen gnocchi goes as soon as we are ready for the dish again! I’ll be sure to update this post when the time comes. But an important note when freezing the gnocchi: first freeze the dumplings on the rimmed baking sheets you initially placed them on. This will allow them to freeze without sticking to one another first. Once frozen, slide them off the baking sheet and into a plastic zipper bag for simple storage.

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French-style Chicken in a Pot, and a Bonus!

Posted on January 10, 2012 by

Winter meals are about warming the soul. Here in Seattle the winter months can be dreary – not too cold, but dark, gray, gray, more gray and relentless. (unless you have a ski habit, in which case it’s not too bad). Making delicious, soulful food brings us back to life and reminds us that life is pretty darned great, and that we live in a place of abundance. Of food, of friends, and of good times.

We recently had some dear friends over for dinner at our new home in the Central District in Seattle. Maria is a spectacular water-color artist and Darin is a rockin’ web designer.  Maria agreed to bring over one of her originals that we were interested in, so we could see it in person. Turns out, we loved it, and it’s adorned our living room wall ever since.

Spring Green!

In addition to being awesome company, Maria & Darin brought over an amazing galette for dessert. Darin has apparently been perfecting his methods, and we were the lucky recipients of one of his finest recipes. More on that coming soon as we try our hand at galette making!

For the evening’s dinner, we decided to make French Chicken in a Pot (from the Jan/Feb 2008 Cook’s). We’ve made it once, and were incredibly eager to make it again. The recipe calls to dry-cook the chicken. It’s similar to braising, but there are no added juices – the chicken cooks in its own juices only. This means no dilution of flavors – just tasty chicken! We loved it so much we barely snapped any photos, and neglected to take photos of the fully plated meal (served with roasted fingerling potatoes and yummy salad). It was just that good!

French Chicken in a Pot
1 whole roasting chicken (4 1/2 – 5lbs), organs removed & discarded, wings tucked under back
2 tsp Kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped medium
1 small celery stalk, chopped medium
6 medium garlic cloves, peeled & trimmed
1 bay leaf
1 medium sprig fresh rosemary (optional)
1/2 – 1 tsp juice from 1 lemon

Use a nice chicken – this recipe is best when you use a higher-end bird, as you’re relying wholly on the flavor of the chicken itself. If you want to skip having chicken skin (are you crazy?!?), take it off after cooking – not before. The amount of jus will vary depending on the size and type of chicken. Season the jus with about 1/4 tsp lemon juice for every 1/4 cup.

Place oven rack to the lowest position and heat to 250 degrees. Pat chicken with a paper towel to dry, then season with salt and pepper. Using a 5- to 8-quart Dutch oven (depending on the size of your bird), heat oil over medium heat on the stovetop, until just smoking. Place the chicken breast-side down in the pot, scattering onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and rosemary around the chicken. Cook until just brown, which should take about 5 minutes.

Chicken and veggies, getting their simmer on

Using a wooden spoon, insert into the cavity of the bird. With another wooden spoon, flip the bird over (breast-side up). Cook, until chicken and vegetables are browned (about 8 minutes). Remove the pot from heat.

Golden delicious - it's not just for apples anymore!

Place a large sheet of aluminum foil over the pot and cover tightly with a lid (this helps trap juices inside). Move pot into the oven, and cook until an instant-read thermometer reads 160 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. This should be somewhere between 80 and 110 minutes – you just have to keep an eye on it.

Once you get the right temperature, transfer the chicken to a large cutting board and tent with foil. Let the chicken rest 20 minutes. It won’t get cold – we promise.

Back to the pot, strain the chicken juices through a fine-mesh strainer. Discard the solids. Allow liquid to settle for 5 minutes (and you can scoop any fatty solids out of the top). Pour into a saucepan and set over low heat. Stir lemon juice into jus to taste.

Carve the bird and serve it with jus. YUM!

And it was all cooked in our awesome new kitchen – awesome, eh?

Cooking in the new kitchen, this time with two helpers!

While we completely neglected to snap photos of our full plates, we did take a photo of our delightful appetizer – radishes with salt. This has become one of our favorite appetizers – the tang of the radish is cut beautifully by dipping it lightly in coarse salt. If you want to be even crazier, you can stuff the radishes with a dollop of butter. Yuuuuum:

One of our favorite apps - radishes and salt!

And we ate so, so well. the chicken was moist, flavorful, and had plenty of jus for dipping our potatoes in.

But wait! There’s more! In addition to the delight on the first day of eating, this recipe gave back to us again the next day. We made chicken stock with the bones and froze some for future soup endeavors.

Easy Chicken Stock
from Rhulman’s Twenty (highly recommended reading)
1 roasted chicken carcass (and any leftover pieces or bones)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp tomato paste
Other additions: garlic cloves (highly recommended), sprigs of fresh parsley and thyme

Break the chicken carcass into pieces. Place carcass and pieces into a 3-quart oven-proof saucepan. Add water to cover (about 6 cups or so).

On the stovetop, put the uncovered pan on the back burner oon low for several hours. The surface of the water should stay still, but the pan should be too hot to touch. Cook for at least 4 hours, but up to 12 hours. You can also cook the stock at this step in a low temperature oven – set it to 180 or 200 degrees and cook in the uncovered pot.

Add the remaining ingredients, bring the stock back to temperature over high heat, then reduce heat back to low (or pop it into a low-heat oven – about 180 degrees) and cook for 1 hour longer.

Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer. Place into containers and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you’re going to freeze the stock, I don’t recommend glass. Opt instead for a reused plastic yogurt container or something along those lines.

Tasty stock, ready to be frozen for later

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Steak Hobo Packs: Cooking on the Road!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

My apologies for the long gap between posts, everyone! Steve and I have had a whirlwind couple of months. And we’ve been busy with all sorts of good things, including an excellent road trip to Colorado (which is where this post comes in), buying a house, and getting engaged! Life is very, very good here in the Northwest.

We are to be wed!

We wanted to share one of our favorite recipes from our big road trip to Colorado: hobo packs (which I’ve been informed are also known simply as aluminum foil packs in more civilized societies)!

Cooking on the road can be pretty boring. When traveling without all the ingredients normally in your kitchen, it can be tough to make food that’s not, well, meh. After rediscovering the hobo pack on a recent backcountry camping trip, we knew we couldn’t survive a camping trip without them. They’re everything you want before climbing into your tent: warm, flavorful, and easy to clean up!

We didn’t get set up to start cooking until relatively late, so all our photos are taken in the dark, but hopefully they give you the picture of what we created. Here assembled are most of the ingredients in our tasty dinner: steak, potatoes, garlic, onion, sweet potatoes (you can use yams as well), bell pepper, green beans, butter and salt/pepper:

All the important supplies at the ready.

While I hopped to chopping the ingredients, Steve got to work getting a fire good and ready. You need to get the fire nice and hot and have a good size pile of coals before you can start cooking, so be sure to get that fire started as soon as you can.

Steak is the ideal meat to cook up in hobo packs – it’s simple, divides easily into two, and provides a ton of flavor. The first step in getting our packs ready was to rub the steaks with salt and pepper:

Salt & pepper rub

All the veggies were chopped coarsely and divided between the two packs. Steak was also divided between the two packs. Adding butter before it’s all sent into the fire helps keep things from sticking, and makes everything tastier (we probably put about 1 1/2 tbsp in each pack). That’s what butter is good for:

Buttery and good!

An important note is that triple-wrapping in foil helps to get the vegetables nice and cooked without charring too much. It also helps because as the foil heats up it becomes more brittle and breaks easily. So when you’re flipping the packets you’re able to do so without worrying that your food is going to come flying out of a gap. It might seem like way too much when you are getting it all wrapped, but I can assure you it’s worth using the additional foil.

Be sure to make a good amount of room for your hobo packs to land on hot coals for cooking. If you started your fire early enough, you’ll be rewarded with a ton of beautiful hot coals to rest your packs on:

Into the fire they go!

Packs will stay on the coals for a varied amount of time depending on how hot your fire is, and how much food you’ve stuffed into each pack. Steve and I cooked ours for about 7-10 minutes on each side, turing the packs every few minutes to keep from getting burn areas.

What was the drink of choice for this tasty meal you ask? Well, Champagne was in order, as we were celebrating the end of our road trip and our engagement!

Pouring some bubbly!

Here is the final spread, on our fabulous new camping table:

Dinner is served!

This particular hobo pack was prepared at our camp at Yellowstone National Park. It was our only rainy, incredibly cold night, but the hobo packs kept us warm from the inside out. And lucky us, we woke up to beautiful sunshine and elk sightings on our way out of the park.

Elk saying adieu!

Next time you’re planning a backcountry (or frontcountry, as the case may be) adventure, we’d highly recommend steak hobo packs. They’ll win you over every time!

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Quick Fresh Garden Veggies with Pasta

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

‘Tis the season for eating mostly from the garden, and it is glorious! One of the best parts of the harvest season is creating simple meals that rely almost completely on the fresh ingredients in our gardens.

And so Steve and I found ourselves wondering what we should make for dinner after a day of projects around the house and the property in Marblemount. After a quick stroll through the hoop house to pluck ripe tomatoes and basil, then through the garden to gather up salad makings and zucchini, we were ready to head back into the kitchen for one of our quick harvest season favorites.

Fabulously fresh salad greens

Zucchini are one of the harvest season’s best performers and one of any gardener’s challenges each year. Read any vegetable gardening book and you’ll read fantastic tales of various ideas of how to use up all of the zucchini that grows so plentifully. (My favorites, in case you’re wondering, are the stories Barbara Kingsolver shares in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.)

So to use up some of the zucchini and add some more veggies to our meal, we grabbed the September/October 2008 edition of Cooks’ and found the “best way to cook” recipe for zucchini. Check it out:

Sauteed Zucchini
Zucchini, shredded
Salt
Olive oil

Generally, you should shoot for a ratio of 1 1/2 tsp salt for 2 1/2 lbs zucchini. 

Wash and cut zucchini into 3″ sections. Grate each section on a cheese grater (see photo below), stopping before you get to the seeds. Toss the seeds & middle section into the compost.

Place zucchini into a colander with salt and let sit for 10 minutes to drain. Next, dump the zucchini into a clean dish towel or cheese cloth and squeeze the rest of the water (as much as you can) out of the zucchini.

Zucchini, ready for shreedding

Heat up about 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and then saute the shredded, drained zucchini for 3-5 minutes. Don’t stir too much, as you want the zucchini to brown a bit as it’s cooking. Serve immediately.

Do dance of joy, because it’s delicious! And after all that you’ve used most of an entire zucchini, which in harvest season is a fabulous feat.

Next up was the quick pasta prep:

Pasta goodies

Fresh Garden Veggies w/Pasta
5-6 medium tomatoes, chopped
3-4 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. pasta of your choice
olive oil
butter (5 tbsp or so)
salt & pepper

Cook pasta. Move cooked pasta into a colander and set aside.

Chop vegetables as desired.  In the pasta-cooking pot, heat up some olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Simmer for 1-2 minutes to let the garlic cook a bit, then add tomatoes. Remove from heat, add pasta and basil. Stir to mix everything up, then add salt & pepper to taste. 

Optional addition: some freshly shaved parmesan as a garnish. Yuuuuum.  Again with the dance of joy.

Ta-da!

We quickly threw together the salad, and our total time spent on cooking was somewhere around 30 minutes. Easy as pie!

Mmm…pie.

Hope you enjoy the recipes! Let us know if you’ve tried ‘em – we’re always looking for feedback.

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Cooking with Love in Peoria

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

Steve and I headed out to his hometown of Peoria, IL for along weekend of relaxing, cooking, and quality-time-spending with his fabulous folks, Jo and Tom. While we were only there for a few short days, we managed to pack in quite a bit of cooking. This post is dedicated to one of our biggest home-cooked meals – we hope you enjoy it!

First, you should know: Jo was born in Italy. She came to the States with her parents when she was very young, and grew up in Illinois surrounded by many of her close relatives. Steve has so many great stories of time spent at his grandparents’ house – filled with cooking adventures and communicating with his grandparents in broken Italian/English combinations. His grandmother kept a separate kitchen in the basement. I’m just saying – cooking delicious food was not a hobby; it was a lifestyle. And so we made sure to spend lots of time in the kitchen in Peoria – cooking with love passed down through generations.

It says it all right there!

The first rule of Italian cooking, as I’ve come to learn: there’s no need for measuring instruments. Cooking happens with pinches, handfuls, pieces, bits, shakes, and scoops. So while you’ll see typical teaspoon and tablespoon measurements below, know that as it all happened in the Dorsch household, there was little measuring going on. Italians cook by taste, understanding of ingredients deeply imbedded into their DNA, and natural talent.

And with that, our menu:

Scampi al dragoncello (shrimp with oranges)
Grilled squid steaks
Fresh pasta w/fresh tomato sauce and sauteed scallops

(yes, it was as delicious as it sounds)

Research

First, we spent the morning amongst a variety of cookbooks and magazines, carefully selecting our menu. We knew fresh pasta was going to be part of the menu, so we mostly hunted through the cooking library stacks looking for great side dishes and appetizers. We easily settled on the scampi al dragoncello recipe and determined that we’d let fate decide our appetizer choice.

Perusing our options at Dixons. Note the handsome devil on the left.

And with that, we hopped in the car and headed over to Dixon’s. This is Peoria’s seafood central, and we were delighted to find the shop chock-full of great selections. Tom knew as soon as he saw the squid steaks (which I’d never heard of before) that we had our appetizer. We grabbed our supplies and headed back home with a trunk-full of treats (after a quick stop for more supplies at the Peoria Riverside Farmer’s Market).

Once home, preparations began in full swing. There was pasta-making, sauce-simmering, and shrimp-cleaning. Orange-slicing, basil-picking, and squid-marinading.

Scampi al Dragoncello

(from Christina’s Tuscan Table)

24 large shrimp, cleaned & deveined, tails left on
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 tbsp for frying
juice and zest of 2 oranges
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves
1 tsp crushed garlic
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
sprigs tarragon for garnish
orange slices for garnish

First, clean and devein the shrimp. I took the reins on this project, which I’d never really done before, and got some helpful tips from both Steve and his mom along the way. I’m sure it gets easier the more you get used to it, but I was pretty sure that though I did eventually get ‘em clean, I was maiming the poor shrimp.

Attacking the shrimp with a deveining tool

Combine all ingredients except parsley and garnish items in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

In a skillet, cook shrimp in 2 tbsp oil over high heat for 3-5 minutes, adding a bit of the marinade juices to keep the shrimp moist.

Serve hot, over the orange slices and add the parsley and garnish immediately before serving. Be sure to take a great photo of the chef with the dish, like this:

Good lookin' all around.

A beautiful dish.

Alterations: Instead of fresh tarragon, we used some dried (from Jo’s garden). Instead of garnishing with tarragon, we used plenty of fresh parsley from the garden instead.  We made slightly less than a full recipe, and all turned out fabulously.

Grilled Squid Steaks

(from Seafood by Evie Hanson)

2 lbs squid steak meat, cut into strips
2 tbps oil

1/4 cup dry white wine or broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6 bay leaves, dried & crushed
2 shallots, minced
2 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix marinade ingredients into a Ziplock bag and add squid. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. During your 30-minute break, it’s a good idea to head into the garden to snap photos of the zinnias:

Taking a photography break while the squid marinates.

After marinading, remove squid from bag and pat dry before grilling. Grill on a medium-high heat for only 30 seconds per side on an oiled grate.

Boil remaining marinade and serve alongside with grilled squid steaks. Enjoy!

Squid steaks - delicious!

Alterations: We made several. We did not cut the steaks until after grilling for simplicity. In addition, we served this dish atop fresh lettuce, and garnished with garden tomatoes, fresh parsley, lemon wedges and capers.

Tagliatelle w/garden marinara and sauteed scallops

First, the pasta:

4 cups flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 – 1/2 cup water

Pour flour in a mound on counter.  Make a small well in middle.  Break eggs into well and pour in water and olive oil.  Using a knife or fork, gradually mix together the egg, flour, and water, incorporating gradually until a thick paste forms.  Then use your hands to mix in rest of flour.

Fresh pasta preparations

Knead until dough is well blended and firm,bit still flexible.  Don’t worry if you haven’t used all the flour.  Place a bowl over the dough and let it rest 30 minutes.

Roll by hand or use a pasta machine (we used a machine).  Cut into thin, long strips. If you are as skilled as Steve’s mom, you can do it freehand with a pizza cutter:

Skillful pasta cutting

She makes it look so easy! Jo’s comments on her pasta-making skills: “Having watched Grandma do this many times helps :) “

Now the Garden Marinara Sauce with Scallops:

1 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons Olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
4 cups peeled, seeded, cubed tomatoes (best if they’re San Marzanos from the garden!)
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
1 tablespoon Dried oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs. large sea scallops

Sauté onion and garlic in oil in a medium pot over medium heat.  Add tomatoes and wine.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.

Sauté scallops in a medium skillet until golden.  Toss into sauce to blend. Garnish with fresh basil and serve over pasta.

Fresh, fresh, and more fresh!

What a fantastic meal we had! And we hope to recreate some of these favorites back in Seattle soon. Thanks again to Jo and Tom for the hospitality and fabulous meals!

A follow-up post is likely to come, with more details, photos, and perhaps a couple other recipes from our weekend. Stay tuned!

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