I know, it has been a whole month but I've been busy, man. Life has a way of intruding into my blogging. What with my daughter's Taekwondo and my tri-weekly workouts, I am a busy gal.
My exercise is going great! I still feel like I am going to die after every workout but it is a kinder, gentler death. I tried a boot camp class and a cardio boxing class, too. The boot camp class is more my style but it was fun trying something different. As I get into better shape perhaps the boxing class will appeal to me more.
Anyway, this past weekend was Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, it is my top favorite holiday. The extreme commercialism has not yet affected it so it is just filled with the best stuff... family, friends, football and food.
The most difficult thing I struggle with is portion control. Everything looks and smells so good I just want to pile heaping mounds onto my plate. Well, that is my downfall at almost every meal. This year was different. I allowed myself to have a little of everything... the operative term being a LITTLE, like, a heaping tablespoon and that's it. I was amazed at how full and satisfied I was but not so that I wished I wasn't wearing pants.
Another way to combat the bursting pants is to modify recipes slightly in order to make them more healthy and less fat/calorie/carb laden. I made the cranberry sauce with maple syrup instead of refined sugar. Maple syrup is lower in calories than refined, white sugar and maple syrup is filled with antioxidents. I also made apple sauce using Stevia instead of sugar. Stevia is a natural product (unlike Splenda), has no carbs or calories and tastes every bit as good as more conventional sweetners.
And this year, I made the sweet potatoes. Back in the cloudy depths of my childhood lingers the memory of butter laden sweet potatoes covered by a thick layer of slightly scorched marshmallows. Those sweet potatoes need to stay in the past. The new, NEW sweet potato is wearing a much better outfit. With the sweet potato's natural sweetness, no added sugar or anything is needed, if anything, the sweetness needs to be toned down a tad with something salty. Without further ado, these are the sweet potatoes I contributed to our family dinner.
Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes
Serves 8-10
4 large yellow/white fleshed sweet potatoes
4 large garnet/red fleshed sweet potatoes
1 TB dried Italian herb mix (rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram)
-or-
2 TB finely chopped fresh herbs
2 TB olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
6 oz pancetta (cured but unsmoked Italian bacon)
Preheat the oven to 350F, placing the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the overn. Line 2 half-sheet trays with parchment paper. Peel the potatoes and chop into 3/4" chunks and put into a big bowl. Pour the olive oil over the potatoes and mix until the oil is evenly distributed. Sprinkle on the herbs and salt and pepper. Mix again until the herbs and spices are well distributed. Divide the potatoes evenly between the 2 sheet pans.
Chop the pancetta into 1/2" chunks then sprinkle the chunks over the two sheet pans with the potatoes.
Roast the sweet potatoes for 20 minutes. Take the pans out of the oven and toss the potatoes. Place the pans back into the oven having switched their places (top to bottom and vice-versa). Roast another 10 minutes, toss potatoes. Roast a final 10 minutes then remove the pans from the oven.
The potatoes can be served immediately or they can be cooled, transfered to a 9x13" pan, covered and chilled. If you chill them, to serve, let them come to room temperature then put them back into a 350F oven, uncovered for 20 minutes until the potatoes are heated through.
The saltiness of the pancetta helps to even out the sweetness of the roasted potatoes. Everyone at our house pronounced them delicious. Who needs marshmallows?
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Mama Moira's Kitchen...
Just to set the record straight, like it matters, is that I am neither Italian nor Jewish. I must admit, I steal from their heritage kitchens all the time.
There is nothing more therapeutic than a good chicken soup. One of these days, when I can consider eating even a modest amount of carbs again, I would like to learn to make matzo balls. There is something so soulful about the combination of a rich chicken stock combined with bits of chicken and sauteed vegetables. I also love, love Italian food. Pasta is right out for me, of course, but I can still enjoy that mind numbing joy of tomatoes, garlic, onions, fennel combined in a slowly simmered sauce... Huh? Oh wait. Where was I?
When I was in the airport in Atlanta not long ago I bought a mess of cooking magazines (including one of my top favorites, Saveur) to read on the plane. Since we are all poor during this recession I hardly ever buy cooking magazines any more (even though I used to be addicted and had subscriptions to at least three of them). I can look at them online but it isn't the same. I love the glossy pages and lovely, professional pictures of foods I will most likely never make.
Some of my favorite recipes are for foods with which I am not familiar; like, I love the recipes for Italian Christmas Eve dinner with all the myriad seafood dishes but the one that caught my eye this time was the recipes for Sukkot, the Jewish holiday of celebration and thanksgiving. The recipe in Saveur calls for some traditional ingredients like raisins and honey, rice... and a couple of other things I can't have because a) I am a low carb kind of girl and b) if I put fruit in a meat dish I think my husband might divorce me. I compromised by making it more Sephardic (which for me is just a fancy way of saying I substituted a bunch of ingredients to make it more Italian and less fruity). My kitchen is now filled with intoxicating scents and I am about to float away on them.
Holishkes (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls ala Cathy)
Based on a recipe found in Saveur
Serves 4
1 large head of cabbage, cored
Olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 TB fennel seed
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup red chard, sliced into thin ribbons then chopped crosswise
1 32oz can pureed tomatoes
1 lb ground lean ground chuck (or ground lamb would be delicious, too)
3 TB beef stock
1/3 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp paprika or smoked paprika (my personal favorite)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
Bring a large, deep pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the head of cabbage using a giant fork and cook, pulling off each leaf as it cook with some tongs, about 2 minutes per leaf until you get 9-10 leaves. Let drain and cool on some paper towels.
Heat a tsp or two of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onions and celery. Saute but do not caramelize. Add the fennel seeds, garlic, chard and the pepper flakes. Continue to saute until both the onions and celery are translucent and your kitchen is fragrant. Add the tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add the tomato puree. Stir then simmer until the sauce starts to reduce, thicken and again become very fragrant, about 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ground beef, beef stock, carrots, paprika, egg and salt and pepper. Don't over-mix or the stuffing will be tough. Lightly stir using only your fingertips until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Lay out your cabbage leaves like little green dishes. Divide the filling between all the leaves. Fold the leaves up one by one by folding in the sides, then rolling the other way into a tidy ball. Place the rolls into an 8"x8" (or 9"x9") baking dish that you've sprayed with non-stick spray. Once all the rolls are in there, cover with the tomato sauce. Bake until the filling is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
If you don't care much about being Kosher, you could sprinkle the top with feta cheese or Parmesan as an added touch. I don't use cheese as there is so much flavor already I don't think it needs it.
Mazel tov, amore!
There is nothing more therapeutic than a good chicken soup. One of these days, when I can consider eating even a modest amount of carbs again, I would like to learn to make matzo balls. There is something so soulful about the combination of a rich chicken stock combined with bits of chicken and sauteed vegetables. I also love, love Italian food. Pasta is right out for me, of course, but I can still enjoy that mind numbing joy of tomatoes, garlic, onions, fennel combined in a slowly simmered sauce... Huh? Oh wait. Where was I?
When I was in the airport in Atlanta not long ago I bought a mess of cooking magazines (including one of my top favorites, Saveur) to read on the plane. Since we are all poor during this recession I hardly ever buy cooking magazines any more (even though I used to be addicted and had subscriptions to at least three of them). I can look at them online but it isn't the same. I love the glossy pages and lovely, professional pictures of foods I will most likely never make.
Some of my favorite recipes are for foods with which I am not familiar; like, I love the recipes for Italian Christmas Eve dinner with all the myriad seafood dishes but the one that caught my eye this time was the recipes for Sukkot, the Jewish holiday of celebration and thanksgiving. The recipe in Saveur calls for some traditional ingredients like raisins and honey, rice... and a couple of other things I can't have because a) I am a low carb kind of girl and b) if I put fruit in a meat dish I think my husband might divorce me. I compromised by making it more Sephardic (which for me is just a fancy way of saying I substituted a bunch of ingredients to make it more Italian and less fruity). My kitchen is now filled with intoxicating scents and I am about to float away on them.
Holishkes (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls ala Cathy)
Based on a recipe found in Saveur
Serves 4
1 large head of cabbage, cored
Olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 TB fennel seed
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup red chard, sliced into thin ribbons then chopped crosswise
1 32oz can pureed tomatoes
1 lb ground lean ground chuck (or ground lamb would be delicious, too)
3 TB beef stock
1/3 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp paprika or smoked paprika (my personal favorite)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
Bring a large, deep pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, add the head of cabbage using a giant fork and cook, pulling off each leaf as it cook with some tongs, about 2 minutes per leaf until you get 9-10 leaves. Let drain and cool on some paper towels.
Heat a tsp or two of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onions and celery. Saute but do not caramelize. Add the fennel seeds, garlic, chard and the pepper flakes. Continue to saute until both the onions and celery are translucent and your kitchen is fragrant. Add the tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Add the tomato puree. Stir then simmer until the sauce starts to reduce, thicken and again become very fragrant, about 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ground beef, beef stock, carrots, paprika, egg and salt and pepper. Don't over-mix or the stuffing will be tough. Lightly stir using only your fingertips until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Lay out your cabbage leaves like little green dishes. Divide the filling between all the leaves. Fold the leaves up one by one by folding in the sides, then rolling the other way into a tidy ball. Place the rolls into an 8"x8" (or 9"x9") baking dish that you've sprayed with non-stick spray. Once all the rolls are in there, cover with the tomato sauce. Bake until the filling is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
If you don't care much about being Kosher, you could sprinkle the top with feta cheese or Parmesan as an added touch. I don't use cheese as there is so much flavor already I don't think it needs it.
Mazel tov, amore!
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