Chum Cioppino & Friend Fondue

This past weekend nothing really went as planned. It was the weekend epitome of "life is what happens when you are making plans." Planned to go to Tahoe...bowed out of that. Planned to go to the MOMA and get Irish Coffee in SF...weather ruined that. Overall, though, the weekend turned out quite nice, even though nothing was according to plan. Sometimes the best things happen when being spontaneous, which was exactly this meal. Again, I "planned" to have a girls sleepover, but friends ended up being sick or just being able to make dinner. So I decided to invite a few girlfriends over for a bit o'chatting (aka gossiping) and sharing a wonderful meal.

I've never had cioppino but I've seen friends order it at restaurants and it looked quite scrumptious. Plus, the appeal of a one-pot meal with minimal preparation was quite enticing. Ok, I take that back, the minimal preparation is ONLY true if you buy peeled and deveined shrimp (which I HIGHLY recommend). Too bad I didn't. I admit, at first it was pretty gross

to literally extract the poop from shrimp, but you get the hang of it after while or an hour...agh.

This dish was really yummy and even more so the next day after the flavors married. It makes a TON, so definitely use it for a multi-person meal.

Comrade Cioppino

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

• 3/4 cup butter (next time I would use EVOO just to a little healthier)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 cups white wine (I used Vermouth - do not use a sweet white wine).

1/4 cup of fish stock or a bottle of clam juice

• 1 pounds large shrimp - peeled and deveined
• 18 small clams
• 18 mussels, cleaned and debearded
• 1 pounds cod fillets, cubed
• 
  

1) Over medium-low heat melt butter or heat EVOO in a large stockpot. Add onion, garlic and parsley and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is soft and translucent.

2) Add tomatoes and break down with spoon. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, basil, thyme, oregano and wine and fish stock or clam juice. Mix well. Cover and simmer for an hour.

3) Stir in clams, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until clams open.

4) Stir in mussels, shrimp and cod and simmer for another 5 minutes until shrimp are cooked through and the mussels open. The shrimp are cooked when their color turns pink and they curl.

5) Ladle into bowls and serve immediately. Discard any clams and mussels that did not open.

For dessert I stuck with the "one-pot" theme and made a simple, yet delicious chocolate fondue. You do not need a fondue pot in order to make fondue or a mini-burner to keep it warm. The great thing about this recipe is that it makes SO much that the fondue stays warm and liquidy long after taking it off the stove-top.

I ended up with about 4 cups of leftover fondue and this is AFTER four girls made a huge dent in the fondue. So I recommend either cutting the recipe in half or using the leftovers to make

chocolate truffles, which I ended up doing.

Friend Fondue

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

32 ounces of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup of brewed coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I didn't have any on hand so I substituted a little less than 1 tsp of almond extract).
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup hot water

1) In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate with the heavy cream. Mix in the coffee, vanilla extract, sugar, and hot water. Continue to heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth.

2) We used the following goodies to dip in the fondue: strawberries, bananas, apples, pound cake

and pretzels

Chocolate Truffles from Fondue Leftovers:

If like me, you have a ton of fondue left over, then refrigerate overnight.

1) Take cold leftovers and form into truffle balls using a teaspoon. I recommend lightly flowering your hands and working quickly with the truffles so there isn't a sticky and chocolaty mess.

2) After forming your truffles, place back into refrigerator for another hour. Because the fondue had a lot of cream, the truffles will always be a bit soft. I coated my truffles in cocoa powder and toasted coconut. I stored them in a large tupperware, separating each layer with wax paper.

Spanikopita Stuffed Chicken

I got this recipe from a WeightWatchers Blog called SkinnyTaste, but it's delicious AND HEALTHY!

Spinach pie filling stuffed inside a chicken breast, baked to perfection, oh my! This is one of my experiments gone better than expected. This makes 9 pieces of chicken, so you wind up with 4 1/2 servings.

• 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and juice squeezed out
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 cup (2.5 oz) fat free Feta cheese
• 1/3 cup fat free ricotta
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper
• 3 (1.25 lbs) chicken breast halves
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs (I used 4C and non whole wheat, whatever you have available. The italian breadcrumbs are delicious, too!)
• spray oil
• toothpicks

In a small sauté pan, heat oil. Add onions, garlic and scallions and sauté about 1 minute. Add spinach and parsley, salt and pepper and cook another minute. Remove from heat, add feta and ricotta cheese.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Slice chicken breast halves into 3 thin cutlets. Pound them to make them thinner. This helps when you wrap the cutlets. Season chicken with salt and pepper.



Place just under 1/4 cup of spinach mixture in the center of the chicken. Roll it and secure the ends with toothpicks to prevent filling from coming out. It's ok if it's not perfect. The egg wash and breadcrumbs keep everything in place.



Dip chicken into egg wash, then breadcrumbs.



Spray cookie sheet with oil and place chicken on cookie sheet. Lightly spray chicken with oil and bake about 25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove toothpicks and serve.

Nutrition:
Calories: 205
Fat: 3.8 g
Protein: 32.0 g
Carb: 10.6 g
Fiber: 2.6 g

Stuffed Mushrooms

Yesterday a group of us had a Valentines' day potluck dinner, and these stuffed mushrooms were my contribution. It's a super easy recipe - just requires some chopping and mixing and then you're essentially done! I love the end result because the dish is pretty unique and light, so you can fit a lot in your stomach at one time. The flavors come together really well, and Pecorino Romano cheese is super yummy.

Taken from Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network website: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/stuffed-mushrooms-recipe/index.html


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Stir the bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano, garlic, parsley, mint, salt and pepper, to taste, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.

Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat. Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange on the baking sheet, cavity side up. Drizzle remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom. Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top, about 25 minutes. Serve

A Smitten Feast

Last week?...Two weeks ago? (whoa, time flies) I put together an impromptu dinner party with some close friends. The dinner party sort of snowballed from my impulse to make these two dishes that I have been eying for quite some time. The problem was that I could not consume these two dishes by my lonesome. I take that back. I definitely COULD consume these two dishes by my lonesome, but I really shouldn't and definitely not in one sitting. Henceforth, The Impromptu Dinner Party was born! Problem was, however, after inviting a few friends, I figured I will have to make MORE food. Well, not so much a problem, because I love to cook but a conundrum because I want to make sure that there is enough food to fill everyone, but not SO much food that I could have TWO impromptu dinner parties. Overall, I think it was a success! It was my first dinner that I have every hosted by myself and cooked every dish. Sort of a mini-challenge. At one point I had to make a timeline of when I would begin each dish so that most of everything would be ready to consume when the party-goers arrived.

I pulled all of the recipes, minus one, from www.smittenkitchen.com. (hence, the name of the post =) I love this blog and I always highly recommend it! Because of the many recipes I used for the party, I will just post the links to each recipe and then add comments if I changed anything.

Enjoy!

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/11/chicken-with-forty-cloves-of-garlic/

*So incredibly good. The chicken turned out so moist and the juices from the chicken/garlic made an awesome gravy over the dish. I recommend using even MORE than 40 cloves of garlic.

White Bean Roasted Red Pepper Dip: http://sm

ittenkitchen.com/2007/08/dorkalicious/

*A great and easy-peasy dip recipe. PLEASE drain the juices from the roasted red peppers. If not, it will make the dip very liquidy. This happened to me, so I added extra can of beans, which thickened it up nicely. Also recommend adding Hot Sauce/Chihula sauce to your taste. Adds a nice kick!

Pearl Couscous w/Olives & Roasted Tomatoes: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/pearly-whites/

*One of my favorite go to recipes on this blog. Although it's easy and quite h

ands off, it does take a while to roast the tomatoes (which you can do ahead of time) and cook/cool the couscous. Highly recommend for a potluck dish cause you serve it cold and can be made ahead of time.

Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/12/garlic-butter-roasted-

mushrooms/

*Probably the biggest hit of the night. Again, a super easy and very hands off recipe. You don't even need to chop the mushrooms. Oh, I bought a jar of ready-to-use minced garlic, cause it is one of my pet peeves to chop/mince garlic. Seriously saves my sanity when cooking. If I possessed foresight I would have doubled this recipe because it was that good. Use bread to dip in the sauce.

Barley Risotto w/Butternut Squash: http://gastronomyblog.com/2011/01/14/barley-risotto-with-butternut-squash-and-fried-sage/

*I love risotto and I love butternut squash so this was the perfect combination. I didn't make the fried sage leaves...seemed too time consuming for such a small accent to the dish. Next time I would have roasted the butternut squash pieces for less time cause mine started to caramelize (which isn't bad at all!), but for this recipe I would have preferred just soft cubes. I love barely because it has more a bite to it than using arborio rice in a traditional risotto. I'd like to think that this is a slightly healthier version of risotto.

Vanilla Roasted Pears w/Vanilla Bean Ice Cream: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/12/vanilla-roasted-pears/

*I've wanted to try roasted pears for quite some time because it seems so easy. It was easy, but I was sort of underwhelmed by the flavor. It seemed to lack a balance between the vanilla flavor and the pears. More pear-y than vanilla-y. And the pears didn't soften up that much even though I kept them in the oven for quite some time. I think I would recommend making them in a small baking dish or using more pears so that they almost touch when they are baking. Would have used a little more butter and vanilla in order to hike up the flavor and increase the sauce.

Gotta admit, it was exhausting to cook all this food but I would love to host another dinner party...in the far...far...future =) Well, maybe this month =)

Michael Jackson Brownies (aka Blondies)

(Click for a larger picture)

Blondies are basically chocolate chip cookies that have the consistency of brownies (get it? brownies vs. blondies!). They are a bit doughier than brownies are, but they are delicious. I've made this twice with my friends already and each time, we eat way more than we should, but we don't feel too guilty about it because we cut the pieces small and hey, they're delicious, have I mentioned that? They are also really easy, simple, and quick to make.

I got the recipe off of smittenkitchen.com. These blondies are pretty rich, like brownies, and they don't require any baking soda or powder because they don't need to rise. As a result, they are very dense and doughy.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 c) unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour
• See recipe link (here) for other additions, like chocolate chips (my preference), butterscotch chips, nuts, etc.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Melt the butter, add in sugar, then eggs, then vanilla.
3. Add flour and salt
4. Add additives
5. Butter a 8x8 inch pan (I use a 12x13 pan because I don't have an 8x8, but I double the recipe)
6. Spread batter onto the pan evenly. It should be about 1 inch thick.
7. Bake 20-25 minutes, but don't bake too long or they will become dry. I usually take them out at 20 minutes, when the top looks dry and flaky, and a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Hearty Meat Lasagna

I LOVE lasagna! Every time I see a casserole or plate of lasagna, I can imagine eating the entire thing. This is an official recipe from "The New Best Recipe" cookbook, however once you've learned the fundamentals of lasagna making, you can substitute ingredients as you please!!

Serves 6-8 (or One)

Tomato-Meat-Sauce

1 tablespoon Olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine

6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press

1 pound meat loaf mix of 1/3 pound each: ground beef chuck, ground veal or ground pork

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ heavy cream

1 (28 oz.) can pureed tomatoes

1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained

Ricotta-Mozzarella, and Pasta Layers

15 oz. whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese

2 ½ oz. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1 large egg, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

12 no-boil lasagna noodles

1 lbs. whole-milk mozzarella cheese shredded

1. 375 degrees

2. Sauce: heat oil in heavy Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering, but not smoking, about 2 minutes. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally until softened but not browned, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the ground meat, salt and pepper; cook, breaking meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until the meat looses raw color but has not browned, about 4 minutes. Add the cream and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates and only the fat remains, about 4 minutes. Add the pureed and drained diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer; reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly until the flavors are blended, about 3 minutes; set sauce aside. (Sauce can be covered and refrigerated for 2 days before assembling.)

3. Layers (Ricotta mix): Mix ricotta, 1 cup of Parmesan, the basil egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl with a fork until well combined and creamy; set aside.

4. Smear bottom for a 13x9-inch baking dish with ¼ cup of meat sauce (avoiding large chunks of meat). Place three noodles in the baking dish to create the first layer. Drop three tablespoons of the ricotta mixture down the center of each noodle and level the domed mounds by pressing with the back side of a measuring spoon. Sprinkle the later evenly with 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella cheese. Spoon 1 ½ cups of the meat sauce evenly over the cheese. Repeat the layering of noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and the sauce two more times. Place the 3 remaining noodles on top of the sauce, spread the remaining sauce over the noodles, sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella, then remaining ¼ cup Parmasan. Lightly spray a large sheet of foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna.

5. Bake: 15 minutes, then remove foil. Then return into oven for another 25 minutes, until sauce is boiling and cheese is spotty brown. Cool lasagna for 10 minutes then serve.

Notes: I added spinach in this lasagna. Instead of the meat suggested here, I used a half pound of ground lean turkey and a half pound of Italian sausage (taking the raw meat from the sausage casing). In addition, once I saw the sauce boiling, I changed the oven to broil. It's important to keep an eye on your cheese, because the browning happens quickly! Happy cooking!

What, like it's hard?
Well it turns out, it IS hard. And I'm not the only one who thinks so...a while ago I caught an episode of Hell's Kitchen during whcih Chef Ramsay made a big deal about how difficult risotto is to perfect. Nethertheless, this did not prevent me from attempting a yummy risotto recipe I found on allrecipes.com (see recipe below).

This was yet another "learning experience" for me. Don't get me wrong, it pretty tasty, but it didn't necessarily, fully, um, come together. First of all, the recipe calls for both Arobrio and wild rice. Do you know how long wild rice takes to cook?! A LONG TIME. I don't see how making this risotto with wild rice is supposed to happen, there's no way it can get soft enough in the amount of time the recipe says it should take, or with the amount of vegetable stock/white wine/butter that the risotto is supposed to soak up. All of that liquid was soaked up and my pan was starting to burn at the bottom so I had to quit it and just deal with hard wild rice.

However, if you precook the wild rice or just nix it from the recipe altogether, this is quite a yummy recipe. The best part is the Gorgonzola and butternut squash that was pre-baked in maple syrup. In fact, I think I am going to start baking squash in syrup and eating it as a vegetable side dish now that I have seen the light thanks to this recipe.

The shiitake mushrooms and white wine also added great flavor to the risotto, but the recipe calls for dried mushrooms which are 1) expensive and 2) take a while to soften up, even after being soaked in water for half an hour. Therefore, I would say you can just use regular, not dried shitake mushrooms if you attempt this one.

I'm not so good at taking pictures of food yet, so this photograph really doesn't do the dish justice. It was a good blend of flavors and I learned a lot about cooking rice, mushrooms, and squash.

Ingredients

* 3 ounces dried sliced shiitake mushrooms
* 4 cups water
* 4 cups cubed butternut squash
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
* 4 cups vegetable stock
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1 large onion, finely chopped
* 1 cup wild rice
* 2 cups Arborio rice
* 1 cup dry white wine
* 1 (4 ounce) container crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
* salt and ground black pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Combine the shiitake mushrooms and water in a bowl, assuring the mushrooms are covered with water; allow to soak until the mushrooms have softened, about 30 minutes. Drain and reserve the liquid for later use.
2. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
3. Toss the butternut squash, olive oil, and maple syrup together in a bowl until the squash is evenly coated. Spread onto a baking sheet.
4. Roast the squash in the preheated oven until tender yet retains its shape, about 30 minutes; set aside.
5. Bring the vegetable stock and the reserved liquid from the mushrooms to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.
6. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat; when the butter begins to foam, stir the onion into the butter and cook until the onions are soft and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir the wild rice and the Arborio rice through the onions until evenly mixed and coated. Add the white wine and mushrooms to the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has been absorbed, 7 to 10 minutes.
7. Pour enough of the simmering stock mixture into the skillet to cover the rice; cook and stir until the liquid is nearly completely absorbed. Continue adding stock about 3/4 cups at a time, allowing each batch to absorb into the mixture before adding the next. Cook and stir until the rice is tender, about 35 minutes total. Add the butternut squash; cook until the squash is hot, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Quickly stir the Gorgonzola cheese and parsley into the mixture until the risotto is moist and creamy; remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper; serve immediately.