Butternut Steaks, Not Rice & Beans, Stuffed Acorns, Moqueca, Simple Eggplant Parm

Butternut Steaks
So I was looking for a different way to serve veggies and came up with the idea of serving a main veg with a side.  Whoopie!  Everyone has the same idea...  

Then I saw this butternut squash and decided to cut and treat it like a steak.  Made a batch of quinoa instead of rice, just to be different.  Topped it with a dab of butter and some shredded parmesan.   Nuked the squash a couple minutes to par-cook it, then brushed it with BBQ sauce and broiled it a few minutes on each side.  Butternut Steak and Parmesan Quinoa!

Not Rice & Beans
It just isn't.  Looks sorta like it though.  Tastes sort like it too.  Must be the beans...
This is more concept than recipe.

Make a batch of quinoa according to package directions.  I did that for the Butternut Steaks, above.  Had lots of cooked quinoa left over.

Cook up some beans; or open a can, drain and rinse.  Combine "some" beans and "some" quinoa.  Heat and eat.

Stuffed Acorns
Or is that "Leftover Quinoa #3"?? 

Par cook the squash 3 minutes in the microwave.  Split in half.  Remove the seeds.
Cook some BBQ shrimp (shrimp & BBQ sauce in a pan, saute until shrimp turn pink -- 5 minutes).

Make a stuffing or use leftover Rice & Quinoa.  Put a couple shrimp in the squash cup, fill with quinoa & beans, top with a couple more shrimp...

Moqueca
This is a fabulous, only as spicy as you want it, Brazilian seafood stew.

1-1/2 to 2 lbs Mixed Seafood -- I like cod or other firm white fish and shrimp.  You can use any combo you want
1/4 cup or so Lime Juice
2 Bell Peppers -- Red and yellow or green, cut large dice
1 Onion -- large dice
3 Green Onions, chopped.  Yes two kinds of onion.
3 cloves Garlic, minced
2-3 large Beefsteak Tomatoes -- trust me, do not use canned tomatoes here -- chopped
1/4 cup more or less Cilantro -- yes the dish absolutely requires some cilantro or it just isn't right
1 can Coconut Milk, not Cream or Water
Salt & Pepper, TT
Red Pepper Flakes, TT

Marinate the seafood in the lime juice while you work on the rest of the dish. 

In a splash of EVOO, saute the onions, then add the bell peppers and garlic.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Cook until tender.  

Stir in the coconut milk.  Now tuck the pieces of seafood into the vegetable medley and simmer for 15 minutes or so until everything is cooked through.   Top with chopped cilantro and serve over or alongside white or yellow rice.

Eggplant Parm
There are a zillion ways to make this classic dish.  Some tortuously long and complicated, some quick and easy.  My way tends towards the latter.  This is one of Sally's favorite dishes and she really likes this version.

1-3 Eggplants  -- enough for 2 layers in your 8x12 or 9x13 baking dish
1 jar Pasta Sauce -- we like the ethics and flavors of Newman's Owntm
1/2 cup more or less Panko bread crumbs
6-8 oz shredded Italian cheese blend
1/4 cup or so Parmesan in a can.
Italian Seasoning to taste

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 or thicker disks.  Lay them out on a baking tray, drizzle with EVOO, dust with Italian Seasoning, and broil 3-5 minutes per side until just browning.

Lay down a layer of the broiled eggplant in your baking dish.  Top with half the pasta sauce.  Top that with a good amount of bread crumbs, then the two cheeses.

Repeat with a second layer.  Bake for 30 minutes or so @ 350F to warm everything up and melt the cheeses.

White Asparagus Tart, White Bean Soup, Chopped Salad, and more...

It's White Week (but not snow white) here in Southwest Florida!  Two great white (but not shark) dishes for your delectation.  Sorry, MIB and Beatles fans, I have no cooking reference for the White Album!

White Asparagus and Broccoli Tart
Got some white asparagus from the Co-op this week.  I'd never worked with it before and figured I'd make something special.  The tedious part is peeling the tough skin from the stems.  A time consuming, but very, very tasty creation!

Crust
1-1/3 cup AP flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
zest of a lemon or orange
1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, cold, cut up
1 Egg Beaten
1 tsp Vanilla, Lemon or Orange extract

Whisk together first 5 ingredients.  Cut in the butter to 'coarse meal'.  Add egg and extract and stir with a fork to combine.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide into 4 piles.  Smear each pile once or twice with the palm of your hand to incorporate the butter.  Gather the piles together and form into a 5" or 6" disk.  Wrap in cling film and store in the fridge at least 30 minutes.

Filling
1 lb White Asparagus, peeled and trimmed 1/2 off the butts
1 head of Broccoli, rinsed, broken into small florettes (about 2 cups), and dried
1 Tbsp Butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
1-1/3 cups Half & Half or Heavy Cream
3 Eggs, beaten
2 tsp Rosemary

Cook the asparagus in boiling salted water until just tender - 5-8 minutes.  Transfer to chilled/iced water to stop the cooking.  Drain and pat dry.  Cut off and reserve the tips, then slice stems into 1" logs.

Preheat oven to 375F.  While that's going on:

Heat butter in a skillet and saute the broccoli for 2-3 minutes, then add the asparagus logs.  Salt & pepper to taste.  Remove from the heat.

Whisk together the eggs, dairy and rosemary.

Assembly
Roll the crust out on wax or parchment paper to fit your 11" tart pan.  Transfer crust and trim to fit.  Spread asparagus/broccoli mix in the uncooked shell, then pour the egg/dairy mix over.

Bake 20 minutes.  Spread the reserved asparagus tips on top.  Bake another 30 minutes, until custard is golden but still wobbly in center.   Cool 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

This is a great dish!  The crust has become my new favorite tart crust.  But I have to say that all the hype is about the color, not the taste. 

White asaparagus, as far as my taste buds can tell, is pretty blah...  I think this dish, done with regular asparagus, would be much tastier.  The peeling technique would help you use the whole of the stems, instead of throwing away the butts.

Asparagus Tart Too

Earlier in the week I made a different savory tart with ordinary asparagus and sundried tomato bits on a new (to me) Pillsbury pre-made crust.  There are two varieties -- a 12" round regular crust and a 10x13 thin crust.  This time I used the 10x13 crust.

Slices of goat cheese, diced sundried tomato bits, and par-cooked asparagus cut into 1" lengths.  

White Bean & Dumpling Soup
I borrowed this recipe from a Sara Moulton article in the Sunday paper last week.  Up north folks are still freezing, and this recipe will help you fight the chill.

2 Eggs
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
2 oz fresh Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Sage
2 Tbsp EVOO
1/2 cup diced Onion
1 cup diced Carrot
1-1/2 cups diced Fennel
2 tsp minced Garlic
2 cups cooked White Beans rinsed & drained; canned or cooked from dry
4 cups Broth or water
8 oz chopped Kale, Spinach or combination of greens of choice
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice or to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

Beat the eggs; stir in the breadcrumbs and sage.  Chill 30 minutes, then roll into 12 dumpling balls.

In your pot, cook the carrot, fennel, onion over medium heat, stirring, until lightly browned -- 12-15 minutes.  Add the garlic.

Now add the beans and broth to the pot.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer -- cook 15 minutes.  Add the dumplings and simmer, covered, another 10 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups of solids (but not the dumplings), and a little liquid to a food processor, and whirrrr until smooth.  Return to the pot, add the greens and simmer until the greens wilt.  Add the lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls,  with 2-3 dumplings per serving.

Thick, rich and filling.  Very tasty.   This'll warm the cockles...!


Besan Flatbread
Besan is a fancy name for chickpea flour, especially if you find it in an Indian or Middle Eastern market.  The same chickpea flour you can use to make the Falafal I talked about last week, instead of grinding up chickpeas you spend all day (seemingly) cooking!   Besan is also good for making a variety of flatbreads or griddlebreads which are not baked.  These flatbread, because of the baking soda and baking powder, have the consistency and look of an American pancake.  Perfect for wrapping around a spicy sausage for a quick lunch.

1 cup Besan
1 cup Water
1 Egg
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
Optional additions like sesame seeds, spices like cumin or ras al hanut, etc...

Mix everything together and let it rest at least 5 minutes before cooking.  Use a lightly oiled griddle or a non-stick pan on medium high for cooking.

Ladle the mixture onto the surface and let it like a pancake until the bottom is golden and bubbles in the surface stay broken.  Flip and cook for another minute.

Sally's Chopped Salad
It's been quite awhile since I made this; maybe 2 years.  Sally loves this for her lunch, with a little dressing to pour over.  If you don't have a SaladMastertm machine like we do, you can still make this salad with just a knife and a cutting board, or the big side of a box grater.  But the SaladMaster makes this so much faster. Amounts of each veg vary depending on how much total salad you want to make.  Experiment to find ratios of this veg to that which you prefer.  Have fun.

These are my more or less standard ingredients, all raw, not cooked:
Daikon
Jicama (peeled)
Apple
Celery
Carrot
Red Bell Pepper
Zucchini
Cherry Tomatoes

Optional
Snow Peas
Beets (peeled)
Fennel
Turnip
Onion (skinned)

Wash the veggies.  Chop, large-grate, or dice everything, and toss to combine. 

Serve with a dressing -- I like Bleu Cheese or Ranch, Sally prefers a Raspberry or Mango Vinaigrette.

New Shakshuka Presentation
For Valentine's Day I got these beautiful matching wooden trivets -- perfect to present my mini-skillet Shakshuka, which the guests on Sunday requested.  Each 5" cast-iron skillet holds half a cup of the tomato base, plus the egg cracked on top and poached.

Pizza, Jam, Bean Rissoles, Falafel, Bread Pudding, Oh My!

Shrimp & Mushroom Pizza
You need a recipe for pizza?  I got a new Pillsbury pre-made crust from Publix.  Comes in a clear plastic rectangular tube.  The dough is rolled around parchment paper which makes it easy to in-roll onto your pan.  The one I picked was a 12" round standard crust.  They also have a thin-crust version.

Shrimp (I used Gulf Pinks)
Mushrooms
Red Bell Pepper
Onion
Base Sauce -- I used a thin brush of Alfredo
Cheese -- I used a wonderful Garden Vegetable & Sweet Basil cheese from Aldi's, plus some shredded sharp white cheddar.

Black Bean Rissoles
My take on a recipe by Food Network's Sandra Lee.  Sandra made hers to be served as burgers on buns.

2 cups dried Black Beans, cooked until tender (or 2 cans of BB)
1/2 Sweet Onion, diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 Tbsp  minced Parsley
1 Egg
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 cup Bread Crumbs
S&P or other seasoning to taste

In a food processor whirr half the rinsed and drained black beans, the onion, garlic, egg parsley and pepper flakes.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add half the remaining beans  and bread crumbs.  Season to taste. Mash into 4 - 6 patties.  I made these four giant "rissole" patties; but you can easily make 6 standard hamburger size patties from this batch, and serve them on buns.

Fry on an oiled grill, about 6 minutes per side.

Here I served the rissoles with a slice of heirloom tomato and a drizzle of bleu cheese dressing.

This one's a keeper, folks -- even if you aren't a vegetarian!!


Falafel with Tzatziki
If you've never had them, falafel are sort of Middle Eastern hushpuppies --  golden brown and delicious knobs of deep fried batter.  Hushpuppies use cornmeal.  Falafel use garbanzo, a.k.a. chickpea meal/flour.

1 cup cooked Garbanzos/Chickepeas we prefer home cooked dried chickpeas to those in the can
with preservatives, but they work just fine.
2 cloves Garlic
3 + Tbsp fresh minced Parsley
1 tsp Cumin, ground or seeds
1 tsp Coriander
2 Tbsp Flour
Pinch of Salt
1-2 Tbsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 Egg

Put everything (except the eggshell) in your food processor, and take it for a whirrrr until you get a thick paste.  Transfer to another contain and chill for at least an hour.

Don't want to mess with the hour plus cooking of chickpeas, or the salt of canned garbanzos?  You can buy Chickpea Flour.  Bob's Red Milltm makes it, and I can get it in bulk at the local health food store.  I'm sure there are other sources

Fry in about 1/2" of oil at 350F about 6 minutes per side or until GB&D.

While the batter is chilling, make the Tzatziki:
"some" plain yogurt - 3/4 cup or so
"some" diced cucumber -- about 3" length of peeled and seeded cuke, diced small
"some" fresh or dried dill -- to taste (I like a lot)
"some" lemon juice -- maybe quarter of a lemon's worth

Stir it all together -- voilà -- Tzatziki, a Greek/Middle Eastern dipping sauce; also good on gyros, lamb, burgers, etc.

Florida Bread & Butter Pudding
Had lots of leftover ends and bits of challah bread from our guests ordering my Florida French Toast breakfast.  Needed a dessert. This British version of the internationally favorite Bread Pudding dates back to at least 1728.  Of course I modified the recipe just a tiny bit to make it Floribbean:

2 Eggs
2 cups Half & Half, warmed but not boiled
Butter to spread
3/4 cup Sugar
Pinch Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
4 Tbsp Sugar, divided
1 tsp ORANGE extract (this is Florida, why use vanilla?)
Slices of leftover bread cut about 1/2" thick -- enough to fill a 8x12 baking dish
1/2-3/4 cup Raisins or Sultanas

In a large bowl, beat the eggs.  Now add the warm dairy, spices and 3 Tbsp sugar, whisking all the while.  Stir to combine.  This makes what the Brits would call a custard.

Butter each slice of bread and lay them out, overlapping, butter side up in the baking dish, with some raisins between each piece and sprinkled over all.

Slowly pour the custard over the bread.  Press the bread down into the liquid so it absorbs the custard.  Let the pudding rest to thoroughly soak up goodness, while the oven preheats to 350F.

Sprinkle the remaining sugar overall.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Serve with my Florida Pudding Sauce:
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
Pinch of Salt
1-2/3 cups Water
3 Tbsp Butter
2 tsp Orange Extract (again, this is Florida, not the UK)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a sauce pan with the water, stirring until smooth as the liquid comes to a boil over medium heat.  Cook and stir 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens.  Stir in the butter Orange extract and nutmeg.  Serve over warm pudding.

Sally and her Mum approved!   They did mention that in England, often there was more of the custard so that the bread was even soggier.  I suppose it depends on the kind of bread and its ability to absorb the liquid.   Next time with this bread and recipe, I'll make maybe 3 cups of dairy and a cup of sugar...

Want even more of an orange kick?  Try experimenting with frozen OJ concentrate instead of the extract.


Blood Orange Marmalade and Star Fruit Jam
You've seen my microwave marmalades many times.  Here it is with "Moro" Blood Oranges -- the BEST!  

I also "rescued" a bunch of nearly over-ripe starfruit from a tree down the way from Sally's, so I pureed them with sugar and slow cooked them down-and-down-and-down to make a simple jam shown on the right.

Cauliflower Shrimp & Grits, Stuffed Eggplant, Shakshuka

Cauliflower Shrimp & Grits
Ever had an idea for a dish, only to discover that someone else had it first?  I had a head of cauliflower that needed using, and woke up the other morning with this Cauliflower Shrimp and Grits recipe fully formed in my head.  I go to the internet and type in that phrase, and discover, of course that 'way more than one other person had had the same thought.  Here's my version.

1 head Cauliflower
1 cup Dairy (half & half, milk, non-dairy white stuff)
1 cup shredded white Cheese
White Pepper to taste
4-8  Shrimp per person, peeled
Cajun Seasoning or BBQ Sauce, to taste
2 cups chopped Greens (kale, chard, spinach, mustard, etc.)

"Rice" the cauliflower -- turn it into rice or grit size bits with a box grater, food processor, or whatever.  Cook the "rice" in a pot with the dairy and white pepper until you get something that resembles grits.  Add the cheese and stir to combine.

Saute the shrimp in a skillet with the Cajun seasoning and/or BBQ sauce.  Remove from the skillet and reserve.  Wilt the greens in the skillet.

Plate the grits, then greens, and top with the shrimp.   


New Stuffed Eggplant
I decided it was time to change things up a bit in the Stuffed Eggplant department, so I went looking for a new treatment.

1 medium-large eggplant, halved lengthwise
1-1/2 cup garbanzos
1/2 cup cooked Farro or Barley
2/3 cup Bell Pepper, diced (I used red and yellow for color)
3 Green Onions, chopped
1 cup Pomitm fine chopped Tomatoes
1/2 tsp Ras al Hanut spice blend or to taste

Roast the eggplant at 350F for 30-45 minutes, until nicely softened.

While that's going on, combine everything else in a pot of the stovetop and simmer to marry the flavors and reduce the liquid.  The Ras al Hanut gives the dish a nice touch of 'warm' spices.

When the eggplant is cooked, use the back of a serving spoon to press a cavity into the flat side of the eggplant, and ladle the sauce into it and more.

If you're using small eggplants, you can serve this dish with a side of rice or farro or couscous.


New Shakshuka Presentation
One of the things Sally got me for Christmas was a pair of small (5" diameter) Lodgetm cast iron skillets.  She knew I was looking for a better way to prepare and serve individual portions of Shakshuka to our AirBnb guests.  Last week we had a couple staying with us who requested the "Shak".  So I made a bit of extra tomato base, and did a test-run above and beyond the Breakfast for Two servings:

Works just great!  That's a half cup of bubbling tomato base topped with one egg poached on the base until the yolk is just set.  A perfect breakfast for one when served along with a side of toast and chef-made marmalade.

To make the base, you need "petite cut" diced tomatoes, or a can of Mild Ro*Teltm tomatoes, and a tablespoon of Ras el Hanut the quintessential Moroccan spice blend (available at World Market or other spice suppliers).  Mix the tomatoes and spice, and mash the blend to make the tomato chunks even smaller.

Get the tomatoes bubbling in the skillet and then carefully crack on the egg(s).  You can make this dish for a group for breakfast or dinner, using a 12" or larger skillet, much more tomato base, and 6 or more eggs.

For local readers, I understand  that Cafe YOU over in Cape Coral serves Shakshuka.  I'm going to have to try it there and see how it compares to mine.