There's a reason why you don't find certain dishes at restaurants, like this one. It didn't come out tasting too bad. I mean, it's edible.
Among apples and squash, it is also pear season out here in the Pacific Northwest. You name it, bosc, red anjou, green anjou, etc. The fruit is plentiful and inexpensive to procure a few pounds of each. The pear, while delicate in flavor, tastes fairly strong when not fully ripened. The flesh is firm and it stands up to harsher cooking methods like frying versus poaching.
I have really only seen sweet preparations of pears: pear tartlets, pear and almond tarts, pear jam, preserved pears, pear bread, poached pears with honey and rosewater, pear paired with much stronger flavored cheeses like bleu and Gorgonzola, pear salad. It is the sweetness that the pear brings that allows some dishes to flourish across continents and cuisines.
I tried a dish on a whim tonight using an almost though not quite ripe bosc pear. It has an interesting taste that might just stay as bachelorette cooking and not something to be served up to guests. Broccoli isn't my favorite vegetable, but it is readily available during winter and aside from frying, blanching, steaming, baking, roasting, or boiling it into a soup, it's a pretty boring vegetable to eat. Nonetheless, it's what was starting to wilt in my fridge.
I wanted to do something different. Be experimental. I made this one up as I was cooking it:
1 small broccoli head with stem
1 bosc pear, cored and diced
2 tbsp EVOO (for frying)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
dash of salt
Heat the oil until hot but not smoking. Add the pear and broccoli stem slices and sauté.
Add the broccoli florets, vinegar, and soy sauce. Stir fry until the florets turn a dark green color.
Remove from heat and serve.
The flavor combinations of this ratio is a bit "off" and lacks the basics of cooking fundamentals, but who the hell cares? I was cooking for one and not for guests. I enjoy every ingredient by itself on this ingredient list and I know what pairs really well with pears.
In retrospect, any type of fruity vinegar--balsamic, apple cider, or rice wine vinegar--is likely too sweet for this dish. It really brought out the sugary taste of the bosc. That was unexpected. Just so you know. I don't have any leftover broccoli. What is leftover in the dish is the diced pear.
And about the broccoli stem. That hard and thick, almost waxy skin that wraps around the broccoli stem that most Americans and restaurants throw away? It can be peeled and the inner stem is quite tender.
Meat Lasagna
Finally a use for leftover spaghetti sauce. About a week ago I made spaghetti the same way I always do. The first meal of it is always served up over al dente pasta; for me, that'd be served over fusilli (the spiral shape). The second meal of it is generally served over toasted garlic bread. It's a grain, so, just skip the noodles and go straight to the bread. The third meal is usually over steamed rice. Ok, so you can see where this iteration of spaghetti sauce is going? After the second spaghetti meal, I decided to use the remainder of the sauce to make lasagna.
This is something I hadn't ever considered making before even though I really enjoy eating it: meat lasagna. Although, I'm not terribly a fan of cheese. I can eat cheese. There are a few types of cheese that I prefer above all others. But hey, lasagna is a tradition and should be made with its traditional cheese inclusions. I'm just not one to really stock three different cheeses on my fridge at the same time. For this dish, I made a special trip to the grocery store and picked up 8 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese.
This is my first time cooking with mozzarella cheese; heck, it was my first time buying the cheese. I don't know why my friend Matt loves the cheese. It is really quite bland, IMHO. Most lasagna recipes call for parmesan cheese.. a lot of it, like more than 8 oz... of a hard cheese that is typically used as a condiment or bread topping. Anyhow. No parmesan cheese in this recipe.
I did struggle a bit with preparing the lasagna noodles; seeing how my largest stockpot was already housing the quarts of spaghetti sauce. Here's what I did for the noodles. Remember the magic crockpot I picked up about two months ago? It became really useful to parboil the noodles enough so that when I picked them up, they didn't break. The noodles didn't need to be cooked to al dente. I put all the noodles (for this batch, I used 9 lasagna noodles--3 for each layer) in the crockpot with some olive oil and added boiling water twice. Drain noodles, drizzle olive oli, and set aside.
Ingredients
a leftover batch of spaghetti sauce (I may have had about two quarts)
9 lasagna noodles
8 oz fresh mozzarella, diced
3 oz extra cheese, any meltable kind (I used muenster cheese, 1/4" diced)
The quantity of lasagna noodles depends on the size of the dish you are going to bake the lasagna in. 9 noodles is enough for a 3-layer meat lasagna baked in a 9" x 13" x 2" baking dish. Although, I found out pretty quickly after the second layer that I didn't have enough cheese. Heck, I practically ran out of sauce too. Most instructions will tell you to bake the lasagna covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for the remaining 10-15. The uncovered baking is to melt the cheese, if you had any sprinkled on top. I didn't, so I didn't uncover the dish until I took it out of the oven.
Prepare the baking dish by adding some olive oil to the bottom and spreading it around.
Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on top of the oil. This is to keep the noodles from sticking to the pan.
Add the first layer of three lasagna noodles, side by side, in a single layer.
Next, sprinkle a layer of mozzarella cheese on top.
And, on top of that add a layer of meat sauce.
Repeat this until you are out of lasagna noodles, meat sauce, and cheese.
I don't know if the cheese is supposed to go first or if the meat sauce is. I really haven't examine the construction of past lasagna entreés all that closely.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.
No need to preheat the oven. If your covered lasagna is ready for the oven, stick it in there as the oven is heating up. This is a very forgiving recipe and does not care that you overheat it.
Makes a lot. Serves 8-10.
Why muenster cheese? It's what I had on hand to make sandwiches for lunch. Hmm...
Use whatever cheese you like in your recipe. These cheeses are awfully popular in lasagna: ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, and cottage.
Very tasty. I'd do it again if I had the ingredients on hand.
This is something I hadn't ever considered making before even though I really enjoy eating it: meat lasagna. Although, I'm not terribly a fan of cheese. I can eat cheese. There are a few types of cheese that I prefer above all others. But hey, lasagna is a tradition and should be made with its traditional cheese inclusions. I'm just not one to really stock three different cheeses on my fridge at the same time. For this dish, I made a special trip to the grocery store and picked up 8 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese.
This is my first time cooking with mozzarella cheese; heck, it was my first time buying the cheese. I don't know why my friend Matt loves the cheese. It is really quite bland, IMHO. Most lasagna recipes call for parmesan cheese.. a lot of it, like more than 8 oz... of a hard cheese that is typically used as a condiment or bread topping. Anyhow. No parmesan cheese in this recipe.
I did struggle a bit with preparing the lasagna noodles; seeing how my largest stockpot was already housing the quarts of spaghetti sauce. Here's what I did for the noodles. Remember the magic crockpot I picked up about two months ago? It became really useful to parboil the noodles enough so that when I picked them up, they didn't break. The noodles didn't need to be cooked to al dente. I put all the noodles (for this batch, I used 9 lasagna noodles--3 for each layer) in the crockpot with some olive oil and added boiling water twice. Drain noodles, drizzle olive oli, and set aside.
Ingredients
a leftover batch of spaghetti sauce (I may have had about two quarts)
9 lasagna noodles
8 oz fresh mozzarella, diced
3 oz extra cheese, any meltable kind (I used muenster cheese, 1/4" diced)
The quantity of lasagna noodles depends on the size of the dish you are going to bake the lasagna in. 9 noodles is enough for a 3-layer meat lasagna baked in a 9" x 13" x 2" baking dish. Although, I found out pretty quickly after the second layer that I didn't have enough cheese. Heck, I practically ran out of sauce too. Most instructions will tell you to bake the lasagna covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for the remaining 10-15. The uncovered baking is to melt the cheese, if you had any sprinkled on top. I didn't, so I didn't uncover the dish until I took it out of the oven.
Prepare the baking dish by adding some olive oil to the bottom and spreading it around.
Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on top of the oil. This is to keep the noodles from sticking to the pan.
Add the first layer of three lasagna noodles, side by side, in a single layer.
Next, sprinkle a layer of mozzarella cheese on top.
And, on top of that add a layer of meat sauce.
Repeat this until you are out of lasagna noodles, meat sauce, and cheese.
I don't know if the cheese is supposed to go first or if the meat sauce is. I really haven't examine the construction of past lasagna entreés all that closely.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.
No need to preheat the oven. If your covered lasagna is ready for the oven, stick it in there as the oven is heating up. This is a very forgiving recipe and does not care that you overheat it.
Makes a lot. Serves 8-10.
Why muenster cheese? It's what I had on hand to make sandwiches for lunch. Hmm...
Use whatever cheese you like in your recipe. These cheeses are awfully popular in lasagna: ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar, and cottage.
Very tasty. I'd do it again if I had the ingredients on hand.
Tuna Salad Sandwich
Of all the sandwiches that still taste really good to me as an adult, this is one of them. Egg salad sandwiches are another. And, a simple deli-sliced honey baked ham and cheese sandwich.. golly, I could (and have) eaten that every day for lunch without boredom.
This also pairs really well with flatbread crackers. It's easy to make and a batch of it can make two sandwiches. Strangely, I never thought about making this sandwich from scratch until recently. I like the tang that the pickle brings to the mixture.
Ingredients
6 oz can of chunk light tuna (used Tongol, in water with no salt added)
1 rib celery, finely chopped
3 tbsp organic mayonnaise
one small dill pickle, finely chopped
salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions
Mix all ingredients together and slather on top of toasted wheat bread or crackers. Enjoy.
The only difference between this and the egg salad sandwich is that you omit the tuna for the egg salad sandwich and add instead two hard boiled eggs (unshelled and chopped). Or at least, that's how I make these sandwiches.
This also pairs really well with flatbread crackers. It's easy to make and a batch of it can make two sandwiches. Strangely, I never thought about making this sandwich from scratch until recently. I like the tang that the pickle brings to the mixture.
Ingredients
6 oz can of chunk light tuna (used Tongol, in water with no salt added)
1 rib celery, finely chopped
3 tbsp organic mayonnaise
one small dill pickle, finely chopped
salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions
Mix all ingredients together and slather on top of toasted wheat bread or crackers. Enjoy.
The only difference between this and the egg salad sandwich is that you omit the tuna for the egg salad sandwich and add instead two hard boiled eggs (unshelled and chopped). Or at least, that's how I make these sandwiches.
Peach Cobbler II
The ingredient ratio for the basic dough recipe (no egg) comes from the Joy of Cooking, and I tried something new by rolling out and using cookie cutters on the biscuit dough. I was making a smaller cobbler batch. This one fills a 1.75 qt round glass baking dish. If you don't have a 2 qt round dish, you could also use an 8" x 8" baking dish.
In my haste, I forgot to add the cinnamon, cornstarch, and sugar to the fruit layer. Since it is peach season in the Pacific Northwest and these peaches are really ripe and sweet, it doesn't matter about the lack of added sugar in this recipe. Sugar is generally added to even out the sweetness of ripened fruit. But yeah, missing the cornstarch is definitely noticeable after the fact.
Biscuit dough:
1 1/2 c. unbleached wheat flour
1/2 c. unbleached cane sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp baking powder (aluminum free)
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cold
less than 3/4 cup heavy cream
Fruit filling:
4 ripe peaches, sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp unbleached cane sugar or brown sugar (optional)
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
1. Mix the fruit, brown sugar, nutmeg, and cornstarch together in a bowl and pour into a clean baking dish.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together and cut in the cold butter until it resembles a crumbly texture. Gradually stir in the heavy cream until the dough just sticks together.
3. Turn out the dough onto parchment paper and cover with another sheet of wax or parchment paper. Roll out to about 1/4" to 1/2" thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. I used heart-shaped cutters for this. Place biscuits on top of peaches.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Before and after baking photos:
In my haste, I forgot to add the cinnamon, cornstarch, and sugar to the fruit layer. Since it is peach season in the Pacific Northwest and these peaches are really ripe and sweet, it doesn't matter about the lack of added sugar in this recipe. Sugar is generally added to even out the sweetness of ripened fruit. But yeah, missing the cornstarch is definitely noticeable after the fact.
Biscuit dough:
1 1/2 c. unbleached wheat flour
1/2 c. unbleached cane sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp baking powder (aluminum free)
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cold
less than 3/4 cup heavy cream
Fruit filling:
4 ripe peaches, sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp unbleached cane sugar or brown sugar (optional)
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
1. Mix the fruit, brown sugar, nutmeg, and cornstarch together in a bowl and pour into a clean baking dish.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together and cut in the cold butter until it resembles a crumbly texture. Gradually stir in the heavy cream until the dough just sticks together.
3. Turn out the dough onto parchment paper and cover with another sheet of wax or parchment paper. Roll out to about 1/4" to 1/2" thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. I used heart-shaped cutters for this. Place biscuits on top of peaches.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Before and after baking photos:
Nut and Cheese Crackers
Ever wonder what marketers were thinking when they advertise a can of whole tomatoes as "wheat free" and "gluten free"? Well, I hope that canned tomatoes don't usually contain flour products because that would just be weird.
Well, unlike traditional crackers, these don't require any flour to make. And, all the salt in the recipe is already in the cheese; so there's no added salt either. It's pretty much two main ingredients coarsely ground together (in a food prep) and maybe a salt-free spice blend added for flavor; not saying that hard cheeses or nuts aren't flavorful enough, but something mild enough to bring the entire recipe together. You know?
Here is the recipe:
1 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 c. asiago cheese, freshly grated
1/2 tsp. spice blend (I used McCormick's no-salt garlic and herb)
scant 1/8 c. water
The directions:
1. In a food prep large enough to accommodate 1 1/2 c., coarsely grind together pumpkin seeds, asiago cheese, and spices. It should look evenly ground but not of flour consistency.
2. Add almost 1/8 c. water and pulse until just combined. Too much water and it won't bake properly.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
4. Empty mixture onto wax or parchment paper (about 8" x 10"), preferably parchment paper since it can go into the oven. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll out until the "cracker" is at the desired thickness.
5. I suppose at this point you could a ravioli wheel or pizza cutter to mark the edges of the crackers; but I just break apart the enormous mass (after baking) into bite-sized pieces.
6. Bake on a baking sheet for about 5-7 minutes or until the enough water has evaporated and the edges are of a golden brown color. Enjoy.
This particular ratio of ingredients comes to about 1,080 calories, because... 1 oz asiago cheese = 100 calories 1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds = 170 calories Other cheeses that work well: Parmesan Romano, Parmigiano Reggiano
Prep and cook time: 15 minutes
Here is the recipe:
1 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 c. asiago cheese, freshly grated
1/2 tsp. spice blend (I used McCormick's no-salt garlic and herb)
scant 1/8 c. water
The directions:
1. In a food prep large enough to accommodate 1 1/2 c., coarsely grind together pumpkin seeds, asiago cheese, and spices. It should look evenly ground but not of flour consistency.
2. Add almost 1/8 c. water and pulse until just combined. Too much water and it won't bake properly.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
4. Empty mixture onto wax or parchment paper (about 8" x 10"), preferably parchment paper since it can go into the oven. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll out until the "cracker" is at the desired thickness.
5. I suppose at this point you could a ravioli wheel or pizza cutter to mark the edges of the crackers; but I just break apart the enormous mass (after baking) into bite-sized pieces.
6. Bake on a baking sheet for about 5-7 minutes or until the enough water has evaporated and the edges are of a golden brown color. Enjoy.
This particular ratio of ingredients comes to about 1,080 calories, because... 1 oz asiago cheese = 100 calories 1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds = 170 calories Other cheeses that work well: Parmesan Romano, Parmigiano Reggiano
Prep and cook time: 15 minutes
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