Ellie Krieger's Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and White Beans

Spring is coming, followed by summer. Which means that this tummy I've developed in the cold months has to go. Things like chicken & waffles and pancetta egg cups and hollandaise sauce don't help, so I'm gonna try and cut back on meals like that, and cook more healthy meals.

Back in January, I got the opportunity to meet Ellie Krieger and have her sign a copy of her book The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life at the St. Louis Food & Wine Experience. She was very nice! The book is great. There are so many recipes I want to try. I like her stuff because she uses real ingredients to make healthy meals....butter, cheese, olive oil...she just uses it in moderation.

Last night I tried her Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and White Beans. The recipe called to me because it had lots of summer flavors...lemon, basil and tomatoes. Of course tomatoes are horrible right now, but I got some cherry tomatoes, which tend to be less-mealy than the regular ones. Also, this recipes calls for roasting the tomatoes, which really helps them get sweet and yummy.

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and White Beans

3 large tomatoes, (about 2 lbs. I used 2 12 oz. bags of cherry tomatoes and one can of whole tomatoes)
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1(15 ounce) can cannellini beans (I used 2 cans)
1/2 pound penne pasta
2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Slice each tomato into 8 wedges and discard the seeds. Put the tomato wedges and garlic into a 9 by 13-inch roasting pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a few turns of pepper. Roast in the oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Drain the beans into a large colander in the sink. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta into the colander containing the beans, so the hot pasta water will warm the beans. Return drained pasta and beans to the pasta pot.

When the tomatoes are done, pick out the garlic cloves, squeeze the garlic out of the skin into a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add lemon juice, the remaining oil and salt and pepper, stir to combine. Pour the roasted tomatoes into the pasta pot, add the garlic mixture, the basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste. Toss to combine. Serve topped with the Parmesan.

It was easy, and the flavors were refreshing...sweet roasted tomatoes and garlic, tart lemon and creamy beans. Again, Ellie's recipe works for me! Here are some other times when I've made her recipes: Oven fried chicken thighs and Short-cut greens ; Oven fried chicken strips.

more retro food

Along with aquiring Kermit's old book, I got 4 additions to my 60's and 70's Better Home and Gardens cookbook collection (see others here and here). I got these 4 gems:



The first one, All-time Favorite Beef Recipes, is the most boring. By Boring, I mean it contains mostly good-looking recipes. Like these short ribs:



Moving on, The After Work Cook Book has a few things that make me giggle. Recipes such as this Sweet and Sour Chicken Mold:


The next one, Lunches and Brunches, is pretty darn awesome. Plus! It came with a bonus...some handwritten and typed recipe cards, and a business card for "Microwave Magic Internationsl" which offered a Microwave cooking school and a complete line of microwaves and accessories.

This book also had a savory gelatin ring. This time, a tomato aspic topped with Perfect Potato Salad." mmmmmmm...


Also, this tuna ring:


Last, but certainly not least, is the Meat Cook Book. Wow, is this one fun. "Meat" turns out to encompass a wide variety of protiens, including fish, offal and "canned luncheon meat." Here is said SPAM with potatoes. Canned potatoes.


This tongue recipe actually sounds interesting...


Can you spot the "interesting" part of this recipe?



dang, I am so hooked on these books!! Luckily they are cheap...I didn't pay more than $2 for each of them. There was a booth with more of them, but they were $3.50 a piece, which I found just too high. Which shows that I'm not completely addicted....right?

kermit's cutco cookbook

I went to browse around an antique mall close to where I live last night. I left with some vintage cookbooks. The most expensive one being this Cutco cookbook at $3.95. I could not resist, mainly because of the adorable illustrations within...


Also, seeing the former owner's name clinched the sale...

Plus! It might just come in handy. It has good info on some basics that you don't see in today's 30 minute cookbooks. Check out this page identifying offal or "variety meats"!

Now, being a 1961 book, I was pretty shocked at the...un-PC..well...pretty much downright racist caricatures. Huh...




History is crazy! Eek.

Anyway, my mom has given us a cutco knife for the past two Christmases. Our old neighbor boy (bully!) sells them. We have the carving knife and the pairing knife. They are pretty good knives (compared to our pathetic old cheap knife collection), and looking at the photos in the book, It looks like the design hasn't changed in over 40 years! Neat!

Pork & Sons & Ratatouille

Oh...what could be in this envelope?

About a month back I was tickled to learn I had won a copy of Pork & Sons from Serious Eats. I was even more pleased when the book came in the mail.


I LOVE this cookbook! It's all pork recipes, first of all. And most of the recipes are pretty simple and non-fussy. I also love all the stories of the people, and the delightful little piggy drawings, and the mouth-watering photos of every recipe. It's a great cookbook.


So we saw the movie Ratatouille a couple weeks ago. Loved it. Just like everyone else, it seems. My favorite person, Tony Bourdain, even went so far as to call it the best food movie ever. Wow! Well, it was pretty darn good. Slashfood linked to several recipes for Ratatouille, here and here. However, the recipe they supposedly used for the movie was Thomas Keller's Byaldi from his French Laundry Cookbook. World on a plate has that recipe here. I plan on trying it out once I get my sticky little hands on a mandoline. Meanwhile, check out this video about the complexities of making computer generated food.

Okay, Here's where the new cookbook and the movie come together. After seeing the movie, I thought the first recipe I should make from Pork & Sons was the one that included Ratatouille! Pork & Citrus Fruit with Ratatouille, to be specific.


It's a more rustic version of ratatouille than Keller's, to be sure, but it tasted great! It was much more rich than I thought a bunch of veggies could be...even before I added the pork's roasting juices. I used thick-cut pork steaks instead of the pork loin because, well, pork loins are pricey and pork steaks are cheap. I figured since this was a slow cooking dish, the fatty poek steaks would work well. The only other difference I made in the recipe was using dried thyme instead of fresh, and cutting out one of each vegetable, because my dish would not hold so many veggies. Maybe they have smaller veggies in France (where the book was written) or bigger casserole dishes and ovens.


Here's the recipe:

Pork and citrus fruit with ratatouille

2 1/4 pounds boneless pork loin
grated rind and juice of 3 oranges
juice of 1 grapefruit
7 tablespoons olive oil
4 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3 zucchini, diced
3 eggplants, diced
6 tomatoes, diced
2 bay leaves
1 fresh thyme sprig

Put the pork in a non-metallic dish. Sprinkle with the orange rind and pour the orange and grapefruit juice over it.
Let marinate in a cool place for 2 hours.

preheat the oven to 350

Heat 5 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, flameproof casserole. Add the onions, garlic, zucchini, eggplants and tomatoes and cook over low heat,
stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes, until softened. Add the bay leaves and thyme and cook in the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring frequently.

Drain the pork, reserving the marinade. Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet. Add the pork and cook over high heat, turning frequently, for a bout 10 minutes,
until eavenly browned. Tranfer to an oven proof dish and pour in the reserved marinade. Place in the oven and cook,
basting frequently, for 1 hour.

Transfer the pork to a plate. Mix the ratatouille with the roasting juices, then place the pork on top. Return to the oven
and cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove and slice pork, then serve it on a bed of ratatouille.

The pork turned out nice and tender, and very...well, porky flavored. I'm not sure if the marinade helped bring that out, or, more likely, the cut I chose, with all it's fat and bone and connective tissue helped the flavor. Either way, I liked it. And I really like the ratatouille. What a great side dish.


Also this weekend I baked these pistachio shortbreads from CHOW. They were tasty, although I over cooked them a bit. I think this would be better served as a crust for a cheesecake, though. Crumbly, buttery and nutty. Next time.

dulce de leche duos cookies

I made the Dulce de Leche Duo cookies from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Kitchen to Yours. last night. I looooove caramel, and Dulce de Leche is the ultimate. I bought the premade kind, because I'm a little scared to try making it myself...plus there was no time for that.


The recipe:

Dulce De Leche Duos

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup store-bought dulce de leche, plus more for filling
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Getting ready: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed until soft. Add the Dulce de Leche and both sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Don't be concerned if the mixture looks a little curddled, it will smooth out when the flour mixture is added. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter.

Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets, using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie and leaving 2 inches between them.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies should be honey brown with a light sugar crust, but they will be soft, so remove the sheets from the oven but don't touch the cookies for another minute or two. Then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure you cool the baking sheets before spooning the dough onto them.

When the cookies are completely cool, spread the flat bottoms of half the cookies with a small amount of dulce de leche, and sandwich with the flat sides of the remaining cookies.



I didn't make all of them into sandwiches, as they were sweet enough on their own. They are very buttery and you can totally taste the dulce de leche in them.

thrifty gourmet

So another fun thing I did on my vacation last week was visit garage sales and thrift stores and such. Thrifting is one of my favorite things to do. Just about my entire wardrobe is thanks to Goodwill. Going in to normal retail stores for clothes has become nearly impossible...$15 for a shirt? Whatevs, I won't pay more than $4. :)

Anyway, ever since I found these crazy 60's cookbooks at a church rummage sale a couple months ago, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for cookbooks and kitchen items while I'm thriftin' it up.

So, Wednesday I got up early and hit some garage sales. I was only able to find 3 sales...must plan better next time. Oh well, still got some good stuff. At one I got 4 Frugal Gourmet cookbooks for $1 a piece. And, no, I was not aware of Jeff Smith's legal issues when I bought them. Now I don't know that I really want to use them. I mostly got them for Jack, as he grew up watching the show every Saturday morning after cartoons. He seemed to thing it was a pretty cool purchase.


And in two of the books there were bonuses from the previous owner! A 1989 magazine article and a handwritten deep-dish pizza recipe. I love finding tidbits like these in old books!


At another sale I got one of my favorite finds, a stack of old tupperware sandwich boxes with a handle to connect them all. I love the 60's colors! I love the handle! I can't wait to use this for a picnic. I'm imagining it filled with various antipasto. The brown one is missing it's lid, but I can use it for something, I'm sure...

Speaking of Tupperware, check out these awesome old catalogs and ads!

Last month I found this blue bakeware set at a garage sale for $6. It matches all my current bakeware! I was excited because I did not have a loaf pan, a pie pan, nor custard cups. And I can always use another bowl and casserole dish, right? Pretty!


Back to my vacation...after eating at Carl's Drive-In, my mom and I ducked into the little used bookstore across the street while it poured rain outside. It was a nice little shop, sort of maze-like with shelves of books to the ceiling everyware. The prices weren't that great though...that's a girl's spoiled by dirt cheap books at garage sales and thrift stores opinion. I did end up finding two to buy. The Moosewood Cookbook, which I had been wanting for awhile now. If you're not familiar, it's a 1970's all vegetarian cookbook which was all hand written. It's got lots of cute illustrations and the recipes are supposed to be good. I paid $7 for it. I also got my favorite find of the whole week, the Mafia Cookbook. It was published in 1970 and written by a guy name Joe Cipolla, who was actually a cook for many mafia families. It's a crazy book, the exact opposite feel of the Moosewood cookbook, what with illustrations of guns, handcuffs and guys on meathooks. This book will get it's own Iron Stef entry, for sure. I got it for $2.25. I googled it, and the only person I've found so far who's selling one has it for $91!!! Score!


Here's a picture one of the Moosewood pages:


and in contrast, a preview of the Mafia Cookbook:

Whoa!

barbecued beef potpie with a chipotle masa crust

I had a day off yesterday, so I decided to try a recipe that took a little more time than normal weekday food. I chose the Barbecued Beef Potpie with a Chipotle Masa Crust from the Red Sage cookbook. It's a cookbook I borrowed a while ago, and it has some great recipes. This one looked like fun. Kind of a challenge for me because I've never made a pot pie, and I'm not so good with baking-type things. But we love chipotle and I've been craving something tamale-like. So I got my potpie on. Here's the recipe:

Barbecued Beef Potpie with a chipotle masa crust

Serves 4

Barbecued Beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ¼ pounds lean beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
½ cup red wine
1 cup premium-quality barbecue sauce
1 ½ teaspoons pureed chipotles in adobo
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced white onion
½ cup diced carrots
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
2 plum tomatoes, blackened and cut into a ½ inch dice
2 small new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ½ inch dice
16 pearl onions, peeled
1 teaspoon brown mustard

Chipotle Masa Crust
1 2/3 cups masa harina
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup barbecue sauce
¼ cup pureed chipotles in adobo
1 or 2 tablespoons water, as needed
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons water

To prepare the beef: Preheat oven to 350. Heat the olive oil in a heavy casserole to medium-high heat. Sear the meat well on all sides and season with salt and pepper. Remove the meat from the casserole and set aside. Pour most of the fat out of the pot. Deglaze the pot with the vinegar, then add the wine, barbecue sauce and pureed chipotles. Bring the sauce to a simmer and stir in the meat and thyme. Cover the casserole and braise for 45 minutes in the oven.

Saute the celery, onion, and carrots in butter in a saute pan over medium-low heat for 5 to 8 minutes, or until slightly softened. Stir the vegetables into the casserole, add the tomato and cook for 1 hour more, or until beef is tender but not falling apart. Stir in the potatoes and pearl onions during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Stir in the mustard at the end and adjust the seasonings to your taste. Set aside to cool. This filling may be made up to 2 days in advance.

To prepare the crust:In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer with a paddle attachment or food processor, combine masa, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter and mix for 2 to 3 minutes, or until well blended. Add the barbecue sauce and pureed chipotles. Beat for 10 to 15 minutes if using a mixer or process 6 to 8 minutes. The dough should be fluffy and light. Add water as needed. The crust can be prepared to this point up to 24 hours in advance.

To assemble pot pie: Preheat oven to 325. Transfer the meat mixture to 4 individual baking dishes or to a 1-quart baking dish. Roll out the dough ¼ inch thick to the shape or shapes of the baking dishes and place on top. Brush the surface with the lightly beaten egg. Cut vents in the crust. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the top is well browned and the filling is bubbly.

Here's my ball o' crust:


It was pretty crumbly, hence the not-so-perfect finished product:

But it sure was tasty.

I used Ravenswood Ragin' Raven Zinfandel BBQ sauce. This is a great sauce. It's got a lot of heat. Also, for the red wine, I used Ravenswood Zinfandel. It was on sale, as was the sauce, and of course they are meant to be used together!



I skipped the pearl onions because the quality didn't live up to the price-tag, and I used roughly diced vidalia onion instead. I also used dried thyme instead of fresh, because I had it on hand. Considering the stuff cooked for more than 2 1/2 hours, I don't think it made too much of a difference. Then end result was really worth all the slow-cooking. The beef was flavorful and the sauce and filling were very bold and spicy. The crust had that distinctive masa corn flavor, which paired well with the barbecue filling. The crust has quite a kick to it, too. Although there was a fair amount of time involved, as the recipe points out, the components can all be made ahead of time. Even so, it's a fun vacation day or weekend dish.