Christmas is right around the
corner, the temperatures are dropping a bit, life is getting bit more hectic.
We have a created a simple yet delicious kale, mushroom, and sausage pasta with
a noisette sauce. This is a dish you can throw together at the last minute and
satisfy a family!
*We used Casarecce pasta, it holds
flavor nicely, but go ahead and used whatever kind you want!
Ingredients: serves 4
1 box casarecce pasta
2 heads kale
2 cups oyster mushrooms
4 Italian sausages
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons ponzu
1 Tablespoon oil
A few inches of Salt
Start by cleaning and slicing
both kale and your mushrooms separately. In a large sauté pan heat up your oil
on medium high heat, and put all of your kale in. Using tongs, turn the kale so
it evenly cooks for the first few minutes. Add the ponzu and let the kale cook
down, turning every 5 minutes for about 25 minutes. Once the 25 minutes are up, add the mushrooms.
Let cook an additional 10 minutes, turning every few minutes. Remove from pan,
and set aside.
Depending on what kind of sausage
you purchase, some are cooked first, others are raw; if cooked slice and brown.
If not, poke small holes, cook all the way through, and then slice. Set aside.
Fill a pot with water and a pinch
of salt. Once water has boiled add pasta and cook until just al dente about 9
minutes.
Cube your butter, and melt it in
the same sauté pan as you cooked your kale on a medium heat. Cook until the
butter becomes a light golden color, add a pinch of salt. When butter becomes
the color, it becomes almost nutty and very delicious.
Once pasta is cooked, drain, and
place into butter, and make sure all the pasta gets coated in butter. Next add
kale, mushrooms, and sausage, and toss together! Sprinkle with extra salt to
your taste!
Enjoy!
As
Halloween swiftly approaches us, and we are getting deeper into fall we are
embracing fall flavors. My mother around this time of year likes to make
compound butters, so we are creating a delicious acorn squash compound butter,
to be accompanied by light and fluffy rosemary biscuits. Both of these are so
incredibly easy to make and in a short amount of time, and will forever be
party favorites.
You can
also make the butter ahead of time, and keep in the freezer for a rainy day.
Enjoy!
*Make
butter ahead, you will have a lot of it. You will also need tinfoil or cling
wrap.
Butter:
1
Tablespoon olive oil
1
small-medium acorn squash
½ cup
unsalted butter
1 teaspoon
sea salt
Biscuit:
1 ¾ cups
flour
3
teaspoon baking powder
6 Tablespoons
unsalted butter + some for baking sheet
1
teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup
milk
3 large
sprigs fresh rosemary
Start by
making your compound butter. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Cut your acorn
squash in half so it is almost through the stem. Scoop out all of the seeds,
rub olive oil on both halves and put on a baking sheet cut side down. Bake for
25 minutes, or until soft. Once the acorn squash is baked, let cool.
While
squash is cooling, let your butter soften at room temperature. Put half of the
acorn squash and salt into the butter and mash together.
Cut two 9
inch square of cling wrap or tinfoil, and pour half of the butter onto each.
Start to roll the cling wrap or tinfoil, twisting it at the corners, so that
you are starting to make something that looks like a sausage. Place both in the
freezer.
Now for
the glorious biscuits! In a large bowl measure out your flour, baking powder,
and salt.
After
removing all the leaves from the rosemary twigs, finely chop. Add to dry mix.
Next
cube the 6 Tablespoons of butter and add to the dry mix. Using two forks or two
knives, break up the butter into the dry mix until creating a mealy like
texture. Add milk a little at a time while mixing with a fork.
Butter
baking sheet, and spoon out about 9-12 biscuits. We also used our hands to pat
little balls, but it gets pretty messy!
Bake 20
minutes, or until golden brown.
Pop
those babies out of the oven and smother in some acorn butter! Yum!
Happy Hanukkah!! It is amazing because
Hanukkah and Thanksgiving happen at the same time, which is awesome! We have
created for you a spin on a traditional Latke, which actually will go
fantastically with turkey! We have for you a latke made with potato, parsnip,
carrot, and yellow zucchini, not to forget our very own persimmon butter on the
side.
How do you celebrate Hanukkah if
you do? Or better Hanukkah and Thanksgiving together?
*You will need a cheese grater
with large holes.
Ingredients: makes 10
Latke:
1 russet potato
2 large carrots
2 medium sized parsnips
2 small yellow zucchini
1 large egg
3 pinches of salt
¼ cup canola oil
Persimmon Butter:
4 ripe persimmons
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Pinch of cinnamon
If you want to make sure they
stay warm then preheat the oven to 200 degrees so you can put the latkes in
when you make them, if you don’t mind them being room temperature, then skip
this.
Start by making the persimmon
butter. Chop up the persimmons and blend in blender until they are pretty
smooth. In a small sauce pan, heat the puree, when it starts to bubble, add the
sugar and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir cooking for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit.
The latke making is so easy it’s
amazing. Peel all your vegetable except the yellow zucchini. Into a large bowl,
using the larger holes on the cheese grater, grate all you vegetables,
including the zucchini with the skin. Fill the bowl with water, the pour the
water out keeping the vegetables, fill it one more time, and let sit for 10
minutes. This gets all the extra starch out.
Strain the vegetables into a colander.
Lay out some paper towels, and lay the vegetables on top. Roll the paper towels
together, removing any excess moisture. Put everything back in bowl.
Crack the egg into the bowl and
start to mix. Put one pinch of salt, mix, next pinch, etc.
In a wide skillet heat your oil
to medium high. When the oil is hot enough, using a spoon, spoon a heaping spoonful
of the vegetables onto the skillet. Do two at a time.
While those are cooking, lay a
tray out with paper towels, so you can place the latke on and let the oil drain
off.
Let one side cook for about 5
minutes until nice and golden brown, the flip and do the same.
If you put in the oven, be sure
to not put it in with paper towel.
Serve with persimmon butter!
Enjoy!
Happy Mother’s Day! Michael and I are
lucky to have very loving and caring mothers. My mother Nancy loves crepes, and
Michael’s mother Shira loves a specific kind of crepe known as crepe Suzette.
This type of crepe is boozy, sweet, and perfect for that woman you love to call
Mom.
Crepe Suzette is a crepe that is
typically flambéed with either Grand Marnier, or in our case Triple Sec. It is
a sweet crepe served in a thick citrus sauce with a little bit of rind, some
like to serve it with vanilla ice cream, but I like it as is.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Ingredients: serves 4
Crepe Batter:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Triple Sec
Extra butter for pan
Tangerine Butter Sauce:
3 large tangerines
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
10 tbsp. sugar
½ cup Triple Sec
