Chicken Barley Stew w/Lemon & Tarragon 2/22

Another Food & Wine recipe that is an incredibly hearty winter recipe, but had a little citrus kick that made it almost light and flavorful is the Chicken and Barley Stew recipe I found.  I've been trying more and more to incorporate different kinds of grains and other things into my cooking, and this offered an easy way to try out a barley recipe.

It was pretty easy to throw together, and the leftovers ended up so thick and rich that they were great to have for lunch or dinner!

You can see I actually squeezed in the lemon, but then added the entire half of it for the last 10 minutes of cooking to give it some extra zing.

Sausage Cauliflower & Kale Pot Pie 2/21

The magazines were big into Cauliflower this month, and I cannot say I minded.  I found a recipe for Sausage Cauliflower and Kale Pot Pie in the Real Simple Magazine, and it looked simple and easy to make, so I grabbed the ingredients for another Cauliflowerfest!  I followed the recipe pretty exactly, with the exception of substituting chicken sausage, and it definitely came out really good.

Salmon Cakes and Turmeric Cauliflower 2/20

I saw a recipe for Salmon cakes in my Food & Wine magazine.  It used fresh salmon and for some reason I was intrigued.  I usually buy my salmon at BJs since it is a way better price and you get a huge piece for ~$18.  I usually cook half and freeze half.  I also saw this beautiful Turmeric Ginger Cauliflower, and figured I would give it a try.  Served it all with some quick coconut jasmine rice, and it was a very flavorful and interesting dish!

The salmon cakes also reheated well, though the cauliflower was better when it was a bit crisper.  If you have a family that doesn't like cauliflower, this may be the way to get them to eat it!! Excellent flavors, and fairly healthy too!

Tagliatelle with Peas, Panchetta & Ricotta 2/16

So my best friend from college - Angie - called up and said she was going to be in town for a night!!  We of course had to get together, and by the time she got in and we would get home, I figured we could throw a quick dinner together.  The weekend before, I bought a big bag of dried tagliatelle, some fresh shelled peas, some thick cut bacon and ricotta to toss together a quick pasta.

We cooked up the thick pasta in hot salted water. Eric chopped up the bacon into small chunks and I sauteed it quickly in a hot pan.  I tossed in the peas and cooked for a couple of minutes.  I then strained the pasta (reserving a little water).  I threw some ricotta and fresh mozzerella over the pasta and tossed a little ricotta in with the peas & bacon.  I scooped some peas and bacon over the pasta and drizzled a little of the reserved pasta water to make a "sauce".  Overall the sauce wasn't the prettiest dish I have made, but there was plenty of flavor!  I wish I could have found panchetta, but the only stuff they had was sliced procchuito thin, so it wouldnt have worked so well.

A great fast and very filling meal!

Pressure Cooker Braised Lamb Shanks 2/15

So after the first attempt at the pressure cooker, I thought we could give it another shot.  I bought Lamb Shanks from Whole Foods (they had to go in the back to find some for me!).  Turns out Lamb Shanks are actually fairly cheap in comparison to most lamb meat, but when cooked right can be just as good.  I found this recipe for Braised Lamb Shanks online and decided to give it a try.  Becca came over to help out and with some red wine we quickly had a great meal together!

The meal was simple to throw together and incredibly flavorful.  The lamb came out very tender and serving it over couscous made for a fast meal.  Less than 20 minutes cooking time, and it tasted like it had been in a slow cooker all day!

Becca liked it!! And she brought over some funfetti oreos for us to use up for dessert.  I had some chocolate cakes I made for valentines day, so we drizzled them with chocolate, crumbled some oreos and added sprinkles - wala!

Puttanesca Hake & Potatoes 2/13

Awesome Awesome recipe!! It looks beautiful and tasted nearly as good!!  Another magazine recipe from Bon Appetit for Roasted Potatoes and Haddock Puttanesca.  When I stopped by Whole Foods, they had haddock, but the filets were small and had skin on, and were somewhat expensive, so I went for the Hake since it was on sale and is a similar flavor (closer to Cod, but still would do fine with the Puttanesca).

I started the shallots and potatoes first, I didnt have fingerling, so I took some baby potatoes and cut them in half.  They actually unfortunately baked a little dry, I think I would have not put them on the rack, added some more olive oil and cooked them whole if I did this recipe again.

While those were baking, I started the puttanesca sauce, which was actually deceptively simple for sooo much flavor! Garlic, Anchovies, Olive Oil, black olives and canned tomatoes and wala!  And I definitely recommend finding the non-canned variety of pitted black olives, they added a huge amount of flavor to the dish that I think would have been lost by canned ones.

Add the hake to the same pan you are baking the potatoes on and plate the dish!  Fairly fast, the longest part was cooking the potatoes.

Flavor was excellent!  With some work on the potatoes, definitely work doing again!  And I may even use the puttanesca sauce recipe just for pasta!  And I think mine came out better than the picture ;-)

Pressure Cooker Boneless Pork Chops 2/11

Eric felt like pork chops tonight and I wanted to use up some of the veggies I had in the fridge.  For some reason I got the bright idea that we should try out the pressure cooker for the first time!

Prepare your pressure cooker per the directions, but leave the lid off. Start by heating some olive oil on high heat in the base of the pressure cooker pan.  Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and sear quickly on both sides until browned (should be ~30sec per side). Remove from the pan and place to the side. Add an additional tablespoon of oil. Quarter 6-8 baby potatoes, chop 1 medium sweet onion, and chop 4 carrots into 2" slices. Toss into the pressure cooker and brown for ~5 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.  Ad 4 sprigs of fresh oregano and 2 bay leaves about half way through. Season with Salt & Pepper. Place the pork chops on top of the veggies and add 1 cup of liquid (I did 1/3 wine, 2/3 chicken stock).  Seal the pressure cooker and cook per the directions.


 (This is Eric being "safe" around the pressure cooker.  I told him it was dangerous and that we needed to "respect it"... so he put on his safety glasses and oven mits!)

Its likely to only take 10 minutes once the pressure has built up.  And just that quick, dinner is done! I strained the liquid and served with just some salt and pepper. Though it probably just as easily could have been served like a stew.

While it wasn't the most flavorful dish we have had in a long time, everything came out incredibly tender, and I am definitely sold on how amazingly fast it cooks everything!! Expect to see more pressure cooker recipes coming soon!