Creamy Fettuccine with Leeks, Mushrooms and Spinach

This week I have two things that I want to write about. The first is an event that Matt and I attended last Monday in Stowe, VT. The event was a benefit dinner, gala, and auction for the March of Dimes. It was called the Signature Chef Event. Thirteen of Central Vermont's best chefs were on hand, each at a station, cooking up some amazing sample size meals. There was also a silent auction and a live auction, but for the sake of this food-style blog I want to focus on the amazing food!

Before getting into the food I should explain that I was an amazingly picky eater as a child. I would literally only eat hot dogs and macaroni and cheese (never together). My relatives still like to point out this fact every time we get together (as do my highschool friends). This is relevant to the story because two of my relatives were also at this gala and we, of course, talked about how far I had come as an eater. I truly pushed the boundaries of food I'd try-- adding at least 4, and probably more, items.

Some of the really challenging things I tried at the event: pork belly, pork cheek, lamb, duck and fish.

The small element that I saw in one of the chef's dishes that was really interesting and I look forward to trying myself was fried garlic chips. Think of a potato chip, but made out of a slice of garlic. These were truly amazing and were served by Michael's on the Hill chef, Michael Kloeti as a garnish over lamb stew that was served atop a mound of amazing mashed potatoes. I loved the lamb stew flavor... unless I got too big of a chunk of lamb... Don't make fun! This was a challenging thing for me even to try!

The best overall food item I ate was a tie between the Fried Pork Cheek served over a creamy, garlicy tartar sauce and the cider braised pork with homemade pickled bell pepper served on a homemade thick-cut potato chip. This is truly amazing since usually I don't care for pork!

Honorable mentions in my mind went to Suzanna Keefer of Suzanna's Catering who made a delicious Cesar Salad that was wrapped in thin prosciutto (we were sure to take one of her cards!) and a duck tamale from Frida's Taqueria in Stowe.

I look forward to using the flavor combinations and techniques I saw at the event in later posts.

Now, onto the recipe!

This week I was lucky to cook dinner for Matt and a special guest, my dad! My mom was away for business in Connecticut (enjoying a company paid dinner at Ruth's Chris) so we took pity on my dad (who tends to eat his culinary specialty, a bowl of cereal, when my  mom is away) and invite him to dinner. I was trying to decide what to make while flipping through a binder of torn out magazine recipes and hand written recipe cards when I saw a recipe I pulled from Real Simple Magazine. It was titled Creamy Fettuccine with leeks, corn and arugula. I thought about the CSA items still in the fridge (one of which was leeks). I decided to make a variation of this recipe, using the local, fresh ingredients I had. When I looked at the other ingredients in the recipe I noticed heavy cream and thought... hmm... why add heavy cream when I can make just as creamy and delicious a sauce with a roux, skim milk, some neufchatel (fat free cream cheese) and some regular cheese... below is the adapted recipe (see real recipe here)

Creamy Spaghetti with Leeks, Mushrooms, and Spinach

3/4 box of spaghetti or other noodle pasta

1 tbs butter (I used the roasted garlic compote butter I had in the freezer from last week)
1 tbs flour
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup neufchatel (fat free cream cheese)
1/4 cup other cheese (I used some parmesan and some mozzarella)
salt and pepper

1 tbs olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts, cut into thin half-moons)
1/4 - 1/2 hot pepper, minced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup dry white wine

Boil pasta according to directions (or 1 minute shy if you like al dente because it will cook a bit in the skillet, too).

Meanwhile melt butter in a sauce pan, whisk in flour. Heat, stirring, over low-medium heat until smokey in color. Whisk in milk. When the milk starts to thicken add neufchatel and other cheese. Stir until all cheeses and melted and thoroughly combined. Season. Remove from heat.

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add leeks, garlic and hot pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender (4 minutes). Add the mushrooms and wine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the wine has reduced by half. Add the spinach and white sauce to skillet (you may have to reheat the white sauce slightly so it pours easily). Stir until the spinach is wilted and mushrooms are cooked. Stir in the pasta and cook until heated through. Season.

Serve hot, with lots of bread and good cheese (we had brie and local chevre)


As often happens with meals I cook, this meal turned out a little spicy. There are two reasons as to why this may have occured: 1- When my dad comes for dinner I DO NOT hold back on the garlic. He has a motto, "There is no such thing as too much garlic!" or 2- the hot pepper I added may have been massively hot. My dad grew these peppers and the heat varies extremely from pepper to pepper. Since I like hot food I tried the pepper before putting it into the pasta and didn't think it was outrageously hot so I am inclined to think it was the garlic. I add the hot pepper more to enhance other flavors than to actually make the dish spicy because Matt is not a fan of hot food. This meal wasn't too hot, but it was definitely spicy. If you don't like spice feel free to leave out the hot pepper or reduce the garlic (just don't tell my dad).

The other interesting thing about the spice in this dish is that is complemented the leeks amazingly. The leeks added a sweet taste to the dish that would have been too much for me if it had not had a little spice.

Roasted Garlic and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This final chicken recipe was completely made up by me and turned out to be quite delicious (and pretty healthy, too) however, this blog post does not follow the normal format since I am not relating a recipe from an established source.

I knew the time had come to eat some of the frozen chicken out of the freezer but since it is getting too cold to grill outside I wanted to do something different with it. I had never made stuffed chicken breasts before but it was something I had looked into making multiple times. The recipe evolved a lot from what I first imagined to what I finally placed on the table so I am looking forward to playing around with the recipe some more at a later date.

ROASTED GARLIC

Full heads of garlic
olive oil
salt

I love roasted garlic and for some reason I was in the mood to roast some. I placed 7 garlic heads (with the tops chopped off) in a 8 X 8 glass baking dish and piled all of the chopped off tops in a pile in the middle. Then I, fairly generously, drizzled them with olive oil. I covered the pan with tin foil and placed it in a 350 degree oven. I started checking around 25 minutes later and removed most of the chopped off (smaller) pieces so they wouldn't burn. Around 35 minutes some of the smaller heads were done and removed but it took about 50 minutes for the larger heads. I allowed all of the heads of (now roasted) garlic to cool.

ROASTED GARLIC COMPOTE BUTTER (aka what to do with the rest of the roasted garlic)

2 heads roasted garlic
1 stick butter
salt

Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the papery heads and place in a mortar, sprinkle a little salt over the garlic. With a pestle mash the garlic. Add 1 stick of softened butter and mash again. (Add any other flavorings you want- I use a little chili powder, rosemary, etc.) Scoop out the mixture and place in the middle of a piece of parchment or waxed paper and roll into a long (tootsie roll looking) cylinder. Twist the ends. Refrigerate and use in a couple of days or freeze.

 Final Recipe:

Roasted Garlic Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless)

2 heads of roasted garlic

2 tbs. chevre (creamy goat cheese)

2 tbs. (low-fat) cream cheese (softened)

1/4 lemon, zested

1/4 lemon juiced

toothpicks

2 tsp. dried sage

1/4 c. flour

salt

pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Start by slicing the chicken breasts horizontally, not all of the way through the back, so that you can lay the chicken breast open (like a book). Season. 

In a small bowl mix roasted garlic, chevre, cream cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Stir until smoothish. Spread over opened chicken breasts and then close the chicken breasts and secure with toothpicks so that filling does not leak out. 

On a shallow pie plate mix flour, sage, salt and pepper. Dredge chicken breasts in flour. 

Heat oil in large fry pan over medium high heat. Brown all sides of each chicken breast and place into an oven safe dish and place in preheated oven. Remove when chicken reaches 165 degrees. 

When I first started imagining this recipe I was thinking about an appetizer recipe from this month's Real Simple magazine-- a goat cheese log rolled in cranberries and walnuts. In my initial plan I was going to make a cranberry sauce to go over the chicken and when I was actually making it decided not to do that so instead I included cranberries in the brussel sprout side dish. We also had Italian bread with the roasted garlic compote butter spread in the middle and then warmed in the oven.

Spinach Crepes with Two Fillings

Matt and I are very lucky to live in a state, Vermont, that prides itself in local, fresh, delicious food. One way that we take advantage of this fact is enrolling in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program where we pick up a basket of veggies once a week throughout the summer (winter CSAs are available also). The drawback is that we do not get to choose what we get each week, instead, we get whatever the farmers have a lot of. Our CSA is really good about not giving us the exact same thing each week so that we do not get bored with the food. One of our items this week was leeks.

I love leeks! It took me a long time to discover them and actually start using them-- I think I didn't actually cook with leeks until college (which is strange because I remember finding wild leeks as a child). I started out using leeks in the normal way- Potato Leek Soup. Now, one of my favorite autumn recipes is a chicken, leek and apple dish (which was partly the inspiration for this blog's recipe). Also, for my birthday this year, my family took me out to a fancy Italian restaurant in Burlington, VT that I had wanted to go to for a long time. This restaurant is known for using local, fresh ingredients and fine Italian imported items together. When we visited the veggie of choice was roasted leeks which were served with nearly all of the secondi (meat) menu options.

With a fridge full of fresh Vermont leeks I went to the internet and searched foodandwine.com and foodnetwork.com for different recipes that I could try out. I came up with 5 possibilities that I wanted to try and let Matt choose which one he was in the mood for. He chose chorizo-leek crepes (see link to foodnetwork recipe below).

I have a tried and true crepe recipe from one of my cookbooks, which I use often. The recipe is actually for spinach crepes but I usually leave the spinach out and make sweet crepes (really just an excuse to eat nutella). This was the first time I included the spinach (another product of the CSA this week) to make savory crepes.

Spinach Crepe Recipe from Fifteen Minute Meals by Emalee Chapman

1/2 cup small spinach leaves (no stems)

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

Place all ingredients in blender, blend for 1 minute, let sit a few minutes. 

To cook crepes (wait until fillings are prepared to cook crepes): 

Heat a small skillet (or crepe pan) until "a drop of water jumps in the pan". Put 1-2 tbsp of batter into the pan and immediately swirl the pan to allow the batter to spread into a 6-7" round. Watch as the batter cooks from the outside in and when the very middle of the crepe seems 3/4 cooked use a small rubber spatula to separate the crepe from the pan. Stack cooked crepes between layers of waxed paper. The crepes are so thin you do not have to flip them, also crepes will cook in about 30 seconds. Time is of the essence.

This recipe makes a lot, probably 15-20 crepes depending on size and they are bright green, which I love. 

As for the filling, the recipe I had was for Chorizo and Leek crepes with sour cream but I made my own filling so I'll post my invented recipe. 

Crepe Fillings

5 leeks, sliced thinly (white and light green part only)

2 links spicy Italian sausage, casing removed, chopped finely

2 tbsp Olive oil

1/4 lemon, zested

2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 Macintosh apple, cored and chopped

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 lemon, juiced

1 cup spinach leaves

First wash leek slices very carefully by filling a large bowl (or a clean sink) with cold water and dropping in leek slices. Swirl leeks around in water and then let them come to a complete stop, allowing the grit and dirt to sink to the bottom. Scoop out leeks, drain water, refill with cold water, repeat until leeks have no grit left! You may need to gently separate leeks to allow stubborn dirt to come out.

Next, add 1 tbsp of oil to a large skillet and cook leeks over m/h heat for 5-7 minutes. The leeks should be pretty tender, move half of the leeks to a bowl. Add sausage chunks and a bit of the lemon zest. Cook until all of the sausage is cooked through. Use a rubber scraper to move all of the filling to another bowl and add half of the goat cheese.

Heat the rest of the olive oil (1 tbsp) in the same large skillet. Place the cooked leeks back into the skillet and add the chopped apple, the cider, the lemon juice and zest. Cook until the liquid has evaporated. Move the filling to one side of the skillet, add the rest of the goat cheese.

Turn the heat to low. Return the sausage filling to other side of the skillet. Place spinach leaves in center of pan to wilt. Cover skillet until sausage filling is reheated and spinach is wilted. The goat cheese should be somewhat melted.

(The best idea is to let the fillings warm over low heat while cooking the crepes (procedure above), as seen here!)

Now, assemble the crepes by placing a crepe on a plate, add a spoonful of whatever filling (or mix them!) and a few wilted spinach leaves to the very middle of the crepe, and fold one side over the filling, then the other side.

Matt asked if the folding was like a fajita or burrito and I told him that crepes are french! Therefore, the fold is far more delicate and fancy than anything Mexican. Think of it like a silk robe, where each side covers just enough of what is inside that some is still peeking out.

This was a really fun recipe to make. We used to have crepes fairly often as a brunch of breakfast item but it is definitely something we got away from, and I am glad to have it back. The actual crepe part of this recipe is super fast and easy and then you get to be creative with the filling. The fillings can be as complex or simple as you want. A very simple filling would be chopped lunch meat and cheese. I'm glad we didn't just choose to have potato leek soup (although we have lots of different kinds of potatoes from the CSA and it would have been delicious) because this was really fun to make and eat!

Maple Creme Brulee

We planned to have dinner at our friend Cameron's house yesterday so I asked him if it would be ok if I made dessert in order to have something to post about. I kind of had a plan to make maple mousse but then when I was reading the recipe I didn't know if I would have enough time to let it set and I didn't want to serve "drippy maple mousse" so feel free to look forward to that recipe another time because I am still very interested in making it. Instead, I decided to make maple creme brulee which was a courageous decision since custard is one of the two things that I have a serious mental block about being able to cook correctly (the other being eggs sunny side up). I used two recipes for this because of the mental block. One was in my all time favorite extensive cooking manual (I call it culinary school in a cookbook)-- Cooking by  James Peterson (see shelfari) and the other was on a food blog I frequent, Closet Cooking, by Toronto Native Kevin Lynch. I felt that I needed the two recipes because Peterson's book gave me very clear, step by step instructions, as well as a full page description on custard but the blog recipe was the right size and included maple. Anyway-- onto the recipes!

Maple Creme Brulee (also available at http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2008/05/maple-creme-brulee.html)

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple sugar (or brown sugar)

I know, I know. You are all scowling about the vanilla extract. But I truly want you to know that I did go to the grocery story and looked in two different places for a vanilla bean before settling for the extract! I didn't have time to go to the co-op or to the natural food store that I know would have had it! Next time I will, as long as I have time, use a real vanilla bean! My second ingredient confession (which I am far more embarrassed about since I live in Vermont) is that I used brown sugar as the topping instead of maple sugar. The reason is the same as with the vanilla bean (herein referred to as the "vanilla bean letdown of '10")-- I didn't have time to go to the appropriate store or maple sugar shack and buy Vermont maple sugar. Hey-- at least I used brown sugar instead of non-Vermont made maple sugar! Another quick side note- while looking in the regular grocery story for maple sugar I saw a product called "Vermont Maid" Syrup which is NOT even real maple syrup-- I am ashamed that the brand has my wonderful state's name in it! I obviously used local syrup from Vermont bought during Maple fest weekend!

The process:

1. Heat the heavy cream and maple syrup until just before boiling and remove from heat.
2. Mix the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla in a bowl.
3. Pour the cream mixture into the eggs slowly while stirring.
4. Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins.
5. Place the ramekins in a baking pan and fill the baking pan with water until it comes halfway up the ramekins.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until firm but still jiggley, about 30-35 minutes.
7. Let them cool and then cool in the fridge until cold.
8. Sprinkle with the sugar and place under a broiler until the sugar turns golden brown, about 20-90 seconds.

I have already disclosed my fear of custard. I have only tried to make it 2 or 3 times but each time before this one was a disaster. Once when I was putting it into the oven the water bath spilled over the sides of the custard and ruined it, another time it never hardened and just became hot sweet, eggy soup. This time, all went well. I was most nervous when mixing the hot heavy cream and maple mixture into the egg. Peterson's book said to "whisk constantly until no yolk clings to the sides of the bowl. If you see specks of cooked egg, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer". I was afraid the egg would simply scramble (which would not be an ideal texture to find in the middle of your fancy maple creme brulee). 

I added the cream just a bit at a time, whisking with a fork and then later with a whisk and only one tiny string of scrambled egg was to be seen (obviously I scooped it out)! I filled the ramekins, placed them in a roasting pan and filled the roasting pan with water, then mishaplessly placed the pan into the preheated oven! In about 40 minutes the brulees looked (and jiggled) done so I took them out. I was tempted to directly place them into the fridge to expedite the cooling period but before doing this referenced my good friend, Peterson, whom I will quote now, "Don't be tempted to stick them, still warm, in the refrigerator or moisture will condense on the underside of the foil and drip down onto the custards". Thank you once again, James!

I left the brulees on a cooling rack for about 45 minutes before covering them and moving them to the fridge. I brought them out into the rainy night double covered with Saran Wrap when we left for Cameron's house. The brulees were then placed back into the fridge at his house until dessert time when we all crowded around his amazingly beautiful and homemade kitchen work table for the caramelizing. I took up the torch and started about 3 inches from the brulees, moving the flame often to avoid burn marks but still the sugar was burning a little! 

It seemed that there was too much sugar, that is, that the high peaks of sugar were what was burning. We scraped the brown sugar off of one brulee and replaced it with a sprinkling of white sugar which definitely melted better and provided to best part of creme brulee-- tapping into the caramelized top. The other three brulees we tried caramelizing in the broiler and found that the brulees which were not under direct heat from the broiler caramelized the best.

In the end all of the brulees did have that obligatory caramelized topping that you get the wonderful satisfaction of tapping though but since it was so difficult to get all of the sugar caramelized without burning some our brulees had some un-caramelized sugar remaining. 

I do have to comment though that, for me, once you tap through the delicious top crust creme brulee lacks something. I guess I'm not a big fan of custard anyway!

 

Spicy Ginger Garlic Green Beans

The Official Recipe
Spicy Ginger Garlic Green Beans
1 lb thin green beans
1 tbs. vegetable oil
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 tbs. chopped ginger
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

sauce:
2 tbs. black vinegar or rice vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. crushed red chile
1/2 tsp. black sesame oil
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

Now that I have given you the actual recipe I will tell you what I really used. I used green beans off of the climbing plant I have growing up our trellis (not thin), I used olive oil and just turned the temperature down a bit so it wouldn't burn, I did not use sesame seeds, I used rice vinegar, I used crushed red pepper and chile powder, I did not use black sesame oil, I added some lemon zest and juice and I used black pepper. Oh, and I didn't measure anything... and the surprising news! Matt and I both loved this recipe (even if it was a little hot for Matt).

This was one of those times when I knew I had the green beans and wanted to use them before they went bad so I looked to my cookbook shelf. I don't know why I choose to look into "The Spicy Food Lover's Bible" by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach but I did and this was one of two green bean recipes (the other being a canning recipe). I noticed we had all of the right ingredients (well, within reason) so I decided to try it. The blurb before the recipe says that it can be made without the black sesame oil but that it adds a nice complexity to the flavors-- I am  not one for buying expensive ingredients that I don't think I will use again soon for a single recipe- so I just left it out. As for the other substitutions I made, well, it was either what I had available (or in the case of the oil- what I had within arms reach vs. in the pantry 5 steps away).

The Official Process:
1. Combine all sauce ingredients in small dish and set aside.
2. Steam green beans until almost done. Remove and drain. If finishing later run under cold water.
3. Heat oil in wok (I used the same sauce pan I steamed the beans in) add garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes, add green beans and stir-fry until nearly done.
4. Add sauce to wok and stir fry until the sauce has thickened and coats the beans.
5. Place beans on serving plate ad garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
SERVES 4

I estimated on the sauce ingredients and left them in a small bowl on the counter.
Then I steamed the beans, took our the steamer basket, dumped the water and set the beans in steamer basket aside.
I added the (olive) oil to the sauce pan and when it was hot I dumped in the garlic and ginger (which I used a grater to prepare). When it was super fragrant I added the green beans (oh and I added some hot pepper flakes because my favorite quick tomato sauce recipe does that).
In just a couple of minutes (because the beans were already steamed) I added the sauce and as soon as it thickened a little I took the beans off the heat and served it directly in the sauce pan! How tacky I know, but when you live with no dishwasher...

I really enjoyed this recipe and we will be having it again. It was an interesting mix of sweet because of the sugar (and I always think ginger has a sweet "during" taste and a spicy "after" taste) and spicy. The rice vinegar in the sauce provided a nice tartness without being overly bitter or acidic tasting.

Next time I will definitely steam the beans for less time- just a minute or two- so that I can stir-fry them for longer to let the sauce thicken more. The beans were not overcooked this time but the sauce also wasn't overly thick...

Overall, a quite successful side dish that took about 10 minutes!

In case you were wondering, with this green bean dish we had store bought lemon pepper rotisserie chicken with a homemade piccata style lemon-white wine sauce, fresh bread and homemade spicy garlic-herb butter. A truly "semi-homemade" meal!

Introductions

Hello World! 

My name is Rachel. Usually to get to know large groups of people I like to play either the adjective game or the animal game where we go around the circle and everyone says their name and either an adjective or an animal (respectively) that starts with the same sound (can you tell yet that I am a substitute elementary school teacher?) but since this is the internet I guess we can skip that (but for your information I would be either be Radiant Rachel or Rabbit Rachel in case you were wondering). 

Here is my deal- I am starting this blog, my first blog ever, to practice blogging and learn the ins and outs so that I can use blogs as best as I can in the future both in a personal and education sense. I would like to also introduce the case of characters who will appear throughout this blog now for your convenience. First, Matt (Mighty Matt or Mountain Lion Matt) will be mentioned often as he is my boyfriend. We met during our freshmen year of college at St. Lawrence University and have been together ever since. We live together with out kitten, Batilda (Bazaar Batilda or Baboon Batilda -- who is also known as Tilbers, Tilda, Browmers, Batty, and many other names). We have dinner often with a few of our friends, namely Lauren (Lovely Lauren or Lemur Lauren) and Cameron (Courageous Cameron or Capybera Cameron) both of whom I would consider foodies. We live about a half hour from both of our parents, who may also benefit from the focus of this blog: trying new recipes.

So, I have finally mentioned it. The purpose and focus of this blog--  to cook, write about and post the recipes of at least one new meal a week.

Matt and I, well, we do all right for ourselves when it comes to cooking meals and eating good food. I really enjoy sitting down with a cookbook or food magazine (of which I subscribe to plenty of) and either earmarking, tearing out, or copying down multiple recipes, but I do less well with remembering to actually cook the new recipes. Also, Matt and I have a tendency to convince each other that we should... well... eat out... more than we should... and thus, the goal of this blog is to expand our at home dining selections. No longer will we let mac and cheese and fajitas be the only home cooked meals at our apartment in a week
(with eating out and take out the other 5 nights...)! 

Here it is, plain and simple:

WE WILL TRY AT LEAST ONE NEW RECIPE A WEEK

there you have it. Please enjoy the (sometimes) delicious ramblings of one girl's adventure through too many cookbooks.