Archive for the ‘Vegetarian’ category

Cabrito & Fatoush

September 13th, 2009

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IMG_0259IMG_0263Cabrito, kid, chevon, are all names for baby goat.
And whatever you want to call it I don’t eat it or cook it. BUT our friend Mike McIntosh and his lovely wife Julie Wickett invited us over Sunday afternoon for a bbq and that is what they were serving. Jesse and Dashiell were up for it so off we went. I tasted a small bite of the cabrito and it was delicious. I know I just said that I don’t eat baby goats but I had to try it because Mike is so sweet. Mike smoked it for hours in a special smoker that you add water to so the meat was moist and succulant.  Our friend Tim made the tastiest pinto beans I’ve ever had. He did not skimp on the salt pork and they were really a meal in themselves. Julie made a lovely peach sorbet for dessert that hit the spot on this summer evening.  I made fatoush, a Lebonese bread salad. Fatoush can be made with lettuce or not and adding garbanzo beans works too. I did add the lettuce this time, however, I have made it in the past with just the tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions.

Fatoush

  • 1/2 head of romaine lettuce
  • 1 container of grape tomatoes
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 4 spring onions
  • 1/2 cup of mint
  • 1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of lemon juice
  • salt
  • pepper
  • pita bread, cut into triangles

Cut all of the vegetables into bite size pieces, chop the mint and parsley and add to the salad. Mix the olive oil and lemon juice together and season with salt and pepper. Toss with the vegetables. Toast the pita bread in the oven and toss with the salad.

Book Club & Oven Roasted Tomatoes

September 6th, 2009

Oven dried tomatoesOnce a month I get together with 10 or so brilliant, witty and beautiful womem to discuss a book that we’ve read. We all bring wine and or an appetizer and some of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever tasted. This month it’s at my house so I’m serving an olive plate and roma tomatoes. I baked the tomatoes slowly for hours and then added some buffalo mozzerella and fresh basil. This is a good recipe for store bought tomatoes that don’t always have a lot of flavor. It’s kind of like making them into sun dried tomatoes but in the oven.

Tomatoes

  • 10 roma tomatoes, cut in half
  • Olive oil, about 2 tablespoons
  • 1/4 pound of fresh buffallo mozzerella

Bake for 3 hours at 325 degrees or a little longer depending on your oven. You want the tomatoes to collapse and be all gushy. Let them cool and sprinkle with salt and pepper. You could then use oregano, or fresh basil or thyme. I like dried oregano because that is the way my mom and Aunt Angie would eat garden tomatoes in New York and the taste has stayed with me.  FYI–I tried to lessen the three hour cooking process by turning on the confection oven and it dried the tomatoes out and made them like sun-dried. So if you want them to be like that; then go for the confection oven.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

September 2nd, 2009

BasilWith Labor Day around the corner my basil garden is almost finished. It lasted through the summer and actually seemed to thrive in the heat as long as I remembered to water it. To me biting into basil is summer. It’s fresh and green and kind of spicy and so versitile. There is pesto and fresh basil torn and tossed in a salad. Basil added to tomato sauce or basil on grilled fish or chicken and on and on…It’s also good for you with a lot of nutrients, especially  Vitamin K! And it is an anti-inflammatory, too. Hooray for basil!!  This is my favorite pesto recipe.

Pesto

  • 2 cups of basil
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 2 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • Combine the basil and pine nuts in a food processor, pulse and then add the garlic. When combined slowly add the olive oil. Add the cheese and combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Makes 1 cup.

    Rib Eyes & Mac and Cheese

    August 26th, 2009

    Rib Eyes & Mac and CheeseMy favorite grocery store Central Market had Choice Rib Eye steaks on sale for half price! That’s like two for the price of one. These are really big one pounders, some even bigger.  Each steak can easily be split with someone or you could eat the whole steak as Dashiell does.  I bought them and then contemplated going out in the heat to grill them and decided that the only civilized way to “grill” steaks was in the house. It’s been triple digit temperatures for 60 days straight here in Austin and going outside at 6 PM is really dumb. I also made some stove top mac & cheese because I didn’t want to bake it in the oven and heat the house up even more.

    Grilled Rib Eye Steaks

    • Heat an indoor grill pan or an  outdoor grill
    • Season the steaks with garlic powder, salt and pepper–use as much as you like
    • When the grill is hot put the steaks on and grill for about 6 minutes on each side for medium

    Stove top Mac & Cheese

    • 1/4 lb of elbow macaroni
    • 1/2 stick of butter
    • 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
    • salt
    • pepper
    • Boil water for the macaroni
    • Cook the macaroni in the boiling water until al dente
    • Add the butter and cheese and mix
    • Season with salt & pepper to taste
    • Serves 2 generously
    • Serve warm

    Arugula Pizza

    August 18th, 2009

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    This is a delicious easy recipe that is gourmet but very easy because we are using store bought pizza dough. I do enjoy making my own dough when I have time but let’s get real when I come home from work I don’t have time. Period!  Giada even uses store bought dough for some of her recipes. So let’s get started.

    • I package pizza dough (in the section of your market that has biscuits in a tube)
    • 1/4 cup of olive oil
    • 6 ounces of goat cheese
    • 6 ounces of mozzerella or fontina
    • 1 (8 oz)  package of arugula-washed and ready to go
    • 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seed
    • 1 teaspoon of ground pepper
    • corn meal

    Roll out the dough according to instructions on the package and place on a cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Add the olive oil all over the dough, then season the dough with fennel seed and pepper. Add the cheeses and bake.