Spicy Tahini Noodles

I may have mentioned before that the Hubs doesn't like peanut butter. Much to my eternal dismay. I mean seriously, how did I find and marry the one person in the world who hates peanut butter? Anyway, I recently discovered tahini. Thanks to this fantastic recipe on Half Baked Harvest, I was able to get my peanut butter fix but when the Hubs asked, I could honestly say, "No! This isn't peanut butter, it's tahini!" See! Sneaky. So, tahini is basically a butter made from sesame seeds. It is a lot looser than peanut butter, and there's definitely a big sesame flavor, which I love. These noodles were so good the night we made them. And then the next day they were even better! I also added chicken to the noodles to make it a bit more of a complete meal. You could add any veggies you want as well. I love having a recipe that is so versatile and customizable (and did I mention, delish?)!

1 pound linguine or other egg noodle pasta, (I used angel hair)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (optional)

3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, divided

1/2 cup tahini

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup hot chili oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced or grated

2 carrots, cut into matchsticks

4 cups mung bean sprouts

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

8 green onions, chopped

1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped (optional)

Start by making your pasta. When it's cooked, drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside. In a small bowl whisk together 2 tablespoons of the sesame oil, tahini, soy sauce, hot chili oil, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. The whisk helps break up the tahini. (Oh, by the way, make sure you stir your tahini really well before adding it. It has a tendency to separate.) Set that aside. Heat your skillet or wok over high heat, and add the last tablespoon of sesame oil. Toss in the ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds. It'll cook really quickly so be prepared with the next step which is to add the carrots, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. We didn't have any bean sprouts but I'm sure they would have been good. Cook those veggies about 3-4 minutes so they are a little tender but still have some crisp to them. Add the noodles and toss to combine (this is harder than it sounds since the noodles are very averse to the situation). Remove from the heat and add the sauce. Once everything is evenly covered, add the green onions and basil. Serve topped with some crushed peanuts if you like. We didn't. 

Sausage and Apple Risotto

Last weekend was the first truly cold couple of days that we've had since last winter, which on one hand is really nice because I hate the cold. But on the other, I do miss those crisp fall days. In Richmond, autumn seems to last a week or two before we descend into winter, so we definitely like to take advantage. Which leads me to this dish: Sausage and Apple Risotto, which I found on a blog called Buttercup and Bourbon. I'm not sure if you could have a more "fall" dish. It's hearty and warm, and the addition of apple just takes me straight to autumn back home in Indiana. It could not be a more comforting meal. So get out a blanket, build a fire, and curl up in a chair with this dish.

I will say that if we made this again there are a few things we might change and I'm incorporating those changes into the recipe below. There didn't seem to be enough broth, and therefore the rice was still a little too al dente by the time we finished, so I've increased the amount. We also would prefer a little heat (shocker!) so next time I would use hot sausage instead of regular.

Ingredients
5 cups chicken broth

8 ounces mild pork sausage (or hot!)

1 small onion, diced

2 medium crisp apples, diced

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced

1 cup Arborio rice

1/2 to 1 cup apple cider

Shaved Parmesan cheese, for serving

Start by heating your chicken broth and keeping it at a simmer. In another small saucepan, simmer the apple cider as well. In a large skillet, start cooking the sausage, breaking it apart as you go. Once it's just begun to brown, add in the onions and apples and cook for about 7 minutes, until the onions soften. Add in the rice and thyme, and toast for just a minute before adding in your first cup of broth. Stir until the liquid is absorbed before adding another half cup of broth. Keep adding the broth a half cup at a time, letting the rice absorb the liquid between additions. It should go quickly at first, and more slowly as you go on. Make sure to keep the heat medium so you aren't boiling away the liquid.

Once the broth has been incorporated, add in a half cup of the cider and let that soak in. Taste and if the rice is not yet where you like it (too al dente) add the rest of the cider and stir until it's absorbed. Season with salt and pepper (we didn't really need it since the sausage is salty). Serve and enjoy this little taste of fall! 

Jägerspätzle (German Noodles with Mushroom Sauce)

The Hubs and I recently took a trip to Germany. To celebrate his upcoming 40th birthday, he really wanted to go to Oktoberfest (the real one), so we headed off to Munich! Now, I expected this leg of our trip to be more focused on the beer (or bier!) than on the food. And there was plenty, PLENTY, of beer. But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the food, particularly one night when we ate at a biergarten called Augustiner-Keller. If you are ever in Munich, I highly recommend it. Anyway, since we've been back I've thought about German food in a new way, and that's what led me to try this recipe for Jägerspätzle. Well, that and how delicious the photo looked on this Savory Nothings blog where I found the recipe. Even though we have a pretty solid spätzle recipe (here's the link), we decided to give this new one a try. It made a lot more spätzle, but it didn't have the flavor that our other recipe had, and it was a bit chewy for me. But the mushroom sauce was really good. As always, I could have reduced it a little more to get the sauce a little thicker, but the flavor was nice and warming. Perfect for the cooler weather we've been having, and it definitely reminded me of our trip to Germany.

Spätzle Ingredients

2½ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup water

⅓ cup milk

3 eggs

Butter for finishing

Sauce Ingredients

5 tablespoons butter, divided

1 shallot, finely chopped

1½ pounds mushrooms, sliced

1 ounce white wine

2 cups broth (I used chicken, but you can use beef or vegetable)
1 tablespoon tomato paste

½ cup cream

We started with the spätzle dough so that it could rest a bit while we started the sauce. Whisk together the water, milk and eggs first, then put the flour, then salt on top of the wet ingredients and use a spoon to gently mix the dry ingredients together a bit before mixing everything together. I personally added a little white pepper and a little nutmeg to the dough, and I felt they could use probably a half teaspoon more of salt. Use a wooden spoon to rapidly stir the dough until there are no more lumps and bubbles start to form. You'll also feel like your arm's about to fall off. Cover and let it rest for about 30 minutes. 

Next you can start on your sauce. Melt three tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat, then add the shallot and cook until it begins to brown. Then add in the mushrooms. Cook for about 7-9 minutes until the mushrooms begin to soften and get a little color, then deglaze with the white wine and reduce. Next pour in the broth and tomato paste and let it simmer until it becomes a thick sauce. I could have been a little more patient with this part, I believe. Finally, add in the last two tablespoons of butter and let them melt, then pour in the cream. Let the sauce warm back up, and it's ready to go.  
To make the spätzle, get a large pot of salted water on to boil. We have a $7 spätzle maker that works awesomely and is so worth the money, but if you don't, just use a coarse grater. Gently use a spoon to help the dough fall through the grater into the water. It will fairly quickly float to the surface and it's done. Use a slotted spoon or a small mesh scoop to get them out. Melt a little butter in a skillet and lightly fry the spätzle for a few minutes until it gets a little bit of color, and then move to the plate. Top with the mushroom sauce, and enjoy a little taste of Germany. 

Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

Sometimes when you make a recipe you immediately want to post it. This is one of those recipes. I've never made a recipe by Tyler Florence, but maybe I should start making more. This Shrimp Scampi was EXCELLENT! Seriously, it tasted like a restaurant quality entree. I did make it a couple weeks ago, but it was too late to take pictures. So, I made it again tonight and it was just as good as the first time I made it. It has a ton of flavor thanks to the butter, olive oil, lemon juice, and wine. Plus, the addition of red pepper flakes gives it a nice kick. I highly, highly recommend this recipe for your next dinner. It's that good! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 pound linguini
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 shallots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c dry white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c finely chopped parsley leaves (or basil)

Boil the linguini (or spaghetti) in a large pot of water with a bit of salt and olive oil. When the pasta is al dente drain into a colander and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil at medium-high heat. Add in the shallots and garlic and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the shrimp and add to the skillet. Once the shrimp has turned pink (after 3 minutes or so) remove from the skillet and set aside. Add the lemon juice and wine and bring to a boil. Then, add in the remaining 2 tbsp butter and olive oil. Add back the shrimp and pasta to the skillet. Sprinkle the parsley or basil into the skillet. Season with salt and pepper if needed and drizzle with olive oil. Serve immediately.

Summer Pasta with Asparagus and Ricotta

It's interesting to think about how the pasta we crave in the winter is so different from the pasta we crave in the summer. In the winter, I want a robust red sauce, braised for hours, with plenty of meat. In the summer, pasta needs to be lighter. I tend towards more lemony sauces with veggies and plenty of basil. That's probably why this recipe caught my eye when I saw it on the Willow Bird Baking blog. It's made with ricotta cheese and probably isn't all that healthy, but it's ok to splurge every once in awhile (or most of the time, in my case). It was pretty good! Bright and flavorful, like summer in a bowl.

Ingredients

20 ounces dried pasta

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

1 shallot, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 green onions, sliced diagonally

1/4 cup white wine

2 ounces unsalted butter

8 spears asparagus, sliced into 2-inch chunks

8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese

1/4 bunch fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, rough chopped

12 fresh basil leaves, rough chopped

lemon juice, salt, freshly ground pepper, Parmesan as needed

You can use whatever pasta you want. The original author used fettuccine, but I prefer a thinner pasta like angel hair most of the time. Start by making an ice water bath in a small bowl for the asparagus. Bring some water to boil in a small pan, or if you're like me and love economy of pans, use the same pot you'll later use for pasta. Blanch the asparagus for just 2 minutes and then fish them out and put them in ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside. If you're smart like me, you now have a nice pot of boiling water for your pasta. (It's slightly green but don't be weird about it.) Cook the pasta, drain and set that aside as well. Reserve a small amount of the pasta water just in case.

Over medium heat in a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil before adding the shallots. Cook them for about a minute before adding the garlic and cooking for another 30 seconds. As always, don't burn the garlic. Deglaze with white wine and then whisk in the butter until it's melted. I'm not sure what the whisk does here, but I also don't know what would happen if you didn't whisk, so just whisk!

Put in the green onions and asparagus and cook for just a minute to heat them before reducing the heat to low. Now add in the ricotta cheese and stir. Give it plenty of salt and then add in the pasta plus a little pasta water to loosen up the sauce if it needs it. Add the parsley, basil, and the rest of the olive oil and mix in well. This is where you need to start tasting. Add more salt & pepper, and some lemon juice. I probably added 3-5 tablespoons of lemon juice because I like that bit of acid. Once it's tasting great, serve with some grated Parmesan on top, and enjoy the flavors of summer! 

Shrimp with Orzo, Asparagus and Feta

We’ve been on a roll of dinners that are…fine. Just *yawn* fine. We make them. We eat them. Everything is copasetic. So this dish was a slap in the face, wake up call for our tastebuds. It was so good, you guys. SO good. Tons of flavor. Super easy to make. And it felt very fresh and spring-appropriate with the lemons and green veggies. The Hubs insisted that it be added to the “rotation” and I obliged. In fact, I’m making it for dinner again tonight. It’s on the Serious Eats blog and the only thing I changed was to use regular orzo instead of whole wheat (we really aren’t whole wheat pasta people.) It took about15 minutes from prep to plate and I seriously suggest you try it as soon as you possibly can.

1 cup (about 5 ounces) orzo

1 1/2 Tbsps vegetable or canola oil, plus more for the pasta

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1/2 Tsp red chili flakes

1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed and roughly chopped into 2-inch pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Oregano

1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

4 Tbsps fresh juice from 2 lemons

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Start by making the orzo according to the instructions on the box, in a small saucepan. Let that cook while you multitask, then drain it and set it aside. Use a skillet over medium heat to heat up your vegetable oil until shimmering. Put in the garlic and red chili flakes and cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute until fragrant and golden (don’t burn it!). Add in the asparagus next and season with salt and pepper. You don’t need to cook it for too long, just enough so that it’s tender but still crisp: about 3-4 minutes. Push the asparagus to the side and add in your shrimp. Sprinkle them lightly with oregano and cook on both sides until they are pink, about 4 minutes total. Now add in the orzo, basil, lemon juice, olive oil and feta and stir in, letting it all warm back up for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then serve! I promise it will be much more than just “fine.”

Homemade Spaetzle

The Hubs and I have some German heritage (he has more than I do) and in fact, we are planning a trip to Oktoberfest (yes, THE Oktoberfest) later this year. So it should be no big surprise that we wanted to try our hand at some traditional German food. We also recently had a particularly good spaetzle at a local restaurant, Dutch & Co.

Spaetzle (pronounced schpet-zle) is a German noodle or dumpling. We paid about 7 bucks for a spaetzle maker, which is essentially a cup attached to a piece of metal with holes in it. And once you have that, spaetzle is remarkably easy to make. It takes just a few minutes to whip up the dough, and then just a couple more minute to cook. And it’s really good too. It’s a bit like pasta with a little more chew to it, and this recipe also has some good flavor from the pepper. If you ever wanted to make pasta but were intimidated by the time it takes, this is a good first step. We got the recipe from Tyler Florence, but I adjusted it slightly. We actually made this twice, first with a short rib ragu on top (YUM) and secondly with melted cheese (MEH). But there are tons of ways to eat it. I would also caution that this recipe doesn’t make a whole lot of spaetzle. Probably only about two cups max.

Ingredients

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk

You can do the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls if you like, but I’m super lazy so I try to just use one. Start with the eggs and milk and whisk them together. On top of the wet mixture, add the flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Use a spoon to lightly mix the seasoning into the flour without dipping into the wet mixture at first. Then use a spatula to mix everything together until it’s fully incorporated. Tyler says to let it rest 10-15 minutes, which is just about the time it takes to get some salted water boiling.

Put about a third of the dough into the hopper/cup of your spaetzle maker and run it back and forth over the boiling water until all the dough has gone through into the water. Give it just a minute or two tops and then fish out the floating dumplings with a slotted spoon. We transferred them to a sieve sitting over a bowl, just to get rid of any extra water. Repeat the process until all the dough is used up.

After that, you can eat it right away, or pour sauce over it and eat. But we like to sauté the spaetzle just a touch to get a little color on it. Heat up olive oil or butter and sauté your dumplings until you can’t stand the wait any longer and then eat them! Or add onions or cheese or herbs. Get creative. Mach schnell!! (That means, “Hurry!”)

Short Rib Ravioli with Mushroom Sauce

I believe you can read the stages of someone’s cooking based on pasta. Think about it. When you’re just starting out, making spaghetti probably involves dry pasta and a jar of sauce. As you progress, your next step is to make your own sauce. Then, you might start making your own pasta. The next stage, in my opinion, is making your own complicated pasta. Ravioli for example. This is generally not something that your average home cook attempts. But as you get more serious about cooking, it’s definitely something you want to try. Well, the Hubs and I reached this stage recently, and while it certainly is worth the trouble, I have to be honest: it IS trouble. They make ravioli look so easy on Iron Chef, but in real life it’s a whole situation. Make the filling, mix the pasta, roll it out, form the raviolis, cook the raviolis, make the sauce, and finally… devour. To quote the Hubs, “5 hours, 10 pots, pans, and plates used during the prep. Stand mixer, pasta roller, two burners and the oven. Consumed in under 10 mins, and I would do it all again.”

            This is not easy, but it’s really good, and satisfying on a culinary level. Plus it’s just damn homey. I mean, it doesn’t get much more homey than braised meat inside pasta, covered with a rich, meaty mushroom sauce. A little fresh parmesan on top. This is living.

Short Rib Filling

2 lbs boneless short ribs

1 tsp olive oil

Salt & pepper, to taste

1 leek, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot,  diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 cup dry red wine (I used merlot)

6 sprigs thyme, divided

4 cups beef broth

We got the idea for this recipe from the Busy in Brooklyn blog, but used Tyler Florence’s pasta recipe for the dough. Start this early in the day since it needs to cook for 3 hours before it’s ready to put in the ravioli. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper. Heat up your handy Dutch oven and drizzle in a little olive oil before searing the short ribs on all sides. Remove them from the pot and toss in the leek, garlic, carrot and celery. Saute for 5-7 minutes and then deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add the short ribs back into the pot and pour in the broth, 4 sprigs of thyme, and a little salt & pepper. Bring the pot to a boil, before covering and putting it in the oven for 3 hours at 300 degrees. Don’t forget to wrap a little foil around your lid handle to protect it.

After the meat has cooked for three hours, remove it from the pot and shred it, getting rid of the bones and any large fatty pieces. Use a sieve to strain the cooking liquid from the vegetables and add those to the meat. Remove and toss the sprigs of thyme. You’ll use the reserved cooking liquid for the sauce, so keep it. You can put it in the freezer for about twenty minutes to let the excess fat congeal, then skim it off. Or, if you are like me, you can get a $10 gadget that is made to separate fat from gravy and use that. It’s pretty magical. Either way, get rid of the fat and then set the liquid aside to use in the sauce.

Pasta

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 Tbsps water

1 yolk & 2 Tbsps water, for egg wash

Using your stand mixer with the dough hook, combine the flour and salt before adding the eggs one at a time. Continue to mix as you drizzle in the olive oil and then add a little water until the dough starts to form into a ball. Then sprinkle some flour on a work surface and knead the dough for a few minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. Finally, wrap it in plastic and let it (and you) rest for about a half hour.

We cut the dough into fourths to form our noodles. Dust the counter and the dough with flour. You want to do this often to keep the dough from getting sticky. Roll it through the pasta machine on it’s widest setting a few times, then slowly reduce the setting, running the pasta through twice each time. Tyler’s directions said to go until the machine was on its lowest setting but we only went to 7 (ours goes to 9) and it was really thin. Use your judgment.

Lay out the sheet of pasta on the (floured) countertop and brush the surface with the egg wash. Put about a tablespoon of filling on half the pasta sheet in tight little piles two inches apart. Fold the other half of the past sheet over the top of the filling. Try to get the air out of the pockets around the filling and make a seal. May God help you with this because it was impossible for us. Finally, cut each pocket into squares using a crimper or plain old knife. These stick like crazy so if you are not cooking them immediately be sure to dust them in cornmeal or flour.

To cook the ravioli, get a big pot of salted water boiling and cook them a few at a time. They float to the top when they are done. Tyler’s instructions said to cook them 10-15 minutes, but I only had to cook mine about 4-6 minutes. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon. Make sure to have the sauce done and ready as soon as the raviolis are done because they get cool super fast.

Mushroom Sauce

2 large shallots, peeled and sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chopped assorted mushrooms (I just used baby bella)

1 tbsp flour

To make the sauce (last part, promise), sauté the shallots and garlic for a few minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic. Then add in the mushrooms and cook over high heat until the liquid evaporates. Sprinkle in the flour and mix it in, sautéing until the mushrooms start to get some nice golden color. Then add in the cooking liquid, 2 sprigs of thyme, and a little salt and pepper. Cook a few more minutes until it reduces and thickens. Then pour it over the ravioli, grate a little fresh parmesan on top, and enjoy! The eating process is much quicker than the cooking process but very delicious.

We actually ended up making about 15 raviolis and using the rest of the dough to make noodles. Then we mixed the leftover meat into the mushroom sauce to top the noodles. This was also a delicious way to eat it, and practical since we had so much leftover meat.