melting your mouth

Matt and I had a delicious, though perhaps not all that balanced or healthy, meal of steamed mussels and artichokes the other night. We first started eating mussels while we were studying abroad in France, where they are often served with French fries as “Moules Frites.” There, mussels are eaten not with one of those silly little shellfish forks as I’ve seen them served here, but by using one of the shells as little tongs to pull the meat from the other shells. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture, but I thought it was worth including for purposes of instruction.)

We’ve cooked them a couple times since then, and they are very easy to prepare. A recipe in this months Cooking Light inspired us to make them again. This time, we simply steamed them with chicken broth, lemon juice, and some spices, and served them with some butter for dipping.

We also steamed an artichoke, which was originally planned as an appetizer but ended up being finished about the same time as the mussels. We also had some dipping sauce for the artichoke — as I said, not very healthy, but certainly delicious! If you’ve never eaten whole artichokes before, as we hadn’t until moving to California, they may require some eating instructions too. Basically, you pull off the petals, dip them in the sauce, and scrape the little bit of pulp off with your teeth. I didn’t take pictures of that part, but Elise has a nice tutorial. Also, you want to stop eating the petals when you get to the purplish ones in the center. This part is called the “choke.” It should be scraped out, leaving the delicious “heart” of the artichoke underneath.

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Sorry for the long hiatus, but the quarter is finally over and I should have a chance to blog a bit at least for the next couple weeks when things get geared up again. Everything has been so busy I’ve hardly even been cooking, much less taking pictures and writing something up. Matt’s been taking care of me very generously though, so I have been fed some pretty good meals in between working problem sets, exams, and grading. But I’m looking forward to getting back in the kitchen!

Here’s an easy side dish that always seems to impress despite its simplicity. We learned this from a friend when we were studying abroad in France a few years ago. I don’t have a real recipe and I always change it around a bit, but here’s the gist of it.

Stuffed Tomatoes

• small, round tomatoes, one for every two servings
• coarse breadcrumbs, preferably homemade, ~1/2 c per tomato
• fresh Parmigiano-Regianno, grated, a few tablespoons per tomato
• fresh chopped herbs, a tablespoon or so per tomato (rosemary, parsley, thyme, etc. … I use whatever I have on hand)
• minced garlic, about a clove per tomato
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut tomatoes in half. Place cut side up on a baking sheet. (You may need to cut a little bit off the rounded side so they will sit flat.) In a bowl, mix together breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add enough olive oil so the filling can be barely held together when squished. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes. Mound the filling on top of each tomato half. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes or so, until the top is a little browned and the tomatoes are cooked through.

This is the recipe for butternut squash soup that I mentioned in my last post, but I decided it deserved its own so it could be found more easily later. It comes from our good family friend, Kelly Branson. It’s deliciously smooth and rich. The goat cheese, pine nuts, and chives garnishes are optional, but I highly recommend including them, especially the goat cheese and pine nuts.

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe from Kelly Branson

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
4 c chicken stock
1 1/4 c crème fraîche or sour cream
2 T butter
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne
1 T sugar
several chives, chopped
goat cheese
toasted pine nuts

Combine squash and stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until squash is tender. (Puree can be made a couple days in advance). Cool a bit, and puree the mix in a blender. Return puree to saucepan, and turn heat to medium low. Stir in crème fraîche and butter. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Cook, stirring until heated through. (Do not allow to boil.) Add sugar. Keep warm over low heat. Garnish with goat cheese, pine nuts, and chives.

Pictures to come next week, when I return from a trip to Long Beach. But this is so good, I didn’t think you should be without the recipe for any longer than absolutely necessary.

I have only a vague recollection of having brussel sprouts once before a few months ago. I don’t really remember having a strong opinion one way or another the first time I had them. So I didn’t grow up hating them the way I hear some people do, but they were just sort of off my radar. Then my parents went and took a fancy cooking class down in Wastonville, and since then, both Mom and I have been making brussel sprouts left and right. I think Matt and I have eaten them as a side dish at least twice this week. (And no, the second one wasn’t leftovers. There are never any leftovers.)

So as I was saying, I don’t know whether I like brussel sprouts ordinarily on their own or not, but I sure love them this way. This recipe is delicious, and except for being doused in olive oil, pancetta, sugar, and chicken broth, they’re pretty good for me, right?

They take a bit of time to cook, but don’t be tempted to pull them out too soon, no matter how hungry you might be, as the best part of these sprouts are the golden browned caramelized edges. Oh, and the crisped up pancetta. That’s pretty delicious too.

Yet another recipe adapted from my mom and dad’s class at Mugnaini Imports. I’m telling you, these folks are real winners.

Ingredients:

6-8 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Sugar
1/2 c chicken broth
6-8 slices of pancetta
A few handfuls of brussel sprouts, cleaned

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Drizzle olive oil generously over the garlic in a jelly roll pan. Roast in a low oven until barely golden, 10-15 minutes. (But check them often, you don’t want them to get too brown.) Sprinkle with sugar and add chicken broth. Cook for another few minutes. Take this out of the pan and mash up the garlic into the broth. If the garlic gets too brown or cooks too quickly so that it won’t really mash, no worries. Just stick it in the food processor or blender (or chop the cloves up by hand.) Set aside. Turn the oven up to about 400 F.

Meanwhile, parboil the brussel sprouts: add just enough salted water to cover (though you won’t really be able to cover since they float). Turn on the heat and boil for 5-10 minutes, until barely tender. (You should be able to stick a fork in them, but when you do you should still feel reasonably firm resistance.) Drain the brussel sprouts and set them aside until cool enough to handle.

Chop the pancetta. Brown it in the oven for a few minutes in the jelly roll pan.

Meanwhile, cut each brussel sprout in half along the same axis as the stem. When the pancetta is slightly browned (it doesn’t have to be completely done), mix the broth/garlic mixture, pancetta, and brussel sprouts. Cook in the 400 F oven about 15-20 minutes, stirring every five minutes or so, until the sprouts are nicely browned and the edges caramelized a bit.

Eat as soon as possible, as they are best when they’re hot. Though they are still good room temperature too. These are just delicious all around.

So I got the idea of stuffing acorn squash with pears a month or two ago from a post at briciole, someone commented suggesting gorgonzola, and I went from there. This is good as a not-too-sweet dessert, which was how I made it, but it could probably be a side dish or even a main dish with a few sides. This was a very good combination and one I will definitely make again.

Ingredients:
1 Acorn squash
about 1/3 c crumbled Gorgonzola
about 1/2 c Pecans, roughly chopped
1 Pear, chopped into 1/2″ cubes
a couple T Brown sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut acorn squash in half and scrape out seeds. Put a little bit of water in a jelly roll pan, and place halves of squash upside down in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, until squash is just tender. Meanwhile, mix gorgonzola, pecans, pears, and brown sugar. I’m not really sure if the amounts I listed above are right, so eyeball it. When the squash is done, turn it rightside up and mound the filling in each half. You may have to slice off the top of the squash so that it will sit flat. You want the filling really mounded up as much as possible, as it will cook down a little bit. Empty the water out of the pan, and bake the filled squash for another 7 minutes or so, until the topping is a little bit brown.