Category: Recipes

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Sautéed Rainbow Chard

  • 1 bunch rainbow chard
  • 2 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

  1. heat olive oil and garlic in a large pan until  garlic turns opaque
  2. slice rainbow chard
  3. add to the pan and pour chicken broth over
  4. at medium low heat, let cook down to a bit, until chard starts turning dark
  5. add slivered almonds and raisins, add a little water if it’s wilting too fast

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Tahini Cauliflower w/ Caramelized Shallots

  • 1/2 head of cauliflower
  • 1/4 medium-sized eggplant (diced)
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp apricot jalapeno jam (optional)
  • 1/2 shallot
  • black pepper
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pat butter

  1. caramelize shallot in the 2 tbsp olive oil and butter, remove from pan
  2. add remaining tbsp olive oil to pan at medium heat
  3. cut florets off cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and add to pan, drizzle vinegar and jam over top (optional, could replace w/ honey)
  4. after 5 minutes add eggplant and continue to cook at medium-low heat, making sure the eggplant doesn’t turn to mush but it cooked through (opaque-looking) grind pepper over top
  5. take off heat and mix in a bowl w/ shallot, mustard and capers

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Broccoli, Celery, Tomato and Grape Mélange

  • 2 sm heads broccoli
  • 1 lg tomato, diced
  • 1/2 cup red grapes
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • 8 sticks celery
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

  1. cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces and slice celery
  2. heat olive oil and garlic over medium-low heat
  3. add celery to pan
  4. after 2 minutes, add tomato and grapes, then broccoli
  5. pour vinegar over and stir in capers
  6. continue cooking until broccoli is cooked to your liking, stirring occasionally

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Plum Goat Cheese Tart

A couple of weeks ago we went to the swap meet and thought it was a good idea to buy five pounds of plums before trying them. They were chalky and gross and never ripened. Luckily, I am quite the problem solver especially when it comes to all things food related. In one of the most magical transformations I’ve ever participated in, plum jam was created.

plum jam:

  • 10 plums (don’t worry if they’re unripe and tasteless, it’ll be better if they are tasty but it’s not absolutely necessary as evidenced by the swap meet fiasco)
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  1. Slice plums and heat, covered, on medium-low heat with lemon juice.
  2. Let cook undisturbed for 10 minutes, then stir in honey and cinnamon
  3. tilt lid up to let out some moisture and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until desired consistency is reached

This jam is great on toast, yogurt or cottage cheese as well. I think I am going to make baked brie w/ it tomorrow night. This tart was a wonderful and easy dinner/dessert. Puff pastry is a great pantry (er freezer) staple to have on hand because of its’ versatility and scrumptious-ness.

plum jam, goat cheese tart:

  • 1 sheet puff pastry
  • 1 cup plum jam (link)
  • 1/2 cup goat cheese

  1. pre-heat oven to 400°F, thaw puff pastry and roll out on lined baking sheet
  2. poke middle with a fork, leaving a 1 inch border, sprinkle with 1/2 the goat cheese and bake at 400° F for 10 minutes or until it starts to turn gold
  3. remove and spread the jam in an even layer over the middle part then sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese on top, continue baking, about 1o minutes, or until cheese melts and crust turns golden

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Chickpea Salad

This was another cold salad born out of necessity during this weekend’s heat wave. Chick pea is “pois chiche” in French, I think it’s one of my favorite French words, next to champignon (mushroom) and pamplemousse (grapefruit). My friend asked me what my favorite French words were, while studying abroad, and when I told him this list, he was like “of course they’re all foods!” I hadn’t even noticed.

  • 1 can garbanzos/chick peas
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (maybe more depending on the consistency of your tahini)
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 1/2 green bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup tahini
  • 2 roasted carrots
  • 2 tsp yellow curry powder
  • 1/2 lemon
  1. drain garbanzos
  2. chop spinach, bell pepper and carrots
  3. add garbanzos and veggies to a medium size bowl and stir in curry powder, tahini and red wine vinegar
  4. squeeze lemon juice into bowl, depending on how thick your tahini is (they vary brand to brand), you may need to add more red wine vinegar if it’s too globby (yes it’s a word, I read it in my Biopshychology book today, describing the cervical cortex)

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Tuna Veggy Salad

I really love tuna. Not tuna soaked in mayo though, that takes the fun out of it. I like to chop up fruits and veggies and make a lighter, fresher salad, just like my mom’s. This was another recipe born out of bountiful produce and a mighty appetite.

  • 1 can tuna
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 1/2 large tomato
  • 2 tbsp mustard
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 1 lg carrot
  • 1/2 onion (red or white)
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 10 red grapes
  • healthy dose of capers
  1. drain tuna
  2. chop celery, peel carrot then slice along with the tomato, onion and spinach and halve the grapes
  3. add it all to a bowl and mix

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Pickled Carrots

I love pickled carrots. I made a batch of these and we ate the whole jar last night (not the glass). The magical thing about these is that you can keep re-using the pickling juice so if you’re a little lazy or extremely conscious of waste or addicted to pickled carrots (guilty of all three), try this recipe!

  • 3 average size carrots
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  1. cut stems and tail ends off carrots and peel
  2. then halve them and quarter them (or do whatever slicing suits your jar)
  3. put vinegar, sugar and salt in jar and stir it around until it’s mostly dissolved
  4. add the carrots, cap, and shake it up a bit
  5. then uncap and add just enough water to cover carrots and shake again
  6. leave in fridge for at least 30 minutes

Here’s Kanye West singing about his three addictions
 if you’re so inclined.

And here is the Portlandia pickling clip again to get you in the spirit.

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Pickled Zucchini and Plums

It is ridiculously hot in SLO right now. Yesterday I sat at home and studied all day but somehow still ended up feeling gritty like I had been strolling the streets of NYC on a summer day, thanks to the steady layer of sweat I kept up until well after sunset..even though I was stationed under the fan, with breaks only to make trips to the little girls room and to the freezer to remove and refill glasses of water. At one point I realized the reason my laptop was moving at the pace of an elderly snail, was probably because the poor thing was hotter than the outside temperature, meaning well over 100. I put it in the fridge. Not like I was getting much done. Heat is definitely not conductive to productivity. Anyways my friend was coming over for dinner but the thought of cooking ANYTHING sounded horrendous so I made a few cold salad-y things that required minimal effort and used up some of our surplus produce.

We got zucchini in our CSA this week, much to my chagrin. I’ve never been a fan and neither is my roommate. This was a big stress on my conscience this week…knowing that I’d have to mask those stupid zucchinis, also knowing it was going to be way too hot to cook anything this weekend unless dinner prep could wait til 8:00 when it finally starts cooling off. But we’re busy girls so this  is not feasible. I decided to  pickle them because as you know if you’ve seen this Portlandia clip, pickling is the solution if you’re in a pickle.

  • 2 zucchinis
  • 1 1/2 plums
  • 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  1.  cut zucchinis in halves and grate them long ways using a carrot grater
  2. slice plums thinly
  3. lay zucchini and plums in a small casserole kind of dish and sprinkle sugar and salt over
  4. pour vinegar and water over
  5. let marinate for an hour and stir a little, adding more vinegar if it looks like it needs more moisture

I also have made Pickled Carrots TWICE this week because pickled carrots are especially great. We also had 3 bunches of them.

And here are some pickled onions for good measure.

 

 

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Leftover Polenta Breakfast

One of my biggest pet peeves is food waste. It’s lucky that I enjoy concocting strange new things because I often find myself with an assortment of leftovers that you wouldn’t necessarily think of together…life lessons of cooking?

I think I inherited this fearless trait of throwing things together with abandon from my dad.  Or maybe it’s a learned talent, from all of those childhood nights when my mom would go to book group and I’d watch in suspense as papa cooked up the most random ingredients into what he called, “Pirate’s Surprise.” My best friends’ dad had his “specialty dish” that he called ‘fireman’s delight’ or something like that, but my dad could never remember the name and came up with Pirate’s Surprise for his own creations and it’s stuck ever since. This was my own rendition of a Pirate’s Surprise that I made myself for breakfast the other day, using some of the leftover polenta from the White Wine Sauce smothered Polenta , the night before.

  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup roasted carrots
  • 1/2 cup spinach
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup canned salmon
  • 1/2 cup polenta (cooked)

 

    1. reheat polenta in a nonstick pan
    2. roughly chop spinach and add it along with apple cider vinegar to polenta, when spinach begins to wilt, remove and put in bowl, add salmon and carrots
    3. cook an egg (I like under-easy) and slide it on top of the polenta-spinach mixture

© 2014 – 2015, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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Truffle Gnocchi w/ Brown Butter Sage Sauce

  • 1/2 a shallot
  • 3 pats butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 15 sage leaves
  • 1/4 cup cherry tomatoes (golden go especially well)
  • 1 pack gnocchi
  • 1/2 tsp. salt (for pasta water)
  1. boil water for gnocchi and follow directions on package
  2. heat 2 pats butter and add sage leaves, cook at low temperature, flipping leaves occasionally until butter bubbles a bit and sage starts to crisp up and turn brown
  3. remove sage leaves, add another pat butter and 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, slice shallots thinly and add them to the pan when butter melts, cook on medium low heat until shallots start to soften and add tomatoes, continue cooking until tomatoes start to pop and shallots are caramelized
  4. after draining gnocchi, drizzle w/ olive oil, add sage leaves, shallots and tomatoes and serve

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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