CityMama™

How to: Make Homemade Salad Dressing [NaBloPoMo Day 14]

This is an oldie but a goody. Because it's Friday. I'm hoping that because the economy blows, people are going to stop spending money on bottled dressing (which I find outrageously expensive for what it is) and start making their own.

Don't get me wrong, there are some bottled dressings that I adore (Girard's Champagne and Trader Joe's Cilantro for starters) but I'd much rather eat a salad dressed with a vinaigrette of my own creation.

So this weekend I challenge you to grab a jar and make some dressing, then report back and tell me how it went.

How to: Bake an Acorn Squash (and what to do with it!) [NaBloPoMo Day 11]

Acorn squash stuffed with cous cous, garbanzos, raisins, orange zest, thyme and chives.

Now that it's Fall, one of the dishes I love cooking is baked acorn squash. Unlike summer squash, winter squashes aren't as waterlogged and gushy so they stand up to baking and still retain their sturdiness. Once they are baked anything goes.  You can:

• put a pat of butter in each, warm in the oven until melted, then serve.
• drizzle with honey or maple syrup, butter, and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
• sprinkle with gorgonzola, pancetta, and chopped fresh sage and bake until pancetta is crispy.
• slice and serve over a bed of spinach tossed with dried cranberries, walnuts, crumbled chevre, and warm vinaigrette.
• sprinkle with curry powder and drizzle with butter, bake 10 minutes, then serve.
• top with chopped chipotle chile en adobo and minced onion, bake 10 minutes, then serve.
• top with garlic and grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
• top with carmelized onions, thyme and prosciutto strips, bake until prosciutto is crisp.
• stuff with any grain (cous cous, quinoa, wild rice etc.) or a combination of cooked ground lamb and cooked rice, bake, serve.

I love it because it's so versatile and when stuffed, as I did it last night, it makes for a pretty and satisfying vegetarian main course.

BAKED ACORN SQUASH (a tutorial)

First, cut the squash in half (I used two to serve four people):

How to: Cook Balsamic-Roasted Brussels Sprouts [NaBloPoMo Day 9]

Howdy, folks. Today we're kicking off "How To" week here on CityMama.  I promised a tutorial every day this week and that's what you're going to get. If there is anything that I've written about that you have questions about and/or you'd like me to "show" you how to do it, please leave me a comment below. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I am pretty darn good at explaining things in an easy-to-understand way. And I promise to take lots of pictures. Which reminds me, my Sony a100  DSLR seems to have crapped out on me which is why recent pictures (taken with my point/shoot) may be even more mediocre than they usually are.

Last week we covered "Kitchen Gadgets Everyone Should Have." Granted, I am not a gadgety kinda girl, preferring to stick to tried-and-true kitchen basics (knives, graters, etc.), but there are some gadgets everyone should have either because they make a cook's job easier or they are just plain fun to use.

We're going to start this week off with a tutorial on how to make sweet and nutty Balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts. It's perfect for Fall and if you practice now, these could even make an appearance on your Thanksgiving table. My entire family loves these cute little cabbages and this is one of my favorite ways to make them. I know you've heard this a thousand times before, but even if you think you don't like Brussels sprouts (because the only way you've ever eaten them is boiled to death--a truly stinky preparation!), you'll like this. I think you will like this. Okay, even if you don't you should at least try it. Here's how it's done.

BALSAMIC-ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Preheat oven to 400 deg. (If you have a convection oven, even better, preheat to 375 and reduce cooking time by about 10 minutes.) Wash and trim a pound of Brussels spouts by slicing off the dry stem and removing tough or dried-looking outer leaves. Cut sprouts in half and place on a baking tray:

Salt

pink Hawaiian alaea salt and grey Celtic mineral salt flakes, my two salts of choice

One of the things I am most annoyed by is under-salted food, especially when that food is presented in a restaurant that charges a pretty penny for its food. There is nothing that ruins a dish more than lack of salt and nothing that improves it more that adding just enough salt to make the flavors pop.

Last week I had dinner with friends in a restaurant that I'd been dying to try because every time I passed by it was packed with diners. Well, I should have read the Yelp reviews first because while most people praised the atmosphere (inviting) and the drinks (delicious), people were uniformly dissatisfied with the food. It wasn't that the food was bad, it just was so under-salted that nothing about the dishes sparkled.  Equally annoying were the lack of salt and pepper shakers on the table which I find utterly pretentious. When the waiter asked how our dinner was, I let him know that the food was lacking salt and he said he would tell the chef. He returned to our table a few minutes later to let us know that the chef said, "That's how we cook the food here." Well if that's the case, then I certainly won't be back. I never ever salt my food at the table (in fact, we don't keep a salt shaker on our own table), but I found myself adding sprinkle after sprinkle of salt to just about every dish. (BTW, Whole Foods deli is also guilty of not salting their prepared items enough. The food always looks good, but tastes horrible. Blech.)

There is no more important ingredient in my cooking arsenal than salt, and as for so many lessons she taught me about cooking, I need to thank my mother for teaching me about the importance of salt and how different salts have different flavors. Yes, flavors.

Penne with raw tomato-pepper sauce

This sauce is completely raw and probably not like anything you've ever had on pasta. I first had it when I was visiting my family in Rome. My aunt made a version of it (I hope I am doing it justice) and it blew me away. I had never tasted anything like it and as soon as the explosion of flavors hit my mouth, I knew I had to learn to make it.  Thankfully, it's easy.  Easy but tastes hard. And sometimes that's what it's all about, right?

I've never seen this on any menu in any Italian restaurant in the States, or even in Italy for that matter. It also doesn't appear in my numerous Italian (as in, written in Italian) cookbooks.  I hope you enjoy it.

Here is our cast of characters, and aside from olive oil, basil, salt and pepper, this is pretty much it:

Very Green Veggie Stir-Fry with Soba

This is one of those meals, I swear, that's ready in about five minutes.  There is no excuse for heating anything up in the microwave or toaster oven when you can make this. Trust me, trust you, you can make this.

I used to think that my stir-fries needed to contain a colorful array of vegetables, but not so anymore. I love every green vegetable and love to make all green stir-fries, pizzas, frittatas...you get the idea. And green veggies are usually what I have on hand. Plus, they are usually the cheapest.

I started the prep for this at lunch time.  Since I was already tied up in the kitchen making lunches, I took and extra 5 minutes to cut up the veggies for our dinner.  They sat on a bowl in the counter all afternoon mainly because I forgot to stick them back in the fridge. They were fine, and in hindsight, probably helped the stir-fry to cook faster since they were at room temperature.

I make a very simple sauce for my stir-fries because I prefer to let the flavor of the vegetables shine through.

Here's the recipe:

Tutorial: Basic Tomato Sauce

This is my recipe for the most basic tomato sauce in my pasta-making repertoire. Sometimes called marinara, this is a simple sauce of tomatoes, wine,  garlic, and onions, with a hint of basil flavor.  The only thing missing from above is the salt. No pepper goes into this until it's served , but you could add a dried red chili. Once made it can go straight onto pasta or—if you look at the end of the recipe—can be used for any number of things.

Since the recipe is already linked, I'll now bring it to life with photos. My special helper pretty much made the sauce her help with just a little help from me.

Pasta alla Carbonara: A tutorial

Pasta alla Carbonara (which comes from carbone or coal/charcoal) is one of those dishes that is in my 10 ten list of favorite comfort foods. Because what's not to love about breakfast for dinner, which essentially this "bacon and egg" pasta is?  It is high on my family's list of favorite dishes as well, and makes a perfect last-night snack—especially after (shhh!) drinking too much.

If you google or flip through Italian cookbooks you will find that there are many variations on this theme, but the recipe I am sharing is how I grew up eating and then helping to make this pasta. And it is of my Italian-side-of-the-family's opinion that Pasta alla Carbonara should never contain cream. It's the cheese along with the eggs that gives this pasta sauce its creamy texture. My Italian aunt also doesn't put garlic in hers, but I like it with mine.

In Italy you would use guanciale (cured, unsmoked bacon made from the pig's jowls) to make this, but as that is difficult to find in the states unless you have a good Italian deli near you (or you make it yourself). You can use pancetta or Italian cured but unsmoked bacon (which is available at most large grocery stores or Trader Joe's already pre-diced) or, heck, even regular ole bacon as long as it is not hickory smoked and not maple-flavored.

I now present, some of your ingredients:

3-4 good handfuls or at least 2 cups of grated pecorino romano (my pref) or parmiggiano reggiano cheese, fresh ground pepper (the black "charcoal") and really excellent imported spaghetti. (Not pictured: the pancetta.)

First things first, put a large pot of salted water on to boil.  Be generous with the salt—you are seasoning the pasta.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Now that you've made all that pasta what do you do with it? If you were me on Easter, you make Fettuccine Alfredo, that's what!

This is not one of those Alfredo recipe that is swimming in heavy cream. It's a light recipe (well, as light as anything containing one stick of butter can be) that lets the silky-lightness of the pasta shine through.

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO CITYMAMA-STYLE

For this recipe you'll need:

• one recipe of fresh fettuccine (or equivalent for six people)
• one stick of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/4 nutmeg
• 3 cups of grated parmigiano or pecorino romano (reserve half cup for passing at the table)
• salt and pepper to taste
• truffle salt (optional)

Put pasta water on to boil. Salt generously.

Cut up butter and place in a large bowl. (I bought this bowl in Deruta, Italy and hand-carried it back on the plane with me. It is my favorite pasta bowl.):

Put cream and nutmeg into a small saucepan and warm through on med-lo heat:

Add the cheese to the butter:

When pasta water is boiling, add the fresh pasta slowly and stir well. Fresh pasta cooks very quickly and should be done in 1.5 to 2 minutes. Do not over cook or pasta will be mushy.

Drain and add to pasta bowl and stir quickly and well. Slowly add in warmed cream until desired sauciness is achieved, you may not need all the cream (you can save the unused cream and add it to a veggie soup or tomato pasta sauce). Salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once passing cheese and truffle salt at the table (if you really want to gild the lily).

My girls will eat anything if it has truffle salt on it: hard-boiled eggs, crudités, pasta, polenta, risotto...for that reason, it's a great investment.

Making fresh pasta: A tutorial

Welcome to the next post in my tutorial series: making fresh pasta.

If you can boil water, then you can make fresh pasta.  If you have a few essential tools—a food processor and a hand-crank or electric pasta machine—then it's super-duper easy. Those tools are helpful but aren't necessary. I've made pasta by rolling out the dough and cutting it with a knife.  It never comes out as thin as when I make it with my pasta machine, but that's okay.  It's still yummy.

The first thing you need to do when making fresh pasta is to make the dough. You can use AP flour or semolina, but I like to use this stuff:

Don't worry, this isn't the only picture. There are 24 more to go!

It's called "00" (double zero) flour and is sold in well-stocked Italian markets, gourmet shops, or online. I think it makes the pasta especially silky and light, but regular flour works fine, too. Once you have your flour of choice, get ready to make the dough. You'll need:

• 4 cups of "00" or unbleached AP flour (whatever you prefer)
• 6 eggs (+ up to 2 egg yolks if you want a richer, eggier pasta)
• a pinch or two of sea salt
• about a 1/2 tsp of olive oil
• room temp water (just in case you need it)

This recipe serves 6 hungry eaters, but make it all anyway, you can freeze the pasta once it's cut.