Green Bean & Hazelnut Salad - Summer Style

 
Hazelnuts and green beans adorning the Thanksgiving table is a given. But in summer? Not usually the first thought. There are three excellent reasons why this makes a fantastic summer dish:

1) It's picnic perfect.

• Stick in the freezer for a few hours and it can withstand an afternoon at the beach. By the time your stomach is ready, it will have reached a perfect temperature. And no creamy dressing or bacon makes it sun-safe and won't frighten your bikini-clad companions.

2) Hazelnuts rock.

•  Summer is witness to an abundance of almond-focused dishes. Any why not? They are great with fruit, grilled fishes, and so on. Yet health wise, hazelnuts pack in just as much good stuff as their almondy counterparts. While there are many dangers of the summer, what with sharks and UV rays, finding oneself in an almond-rut should also be warned against. The prevention: from time to time, reach for hazelnuts.

3) Less carbs and time to cook than pasta.

• Self-explanatory. Yes, both produce the kitchen heat required for a boiling pot of water, but these babies only take 3 minutes to boil. Compared to an 8-11 minute spaghetti al dente time, the choice is clear. And, um, these guys are vegetables!

Continue to Recipe...

Learning about Favas (and a Spring Pea-Fava Pesto)

Once, there was a recipe that looked oh-so-very-tasty. It was a pasta with a fava pesto sauce. Fava beans were beautifully photographed in the half-shell. Scattered across the brown paper bag they were purchased in, the green, slightly fuzzy, pods had been discarded and a steaming plate of pasta was in the forefront. I made it within days. And it sucked. I mean, it was so bitter even copious amounts of cheese (my usual fix-it) left me feeling pretty disappointed.

Still, ever curious about the world of favas, I did some asking around. Illumination my friends, pure fava illumination. There is a double shell. Yep. Now, if you want to eat them raw, snack-style, the double shell need not be removed. In fact, one doesn't even notice it. But if you want to cook them, even slightly, the outer jacket of the fava bean has got to go. The way to do this is get a pot of water boiling, and in the meantime, start popping the fava beans out of the pods. Then toss in the pot and boil for 1 minute. Have a bowl of ice water ready for when you scoop them out of the pot. You want to stop the cooking or it will be too difficult to peel. After cooled, strain from the water, and pop the bean in half to reveal the inner bean. This is what you want. The outer jackets can be tossed.

 

Now that you've done a bit of kitchen soul-searching to find your inner bean, feel free to stick it all in a food processor and mix up into a pesto. I had some fresh peas around, so I boiled them for about 5 minutes (along with the inner fava beans) to do a pesto with some basil and Pecorino cheese. It was really nice on top some simple fish fillets (with the old peas 'n carrots stand-by, which, at times, can fit the bill perfectly.) But the next day, mixed into a pot of some perfectly al dente-ed spaghetti, it turned transcendent. Now, unless you are deathly allergic to them, run, don't walk, and go get yourself some favas!

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Ribboned Zucchini and Parmesan Salad

Eating out, exploring new restaurants, is not only such a pleasure in itself, but can often inspire dishes to be recreated at home. A few weeks ago I shared a few bites of a starter salad of delicate ribbons of zucchini atop some punchy arugula. Lovely chunks of Parmesan were stuffed between the curls and some deeply flavoured olive oil was drizzled over all. Perfetto.

Since then, there have been few waking moments where that salad hasn't been on my mind. So this week, I've been doing the same, with the addition of fresh lemon juice, Maldon sea salt, and with some warmed Italian flatbread called Piadina. Fresh and simple, it works beautifully as a light lunch, a starter, or even as a late night meal for those working evening hours and facing that dreaded 11pm I-need-a-quick-and-light-meal-and-don't-want-to-dive-into-the-bag-of-tortilla-chips-again moment. Although I must warn, try this salad once, and you'll be dreaming of zucchini ribbons for weeks to come!

Continue to Recipe...

Mushroom Risotto on Repeat

There are few dishes I make repeatedly. Sure, I detest boredom of the palette as much as the next foodie, and a shortened attention span runs in my American eighties-baby blood. When something does get repeat play, it is guaranteed to be simple, relatively quick, and full of basic ingredients found in a mid-week kitchen.

Chicken fajitas is one such recipe that's been in the rotation for years. Another is a fennel-orange salad - as a side or a quick brekkie, it's been hitting the spot for quite some time. And ever since I convinced a cute Sicilian to teach me a local dish, a saffrony pasta with sardines has been my cupboard staple favourite. And in the colder months of the year, butternut squash with curried lentils can be found in my bowl.

I realized I've made mushroom risotto a total of three times...in just as many weeks. I had to share.

A good-quality mix of frozen mushrooms makes this all too easy to start a pot going at a moments notice. Having a bottle of Marsala in the kitchen is invaluable, and it really rocks a risotto.

The recipe is fairly flexible allowing for substitutions. Focus on the best quality of everything, a slow stirring of the pot, and a creamy (but still firm) plate of fragrant shroomy rice is sure to develop.

Recipe: Mushroom Risotto

Adapted from "Cook with Jamie"

Serves 3-4
Time 1 hour

Eat with Pinot Noir

1 Tb olive oil

handful of cubed pancetta OR 1 Tb butter

1/2 onion, minced

1 shallot, minced

stalks of 1 fennel (or 2 stalks celery)

1 1/3 cup (300g) arborio rice 

1/2 cup Marsala

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried thyme

3 large handfuls mixed mushrooms

3 1/2 cups (850ml) vegetable/chicken broth

1 large handful flat-leaf parsley

juice of 1/2 lemon

ground pepper

good extra virgin olive oil

freshly grated Parmesan

1) Heat up the broth and keep on low.

2) Heat the oil and pancetta (or butter) in a large pot on low heat. Slowly cook the minced onion, shallot, and fennel. After 10 mins, when onions are nearly clear, stir in the rice to coat with oil. Splash in the Marsala and let it steam up for a moment. Add the garlic, thyme, and mushrooms. Stir until liquids have been absorbed.

3) Now, find a glass of wine to sip, and a friend to chat with, so you can slowly stir in the broth one ladle at a time. It should take a good 30 plus minutes. After every ladle (or half-cup) stir until the liquid is absorbed, and then add a bit more.

4) When creamy, try the rice, it should still have it's shape and texture, but not be crunchy and undercooked. If it tastes good to you, it's done. Stir in the parsley, lemon juice, and pepper (more salt if needed).

5) Serve with a splash of olive oil and a good pile of Parmesan.

Enjoy.
- Jo

It's a Twofor! {Puntarelle + Potato Salad}

 

Resources. Tangible or not, we need them both, and they need us. Teaching English abroad, my students are some of the best resources I've got. Spanning fields such as law, finance, IT, medicine...I've always had my go-to person for basic needs pretty much covered. Funny enough, I've never taught any chefs, restaurateurs, or other food industry folks. But I find almost everyone delights in explaining local dishes, or pointing out the best/worst foodie spots in town, to the newbie.

Puntarelle - native specifically to the Lazio (Roman) region. It is in the chicory family, but different than chicory in the proper sense. From November to February, I am told this veg is found in markets, restaurants, and on mum's table. Although, it looks like I may be needing tips from one of these Italian mums, as my puntarelle didn't curl.

See, puntarelle is an abundant, but bitter, green that some clever peasants back in the day started soaking in cold water to make it more palatable. The fun bit is that then it curls up into little green curly-cues. I thought it would be just like wrapping presents, when the ribbon gets all tightly curled with the scissors (the ONLY reason I wrap.) Not this time. Not this puntarelle. Lack of curls shouldn't get a girl down though. It still tasted great, not at all bitter, especially balanced with the traditional anchovy-garlic dressing.

Now, the confession must come. I did not properly rinse my salted anchovies. At first taste, the salt was really quite overpowering. A potato salad thus enters the scene..the plot (and the salad) thickens. A big bowl of a light and lemony fennel-potato salad was in the fridge from the previous day. It also happened to be low on salt. Perfetto. The combination was so complementary I couldn't believe my luck. I had hoped to bring the puntarelle to a colleagues cook-out and really didn't want to disappoint. While it was still definitely on the salty side, the potato salad muted it just enough. The lemon, tarragon, fennel flavours really made one stellar match for the anchovy-garlic puntarelle.

So, thanks to those resourceful Romans, who left a very practical culinary legacy of bitter-green-soaking, today's post is a twofor - two salads for one. Mix and match as you please, delightful eaten on their own, but becoming a substantial power player when paired together.

Recipe: Puntarelle + Potato Salad

Serves 6-8 as a side

Eat with Sauvignon Blanc

Potato Salad:

4-5 potatoes

1 med (or half large) bulb fennel

1 shallot

juice of 1 1/2 lemons

1 1/2 heaping Tb plain yogurt

1 heaping Tb mayonnaise

1 handful flat-leaf parsley

1 tsp dried tarragon

salt/pepper

good olive oil

1) Cube the potatoes and boil until soft (15-20 mins)

2) Finely slice the fennel bulb, reserving the fronds for garnish. Mince the shallots. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, yogurt, and mayonnaise. Add the fennel, shallots, parsley, and tarragon. Mix well.

3. When potatoes have cooled just a bit, add into the salad. Salt/pepper to taste and toss in those fennel fronds.

Puntarelle alla Romana:

2 small (1 large) heads puntarelle (chicory)
2-3 cloves garlic
5 fillets anchovies in salt
2 Tb balsamic vinegar
5 Tb extra virgin olive oil

1) Cut and soak the puntarelle: follow the pictures here at Giallo Zafferanoa (text is Italian). Great blog posts at Rachel Eats and Apron and Sneakers. Basically, you want to use the hollow stalks, not the greens, and not the really flimsy outer stalks. Pick away the outer leaves, and slice the leefy tops off the tubular stalks. Then slice the long way into 6-8 long matchsticks. Stick in a big bowl of ice water for a good hour. They should curl if sliced thin enough, and not cut too short. If not, don't worry, the bitterness will still be gone, they just don't look as fun.

2) Make the dressing: mash the garlic in a mortar/pestle, or smash/finely mince. Rinse the anchovies very well of salt, and pat dry. Snip of the tail bits, and toss in a bowl with the garlic and vinegar. Use the back of a fork to mash, or two knives like you are cutting butter into pastry. Add olive oil and let sit 10 minutes before using.

3) Strain (or stick in a salad spinner) and pat dry with a kitchen towel. In a big bowl, toss well with the dressing and let sit 30 minutes before eating.

Enjoy.
- Jo

A (and not The) Minestrone

Names are tricky business. When I think about it, people have known about this for ages. I mean, one of Shakespear's most well-known and time-tested soliloquies is based on this point precisely. So a little cross-cultural discussion on the meaning of food names should really come as no surprise.

Minestrone, in my American Italian-deli-experience, is a soup with assorted veggies, beans, tomatoes, herbs, Parmesan, and pasta. So, when I woke up this Sunday and saw that the contents of my refrigerator were positively begging me to make minestrone, I listened.

 

Asking around, and doing a bit of googlework, only increased my confusion. At this point, I really have no idea what a minestrone ought to include. Pasta, or no pasta, that is the question. But after a handful of conversations, I don't think many Italians know the answer either. And does it matter? Do old men with suspenders holding up their trousers get in arm-flailing discussions when their local trattoria messes with the sanctity of minestrone? My Italian friends assured me they do not. But I will keep an eye out for this...just in case.

The problem with names is that they carry such weight. Another surprise came as I learned Italian woman don't take the surname of their husband. Many women in Rome have assured me that this is quite preferred, and other culture's traditions of abandoning one's name upon marriage are really quite silly.

As I am currently between last names, I can appreciate their point. Why complicate an already complicated balance like marriage and family with the added identity-altering pressure of name conventions? 

Names are loaded. The mere idea of changing one bears all kinds of identity re-configuring implications. But is that really necessary? Just because one does or does not change their name, or the name of something, does it really mean something changes? I don't think it has to.

I've long detested the name of my blog. Cumin in the Cupboard made clear sense to my North American friends, but when mentioning it to non-native English speakers, it needed explaining. And names shouldn't need explaining. So I changed it.

For now, we are just sticking with JosieLee..my first and middle name. Nothing cute, kitsch, or clever, as that would imply an expected transformation of blog identity, which you will not find. This space is still about the food I eat and the ideas connected to it. Maybe it will slowly, organically change in the future, as things often do, but big radical changes just seem a bit too try-hard to me. It is what it is.




My soup recipe here is just A minestrone, not THE minestrone. Maybe it's just a minestra. The name doesn't matter. What matters is that it is really quite tasty (even better the next day), and is full of flexibility on what ingredients can be brought to simmer. I find the anchors of this soup to be the pancetta and the Parmesan rinds. For me, it is the flavours imparted by these two salty basics that form the backbone of a minestrone, pasta or no pasta.

Recipe: Minestrone with Borlotti Beans and Chard

Serves: 4 - 6

Eat with: Chianti Classico or Pinot Noir

4.5 oz (125g) pancetta
1 onion, minced

stems of 1 fennel (or celery)

olive oil

4 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole

1 large potato, scrubbed and diced

1 large bunch chard

2 16-oz. cans stewed tomatoes

1 1/4 cup dried borlotti beans

6-7 cups chicken broth

1 large Parmesan rind

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried thyme

1 cup dried tempestine pasta (or use another small pasta shape, or rice/semolina grains/couscous)

Parmesan

The dried beans should be soaked and pre-cooked first. Either soak overnight and then cook in boiling water for 20 minutes while starting the soup. Or do a fast-soak: boil for 30 mins and then let sit in that warm water 1-2 hours. Or just use 2 cans of beans.

1) Finely cube the pancetta, and dice the onion and fennel stems/celery. Peel the garlic cloves, but leave whole. In a large pot with a smidge of olive over low heat, gently cook all for 15 mins, until fragrant and soft.

2) Add in the potato and chard. Cook 5 minutes until the volume of the greens is reduced. Add in the tomatoes, pre-cooked beans, broth, Parmesan rind, and herbs. Bring to boil, reduce, and simmer 45 mins.

3) During the last 10 mins, add in the pasta (or if it's a larger shaped pasta, pre-cook and add in...but tempestine is basically semolina grains...so that can just be added in.)

4) Serve with freshly grated Parmesan over top.

Enjoy!
- Jo

Detox: Day 3 {Roasted Root Vegetables + Squash}

While the first day of the detox flew by nearly unnoticed, and the second dragged on while I mentally bemoaned the absence of coffee, the third day was the winner. Seriously, I felt gooood.


A three-day detox seems suited best for most working schedules from a Friday to Sunday. Mine, however, didn't get shaking until Saturday, so it meant Monday was the final stretch. No coffee Monday morning, no problem. Really, a double-espresso per morning kind of a girl managed to get up early enough to drink a very large pot of green tea with ginkgo. That set me up. Green tea with ginkgo, you are my new best friend.

I had woken up so early in fact that I decided to do up a pan or two of roast veg to take with me to work. I had planned on taking the broccoli ratatouille left-overs for lunch and doing the fennel/grapefruit again for brekkie, but it was a cold morning, and there was a Hokkaido squash staring at me from the counter, saying, "look, if you cut me up and roast me, you can have a hot, filling, sweet brekkie without breaking any of the detox rules." Okay, Hokkaido squash, it's a deal.

So at six a.m., lights on, tea steeping, Ella Fitzerald scat-singing her heart away, I was chopping that squash up into wedges. Since I had ample time, I decided every other root veg in my kitchen was going in the oven as well.

It turned out perfect. This is the detox recipe champion extraordinaire. Everything is roasted on wax paper parchment paper, so no oil. And there are so many different flavours from the many veg commingling that salt is completely unnecessary. The flavours bring out the best in each other, and the fennel fronds strewn over top before eating absolutely lift it to another level.

And you know what? The morning rhythm of tea sipping, veg slicing, and oven roasting was enough sensory stimulation to start that Monday off just right. Not to mention trying to out-scat Ella, at which I have yet to win, but I do keep on trying...much to my neighbours dismay, I am sure.

Detox or no detox, this will be getting a repeat.



Detox Series:
Detox: The Rules

Day 1: Fennel+Grapefruit / Miso+Beet Soup

Day 2: Strawberries+Ginger / Moonblush Tomatoes / Ratatouille

Day 3: Roasted Root Vegetables+Squash

Continue to Recipe...

Detox: Day 2 {Strawberries+Ginger / Moonblush Tomatoes / Ratatouille}

Second day of the detox had an overall sluggish pace to it. I must confess, I miss my coffee juuust a little.

I woke up feeling pretty full from the previous day. Remember that miso-beet soup which serves 3 - 4 bowls? Well, I had eaten nearly all of it the night before...it was that good.

Looking around for a light breakfast then, a package of half-thawed strawberries were waiting for me in the fridge. So the day started by blending those with some ginger and lemon to be topped with sparkling mineral water. A bit of a detox morning spritzer really.


Keeping it light was a good idea. I knew I was in for a treat for lunch, as I had let Nigella Lawson's "moonblush tomatoes" work their magic overnight. It's a brilliant idea really. Halve a bunch of cherry tomatoes, top with thyme and stick in a heated (but turned off) oven overnight. The technique brings out their sweetness just perfectly. Toss with some frisée and mint, and that is one delightful lunch plate in front of you.


Dinner deserves a hot meal, so I threw together a Ratatouille with broccoli, instead of the more traditional zucchini. It was so easy, and such a warm, filling dish, I felt like I was fooling my body into thinking it was getting a big plate of carbs. But nope, only veg.

There's no picture of the finished Ratatouille, as it was after dark, and quite frankly, it's a veritable bowl of veg mush anyways. But a very tasty bowl it was!

Detox Series:
Detox: The Rules

Day 1: Fennel+Grapefruit / Miso+Beet Soup

Day 2: Strawberries+Ginger / Moonblush Tomatoes / Ratatouille

Day 3: Roasted Root Vegetables+Squash

Continue to Recipes...

Detox: Day 1 {Fennel+Grapefruit / Beet+Miso Soup}

The first day of a detox should feel pretty good. It's only one day without the usual stimulants and toxins, so my energy levels were just fine. The only noticeable difference being the amount of time spent in the kitchen - waaaay longer chopping and rinsing all that veg!

Breakfast was a plate of thinly sliced fennel and grapefruit segments, spritzed with lemon juice. I make this as a salad normally, with mixed greens, parmesan shavings, and dressed with lemon/olive oil. But during a detox, just the fennel/grapefruit make for a refreshing, and filling, brekkie. With a nice cup of green tea of course. If you can find a blend with Ginkgo, that should be good for focus and concentration, along with the bit caffeine from the green tea. You might not even miss that coffee!



Lunch was had in a hurry...nothing special, just a plate of fresh greens, tomatoes, and ground pepper followed by some braised brussels sprouts with lemon and my Spike seasoning blend.

Afternoon saw more tea and some mandarins. My detox blend from a Czech bio shop is actually pretty tasty, even without honey.

Dinner saw a bit more of the above-mentioned chopping action - a creamy miso-beet soup with (more) brussels sprouts. It was amazing! The miso flavour is not as pronounced as a typical miso soup, but rather fills in where salt left off. A great write-up on miso for salt is here at Culinate.

The soup was adapted from a fellow detoxing blogger, Honest Fare, who came up with it last year as an unblended soup with asparagus - which she also photographed beautifully! Mine was made at night, and the blending makes it a bit mucky looking in front of the lens.

Since it's November, and there's an abundance of brussels sprouts (for which I've developed a new-found affection), a few substitutions were made. I also wanted something a bit heartier than a light broth with floating veg, so in went the stick blender. It's easy to make, and tastes great on the second day as well.

The day finished with more tea and fruit. It turns out that pomegranates are great as a movie snack - a big bowl of them keeps the hands busy just like popcorn!

Detox Series:
Detox: The Rules

Day 1: Fennel+Grapefruit / Miso+Beet Soup

Day 2: Strawberries+Ginger / Moonblush Tomatoes / Ratatouille

Day 3: Roasted Root Vegetables+Squash

Continue to Recipe...

3-Day Detox Diet: The Rules

People like rules.

They really do, I am convinced of this.

When we have rules there are lots of things we can do with them. We can make colourful signs to enforce them. We can shake our heads at other people not following them. We can break them ourselves in order to feel rebellious, or guilty. And we can list them.

Lists seem to be particularly popular. Maybe it's the technological advances of our times, where social networking and powerpoint presentations have left us thinking in one sentence bullet points. Or maybe it came about after 'Top-5' John Cusack in High Fidelity. Or maybe the insecurity of the economic situation leaves us all yearning for the stability of the 1 - 2 - 3.
 

Whatever the case, this weekend I've assembled my own list of rules. The purpose being a little 3-day detox. Now, to be clear, I'm all about not starving myself, nor liquidizing excessively. It's a simple weekend to readjust my eating priorities before the holidays are upon us (ok, and it might have a little something to do with that giant skillet cookie from last weekend.)

Next month, I want those gingerbread men, midnight fudge snacks, and mug upon mug of eggnog to feel like the indulgence it ought to be. And anyways, there's no time like the present to make sure our bodies are in tip-top form to fight off coming winter colds.

The rules (or guidelines, for you softer gentler souls reading this):

1) No alcohol, coffee/black tea, or sodas/juices

2) No salt, sugar, or oils (natural flavour enhancers like Braggs liquid aminos, nutritional yeast, or Spike/Vegit are allowed)

3) No meat, dairy, grains, nuts, or starchy fruits
 
(Of course, these are just what I've decided my body needs right now, based on common sense and a rainy afternoon googling detox stuff)


What's in the kitchen then?
1) Vegetables with colour (i.e. no white potatoes)

2) Citrus fruit, berries, and pomegranates

3) Miso paste and nori seaweed

4) A variety of spices and fresh herbs, lemon, chilies, ginger, and Spike seasoning blend

5) Ground flax seed, psyllium seed powder, probiotic supplements, vitamin C tablets, and a good multi-vitamin + calcium

6) Unflavoured mineral water

7) Tea (Green/White/Red, Nettle, Ginseng, Ginkgo, Pu-erh, Mate, Smooth Move, and any other detox blend that floats your boat)

What to do all weekend?
The usual calming activities: sauna, massage, skin brushing, napping, walking the dog with friends, light exercise, chilling in a salt cave, and comedy watching (laughter is the key here).

The day before the detox, stop on by a health shop for your tea/supplements/seed powders, and then head over to the farmer's market to stock up on veg (bring a friend or a wagon to help you carry it all!) Also, It helps to eat healthy and limit caffeine the day before you start, to ease in a bit.



I'll be posting some detox recipes over the coming days. For now, here are some detox diet and recipe links:

Vegetarian Times: Weekend Detox
Woman and Home: Detox Plan
Healthy Healing: Sea Vegetable Detox
Energise for Life: Detox and Cleanse Recipes
Soup Chick: 7 Detox Soups

And some past detox-friendly Cumin in the Cupboard recipes:
Fennel Orange Salad (dressed only with lemon juice)
Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Spread (as a dip for another veg, like sweet potato or zucchini fries)
Gazpacho (sans bread roll)
Minty Lentil Salad (if you allow for lentils during the detox)
Garlic Mushrooms (atop a bed of assorted greens)

Detox Series:
Detox: The Rules

Day 1: Fennel+Grapefruit / Miso+Beet Soup

Day 2: Strawberries+Ginger / Moonblush Tomatoes / Ratatouille

Day 3: Roasted Root Vegetables+Squash

Dobrou Chut'/ Enjoy.
-- Jo

Balkan Ajvar {Roasted Red Pepper & Eggplant Spread}

The last of this years' gorgeous autumn days are behind us. Here in the Czech Republic the trees put on one heck of a show this year. Temperatures were warm, and the sun was golden. It went on for weeks and weeks and weeks. It was the kind of fall made for walking the dog and pondering this that and the other thing. My leaf-crunch addiction has certainly been satisfied for some time to come.

Not surprisingly, Saffi, my incredibly fearful Shiba Inu pup, turns out to also be terrified by the leaf-crunch. Well, I admit to being an avid cruncher and kicker-upper of fallen leaves, so I just might have contributed a wee bit. (Insert guilty feeling here.)

This morning there were early signs of frost on the window panes. While waiting for the tram, the wind blowing up the back of my skirt crossed the line into thigh-biting territory. And that nostalgic twinge is starting to settle in of another upcoming Thanksgiving spent abroad with no one to share in my turkey enthusiasm. The perks of this, though, are not to be pushed aside. Weekends in Vienna, Bratislava, or Prague easily keep me from throwing my own private pity party, to be sure.

While I've yet to make it down to any of the Balkan states (requires a bit more than a weekend I am told), I am familiar with a popular, and regionally widespread, roasted red pepper-eggplant dish called Ajvar. There's a great write up of Ajvar in Serbia over at the NPR website.

If you are looking for an exciting alternative to hummus to bring to the next bookclub meeting, or other cozy get-together, this could be good way to go.

Smoky flavours of home-roasted red peppers mashed together with roasted eggplant and garlic - with a dash of paprika - spread on some rustic bread and spritzed with lemon make for one great snack to share. Or even just a light dinner. The prep work is a bit arduous, to be honest, but if you make a bunch it will keep for 2-3 days, and is easily disappears anyways.

And since this is such a fantastically healthy snack, I may as well mention that this weekend I'll be doing a body detox. Cumin in the Cupboard readers will (hopefully) benefit next week by seeing what methods/recipes are created to make tasty veggie dishes sans salt/oil. Stay tuned!

Continue to Recipe... 

Butternut Squash & Shiitake Mushroom Risotto

C'mon Autumn! Let's get that squash rolling!

Well, I hope that intro had a lasting cheer to it. Because that's as about as chipper as this post is going to get from here on out.

I am officially fed up with cooking for one. Somebody, please, just find me a book titled "Cooking When Living Alone for the Very First Time."

Everything else I can more or less manage.Yet being in the kitchen, every dish feels like I ought to be sharing it. Or it turns out enough to feed an army. Freeze it, you say? Ha. Welcome to single gal fridge, complete with the tiniest lil' freezie box you've ever seen. I don't even think my American ice trays would fit! Sound bitter? About those obviously cooking-free married men who invented my little fridge, you bet.

Cooking off the cuff always feeds more than it intends. You add some of this, some off that, and then of course you have to add some of that other stuff to balance it all out. Before you know it, you haven't even got enough tupperware to contain it all!


And, what happens when the dish turns out absolutely fantastic, like this butternut and shiitake risotto topped with sage, walnuts, Parmesan, and bacon? I mean really, it was ahmaaazing.

I had been happily stirring and slowly adding in the stock for the better part of an hour, tasted it, was blown away, then realized that the room was empty and the pot was full. I ate quietly.

I am sure things will turn around soon. They always do. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying my autumnal burst of flavours for days to come.

The base of the risotto is flavoured with the addition of some fennel stalks, the liquid from the dried shiitake mushroom soak, and Marsala. After you work in the spiced roasted squash and walnuts, top with fresh sage, Parmesan and bacon crumblings, be prepared to be transported to the most brilliant leaf-crunching autumnal experience a mouth can have!

Looking for more fall flavors? Check out last year's butternut squash and lentils and a few other tasty treats on a recent round up from the Kitchn.

(Edited Note: This dish freezes really well. The textures and flavours were all just brilliant after 2 weeks in the freezer. I shouldn't have complained so much about no one to share it with...hello no-cook dinners!)

Continue to Recipe...

Eating 'alla Romana' {Carciofi, Fettuccine, & Saltimbocca}

As promised, the second stop of the mother-n-daughter holiday has arrived: Rome. After eating our way through the Naschmarkt in Vienna, we headed south to check out what Italy had on offer.

A total of three days were spent in Rome (pictures are here). That's just enough time to take in the major sights and get a feel for the pulse of the city, which author Fred Plotkin describes as an "erotic charge in the air...It could almost be called a romantic imperative." And after those three days (or more specifically, the nights) I can confirm that he just may have it pegged correctly.

Antipasti
My mum's guidebook promised us the best artichokes are to be found in Rome. Wading through one tourist restaurant menu after another, we sampled many dishes. One place (I wish I'd jotted down their name) had the artichokes we were after. Fresh Italian carciofi with hints of lemon, garlic, mint, and parsley, are gently simmered in white wine and served with soft bread for sopping up the juices.

To recreate these Carciofi alla Romana at home, the herbs are easily procured, but the artichokes are not. In the recipe given below, canned artichoke hearts are used, which in no way compare, but do prove to be a quick an easy starter for any meal...and are just nice enough to serve to guests as well.

Towards the end of our stay, my mum and I ended up in a bookstore (or two...hardly surprising to anyone who knows us.) I picked up a great foodie find: Italy for the Gourmet Traveller by Fred Plotkin. Published just last year, this guide covers nearly every aspect of food in each Italian region. Not only are traditional dishes of each region described, but it also lists practical places - food shops, food bookstores, food festivals, and on and on. A recipe or two is given for each region, but I find the real value to be in the stories behind the dishes the author recounts from his experience (he gives are pretty good version of the Est! Est! Est! wine name origin.)

Primi
One of the dishes listed in my new foodie book, although not one we sampled, sounded pretty good to me this week. Fettuccine alla Romana: pasta with prosciutto, tomatoes, Marsala, and porcini mushrooms. It's traditionally made with chicken giblets (detest!), which I simply omitted and didn't find the resulting dish lacking in flavour whatsoever.

Secondi
I've been eating a lot of quick dinners of pan-fried chicken breast topped with prosciutto lately, so when I came across Saltimbocca alla Romana for the first time it instantly appealed. Pork cutlets topped with sage and prosciutto. Simple, yet succulent. Even those with a stated aversion towards pork (and I know there are many of you) will find this style of preparing it to be pleasing, what with the added juiciness given by the prosciutto. And any excuse to enjoy fresh sage in the autumn is welcome by me!


These dishes were easily made together for a Sunday lunch in just over an hour. The flavours really balance well together, as all are 'alla Romana'.

Buon apetito!

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