This dish, gosh. Hard to describe without it sounding mundane, but it isn’t. And pictures hardly do it justice – purply broccoli? But, it’s delicious. It’s Sicilian, and most often when they serve it, it’s on top of a piece of amply oiled and browned rustic toast. And it’s a whole meal!

For a recent family dinner, our daughter-in-law asked me to make this dish with the minimal instructions she had, from her Aunt Pina, when she had prepared it on a recent visit. Karen’s aunt is Sicilian, and she’s an excellent cook, but I did have some difficulty interpreting the few directions. When I say minimal instructions, I mean minimal. So I went online and found a few other recipes for it, and discovered more about the dish. One Italian website (thank goodness for Google translations!) said that Affogati means drowned, but she explained that in the true sense of Sicilian-Italian, it means suffocated (because the dish is cooked completely with a lid). What a recipe title.

Most frequently Sicilians eat this as a vegetarian main dish and its quite beloved. Some make it with white wine, but mostly it’s made with red, which gives it a kind of unique color. There are variations of the theme – Karen’s Aunt makes hers without cheese, but with capers and green olives. Some make it with anchovies. Others have garlic. And raisins. All of the recipes use ample olive oil. Not just a dash or two, but several tablespoons, or at least more than you might think. And Karen’s Aunt Pina makes hers with tomato paste, which I didn’t find in any of the recipes I searched. So, you see, you can make this recipe your own, as I have.

Starting with Aunt Pina’s recipe, I adjusted and adapted it. The first time I made it according to the minimal instructions and everyone seemed to like it, but I thought it could use some adjustments. Cooking the onion first, for one thing, which would give the dish more onion character. Then, adding garlic, which is a no-brainer for me. Cooking the broccoli first with water, then adding the red wine later (I made it the 2nd time without the tomato paste) seemed like a good idea. I reduced the quantity of capers and olives (don’t use them at all if you’re at all caper or olive averse). Then the cheese. Well, what doesn’t taste better with cheese, I ask you? And Pecorino. I do love Pecorino a lot and usually I have some in my refrigerator.

So, the recipe below is my adaptation of the original recipe. If you’d prefer, do mix some tomato paste with the red wine (and mix it in very well so it’s a smooth liquid). I think the cheese added a lot, and I did find that I liked it cooked until it’s more “done” than our more common just cooked until al dente. This dish needs it to go further than that. I liked the garlic added in, and I preferred the cooking of the onions first, rather than layered into the pot raw. When I made it the 2nd time my DH was wild about it. The onions in the bottom had absorbed a lot of the red wine (so they were bright purple) which was pretty, besides being tasty. The Pecorino didn’t melt quite like I’d wanted (it clumped anywhere shreds touched one another), but the taste was wonderful.

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors – the onions, the cheese, the broccoli. All of it good. It’s also quite easy to make.
What’s NOT: really nothing – try different cheeses if you’d prefer a softer, more melting type. Adapt the recipe to suit your tastes. It’s a good one.

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If you’re a chili-head, then you’ll want to know about where you can buy Hatch chiles. I wrote a bit about them a year ago – I tried to go to a roasting event at a local grocery store, but when I got there they’d already sold out completely. This year, thankfully, Frieda’s contacted me a few weeks ago, giving me the schedule of roasting events (I hope to stop by the one near me this coming Saturday and I’ll be going EARLY), and they offered to SEND me some. Yippee!

What’s unique about Hatch chiles? They’re only grown in and around Hatch, New Mexico. Hatch chiles are considered the cream of the crop, the tastiest of the lot and unique. Some people might say a chile is a chile, but you know they can vary in heat (scoville units), so obviously they can vary in texture and flavor too. My own experience with Hatch was only from hearing about them at cooking classes and on a culinary tour I did years and years ago in Santa Fe, and from that I purchased dried chile powder made from Hatch chiles. It’s a bit hard to find.

Enter Frieda’s – a Southern California based distributor of specialty produce. They obviously believed in Hatch chiles too, and began distributing them all over the U.S.

Glance at the left here, you can see one of their web pages with the U.S. map of their roasting events. It’s an interactive map, the one on their web site, so do go to that page and click on locations. Kind of fun.

There are some recipes too – a salad dressing, a dip, chile verde (that’s what I’ve used them for), in deviled eggs and several other ideas.

Hatch chiles aren’t hot-hot, though after working with them the other day my hands did mildly sting for several hours.

There is a recipe on their site for how to roast them – I roasted and broiled the ones they sent me (roasted first for about 10 minutes, then broiled for about 5 minutes) to get those lovely char marks all over, covered them for awhile, then peeled off the skins.

I’ll probably pack these up in about 2-3 smaller portions and freeze them. In the fall, when my mind turns to chile verde or a bowl of beef chili, I’ll pull them out and use them. Thank you, Freida’s for sending me some!

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As I look at that picture above, my mouth is watering. I can’t wait to have some more of it. I won’t eat it for breakfast, but I could. This salad is very, very different – of course – you need to like Brussels sprouts since you eat them raw (finely shaved) in this salad.

Numerous times I’ve mentioned recipes I’ve acquired as a result of reading Farmgirl Fare’s blog. Susan and her husband own a farm in the middle of Missouri never-never land (meaning they live way out in the sticks). They raise sheep, hay, and donkeys, dogs and cats as well as a myriad of their own vegetables every summer. Susan shares their seasonal changes (including a gushing river during springtime), farm stories and interesting photos every single day, particularly of Susan’s beloved donkeys. One of my all-time favorite recipes is a Susan one – Garbanzo Bean, Feta and Cilantro Salad. I could eat that salad every day for the rest of my life, I think. Which reminds me that I need to make it again very soon.

But on to THIS salad. Knowing that Susan’s an expert at salads, when I read about this one I knew I’d have to try it. Admittedly, I have a number of Brussels sprout recipes on my blog already, but this one – well, it’s certainly unusual – but that’s what makes it so good! Not everyone likes Brussels sprouts, I know, and especially raw ones at that. Which is why you need to cut/slice/shave the sprouts as thinly as possible. It helps to have a mandoline or a slicer blade on your food processor (I used the latter, though I have both – I just thought doing 2 lbs. of Brussels would be faster in the food processor). I used my middle-thin slicer.

The Brussels I bought were large – larger than I prefer – but that’s what was available. So I recommend that you halve them if they’re big, AND cut out the core. On the large sprouts, the core was well developed – just like a big honkin’ cabbage kind of core on a small scale – it was tough, so you do need to take that extra step – a nuisance, I know – but necessary.

Don’t be dismayed by the long ingredient list here – half of it’s the dressing (make double and use on green salads). The salad itself contains the Brussels sprouts, of course, Pecorino cheese, chives or green onions, lemon juice, and a number of optional additions to suit your taste (like dried cranberries, which I used), garbanzo beans (one of Susan’s favorites), raisins, almonds. I made this a few hours before a summer barbecue party recently, and I loved it, but I think I liked it even better the following day. In that time lapse, the dressing had softened the sprouts a little bit. The salad is chewy – know that going into it. It has to be healthy with all the cruciferous vegetable in it, although maybe offset by the fat grams in the dressing. But it’s altogether delicious!

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors from the chewy Brussels sprouts, to the sweetness of the dried cranberries (or raisins), to the garlicky dressing that is just delish. The Pecorino cheese adds a kind of nuttiness to the flavorings – those dry Italian cheeses often do that. I loved it all, and even better the 2nd day.
What’s NOT: nothing really, unless you don’t like Brussels sprouts or the chewing of them when they’re raw. It’s not going to break your jaw – it’s just a chewy salad, that’s all.

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Need a really quick, easy and healthy slaw for summer? You could eat this any time of year, but it’s perfect for summer entertaining. It starts with the pre-cut packaged broccoli slaw from the grocery store. The rest is cinchy easy. The apple and pecans are what make this – well, maybe the curry powder added to the dressing also gives it an interesting twist.

It’s not often that I use a prepackaged anything, yet I know the package of broccoli slaw at the grocery store is probably quite healthy. It’s nothing but broccoli STEMS and carrots, I think. You could make your own if you have sufficient broccoli stems and carrots on hand. The mixture is tossed with a yogurt/mayo dressing which has the addition of some curry powder (I used a medium – meaning hot – heat level in mine and liked it a lot). The dressing is nothing but equal quantities of yogurt and mayo (and you could probably use nonfat or low fat of either or both), honey, rice vinegar, pepper and curry powder. Easy.

If you have some red cabbage on hand, add that to the salad mixture – my store bought package didn’t have it included. You do have to cut up a tart apple into julienne pieces – I peeled a green Granny Smith, cut off the domes on all 4 sides of the apple, put it through my alligator slicer and it made short julienne. That was really, really easy to do. Then I added pecans.

The nice thing about this is that it keeps for days. I made this the day of a summer dinner party we were having, and it was still wonderful 4 days later. As I’m writing this, we’re going to someone else’s home today for a barbecue and I’m going to use the 2nd package of broccoli slaw and just add another apple and more dressing to what I have left over from the first batch. The recipe came from Lydia over at The Perfect Pantry, a blog I’ve been reading for years and years.

What’s GOOD: the crunch for sure – of everything, including the pecans. The apple and pecans make this salad (to me anyway) and the dressing is very light. It’s got to be very healthy as well!
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing at all. It’s easy to make and great for a crowd.

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Revisiting this salad was a not a tough decision. In between making new things to post about on my blog, I also crave some of my old favorites. This one? I got a craving for it the other day – the day our weather turned from pleasant to hot and I wanted salad for dinner.

So this time I decided to ramp up the flavor just a bit – I added a poblano chile to the roasted veggies – and I added a few shallots to the mix as well. Other than that, the recipe is identical to the one I posted 4-5 years ago. But since I know many who have come to my blog somewhat recently haven’t ever gone back to look at old recipes, it’s a good time to revisit this one. It’s been on my Favs list all this time, and I always make it at least once every summer. It just begs for a nice piece of grilled chicken or pork. Even a juicy steak. Or ribs for that matter. If you want to read about my original post, you sure can.

Here’s a quick review of the recipe: you combine raw, peeled sweet potato, red onion, shallots and a poblano chile, toss them with a little bit of olive oil and roast them just until they’re tender. Meanwhile, you rinse and drain a can of black beans and make a spicy jalapeno dressing in your blender. I didn’t make any additional dressing – it seemed to be enough for the added ingredients. You can make this several hours ahead, and it keeps for a couple of days. Just return it to room temp before serving – that way the olive-oil based dressing will be loose enough to toss a bit better. I think I also added some green onions to the finished salad.

What’s GOOD: there’s something special about the sweetness of the potato countered by the heat of the dressing and the lovely color from the black beans. The onions are sweet too. Even though the dressing is made with jalapeno chiles, you’d hardly know it – it must be the sweet potatoes temper the heat somehow. But then, sometimes jalapenos are hotter than other times. Perhaps this one was particularly mild. I also love that it can be made ahead – in the morning when your kitchen is cool. And it really does keep for at least a day or two.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. If it’s been on my Favs list for years, you know it must be a keeper!

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This just LOOKS like an ordinary bowl of rice. Oh my, no, it isn’t. It’s spectacular rice. You’ve got to make this if you are a risotto-lover and you also crave lemon in just about everything.

Why hadn’t it ever occurred to me to enhance risotto with lemon juice? It just hadn’t. But I saw Nigella Lawson make this recipe on one of her old-old TV shows, and when she put the spoonful in her mouth (and you wait for the oohs and aahs that every Food Network host makes), well, I just knew I had to try this version. The truth of the matter is that about 2 weeks ago I came down with the flu. I thought I’d managed to get through flu season, but no, I didn’t. I was down for 2 full days. I watched every single TV program on my Tivo and then some, although the first 2 days I couldn’t watch any food-oriented programs as my stomach lurched, but after 2 days that part improved – that’s why I was watching an old Nigella Lawson program. Anyway, for those first 2 days I couldn’t eat a thing, and even on day 3 I was only able to down some corn flakes and sip sparkling cider off and on all day. And even though it’s been 2 weeks (as I write this) I still have times when my stomach gives me a little turn. I’ve barely eaten any meat – a little bacon, a little chicken, one fish dinner that didn’t go down well. We spent the weekend at a lovely resort and I had difficulty eating some of the wonderful food. And yesterday my stomach revolted a little after I had breakfast. So when dinnertime came around, I craved carbs only. Not my usual shtick, for sure. I know . . . too much information, right? Sorry.

On to the recipe . . . there is nothing that difficult or unusual about this risotto. It contains shallots and celery (that’s a bit different), butter, Arborio rice, broth (I used chicken because I didn’t have any vegetable broth), a fresh lemon (preferably a home grown or organic one), olive oil, and the final fillip to this version – an egg yolk (that IS different), 4 T. of heavy cream, fresh rosemary and of course, Parmigiano. I added on the chopped chives to give the dish some color. The recipe calls for a quart of broth – I had to add about another cup of water because the rice wasn’t quite done, but that was easy enough.

This was all we had for dinner. No salad. No veggies. And it was so comforting. Oh yes! My hat’s off to Nigella for a spectacular recipe.

What’s GOOD: well, everything about it was fabulous. And I mean fabulous. This recipe is going onto my FAVs list if that’s any indication of how much I liked it. I’d use words like unctuous, smooth, silky, comfort food. I just loved the lemon juice and zest added in, and the egg yolk? Well, I’d never thought to add one, but when mixed with the cheese and little jot of cream, well, that’s how the dish went from ordinary to unctuous. Make this, okay?
What’s NOT: only the 30+ minutes of near-continuous stirring required, but I managed to keep it on a very low heat (I forgot to get out my battery operated Stirr thing that would have just kept the mixture moving while I did other things like zest the lemon, chop rosemary, etc.). I didn’t actually stir it continuously, it just seemed like it.

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Believe it or not, the carrots above are cooked, not raw. This looks like a slaw, but it isn’t at all, although you can eat this hot, warm or cold.

My DH, as a diabetic, loves it whenever I serve him something that is sweet, but doesn’t contain sugar, or doesn’t appear to. In this case, the shredded carrots are cooked in orange juice. Carrots, of course, when they’re cooked, are sweet tasting anyway, but cook them in OJ (and a little bit of brown sugar) and they take on the sweetness of dessert, almost. I made these in the microwave. Actually I used frozen OJ concentrate, added some water to dilute it and put it in a large 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Then I added ground ginger. Be very careful and don’t add too much – it’s so easy to just guess – like I did – and use too much. Mine tasted fine, but it definitely was spicy ginger-hot. The carrots were tossed in there, and I stirred them around and cooked them for 1 minute on high. Stirred them, another minute on high, tasted them and they were done. Your own microwave might be different, so taste them each time and stop when they’re done to your liking.

The recipe came from a new cookbook called Cooking Caribe, although I found the recipe over at the Perfect Pantry blog. Supposedly the recipe serves 6, but I made it with 3 medium carrots and we ate it all, so I’ve adjusted it to serve 4. After cooking the carrots I allowed the mixture to cool for several minutes, then I drained off all the juice, added a bunch of fresh cilantro and salt. Salt wasn’t in the recipe, but I definitely felt it needed it. Not much, though.

What’s GOOD: These were just slightly cooked – not raw – but not soft or mushy at all, which is how you want it. The shreds of carrot were still distinct. the flavor was fresh – California fresh, I suppose with citrus in it. We didn’t have any left overs, so I don’t know how they would taste after a day or so. The cilantro would be over the hill, so if you make a lot, add the cilantro on top.

What’s NOT: nothing, really, as long as you like cooked carrots. We do.

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Lovely steamed asparagus tossed with walnut (or hazelnut) oil and lemon juice, topped with a crispy mixture of bacon and onions. Very tasty.

‘Tis the season for asparagus and I love the stuff. I have my favorite ways of making it, the Crumbled Asparagus, and Roasted Asparagus with Chile Butter. But I wanted to try some new version of the green stuff. Out on my kitchen counter was Dorie Greenspan’s book, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. There was a recipe, and I had all the ingredients on hand. Even better!

Actually, I pan-steamed the asparagus (large-ish skillet, a little olive oil, a little water, lid) until it was just barely done. Meanwhile I cooked up the bacon. I’ve changed the recipe just slightly, below, because 3 slices of extra-thick bacon was just too much, I thought. But when I served it, it was there, and 3 of us ate that entire platter of asparagus. And all the bacon. Ah-hem.

The asparagus is drained and then drizzled with the mixture of walnut oil (or hazelnut) and lemon juice. I did it with my hands because I needed to gently work the little bit of fluid all over the asparagus. A tall order. I think I probably used a bit more oil and lemon juice, then the warm bacon-onion mixture was lapped on top. Done.

What’s GOOD: Good texture, good flavor from the walnut oil and lemon juice. And the bacon. Well, what’s there not to like! It was relatively easy – 2 pans and a bowl.
What’s NOT: really nothing. I won’t call it a “wow” dish, but it was really good.

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If you haven’t figured it out by now, I like lemony food. Lemon in salad dressings, lemon in chicken and fish, lemon in desserts, lemon in vegetables, lemon in sauces, and lemon in rice. It helps that we have 2 lemon trees!

This recipe has been in my to-try file for a few years. It’s from Cooking Light, from July 2010. Not all that long ago. And I’d clipped it out because I like Southwest food and as I scanned the list of ingredients, I knew I’d like the flavors (leeks, garlic, lemon juice – yea – coriander, saffron, cilantro and chopped green chiles). Oh yes, some lemon zest too. I adapted the recipe only insofar as making it in my rice cooker rather than on the stovetop, but it’s really no different, so I’ve left the recipe as-is below for cooking on top of the stove.

Making it for guests, I prepared the entire recipe, which serves 8. After eating 2 dinners with it I packaged up the remaining in ziploc plastic baggies and they went into the freezer for some night when I think we should have some carbs. There is very little fat (2 T. butter only), and the recipe is very low in sodium too. I liked it.

What’s GOOD: it’s fairly easy, although it’s certainly not like just boiling some rice – it has lots of other stuff in it – note the color from the saffron, although I really couldn’t taste it at all. Sometimes it seems a waste to use saffron if you can’t taste it. Oh well. I liked all the various textures in it – I love cilantro too.

What’s NOT: nothing really – not a “wow” recipe, but it was good.

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Is it about this time of year when we get tired of the same-old veggies? We’ve done broccoli, onions, cabbage umpteen times. And potatoes in so many forms. Here’s a new combination – nothing new about the ingredients, but it’s the putting them together that makes the difference.

Actually, as you’ve probably read here many times, I don’t make potatoes (of any variety) much. I never keep them on hand because we do try to limit carbs. We do eat them, but not at every dinner meal for sure. Mostly I make 2 veggies or a veg and a salad rather than make a carb. Not that we don’t love them – oh, we do – but we think it’s better for us. When we go out to eat I usually order 2 vegetables and eliminate the carb. If I can. Of course, if it’s served to me, I do dive right in. That’s the problem!

But when Phillis Carey made this Yukon Gold and sweet potato mixture at a class some weeks ago, I was quite taken with the flavors. Not only did it taste good, but the color combination added a nice look to the plate. Usually these different types of potatoes cook at different times (sweet potatoes take less time to bake) but Phillis said it was just easier to do them all together. Indeed! The peeled and cubed veggies are tossed with some olive oil and salt, roasted for about 30-40 minutes along with fresh sage leaves and it’s done. How easy is that, as Ina would say?

What’s GOOD: the flavors, absolutely! The ease of making, for sure. And I loved how they look on the plate. If you like carbs and don’t mind the calories, try this!

What’s not: nothing. I can’t say this is a “wow” kind of dish, but it’s tasty and easy. What more could you want?

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