Tag: prosciutto

Weekend Finds 4:20:14

I know it’s not technically the weekend anymore, but this weekend was busy and I got distracted… So I’m giving you weekend finds on Monday. So maybe you can still pretend it’s the weekend.

1. Asian flavors

Sesame Noodle Salad from Love & Lemons // Weekend Finds on Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
I love all of the colors in this noodle salad from Love and Lemons.

I thought what would happen is that I’d come back from Vietnam and be a little tired of Asian flavors for a while. Turns out the opposite is true. All I want is Asian food, preferably Vietnamese, but Japanese and maybe even Thai will also do. (I leave out Chinese food because DAMN is it hard to find good Chinese food in Portland. Don’t even get me started.) So this noodle salad recipe will be making an appearance soon, as will, hopefully, the Bun Cha that we learned to make in Hanoi.

2. Soy and Garlic Marinated Pork

Marinated Grilled Pork // Weekend Finds on Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Our grilled pork looked even better than this. I swear.

Yesterday, the weather was decent enough that we got too excited and grilled a whole meal. There was corn and Japanese eggplant, and there was also this marinated pork. I wish I could tell you what was so magical about it (maybe it had something to do with the fact that Jonah brushed the meat with the marinade every time he flipped it), but I’m not totally sure. Either way, you should fire up your grill and make it sooner rather than later.

3. Broccoli Rabe Crostini

Broccoli Rabe Crostini from Honestly YUM // Weekend Finds on Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Crostini topped with burrata, prosciutto, and broccoli rabe.

In another edition of stuff I ate this week: I got excited and bought broccoli rabe (raab) at the market last week, and when I found this recipe, I knew this is what I’d be using it for. Our grocery store didn’t have burrata, so we used good old mozzarella, and it was awesome.

4. Cardamom Short Bread

The Sugar Cube (photo from Portland Monthly) // Weekend Finds on Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
I couldn’t find a picture of the actual cardamom shortbread, but here is a picture of the pastry case at Sugar Cube, just to tickle your tastebuds. Also, mastermind Kir Jensen on the right. (credit: Portland Monthly)

Easter was a thing this weekend, and while I didn’t really celebrate (unless band practice counts), my roommate Carmelle had her family in town, and made a sampling of beautiful desserts, including this cardamom short bread from the Sugar Cube cookbook. Now, you know I love the Sugar Cube – in face I may have a mild addiction – but even if I hadn’t already fallen in love with Kir Jensen, this short bread would’ve done it to me. It was light and flaky and beautifully flavored. Yum.

5. Honey Barbecued Chicken

Honey Barbecued Chicken from Use Real Butter // Weekend Finds on Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
I love how many spices and flavors there are in this honey barbecued chicken recipe from Use Real Butter.

Apparently this week all I can think about is what I want to eat, or have eaten that I want to eat again. Since firing up the grill this past weekend, I’m on the lookout for delicious BBQ meals. This honey barbecued chicken looks pretttty flavorful and tasty, what with 24 hours marinating in that rub and then adding a glaze on top.

Spring Vegetable Pizza

Spring Veggie Pizza

Spring Veggie Pizza

A couple of weeks ago, Jonah made us the loveliest picnic. We have a beautiful park a few blocks from our house, and on one of the first nice days, he decided to make us a picnic and we’d take it down to the park that looks over the river and the west hills of Portland to watch the sun set. I scored a good one, huh? So, really, he made this spring veggie pizza, but I’m going to post it because he’s already way behind on his posts. Jonah is a big fan of Martha, so of course he found this pizza on her website. We bought the pizza dough at our local grocery store, and he adapted a bit in terms of cheese (the recipe called for gruyere, but he used fontina…we think).

Spring Vegetable Pizza

Ingredients

1 jar (12 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts, drained (reserve the marinade!), hearts quartered if whole
1 bunch asparagus (1 pound), trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces, and halved lengthwise if thick
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen and divided in half
salt and pepper
7 ounces Fontina cheese, grated (3 cups)
7-10 slices of prosciutto (optional, but suggested)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees, and put the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. In a bowl, combine the artichoke hearts, asparagus, and tomatoes. Put one of the halves of the dough on a piece of parchment paper and brush it with the artichoke heart marinade. Now roll it out to about a 14-inch long oval, and transfer it (with the parchment underneath) to a rimmed baking sheet). Put half of the veggies on the rolled-out dough, leaving a border of about an inch. Brush the border again with the marinade and sprinkle the pizza with salt and pepper. Repeat to make another pizza. Bake them for 10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. After baking for 10 minutes, sprinkle the cheese over the pizzas and bake until the crust is golden at the edges and the cheese is nice and melty, about 3-5 minutes. Cut into pieces and voila! Pizza!

If you want prosciutto (this makes a great vegetarian meal without it), tear it into smaller pieces and drape it over the pizza. It makes for a nice salty addition.

Asparagus Salad with Prosciutto and Poached Eggs

Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs

Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs
Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs

In the Ad Hoc cookbook (by Thomas Keller), there’s this delicious looking asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs. Sounds good, right? I don’t know about you, but I love all of those things. Jonah and I were in the mood for a light dinner, so we decided to make it the other night. The only problem? Neither of us had ever poached an egg before. It’s one of those things, like baking with yeast, that scared me even though it’s probably not actually that hard.

But I did it! And you can do it! I did! My first attempt was much more successful than my second attempt. After having some little egg bits in the pot from the first egg and then swishing it all around to create my whirlpool, the visibility was not so good, so I had trouble telling where my egg was in it’s cooking process. And then it broke when I removed it. Don’t worry, I made Jonah eat that one. Hahaha.

Fall Salad with Poached Eggs, Asparagus, and Proscuitto

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 bunch asparagus
olive oil
salt
8 slices of prosciutto
Croutons (fresh! our grocery store has some really delicious ones made in house. please don’t buy those gross ones in the resealable bags. blech.)
balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper for finishing

Instructions

Poached eggs

Put a few inches of water in it plus a dash of vinegar (white distilled, because that was the only kind I had that seemed reasonable), and started heating it. The important thing (it would seem, from my research) is to have the water hot enough but not so hot that it’s boiling or even simmering. Got that? No bubbles breaking the surface. While your water is heating, break your egg into a small bowl or ramekin. It’s good to not break the egg directly into the water because it gives you a little more control.

When the water is hot enough, take a wooden spoon or spatula (I would advise a spatula… I liked it better for helping the egg along later) and stir it so that it creates a nice little whirlpool. Pour your egg gently into the middle of the whirlpool. It will look, for a moment, like you’ve done something horribly wrong and this will never work and you’ll be asking yourself why you even tried in the first place. But just wait! After the egg has been in the water for about 30 seconds or so, you can start to help it along by nudging it with your spatula, pushing the bits together. After a minute or so, you may notice that your egg has stuck to the bottom of your pan. Gently slide your spatula underneath it to get it unstuck. I also liked to roll my egg over because the bottom of the pot is hotter (duh) and it helped it to cook a little more evenly. Now, after about 3-5 minutes, you should be done! Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put it in one of 3 places: 1) an ice bath, and then reheat it in the pot of water when you’re ready to serve (Thomas Keller). 2) on a paper towel to dry a little bit (Smitten Kitchen). 3) If you are out of paper towels and don’t feel like preparing an ice bath and then reheating your eggs, a lint-free dishtowel (me).

Fall Salad

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Trim your asparagus, put on a baking sheet, and toss with olive oil and salt. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the asparagus is cooked to your liking (some people like it crunchy, some people like it soft). Note: Thomas Keller wanted us to grill our asparagus, but we don’t have a grill. Roasting it is a wonderful and winter-friendly alternative.

On a plate, arrange your asparagus, eggs, prosciutto, and croutons. Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil and vinegar.

This meal was delicious and light. I can see it being lovely for a summer dinner party. It’s fairly easy too, once you get the whole egg poaching thing down (I’m still working on that part). Enjoy!

Fall Salad (Ad Hoc style)

Fall Salad

I figure that for every couple of posts about baked goods and cookies, I should probably post something a little healthier. This recipe is also from the Ad Hoc cookbook I posted about earlier. This fall salad is simple and delicious. So so delicious. Jonah and I have started eating salad again, thanks to this. Yum. It’s full of parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and even persimmons, which I hadn’t ever had before this salad. Not sure I can say I liked them, but it was certainly an adventure.

Feel free to pick and choose which of these ingredients you want in your salad. For example, we didn’t blanch leeks, but replaced leeks with green onion (not really the same, but whatever floats your boat). Plus, it’s always worth trying something new. Who knows, you may love it.

Fall Salad

Ingredients

Mixed greens
Blanched leeks (I didn’t really feel like blanching leeks, so we used green onions… more on that later)
Persimmons, sliced
Prosciutto
Pine nuts
Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

The recipe also called for a sherry vinegar vinaigrette, but I didn’t feel like buying a bottle of sherry vinegar just for this, so we just did a balsamic vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some minced garlic, and then also put the green onions in here rather than sprinkled on the salad… not sure why.

Now, the persimmons. They kind of tasted a little bit like pears, but with a thicker skin. I dunno if they were worth the money. I can see replacing the persimmons with something like a satsuma or another variety of small orange-type-thing that are available these days.

With or without the persimmons, this salad is both light and filling, and perfect for a fall dinner. It also would be a nice salad course to a fancier meal. Enjoy this healthy and delicious salad!