Artichoke Risotto with Mascarpone, Lemon, and Thyme

Our new kitchen is officially broken in! We had family dinner at our new place this past Sunday night. My friend Andrea and I teamed up and made this great dish. However, the grocery store did not have baby artichokes so we were stuck with the large, normal, scary sized ones! We made it work and pulled it off quite well! We just trimmed and cleaned the artichokes and then steamed them whole for about 45 minutes (!). We (or I should say Andrea) cleaned them out and we added the yummy artichoke meat to the risotto at the very end. Perfect solution!

We served the risotto with a Summer Salad of Tomatoes, Green Leaf Lettuce, Basil, Fennel and Mozzarella and a simple Balsamic and Oil vinegrette. We also served a Spinach Torte, which was an Andrea family recipe consisting of spinach, rice, bread crumbs and cheese. Yum!

(Picture from Martha Stewart.com)

Ingredients

Serves 6

2 Lemons
10 baby artichokes (or four large!)
3 cups low-sodium chicken stock mixed with 3 cups water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 garlic clove, minced
Coarse salt
2 cups short-grain Italian rice, such as Arborio
1 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme, plus sprigs for garnish
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup mascarpone

Directions

1. Remove 3 teaspoons grated zest from 1 lemon; halve the lemon, and squeeze out 1 tablespoon juice. Set zest and juice aside. Cut remaining lemon in half, and squeeze into a medium bowl of cold water; add all rinds to water.
2. Prepare the artichokes: Working with 1 artichoke at a time, snap off tough out­er leaves until pale-green leaves are exposed. Cut off top third. Using a paring knife, peel dark-green layer from base and stem; trim stem. Quarter artichoke lengthwise. Transfer to lemon water.
3. Bring stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; reduce heat to low.
4. Melt butter with oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is slightly softened, about 6 minutes. Drain artichokes, and add to pan. Cook, stirring often, un­til artichokes are just tender, about 12 minutes. Add rice, and stir until coated, about 1 minute. Pour in wine, and cook, stirring, until wine has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes.
5. Add enough hot stock (about 1 cup) to just cover rice. Cook, stirring, until stock is almost absorbed. Continue adding stock, 3/4 cup at a time, waiting for each addition to be absorbed before adding the next; cook, stirring, until rice is tender but still slightly firm in the center, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat, and discard bay leaf.
6. Stir in chopped thyme; season with salt and pepper. Add mascarpone, 2 teaspoons lemon zest, and the lemon juice; stir until mascarpone is melted and rice is moist and creamy.
7. Serve immediately, garnished with thyme sprigs and remaining teaspoon lemon zest.

10

SUSHI SUSHI!

So there hasn't been a lot of cooking going on in my kitchenette this past month because WE MOVED! So I have new kitchenette to test out once all of the boxes are unpacked :)

In the meantime, we have been eating out a lot!

I completed another restaurant review for The D.C. Scene.

Read it here!: http://www.nbc4.com/dcscene/16404412/detail.html

Onion Tarts with Mixed Greens

These tarts went perfectly with the Carrot Fettuccine (see below) as a light and "springy" Family dinner. I used store-bought dough for time purposes and because making my own dough scares me. I am happy to say it tasted delicious and looked exactly like the image below! (Again, too eager to eat to remember to take a picture- this is from www.williams-sonoma.com).

Ingredients

2 rolled-out rounds savory tart dough, each 12 inches in diameter (homemade or store-bought)

5 Tbs. olive oil

4 yellow onions, thinly sliced

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. minced fresh thyme

2 Tbs. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

4 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1 egg, lightly beaten

4 oz. mixed salad greens

2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Directions

Place the dough rounds on separate parchment-lined baking sheets and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 400°F.

In a sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm 3 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the onions, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the thyme, parsley and 2 tsp. of the vinegar and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Spread half of the onion mixture on each dough round, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold the dough up and pinch together at 2-inch intervals. Lightly brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg. Bake the tarts until the crusts are golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the tarts cool for 10 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tsp. vinegar, the remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil, salt and pepper to form a vinaigrette. Top the tarts with the mixed greens, dividing evenly, and sprinkle with the cheese. Drizzle salads with the vinaigrette. Serve immediately. Serves 8.

Carrot Fettuccine

In honor of Spring's long awaited arrival, we decided to make a light and "springy" meal for Family dinner. Immediately this dish came to mind. My mom made it for Easter two years ago and I've been wanting to have it again ever since. She said she got it from the Sara Moulton Cooks at Home cookbook. Since my father and I are both allergic to shrimp, she left it out when she made it. However, for Family dinner we decided to do one batch with shrimp and one batch without. We also made a few other adjustments to the recipe. For one, instead of peas we added asparagus. We also doubled the recipe. However, for eight people we definitely could have used another bag of carrots! This dish is so fun because it really looks and tastes like a pasta dish. So
grab your vegetable peeler (and a chair) and get started!














* this is a poor image (from www.sarahmoulton.com)- we were so eager to eat I forgot to take a picture myself :(

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound medium shrimp (peeled with tail intact, deveined, rinsed and patted dry)
2 large shallots, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
one 1-inch piece of fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped)
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
10 large carrots, about 1.5 lbs cut into ribbon like strands with a vegetable peeler
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup asparagus tips (or thawed frozen peas)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Heat the oil and butter in large skillet over med-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add shrimp and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add shallots, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and cook until the shrimp turns just pink, about 2 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl. Add carrots to the skillet and cook over high heat, stirring, until barley tender, about 5 mins. Transfer to shrimp bowl.

Add the wine to the skillet and boil until it’s reduced by half. Add the cream and stock. Bring back to a boil and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the shrimp, carrots and asparagus to pan and simmer until they are just heated through, about 2 mins. Season to taste, serve hot!

Lemon Dijon Dressing

I started making my own salad dressing- usually only when I make a salad worthy of the effort (like my Spring salad- see below). I have tried different variations, basically attempting to avoid using olive oil. This one came out very well. It was a bit bitter, but adding a pinch of sugar really helped. The rest of the proportions are estimates. I usually just keep adding and tasting, and adding and tasting, until I get the right mixture!

Ingredients

Dijon mustard (1/4 cup)
Lemon juice (1/4 cup)
Apple Cider Vinegar (2 tablespoons)
Honey (2 tablespoons)
Sugar (just a pinch to cut bitterness)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and immediately serve with salad! Simple!

Spring Salad

Inspired by the turn of the season (at least that's what the calendar tells me- so why is it still dark and freezing outside?) I decided to make a healthy salad for dinner. I saw a recipe for a salad with radishes in Shape magazine, so I knew I wanted to include them. I picked up the other ingredients while strolling through our local organic market. Served with a cup of soup and warm bread (pumpernickel loaf for us!), this salad is a great, light spring dinner.

Ingredients

Green leaf lettuce
Radishes (thinly sliced)
Red D’Anjou Pears (sliced)
Sunflower seeds
Goat cheese

Toss ingredients in a bowl and serve topped with Lemon Dijon Dressing.

Eggplant Neopolitan

I got the idea for this meal after buying a yummy deep purple eggplant at the grocery store over the weekend. I recalled a recipe I saw in a magazine, but I couldn’t find it when I went to look for it. Uh, oh... no recipe to follow? Well even without a recipe it came out really great! I have to give Tony credit- I had the vision but he executed the production! It took a bit longer than we expected for it to bake in the oven, but otherwise this is a great, different, weeknight dinner for two.

Ingredients

1 small thick eggplant
1 package of mozzarella
1 can roasted whole tomatoes
basil
garlic
pasta (flat shape like Lasagna)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Directions

Boil water and cook one serving of pasta until al dente. While the water is boiling mix ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ of balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Season mixture with salt and pepper. Slice eggplant in think round circles. Slice mozzarella the same. Fill the bottom of a medium size baking dish with the juices from the can of roasted whole tomatoes. Dip eggplant slices into oil and vinegar mixture piece by piece. Start laying eggplant, mozzarella, tomato, basil and pasta until you create two to four stacks. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes- until eggplant is soft and the cheese is melted (but not burned!). Enjoy!