Pan Seared Spiced Okra with Cashews

This is a great way to prepare okra using aromatic spices. 

Quick, simple and deliscious.

  

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Pinch of cinnamon

1/4 cup cashews roughly chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound small okra, halved lengthwise

Salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, blend together the cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, cinnamon.

In a large non stick skillet (or two, if necessary) heat the oil. Add the okra, and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook until browned, 4 minutes longer.

Stir and try to turn over as much of the okra as you can and cook over low heat until tender, about 2 minutes longer. Season with salt and sprinkle with the spice mixture.

Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Drizzle the lemon juice over the okra and add the cashews. Stir together and serve. 

Caponata

Caponata alla Fuscà 

Caponata is a southern Italian eggplant side dish. The base typically includes eggplant, celery, onion, olives, tomatoes, olive oil, of course, and red wine vinegar and sugar which gives it its signature agrodolce (sweet and sour) flavor. Other ingredients can include pine nuts, sweet peppers and raisins. The Sicilians sometimes throw in tuna. It is always served at room temperature. 

It is perfect as part of an antipasti plate or side dish along side chicken or fish or on grilled country bread as bruschetta or on polenta or with pasta. Nice stuff! I think you will like it. The amounts in the recipe below are approximations. You might need to make it a few times to get the amount of ingredients and the timing right to suite your own taste. Like a lot of Italian food, this gets better over the next few days, so you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. Don’t re-heat it though, just let it come to room temperature by itself.

Ingredients - 

   

2 large or 3 medium size eggplants  

1/2 - 3/4 cup of olive oil
2 cups of celery, sliced thin on a bias
3/4 cup of onions, chopped
2 cups of drained canned Italian plum or chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
9 - 11 large green olives, pitted and cut in half - use the good ones: Cerignola or Castelvetrano. In a pinch Kalamata olive will be OK but NOT grocery store green olives stuffed with a pimento.

2 tablespoons of capers – rinsed
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar

Handful of golden raisins
2 tablespoons of pine nuts – toasted
Pinch + Hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Basil – nice handful torn into pieces

salt and ground pepper to taste

Cut eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Sprinkle cubes of eggplant with salt and set them in a colander in the sink to drain. After 30 minutes, rinse them and pat dry with paper towels and set them aside.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in heavy non-stick skillet, sauté the eggplant in it, stirring and turning for about 8-10 minutes until they are lightly browned but not mushy. You might have to add more olive oil. With a slotted spoon transfer the eggplant to a bowl.

  

Using the same skillet, add about 1/4 cup oil to the oil that’s left in the skillet and add the celery and onions. Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until celery and onions are soft and lightly colored. 

Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, until caramelized and almost evaporated, 1–2 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes and continue cooking for 10 minutes. 

 

Stir in the olives, vinegar & sugar, raisins, capers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

 

Take off heat and add back the eggplant, add the pine nuts and basil. 

 

Stir it all together. Serve at room temperature.

 

Stuffed Sweet Italian Long Peppers

Maybe you think stuffed peppers are only bell peppers stuffed with rice, ground beef and tomato sauce. Yah, that's how my mom made them and with green bell peppers.... I hated them. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you like but if you can get your hands on some nice sweet Italian long peppers or better yet grow them in your garden and stuff them like I am showing below, you will never look back at those green bell peppers stuffed with rice and ground beef. 

Ingredients: 

Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I traded some end of season figs from our fig tree to a friend at work for some end of season peppers he grew. Some of the peppers were poblanos. We wanted to do something different and possibly exciting with them. Well, exciting as far as poblano peppers go. They do have a flavor we enjoy but can be quirky by by sometimes tasting as mild as a bell pepper and other times having a nice punchy unexpected heat. So, we gave it some thought and poblanos really cry out to be stuffed but stuffed with what? Cheese? Good but too typical. Beef? Maybe. Chicken? Possibly, but with what else. Some kind of seafood? Hmmmm, yes but what? Crab, shrimp? Yes, shrimp but with what else? What seasonings? Lisa looked at a number of shrimp stuffed pepper recipes on line and we came up with few we could work with for poblanos. The result was amazing.

Ingredients for two people -

 4 poblano peppers, roasted and peeled

 1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, and chopped

 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil, divided

 1 Tbsp butter

 ½ sweet onion, diced

 4 cloves garlic, minced

 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

 1 Tbsp ground cumin

 1 tsp salt

 freshly ground pepper

 ½ lime, juiced

 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

 ½ cup sour cream

 ½ cup whole milk

 1 cup shredded 5-cheese Mexican blend

 To roast the peppers:

There are a number of way to roast and peppers. The best way is to roast them on the grill or under the broiler in the oven. But we chose to do them in a cast iron skillet. Remove from the skillet and immediately place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow them to cool and rub the skins off. Chop the red bell pepper and slit the poblano peppers on one side, leaving the stems intact. (You can remove the seeds at this point if you want your poblanos a little less spicy.)

To make the filling: 

Preheat the oven to 350℉.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pan. Add the red bell pepper and onion. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Next, sprinkle the salt, pepper, cumin, and lime juice on the shrimp. Melt the butter in the same pan that you used to cook the vegetables and add the shrimp. Cook until done, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the vegetables back to the pan and mix with the shrimp.

Place the poblanos in a medium baking pan and stuff with the vegetable-shrimp mixture.

To make the sauce:

Add the flour and the remaining olive oil to the pan (that originally had the vegetable-shrimp mixture) over medium heat and stir until the flour starts to thicken. Add the sour cream and the milk. Whisk until completely mixed without lumps. Cook until the mixture starts to simmer, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add the cheese, stirring until smooth.

Pour the cheese mixture over the stuffed peppers and cook for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Artichokes, Part I - "Moonstruck Stuffed Artichokes"

If you really like artichokes, you have found many ways to prepare and enjoy them. But for most people, if they have ever eaten artichokes at all, their familiarity with them begins and ends with one of these two ways -  

                       

1) Pulling the leaves off of a steamed artichoke, dipping them in melted butter or some kind of mayonnaise preparation and eating the tender inside of the leaf, or

 

2) Having them in some kind of cream cheese artichoke dip at a party.

Those are OK, but there are so many other, better ways to enjoy artichokes - what about grilled or roasted, or fried or stuffed or marinated or in a variety of pasta dishes or on pizza? I am going to start a series of posts through the Spring - because it's artichoke season - on a variety of ways to prepare and enjoy this versatile and tasty vegetable.

 

Yes, they are a little time consuming to prep but if you are a follower of this blog, you are most likely the kind of person who doesn't find that a problem. You know the results are going to be worth it for a special meal. And guys, listen, you can blow a girls mind by making a cool "wow factor" artichoke dish (it's not that complicated). At least it works with Lisa... : )

 

Our favorite way to enjoy artichokes is stuffed. We call the following recipe Moonstruck Stuffed Artichokes because they are like "Cosmo's moon!"   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAU4pf0uhoY

  

    Moonstruck Stuffed Artichokes  

  

Ingredients:  

2 large globe Artichokes 

bread crumbs - home-made

garlic

diced pancetta

pecorino cheese

flat leaf parsley

oregano

toasted pine nuts

mint

Red pepper flakes

minced artichoke stalk

lemon zest

lemon juice

olive oil

salt & pepper

Prepping the Artichokes:

Pull off some of the tougher discolored outer leaves. Cut the top ½ to 1 inch off the tops of the artichokes. Using kitchen scissors, snip off the tips of the rest of the leaves. If the artichokes have long stems, good! Cut them off about 1/2 inch from the base, mince them and add to the stuffing mixture.

Stand artichokes in a Dutch oven; add 1 in. of water. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat; simmer for 15 minutes. This will loosen up the artichokes enough to make stuffing easier. Let cool. In the meantime make the stuffing.  

The Stuffing:

Tear up and add several thick slices of crusty Italian bread to a food processor.. Grind the bread to a coarse crumb.
  

Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan. Then remove to a bowl.

 

Using the same pan, sauté the pancetta in a little olive oil until it is crisp. Then remove and put on paper towels.

  

Saute the garlic in olive oil until fragrant, then add homemade bread crumbs with salt and pepper. Stir to coat the crumbs well with the garlic & olive oil and toast.

  

Dump the toasted bread crumbs into a mixing bowl and let cool, then add the pancetta, the pecorino cheese, parsley, oregano, mint, red pepper flakes and lemon zest. Mix well and taste to see if you think it needs any additional seasoning. It should be moist from the oil but not wet.  

Stuffing the artichokes:

Gently pull open up the center leaves and scoop out the choke and any thorny inside leaves. Remove as much as possible. A melon baller works great for doing this.

 

With a spoon and your fingers push the stuffing in between all the leaves.

Put the stuffed artichokes back in the Dutch oven in a broth of white wine, water and chunks of lemon, and simmer, covered for about 45 minutes.

How to eat - pull off individual leaves. They will be like little spoons holding the stuffing. The cheese will melt into the stuffing helping it cling to the inside of the leaves. You will get a little stuffing along with the artichoke "meat" with each leaf bite. When you get down to the heart, just cut it up and eat, the flavors from the stuffing and the cooking broth will be infused in it. That's right!

Out on the back deck with a side of Italian sausage, watermelon, arugula salad, crusty bread & olive oil and, of course, wine.



Okra and Green Tomato Fritters

We really like these! Here we are in the middle of summer. Our garden this year has been pretty beaten down by the heat. The tomatoes are looking tired and haven't ripened. We are in western Pennsylvania though... But, the okra, of all things, is doing OK. In looking for different ways to use okra, I came across a post on SouthernBite.com about okra and green tomato fritters. We decided we had to try making them. We tweaked the recipe a little and this is what we came up with - 

Makes 12 -15 fritters

Ingredients

1/2 pound okra, coarsely chopped

1 large green tomato, or three or four small, diced
1/2 sweet onion, finely diced

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup self-rising cornmeal

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

A sprinkle of garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves chopped
1 tsp minced fresh chili pepper

1/3 cup vegetable oil for frying

YUM-YUM sauce for dipping - Optional but worth it! Look for it in the Asian food section or make your own - https://www.smalltownwoman.com/yum-yum-sauce-japanese-hibachi-style/

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add the chopped okra, diced green tomato, minced onion, chili pepper and basil. 

 

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg into the buttermilk, and then add it to the okra mixture.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop the okra batter into the oil by heaping spoonfuls. 

Cook 4 to 5 minutes, then flip the fritters and press them flat with the back of a spatula. 

Cook 4 to 5 more minutes or until crispy and golden brown. 

Cook in batches, adding more oil if necessary; then drain on paper towels, and serve hot.

YUM YUM sauce - 

How to Make Asparagus Pizza. Yes, Asparagus Pizza.

If somebody says, "Hey, let's have pizza for dinner!", chances are pretty good that they didn't mean "Hey, let's MAKE a pizza for dinner." (unless they live here...), and even more unlikely, "Hey, let's make an asparagus pizza!". But after you find out how good this tastes and how easy it is to make, I know you will want one. Here are two similar asparagus pizzas. They look pretty cool don't they? Good to serve at a party as a second or third pizza option or when you just have friends over and want to look like you really know what you're doing.

Pre-made pizza crust, pencil asparagus, garlic, green onions, chives, mozzarella, olive oil

OR

Pre-made pizza crust, asparagus, garlic, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, pecorino cheese, olive oil

This is a white pizza with asparagus as the primary topping. White pizza typically has an olive oil, garlic, herb and cheese base instead of tomato sauce. We love tomatoes but enjoy white pizza too because it is so versatile, can have a stronger flavor punch and is a good way to change things up. It makes a great base for toppings like pancetta, prosciutto, anchovies, arugula, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, caramelized onions - not all at the same time - the fewer ingredients, the better. But you get the idea. 

Ingredients for the asparagus pizza:

Pre-made pizza crust (we like Boboli for ease, taste and look, BUT you can also make your own crust from scratch if you are feeling scratchy) - 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 cloves of garlic minced

Crushed red pepper flakes

1 bunch of pencil asparagus - the thinner the better

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Use a pizza stone if you have one.

Saute the garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. 

Stir the garlic and pepper flakes along with the olive oil they were sauteed in into the ricotta. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Spread the ricotta mixture over the pizza crust

Trim the thicker ends off the asparagus and arrange on top of the pizza.

Add the mozzarella and the pecorino and drizzle olive oil over the top.

Bake for 8 - 12 minutes or what time the crust package recommends.

Enjoy!

Pork and Ceci Bean Stew

Like a well made chili, this stew is one of those dishes that is completely satisfying on a cold winter day. Just a few simple ingredients and seasonings that play well together cooked low and slow for hours. We have this wonderful old clay cooking pot from Italy called a pignata that is perfect for this but if you don't have one, and I'm guessing you don't, use a crockpot or get yourself a clay bean pot like one of these cool redware pots from Old Sturbridge Village - Old Sturbridge Village Redware BeanPot.  You will find yourself wondering why you just now discovered clay pot cooking. 

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Ingredients

1 lb boneless pork country spare ribs cut into 1" pieces 

2 cans chick peas

2 carrots chopped

1/2 sweet onion cut into half moons

2 stalks celery with leaves - chopped

1 Sweet bell pepper (not a green one) chopped

3 cloves garlic sliced thin

1 can vegetable broth

1 Tbsp Rosemary

1 tsp Herbs de Provence

1 tsp Fennel Seeds

1 bay leaf torn in three pieces

1 small dried chili pepper - keep whole

Salt & Pepper - season as needed

Grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Brown the pork in a skillet with the herbs and fennel seeds. Then remove to a warm plate.

In the same pan add some olive oil and sauté the carrots, onion, pepper and garlic for 5 minutes.  Mix in the chickpeas and the browned pork.

Spoon everything into the pignata or bean pot or crock pot along with the torn bay leaf and chili pepper vegetable stock.

Since we used a pignata, a dough lid needed to be made. Just simple flour and water. making sure to cut a steam vent.

Put the bean pot in the oven and turn the heat to 250. Let cook for 2 hours. Or set the crock pot for low. Walk away.

Out of the oven

And in the bowl topped with a little parmesan.