Creamy Sausage Bake

Don't you just love it when a creation of yours that you make from your pantry with no forethought works? Works well enough to want to save the recipe? Well this was one of those days. It is basically a variation on macaroni and cheese and you could certainly use any kind of pasta you wanted with this. I just used what we had :). This was somewhat inspired by Rachael Ray and her shows from the past week. I have become somewhat addicted to her show and she made a few bechamel based pasta dishes.

Creamy Sausage Bake:
-2T olive oil
-2 hot italian sausages
-1 medium zucchini, diced
-2 carrots, diced
-2 sprigs of celery, diced
-2C of milk
-2T butter
-2T flour
-1C grated parmesan or romano or both, grated
-pasta, cooked

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium. Remove the casings from the sausage and crumble into the pan. Stir to brown evenly.
2. When the sausage is more or a less done move to the sides of the pan and add the veggies cooking until soft but with a remaining bite. In the meantime make the bechamel.
3. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium-low heat and whisk in the flour. Allow to cook for a few minutes whisking frequently. (Make a roux!). Slowly whisk in the milk. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, continue whisking. You are waiting until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.
4. When the sausage and veggies are done as well as the bechamel add the bechamel to the skillet and allow to cook for 2 minutes. Toss in a 1/3C of your cheese and stir to blend.
5. Mix sauce with pasta and transfer to a casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.
6. Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes and follow with 5 minutes of broiling to crisp up the top. (Don't forget to watch carefully when broiling, it can burn easily.) Serve and enjoy.

Eggplant and Spinach risotto

With Fall comes the rain and with the rain comes the need for comfort food. Of course, really I eat it all year long but now I have an excuse. From that came this warm and cozy vegetable risotto. It was an inspiration based on what was in my fridge but I will definitely make it again. The method of soaking the eggplant was new to me and really helped take away the bitterness.


Eggplant and Spinach Risotto
-1 japanese eggplant, diced
-1 bunch fresh spinach, well washed, roughly chopped
-½ onion, diced
-1 stalk celery, finely diced
-1 small carrot, finely diced
-1 cup arborio rice
-1 cup white wine
-chicken stock
-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-1 clove garlic, sliced
-butter
-olive oil
-2 cup romano cheese, grated

1. Dice eggplant and soak in 4C water & 2 Tablespoon salt for 30 minutes. Drain really well.
2. In a large saute pan over medium high heat saute eggplant in 1/3C of oil. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Stir if necessary. You want to cook until tender - with a small dice and a japanese eggplant it took about 5 minutes total. Allow to cool and set aside.
3. To begin the risotto saute the onion for 3 minutes in a pat of butter and 2T of olive oil. Add the carrot and celery and sauté until soft. Add the minced garlic and cook another minute. Add the rice and saute for ~2 minutes stirring frequently. Add the cup of wine and cook until wine is cooked off stirring continuously.
4. Start adding broth ~1 1/2C at a time until most of the previous douse of broth is absorbed. Continue.
5. When the rice is almost done cook the spinach. In a sauté pan over medium heat saute the garlic slices in 3T of oil until slightly browned. Add spinach and a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring.
6. Fold eggplant and spinach into the risotto, Continue cooking until eggplant is hot. Fold in Romano and a pat of butter and stir until melted. Season and serve.

Authentic Miso Soup

I have tried unsuccessfully to make miso before but all I did was add miso to water. Though this will give you a simplified version you probably won't find the flavour you are looking for.

Your basic ratios are 1 cup of dashi to 1 teaspoon of miso. Dashi is the stock or broth used to make thye soup. In the dashi the ratio is 1C water to 1 tablespoon of bonito flaes and 1 tablespoon of kombu. You will also want green onions for garnish.

Miso Soup:
-4t miso
-4T bonito flakes
-4T kombu
-1 green onions sliced, dark green part only
-soy sauce if desired

1. Put 4 cups (1qt) cold water in a pot. Add the kombu and bring to just before a boil. you want to remove the kombu before the water comes to a boil - do not discard but save it.
2. Bring the water to a boil and then add another cup of cold water to reduce the temperature of the water down.
3. Add the bonito flakes and bring to a boil. As soon as the water has boiled remove from the heat and strain out the bonito and skim if necessary. At this point you have Dashi.
4. Return the Dashi to the heat on medium and add the reserved kombu. In a glass measuring cup put your miso and dissolve in some of the Dashi. (I cheated and used a whisk.) Add the miso to the soup.
5. Bring the soup up to a simmer and serve garnished with green onions.

A couple of notes - I like my green onion a little softer so I put them right in before I bring the soup up to a simmer in step 5. Also you can buy premade dashi - so you could skip steps 1-3 but it does really only take 10 minutes.

I was able to get all these ingredients at this great little place near me in Vancouver - (email me if you are interested) I would suggest trying an Asian supermarket near you. Since I live in Vancouver I may be in slight denial about how accessible these things are in other places :)

Citrus and Basil salad

This is one of those great combinations that is so simple it can decieve you into thinking it might be dull. It really isn't, and in fact the combination is even better then the herb you might naturally think of - Mint. I would highly recommend this for the cold and flu season as a good way to get that ever important vitamin C!

This week's Weekend Herb blogging is being hosted by Sher from What Did You Eat. I discovered her blog months ago and it is one of my regular hits. She inspired me to make an asian noodle salad a while back that was fabulous. Plus I love her cat. :)

This recipe came from a cooking class I took with Chef Eric a few months ago and is also available on his website.

Citrus and Basil Salad:
(serves 1)
-1 Orange
-1 Grapefruit
-3-4 fresh basil leaves

1. Peel the fruit using a chefs knife. Take the top and bottom off of the fruit and place it bottom side down - you should have a ring of peel around the fruit but be able to see the inside of the fruit from the top. Place your knife where the fruit meets the white part and slice down following the shape of the fruit. Pivot the fruit and continue until it is peeled. Holding it over your serving dish, slice the wedges out of the fruit between each membrane and afterwards squeeze all the juice out into your bowl.
2. To chiffonade the basil, stack the leaves up and roll up widthwise. Chop thinly - you should be left with long curls of basil.
3. Toss basil with the fruit and serve.

Blogger Beta

I have just upgraded to the new blogger beta and for some reason am having trouble with the photo upload - if I try and format the photo at all it doesn't render. So my last post looks a little funny. Update: This appears to only be a problem under firefox on OSX

That said the new upgrade is great! I am super impressed, I started a new blog last week and have been using all the new beta features. I love the ability to categorize your posts with the Labels features as well as the template design. I have gone back and categorized all my old recipes. Awesome! I am going to change this blog up a bit - colour and schema wise but can't quite decide on what yet.

BTW, check out my new blog - an outlet for my TV addiction.

Looks good? But wait until you taste it

When I took this picture I was sure I had really hit success. I had used Ina Garten's dough recipe, Alton Browns tomato sauce, basil from my window box, garden fresh romas and fresh mozzarella I had on hand to make a pizza margherita. Looked perfect, the crust was the right level of crispy and it had that beautiful rustic look.



But as I discovered when I bit in, things are not always what they seem. Something was wrong. The toppings tasted right and the crust was the right texture. Instantly it hit me - I had forgotton to put the salt in the dough!

I am trying to look at it as a good lesson in flavours and the importance of not rushing things. Breads are so simple - so few ingredients that each one is completley necessary and the salt is necessary for bringing out the other flavours in the bread. It also helps to keep the yeast from over fermenting.

Alton's browns tomato sauce recipe was really good though and it made enough to freeze another two cups. Check it out here.