Squid & Sauceless Pastas

Courtesy of my brother's iPhone (camera ran out of battery)

Fried Calamari - I had it at countless restaraunts as an appetizer, especially because my whole family are fans of this fried squid. The first step to make it was to prepare the squid. The squid I bought from the supermarket had two parts to it; the main body (which had to be cut into rings; this is pretty much what it looked like) and the separated tentacles. Next, the squid was coated in in flour mixed with dried parsley, salt, and pepper. The last step was to fry the squid for about 3 minutes in small batches. Boy, was this simple and yummy! The crispy Calamari was served with warm marinara sauce, a perfect accessory. It's one of those recipes that makes me wish I had some while writing this. This is definitely one of my favorites out of Everyday Italian! Sadly, the pictures I took of my calamari were accidentally deleted :/ But I'm hoping to make this recipe again and get some photo-graphical evidence! I also made Orecchiette with Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. This was also delicious! The last time I made broccoli rabe it was very bitter, but in this recipe the strong bitterness was canceled out by the spicy sausage and pasta. First I quickly blanched the broccoli rabe in boiling water, set it aside, and then boiled the small shelled pasta (orecchiette) in that same water. While the pasta was boiling I sauteed the spicy sausages, breaking them up into little pieces. Once the sausage was cooked, I added in the blanched broccoli rabe with minced garlic cloves and red pepper flakes. I drained the pasta, reserving a cup of cooking liquid, and tossed the pasta into the sausage/broccoli rabe mixture. After the whole thing was combined, I added in small amounts of cooking liquid at a time, making sure the pasta wasn't too dry. The finishing touch was a palmful of parmesan cheese. I loved this dish! It was so easy to make, tasted good, and was something I could see myself throwing together when I don't have much time. It reminded me of the "Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Mushrooms, and Peas" recipe I made in the summer, before I started my blog. These recipes were very good, and were located in a section of Everyday Italian named "Sauce-less Pastas."


Both the calamari and orecchiette dishes were super successful!


Time Spent: 3 hours and 40 min

It's Good to Be Back

SO it's been about three weeks since I last posted! And I have to admit that I've really missed cooking. Cooking has become something that I really enjoy! But anyway, last week I made Rib Eye steak. It was my first time making steak by myself, so I was anxious to see how it would turn out. I only bought one steak because this cut of meat was really expensive. First, I thinly coated each side of steak with olive oil, and sprinkled a ready-made mix of steak seasoning on it. Giada's actual recipe called for only salt and pepper on the steak, but I knew that wouldn't be enough for my taste buds. Next I heated up a skillet with some olive oil and seared the steak for about 8 minutes on each side. The recipe only called for 5 minutes on each side, but that was for a medium rare steak, which is too rare for my liking. I cooked the steak until it was about medium well. This steak was sooo yummy! I don't think I should take the credit for it though, because the cut of the meat was what made it so buttery and delicious. I like how it was so simple to season. I was supposed to make an arugula salad with this steak but sadly my arugula went bad, so I had to stick with steam-fresh vegetables. I'm glad I got to make this recipe, because I want to get a good idea of how to prepare different meats and different ways of doing so. Last week I also made Roasted Bell Peppers - a very cool recipe! There are made by charring bell peppers in the oven, removing the skin, slicing them into strips, and marinating them in garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper. I let the whole thing sit over night and the next day I used them to make a Sweet Red Pepper Crostini. To make this crostini I toasted slices of a baguette in the oven, put one of the Roasted Bell Peppers on each slice, and topped it with some fontina cheese! They were great appetizers. It had a taste that reminded me of pizza, but the most simple and fresh pizza you could eat. This Crostini not only tasted good, but looked good as well!! Both the steak and Crostini were very successful.

Time Spent: 4 hours

Pork Milanese!

Last week I made Pork Milanese - a pretty basic recipe, but a great method of cooking. You start out with pork loin chops that are pounded to get a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Salt and pepper are sprinkled on each side of each pork chop. Next three stations are set up composing of a shallow bowl of flour, a shallow bowl of whisked eggs, and a shallow bowl with a breadcrumb mixture (plain breadcrumbs, dried thyme, dried basil, parmesan cheese). Once all the stations are ready to go, you take each pork chop, lightly coat it in flour, dip it in the egg mixture, and coat it with breadcrumbs. Olive oil and butter are heated in a large, deep skillet and the pork chops are cooked for about 4 minutes on each side.

I really liked this recipe! The crunchy exterior of the pork was really yummy and the pork was moist and not overcooked. The only thing was that the outside of the pork had all the flavor, so I would serve the pork with some type of sauce on the side. Giada has a section in Everyday Italian called "Everyday Leftovers." It's basically a section with a few recipes that use up stuff from her other recipes. She had a recipe for a Pork Milanese Sandwich that I was pumped to make! Sandwiches and pasta are two of my favorite foods to make AND eat. There are pretty much endless possibilities of what you can do with pasta and sandwiches.

I can make them simple, or something really special. You can use different sauces, different meats, different vegetables, etc.! So, when I read the Pork Milanese Sandwich recipe I was pretty excited. To make this sandwich, you start by taking some of the inner bread out of a nice Italian roll. Then you mash some avocado on one side of the roll. Sliced Pork Milanese is layered on followed by arugula that has been tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I put a few more drops of balsamic vinegar onto the whole sandwich to give some extra flavor. Even though Giada had no cheese in the recipe, I added a few thin slices of fontina cheese because I just didn't feel like the sandwich would be complete without it. I loved this sandwich! It tasted like a gourmet sandwich I'd pay $8 for at some fancy sandwich shop. The arugula and avocado made it taste so fresh and the pork accompanied it very well. After tasting it, my mom said "I can't wait to come over to your house someday to eat the yummy food you make!" That statement alone made me pretty happy :). I don't think I'm going to add on new recipes this week because I'm so behind and this is a pretty busy week for me with school. Hopefully I will get caught up!

Time spent: 3 hours and 30 minutes

Sorry Mr. Fishy...

Red Snapper with Rosemary sounded exciting to make, mostly because I never worked with an entire fish before. This Red Snapper, scaled and cleaned, would be seasoned with salt & pepper, olive oil, and filled with lemon, fennel bulb (never had it before, but was very aromatic and had a slightly sweet flavor), onion, rosemary, and garlic in it's cavity. I prepared all the ingredients that would go into the snapper's cavity according to the recipe. Once I noticed how small the cavity of my Red Snapper was, I didn't think it was big enough to hold all of the ingredients needed. So Giada's Red Snapper was probably much bigger than mine. Nevertheless, I stuffed the Red Snapper's cavity to it's maximum capacity (that rhymed!) and baked it at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
While the Snapper was cooking, I made Lemon Spaghetti, by tossing cooked spaghetti with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and parmesan. If the spaghetti was too dry, you could add cooking liquid leftover from the cooked pasta.

It didn't look this scary in person!

Once the fish was flaky and done cooking, my mom (I was too scared to do this part) removed the head and the  backbone from the fish, resulting in two pieces of the fish. This recipe was something I was very interested in making, because it wasn't a typical recipe. I didn't taste a lot of flavor from the fennel and onion, but the lemon in the fish was very apparent. The Red Snapper wasn't amazing, but I liked it! The lemon spaghetti was the perfect side dish for this fish. I think the Lemon Spaghetti will be my go to fish companion when I make fish in the future. I didn't really like using an entire fish because it was so much more of a hassle than just buying fish fillets. Although, I'm really glad I got to experience how to roast and entire fish, and what kind of flavors go well with fish.

Time Spent: 2 hours

Verdue al Forno

Before baking

Prior to starting the E.V.P., I had no idea what Verdue al Forno ("vegetables in the oven") was. It's basically baked zucchini with heavy cream, cheese, and breadcrumbs. Giada has a description for every recipe, sometimes containing tips or a fact about where the recipe came from. For the Verdue al Forno recipe, Giada said to feel free to use another vegetable replacing the zucchini. Not being a fan of zucchini, I decided to substitute with cauliflower, although many vegetables would be pretty tasty with cream and cheese. To start, I cut the cauliflower and shredded mozzarella & fontina (YES!) cheese. In a dish coated with olive oil, I put one layer of cauliflower, followed by salt and

After baking

pepper. I decided to add a small pinch of red pepper flakes and garlic salt to avoid any blandness. Heavy cream is poured onto the cauliflower, followed by fontina, mozzarella, and romano cheeses. Breadcrumbs are sprinkled onto the top and two more of these layers are added. The problem with using cauliflower was that I had no idea of how much time to bake it, since the time listed in the cookbook was for cooking zucchini. I decided to cook it for the time the book said, taste it, then see how tender it was. So I let the Verdue al Forno bake for 40 minutes, tasted it, and let it cook for 20 minutes more. The end result was pretty good! I thought I would absolutely love it because it sounded like my kind of dish, but it was a little boring to me. I didn't mind eating it at all, but I just wish it had some "wow" to it! Maybe I can try to improve the recipe to my liking another time!

Time Spent: 2 hours

For breakfast this morning - waffle with peaches, a drizzle of syrup, and cannoli cream :)

When Something is Bitter...

... you add a little sweetness! :)

The only thing I knew about broccoli rabe was that Giada used it a lot on the Everyday Italian show, and that it was a leafy green vegetable. What my mom told me before I started cooking it was that it had a very bitter flavor. She liked the bitter flavor of broccoli rabe, but that information made me not so excited to make it. I knew raisins and pine nuts would be added to the broccoli rabe, but I was still anxious to see just how bitter the leaves were after they were cooked. I blanched the broccoli rabe VERY quickly in boiling, salted water and shocked it ice water to stop the cooking process. Afterwards, I sauteed red pepper flakes and garlic in olive oil, then added the blanched broccoli rabe and raisins. Once everything was cooked together for about six minutes, toasted pine nuts were tossed in for the finishing touch. First, I tasted the broccoli rabe without raisins in order to experience its true bitterness. My mom was right; the broccoli rabe wasn't so bitter that I couldn't eat it, but it was bitter enough for me not enjoy it very much. Next, I tasted it with the raisins and pine nuts and it was much better. This vegetable dish was quick and simple, and had an awesome depth of flavors. The only thing wrong was that I didn't like eating it unless there were raisins and/or pine nuts in every bite. I never would have tried raisins or pine nuts with a leafy green if it wasn't for this recipe. I would use the recipe again, but probably use spinach instead.

Along with the broccoli rabe, I completed Giada's recipe for Grilled Jumbo Shrimp.

Althoughhhh, I kind of cheated with this recipe because the shrimp were kind of jumbo... and I kind of grilled them... Jumbo shrimp are defined as shrimp that are 11 to 15 per pound. Extra large shrimp are defined as 16  to 20 per pound. My grocery store didn't even sell the 11 to 15 per pound shrimp, and even if they did they would have been way to pricey. I decided to use 16 to 20 per pound. Next was the grilling part. This past Sunday when I made these recipes, it was a very rainy day, meaning I couldn't use the grill outside. I had no choice but to complete these recipes that day, sooo I plugged in my good ol' George Forman Grill. While the grill was heating, I seasoned the shrimp in a little Olive Oil, garlic salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I left the top of the Formal Grill open and grilled the fresh shrimp until they were pink. They were delicious!! In the past I have only been eating shrimp that were already cooked and frozen, so fresh shrimp was something new to me. I really liked the fresh taste of these shrimp and I would definitely make them again. Putting these shrimp in some spaghetti would be a nice dish too!

Time Spent: 1 hour and 30 mins

I've decided to update my "time spent"s on all my blog posts because I've realized that cleaning up after making dishes takes up a lot of time, so it's only fair to include that time in my hours spent on this project.

Ciao!

FIRST EVER COOKING VLOG

This was sooo random, but really fun!! My brother and I decided to create a video of me making one of Giada's dessert recipes. This was much more work than a typical blog post, but it was cool to switch things up and it'll (hopefully) be a nice addition to my graduation project presentation that I'll eventually have to make.

A high five goes out to Tobin John, my older brother who filmed and edited this video. Enjoy!

Time spent: 35 minutes

Video filming/editing: 2 hours