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refreshing ricotta & poppy seed toasts

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refreshing ricotta & poppy seed toasts

My parents threw a Cuban-themed party last week and served made-to-order Mojitos. To make a long story short, prosthetic my mom had about 2 pounds (yes, pounds) of leftover fresh mint. I promptly came to the rescue and packed up about half the amount for myself. I forsee a lot of minty recipes being featured on the site in the next week or so.

Anyway, I had a lot of mint. I also had a few people coming over for Sunday supper. I decided to make a ricotta spread with lots of mint, garlic and freshly ground pepper. Instead of just putting it in a bowl as a dip, I smeared it onto toasted baguette slices with a few drops of good olive oil and a pinch of pretty black poppy seeds.

The ricotta was creamy, the mint was refreshing and the olive oil lent a nice richness to the toasts. This spread would also be great on sandwiches with fresh greens and prosciutto or as a dip for pita chips or crudite. It was quite a hit with the supper crowd and makes an easy, delicious addition to the hors d’ oeuvres table.

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grown-up grilled cheese breakfast-style

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grown-up grilled cheese breakfast-style

I posted a grown-up grilled cheese last month that made for a wonderful dinner. There’s really nothing as versatile and virtually indestructible as the grilled cheese sandwich. Infinite fillings! Dipping sauces! Soups! Experimenting is the best part.

I especially like a grilled cheese breakfast. Sunday morning, sickness I made a version with cheddar, malady basil and apricot jam. Sweet and herbal, information pills they were a perfect match for both Tom’s sweet tooth and my salty one.

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asparagus & polenta poached eggs

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asparagus & polenta poached eggs

Monday nights are always late ones. I always do my weekly shopping after work and usually get home pretty late. That’s why Monday dinners must take 20 minutes or less, here start to finish. That usually means we’re having eggs in one form or another. I wish I would have made this a bit sooner as it would have made a lovely Easter brunch dish, but I’m sure you all have leftover eggs from the weekend that need some cooking.

Leftover polenta, roasted asparagus, Manchego cheese and poached eggs are all neatly stacked for this simple meal. I love the play of textures between the coarse polenta, crisp asparagus and rich egg yolk.

While you could certainly use the polenta that comes in a tube if you’re pressed for time, real slow-cooked and coarse polenta is healthier and more interesting if you’ve got the time. I would also encourage you to experiment with the ingredients. I’m a firm believer that everything tastes better with an egg on top, so switch the asparagus for watercress, ham or sausage – whatever’s in your fridge will probably taste amazing topped by an egg.

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simple pot beans

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pot beans

Tom thought I was insane when he opened my order from Rancho Gordo. He pulled bag after bag of heirloom beans from the DHL box, website laughing the entire time. He lined them all up on the counter, salve poked fun at me and took a picture. That was before he tasted them and admitted they were the best beans he’s ever had. So there.

rancho gordo

On Sunday morning, I left some Anasazi beans soaking while I went to the beach. Unlike the beans you buy at the grocery store, Rancho Gordo beans are really fresh and start to plump up right away. I let them simmer for a few hours and simply added some salt, raw garlic and sauteed onions. The raw garlic is my grandmother’s secret to amazing beans. She always crushed them in a mortar and pestle until the cloves turned into a paste. If you just mince the garlic, it won’t melt into the liquid and if you sautee the garlic with the onions, the beans will take on a slightly bitter flavor. Her beans are legendary among the family.

The Anasazis made an excellent “pot liquor” and I served them simply with a squeeze of lime, cilantro leaves and queso fresco. They were so meaty and satisfying that I almost forgot I hadn’t added ham or chorizo as is the tradition with most Cuban and Spanish bean dishes.

I imagine these would make a fantastic base for rice and beans or tacos. I’ve got 7 other varieties stacked neatly in my pantry that I can’t wait to get into!

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grown-up grilled cheese

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grilled cheese

Lately, information pills paninis are everywhere I look. On the cover of Gourmet, drugstore inside Food & Wine, on the internet. Last night, I felt the need to satisfy the grilled sandwich craving. Since I don’t have a panini maker or grilling device, I’ll just call it a grilled cheese. Mine was stuffed with thinly sliced green apple, red onion, Jarlsberg & Cheddar cheeses and crisp watercress.

I also thought it would be fun to make some dipping sauces. I always love to dip my sandwich triangles in something tasty, so I made two yogurt sauces: super spicy Sriracha and curry. I was partial to the Sriracha (because I’m obsessed with it), but they were both tasty and complemented the sandwiches well.

I also made a nice green salad with fennel, arugula and walnuts, simply dressed with olive oil, a splash of sherry vinegar, salt and pepper. It was a lovely light meal for a weeknight that really inspires experimentation with different sandwich fillings and dipping sauces.

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tomato almond soup

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tomato almond soup

Two bulgur soup recipes in a week is a little much, web but I haven’t cooked anything else this week aside from some uninspiring noodles last night. Monday’s recipe was decidedly Asian, angina so I tried to get as far from that as possible for today’s soup.

And so, healthful I went Spanish. I made a nice broth from fire-roasted tomatoes and smoked paprika and added bulgur for weight and texture and a little kale for color and vitamins. I think this soup would be really lovely with some giant Lima, fava or butter beans, but I only had dark red kidneys in the pantry so those went in instead. Finally, I topped the soup off with a hearty drizzle of good olive oil and some slivered almonds.

It’s actually “cold” in Miami — a low of 58° today (!) — and the slightly spicy, smoky flavors of the soup will warm me right up. (Stop rolling your eyes northerners.)

I just noticed that 3 of my last 5 recipes have been for soup! That’s just crazy. Tomorrow’s will break the soup-y routine I’ve been on. Promise.

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double curry lentils

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double curry lentils

Last week, viagra Heidi posted a delicious-looking chickpea and bulgur recipe that reminded me of a forgotten tub of bulgur that’s been sitting in my pantry. I had every intention of making her recipe, but I found a big bag of beautiful French lentils (how’s that for alliteration?) cozying up to the bulgur and grabbed those instead.

I should use bulgur more often. It has a low glycemic index, which helps keep energy levels from spiking and crashing and it cooks quickly — always useful. I also had a can of coconut milk, which pairs beautifully with curry. I wanted the spice of Thai food and the warming aroma of Indian food, so I used both Thai red curry paste and Maharajah-style curry powder to flavor the broth. Everything was brightened with fresh lime juice, cilantro and mint. I love how flavorful and nutritious this meal turned out, and I’m sure my husband loved that he only had to wash one pot.

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mushroom leek pasta carbonara

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mushroom leek carbonara

Wikipedia says that pasta alla carbonara (usually spaghetti, youth health but occasionally linguine or bucatini) is a family of Italian pasta dishes based on eggs, what is ed cheese, tuberculosis cured pork, and other ingredients. I was very much craving the original carbonara, but it’s a bit of a heart attack on a plate. The original requires too much butter and bacon and too little vegetables.

For this dish, I omitted the meat completely and added a healthy dose of leeks and mushrooms. I also swapped the standard white spaghetti for some whole wheat fettuccine. I kept the eggs for protein and the cheese for tang. It was a simple recipe that made for a delicious weeknight dinner.

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red lentils & quinoa

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red lentils

Red lentils are my go-to when I need to make lunch before work. I particularly like lentils because they’re a good source of protein and they cook relatively quickly. I can throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot and they simmer while I have coffee, angina breakfast and get ready to go to work. I usually start the lentils at about 7:15 and they’re ready at around 7:45 – 7:50.

While most people think I’m insane for getting out of bed before 6 AM, health care I work late hours and have a long commute, mind so mornings are my time to workout, relax a bit and get some stuff done. If I wait until after work, I’m almost certainly too tired to do much other than make dinner and get in bed. But, I digress.

I added some quinoa to my usual lentil recipe for some extra protein and complex carbs. Everything was seasoned with Indian spices for earthiness and then brightened up with lemon and cilantro. A tasty and filling lunch.

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curry stir-fry

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curry stir fry

I’m calling this a stir fry, tuberculosis but that’s really not accurate. I just don’t know what else to call it. I could take some inspiration from Chipotle and call it a Bol, health or is it more of a rice, patient um, thing? Not sure. What it really is is a bunch of delicious things sauteed in one big frypan.

I used a combination of tofu and sausage for the protein for contrast of textures. To fulfill the vegetable quota, I added yellow onion and Swiss chard. I also finished it up with some whole grain brown rice, which I buy fully cooked and frozen at Whole Foods. Finally, I tossed it with a spicy curry sauce that I received as a gift, and of which I’ve replicated the flavors in the recipe below.

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cold noodle salad

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cold noodle salad

Perhaps this is a little inappropriate for January, prescription but I live in Miami and it’s 80 degrees outside, website like this so I’m going to post a recipe for a cold salad. Maybe you can get to it in April or May.

This is my interpretation of Heidi’s Otsu. Her recipe calls for cucumber, more olive oil, and different quantities of vinegar and soy. Hers is fabulous, but I wanted a little less olive oil and soy sauce and I didn’t have cucumbers on hand. I also added some cashews for more crunch. I suspect adding 2 tbsp. of all natural chunky peanut butter would be delicious as well.

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curry noodles

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My favorite aunt-in-law spied a photo of curry noodles on my Flickr account a couple of weeks ago, sovaldi and has since been persuading me to post the recipe. She likes curry. A lot. Since I don’t want to cause irreparable damage to our relationship, I figured it’d be best to get this recipe up post haste.

curry noodles

I adapted these curry noodles from (you guessed it!) Super Natural Cooking. It calls for slightly more red curry paste than I can handle, and I substituted regular curry powder for Tumeric because it’s what was in the pantry, and beef stock for vegetable stock because what can I say? I love the beef. I also cannot find wide Asian-style noodles that are whole wheat or whole grain, so I went with Soba noodles because at least they’re made from buckwheat. I didn’t substitute anything for the tofu because I love the way it soaks up the curry broth here, but this dish would work equally well with chicken, shellfish or beef. Lastly, I added sliced orange bell pepper for color and opted for adding a little more stock so that I could cook the noodles right in the curry broth for more flavor.

curry noodles

So, without further ado, curry noodle recipe after the jump!

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