Thanks to a largely-misread e-mail and an available babysitter/grandma, The Husband + I had a last minute date night in Jordan’s Kitchen. Yay!
On the menu that night was:
*Roasted Three Beet Salad with Orange Vinaigrette
*Arancini with San Marzano Tomato Sauce
*Slow Roasted Pork with Creamy Polenta & Cherry Tomatoes
*Fig & Hazelnut Biscotti
Armed with our bottle of Cab, The Husband and I were ready to cook!
After a brief introduction and review of the dinner menu, we prepared our beet “packages” and pork shoulder for roasting and jumped right into knife skills – how to properly cut an onion. We didn’t need very much or any onion at all that night, but it’s always good to practice your knife skills with an expert nearby.
Someone didn't pay attention
Once the pig and beets were roasting away, we got started on dessert. When possible, always prepare dessert first – who wants to be cooking/baking away after all that cooking? We chopped roasted hazelnuts and dried figs and after three failed attempts, fished eggshells out of the biscotti batter. D’oh!
Working in shifts, we started the orange juice reduction for the orange vinaigrette, emulsifying the San Marzano tomato sauce, and whisked the polenta like no tomorrow.
After roasting for about an hour, the beets were peeled and cut and bathed in the orange vinaigrette. There was more knife skill practice on how to properly segment an orange while the greens were prepped. We are ready to plate and eat!
So deelish!
The class moved pretty quickly at this point. Using prepared risotto, we formed, rolled and breaded the arancini, got the oil ready for frying, and finished up the tomato sauce. While working in groups, we fried the arancini, drained it on paper towels, and plated our next dish. The tomato sauce was amazing – I could have eaten that alone!
The pork was removed from the oven as was the biscotti.
Smelling good and fall apart tender, the pork was shredded, while the biscotti were sliced.
This was my fourth class with Jordan, The Husband’s second. For some reason I keep coming back…the classes are small and extremely hands on – Jordan does very little cooking – the company is good, the instructor even better, and the food is always amazing.
Buon appetito!
makes enough for a small army
photo courtesy of Cookie
While it’s not the most substantive parenting magazine out there – Cookie is hip, stylish and offers great recipes from time to time. My favorite section of the magazine is the Smart Cookie – Food feature of the magazine. You start with one main ingredient (in this case, ground turkey) and depending on what’s in your freezer or pantry, you have the choice of 3 wonderfully delicious meals! (It’s kinda like those choose your own adventure books! Remember those?)
So with our abundance of potatoes (both from the store and the farm), I decided that Turkey Goulash it would be! (Though it has potatoes, I served it over buttered orzo. It would be great with brown rice, too!) And it was wonderful! The recipe didn’t tell us readers that it would yield a jillion servings – so you can guess what we’ll be eating the rest of the week!
Luckily, when I looked in the fridge we had enough eggs to make an omelet for dinner.
went a bit nuts with the cheese
Despite all the cheese I loaded on and the mere fact that it was made with eggs, Mads only had one bite. Having her eat most of her dinner has been challenging lately. But, when S breaks out the brie and bread, she’s all over it. Hmm…oh, well, that just means green chard & sausage omelet for another day.
Green Chard & Sausage Omelet
2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 yellow onion, chopped, 1/2 pound uncooked chicken sausage,
1 bunch green chard (or other leafy green vegetable, I think I’ll try kale next time), stems removed, chopped, 6 eggs, Salt & Pepper, to taste, 1/2 – 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of parmesan & mozzarella, but cheddar, jack or swiss would be tasty, too!)
Preheat the broiler. Saute the onions in half the olive oil until cooked, crumble the sausage into the pan and saute until cooked. Add the chopped greens and saute until the greens are cooked. (The chard will turn dark green.)
While the greens are cooking, whisk the eggs with salt & pepper. Once the greens are cooked, add the greens to the egg mixture.
Heat the rest of the olive oil in a small, oven-safe, non-stick pan on med-high. Add the egg mixture to the pan and reduce heat to low. Push the egg away from the edges of the pan and at the same time tipping the pan so that the uncooked egg will flow over and cook. Once the eggs look mostly cooked and not too runny, sprinkle the cheese on top and place the pan under the broiler until the cheese is slightly browned.
Let sit for a few minutes to cool and serve with french bread and a simple green salad.
Base recipe from M. Canner, SF
I believe that this dish is British in origin. It’s nowhere to be found in Julia’s repertoire.
S had made it for me a while ago…and it was good, but I wanted to get away from using mayonnaise – as some online recipes have called for.
What you’ll need:
- one prepared pie shell – I use organic whole wheat crusts
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 leek – white, yellow and light green parts only, sliced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Olive oil
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 1 can tuna packed in spring water, well-drained and flaked
- salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Melt the butter with some olive oil in a pan over medium heat, add the leeks and saute until softened and cooked down, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, cream and salt and pepper until combined. Add cooled leeks, tuna and goat cheese. Stir to combine.
Pour mixture into prepared and cooled pie crust. Bake at 375F for about 35-40 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let the quiche cool slightly and serve with a green salad.
As this was a create as you go quiche, it worked out well (and tasted quite good) for S’ low-key b-day dinner. I served it with a spinach & romaine salad with organic grape tomatoes, english cucumber and a red wine vinaigrette. For dessert, makeshift strawberry shortcakes.
“They” say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that it should be consumed within an hour of waking up. Reality for me is either a coffee run on the way to work or a yummy, instant oatmeal once I get to work – which well past the “within the hour of waking up.” I figured since I don’t have one of these – besides trying to eat cereal while driving isn’t something I want to try – I’d whip a quick smoothie to drink on the way to work. (Lucky, too, that I had all I needed for a smoothie.)
PB&J Anytime Smoothie
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup organic yogurt
- 1 banana, sliced
- 1/2 cup frozen (or fresh) berries of your choice (today I used frozen organic blueberries and organic rapsberries)
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup ice
Place ingredients in a blender and blend for about 1 minute. Yields a little more than 2 cups.
Let me know what you think…