Day Eighty

She Said:

Again, we are forcing ourselves to cook. Energy levels are at an all-time low. But we press on. Mostly 'cause I went shopping and we have fresh veggies we need to use up. Certainly not because we feel like cooking!

This one counts toward our own Julie/Julia Project and it's from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Pasta With Green Clam Sauce

1½-2 pounds fresh spinach, tough stems removed (we used baby spinach)
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
1 cup chicken broth (or substitute another 8-ounce bottle of clam juice)
2 cans (6 ounces each) chopped clams in clam juice
½ cup dried bread crumbs
1 pound vermicelli
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, about 30 seconds. Remove from the water with tongs or a slotted spoon and let drain in a colander. Let the water return to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the clam juice and broth. Strain the clam juice from the cans of clams into the saucepan. Add the bread crumbs and let simmer. (At this point, we said "What?? Add the bread crumbs to that much liquid?" But we did. We think it's just for thickening but I've never used bread crumbs to thicken a sauce before.)

3. Squeeze the excess water from the spinach. Transfer to a cutting board and coarsely chop.

4. When the water returns to a boil, cook the pasta until just al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta-cooking water.

5. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the clams, spinach, and simmering sauce. Toss to mix. Add enough of the reserved pasta cooking water to make the pasta very moist. Season lightly with salt and very generously with black pepper. Serve at once.

We didn't need the reserved pasta water for the initial meal but I saved it and when we were packing up the leftovers, I threw it in then. After having the leftovers last night, I should have only thrown in about half of it. I think there was a lot of clam juice in the canned clams we used.

This meal was really good. I thought the first bite was odd but I think I was expecting linguine with white clam sauce and this definitely has spinach in it. After my first bite, I ended up shoveling this into my mouth. We all loved it. Oh, and we topped it with some fresh grated Parmesan, 'cause you hafta, right?

Easy, easy meal - quick and delicious. I recommend it!

Day 80/365:Recipe 37/175

Day Fifty-One

She Said:

I'm going to file this one under "Think of a Better Name for This Recipe!" It's a bad name, but a delicious dish. This counts toward our own Julie/Julia Project and it's from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Spinach Cheese Custard

1½-2 pounds fresh spinach, tough stems removed (we got ours from the farmer's market)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 eggs
1½ cups milk
1 cup grated Gruyère
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 30 seconds. Drain well. Press out the excess moisture. Transfer to a cutting board and finely chop.

2. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until fragrant and softened, about 2 minutes. (I actually let this go longer until they were sweet and carmelized.)

3. Preheat the oven to 350℉. Lightly grease a 7- by 11-inch baking dish with oil.

4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until smooth. Add the spinach, onions, milk, and Gruyère. Season with the salt and pepper to taste. Pour into the baking dish. Top with the Parmesan.

5. Bake until the custard is set and a knife inserted comes out clean, about 30 minutes. (Ours took closer to an hour.)

6. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

We had this as our entire dinner. It wasn't a lot of food but it was really, really good.

Day 51/365:Recipe 29/175

Days Forty-Three and Forty-Six, Or, I Will Never Eat Canned Spinach Again!

She Said:

It's been a busy week but we managed to get some cooking in and we did make two more recipes that count toward our own Julie/Julia Project.

On Tuesday night, we realized that we hadn't marinated the swordfish like we meant to, so we went with Plan B. Sort of. Plan B involved grilling outside but there ended up being a hella storm at dinner time so we kept it inside. Plus, we were supposed to grill asparagus and only at dinner time remembered that they were out of asparagus at the store so we didn't have any. Once we got it all together, we had a delicious and healthy meal.

We marinated a pork tenderloin (from the farmer's market) in a teriyaki marinade and ended up roasting it. It was delicious! I made some organic Yukon gold mashed potatoes, nothing special but we are loving the Yukon gold for the mashed potatoes! That was my choice because I love mashed potatoes with pork tenderloin, regardless of the marinade or rub.

Then instead of that grilled asparagus we were supposed to have, we peeked in the fridge and saw a bag of spinach from the farmer's market and decided on this recipe from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Creamed Spinach

2 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot, minced
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1½ pounds spinach, tough stems removed

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the flour until you have a paste. Increase the heat, pour in the milk, and whisk to combine. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to low.

3. Add the spinach to the boiling water and cook long enough to wilt, about 30 seconds. Drain well. Place the spinach on a cutting board and roughly chop.

4. Add the spinach to the cream sauce and stir to thoroughly combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot.

I loved, loved, loved this recipe. I am a huge creamed spinach fan anyway but this tasted NOTHING like the creamed spinach I've had in my life. I'm convinced that none of the places I've ever had it made it with fresh spinach. It was like a whole different dish. Wonderful! So wonderful, in fact, that we made it again the next night, but we added some chopped garlic to the cream sauce, making it even better!

Last night, we were using up some of those things we've had around that are not recipe ingredients. We had two frozen salmon pieces in lemon butter so we cooked them up. Then He made roasted baby potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic powder and fresh rosemary. Fabulous!!

But, once again, the side dish stole the show. I was afraid of this one for some reason but, oh ho, this will become a staple in our house. It was stellar! This is also from Serving Up the Harvest.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Chickpeas

1½-2 pounds spinach, tough stems removed
1½ cups cooked chickpeas or 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small red onion, halved and sliced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, 30 to 60 seconds. Drain well. Press out the excess moisture. Transfer to a cutting board and chop.

2. Combine the spinach, chickpeas, and onion in a large bowl. Toss to mix.

3. Whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Pour over the spinach mixture and toss to mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve at once.

I can't begin to describe how well the flavors of the red wine vinegar, red onion, chickpeas and spinach went together. This could be the best salad I have ever had. (So far.) It was truly fabulous and I can't wait to make it again!

Days 43 and 46/365:Recipes 26 and 27/175

Day Thirty-Three

She Said:

We're both on vacation for a few days, so dinner was a little fancier last night. We did manage to include another recipe from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman that counts toward our own Julie/Julia Project, but there was more!

We started out with a very yummy cocktail (or two!). This recipe (and the next) come from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook.

Pomegranate Cosmopolitans

2 cups good vodka, such as Grey Goose or Finlandia (we had Absolut on hand and that's good enough, I think)
1 cup Cointreau (we only had a ½ cup so we also used a ½ cup of Grand Marnier - poor us!)
1 cup cranberry juice cocktail, such as Ocean Spray (interestingly, we only had pure cranberry juice, so that's what we used)
½ cup Pom Wonderful bottled pomegranate juice (yes, we had this and that's what we used)
½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (4 limes)
Thinly sliced limes, for garnish

Combine the vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, and lime juice in a large pitcher. Fill a cocktail shaker half full with ice, pour the cocktail mixture in, and shake for a full 30 seconds. Pour into martini glasses, garnish with a slice of lime, and serve immediately.

These were so good. I love the addition of pomegranate juice to the cosmo. Nice sweet difference! The fresh lime juice is key, too. We sat down and relaxed with our first one and then, feeling it a little already, we decided to make dinner. However, we needed room temperature butter, which we didn't have, so I took out a stick and, since it was almost 90℉ outside (and, logically then inside as well since the air conditioner wasn't on), figured it would soften up soon enough. So we had another cocktail! And we were still fine to cook later on.

Here's what we cooked.

Bay Scallop Gratins

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 medium shallot, minced
1 ounce thinly sliced prosciutto di Parma, minced (we actually found this - I was very pleased)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon Pernod (we didn't have Pernod, so we used a ½ tablespoon of Sambuca and a ½ tablespoon of water)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons good olive oil
¼ cup panko (Japanese dried bread flakes)
3 tablespoons dry white wine
1 pound fresh bay scallops
Lemon, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425℉. Place 3 (6-inch round) gratin dishes on a sheet pan. (We had JUST bought four gratin dishes at Crate and Barrel that same day - yay!)
To make the topping, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer). With the mixer on low speed, add the garlic, shallot, prosciutto, parsley, lemon juice, Pernod, salt, and pepper and mix until combined. With the mixer still on low, add the olive oil slowly as though making mayonnaise, until combined. Fold the panko in with a rubber spatula and set aside.
Preheat the broiler, if it's separate from your oven.
Place 1 tablespoon of the wine in the bottom of each gratin dish. With a small sharp knife, remove the white muscle and membrane from the side of each scallop and discard. Pat the scallops dry with paper towels and distribute them among the 3 dishes. Spoon the garlic butter evenly over the top of the scallops. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the topping is golden and sizzling and the scallops are barely done. If you want the top crustier, place the dishes under the broiler for 2 minutes, until browned. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a sprinkling of chopped parsley and serve immediately with crusty French bread.

We actually found small French rolls and had two each with this meal. I think you have to have the bread to soak up the sauce. It's quite a sophisticated flavor, in my opinion. Quite delicious, but not something I would want every day. I think my palate is simpler than that. But this was really delicious!

And to give us our veggies, here's what we made on the side from Serving Up the Harvest.

Sauteéd Spinach with Garlic and Pine Nuts

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup pine nuts
1½-2 pounds spinach, tough stems removed and large leaves chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large wok or Dutch oven. Add the garlic and pine nuts and sauté until the garlic begins to smell fragrant and color, about 1 minute.

2. Add the spinach, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes. Uncover, season with the salt and pepper to taste, stir well, and continue to cook until the liquid evaporates, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve hot.

OK, we purchased our spinach and it's already prewashed so we didn't have to wash it. One of the things that is mentioned in the notes of this recipe is that "the water clinging to the leaves of the freshly washed spinach is all the liquid necessary." That's crucial. We didn't see that note right away and didn't know how this spinach was going to wilt. So once we saw the note, we threw in a little water and all was right with the world.

I really like the spinach prepared this way, but I am a really big fan of garlic and pine nuts, so it really couldn't lose!

Day 33/365:Recipe 23/175

Day Four

She Said:

Day Four of our own Julie/Julia Project worked out much better than Day Three, that's for sure! Dinner was really delicious and another easy meal to make.

This is from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Strips with Sesame Spinach

Marinade
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 piece (1 inch long) fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 cup tamari
1/4 cup sake or dry sherry
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Chicken and Vegetables
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch strips
1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach, tough stems removed (we used baby spinach)
1 large carrot, grated
1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Hot cooked white rice
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

1. To make the marinade, mince the garlic and ginger together in a blender or food processor. Add the tamari, sherry, oil, and brown sugar and process until well mixed. Alternatively, mince the garlic and ginger. Mix in a small bowl with the tamari, sherry, oil, and brown sugar.

2. Place the chicken in a nonreactive bowl. Add half the marinade and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the dinner, or up to 2 hours.

3. Wash the spinach and place in a large pot. Add an inch or so of water. Cook over high heat until the spinach is completely wilted, 3 to 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Drain well. Transfer the spinach to a medium bowl and add the carrot. Toss to combine.

4. Stir the vinegar into the remaining marinade. Add to the spinach and toss lightly. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

5. Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill and let the coals burn down until they are covered with white ash, or preheat a gas grill on high. (We went with Option B since we don't have a charcoal grill!)

6. Grill the chicken for 4 to 6 minutes, until tender and no longer pink, turning once.

7. To serve, place a bed of rice in the center of a platter or on individual plates. Arrange the spinach over half the rice. Place the chicken on the other half, sprinkle the sesame seeds over all, and serve at once.

This meal was really, really delicious but for the life of me, I don't understand the cold sides. Our spinach was still a little warm when we served it because we were cooking the chicken while the spinach was still being assembled and, truly, it was delicious. I don't think it needs to be cold or even cool. There's nothing wrong with hot spinach! It's quite good!

So, the leftovers are living happily in one plastic container in the refrigerator. And they'll be heated up all together when we go to eat them.

That's the only objection I had to this meal. The flavors were wonderful and it was easy to make, although it did use quite a few bowls and pots.

Day 4/365:Recipe 5/175.

Day Two

She Said:

Day Two of our own Julie/Julia Project. We made something completely different for us and we really liked it! The star ingredient was spinach, a spring recipe from Serving Up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.

Curried Spinach and Shrimp

1 1/2-2 pounds spinach, washed and trimmed (we used 22 oz. of baby spinach)
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 fresh or canned green chiles, minced (we used 3 tablespoons of canned mild chiles)
1 piece fresh ginger (1 1/2 inches long), peeled and minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (I couldn't find whole seeds so we used ground)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, shelled and deveined (I could only find large shrimp - which was fine!)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Salt
Cayenne (optional)
Hot cooked rice

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spinach and cook about 30 seconds. Drain well and roughly chop. (Since we used baby spinach, we didn't chop it.)

2. Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Add the onions, garlic, chiles, ginger, curry powder, cumin, fenugreek, and coriander. Sauté until the onions are golden, about 10 minutes. Do not let the mixture burn, or you might as well start over.

3. Stir in the shrimp, increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the shrimp are just white and firm, about 5 minutes.

4. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the buttermilk and spinach. Season with salt. Add cayenne to taste. Cook over low heat until the spinach is heated through. Serve hot over rice.

We didn't add enough salt at the end, or maybe we should have added some to the rice, I don't know. But either way, it needed salt but it was delicious!! Plus, the house smelled incredible from the curry and cumin and coriander. These are not standard scents we get from our cooking.

Really, really good dinner!

Day 2/365:Recipe 2/175

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

She Said:

I have been very remiss in updating over here at He Said:She Said. It's been a really busy time! We did not cook much last weekend (read: I did the cooking) but we did cook the weekend before. And actually, I did the cooking then, too. Hmm...I see why I haven't been updating!

I was looking for something specifically to take as "leftovers" to work for lunches. I get tired of soups so fast it's not even funny. And I can't for the life of me think of any type of sandwiches to make that I'll appreciate so I try to go with something casserole-y. (See prior post.)

I went a little out of the ordinary and found a white cheese chicken lasagna. I made it pretty much like the recipe lays it out except that I added more cheese, of course, and chicken and didn't have any fresh parsley so I used dried. It's fabulous and not at all figure-friendly. I can heartily recommend it!

Here's where the recipe comes from.

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

9 lasagna noodles
1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (I used regular - not low-fat)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups ricotta cheese (I just had a huge container of ricotta and eye-balled it as I was assembling)
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat (I had more than 2 cups of chicken)
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Season with the basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta, and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken, and layer with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese, and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.

Now, if I had it to do over again, which I do as long as I'm still on this earth, I would have combined the chicken and spinach together and split them between the layers so that I didn't have one layer of nothing but chicken and one layer of nothing but spinach. But, as it is, I cut the whole thing up into 12 portions and packed it up for lunches so when we reheat, we just chop it all up and mix well before eating anyway.

I must make mention of the cheese sauce. Now I had revealed my awesome macaroni and cheese recipe a while back. The cheese sauce there is quite good. But the cheese sauce from this recipe knocked my socks off. The seasonings and Parmesan cheese in it plus the delicate flavor of the mozzarella cheese and the chicken broth/milk mixture is an incredible combination. I will make this cheese sauce again for a simple pasta side dish with some breaded chicken breasts or broiled fish for dinner one night. It's just that good.