lemon & thyme risotto
02 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
in lemons, recipes, rice Tags: cooking, italian cooking, lemons, risotto, wine, winter
1 small sweet onion
1 ½ cups Arbario rice
1 cup white wine
5 cups veggie stock
2 organic lemons
fresh thyme
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons of butter
zest your two lemons, scrapping their bright yellow peel with the finest side of a grater or a file. Pick the thyme leaves off their stalks, generating about 2-3 tablespoons of fresh herb.
heat a stockpot over a medium flame, and add in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and of butter. Add in the rice and stir to coat and cook 3-5 minutes to toast. Turn up the heat and pour in a cup of white wine. Bring to a boil, stirring until the wine is absorbed. Add another cup of wine and squeeze in half a lemon. Stir until absorbed. Add the veggie stock ½ a cup at a time, alternating with fresh lemon juice, and stirring until the liquid is absorbed each time. Cook, adding liquid, until the rice is al dente and the risotto is creamy, about 20 minutes- ½ an hour.
stir in the lemon zest, thyme and cheese. Pour in another slug of highest quality olive oil, a dash of salt and pepper. Serve in big shallow bowls.
pasta and fennel meet balls
05 Apr 2008 2 Comments
in bell pepper, mushrooms, pasta, recipes, tomato, vegan, vegetarian Tags: cooking, david bowie, italian cooking, Italy, meat balls, movies, radical muffins love good food, sicily, spices, tomato sauce, wine, winter
uncork a bottle of respectable red table wine. Pour a half a cup into a wine glass with a generous bowl, swirl. Enjoying your wine, read this recipe entirely:
slice two yellow onions and one red bell pepper. Smash, peel, and mince five cloves of garlic. Setting aside the rest for your sauce, two of the cloves and a handful of the onion are for your faux meat balls.
mince this onion finely. In a mortar with a pestle, crush two teaspoons of fennel seeds with 2 teaspoons of coarse sea salt. In a big bowl, add these spices and a teaspoon of black pepper to the onions and garlic. Add a handful of quick cooking oatmeal and one egg. These are made with egg in a nod toward my grandfather’s original recipe, but you can omit the egg and the oatmeal and have tasty balls (note: the oatmeal or bread or cracker crumbs, is a good extender to make more balls for cheaper). Let this all rest together while you get on with the sauce. Stick it in the fridge if you are neurotic about leaving out egg at room temperature.
in a hot pot—a large stock pot with a heavy bottom, heated over a medium flame—toast a proportion to taste of hot and sweet paprika and red pepper flakes. I used about two teaspoons of sweet paprika and one teaspoon of hot paprika and red pepper flakes. Pour olive oil into the pot, about three tablespoons, bring to hot and pour the red pepper and onion and garlic into the pot. Cover and cook over medium-high for five minutes: in a series of 3 x 5, every five minutes for a cycle of three times cook and stir and cover the spicy pepper mix. Add sea salt and black pepper.
as this base cooks down, rub clean a pound of crimini mushrooms, ranging from a quarter in diameter to fungi the size of an egg. De-stem them, and slice the heads into threes, making fat slices. Add them to the pot, and do another round of 3 x 5 cooking and stirring.
stir in three tablespoons of tomato paste. Pour in two large cans (28 ounces each) of crushed tomatoes. By all means if you come by this recipe in the heart of tomato season then boil & peel and crush a whole pile of fruit, but in early spring in Brooklyn, the cans are fine and preferable. Add a smaller can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a slow, popping simmer and cook for an hour or longer.
about half an hour before you want to eat, put a big pot of water onto boil.
add a tube of ground beef style soy “meat” to the big bowl of eggy, spicy slop, and mix it together well with your hands. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls.
heat a heavy skillet and when it is hot, add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Fry the balls until brown on all sides.
pour a few generous slugs of wine into your sauce and stir. Add your fried meet balls. Bring the sauce back to a simmer.
add a box of noodles to the boiling water: spaghetti is Italian-American classic; fettuccini is seductive; and penne, somehow, feels domestic and family-like. Cook until al dente and drain. Pile noodles on a plate or in a bowl as appropriate, top with sauce. Somewhere in this cooking, maybe put together a nice salad. Now sit down with you, and whomever you dine with if you are dining in company or family, and polish off the wine.
as it simmers, you can also read this blog:
http://thyme-for-herbs.blogspot.com/
and maybe, watch a little more labyrinth:
garlick bread
16 Jan 2007 5 Comments
in bread, poems, recipes, vegetarian Tags: butter, date night, gay, peoria, romance, wine
my friend matthew (we have the same birthday but he’s 5 years older)
he used to cut my hair in the late afternoon kitchen, gringy yellow like those 70s men’s dress slacks (flat fly, low waist) from the village thrift
he would say soooo, what you’re telling me is
(purring)
what you want is
ooo, looky a hot boy from the back
but!
ooo, looky, a hot girly dyke from the front,
plus audrey hepburn
he would say—you can either cut hair or you cannot
the only reason to go to beauty school is to learn how to hold the damn scissors and comb in one hand
this is his recipe for garlic bread, or rather here’s the email he sent me when i asked for it:
hello slishalicious:
i am not sure this is in time as i have not checked my email lately, but i hope it helps “pave the way” for tastier things…here’s my recipe for garlic bread…….
1 nice loaf of French bread (i prefer a good combination of length and width as opposed to the traditional long and thin) and 1 loaf is not always enough for 2 people
garlic chopped to taste (the more the better i say) chopped/pressed/diced/or beaten into submission
1 stick of real butter per loaf (nothing faaat-free about this decadent treat) put out ahead of time to soften
4 or 5 pinches of paprika
bottle of wine that goes w/the planned meal
the tasty boi or gurl (depending on preference or both if you wish) perched on a stool
pre-heat oven to 350 degrees’ pour glass of wine and swirl the bouquet on your tongue w/the gurl on the stool
whip the butter ‘til creamy
add garlic
more wine
stir in paprika
taste butter and add more garlic or paprika- to taste
more wine and kisses, mild fondling is not inappropriate here
slice bread into desired size pieces but do not cut all the way through,
leave a little crust to hold it all together
butter both sides of the pieces (very important for that dripping with goodness taste)
wrap in foil and put in oven for 10 minutes
use the 10 minutes to open another bottle of wine for dinner (as surely you will need another by now) and “stir” up some pleasant sensations in the boi
after 10 minutes open the foil and bake for another 3 minutes to ensure a crispy crust and a moist center….
remove from oven and enjoy…
let me know how dinner went.
love always….matthew
serve with puttenaio, duh.
