Spanikopita Pie

from “Food People Want” Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten

The spinach pie is in the front, and behind it is the ever popular squash galette
I made this as part of our fun vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner – I was nervous about working with phyllo, but it came out well. I think the key to making it even better would be to choose the best spinach possible (I really need to figure out how many pounds of fresh spinach it takes to equal a box of frozen – anyone know?) and the yummiest feta you can find (I didn’t love either of those two ingredients this time around, but it still came out great. The near disaster of this meal was that I stupidly didn’t think about thawing the phyllo until right when I was ready to use it (duh – too distracted by all of the other dishes I was making to think about this), and at 2 pm when people are coming at six is not the best time to read, “thaw in refrigerator for 24 for hours and then thaw on countertop for additional 2 hours before using. Most folks on the internet say it’s absolutely impossible to thaw phyllo in a microwave, but I lived to tell the tale. I did it very carefully, a few seconds at a time on defrost, moving it around every time, and then left it on the counter for 45 minutes or so, and it was just fine.My backup plan would have been to whip up a quick pie crust, which I think you could also do.

When you are planning on cooking with frozen spinach, it’s imperative to remove as much water as possible from the defrosted package before cooking. One of the best ways to do this is in an old, clean dish towel. Place the thawed spinach in the center of the towel and bring the corners together to create a tight bundle. Squeeze and twist the spinach with everything you’ve got until it no longer releases any juice.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 (10-ounce) packages frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted
6 extra-large eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons grated nutmeg (I used less)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons plain dry bread crumbs
1/2 pound good feta, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 pound salted butter, melted
6 sheets phyllo dough, defrosted
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium sauté pan on medium heat, sauté the onions with the olive oil until translucent and slightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and allow to cool slightly.
Squeeze out and discard as much of the liquid from the spinach as possible. Put the spinach into a bowl, break it up if it’s packed together and then gently mix in the onions, eggs, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and feta.
Butter a quiche pan or pie pan and line it with 6 stacked sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with melted butter (a natural bristle brush would work best – my silicone one sucked for this, so I used my fingers to wipe it all over – worked OK!) and letting the edges hang over the pan. (I laid out a piece of parchment to put the stack of phyllo on, and another one for the sheet I was working on. Cover the phyllo stack while you’re working, and just work quickly and they won’t dry out – it’s handy to have a helper to uncover your stack so you can pull off a sheet and then they recover it for you, so you can devote yourself to buttering. I alternated the sheets so they pointed different directions over the pan, so I’d have a lot of edges to fold up and over. Pour the spinach mixture into the middle of the phyllo and fold the edges up and over the top to seal in the filling. Brush the top with melted butter.
Bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden brown and the filling is set (don’t know how you’d determine this from looking at it – I think the hour will do it and during the cooling time it will continue to cook itself for a while). Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Serve at room temperature.
Serves 6 to 8

Strawberry spinach & avocado salad

Really nice salad, and definitely one of my favorite salad dressings of all time as its so quick and easy and tasty- I also made this dressing with a basic tossed salad the other night and it was great. The sweetness of the fruit and the dressing was really nice with the arugula though – I’d recommend this combo.  As you can see from the photo, strawberries are out of season here, so I used Kiwi Berries for a similar sort of flavor. Yum! The strawberries would have been a little prettier though…

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Servers: 2 persons

Salad:
1 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries
1 ripe avocado
fresh spinach leaves
arugula salad leaves
handful of cashew nuts (I forgot these – oops)

Dressing:
4 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons of honey  (you might whisk this with the vinegar to make sure it dissolves well in the dressing, then add the oil, etc)
fresh black and white pepper
sea salt (if desired)

Wash spinach and arugula leaves, put in a bowl. Wash strawberries cut half and a half, put into leaves. Wash, peel, remove stone and cut avocado. Put into salad, add nuts and mix everything.

Chicken Meatballs

 

Very delicious and easy, and makes a great meatball sandwich later in the week!They’d be good patties for burgers, as mini meatballs for a party, or as a meatloaf type main course.

From Smitten Kitchen

Baked Chicken Meatballs
Adapted from Gourmet

Serves 4, or more as appetizers or sliders

3 slices Italian bread, torn into small bits (1 cup)
1/3 cup milk
3 ounces sliced pancetta, finely chopped (you can swap in Canadian Bacon if you can’t find pancetta)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken
2 tablespoons tomato paste, divided*
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 400°F with a racks the upper thirds. Soak bread in milk in a small bowl until softened, about four minutes.

Cook pancetta, onion, and garlic in one tablespoon oil with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until onion is softened, about 6 minutes. (Alternately, as in “I thought of this after the fact”, I’d bet you could render the pancetta for a couple minutes and cook the onions and garlic in that fat, rather than olive oil.) Cool slightly.

Squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with chicken, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, pancetta mixture, bread, and parsley. Form 12 meatballs and arrange in another 4-sided sheet pan (I used a 9×13 roasting dish).

Stir together remaining tablespoons of tomato paste and oil and brush over meatballs (the paste/oil does not mix in any cohesive manner, but just smoosh it on and run with it),

then bake in upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes (though mine took a good 5 minutes longer).

Ginger Pork Lettuce Cups

Adapted from the August, 2006 issue of Food & Wine Magazine
This is a nice Chinese food at home type of dish. We can’t really get any good Chinese food here in Portland (Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, all great. Chinese – blech) so it’s nice to have a few recipes that evoke those sorts of flavors (it’s the Oyster sauce probably)
When stir-frying the pork, it’s important to use as high of heat as your stove will allow.  Be sure to stir the mixture constantly and break up any large lumps.  The goal is to drive away as much moisture from the pork as possible so that it will have a chance to caramelize in the fat.  There is something especially appealing about eating the pork in lettuce leaves but it would also be delicious served over rice.  Minced chicken or turkey might also make fine substitutes for the pork in this dish.
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 pound ground pork
1  medium red bell pepper, finely diced
1 serrano or thai bird chile, finely minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon minced, peeled ginger
1 tablespoon Thai sweet chili sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon peanut or grapeseed oil
1 5-ounce can whole water chestnuts, drained and finely diced (diced jicama would also be a good substitution, or celery)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
24 Boston lettuce leaves
METHOD:
In a medium bowl, combine the ground pork with the diced red bell pepper, minced chile, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, chile sauce, sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of the peanut or grapeseed oil.  Set the bowl aside and allow the flavors to come together for at least 15 minutes at room temperature.
Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat.  Allow the skillet to get screaming hot before adding in the pork.  Stir-fry the mixture over high heat, breaking it up, until the pork is cooked through and beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the mixture to a bowl, leaving the fat behind.  Stir in the oyster sauce, diced water chestnuts, scallions and cilantro.
Serve the ginger pork in a bowl along with a stack of the lettuce leaves on a plate.  To eat, spoon some of the ginger pork onto a lettuce leaf, roll up and enjoy.

Makes enough for 6 appetizer servings or dinner for two
note: might be a good egg roll filling with cabbage

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Source: Imagelicious

(sorry that photo is blurry)
I know I just posted a brussels sprout recipe, but that reminded me I hadn’t posted this one yet. I will never steam Brussels again – browning them and then adding a bit of liquid and finishing them off until tender makes such a drastically better flavor.
12-15 brussels sprouts
Extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced (mincing them might make them easier to burn) 
Black pepper and kosher salt
1/8 – 1/4 cup chicken broth or veg broth. Even if you use water this will be good – it’s essentially for the steam
Parmesan cheese, finely shredded, if desired
1. Cut the end off of each brussels sprout.
2. Cut the brussels sprouts in half. Save any outer leaves that fall off to add to the saute pan.
3. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
4. Add the brussels sprouts cut-side down into the pan, along with any of the extra leaves, scatter the sliced garlic over the sprouts and season with salt and pepper. Let cook for 2-3 minutes (2 if sprouts are small).
5. Add the broth, cover, and let cook for approximately 5 minutes if sprouts are large, 3 of they’re small. Remove the lid, and let cook until the chicken broth evaporates and the brussels sprouts are nicely browned on the bottom. Watch the garlic – move it around if it’s browning too much

6. Serve the brussels sprouts topped with finely grated Parmesan, if desired.

Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Shallots

(adapted: Bon Apetit – November 2007)

Make these for Thanksgiving! They’re also great any time in the fall and winter when they’re in season. I always feel like I’m marching in my own vegetable parade when I buy Brussels sprouts at the farmer’s market and carry them around with me on their big thick stalk. Anyway, dishes like this can convince people who like things like broccoli but think they don’t like Brussels. Browning the sprouts goes a long way towards making them delicious, and the sweet and tangy caramelized shallots are fantastic with them. The blog I found them on served them on a platter with the shallots served on top of them in a line down the middle.  I just mixed em up though, and that was pretty too.

I cut this recipe in 1/2 for the 2 of us:
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, divided
1/2 pound shallots, thinly sliced
Coarse kosher salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, quartered
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Sauté until soft and golden (might want to turn the heat down a hair), about 10 minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.

If you happen to buy brussels on the stalk, snap them off with your fingers as opposed to cutting them off. If yours have brown on the stem end because you bought them loose, just trim that off. Quarter brussel sprouts length wise. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sprouts; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until brown at edges, 6 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and 3 tablespoons butter. Sauté until most of water evaporates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes. Serve and top with shallots.

Island Pork Tenderloin

From The Gourmet Cookbook

We’re always trying new pork tenderloin recipes, and I don’t think there are any bad ways to do it. This is a nice warm (a little spicy) flavorful one. I would defintely serve it next time with mashed potatoes or some other starch. We cut this recipe in half for one tenderloin
For Spice Rub:

2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pork tenderloins (2 1/4 – 2 1/2 pound total) trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
For Glaze:
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (this is half of the sugar called for in the original recipe, which seemed 
excessive – you can certainly use the full amount (1 cup for 2 tenderloins) if you like!)
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon Tabasco
Prepare the Pork:
Stir together salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Coat pork with spice rub.
Heat oil in an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until just beginning to smoke. Brown pork, turning occasionally, about 4 minutes total. Remove from heat; leave pork in skillet, or transfer to baking sheet.
Make the Glaze and Roast the Pork:
Stir together brown sugar, garlic and Tabasco in a small bowl. Pat the mixture on top of the tenderloins.
Place the skillet in the oven at 350 degrees. Roast until thermometer inserted diagonally into the center of each tenderloin registers 140 degrees, about 20 minutes. Let pork stand in skillet, loosely covered with foil for 10 minutes.

Fish Taco with Spice Rub and Yellow Pepper Pesto

adapted from OurlifeinFood, originally from Bobby Flay

You can use any sort of white fish you like – I used US farmed Tilapia, as it’s inexpensive and easy to work with
For the Rub:
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon ancho chili powder (I don’t know what kind of chili powder mine is)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon chile de arbol powder (or pinch of cayenne)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

For the Yellow Pepper Cilantro Pesto (might even be better with red peppers) You could cut this recipe in 1/2 unless you’d like to use it for something else or freeze it:
2 yellow bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded (we do ours on the grill, tuning over often until blackened and softened. Then wrap in paper towel and leave them be for 15 or more minutes, and skin rubs right off with the paper towel.)

front pepper has been peeled already

1 large clove garlic
2 tablespoons pine nuts (hmm – wonder how pepitas would be)
1 cup cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
For the fish:
2 tilapia filets
Extra virgin olive oil
Cilantro leaves, for garnish, as well as some feta or cojita cheese and a squeeze of lime
1. Combine all of the rub ingredients in a bowl, and set aside.
2. Place the peppers, garlic, pine nuts, cilantro, and cheese in a food processor, and process until combined. Drizzle in as much olive oil as necessary to make the pesto as creamy as you’d like. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Rub each filet with the seasoning mixture. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a saute pan, enough to lightly coat the bottom. Saute until the fish flakes easily with a fork, approximately 5 minutes per side.

4. Top each filet with some of the pesto, and garnish with cilantro leaves, feta, lime juice, sour cream and any other toppings you like.
We heated corn tortillas in a hot cast iron pan until soft and pliable.

Coconut Shrimp

Recipe by Jaden Hair in “The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook”

This recipe came out with surprisingly subtle flavors but very nice (and easy.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon sugar (omit if you are using sweetened shredded coconut)
1 tb. high-heat cooking oil
1 lb. raw tail-on shrimp, deveined and patted really dry
2 tb. butter
4 green onions (scallions), cut into 2-in lengths
1 tb. finely minced garlic
3 tb. cognac (brandy or rum make good substitutes)
Gererous pinch of salt

Directions:
1. In a wok or frying pan over medium heat, add the coconut and toast until golden brown.  This should only take about 3-4 minutes.  Take care not to burn the coconut!  Once the coconut is toasted, immediately remove to a plate to cool.
2.Wipe the wok or pan dry and set over high heat.  When a bead of water instantly sizzles and evaporates upon contact, add the oil and swirl to coat.  Add the shrimp to the wok keeping them in a single layer.  Fry for 1 minute, flip and fry an additional minute until almost cooked through.  Remove from the wok, keeping as much oil in the wok as possible.
3.Turn the heat to medium, add the butter and, once the butter starts bubbling, add the green onion and garlic.  Fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Pour in the cognac and add the salt and sugar.  Stir and return the shrimp to the wok.  Let the whole thing bubble and thicken just a bit-the sauce should lightly coat the shrimp.  Remove from the heat, sprinkle in the toasted coconut and toss well.

Brown Rice with Black Beans and Cilantro

(adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

This is a nice simple comfort food type of dish. Needs all of its garnishes to be really good, but when they’re there, it’s great.

Serves 4 to 6
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1 green or red bell pepper or combo of both, chopped fine
1-2 tsp cumin (can also add a tsp chili powder if you like, or of epazote or other mexican type seasonings to taste). or not.
3 garlic cloves, minced
low-sodium chicken broth
 or veg broth
1½ cups brown rice, long-grain
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup corn (frozen or off the cob)
1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 lime, cut into wedges
Cook brown rice in broth and/or water with the measurements you usually use or according to package directions. You can do this ahead of time if you like and store in the fridge for a fast worknight dinner. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds.
Add rice and corn and heat through. (the order doesn’t matter much, as long as it all gets heated up. My rice was hot so I put in all the other stuff first to make sure it was hot.  Looks like a party in the pot:

Stir in beans, and replace lid; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro and black pepper. Serve, topped with avocado, sour cream, and with a wedge of lime squeezed over the top. A spoonful of salsa might be a good add in as well, or some crumbled feta, or some minced pickled jalapenos, etc.