Using Pantry and Freezer Staples

One of my favorite ways to make use of the food staples I keep laying around my pantry and my freezer is this ravioli recipe. The raviolis are cooked, then tossed in browned butter, and finished in the pan with a splash or two of balsamic vinegar. If you're like me and you love pasta, it makes a great main dish with a side salad, but you can also pair smaller portions with pan-cooked chicken breast marinated in balsamic, fresh rosemary, and olive oil.

Brown Butter and Balsamic Ravioli

1 pkg frozen ravioli (flavor of your choosing)
2 tbsp butter
2 or 3 splashes of balsamic vinegar (this is a good recipe for your run-of-the-mill balsamic from your local grocer. save the good (and pricey) aged balsamic from the specialty store for the side salad)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
freshly cracked black pepper

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the raviolis as directed. Drain the pasta and set aside. Next, you can use the same pot you cooked the raviolis in, washed or not. Melt the butter on medium heat. Whisk frequently and allow to brown slightly. Add the raviolis to the browned butter and coat evenly. Then add a couple of splashes of balsamic vinegar and allow to caramelize, cooking for 2 minutes more or so. Plate the raviolis and top with a generous sprinkling of parmesan and season with pepper to taste.

I enjoyed my ravioli with a lovely summer salad of mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese with an aged balsamic dressing. Refreshing and easy for a warm summer night.

Bon appetit!

Breakfast of Champions...

or at least the pancake-crazy.

To this day, I contend that I am one of the most discerning pancake consumers in the world. I have looked high and low, tasted pancakes in many-a state, and tested a recipe box-full of recipes, all in search of the perfect pancake. And funnily enough, when I would end up being served a chewy, heavy specimen, I would be on the verge of personally offended. Nothing is worse that being served and paying for something you can make better at home.

Indeed, I fancied myself spoiled as I grew up with the pancakes of the Dairy Palace, a local favorite in my hometown. The Dairy Palace, I was convinced, had the best pancakes I'd ever tasted. Unfortunately when I was living in my little town, the Dairy Palace, open 24 hours, only served pancakes from midnight to 11am. As I was not much of a morning person, I found myself visiting the DP with my crew of girlfriends after midnight nearly every weekend! Over the years I had become more and more convinced that I would never find a pancake as good as the ones I was served at the Dairy Palace. I tried. Believe me, I tried.

Finally, thanks to Alton Brown, I may have found it. In addition to producing pancakes that are light and fluffy, this recipe is another time-saver: the dry ingredients can be made in bulk and stored for another morning... or, if you're like me, another late-night pancake craving.

Pancake Mix

6 c all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar

I like to spoon all the ingredients in a large zip-top bag or reusable airtight container for storage and shake to combine.

Pancakes for 2

1 c prepared pancake mix
1 c low-fat buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

Heat the griddle and put some extra butter aside for greasing the pan. Crack the egg in the buttermilk and whisk briskly. Slowly whisk the melted butter into the buttermilk-egg mixture. Next, combine the liquids with the pancake mix in a medium bowl stirring until just incorporated (and I'm sure we all know not to over-stir batters, as it makes the end product tough/chewy).

Once your griddle is cooking, grease it up and drop a 1/3 cup of the mix on. Now's the time to throw on any fresh fruit and/or goodies: blueberries, strawberries, bananas... or chocolate chips, of course. Just drop the extras on top of the uncooked side of the pancake and press lightly with your finger to submerge it in the batter. After 2 minutes or so, flip and in another 1 or 2 minutes, you can move on to the next batch.

As you may be able to see in my picture above, I don't typically put fruit in my pancakes, I just pile it up on the side. And of course ya gotta have a strip of bacon or two... the saltiness of pork just goes so well with maple syrup.

Please to enjoy!

a Quickie

Not like that! Get your mind outta the gutter. ;-)

Last semester was crazy busy for me. I was deep into data collection for my dissertation as well as planning teaching a research methods course and working part-time at UCLA to qualify for tuition remission. I soon realized that due to my packed schedule I regrettably did not have much time to spend in the kitchen. While this realization was an unfortunate one, it got me thinking about how to prepare quick, easy meals without sacrificing freshness, healthfullness, and deliciousness.

Around the same time a dear friend gave me Nancy Silverton's latest cookbook, A Twist of the Wrist: Quick Flavorful Meals with Ingredients from Jars, Cans, Bags, and Boxes. In the book's introduction, Nancy talks about the guilt she felt when she didn't have time to go all out and cook a huge involved dinner. I could relate. I, like Nancy, thought that anything less than "from scratch" was not good enough to feed my family and me. Luckily, my busy schedule and her cookbook helped me see the error in my thinking. Her theory is simple: one can combine a couple store bought, lightly-processed ingredients with other fresh ingredients and end up with a lovely time-saving meal. I was inspired by two recipes for corn soup in her cookbook, which utilized boxed soup, and I came up with this one of my own.

Roasted Corn and Split Pea Soup with Dungeness Crab.

1 quart boxed corn soup (I like Imagine's Organic Creamy Harvest Corn Soup from Whole Foods. The key is to try out a couple different brands until you find one you like. An additional advantage to this particular brand is it is low in sodium, always something to look for when cooking with processed goods).
1 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper
5-8 oz fresh Dungeness crab meat

Heat the soup in a saucepan and add peas. Once the peas have warmed, use an immersion blender to puree the peas into the soup (if you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender works just as well, even if a little messier). Season with salt and pepper. Pour the soup into serving bowls and top with the crab meat.

This meal serves 4 and comes together in less than 15 minutes! And better yet it's easy on the wallet, ringing in at about $4 per serving. The flavor of the corn is refreshing; the peas add an interesting depth to the soup; and the crab meat is a simple delicacy that elevates the soup to entree-worthy.

Enjoy and lemme know what you think!

Pizza Night!

Who doesn't love pizza? I grew up on Pizza Hut and Jerri's Pizza (a local joint in my hometown). The maker of a better pizza was high debated among Cantonites (is that what we call ourselves?). I was always a huge fan of Pizza Hut. What can I say? I like deep dish. But in retrospect Jerri's was a damned good pizza. When I moved to Los Angeles, I couldn't get a good deep dish to save my life. Even the cheese bread sticks via P.H. delivery were sub par. Admittedly, there are a couple of good New York style places, but I sadly found that post-delivery the thin crust was too soggy for my tastes. So, I stopped ordering out pizza altogether.

It dawned on me one day as I was milling around my neighborhood Whole Foods that I could just make my own. So, I sauntered on over to their hot food counter and purchased an order of their pizza dough (apprx. $3.50). I've never had much luck with quick rising yeast, so I like to just purchase fresh dough. Since then, I've tried lots of different pizzas. Caramelized onion pizza (no sauce). Margherita. Pepperoni, of course. This week I found my fave though.

Besides the dough, this beauty was made with stuff I already had in my kitchen. I love that!

Prosciutto and Pepperoni Pizza

1 store-bought pizza dough
6+ slices of prosciutto, ripped into smaller pieces
1/4 lb of sliced pepperoni
1 cup of fresh mozzarella pearls
Parmiganio-Reggiano
For the sauce:
1 can diced tomatoes
6 oz of tomato paste
1/3 c water
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tsp of dried oregano
pinch of sugar
1 clove of garlic, minced
a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Apparently it's best to always work with room temperature dough. I had no idea until I spent one fine evening at Mario Batali & Nancy Silverton's Pizzeria Mozza. We were lucky enough to sit at the "bar," giving us a front row view of the woodfire oven and the lovely, hard-working folks responsible for making the pizzas, assembly-line-style. The dude responsible for "rolling" out the dough was inspiring. He was so cool and calm, almost zen-like, stretching out each dough with his fists right in front of us. I learned a lot that night about rolling out dough, including to work with dough at room temp for easier manipulation.

Back to assembling my pizza. Oven to 450. For the sauce, just combine all the ingredients and mash up the diced tomatoes at bit with a fork. Let it set while you're dealing with your dough. So, after rolling out my dough, I brush it with olive oil to create a nice crisp and brown crust. Then it's pizza assembly time.

I like a lot of sauce, but even after a liberal application of sauce, I had enough for another pizza left over, so I froze it for next time (we'll see how it turns out after being thawed). Then I strategically placed the pepperoni and mozzarella pearls around the dough. Next went the prosciutto, and then I grated a liberal amount of parmesan over the top. I happened to have a really nice sharp sheeps milk gouda in the fridge too, so I just grated some of that on top as well (why not, right?!). After about 18 or so minutes in the oven, we had a homemade pizza that cost way less and tasted way better than delivery.