Greek pasta salad [porter]

Greek pasta salad

To give full credit, I subscribe to a twice-weekly recipe newsletter from PureWow.  Usually I don't have good applications for these recipes because they are designed to impress friends at a dinner party (read: strawberry soup), and often times they call for expensive or rare ingredients.  Just when I thought I might unsubscribe, this Greek pasta salad popped into my inbox.  With relatively attainable ingredients and a prep time that fits into my schedule, I gave it a shot.  The grocery bill came out a bit steep (about $25 for the ingredients I didn't already have), but it fed 2 mouths last night and probably will make 3-4 more individual meals this week (fantastic leftovers for lunch!).  That math comes out to about $4 per meal per person...not too shabby.

Adopted from Susie Middleton's The Fresh & Green Table
Ingredients:
1/4 c olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
zest from one lemon
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dried dill (optional)
1 tsp salt, divided
pepper to taste
1 sm red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 can or jar of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (can use whole can...I wanted left over artichoke)
1 pint small grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 c pitted kalamata olives, quartered lengthwise
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped and divided (dried will probably work, but the fresh was delicious)
12oz fusilli pasta (any curly pasta works)
5 handfuls of spinach
1/3 c chopped walnuts
12 small pepperoncini, drained and thickly sliced

The how to:
Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, lemon zest, honey, dill, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

Add red onion, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, olives, feta, and 1 tbsp oregano. Stir to coat ingredients and let sit for about 20 min.  Prepare pasta according to package instructions.  Right before pasta is done, add spinach, walnuts, and pepperoncini to the top of the large bowl (do not mix in).  Drain the pasta and pour on top of the ingredients in the large bowl.  Add remaining salt and oregano.  The heat from the pasta will slightly wilt/cook the spinach.  After 2 min, stir spinach and pasta to evenly incorporate and coat in dressing.

Side notes:
The original recipe called for some tapenade in the dressing, but since Fiance doesn't like olives that much, I left it out (I figured he could pick out the whole olives if inclined).  The first 8 ingredients make a great salad dressing on their own.    For the remaining ingredients, you can increase, decrease, or omit based on your tastes.  For example, I only used half of the artichoke hearts recommended in the original recipe because I hope Fiance and I will make chicken and artichoke pizza with the remainder.  I didn't think of it until I left the grocery, but cucumber might be a nice addition to this salad.  I also used more pasta than the original recipe because I wanted to make sure this made multiple meals.  Zesting the lemon and not using the juice seemed like a waste, so we made gin and tonics with the juice from half a lemon in each.  The gin competed a bit with the balsamic in the recipe so I'd make this a before dinner or an after dinner drink.  Lastly, we added sliced peppered salami to serve because the Fiance doesn't like to call it a main dish if there isn't protein.

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killer mac and cheese [porter]

All I can say is yummm!  This macaroni and cheese is creamy, flavorful, and ready to be morphed into what ever you want it to be.  This is not a substitute for the ease and childhood satisfaction of the blue box, but this down-home-cooking variation is sure to fill a craving for comfort food.

Ingredients:
Makes 3 entree servings or 4 side dish servings
3 cups medium pasta shells (size small works too)
3 3/4 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (freshly shredded is best)
1 tsp salt
3 strips of peppered bacon (if not hearty slices, go for 4 strips)
1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely sliced and diced

The how to:
In a medium size pot, add pasta and milk together and heat to just before boiling.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom.  Try not the let the milk boil.  Meanwhile (and you'll have to multitask because you are still stirring the pot frequently), fry the bacon on medium in a separate pan.  Remove bacon and dry on a paper-towel lined plate.  Drain most, not all, of the bacon grease from the pan and add diced serrano to fry over medium-low heat for 2 minutes.  Once the pasta is cooked, remove from heat and stir in the shredded cheese and salt.  When fully incorporated, tear cooled bacon into dime sized pieces and stir into pasta along with the serrano. 

Side notes:
If not using pepper bacon, be sure to add some coarsely ground pepper for a similar taste.  The serrano pepper is not too spicy in this dish, especially when very thinly sliced and chopped it disperses well in the cheese.  However, if you do not like spicy foods, substitute with a less spicy jalapeno or skip altogether and try some yellow mustard for some flavor.  For a more true-to-the-name mac and cheese, hold the bacon and serrano and add a few grates of nutmeg and white pepper.  I'd love to hear any other versions that you come up with!

Editor's note: I had a layer of burned milk at the bottom of my pot that was not coming off with a normal scrubbing effort after soaking.  Letting the pot soak for 3 min with hot water, dish soap and 1/4 white vinegar helped it come off relatively easily with a light scrub.  If this isn't your thing, boil the pasta in water according to package directions, drain, then add 1-2 cups of milk and other ingredients.  Adjust milk amounts to preferred consistency of sauce.

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salmon with mustard and ginger soy sauce [porter]

Alaskan sockeye salmon with soy-mustard-ginger sauce

I am on a major health kick this week.  Fiance and I took a Memorial day trip to New York City and dined our little hearts out on bagels, egg sandwiches, pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, Patsy's pizza, Italian tasting menus, and exquisite Japanese food from Morimoto.  Now it's time to recover and put healthy food back in the system.  Having decided on fish as the main course for dinner last night, I could not pass up the wild caught Alaskan sockeye salmon that was being freshly laid out behind the seafood counter.  It was just so red.  I did what I typically do for weeknight meals: threw a bunch of stuff together that sounded good.  Here is the end result...it takes less than 20 min and it's not too shabby if I do say so my self.

Ingredients (serves 2):
12 oz salmon, with or without skin (wild caught Alaskan is best and here is why)
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp lemon pepper
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp grated or minced ginger
optional:
2 tsp ground flaxseed
1 lemon

The how to:
Place the top rack of your oven about 10 inches from the top.  Set the oven to broil and place pan on the top rack to preheat.  A cast iron pan or other oven safe pan is recommended, but I don't have these so I used my thickest baking sheet (foil lined for easy clean up) that would retain heat the best.  While the pan is heating, sprinkle the garlic salt and then the lemon pepper on the top of the salmon (the non-skin side if applicable).  These amounts should be to your taste, but I like an even thin layer of this 2:1 ratio.  Remove the pan from the oven (use a hot pad!) and place the salmon skin side down on the pan and replace on the top shelf of the oven.  Broil the salmon for 7 min.  The salmon will cook on both sides from the pan and the broiler so you do not need to turn.  I checked mine at 7 min, but the thickness of this filet took 1-3 min longer.  The fish should flake easily and still be pink (not red) in the middle when done.  While broiling, combine the remaining  ingredients (including flax seed if applicable) in a small bowl.  Remove the fish from the oven and top with a thin layer of this soy-mustard-ginger mixture.  Let rest for 5 min to let mixture sink in.  Serve with optional half lemon on each plate and see additional serving suggestions below.

Side notes:
I served this on a bed of mixed greens with very thinly sliced (more like shaved) white onion and green bell pepper.  I kept it pretty basic to feature the salmon instead of feeling like it was a salad with salmon on top.  I used the left over topping I had and mixed in ponzu, honey and a little splash of yellow mustard and used to lightly dress the greens.  I also served a small portion of roasted broccoli - it was hard to resist when I already had the oven on high heat and broccoli in my fridge.

Now that's all out of the way, I want to share why this dish is so healthy.  You can click on any of the links in the ingredient list to see more in depth information from World's Healthiest Foods (a non-profit organization dedicated to making the world a healthier place).  The salmon in this dish (6 oz per serving) provides roughly 75% of the daily recommended need of omega-3's while the flax seed and mustard help to supplement this dish to provide roughly 100% of this important requirement.  Eating a meal of this nature as little as once per week can have significant heart-health benefits.  Also, ginger, flaxseed, and mustard (and possibly soy sauce - more research needed) all offer anti-inflammatory benefits.  Lastly, lemon and ginger offer immune-system-boosting effects, which is excellent for Fiance who caught a cold near the end of our trip.

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polish sausage [porter]

Kielbasa (polish sausage) at the Dallas Farmers Market

This not so little number is from the Dallas Farmers Market. There is a little meat market inside called Old World Sausage Company that produces this delicious polish sausage on a bun with mustard, horseradish sauce, and sauerkraut with pickles on the side. So simple and sooo yummy.  Each accompanying component should be available at your local grocery, but the star of the dish, polish sausage, may be a little hard to find depending on where you live and your caliber of grocery stores.  If you can find it...great; if not, don't fret!  The steps to making sausage are not as difficult as you might think (it can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be).  For those of you that cannot find polish sausage at your grocer, just want to go the extra mile and say "I made that!" or impress your Polish loved one (here's to you sister-in-law!), below is a recipe for polish sausage.

Polish Sausage
(adopted from lets-make-sausage.com and food.com)
Ingredients:
5 lbs Ground pork butt - not too lean (try to find about 80%)
8 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp salt (4 tsp if kosher salt)
1 tbsp fine ground pepper
2 tsp dried majoram
1 tsp sugar
1 cup iced water
natural casing - soaked for 1-2 hours in warm water
    (collagen casing okay, but get butcher string to tie off links, need vegetable oil to lubricate stuffing tube, and soaking is not necessary)
sausage stuffer
Optional:
1 tbsp ground mustard seed
1 tsp liquid smoke

The how to:
 If not bought ground, grind the pork butt using the medium setting on a meat grinder.  Press, crush (using flat side of knife), or finely mince garlic cloves (process listed in order of preference).  Mix all seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl and add to ice water.  Add liquid smoke to ice water if applicable.  Pour ice water and seasonings into ground sausage and mix thoroughly.  Fill casings with pork mixture using a sausage stuffer.  To stuff, lubricate the stuffing tube with water for natural casings or vegetable oil for collagen casings, slide the casing onto the tube, and scrunch up until just an inch or two of the casing remains.  Tie this end before stuffing.  If using natural casing, twist filled casing in sections to create links.  If using collagen casing, tie off links using butcher string -- tie two knots between links and cut links between knots.  Uncooked links will store for 3 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer (in freezer Ziplock bags).  To cook, boil, covered,  in water or beer for 10 minutes and then grill or cook in a dry, lightly greased pan for 2-3 minutes a side to finish off and get lightly browned sides.  Serve on a big bun with yellow or spicy mustard, horseradish sauce (to make at home combine prepared horseradish and mayonnaise to taste), sauerkraut, and a crisp dill pickle.

Side notes:
Sausage is called "fresh" if it is not smoked.  Homemade fresh sausage does not include nitrates, which are often attributed to cancer.  If you want to smoke your sausage, cure your sausage and follow the instructions here.  Smoking the sausage will give it a darker appearance.  Natural casings provide a better mouth feel when you bite into the sausage (think of the "pop" feel).  Remember to soak and rinse natural casings according to the package to avoid splitting of the casings.  Collagen casings seem easier to find, but you still may have to order it.  I have wanted to try to add a bit of paprika to see how that tastes; experiment with different spices and let me know how it goes!

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