Sausage & Potato Pan Roast 

Posted on December 25, 2016 by melsmosaic

Had Supper Club at my place awhile back and it was right before Halloween (yes, catching up on writing many posts). The theme I chose was Orange & Black, meaning that anything people cooked had to contain something of/with those colors. I came across a recipe in Food & Wine, Sausage-and-Potato Pan Roast, that with some slight alterations to the ingredients would fit the theme.

Active: 20 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

2 large red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch wedges
1 large baking potato, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
**for the potatoes overall, I used fingerlings, several medium reds and a sweet (for my orange color)
10 medium unpeeled shallots, halved
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
Kosher salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, cut into 3-inch lengths **I grabbed chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s
One 8-ounce bunch of arugula, stemmed and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Prep

Preheat the oven to 425°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss all of the potatoes with the shallots and the 1/3 cup of olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are lightly browned. Brush the sausage with olive oil and add to the baking sheet. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until the potatoes are tender and the sausage is cooked through.

Transfer everything on the baking sheet to a platter. Fold in the arugula and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and serve.

This stuff was delicious! So easy to make, too. Definitely added this to my default list for recipes to make.

Raw artichoke & herb salad

Posted on December 26, 2015 by melsmosaic

Another one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook recipes I recently made as part of Christmas Eve dinner was the Raw artichoke & herb salad. I took the super easy way out and did canned artichoke hearts though…

Yield: 2 Servings

Ingredients:
2 or 3 large globe artichokes (1 1/2 lb/700 g in total) (used 2-3 cans of artichoke hearts)
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cups/40g arugula
1/2 cup/ 15 g torn mint leaves
1/2 cup/ 15 g torn cilantro leaves
1 oz/ 30 g pecorino toscano or romano cheese, thinly shaved
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Prepare a bowl with water mixed with half of the lemon juice.2. Remove the stem from one artichoke and pull off the tough outer leaves. Once you reach the softer, pale leaves, use a large, sharp knife to cut across the flower so that you are left with the bottom quarter. Use a small, sharp knife to remove the outer layers of the artichoke until the base (or bottom) is exposed. Scrape out the hairy “choke” and put the base in the acidulated water. Discard the rest, then repeat with the other artichokes. Drain the artichokes and pat dry with paper towels. Using a mandoline (or a large, sharp knife), cut the artichokes into paper-thin slices and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Squeeze over the remaining lemon juice, add the olive oil, and toss well to coat. You can leave the artichoke for up to a few hours if you like, at room temperature. (So I just sort of skipped this whole part and simply opened cans of artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed them).

When ready to serve, add the arugula, mint, and cilantro to the artichoke and season with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Toss gently and arrange on serving plates. Garnish with the pecorino shavings.

What a delicious combination of flavors, between all ingredients. Another one that will totally be made again!

Roasted Citrus and Avocado Salad

Posted on May 7, 2015 by melsmosaic

Keep finding recipes I have to try. This one was from the January issue of Bon Appetit but was far too perfect for May — Roasted Citrus and Avocado Salad. Some sweet, some sour, some heavenly avocado…

Ingredients

1 blood or Valencia orange, sliced 1/8″ thick, seeds removed (I can never find either of these…went with Navel)
1 Meyer or regular lemon, sliced 1/8″ thick, seeds removed
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh Meyer or regular lemon juice (I went with bottled)
1 bunch watercress or arugula, thick stems trimmed (love arugula!!!!)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 avocado, cut into wedges

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°. Toss orange and lemon slices with 1 tablespoon oil on a rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper.

Roast citrus, tossing occasionally, until lightly charred in spots and starting to caramelize, 10-15 minutes. This makes the citrus flavor more complex. Let cool.

Meanwhile, combine onion and lemon juice in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper and let sit 5 minutes (onion will soften a bit and get slightly sweeter and less harsh).

Add roasted citrus to bowl with onion along with arugula and mint. Drizzle remaining 3 tablespoons oil over; season with salt and pepper and toss everything to combine and coat.
Add avocado and very gently toss until lightly dressed (you don’t want to crush the avocado). I cut my avocado into a bit more of cubes vs. slices…

This was delicious! I didn’t even add that much olive oil at the end because it was so moist. I served it with some seared sea bass and a nice Sauvignon Blanc. It’s definitely at the top of my list.

Tomato and Arugula Pasta Sauce

Posted on December 24, 2014 by melsmosaic

Got to enjoy a pasta sauce I hadn’t had for awhile the other night. It has tons of veggies and is super simple to make — Spaghetti with Fresh Tomatoes and Rocket (Arugula) or Spaghetti con Pomodori e Rughetta from The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed.

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti

10 oz red ripe plum tomatoes — I use a lot more

4 cloves garlic

2 oz rocket (arugula) — about 1/3 cup chopped — I used about 2-3 times this much

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Salt & Black pepper

Directions:

Skin the tomatoes by first plunging them into boiling water for a few minutes (I have always skipped this step).

Chop finely (I keep them in chunks) and place in a large bowl together with the finely chopped garlic and coarsely chopped rocket (arugula). Add the olive oil and S&P to taste and leave for at least 2 hours.

Post 2-hours:

I was in charge of the sauce…got to enjoy some nice homemade pasta.

Cook the pasta as usual, drain and stir in the sauce.

Arugula, Green Beans and Oranges…oh my!

Posted on June 24, 2014 by melsmosaic

Quick, easy, and tasty…that’s what I want, not only during the summer, but a lot of the time. Cooking Light had a bunch of great, quick & simple recipes in one of their recent issues and I have been trying several of them. They are good! One that I made recently had my favorite lettuce — ARUGULA! Then, green beans and oranges. I also threw some grapefruit in there. The official name of the recipe is Green Bean, Arugula, and Clementine Toss.

Ingredients

2 (8-ounce) packages ready-to-cook fresh haricot verts (aka green beans)
3 cups arugula
2 clementines (I couldn’t find them loose — vs buying a whole box, which is why I used a ‘regular’ orange and then a grapefruit)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 teaspoons rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
(I added pepper, too)

Directions

Steam haricot verts in the microwave according to package directions; halve beans crosswise. Or, steam them on the stove. I also forgot to cut them afterwards.

Cool 5 minutes; toss with arugula, clementine segments, olive oil, vinegar, and salt.

So good and perfect for summer weather! And, gluten and dairy free.

No Recipe Green Sunday Dinner

Posted on March 17, 2014 by melsmosaic

Last night I wanted to make a pre-St. Patrick’s Day dinner, color-wise. I had done an Irish brunch so needed something lighter but wanted a green theme. I assessed what I had in my kitchen and off I went.

Started with some green olives to nibble on while prepping. Then went for some scallops with ginger, garlic and green onions, some Brussels sprouts (with pistachios) and arugula with grapefruit.

The key to the taste of this was some sesame oil!

Put some of that in a pan then added the green onions, garlic and ginger. My kitchen smelled SO good.

Then, I purposely used a big pan to (1) save time and (2) get some of those amazing, drool inducing flavors/tastes into both the scallops and Brussels sprouts.

Wanted to add some (more) tang to my arugula salad so added some grapefruit.

While all this was happening, had some kale chips going — just tore some kale, tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and baked at 400 for 10 minutes. I put the kale on a rack so I don’t have to flip it.

Opened up a red from Italy that I’d had for awhile to serve with dinner — amazing! Osel Ruche.

Final product all around was AMAZING. Plenty of green on the plate — green kale, green arugula, green Brussels sprouts, green pistachios (tossed with them), green onions, green olives for apps. Love just throwing stuff together!

There’s no place like home

Posted on April 8, 2013 by melsmosaic

I have been out and about the past few days and as much as I love it, I have been tapping the heels of my ruby red slippers together to get back to my kitchen.

Tonight I was finally able to do so. With the amazing weather I wanted to make something light and refreshing and one of my favorite salads is Nicoise. But, I love just making spinoffs of it. So, after walking around outside for hours and doing a mental inventory of my kitchen, I stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up the balance of ingredients I needed to make the ideal dinner.

My relaxing night preparing ‘Nicoise’ included making a vinaigrette with:

-Lemon olive oil

-Italian herb vinegar

-Dijon mustard

–Penzey’s Sunset Spices

-Garlic

-S&P

Then, the ingredients for the salad ended up being:

-Arugula

-Pan seared shrimp

-Green beans

-Grape tomatoes

-Artichoke hearts

-Greek olives

-Peanuts

-Generic triscuits on the side

Oh yeah, red wine, too. Had more of what I was enjoying while writing the post about the wine bar in Annapolis — Anakena Pinot Noir from Chile. It’s about $13/bottle in the DC-area.

All in all, delicious and refreshing. Trader Joe’s has great fresh, frozen and canned ingredients. Actually, there is VERY little that isn’t great at TJ’s. I will say, don’t go generic for triscuits, not worth it (I didn’t get the crackers at Trader Joe’s).

Great way to end the week. And tomorrow is Monday, it’s supposed to be in the upper 70s, and work calls. I digress…