Monday, June 24, 2013

Pasta with Caramelized Onions and Bitter Greens

One thing I really hate is when I buy fancy produce from the farmer's market and it goes bad in the fridge. Somehow if regular produce goes bad I usually just shrug and throw it away, but seeing fancy produce all brown and rotten... it gets me. SO today we had a bunch of mustard greens that needed to be used up. I found this recipe from my pal Martha Stewart and decided to give it a try.

I don't believe I have ever caramelized onions before today. It isn't that difficult and the result is so delicious! This recipe tasted sort of like onion soup pasta. Next time I might try to add some kind of herb or something to it for a bit more complicated flavor. But definitely a recipe to save and try again.

Pasta with Caramelized Onions and Bitter Greens 




Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 medium onions, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rings
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 4 cups chicken broth, veggie broth, or water
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 pound fettuccine (I used farfalle and it was fine)
  • 1 head chicory (curly endive), mustard greens, kale, or arugula, washed, with tough ribs removed and leaves torn into pieces

    Directions

  • Step 1

    Heat oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and sugar and cook, stirring once or twice, until well browned, about 10 minutes. Turn heat to low; continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft, about 10 minutes.
  • Step 2

    Remove half the onions and set aside. Add broth or water to the pan and bring to a boil. Cook over high heat, scraping bottom of pan, for 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    Step 3

    Cook pasta in boiling salted water until a little underdone, and drain. Add to broth; simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Add greens; cook, covered, until wilted, about 1 minute. Stir in additional tablespoon of butter, if desired. Divide among 4 shallow bowls, garnish with reserved onions, and serve
Next time it might be nice to try adding in bay leaves and thyme....

Friday, June 21, 2013

How the Tropizenne turned out

I know all of my avid readers are waiting with baited breath to find out how the Tropizenne, the fancy French dessert I was planning to make for a dinner party a couple months ago turned out.

Well this is how I had imagined it would turn out:


Note the delicious brioche bread, perfectly luscious pastry cream, with chunky sugar on top. MMMM.


To make a long story short, this is how my tropizenne actually turned out:



















Turns out I should have been way more worried about the pastry cream than about the brioche, but live and learn. I had the pastry cream leaking out all over the place, and I had a pot luck to attend in about 20 minutes! So what did I do?
























Make trifle! What I did was demolish the tropizenne and added in layers of whip cream and raspberries. It tasted so good and I think everyone at the party loved it. I sure did!

Moral of the story: There's nothing a little whip cream and raspberries won't fix.