We Like To Cook!

Search This Blog

Recipe Index

Have Ziti, Will Travel

Baked ziti falls into the category of comfort food for many Italian families. The hot saucy pasta with melted cheeses promotes deep-felt contentment and the smell fills the kitchen making you feel at home even if you're not. It is a dish that is easy and delicious to make (and take). It can easily be made from scratch or can be assembled from leftover sauce and pasta for a completely different meal. It can be eaten immediately or made ahead and frozen. It makes a wonderful house warming gift, new baby meal delivery, care package for a college student to take back to school, or even pot luck fare. Simply put, this dish is infinitely versatile! This vegetarian version makes use of all the fresh spring vegetables available markets this time of year. Roasting the vegetables gives the pasta a rich, smoky flavor that is a good compliment to the Pomodoro sauce. 1 pound ziti or penne pasta, cooked 3 cups Pomodoro sauce 2-3 cups roasted vegetables of your choice ½ cup mushrooms, saut...

Duritos & Churritos - Laughably Fun Snacks

While at Super H Mart, I nabbed a new food item that really is just fun to make. In fact, I burst into laughter when I made the last batch, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I had seen small bags of these pasta-looking dealies before, but never had a clue how they were to be used. Recently, I stumbled onto a post by our fellow bloggers at Knuckle Salad and couldn’t wait to grab a bag and give them a whirl. They are called pasta para duros (hard paste), a Mexican snack made from wheat flour, corn starch, bicarbonate of soda and food coloring. Uncooked, they are about the size of a quarter, are a reddish-orange color, and they are very hard (which may be why they are called duros after the Spanish word for hard.) Once cooked these little colored wheels puff up to about 2 -3 times their size and have a light, airy consistency similar to cheese puffs without the orange-flavored powder. Others have compared the taste and texture to that of pork rinds . In Mexico, wagon wheel duros...

Technique of the Week: Blackening

The cast iron pan glowed red as the spice-covered snapper hit the pan. Inside the tiny (really tiny) apartment, Dom and I coughed as the napalm-like fumes filled the air while a beautiful brown crust began to form on the outside of the snapper. However, before the fish was fully cooked, the smoke billowed from the open door and window sending neighbors to our rescue and to their phones to dial 911. Yes, it was the age of blackening. Often associated with traditional Cajun cuisine, this technique was popularized by Chef Paul Prudhomme in the early 1980s to duplicate the flavor and style of charcoal grilling in a commercial kitchen. Blackened redfish became so popular that the state of Louisiana imposed a statewide ban on commercial fishing for redfish, in an effort to keep the species from becoming extinct. Blackening is a cooking technique commonly used in the preparation of fish and other protein foods such as steak or chicken cutlets. It is a fairly violent form of cooking that d...

Roasted Elephant Garlic

Watercolor by Sonny Romeo Yesterday, Dekalb Farmer's Market had the freshest, nicest looking elephant garlic we had seen in a while. Many people buy elephant garlic simply because of its size. The bulbs are very large and a single bulb can weigh over a pound with a single clove often as large as a whole bulb of ordinary garlic. Interestingly, elephant garlic is not true garlic, but a cousin of the garden leek. The flavor, which is much more similar to garlic than to leeks, is milder than garlic, but not exactly like garlic. When roasted, elephant garlic is so smooth and mild, you can use as a spread with good crusty bread. Roasting garlic is so easy and so tasty, it makes a simple yet impressive appetizer. I love the way it smells as it is cooking especially on a cold wet day. This is one of Sonny's favorite too! 1-2 heads of garlic 2 Tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt With a very sharp knife, remove just enough of the root end of the garlic bulb to flatten it ...

Low Country Shrimp Salad

Without a doubt shrimp are probably the most popular and valuable of all seafood. Most people think of shrimp as the pinkish-hued crescents served as a cocktail with horseradish-infused ketchup. However, there is tremendous variation among species. According to local sources the finest shrimp are whitish and come up from South America, North Carolina, the Gulf of Mexico and Texas. It's easy to be passionate about these “Low-Country” shrimp. They are considered to be more consistent in quality and flavor. When cooked properly, they are sweet, tender and have the fresh aroma of the sea, with no "fishy" taste or smell. Those who have never eaten wild-caught fresh shrimp before are stunned when they eat them. Shrimp are born in the ocean and are invisible to the naked eye. They ride on top of the waves, inexorably pulled inland to our local marshes, inlets and tidal creeks where they sink to the bottom to feed and grow until they ride out to the ocean again to breed. ...

Powered by Blogger