culinary flights of fancy

Home Cooking Adventures in Berkeley Heights

Category Archives: Entrees


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Tagliatelle Pasta with Squash Blossom, Spring Onion, and Ricotta

Delicate squash blossoms are tossed in raw at the very end allowing the residual heat from the cooked pasta to lightly wilt them.

Delicate squash blossoms are tossed in raw at the very end allowing the residual heat from the cooked pasta to lightly wilt them.

Gently toss the squash blossoms into the pasta as they will tear and break very easily.

Gently toss the squash blossoms into the pasta as they will tear and break very easily.

It’s been a while…I hope you are well.  I’m kicking things off with this very summery pasta dish that happens to be both beautiful and simple to make.  It’s pretty delicious as well!  Stay tuned as there’s lots more ahead…I’ve been cooking a lot and am way behind on writing the recipes up for publishing.  I hope to correct that very soon with a slew of new things to keep you busy!  I apologize for the delay.

Squash blossoms are available in markets and farmer’s markets but you have to look for them.  If you go to a farmer’s market, you will likely have to arrive early to find them as they usually go quickly.  As implied by the name, they are simply blossoms found on the plants of summer squash.  They have a delicate squash flavor and are really beautiful.  Unfortunately, as they are delicate, they have a tendency to go bad rather quickly so it’s best to use them the same day you buy them.  Since they do have a more subtle flavor they can take on various flavors rather quickly and can easily be overpowered.  Traditionally, they are often served stuffed with ricotta and delicate, lightly flavored herbs such as parsley and chives.  Sometimes they are steamed or flash sautéed with just a touch of olive oil.  Another very popular thing to do is stuff them as above but then lightly bread them and serve them fried.  I love stuffed squash blossoms but sometimes they are small and since they are delicate, they can fall apart rather easily while attempting to stuff them.  So this is a great recipe to use if you find yourself with small blossoms.  Further, if you are like me, and you just want to make it easy on yourself sometimes, skip stuffing them and simply toss them in some pasta with the same flavor profiles used when stuffing.  This is a fast and easy pasta dish that is great either for a weekday meal or for a more special occasion because no matter how you serve them, they really are striking in their presentation.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon Poached In Vinho Verde with Garlic Scapes

A good piece of fish should really be celebrated by using simple seasoning and cooking methods so that the beauty of the fish shines through!

A good piece of fish should really be celebrated by using simple seasoning and cooking methods so that the beauty of the fish shines through!

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Wild Alaskan Salmon Poached In Vinho Verde with Garlic Scapes:

When you have a beautiful piece of fish, you really don’t need to do a whole lot to it.  Rather, restraint is really the rule of the day so that the subtle flavors really shine.  As such, poaching is a great way to cook a special piece of fish.  There’s no browning, crisping the skin, etc.  It’s just a very simple and fairly quick way to prepare the fish, imparting slight flavors from the poaching liquid but really still keeping things simple.  Here, I chose to poach the salmon in a Vinho Verde and I chose it for a couple of reasons.  First, this type of Portuguese wine is relatively inexpensive, which makes it a great choice to use as a cooking wine.  Secondly, it is a young wine that doesn’t have too much complexity in terms of taste.  It just has a nice straight forward taste that has nice acidity.  It’s easy to drink and, when cooking it adds just enough flavor to a dish without completely overpowering the dish.

Garlic scapes, also called garlic shoots, are pretty great.  They look interesting in that they are bright green and have a curly shape.  They possess a garlic flavor that I think is slightly less dramatic than regular garlic cloves.  Scapes can be found right around this time and for a few more weeks moving forward at farmer’s markets and certain specialty stores.  Here, I kept them whole but you can chop them up as finely or as coarsely as you like and you use them just as you would a regular clove of garlic.  Since they are only available for a few weeks, if you find them, I’d suggest stocking up…they freeze pretty well!  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Roasted Portobello Mushroom with Spinach, Cream Cheese, and Sage

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I thought I would stick with another easy vegetable recipe this week.  Like last week, this recipe is both delicious and easy to make.  It’s versatile as you can play with the flavors, the greens used, etc.  Here, a simple roasted Portobello is stuffed with a mixture of wilted spinach, cream cheese, a few sprigs of fresh sage, and finished with fresh breadcrumbs for texture and crunch.  The entire thing is roasted again until the cream cheese mixture is melted and browned to your liking.  You can serve this as a main course or as a hearty appetizer.  This dish is great served hot, warm, or at room temperature.

PS:  All of these vegetables can be found at your local farmer’s markets and, luckily for us, most if not all area markets are now open.  So, take some time and support local farms!  You not only help the local economy but your taste buds will definitely thank you for the effort.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Risotto Style Einkorn Wheat with Asparagus and Ramps

Highlight the tastes of spring vegetables with grains or pastas that really allow the ingredients to shine!

Highlight the tastes of spring vegetables with grains or pastas that really allow the ingredients to shine!

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My wife and I just started receiving the first deliveries of the season from Just Farmed and the first delivery box contained farm fresh asparagus and ramps.  I am certainly excited to start cooking the warmer weather fruits and vegetables and this simple dish really allows the fresh, green, and delicious vegetables to really take center stage.  If you like great quality produce, you should definitely check out the Just Farmed program as it delivers local produce that’s mainly organic from area farms right to your door.

If you’ve never heard of ramps, they are a wild onion that has both mild onion and garlic flavors and they are found by and large up and down the mid-Atlantic and northern Atlantic states in the Eastern part of the U.S.  So, they truly are a local delicacy.  Further, they are only around for a few weeks during mainly during the early part of spring.  The greens and the whites of the ramp can be used just like a green onion/scallion.  However, since they have such a delicate flavor, it’s really best to use them in dishes where the delicate flavor doesn’t get lost in the dish.  So, think spreads, pastas with light flavored sauces, egg dishes, or flavored into grains such as rice, polenta, etc.

Einkorn wheat is an ancient grain of wheat that is found mainly in Italy.  Since it hasn’t been modified like most modern wheat, it has different taste, chemical, and digestive properties.  For one, it contains less gluten and as such people who want to watch the amount of gluten in their diet should definitely research this grain to see if it can work for them.  It won’t work for everyone and I am not advocating it as a gluten free product by any stretch.  I’m just saying it might be worth further investigation as an option for some.  Anyway, I soak the wheat for several hours up to overnight prior to cooking it.  Supposedly doing so helps with digestion but regardless of that, it certainly cuts down on the time it takes to cook the grain.

Here, I used a quart of light veal stock.  However, you can use chicken or vegetable stock, broth, or just water.  I wouldn’t suggest a heavy beef stock for this as the flavor it pretty strong and we want the spring vegetables to really shine here.  I didn’t add cheese to this dish but grating parmesan into the wheat just prior to serving would be a great addition.  Also, I used a bit of butter to sweat the onions but olive oil would work just as well.  Finally, if you want to add a bit of protein to the dish, fried or poached eggs, chicken, shrimp, beans, or other neutral flavored meats seasoned simply with salt and pepper are all great options.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Mexican Extravaganza: Charred and Fresh Tomato Salsa, Corn and Jalapeno Salsa, Guacamole, and Flour Tortilla Recipes

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Enjoy this post from last year as you decide what to make on this warm New Jersey spring day.  Up next, asparagus and ramps with Einkorn wheat.  Until then…enjoy!

I mentioned in the previous ‘duck breast’ post that we had a bit of Mexican extravaganza on Monday night. By that I mean that I made multiple salsas, guacamole, fresh chopped vegetables, a number of different meats, and homemade tortillas. I made a ground beef traditional ‘Tex-Mex’ taco meat as well as the duck breast and we added the salsas, guacamole, and various other toppings to create our own individualized tacos. In the previous post, I focused on the technique for cooking the duck breast. However I don’t believe I mentioned seasoning and that was really because I only used salt and didn’t even bother to oil the cast iron pan. The duck releases so much oil as it cooks that there’s really no need to do that.

Anyway, I LOVE this type of meal. I’ve mentioned previously that I lived in Texas for a good number of years and every once in a while I crave Mexican food. This is a great time of year to cook Mexican food…fresh fruits and vegetables are in full swing for a couple more weeks and with Mexican food you can use all those tomatoes, ears of corn, peaches, onions, peppers, and virtually anything else that you find at the farmer’s market or the grocery store. The window to enjoy the freshness of these summer treats is closing and closing quickly though. If you start to look at the markets, you’ll start to notice pumpkins, apples, and the like, signaling the arrival of fall fruits and vegetables. So, do this NOW.  More text and recipes for salsas, guacamole, and tortillas after the jump! Continue reading →


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Pan Seared Veal Chop with Fresh Fava Beans and Peas

Veal chop, glazed with a veal stock and white wine reduction, served with a variety of simply prepared spring vegetables.

Veal chop, glazed with a veal stock and white wine reduction, served with a variety of simply prepared spring vegetables.

Cooked and raw vegetables mingle together to create different textures and flavors.

Cooked and raw vegetables mingle together to create different textures and flavors.

Happy spring!  We are finally having a seasonally appropriate week here in Jerz and I am more than happy about it.  I also received the first tomatoes of the new season yesterday.  They are local farm greenhouse tomatoes but they look and smell as they should and they are making me excited about all the produce coming in the near future!

I made this dish for a special occasion to celebrate a milestone with my wife and I wanted to make something that celebrated the season as well.  Veal is almost a perfect meat to go with spring vegetables as the milder flavor doesn’t overpower the more delicate flavors of the spring vegetables.  Here, fresh fava beans and peas take center stage.  The softer textures of those lightly blanched vegetables are balanced out with carrots and green onions that are just cooked through and thinly sliced raw radish adds color and a touch of spiciness.  The whole thing is brought together with just a touch of veal stock and white wine reduction drizzled over the top of the veal chop, creating an almost glaze like glisten and sheen that provides additional depths of flavor with a touch of acidity.

Both fava beans and peas are available right now fresh in the produce section of most grocery stores.  However, if you can’t find them, both can be found in the frozen food section as well.  Simply unthaw them and add them at the end…no need to cook them as they are blanched and then frozen.  So, as long as they are thawed, just toss them in the pan at the end to warm them through for a few seconds.

I found the microgreens used as a garnish at Wegman’s market.  If you can’t find them at your store, chopped Italian parsley would work well too.

The veal chop pictured is pretty large and can easily feed two.  If you have your butcher cut them thick, plan on one chop per two people or adjust as needed.  Recipe and another picture follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Linguini with Green Onions, Lemon, and Pecorino Cheese

Green onions take center stage in this simple pasta dish that celebrates the bounty of spring.

Green onions take center stage in this simple pasta dish that celebrates the bounty of spring.

We don’t eat a whole lot of pasta at our house.  It’s not that we don’t care for it or anything.  In fact, I really like it.  I think my wife is probably a little more ambivalent about it than me but she still likes it fairly well too.  However, the fact remains, we just don’t eat it that often.  I’ve posted a few pasta recipes here and there over the past year but I often feel sort of guilty about it as pasta is really so common, is it really necessary to give yet another pasta recipe?  I don’t know…I go back and forth but here we are discussing a new pasta recipe.  The great thing about pasta is that there are so many approaches and the flavor profiles of individual dishes can range from very complex with lots of ingredients to very simple with just a few.  This dish definitely falls into the latter category and really has just a few ingredients.  I chose linguini because that’s what we had at home, so feel free to adapt and change the type of pasta to suit your tastes and what you have on hand.  I do think that the general linguini, spaghetti, angel hair pasta shape works well with this dish.  I used very large green onions.  In fact, they almost bordered more on the spring onion size.  If you can find spring onions, definitely use those!  However, if you can’t, try to find the largest green onions/scallions that you can for this recipe.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Vegetable Hash with Fresh Cranberry Beans, Greens, Mixed Vegetables, and Lardons

For a heartier dinner, add an egg, either poached or fried, over the top. It will add a nice creaminess to the vegetables.

For a heartier dinner, add an egg, either poached or fried, over the top. It will add a nice creaminess to the vegetables.

Laronds add a nice smoky flavor and a meaty texture to this otherwise vegetable oriented dish. Skip them if you want to keep it completely vegetable based.

Lardons add a nice smoky flavor and a meaty texture to this otherwise vegetable oriented dish. Skip them if you want to keep it completely vegetable based.

A while back I wrote a recipe for corned beef hash that had a number of different vegetables in addition to the usual suspects present in a hash.  In that post, I mentioned that hash is great with just vegetables or almost all vegetables.  Here, hash is lightened up with a mix of potatoes including sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry beans (which are in season right now), Tuscan kale, and a myriad of other vegetables all brought together with a bit of lardons and topped with a fried egg.  This is an easy ‘go-to’ dinner that Tara and I have not too infrequently.  It’s filling and fairly quick as it takes just under an hour or so to pull together.  I didn’t make this with an egg but usually will serve this with either a poached egg or fried egg on top.  I can’t remember why we decided against the egg the night I made this…we probably figured the hash was enough.  However, we love eggs and love eggs for dinner and this dish is a perfect canvas with which to use eggs.  So, it works for us on a number of levels…eggs or not!  Couple all the vegetables with the high fiber and protein of the fresh beans and this dish really packs a lot of nutritional punch.  Really, you can just look at the picture of the dish with all the various colored vegetables and you know it’s at least somewhat good for you.  They say eating the rainbow is the best way to get all of the various nutritional elements needed in your diet.  This dish succeeds in that regard.

If you are wondering what lardons are, it’s simply slab bacon that is sliced thick and then the thick slices are cut into thick matchstick-like shapes.  They are sweated over low heat, releasing the fat from the bacon.  They shouldn’t be overcooked and turned into little bacon bits.  Rather, they should be slightly chewy with some of the fat remaining on the inside while still having an ever so slight crunch on the outside.  They are very tasty and classically, they are used in frisee salads with a poached egg in French cuisine (and in other classic dishes as well).  If you can’t find slab bacon (unsliced), skip it.  There’s not need to use regular bacon here.  Just use grapeseed oil or some other vegetable oil.  Likewise, if you prefer to keep the hash completely vegetable based, just skip the lardons.  It will be great either way.

P.S.- Parboiled means partially boiled and for potatoes, typically that takes between 15-20 minutes.  Bring the water to a boil, place the potatoes in the boiling water and cook 15-20 minutes or until you can put a fork into the potato easy but still meet some resistance in the middle.

Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →


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Roasted Leg of Lamb with Tuscan Herbs and Garlic

Whole leg of lamb just prior to carving.

Whole leg of lamb just prior to carving.

Plated leg of lamb with polenta, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, veal demi-glace, and tomato reduction. Garnished with watercress. Notice the three different pieces and their varying levels of doneness.

Plated leg of lamb with polenta, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, veal demi-glace, and tomato reduction. Garnished with watercress. Notice the three different pieces and their varying levels of doneness.

I don’t absolutely love lamb so I don’t make it very often.  However, Tara really loves it and when my parents visited last weekend, they requested that I make a lamb dish.  So, I opted for roasting a leg of lamb.  It feeds a crowd and is pretty forgiving.  The other bonus is that it produces slices of meat with varying levels of doneness so if you enjoy rare meat, it’s there.  Likewise, if you prefer your lamb on the medium or medium rare side, the leg provides slices at that temperature too.  I think a lot of people might get a bit intimidated with the leg of lamb because of both the size of the meat as well as the perceived time it takes to cook.  The good news here is that it really doesn’t take longer than a traditional roast pork or beef.  I started it at a very high oven temperature and allowed it to cook for about 20 minutes and then lowered the temperature, removed it from the oven, and rubbed it all over with the garlic and herbs before returning it to the oven at a much lower temperature to finish cooking for about an hour.  As it turns out, everyone (myself included) really liked the lamb so I will definitely make it again at some point in the near future.

I paired the lamb with roasted vegetables and polenta and accented that with a veal reduction and tomato reduction and a touch of watercress.  It was very good that way but if you don’t want to make the veal reduction or the tomato reduction, you can certainly skip one or both.  The dish would be delicious without it as well.  Recipe and more pictures after the jump… Continue reading →