KarmaFree Cooking

Archive | 2008

You Make My Day Award

I have been graced by having 2 friends and fellow bloggers name me within their You Make My Day Award list. The first time it happened caught me completely off-guard… It was Bonnie at Weaving Spirit. And again, this week my friend Kathleen from Kathleen’s Vegetarian Kitchen also named me as someone who “makes her day”. And this latter one is very special, because it was Kathleen who inspired me to start this blogging adventure about a year ago.

So I feel the need to reciprocate… to share with you a list of the blogs and online places out there that Make My Day, in addition to my friends mentioned above:

Serious Eats – I can’t remember how I learned about this website, but I do remember I had something to do with Mario Batali. I love Serious Eats because it’s a one-stop shop on the celebration and enthusiasm of food thru blogs and other content providers. I personally love the Talk section because it provides a forum to ask, answer, vent and celebrate anything food-related. It’s awesome!!
Tastespotting– I also visit this site almost daily… It’s food photography at its best. I have learned and found so much inspiration from the people who post here…

And who are these people I have met thanks to Tastespotting…

101 cookbooks – Heidi is a vegetarian who takes the most wonderful pictures of what she cooks. The premise of her blog was to go thru the recipes of all the cookbooks she had been collecting over the years. I wish I had a table or butcher’s block like hers… it makes for a very elegant background for her pictures.
herbivoracious – Michael is a vegetarian who took a sabbatical from his engineering job to work as an apprentice in Cafe Flora in Seattle. He inspires me to take chances and to follow one’s dream and passion and see where that leads.
Paola at Mijn Zoete Leven – I have no idea what the title is, but Paola is a Colombian living in the Netherlands. She has developed a home business out of her “small but very well-equipped kitchen” in Almere.
Daring Bakers – After seeing photo after scrumptious photo of lemon meringue pies back in January, I decided to join this group of fellow bloggers who every month we get together, in heart and spirit, to bake the same recipe. I have only completed one challenge so far and have loved every minute of it.

And last, but not least, my teachers in the culinary world – Martha Stewart and Food Network, which are my food and recipe encyclopedias. I refer to them everytime I see a great recipe on TV, which is almost everyday.

And also a special mention to Kimberly – she is a vegetarian living in Iowa and even though her blog is not food-related, I enjoy very much our email conversation about recipes, ingredients and the vegetarian lifestyle in general… She’s a KarmaFree Cooking fan and I appreciate her very much for that.

Comments 2 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL

Top Chef Pasta – Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

13 Mar

I love Top Chef… I have been a fan since its 1st season.

But being a fan of the TV show, I don’t understand why is it that I have never bought an issue of Food & Wine magazine, one of the show premier sponsors. Not even to read the feature article on the winners, which is part of the main prize package. So last month I bought my first and only Food & Wine magazine to see what is it all about. The main thing that attracted me to it was it had a feature on fast, hearty pastas… my weakness.

So in honor of Top Chef Chicago’s premier last night… I decided to try out my first Food & Wine recipe – Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. The original recipe called for spaghetti, but, as you will see, it works with any noodle in my opinion. I was hungry and had all the ingredients in my fridge, so “manos a la obra”…

BUCATINI with SPINACH, TOMATOES and GOAT CHEESE

Adapted from the Food & Wine Magazine February 2008 issue

1/4 lbs bucatini or whole-wheat spaghetti

2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, sliced thinly

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved (about 6-7 grape tomatoes)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino romano or Parmesan cheese

2 ounces of fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Pinch of crushed red pepper -optional

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until it is al dente. Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.
Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper, if using. Cook over moderate heat until the garlic is tender, about 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes begin to release their juices, about 2 minutes.
Add the spinach and cook until wilted about 2 minutes.
To the skillet with the tomatoes and spinach, add the pasta, the reserved pasta water and the grated pecorino cheese. Toss over low heat until the pasta is coated with the sauce. Season again with salt and pepper.
Add the goat cheese and toss gently.
Transfer the pasta to shallow bowls and serve adding extra grated cheese if desired.

This was an awesome pasta dish. Worthy of serving when company comes around, but easy enough to do any week-night.

Top Chef Chicago was super cool last night. I still have not formed an opinion on who’s my favorite. I guess Sam Talbot from Season 2 will always be My personal favorite. In the meantime, I will continue trying Food & Wine’s awesome pasta selections… one down, 3-4 more to go. Mmmmm!!

Tags: baby spinach, Goat Cheese, grape tomatoes

Comments 5 Comments
Categories main courses

Wash your Produce

10 Mar

I can’t stress enough the importance of washing well all your produce before eating it or using it in your cooking. The produce you buy has passed soooooo many hands between being picked in the field until you get it home – and that does not count all the dirt, smog, wax, pesticides and insecticides sprayed over them.

I fully advocate washing well all produce before using it or consuming it – even if you’re peeling it.

In the yoga center I attend, we need to peel most produce before using it, especially those vegetables that have wax sprayed on – apples, pears, cucumbers, tomatoes, grapes (yeah, not nice and very time consuming when we need to make a fruit salad), oranges, peppers, etc.

To make my life easier at home and to preserve the nutrients and fiber in the peel of produce, I use a product I learned about when I worked at Procter & Gamble called FIT.

Fit is a solution made from natural ingredients designed to take most of the dirt and wax of the produce we use. I buy it in my neighborhood health food store and I find that it takes the entire waxy residue off the tomatoes, cucumbers, pears, etc. It also helps clean my lettuces, spinach, or any leafy green.

I use the little sprayer for individual items and I soak for anything that’s larger or leafy, like leeks, lettuces, cabbages, herbs, etc.

I am not a scientist, but I like that their ingredient label states natural sources for their ingredients. I no longer work at P&G, and they licensed the name to another manufacturing company, but I still feel Fit is a great product that helps me eat produce more naturally without the added toxins on the produce’s skin.

Tags: Fit

Comments 2 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL

Roasted Pears – A Deux

7 Mar

I am on a pear thing… it started because I wanted to do a pear butter, ~~which I have not gotten around to do~~. But I learned to make last year these poached pears and I decided to take the pear desserts a few steps further.

This recipe is even simpler than the Poached Pears I posted recently… less ingredients always scream easier to me. The basic recipe for these roasted pears was given to me by Diane Carlson, as part of the Conscious Gourmet retreat I attended. I decided to try some embellishments of my own and they ended up being really good combinations… check them out. I love the first photo – my pear had a belly button – sooooo cute!!

Let’s start with roasting the pears…

ROASTED PEARS

2 Bartlett pears – ripe but firm

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 1/2 tbs maple syrup

Pre-heat oven to 450F.
Peel and cut the pears in half, vertically. Core them using a melon baller – it’s the best tool for this.
Place pears cut side down on a glass casserole dish and drizzle the maple syrup and lemon juice. I rub the pears a bit trying them to be coated all over with the syrup/lemon juice liquid.
Roast in oven for about 45 minutes. I noticed that if pears are nicely ripen, the time can be cut to 25-30 minutes. Just roast them until they’re cooked but still have their shape.

I think 1/2 to 1 whole pear per person is a fine portion – so feel free to double, triple or cuadruple this recipe as you need.

Now we play with the accompaniments…

ROASTED PEARS with ALMOND PRALINE

Serve the roasted pears with the sauce the maple syrup created in the baking dish.
Sprinkle Almond Praline around it.
Note: the almond praline does not need to look this dark… I walked away from the kitchen and had to live with the consequences.

ROASTED PEARS with BLUE CHEESE and HAZELNUT PRALINE

Serve the roasted pears cut side up and in the indentation place some crumbled mild blue cheese. I used this cheese…
Drizzle some of the sauce created by the maple syrup and sprinkle some Hazelnut Praline on the side.

This version also is screaming to be served for company… it tasted as if I was eating in a restaurant. Scrumptious… Need proof??

Tags: almonds, blue cheese, hazelnuts, maple syrup, pear

Comments 2 Comments
Categories desserts

Hazelnut Praline

7 Mar

I have been meaning to share with you some desserts, but I wanted to make them with Almonds. Every-time I go to the market, I forget to buy them. If I don’t write it, I will never remember it.

Then the other day I was reorganizing my fridge (in preparation to my upcoming trip to Costco) and I found along lost bag of shelled hazelnuts. My dear mom helped me shell these hazelnuts I bought before Xmas and I never got to eat and they were sitting, very unassumingly, in this ziplock bag in the back of my fridge… how about Hazelnut Praline!!! I am sure it will taste fantastic too. It did…

HAZELNUT PRALINE

1/2 cup shelled hazelnuts

1 tbs maple sugar

1 1/2 tbs maple syrup

I like to start with peeled hazelnuts. I think the taste of the nut comes across better when the little skin is taken off. So to do this with hazelnuts, I roasted them for a little while in a 350F oven for about 10 minutes. They’ll start to smell a bit.
Then place them in a clean kitchen towel and scrub them all together. Most of the skins will come off. Some I had to peel a bit of my hands. Wait a bit until the nuts cool down some. You don’t need to get your fingers burned.
Cut the hazelnuts in a smaller pieces. I used a serrated knife and it worked very well. The nuts did not fly all across the cutting board.
Mix the nuts in a medium bowl with the maple syrup and maple sugar. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 350F oven for about 12 minutes. I try not to leave the kitchen because nuts tend to burn fast and remember, you may have already roasted them a bit already to skin them.
When they’re done, they’ll smell really sweet and nutty delicious.
Be careful taking them out of the oven, but transfer then to a metal dish right away to help them cool off. I sometimes put the nuts in the fridge to help keep them away from the humidity we always have here in PR.

Snap the nuts loose and eat them alone as a snack or sprinkle them over your favorite dessert. I particularly enjoyed them today with my Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese.