Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini Sandwich September 12, 2009

In my CSA box we’ve been receiving many eggplants and zucchini… why not combine them both in one of my favorite applications? A SANDWICH!!!

Super simple, super tasty and travels really well…

  

GRILLED EGGPLANT AND ZUCCHINI SANDWICH

1 small Japanese or Italian eggplant

1 small zucchini or summer squash

2 oz of goat cheese, at room temperature works best

A handful of arugula lettuce – washed well and pat dry

Extra virgin Olive oil

Sea salt and Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

1 whole-wheat whole grain demi baguette

 

1. Preheat your grill – I use my George Foreman grill for this…
2. Slice the eggplant and the zucchini in ¼ inch slices.  Brush with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.  Place on the grill for about 4-5 minutes to cook and get pretty grill marks.
3. In the meantime, slice the baguette in top and bottom halves and toast in a toaster oven.  Slather both sides of bread with goat cheese.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil and sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper to season cheese.
4. Remove the eggplant and zucchini slices from grill and let cool down a bit.  Place on bottom half of bread.  Add lettuce on top of grilled veggies.  Season lettuce with a bit of sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.  Top with top half of bread.

 

Simple, yet very tasty and nutritious.   You could add some tomatoes or even some roasted red peppers or roasted piquillo peppers too.

Goat Cheese Tapa July 27, 2009

This was supposed to be part of my Spanish Delicacies series celebrating the Encierros de San Fermín… but I got too busy to write this post.  Unfortunately, my mom fractured her arm last weekend and I have nurse duties on top of all my regular work and blog work.

I LOOOOOVE this tapa… I always order it when I visit my favorite Spanish restaurant in Chicago, Café Ibérico.  When I was in Grad school, we used to go to Café Ibérico after our Latin parties almost once a month.  At the time I was not vegetarian and still this was one of my favorites.  But I have to admit, it was not something I saw frequently during my trip to Spain.  I am not certain what region it originated, but it’s definitely delicious.  Testament that the best dishes are usually the simplest…

 

 

 GOAT CHEESE TAPA

3oz of goat cheese, keep refrigerated until ready to use

2 peeled plum San Marzano tomatoes from a jar – you could also use a tomato puree or tomato passata for this

A drizzle of Spanish olive oil, plus more for bread

Salt and Pepper to taste

½ French whole-wheat baguette, sliced on a bias

 

1. Take the bread slices, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper and toast in a toaster oven.  Set aside.
2. Place the tomato in a food processor and pulse a few times until you get a puree.  If you’re using the puree or passata you can totally skip this step.
3. Place the tomato puree in a small bowl and season with some sea salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  Mix well and place in a large ramekin dish.
4. Cut a 3oz piece of goat cheese and place in the middle of the ramekin on top of the seasoned tomato puree.  You can drizzle a bit more olive oil on top of cheese to help it get a golden brown color.
5. Place in a 350 – 400F oven for about 15 minutes to cook a bit the tomato and warm up the cheese.

Plate the ramekin along the bread toasts and enjoy.

Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese Toasts July 1, 2009

I LOVE tomatoes!!!!  I just love them immensely… they might well be my favorite vegetable.  I am stuck between potatoes and tomatoes as my favorite, and I am just realizing that possibly neither of them is actually a vegetable.

Oh well, vegetable or not, I have been receiving way too many tomatoes in my weekly CSA box that I have been finding creative ways to have them.  Although growing up I used to just slice a tomato as a way to add “a salad” to my plate and, to this day, I still do it when I am too lazy to wash lettuces and cut up other salad components.

Something I recently started doing (or stopped doing would be a more accurate expression) is to not place tomatoes in the fridge.  With the temperatures being so hot here in PR, I always believed tomatoes would spoil way too quickly if they were left sitting on a counter.  Well, they eventually can spoil, but you can safely leave them there for a good week and they will be perfect.  The taste of a tomato is definitely better and more intense if it’s left at room temperature.  Apparently there is a component in the tomato that is shuts down its flavor permanently if the tomato is kept in the fridge.

This is a tomato salad made to celebrate the lusciousness of tomatoes… 

 

TOMATO SALAD WTH GOAT CHEESE TOASTS

Tomatoes – organic and local preferably to ensure their freshness and flavor

1 whole-grain demi-baguette, sliced on a bias

Salt/Pepper to taste

Drizzle of olive oil

About 2 oz of goat cheese – left at room temperature for a few minutes

About 1 tbs of Basil/Parsley oil

 

1. Slice tomatoes as you wish – in slices across its equator, pole to pole… however you prefer.
2. Drizzle baguette slices with olive oil, some salt and pepper and toast in a toaster oven until they’re golden around the edges.  Slather them with goat cheese
3. Place sliced/cut tomatoes on a plate.  Drizzle basil/parsley oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.  Place goat cheese toasts on the side…

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart February 27, 2009

I’m sorry for leaving you a bit in the dark for a few weeks…

I was just away on back-to-back trips – one for business to Houston and one for a skiing vacation in Vermont.  During both trips and also the time in between I was so busy I just was not inspired to write…  but I was inspired to eat and cook.  So I collected and photographed a bunch of recipes I made or ate during that period and here you’ll have them all.

This is something I made for lunch a few weeks back.  You know when you learn about a new recipe, something that just entices you in such a way that your mouth salivates… and then you realize that you have ALL the ingredients available at home.  It was a beautiful moment…    This is based on Ina Garten’s recipe for Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts.  I saw it on Food Network and the next day I had it for lunch.

But I have to be completely honest; this recipe has a little bit of not-so-good karma attached to it…  It’s made with refrigerated puff pastry, something I do not use often, but I do from time-to-time and I have never been able to find it in a whole-grain or whole-wheat version.  So, this is a sporadic treat… if any of you is able to find whole wheat puff pastry – let me know where I can get it…

 

TOMATO AND GOAT CHEESE TARTS

1 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted

1 onion, sliced

A drizzle of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

A squirt of apple cider vinegar

The leaves of 2 small sprigs of thyme

3 tbs of Parmesan Cheese, grated

2 ounces of garlic and herb soft goat cheese, crumbled into small pieces

2 slices of the best tomato you can find, the larger the tomato the better

8-10 slivers of Pecorino Romano cheese

Salt and Freshly Cracked Black Pepper to taste

 

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F.  I use my toaster oven for this…
2. Heat a small drizzle of olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic.  Cook for about 10-12 minutes until the onions are soft and cooked, but not browned.  Add salt, pepper the apple cider vinegar, thyme and cook for a few minutes longer until the onions have absorbed the vinegar.
3. While the onions are cooking, prepare the puff pastry.  You need to leave it defrosting in your fridge overnight to be able to handle it now.  Unfold one of the two sheets that come in the package – do this carefully as the pastry can tear easily.  Unfold it onto a lightly floured surface.  With a rolling pin, roll the pastry so yo can fit 2 saucer plates inside it. Using the saucer plate, cut out 2 rounds of pastry, and set onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  I can fit these two in the baking tray of my toaster oven.
4. Using a small paring knife, score the puff pastry rounds with a 1/4″ border.  Prick the inside of the circle border with a fork.  Sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese within the scored circle. 
5. 
6. You will now divide all the remaining ingredients and place within the scored circle of each tart shell…  Place the cooked onions on top of the Parmesan cheese, add the crumbled goat cheese on top of the onions and then place the tomato slice on top of the goat cheese.  Now drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the tomato and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a few extra thyme leaves.  Using a vegetable peeler, slice a few thin slices of Pecorino Romano cheese and place on top of the tomato slice.
7. 
8. Bake in the oven for about 18 minutes.  When you see the puff pastry has a nice, golden color just turn off the oven and leave it inside there for a few minutes.

 

Serve this with a nice green salad for a spectacular, very Provençal  lunch.  This would work great for a gathering with friends because it’s so simple and quick to make. And not to mention DELICIOUS!!!

Fresh Baby Spinach Pasta February 4, 2009

I’ve had this recipe in my Food Network Recipe box for the longest time…  Penne with Spinach Sauce  is a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis that I have found fascinating since I first saw it on TV.

I did this recipe off the top of my head for my French conversation class group, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I actually made it almost the same as the original.  Two of my friends asked me for dish using spinach… so I knew they would enjoy it.  But Katherine is not a spinach fan, and she loved this dish.  She said the goat cheese in the sauce made it for her.  So this can be something to try on your little ones…  Call it Shrek’s pasta.

I used local fresh spinach, with a somewhat larger leaf than the one you get at the supermarket.  Remember to wash your spinach well before using it in this recipe…

 

 

FRESH BABY SPINACH PASTA

¾ pound of whole-wheat pasta – I used penne, but any tubular pasta would do

2 cups of fresh baby spinach leaves, loosely packed, divided

3 ounces of goat cheese

3 ounces of cream cheese

1 small garlic clove, cut in small pieces

2 turns of the food processor of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top to taste

 

1. Boil the pasta in salted boiling water according to packaging directions.
2. Wash and dry well the spinach leaves.  Set aside a small bunch aside and chop.
3. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, add most of the spinach leaves you have not chopped, goat cheese, cream cheese, garlic clove, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Pulse a few times until the mixture becomes a light green paste.
4. When pasta is done, drain well while reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water.
5. Return the pasta to the pot and add the spinach mixture.  Mix well so the sauce loosens with the heat of the pasta and pot.  Add pasta water little by little to loosen the sauce to a creamy consistency.  Add the chopped spinach leaves and the Parmesan cheese and mix well.
6. Sprinkle more Parmesan cheese on top.

 

To reheat this pasta, I added a small amount of milk to a small pot together with the left-over pasta.  I also added a bit of cream cheese and more Parmesan cheese.  The sauce was creamy and delicious again as it was when done originally.

Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread November 24, 2008

I am taking these conversational French classes with my friends… we get together to speak French every week.  We talk about our stuff, all in French.  But we’re disciplined too – we discuss and review grammar, we give ourselves homework and even assign Show and Tell projects.

Our first Show and Tell presentation was about the food of a certain region of France.  I selected the Loire Valley and the Center of France.  I was not sure what I was going to find there, but I was determined to make my presentation vegetarian-friendly.  We had to add a TASTE to the Show and Tell, making it a Show, Tell and Taste…

                    

To my surprise, the Loire Valley is also affectively known as the Garden of France, because of its proliferation of fruits and veggies – apples, pears, plums, mushrooms – porcini, chanterelles, among many other wild varieties. 

                

The Loire Valley is also the heart of goat cheese production in France.  So for my TASTE portion of the presentation, I decided to make this spread as an appetizer, using traditional ingredients from the Loire Valley…

 

 

MUSHROOM AND GOAT CHEESE SPREAD

2 tbs butter

1 small shallot, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

½ pound of button mushrooms, coarsely chopped

4 ounces of goat cheese

2 ounces of cream cheese

1 tbs plain yogurt

2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and Freshly-cracked Pepper to taste

1 whole-wheat baguette, sliced on the bias

 

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter.  Add shallot and garlic and sautee for about 1 minute.  Add the chopped mushrooms.  Cook until the mushrooms begin to soften, about 5-6 minutes.
2. 
3. In the bowl of a food processor, add the goat cheese, cream cheese, yogurt and cooked mushrooms.  Add the oil, salt and pepper.  Pulse a few times to combine. 
4. Toast baguette slices.   Serve spread with baguette toasts at room temperature.

 

The French taste is truly authentic.  I also ate this spread mixed with boiled potatoes.  It’s delicious and versatile.

Goat Cheese Toast June 28, 2008

When my friend Magda told me about 8-9 years ago that her favorite cheese was goat cheese, I felt kind of lost…  Goat Cheese?  How does that taste like?  Is it soft or hard? Tell me more, tell me more…

So I immediately went to the specialty cheese case in my grocery store to see what this goat cheese was all about.  I was instantly HOOKED!!  I could not believe I had been ignoring the specialty cheese section for so long…  Magda opened up my eyes to the delicious variety of cheeses there are and that there’s more to cream cheese than the Philly kind I love so much… to this day.

One of my guilty pleasures on the weekends (and some weekdays too…) is to make myself a Goat Cheese Toast…  crispy, creamy, tangy – One of my perfect snack foods.

 

 

GOAT CHEESE TOASTS

1 whole-wheat baguette

3 oz of soft goat cheese, make sure it’s without animal rennet

Extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher Salt

Freshly-cracked black pepper

 

1. Slice the baguette into 2 halves.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Toast the baguette halves in a 350° F oven for about 5 minutes or just use the toaster setting on your toaster oven.
3. Take the toasts out (careful, they’re hotter because of the oil) and spread the goat cheese on the bread.  Sprinkle a bit more pepper and drizzle a bit more olive oil for the nice cool finished look.

 

Enjoy alone, with a nice chilled glass of pomegranate juice… or fill the two halves with a few slices of fresh tomato, baby spinach and roasted peppers for an awesome sandwich.

Top Chef Pasta – Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese March 13, 2008

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes begin to release their juices, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the spinach and cook until wilted about 2 minutes.

5. 

6. 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. 
7. Add the goat cheese and toss gently.

8. 

9. 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!!

Food for Love – Goat Cheese and Almond Pasta February 14, 2008

It’s Valentine’s Day – the day to celebrate everything and anything romantic…  so why not celebrate by cooking something to stir all your senses, including that aphrodisiac part of you.  Reading about aphrodisiac foods, I was amazed to learn how many of them I have in my pantry and fridge:

Almonds

Sweet Basil

Avocados

Arugula 

Bananas

Strawberries and Raspberries

Nutmeg

So I decided to make something that will contribute to the loving theme of the day using almonds and sweet basil…  I adapted this dish from a Martha Stewart Living magazine.  Enjoy!!

 

GOAT CHEESE AND ALMOND PASTA

1/4 lbs whole wheat pasta -penne, rigatoni or any other tubular pasta would work

Small handful sun-dried tomatoes – the dry ones… not the ones packed in oil

1/3 small log of goat cheese

Small handful toasted almonds – I used marcona almonds

About 10 Fresh Basil leaves, torn or cut in strips

Salt and Pepper to taste

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

1.  Boil pasta in salted water until al dente.  During the last 3 minutes of boiling the pasta, throw in the sun dried tomatoes to rehydrate.
2. Drain the pasta well, reserving some of the pasta cooking water.  Return pasta to the pot.
3. Drizzle pasta with a bit of olive oil.  Add goat cheese in small pieces, basil leaves, pepper and almonds.  Add a bit of the pasta water to create a sauce.  Toss to combine.  Add more water if you feel it’s too dry.
4. Garnish with added almonds on top. 

There are other several recipes I have created for you already that might help you to create romance any day you are in the mood:

Coquito - Nutmeg

Pasta with Marinated Tomatoes - Basil

Arugula-Red Onion Salad - Arugula

Quesadilla Caprese - Basil

Strawberry Banana Smoothie – Strawberries and Bananas

Strawberry Kanten - Strawberry

Baked Pasta and 4 Cheeses – Basil

White Lasagna with Spinach and Almonds - Nutmeg and Almonds