TWENTY-EIGHT & TWENTY-NINE : ESCAROLE SALAD

JULY 27 2011


TWENTY-EIGHT : ESCAROLE WITH SLICED RED ONION & WALNUTS
TWENTY-NINE : WALNUT DRESSING


So far, I have really enjoyed all the salads in the Frankies cookbook and this one is no exception. I was a bit concerned at first because all of the ingredients are super intense. A nibble of escarole proved it to be really, really bitter, to the point of almost spitting it out. Add to that 1 cup raw sliced onions, 1 cup raw walnut chunks and 1 cup sliced pecorino romano then toss it all with a raw walnut dressing. Sounds like a mouthful, right?!

walnuts and sliced red onion ready for the salad

TWENTY-SEVEN : HAZELNUT PANNA COTTA

JULY 23 2011

This recipe marked a number of firsts for me: first time using a whole vanilla bean, first time cooking with gelatine and the first time making panna cotta. I must say, it all seemed to go pretty smoothly! First I scraped the insides out of the vanilla bean.

scraped vanilla bean

Then stirred the gelatine into cold water to "soften". It ended up looking kinda weird, but I guess that's probably how it's supposed to look!

softened gelaine

TWENTY-SIX : CHEESE BROTH

JULY 20 2011

First off, you're probably wondering "what the hell is cheese broth?!?" Me too, believe me. It is essentially cheese rind tea that is used in saucing pasta and making polenta. Didn't seem too hard... just simmer pecorino romano or parmesan rinds in water for a few hours, strain and it's done. There are three recipes in Frankies that call for cheese broth so I picked up a few rinds from New Seasons (cheaper than buying 5 wedges of cheese and trying to quickly use it all) and brewed myself a cauldron-full.

cheese rinds ready for the pot

It started off innocently enough and even smelled pleasantly like cooking cheese.

TWENTY-FIVE : GRILLED VEGETABLES

JULY 17 2011

This one is pretty much just like it sounds... slice some veggies and grill them. And it's sooooo good!! In the summer, I regularly toss veggies with olive oil and throw them on the grill until lightly charred. It's the best solution I've found for my annual zucchini overload. So I barely felt like I was following a recipe at all. 

But follow it I did. I tossed 2 sliced eggplants, 2 sliced zucchini, 1 sliced red onion and 2 quartered bell peppers with minced garlic, salt and... wait for it... 1 cup of olive oil (!!).

TWENTY-FOUR : ROMAIN HEARTS W/ CAESAR SALAD DRESSING

JULY 13 2011

You know what I love? Caesar salad!! I was excited to make this one not only because I knew it would be delicious, but also because it was dead easy. Blend together the dressing, toss with romaine hearts and sprinkle with cheese & black pepper. Bam! Done!

So I collected all the dressing ingredients and the lettuce and got to work. Put everything except the lettuce, 1/3 of the cheese and the black pepper into a blender. Puree until smooth. Nice.

Now time to assemble.