These days, inspiration in the kitchen has been hard to come by. A long winter probably hasn’t helped, but the promise of spring has me reaching for different cookbooks to read, different flavors to explore and getting myself excited about the food to come.
One of the most inspiring cookbooks whose inspiration is hidden in the simple, straightforward directions and hints, uses normal ingredients and allows you to end up with the most fabulous dinners is The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper.
This Provencal Oven Onion Saute is perfect for an easy, easy dinner that can impress friends as a pasta sauce, or as a bed for a beautiful piece of grilled steelhead trout, or as a topping for a quick homemade pizza, or whirled together with a bit more olive oil as a spread for crusty bread, or a stuffing for baked tomatoes….
See what I mean?
Inspirational!
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift
5 oil packed anchovies
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds, bruised
½ large orange
2/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
4 canned San Marzano tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, all red or a mix of red and sweet yellow, sliced ¼ inch thick
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
Preheat the oven to 450. Cover a large pan with aluminum foil. Slid into the oven to preheat.
In large bowl, mash the anchovies into the balsamic vinegar olive oil and garlic. Shred the zest of the orange into the bowl. Add fennel seeds, olives, tomatoes, onion, salt and pepper and toss with your hands to mix. It’s easier that way.
Spread mixture over the pan and roast, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon over to taste. Let your inspiration guide you!
Serves 3 generously.
Click here for a printable recipe!
One Year Ago on Feeding Groom
Monday, March 30, 2009
Provencal Oven Onion Saute
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Claudia's Osso Buco
I am a huge fan of Osso Buco.
HUGE FAN.
I have made variations of this for years. However, in my entire history of
osso-buco-ing, there is one version that stands out.
In its own field.
And it’s this one from cookeatFret.
You know Claudia, if you don’t, you need to.
This chick can cook.
Especially rustic Italian. Her specialty.
Simple.
Easy.
Legendary.
Follow this recipe to the letter. I did not change one thing. I even served the green beans with it.
You make this, people will talk about it for years.
I know, I made this last year.
They’re still talking.
Claudia's Osso Buco from cookeatFret
veal shank sliced in 2 - 3 inch pieces
2 - 3 T olive oil
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
3 ounces pancetta - finely chopped
6 or 7 anchovies - finely chopped
white wine - 1 cup
veal or chicken stock - about 2 cups
lightly flour the shank pieces and lightly salt and pepper
brown the shanks well on both sides in the olive oil
remove to a plate and set aside
add the pancetta to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes on low to medium heat
add the anchovies for about another 3 minutes and then the garlic for another 2
deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce it down almost all the way
add back the veal and cover the meat halfway with the stock
cover the pan and simmer for 90 minutes
remove the shanks carefully - i didn’t tie mine and they held together just fine
strain the liquid that’s left in the pan (i saved the pancetta pieces for a pizza later in the week)
and then return strained liquid - i had about 2/3 cup - to the pan and add about 2 or 3 T butter to make a sauce.
Serves 2 happy humans!
Click here for a printable recipe!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Green Sauce
Green sauce.
Pretty unenlightened name for such an enlightened sauce.
This is a sauce that is found all over the world.
But, the name.
It doesn’t describe the way it tastes.
Salty, sweet, bitter, fresh.
It doesn’t describe what it does to a piece of grilled fish, a tortilla Espanola, sliced Bradley tomatoes hot off the vine..
Takes them to a whole new level of flavor. Makes the food dance.
Makes it more than just supper, an omelet, a salad.
Makes it special.
Makes it something a clever cook has in her repertoire for any food occasion that calls for something….green.
Green Sauce
Small handful chives, chopped
3 - 4 anchovies, chopped
A Tbsp capers drained
Juice of 1 lemon
Small handful Italian parsley, chopped
A big squirt of sissy (yellow) mustard (because for the first time in my life I’m out of Dijon)
Squirt of wild honey
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp garlic confit
Put in blender, turn on add ½ cup extra virgin olive oil until thick.
Done .
Makes about ¾ cup.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Provencal Almond and Anchovy Fish Sauce
Anchovies are one of those things you either love or you hate. Growing up, I said I hated anchovies. Wouldn’t touch them. Made it up in my head that I had eaten them, they had made me sick..couldn’t stand them.
I’m such a drama queen.
Anyway, the discovery of anchovy stuffed olives eased me into the world of the salty little fish.
It has that “je ne sais quoi” of salty flavors. The “ I don’t know why this tastes so good, but give me more of it” thing.
So, with major inspiration from Joyce Goldstein, we grilled a perfect piece of halibut, blanched green beans, steamed Yukon Golds and a few grape tomatoes on the plate, we had a new version of salad Nicoise.
IF you haven’t come over to the anchovy side of life, try this. It will make a convert out of you.
Provencal Almond and Anchovy Fish Sauce
Adapted from Back to Square One by Joyce Goldstein
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
¾ tsp anchovy paste
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp red wine vinegar
¾ cup fruity extra virgin olive oil
6 tbsp chopped fresh mint
3 tbsp chopped fennel fronds
Splash of Pernod
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine in bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes for flavors to blend.
Makes enough for 4-6 fish fillets.
