Creamy White Lasagna with Roasted Wild Mushrooms & Salsa Verde

Having time off for Winter Break is appreciated by us all. But Sally Porkchop seems to really be digging us being home with her day after day and the endless exhaustion of long walks.

Sally Porkchop after a good long walk in the neighborhood.

Another benefit of time off is time to actually make a recipe or two from a few of our numerous food magazine subscriptions.

Pasta is not something that we make a ton of, especially the labor intensive lasagna. But we both saw this recipe for white lasagna in the December Food & Wine issue and agreed this needed to be made. It was perfect. We were finally over the Christmas hooplah and leftovers and G had just gotten in his first day skiing. So a heavy, good for cold weather meal was a good call.

The recipe is a fair bit tedious but buying fresh pasta as opposed to making it helped shave a bit of time off preparation. 

The bechamel sauce was amazing, really, truly amazing.

And really once it's made it all comes together pretty quick. Just layers of bechamel, pasta, cheese  and repeat 4 times. 

We decided to only make half the recipe and we have more leftover than we'll ever eat still. 

The recipe lists three "great toppings" for the lasagna. We only made two, the salsa verde and the roasted wild mushrooms. Since the lasagna is so incredibly rich the topping really do help. The salsa verde especially brings a fresher green taste to help cut the richness.

It was definitely a recipe we are happy we made but this kind of pasta richness will never be part of our regular recipe rotation. 

RECIPE:

Creamy White Lasagna (adapted from Food & Wine)

1 #Fresh Pasta

BÉCHAMEL

1. 2 sticks unsalted butter
2. 1 medium onion, finely chopped
3. 2 rosemary sprigs
4. 2 thyme sprigs
5. 3 garlic cloves, crushed
6. Kosher salt
7. 1 cup all-purpose flour
8. 2 quarts whole milk

ASSEMBLY

1. Extra-virgin olive oil
2. 1/2 pound imported Fontina cheese, shredded (2 1/2 cups)
3. 5 ounces Grana Padano cheese, freshly grated (1 1/4 cups)

1. Make the fresh pasta according to package directions and then MAKE THE BACHAMEL In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onion, rosemary, thyme, garlic and a pinch of salt and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the roux is light golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk and bring to a boil, then simmer over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until no floury taste remains, about 20 minutes. Press the béchamel through a fine sieve into a bowl; discard the solids. Season with salt and let cool.
2. ASSEMBLE THE LASAGNA Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces; work with 1 piece at a time, keeping the rest covered with a towel. Flatten the dough slightly. Run it through a pasta machine a total of 6 times: Start at the widest setting, then run through successively narrower settings. Dust the sheet with flour and lay it on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, separating the sheets with parchment.
3. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta sheets until just al dente, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and cool under running water, then drain again. Return the pasta to the baking sheet and toss with olive oil to prevent the sheets from sticking together.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°. Brush a deep 9-by-13-inch baking dish with oil; spread with 1/2 cup of the béchamel. Arrange a layer of pasta over the béchamel, trimming to fit. Spread one-fifth of the remaining béchamel over the pasta; sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the Fontina and 1/4 cup of the Grana Padano. Repeat the layering 4 more times, ending with the cheeses.
5. Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake the lasagna for 45 minutes, until bubbling. Remove from the oven and uncover. Preheat the broiler. Broil the lasagna 6 inches from the heat until lightly browned on top, 2 to 4 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes, then cut into squares and serve with one of the toppings.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

I remember very clearly about five years ago when we both absolutely agreed that eating out on Valentine's Day would never happen again. And it hasn't. 

And we were even at one of our still favorite little romantic restaurants but on Valentine's night it was missing its usual romantic feel. Line out the door, even with a reservation the wait was at least 30 minutes or more. There were only a few main dish choices. The wait staff was not the usual and the additional staff wasn't well versed on their great selection of wines. Finally, the wait in-between courses made us annoyed not feeling lovey dovey. Yeah, like we said we haven't done that since.

Now we make a lovely dinner at home each year instead. I thought leading up to Valentine's day I would post and build a  complete Valentine's menu to share with you and maybe it would inspire you and your love to eat at home instead of eating out on the second most busy restaurant event of the year, only second to Mother's Day. 

Here's what's on the Valentine's Day menu:

Dirty Shirley Cocktails

Mini-Lobster Rolls (originally posted Jan. 29th)

Iceberg Wedge with Warm Bacon and Blue Cheese Dressing 

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Cream Puffs with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

To kick off the menu I'll start with the main course, Braised Beef Short Ribs a recipe adapted from Epicurious. G loves braised short ribs it's one of his favorite lazy Sunday kind of meals. The recipe is absolutely perfect too with bacon and pearl onions. And because it braises 4-5 hours the ribs unreservedly melt in your mouth. 

I first found some scrumptious looking short ribs. 

This recipe actually does have quite a few ingredients but with some prep and planning and time, it's well worth making.

And with our faithful kitchen companion Sally Pork Chop in the kitchen for moral support all that time in the kitchen just flies by. 

In our opinion the key to the world's best short ribs is making sure to give them a great sear on every side of the rib. The more brown goodness they have after searing the more delectable flavor they'll have after hours of braising. 

And seasoning them well is another important step for excellent flavor. My sister gave us these great selections of flavored salts for Christmas from Napa Style. For this recipe I kept it simple using the soft flavor of Sicilian White Salt.

Sautéing carrots,  onions and garlic add the next layer of important flavor.

And pureed whole San Marzano tomatoes add the next layer of flavor. If you can find these authentic Italian tomatoes they are 100% worth the search. They really do have superior canned tomato flavor.

And next the addition of red wine and a good beef broth really pull all of the flavors together. Actually the recipe calls for demi-glace concentrate or veal stock. I couldn't find either of these this time, but to be honest I didn't look that hard either these ingredient are both incredibly rich and most of the time too rich for my tastes so we subbed a good quality beef broth instead. 

Next the beautifully browned beef ribs go back into the dutch oven and braise in the oven at 250 degrees for 4-5 hours until they are gently falling off the bone.

While the ribs braise you can cook the vegetables and bacon which get added back to the ribs after you skim the fat off the top. You then put a rib in your bowl pour vegetables and sauce over the rib. And top with bacon and thyme sprigs. 

Absolutely Delicious! Absolutely! And a special main course for any special occasion. 

RECIPE:

Braised Beef Short Ribs ( adapted from Epicurious)

For short ribs

4 (8-ounce) pieces bone-in beef short ribs

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

4 medium carrots, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 (14-ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes in juice, puréed in a blender with juice

1 1/2 cups dry red wine

4 cups brown veal stock or 1/2 cup Demi-Glace Gold concentrate (concentrate requires a dilution ratio of 1:8; 1/2 cup concentrate to 4 cups water)

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf

1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

For vegetables

20 pearl onions (5 ounces)

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon Banyuls vinegar or red-wine vinegar

2 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth (16 fluid ounces)

4 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1 1/2-inch pieces

3 thick bacon slices (preferably applewood-smoked; 1/4 lb total), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces

8 medium fresh white mushrooms, trimmed and quartered lengthwise

Braise short ribs:

Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 250°F.

Pat beef dry. Heat oil in a wide (12 inches in diameter) 3- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown beef on all sides, turning with tongs, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Add chopped carrots, onion, and garlic to oil in pot and cook over moderate heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup puréed tomatoes (reserve remainder for another use) and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Add wine and boil, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, about 8 minutes.

Add veal stock, thyme, bay leaf, vinegars, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to sauce, and bring to a simmer. Skim fat from surface, then add beef along with any juices accumulated on plate and cover pot with a tight-fitting lid. Transfer to oven and braise until beef is very tender, 4 to 5 hours.

Cook vegetables while beef braises:

Blanch pearl onions in a wide 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan of boiling water 1 minute, then drain in a sieve. When just cool enough to handle, peel onions with a paring knife, trimming root end just enough to leave onions intact.

Heat butter in dried saucepan over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook onions, stirring occasionally, until brown spots appear, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar, then add chicken stock and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and boil, if necessary, until liquid glazes vegetables.

While vegetables are simmering, cook bacon in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until mushrooms are tender and bacon is browned and crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to vegetables in saucepan.

Assemble dish:

Transfer a short rib to each of 4 soup plates and keep warm in oven. Pour sauce through a medium-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids, then skim fat from sauce. Boil sauce, if necessary, until thickened and reduced to about 3 cups. Season with salt and pepper. Add about 2 cups sauce to vegetables (reserve remaining sauce for another use), then spoon mixture around short ribs.

A Mexican Flavored Feast!

We are feeling a bit neglectful of this space that we love to document and share about our life in food lately.

But we have just a few really good excuses. 

 Excuse #1: Sally Pork Chop 12 Weeks old

1) This adorable baby bully that we are devoting as much free time as we have to raising into a well behaved pup.

2) School starts this week and the past two weeks and the next 4 weeks are the busiest work weeks in our lives as educators. 

3) These two excuses are making us fairly well exhausted. Just to be plain honest.

But good food and fun are still part of this busy life as we can fit it in. And one such celebration of some good food was our Mexican flavored feast we put on last weekend to start our wind down of summer.

We kicked it off with one these super yummy Serrano Citrus Margaritas to help us have a little more fun while we were cooking.

Our first course was a take on the classic Caprese salad adjusted with Mexican inspired touches which turned into our Mexican Caprese Salad.

The next dish in my opinion was the absolute star of the feast. Baked Chile Relleno. Truly these were DELISH! (Sadly the photo does it absolutely NO justice. We need to remake them and reshoot the photo. Which we are happy to do again.)

Finally we made a Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak with grilled onions, jalapeños and peppers. 

We decided that to go along with our special feast we'd do a taste test comparison of 3 different Spanish Granache wines to pair with our Mexican flavors.

This feast really represents our most current cooking style. If it's grilled, roasted, spicy and full of flavor you can bet it's on our menu this week.

Come back this week and get the recipe for each of our dishes from our Mexican flavored feast.

Salad Nicoise

Do you ever just feel like you want to have something different for dinner than the usual stand bys? I can tell you I've been feeling like that a lot lately. Just craving something different. Most of the time I'm not sure "what different" exactly but just something we don't usually have is what I want. 

And on this occasion that's exactly how I was feeling. We just recently started a subscription to Saveur Magazine and in our first issue there was this recipe for salad nicoise that looked exactly like what I was wanting: a meal we never have.

And it perfectly met my craving. We actually purchased a beautiful piece of yellowfin tuna for this salad initially but ended up using the yellowfin to make poke instead. So when we finally did get around to making this delicious salad we used some canned Wild Albacore Tuna made by Wild Planet that we buy at Costco and love. We started eating it a lot when we starting following Paleo. And just love the quality of this canned tuna.

Also by the time we got around to make the salad the green beans we purchased had went bad so we subbed out little white potatoes.

The salad was so good. The combination  of all the veggies with the brininess of the olives and the vinaigrette really made for a well balanced bite each time. We served the salad with a bottle of C.R. Sandich Viognier that we picked up on our Chelan vacation this summer. It paired wonderfully.

It was simple to put together and really met my desire to just have something different for dinner.

Recipe:

Salade Nicoise adapted from Saveur Magazine

FOR THE DRESSING:

1 clove garlic
Kosher salt, to taste
⅓ cup olive oil
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE SALAD:
1 lb. small new potatoes, boiled until tender
6 oz. yellow baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled
6 oz. red baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled
8 oz. haricot verts, blanched
12 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup black Niçoise olives
8 small radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
8 salt-packed anchovies, rinsed and drained
4 hard-boiled eggs, halved lengthwise
3 (4-oz.) cans high-quality oil-packed tuna, drained
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
½ cup loosely packed basil leaves, to garnish
¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, to garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the dressing: Mince garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle heavily with salt; using a knife, scrape garlic and salt together to form a smooth paste. Transfer paste to a bowl and whisk in oil, juice, mustard, shallot, and salt and pepper; set aside.

2. Make the salad: Arrange all ingredients in separate rows on a large serving platter; drizzle dressing over all ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with basil and scallions just before serving.

Grilled Herb Balsamic Lamb Chops

Our vacation life for the summer has finally come to an end. And yeah, we are ready for it to end. Don't get us wrong it was fantastic. We went amazing places, ate fabulous food with some of the people we love the most. But honestly only sleeping at home 5 nights out of 5 weeks is a bit much even for us.

Transitioning back to being at home for good has been good something we are both enjoying doing after long vacationing. But this time our transition situation back home has changed just a tad....

Yes, two days after returning home we added this precious girl to our life, family and home. And she is just so precious! Meet Sally Pork Chop. Our long awaited English Bulldog that actually I've been advocating for us to get for at least the 12 years we've been married. It's the only dog I've ever wanted. And reluctantly my honey finally agreed. It's a HUGE transition to our life.

For example I've been trying to write this post for 36 hours now and just can't seem to get it done. Our new baby needs a lot of our attention and we are more than happy to share it with her. 

So her first night home I wanted to make sure to make a meal to show G that our life will still continue. Making and enjoying great meals will still be a part of it. So since Sally Pork Chop is on a lamb & rice puppy chow regimen I decided that lamb chops would be the perfect protein for this meal.

I found some good looking chops at Costco. We do love love Costco meat usually.

I made a balsamic herb marinade that I let them sit in for an hour before grilling. Which gave me ample to do some more loving on our girl before I actually got too involved with cooking. The marinade was so flavorful made with honey, dijon, balsamic and herbs from our patio.

I then grilled on the grill getting a nice sear and cooking them to medium rare...while I boiled down the balsamic sauce to glaze them with at serving time.

I served them with a roasted beet salad with goat cheese, slice almonds and a Trader Joe's brand Raspberry vinaigrette. 

We also opened a bottle of Fidelitas 2007 Optu to enjoy with our meal. A  perfect special wine to enjoy our first night and meal as puppy parents. 

The chops were divine and G loved that were paired both with the beet salad and the wine. Oh yeah, we can do this! We can be dog owners and still live our life. I'm determined to make it happen.

Recipe:

Grilled Herb Balsamic Lamb Chops
6 lamb chops
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp each fresh thyme, oregano, basil and chives chopped and combined
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Place lamb chops in a shallow baking dish. Combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, herbs, honey, mustard, salt and pepper and pour over chops. Toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat grill. Grill chops 5 minutes on each side until medium rare. Boil remaining marinade and glaze over chops before serving.

Bourbon Chipotle Cornish Game Hens

Does this ever happen to you?  We know we are in the mood for something..but we are not sure what that something specifically is. This definitely happens to us. 

We knew we wanted to grill because it was a glorious sunny, warm evening. We knew we wanted to use some of the Chipotle Bourbon Barbecue Sauce that we'd made but we knew we wanted something different than the usual. We were up at Whole Foods in Seattle and although there were many great fresh choices we decided to go with the Cornish Game Hens because we don't use them much and it would be something different.

G went online and found some inspiration for how to best grill them. He found a technique for splitting them down the back bone.

He first seasoned them well. 

Then grilled them flat, basting them with our Chipotle Bourbon  BBQ sauce. 

They looked beautiful directly off the grill if not even kind of cute.

We served them with our Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad with Chipotle Cinnamon Dressing. 

We had our scrumptious barbecued hens with this supple and jammy Temperanillo made by Hesetia.

Recipe:

Bourbon Chipotle Barbecue Sauce:

• 2 cups ketchup
• 3/4 cup bourbon
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 chipotle chiles, chopped w/ adobo sauce
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 
  

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth, about 15 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pulse 2 or 3 times. Store in a sterilized container until ready to use.