SRC - Creamy Peas and Walnut Sauce for Pasta

This is my third post for the Secret Recipe Club.   My assignment this month was a very interesting blog, From Arepas to Zwetschgen  This lady makes and posts dishes from all over the world.   And I thought I was pretty good at making foods from different regions, but I don't do it to her extent.   I got to travel all over the world just by reading her cooking adventures.   One quibble though, even though there were lots of dishes featured, too many of them had a 'recipe coming soon'  message below the picture and I'm just not that good at sussing out how to make something from a picture. So those recipes got eliminated rather quickly.  

I did run across her Creamy Peas and Walnut sauce for Pasta, and decided to try my hand at that.

 I kept the original instructions pretty intact as I have a scale I use when I'm baking or making my Danish food.   So it was easy for me to do it that way.    However I did convert the measurements to cups for ease.      I also cut the recipe in half, and found out I had more than enough sauce for my pasta.   

Creamy Peas and Toasted Walnut sauce

Ingredients:
500 g pasta of your choice  (2 cups uncooked)
75 g chopped walnuts   (3 oz or about 1 cup)
250 g green peas (fresh or frozen)  (1 lb or 2 cups)
4 slices bacon
1 large onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, smashed
175 ml white wine  (3/4 cup)
125 ml heavy (or light) cream  (1/2 cup)
125 ml low-fat milk   (1/2 cup)
salt
pepper
cornstarch (optional)

Prepare pasta as per directions. While the pasta is cooking prepare the walnuts by roasting them in a skillet without oil over medium-low heat until fragrant and golden brown, about 7-8 minutes.  Drain the cooked pasta, and reserve.  (I kept a little of the pasta water, just in case) Place the walnuts in a heat safe plate and let cool. While they are cooling, bring 1/2" salted water to a boil, add peas, and cook for 5-6 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside. Cook the bacon in a medium skillet or oven until crisp. Drain on paper towels and crumble. Discard all but 2-3 tsp bacon fat. Saute the onions in the bacon fat until soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add wine, cream, milk, bacon, and pepper to the onions and garlic and heat through for
about 5 minutes. Add the peas and cook for an additional minute.

 Thicken with cornstarch if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve pasta with sauce and top with walnuts.

***If I make this again, I will probably add some Mushrooms to it as I think it would complement the entire dish very well, and would probably also eliminate the bacon so I can serve it to my vegetarian friends.   I found also that the onion totally overpowered the sauce.   I think a shallot would be much better in this dish.  

Home Made Beef Stock

I love my own home made stock, whether it be Chicken or Beef or Pork.   There is just nothing that can compare to this for making your own soups.   I was rummaging around in the freezer, and found lots of good stuff that could be used for soup makings, including two rib bones from a rib roast I made a few months back.   I'd labeled them to use for stock, but then it got warm outside and soup and stock were far from my mind.

But since I only had two rib bones, I wanted to get the maximum flavour out of them.   So I used a trick I learned when I worked as a waitress in an all night diner.   The cooks there would make gravy out of roasted bones.   They would literally roast the beef bones until they almost looked charred, then soak them for awhile, cook them up and let the stock reduce and use that for the gravy.  And it was good.   They didn't use a whole lot of pre-prepared stuff in that place, everything was from scratch that they could make from scratch.   From the pastries (I still dream about them) to the gravy on the meat, it was good food, simple but good.  Sorry I got side tracked there.  

I took my two bones and placed them on a baking tray along with a couple of carrots, cut into chunks, some onions, garlic and celery, drizzled a little olive oil over them all and threw them all in the oven at 400 degrees.   I would have liked to have roasted them a little more, but got into a time crunch so had to pull them out a little earlier than I would have liked. 

 And see the brown stuff on the pan, I poured a cup of water over it, and put the whole pan back into the oven to let it soak off and then added that to the pot as well.  That fond has some serious flavour in it.
 
Put them all in a large pot and put in enough water to cover them all, and let it simmer.   I also had some frozen bits and pieces of leftover tomatoes so I threw them in as well.   Plus some onion skins, but they are for color, not the flavour so much.

Stuck the lid on and let them simmer for a couple of hours, then took the lid off and let it simmer for another half hour before I took out the vegetables and bones and let the stock reduce a little more.

I didn't salt the stock because I want to be able to season it to taste later on.  I also didn't add any herbs because I wanted to have a blank slate to work with when I make soup later on.   All I wanted was that wonderful beefy stock.    I'm planning on making some Albondigas soup later on this week, so I can then add the herbs I want as well as salt.   

Tomato Bites

I really had fun with making stuff for Tapas last month, but I just couldn't focus on just one thing though.

 I made the Onion and Mushroom Tart with Goat Cheese,

 Steamed shrimp
and served them, made a couple of Hot Cheese spreads,

and then I made these.

Tomato Bites and it's all Paula Deans fault.   If I hadn't been half listening to her show, I would never have made either of the Cheese spreads or these.   And they were pretty darn tasty. 

Oh and if I hadn't had that other sheet of puff pastry handy as well, which helped, cause I used it, for these.

No real recipe for this, just follow the directions.

1 sheet Puff Pastry, thawed and unfolded.  Take your rolling pin and just press it out a little.

Next slice some Roma Tomatoes, fairly thin, and set aside.

Grate some Parmesan Cheese or use the prepared stuff, either one is good. 


Take a fancy round cookie cutter and cut rounds out of the pastry dough.   

Place the tomato slices on top of each round and then top that with about a teaspoon (or more) freshly grated Parmesan Cheese.   Put them on parchment covered backing sheet and sprinkle with some Italian Seasoning and bake in a 375-400 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is browned and done.   The Parmesan cheese will have melted down into a nice crusty explosion of yum.   Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Don't they look yummy? They were.   I will be making these again, so simple, easy, and good.   Next time I might just put a teaspoon of cheese under the tomato, or even use a combo of Mozzarella and Parmesan to top them.   So many possibilities.  

Marinated Olives

I ran across this recipe last month when I was looking for a recipe to make for the SRC.   I was actually wavering between this one and the Tomato Gratin I eventually made.   And the only reason for making the one I did, well, we had a potluck to go to, and I thought it sounded good for that.   However, I did save this link to Jane's awesome olive recipe.    I thought it sounded so intriguing.  And something that would be fun to do.  Well, I didn't get it made for the October Tapa's night, but I made it the other day anyway cause I had lots of black olives left over from my Spider Cake, and I couldn't waste them, could I?   And since I also had a jar of green olives in the cupboard it was a no-brainer that I had to make them now.   And gee, somewhere along the way a jar of Kalamata olives jumped into my grocery cart as well.

So here it is, and I have to admit to forgetting to add the zest of lemon and orange to it, but honestly, they were good.   I took them with me last night to a gathering and asked everyone's opinion on them as well.   I got a thumbs up from everyone, and in fact ended up with only a few olives left to take home.

Warm up about 1/2 cup or so of Olive Oil, I used EVOO cause that's what I had.  Add about 1 Tablespoon of Herb de Provence, and 1/2 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes, I let it get fairly warm, but not hot, then dumped in the olives and garlic and let it all heat up again.  It really smells good when it's heating up.  I added about 2 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar to the pot, gave it a stir and I then let it cool down in the pot before transferring the whole thing to a quart mason jar.   And I did taste test a few along the way, cause otherwise how do you know if it's any good?
  Store in the fridge until needed, sampling a few along the way.   Olive Oil will solidify a little when refrigerated, so don't PANIC when you open the fridge and it looks like a big clump is in the jar. Just take out what you want and let them sit out for a little while before serving.   The olive oil works as a confit and helps to preserve the olives by the way. 

   You can change it up with dried basil or thyme or oregano or a mixture of all of them just make up 1 T.Add the zest of an orange and the zest of a lemon. Finish with a splash of balsamic and heat for 2 minutes.

yield: 3 cupsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking adapted from Jane's Adventures in Dinnerprint recipe

Marinated Olives

prep time: 5 MINScook time: 5 MINStotal time: 10 mins

This is a great appetizer to have on hand, it keeps for weeks in the fridge, and is ready to go in seconds. I've even put it into the food processor and used it on Muffelettas.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1 cup green Olives or one jar, drained
• 1 can black olives, drained
• 1 cup Kalamata Olives, drained
• 2 cloves garlic, slivered
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 TBS. Herb de Provence or your favorite herbs, basil, rosemary, marjoram equalling 1 tablespoon
• Zest from one orange and one lemon
• 1-2 teaspoons Balsamic Vinegar (a good hearty splash)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat the Oil and seasonings until hot then add the olives, add the splash of Balsamic vinegar, then pour into a jar and let cool. Or start eating while still warm. This goes great with a platter of cured meats like salami and some good crusty bread.

Created using The Recipes Generator

I want to add that I've made this several times now and found out that little cubes of Feta go great with this.  As does fresh Mozzarella.  

Peggy's Paparito's

If you've read my blog at all, you know I like a bit of spice in my food.  More specifically, I like Mexican type spice.  Well, Jalapeno's, Serrano's, Guajillo Chilies, Habanero's, Anaheim Chiles, to name but a few.    I actually posted this recipe on my other blog a couple of years ago, but decided to revisit the recipe.   OK, I made some the other day, which is why I'm featuring it again.   

A few years back I had the pleasure of meeting and making friends with a lovely lady named Peggy.   She was a transplanted Texan, and loved all things Tex-Mex.    She gave me the following recipe, and it ranks right up there with all the other Tex-Mex foods I love.


And you know, it would be a great light dinner as well.   I only know this cause I've done it.

To start with, boil a couple or three potatoes.  Red Potato's, yellow potatoes or any other firm fleshed potato works best in this dish.  Burbanks or Russets, not so much.  They're too mealy.

Cook the potatoes til they are done and set aside.  Peel them if you wish or not, personally I like unpeeled.  Peels are good food.   Chop them roughly or slice them into nice uniform pieces if that's how you like your potatoes.   Does not matter at all.  Set them aside, you're not ready for them yet. 

Heat a pan and cook up some sausage.  I've used hot sausage, sausage patties, bulk sausage, really, whatever floats your boat.  If you use regular sausage, you can always amp up the heat a little with some jalapeno's or some pepper flakes, or...    Cook until done.  Set aside.

Add a little oil to the pan if you like, or use the sausage fat, then cook off one chopped onion in the grease.   Cook til almost done, then add the potatoes, and brown them just a little.   Add in the sausage just towards the end.   Add some chopped green pepper if you like or do as I do, add in a small can of canned green chiles.  Stir that around, just a little.  Set aside, and keep warm.
Then scramble up a couple of eggs per person, or just one if you like, cook til soft set and set aside.




Warm up some flour tortilla's, then divide the meat/potato mixture amongst how many people or tortilla's you're making and roll them up with some grated longhorn cheese.

Pour some warmed green tomatillo sauce over the top, sprinkle with cheese and place under the broiler to melt a little.

Serve hot.

Peggy’s Paparito’s

Stir fried potatoes with skins  ( I do about 3 potatoes for the two of us)

Scrambled eggs  1-2 per person

Grated long horn cheese

1/2- 1 Onion

Chorizo sausage or sage sausage, fried and crumbled   

Diced green chiles and/or diced green pepper

Add a diced jalapeno or two if you like a little more heat, which I do.  

 Flour tortilla’s

Mix above ingredients together and roll in a flour tortilla, burrito style.
Serve with warmed Green Chile sauce poured over and a sprinkle of cheese.

1 can green Chile sauce (Herdez or another one like that.)

And if you have too much filling, it freezes beautifully, and you've got a head start on another breakfast.