Buttermilk Blue Bruschetta & Black Bean/Mango Empanadas

My husband and I are training for a 10 mile race this Spring, and with an active lifestyle comes the need to ensure that we are adequately fueling and hydrating our bodies. He does three and I do four maintenance runs during the week and then we have a long run that we do together on Saturday mornings. It can get pretty hectic during the week between work, grad school, taking care of our pets, cooking and making time for each other. Being busy combined with the fact that we eat very clean all week long makes for a serious desire to treat ourselves with an indulging meal (and of course, wine/cocktails) come Saturday evening. Who wants all work and no play, right?!

Saturday night menus often include meals that I would normally not have the time or available calories during the week to prepare and enjoy. Its when I make pasta, bread and other comfort dishes in the winter and homemade ice cream or sorbet in the summer. On special nights, I make a couple different appetizers and we eat tapas style!

This menu was partially inspired by one of my favorite restaurants in Philly called Tria. Tria is a wine, cheese and beer cafe that offers locally sourced ingredients. If you're in the Philly area, stop in for a glass of wine and try my favorite bruschetta: Birchrun Blue and Spiced Lancaster Pear Butter.

Here's what's cooking...

BUTTERMILK BLUE BRUSCHETTA 

WITH RAW CLOVER HONEY

This is a really simple and beautiful appetizer. The flavor/texture combination is divine as the creamy tang of the blue cheese is well balanced by the sweetness of the honey and crunch of the baguette toasts. This would be delicious with real maple syrup in place of the honey. I like to serve it with fresh pear slices. 

Ingredients:

1 day-old french baguette, sliced every 1/2 inch on the diagonal

good olive oil

kosher salt

freshly cracked black pepper

8 oz your favorite blue cheese (a wedge is better than crumbles)

2 tbsp. your favorite raw honey for drizzling

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

While slightly warm, top toasts with 1/2 oz or so slices of the blue cheese. Drizzle honey over the blue cheese and pat yourself on the back if they made it to the serving platter before your tummy. 

BLACK BEAN AND MANGO EMPANADAS

It is rare that I make a recipe straight from the source without doctoring it to my liking. This one is an exception because it is so delicious as is. Directly from the pages of Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins, Randall Lockridge, and Ben Fink, Black Bean and Mango Empanadas are a wonderful use for ripe, juicy mangoes and an indulging treat after a long, hectic work week. 

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 c. yellow onion, diced
15 oz. black beans
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
splash of beer for moistening
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
kosher salt to taste
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
17.3 oz. package puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
1 lg. egg, beaten

How to prepare:
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. Saute the onion until translucent. Stir in the beans, cumin and cayenne; cook until the mixture is hot, about 5 minutes.

Add a splash of beer if needed to keep mixture from drying out. Stir in the cilantro, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Using a potato masher or a fork, mash the bean filling to a coarse paste and let cool.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and grease a rimmed baking sheet. Roll out each puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface to a 14-inch square. Cut each sheet into 9 squares with a sharp knife. 

Place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling in the center of each square. Top with a few pieces of mango.

Brush the inside edges of the squares with the beaten egg. Fold on the diagonal over the filling to form a triangle. Using the tines of a fork, seal the crust edges well. Arrange on the baking sheet and brush the tops with the remaining egg. 

Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot. Mmmmm! These would be delicious topped with mango chutney. 

Mediterranean Love

Sometimes I think I should have been born a native of the Mediterranean region! Great wine, rich food and passionate people. I don't know about you, but when I read the first part of Eat, Pray, Love as the author is in Italy, I felt like I was reading my own food diary. For those of us Americans who lust after a Mediterranean lifestyle, it is easy to forget that, through cuisine, we can partially create the experience without hopping on a 757. I often find myself gravitating toward recipes that have staples of Greek (feta, olives) and Italian (good pasta, parmesan, wine) cooking.  Post a comment about some of your favorite Mediterranean foods or dishes!

Center stage tonight are lentils, olives and feta cheese. Lentils are a delicious member of the legume family. They cannot be eaten raw and require a cooking time of 10–30 minutes, depending on the variety. Lentils have a texture similar to other legumes like beans and have a distinctive earthy flavor. They are an especially wonderful staple in the Vegetarian diet as they contain high levels of protein, dietary fiber, folate and B vitamins. 


Here's what's cooking.

LENTIL SALAD WITH FETA, FENNEL & OLIVES

This salad is super fast, well-balanced and uber delicious. Served on top of field greens with a big glass of red Zinfandel and I imagine myself on a boat off the coast of Rhodes. This is adapted from my Simply Organic cookbook by Jesse Ziff Cool. 

Ingredients:

2 c. green lentils, cooked

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 med. red onion, thinly sliced

1 med. fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1/3 c. kalamata olives, roughly chopped

1/4 c. fresh parsley, chopped

2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

juice and zest of 1 lemon

kosher salt to taste

freshly cracked black pepper to taste

field greens for serving if desired

How to prepare:

Wisk together in a large bowl the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, kosher salt and black pepper. 

Add in all other ingredients except the feta and field greens. Toss well to coat. 

If desired, portion lentil mixture over a bed of field greens. Otherwise, simply top with feta and enjoy! Best served room temperature. Yes, please!

A quick word about buying olives:

Please, I beg of you, do not buy olives in a jar or can or olives that have been pitted. If you are not a fan of olives, go to your nearest olive bar - stat - and pick out a few plump kalamatas that have the pit IN. Very important! I promise you, lives will be changed. I spent many Thanksgiving dinners being grossed out by the bowls of black olives on the table, only learning as an adult that they were canned and far inferior! Olives taste so, so, so much better when you pit them yourself and when they haven't been sitting all sealed up in a jar for who knows how long. To pit, just squeeze them in between your index finger and thumb or, if eating immediately, just pop in your mouth and spit out the seed. Creamy, salty, yum!

Veg Essentials - We don't just eat salads!

Allow me to climb onto my soap box for just a moment: just because I don't eat meat doesn't mean I am protein deficient and doesn't mean I only eat salads!! Protein comes in various food packages, not just chicken, pork, beef or seafood and, in my opinion, if the general public were less concerned about "getting their protein" and more concerned about eating a well balanced, varied and colorful diet, Americans would be a lot healthier (not to mention skinnier). And, for the record, I'm not trying to convert YOU into a vegetarian. Phew! Okay, stepping down now.

As is the story with most vegetarians, my conversion was a slow one. About two and a half years ago, my husband and I made a conscious effort to seriously cut back on our meat intake for financial and environmental reasons. Where we would cook with chicken, beef, pork or seafood five or so days out of the week, we started eating it 2-3 times per week. Soon, it became 1-2 times per week and then 1 to maybe 2 times per month. For a while, I continued eating the occasional piece of fish, and last summer cut seafood out entirely. I do still eat dairy products (anyone who either willingly or unwillingly lives without cheese leads a seriously depressed life in my opinion) and eggs, and Tim eats meat when he is away from home. The change in diet is for a lot of reasons including the standard humanitarian, health and environmental ones, but my Dad sums it up best by pegging me as an over-educated consumer. :)

It has been an interesting change learning a new culinary style and having a keener eye on restaurant menus. I've grown a serious appreciation for people who have more restrictive dietary limitations like wheat/lactose intolerances and digestive disorders.

Most experts believe that the average sedentary American eats 50% more protein on a daily basis than their body actually needs to function. As a general guide, the recommended adult dietary allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. This means for a 150 pound (68 kg) person, about 54 grams of protein per day are recommended. Here are some non-meat sources of protein that I like to incorporate into my diet listed with their average grams of protein per serving.


Tempeh (1/2 c.)               15g
Greek Yogurt (1/2 c.)      12g
Tofu (1/2 c.)                      9g
Lentils, cooked (1/2 c.)     9g
Peanut butter (2 tbsp.)       8g
Kidney beans (1/2 c.)        8g
Cheese (1 oz.)                   7g
Egg (3 oz.)                        7g
Hummus (1/3 c.)               6g
Raw almonds (1 oz.)         6g
Wheat pasta (3 oz.)           6g
Quinoa (1/2 c.)                  4g 


Here's what's cooking....

Fettuccine with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts

A serious shout out to Cooking Light magazine. My Gram probably didn't know it at the time, but my subscription was one of the best gifts she ever gave me. Cooking Light does a really excellent job of including healthful vegetarian recipes. I also love that they include the nutrition information and provide simple ingredient swaps to make meat-based recipes into vegetarian ones. This particular recipe is adapted from the January 2011 issue. It is delicious and super easy. I think I've had this issue for maybe 6 weeks and have cooked this dish three times already. Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients:

8 oz. your favorite fettuccine

1/3 c. raw hazlenuts, roughly chopped

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch scallions, chopped with about 1 tbsp. reserved for garnish if you like

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 oz. your favorite mushrooms, chopped

1/2 tsp. dried sage or 1 tsp. fresh

freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

kosher salt to taste

freshly cracked black pepper to taste

When I'm cooking a pasta dish on the weekend, I usually make my own. While labor intensive, we don't have it that often, and when I have the time it is SO worth the effort. When I have a meal planned that calls for pasta during the week, I really like to use Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain pasta. I buy Ezekiel brand bread products as well because, if I am not going to make my own, I find the sprouted grain products a lot easier to digest. They also have a bit more protein and a lot of other nutrients than your standard semolina or whole wheat pasta. 

How to prepare:

Heat a dry skillet over medium and add the hazelnuts. Toast, shaking the pan every few minutes, until they are golden brown. Set aside.

Heat a large pot of water for the pasta. While the water comes to a boil, melt the butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the scallions and garlic to the pan; saute for 4-6 minutes until soft and slightly caramelized. 

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserve and set aside 3/4 c. of the starchy cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pot and grate the cheese over top. You should do this while the pasta is still hot as it helps the sauce stick once everything is combined.

Add the mushrooms to the scallions and garlic; saute for 5-6 minutes until the mushrooms are tender and golden brown. Add the sage and season to taste with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper.  

Add the reserved pasta water and toss together with the pasta. Plate and garnish with more grated cheese and reserved scallions. Enjoy a warm, hearty and nutritious meal!