Salsa Verde, I Heart You.

I've been spending alot of time in the kitchen lately - trying out new recipes. The kitchen is one of my happy places. I needed to put together a quick sauce to drizzle over skirt steak and had all of the ingredients needed for salsa verde.

Salsa verde is not the Mexican green salsa you may be thinking of, this one is a classic green sauce from Italy. It's versatile and easily adaptable to what you have in your pantry. I referred to Alice Water's book, The Art of Simple Food, for some direction. The result is a simple sauce - fresh, mouthwatering, a little briny, flavored with parsley, lemon zest, garlic, capers and olive oil.  Add a little bit of chopped anchovy for an extra kick.  I drizzled it over some skirt steak, but it would be delicious over grilled chicken, fish, lamb or over scrambled eggs. It won't last long, that's for sure.

Salsa Verde (by Alice Waters)

1/3 c. coarsely chopped parsley

grated zest of one lemon

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped or minced

1 tbs. capers, drained and rinsed, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 c. olive oil

1 anchovy, finely chopped (optional)

Mix well and taste for salt.  Let the sauce sit for a while to develop the flavors.

The Green Kitchen

http://www.alicewatersgreenkitchen.com/

Last night, I came upon, a fabulous internet series, created by Alice Waters, called The Green Kitchen. I wanted to share the link with you all as I think the mission and purpose of this short series is something worth sharing, especially, for learning basic culinary skills! Many well known chefs are featured in these less than 10 minute episodes, sharing how to make a simple viniagrette to making salsas, and the basics of roasting a chicken. I encourage everyone to watch a few episodes, you will definitely learn something new, if, not brush up on a few everday skills! And pass the link on to your friends and family.

biased and braised.

Clever, eh? I admit it, I'm totally biased at the moment. I'm in an "Alice Waters" fixated state and the only other genre of cookbook that can pull me out of this are baking books. Are you sick and tired of me rambling on and on and on about how wonderful Alice Waters is, how she's so cool, fabulous and utterly worthy of culinary knighthood? Well, tough noogies. I recently renewed my "borrowing" of The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters from the library, her ninth cookbook in fact. Over the weekend I opted to try her recipe for Braised Chicken Legs with Tomatoes and Garlic. I served it with fragrant rice to soak up all those lovely juices. Known for her devotion to ingredients and attention to simplicity, Alice Waters exemplifies the essence of cooking, whether your in a professional kitchen and for the home. Braising is such a wonderful cooking technique, not employed by many home cooks during the week as it requires time and above all else, patience. The benefits of such work are definitely worth it though and braising chicken is effortless really. One of the added benefits of braising is that you only require the use of one pot so clean up tends to be minimal. Once you've mastered a few braising techniques, you can pretty much create your own recipe. This is usually the braising protocol:

1. Brown meat in olive oil.

2. Remove meat and saute veggies and aromatics (garlic, herbs, seasonings).

3. Deglaze the pan with either wine or stock.

4. Add meat back to the pan and simmer covered (the chicken took about 45 minutse, but toughter cuts of meat will take longer).

5. Remove meat and reduce stock to a sauce.

These are only the essentials. Another great resource is All About Braising by Molly Stevens, a devout braiser, Molly breaks down the techniques and offers delicious recipes to practice this fine art. This isn't calculus for cooks, it's algebra, folks. And here in Indiana, our first snowfall has already doused us and nothing speaks volumes in the winter than a home-cooked hearty meal.

panade. what's in a name?

The recipe concotions continue with this Acorn Squash, Mushroom and Red Wine Panade recipe which The Wednesday Chef insisted fellow readers try a couple weeks ago. Turns out I own the book, Chez Panisse Vegetables, and if I'm going to be completely honest here, I haven't tried one bloody recipe from the the book! I've been collecting the Alice Waters library for quite a few years now and am frankly embarassed by its crisp white pages, hardly doused with olive oil or crustiness from countless cooking endeavors. Anyhoo, the point is the blog I read was so inspiring that I decided to give this recipe a try.

Now you may very well be asking yourself, what the heck is a "panade"? According to some online dictionary, it's a mixture of butter, water, and flour, often the base for choux pastry. Here, however, I believe the reference is purely "show". This vegetable casserole is definitely time consuming. Onions are caramelized in olive oil with garlic, thyme and then reduced with red wine and simmered with the addition of chicken stock and sliced and sauteed mushrooms. The recipe calls for chanterelles, but I substituted cremini mushrooms and it still turned out delicious. You lightly brown slices of country bread in a skillet before the layering process. Country bread, broth, thinly sliced acorn squash (which has been peeled and seeded), more broth, more bread and the rest of the broth. I practially had my own production line, unfortunately, I was the only employee and the boss. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, I substituted it with pecorino romano and baked covered and then uncovered for an hour or so. The texture is definitely different, probably the first layer of bread, but the bread and vegetables soak up the goodness and earthy flavors of the flavorful broth. The crunchy layer of bread on top gives it character and the saltiness of the pecorino was a nice touch. Time consuming yes, but worth every minute? Absolutely.

Sometimes the best things in life are the result of time, precious time.

pasta-rific.

You know the old question, alive or dead, if you could have coffee and a conversation with one person, who would it be? And right now, I'd like to sit down with Ms. Waters! Well, this past weeked I busted out two, count them two, of Alice Waters' recipes. The first was from her most recent book entitled The Art of Simple Food.

Side note - Because I am on a budget, like so many of you out there, I carefully pick and choose the latest cookbooks to add to my overgrown library. Since living on my own, I have used and abused the privilege of my library card, I often raid the cookbook section to taste and try out new recipes. It's a great way of ensuring that you will want a certain book, before you buy it.

Back to the blog, I was definitely in the mood for pasta and had a hankering for some seafood, so I decided to make this simple dish of linguine with clams. Steamed in olive oil, lots of garlic, red chili pepper flakes, chopped italian parsley and white wine, this meal is elegant and hearty. Paul and I enjoyed mopping up the sauce with slices of thick country bread, it should be considered an abominable sin to do let such a delicious sauce go to waste. Waste not, want not, that's my adage.