Rosemary Focaccia with Caramelized Onions and Olives

Focaccia to me, is the best alternative to pizza.  It's practically the same as its pizza counterpart except for the fact that its base is more bread like (similar to Pizza Hut's deep crust) than the average more "compact" pizza crust. The best thing about this bread is it takes a lot less time to prepare than pizza and the chances of screwing it up is slim to none.  Did I mention that it's dirt to cheap to make (once you've invested in a Costco sized Extra Virgin Olive Oil Bottle)? The topping possibilities are endless so it will be easy to tweak this recipe to your liking.  I hope you go nuts with this recipe. I sure did!

*the majority of flavor is derived from Olive Oil
*try splashing or dipping your cooked Focaccia in extra oil or tomato sauce. Or dunk them in ranch dressing or honey mustard.
*alternative topping ideas:  meat bits- cooked sausage, bacon, ham, beef, chicken. Veggies- bell pepper, mushrooms, pineapple, tomato, olives, onions, spinach. Herbs- basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro. Sauce- Ranch, tomato, BBQ. Cheese- cream cheese, feta, goat, cheddar, fresh mozzarella (cook veggies that take a longer time to cook before placing in oven and add veggies that cook fast halfway through the cooking process to prevent them from burning.  Meat should be cooked before placing in oven as time to cook Focaccia is not long enough to cook meats through.)
*for those living in Grenada, my oven only reaches 300 degrees. This bread is not too sensitive to low uneven heat.

Your know your dough is ready when it holds your finger indentations. If it's not holding, wait a little longer, then try again.

2 1/2 hrs; ~9 servings
Ingredients:

Dough
1 cup warm water (100 degrees)
2 tsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 cup pre-sifted flour (I used Purity)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
cornmeal for dusting

Sauce
8 oz tomato sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tbsp olive oil
dash ground black pepper

Topping
tomato sauce (above)
chopped pitted olives
caramelized onions- 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, 2 garlic cloves, 2 medium onions sliced, salt to taste

Directions
1. In a bowl, mix water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for 10-15min. This process of "proofing" is done to make sure your yeast is "active, alive," and ready for baking. When the mixture is creamy and foamy, you're ready for step 2.   
2. mix in salt and olive oil
3. add flour and mix to make a uniformed ball of dough (knead for ~5min). be careful not to overwork dough as it will toughen. coat with olive oil.  Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm area (such as a preheated oven turned on for 5 min and then turned off) and let rise for 45min. Dough should double in size.
4.  In a pot, toss in all ingredients for tomato sauce. Stir frequently on medium high heat until sauce thickens (thicker sauce prevents dough from becoming soggy) ~7 min.
5. In a heated fry pan medium high heat, add oil and rosemary.  Swish around for 2 min to infuse oil with flavor.  Add in garlic, onions, and salt.  toss to coat.  add a splash of water and cover with lid. occasionally toss around onions to prevent them from burning. Cook until caramelized. Discard rosemary halfway through.
6.  Lightly grease baking pan.  Dust bottom of pan with a thin layer of corn meal (for a crispy crust).  Take dough ball and flatten in an even layer (note: if you want a thin crust, half dough into 2 and place in two separate pans).  Make many indents in dough with finger. Let sit and rise for another 15min.
7. add toppings and bake for ~45-55min. or until sides have browned a bit. (tip: spread caramelized onions on sides to make crust on sides crispy and golden).

Natalie

 

Farewell Mr. Lizard

Spaghetti In A Creamy Tomato Chive Butter Sauce Topped with Moist Chicken Cajun Cutlets

This has got to be my favorite Pasta by far. For me, it's the best of both worlds of creamy and tomato based pastas.

When I look at it, it resembles Chicken Parmesan Pasta in that the pasta is topped off with a cutlet, or thin cut of meat breaded and pan fried.  There's something about fried breaded meat on top of pasta and sauce.  I think the flavors and textures mix in so well together.  

Maybe the reason why I love it so much is because it's sort of a grown up version of Chicken Mc Nuggets and magic dunking sauce.  The cutlet on top is the nugget, and the creamy sauce is the little dunking sauce.  Hmm... Then the noodles can be the french fries?  All I know is that this pasta made me dance... and that's a pretty good indicator that it's a keeper.

How did this dish come about?  I had left over Chive Butter Spread and wondered what I should do with it since I was out of bread to spread it on.  Once again, I looked at what ingredients I had on hand (spaghetti, tomato, and chicken breast) and tossed them together.

*Note: I always bring my chicken breast to room temp before cooking it. This helps ensure that it gets cooked evenly.  I also lightly dredge them in flour and pan fry them with butter because these two steps are key in helping keep moisture in.  Butter has a lower heat capacity compared to regular oil so it's like you're slow cooking your chicken. 

Serve with garlic bread, soup, and/or salad.  As always, enjoy!  

2-3 servings; 15-25min
Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter (I use land o lakes light, salted)
1 garlic clove minced finely
~1/3 cup chopped chives chopped
1 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
If using unsalted butter add 1/2 tsp salt.  If using salted, add 1/4tsp or to taste.
1/4 cup lime juice from a ripe lime (or white wine)

1 tbsp cream cheese
6 tbsp evaporated milk

1 large very ripe tomato diced
splash of water
2 chicken breast
~4 tbsp flour for light dredging 
1 tbsp butter for each breast for frying
cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper for dusting breast

200g (~1/2 standard pack in Grenada) Spaghetti noodles

Cheddar cheese for topping

Directions
1. Butterfly chicken breast (lay palm of hand on top of one side and use a flat edged knife to make a cut down the middle. Tip: to start the cut, make short back and forth motions with a flat edged knife). Lay flat and cover with plastic wrap.  Take a flat edged cup or mallet and pound in a thin even layer.  Lightly dust chicken with salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning on one side only. Bring to room temperature while preparing other ingredients.
2. Sauce: Melt butter in sauce pan Medium heat. add chives, garlic, parsley, pepper, cajun seasoning, and salt. stir frequently to cook uniformly.  When mixture starts bubbling ~5 min. add lime juice. Stir to incorporate. Cook for 2 more min. Add cream cheese and evaporated milk. stir to incorporate. cook for another min and move to a separate bowl.
3. Noodles: bring a pot of salted water to a boil. cook noodles until their slighty undercooked. they will continue to cook in sauce.  One cooked, drain but don't rinse.
4. Chicken: Heat fry pan medium high heat. add 1/2 tbsp butter and wait until it starts crackling. In the meantime, lightly coat chicken in flour and shake all excess flour off.  Add to crackling fry pan and cook on one side without moving it for ~3 min. Be careful to make sure the pan doesn't smoke. Push to the side and add other 1/2 tbsp butter. once melted, flip chicken breast and cook for ~3min. to check if cooked, stab the breast- juices should run clear. repeat process with other breast. once both are cooked move to a separate plate.
5.  Don't discard chicken drippings.  Under medium high heat, add diced tomatoes and lightly salt to extract water. stir to coat in drippings. add a splash of water and cover with lid. stir occasionally and cook until tomatoes have turned into a puree ~5 min.
6. Once cooked, add creamy sauce and mix well.  Once mixed, add spaghetti. Mix well until sauce sticks to noodles. Turn Heat off and top with sliced chicken cutlets and shredded cheese and enjoy!! 

New York Bagel, Grenada- Menu

-Cuisines:  American,- Bagels, Hamburgers, Pizza, Soups, Sandwiches, Kosher 
-Location: Wall Street, St. George's 00000, Grenada. SGU Student Center. SGU behind SD5.
-Hours: On Wall Street and Truck- M-Th 7am-8pm; F 7am-5pm; Sa closed; Su 9am-8pm. 
Student Center- Su-Fr 24 hrs; Fr Close 5:30pm; Sa Open 7pm
-Phone: (473)-442-2435
-Price Range $
-Website: www.nybagels.net
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*Click Pictures to Enlarge

Creamy Burger Fajita Spaghetti

I was thinking about making Fajitas-a traditional Mexican dish composed of any type of meat grilled with bell peppers and onions that's typically served with tortillas- but I didn't have any tortillas on hand so I decided to use spaghetti noodles instead.

If you've eaten pasta before you would've probably figured out that with every pasta dish comes some type of sauce.  Mexican Fajitas normally doesn't come with sauce.  Instead, it's topped off with a little lime juice, sour cream, and a splash of hot sauce.  With these ingredients in mind, I decided to make my own creamy sauce with ingredients I had on hand- Cream cheese, white balsamic vinegar, and eggs.  This combination probably doesn't sound so great together but I can assure you that they mix in well.  The balsamic vinegar is reduced into a nice sweet sauce and leaves behind a little acidity the help balance off the other flavors and the cream cheese and eggs bind everything together nicely.

The "burger" part of this recipe comes from the addition of ketchup.  Ground beef and ketchup?  That screams out burger so I decided to add it in as part of this dish's title.  I had so much fun making this dish and even more fun eating it.  It's such a great dinner to eat in front of a movie.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic minced (~1tsp)
1 medium onion diced
1 medium potato cubed 1/4'' 
1 medium bell pepper sliced
a little under 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar or white wine (Foodfair for balsamic, IGA or CKs for wine)
1tbsp butter
1lb ground beef
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp dried parsley flakes
3tbsp ketchup
1 tsp brown or white sugar


Topping
2 eggs beaten
cheddar cheese
cream cheese
dash a cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for heat

1 pack of Spaghetti Noodles (400g or 14.1oz)

Directions
1.  Heat up pan medium high heat.  Add oil.  Add garlic and onion. Cook until translucent.
2. Add potatoes. Lightly salt and pepper.  stir to coat. cook for ~4 min.
3.  Add bell pepper amd stir fry for ~1min.  Push all ingredients to one side of pan.
4. Add balsamic vinegar on bare side of pan. Bring up to boil ~1min or until it reduces into 1/2. Add butter and stir to incorporate. Mix into vegetables.  Push to one side of pan. (turn heat down to low while you prepare spaghetti noodles)
5. Heat a pot of salted boiling water. Cook spaghetti al dente (slightly undercooked).
5.  turn heat back up to medium high. Add beef on bare side of pan in a flat layer.  Add salt, pepper, paprika, parsley on top.  Stir to incorporate and cook ~6min or until beef is cooked.
6. As soon as beef is cooked, mix in with veggies.  Add ketchup and sugar. cook for another 2min. with cover on.
7.  Place both spaghetti and noodles in separate bowls. I only mixed what I was going to eat, saving the rest for later.  Take desired amount of noodles and desired amount of beef mixture and add to pan. medium high heat. mix well. turn heat to low and add on top 2 beaten eggs, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese (for about 2 cups of noodles, I added 2 eggs). as soon as everything is mixed well together, turn heat off. Enjoy!

Soursop (guanábana (Spanish), graviola (Portuguese), Brazilian pawpaw, guyabano, corossolier, guanavana, toge-banreisi, durian benggala, nangka blanda, nangka londa) Sirsak (Indian)

not yet ripe

Soursop is an evergreen tree native to Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America.  It is adapted to areas of high humidity and is threatened in cold temperatures.  The flavor of the soursop has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana (Wikipedia).  It is commonly eaten as is, chilled and is used to make juices, ice cream bars, smoothies, and other desserts.

When unripe, the skin is firm and looks almost impossible to get through, but don't be discouraged by the deep green leather looking skin because cutting through (ripe or unripe) the fruit is like cutting through a watermelon-easy and fun.  You wouldn't cut through it unripe to begin with but I state so just to give you an idea of how easy it is.

When ripe, its skin is yellowish-greenish, soft to the touch, and very fragrant.  I'm so glad to find a fruit that tastes as good as it smells.

The more ripe it gets, the looser its fibers will get, the more pulp you will feel with your mouth.  When eaten the moment it ripens, it will be easier to chew through.  If you're not a fan of the pulp, you can mash it with a fork until the juice separates or you can chew it up with your mouth instead and extract the juices.  Better yet, you can grind it up into a smoothie (MmmM).

Soursop is prepared the same way as a watermelon with both skin and seeds discarded. First cut it in half lengthwise, then cut smiley slices, and lastly cut the skin off while trying to retain as much white pulp as you can.  Tip: It can be very messy depending on its ripeness so stand by with a big plastic bag for disposal of the skin and a kitchen towel for all residual juices left behind. 

ripe soursop

Links to Soursop recipes:
soursop smoothie
soursop ice cream
soursop cheesecake
soursop punch