This is a really FORKING amazing recipe. A few headlines that I read about the recipe were, “Ottolenghi reinvents Mac ‘N’ Cheese.” It is truly different and is far more complex than your even good macaroni and cheese. For this macaroni and cheese you don’t make the white sauce……. Instead you boil the pasta in milk and the pasta starch thickens the sauce……Then when you add the Middle Eastern spices, and the cilantro lemon pesto spiced with za’atar, and the crispy onions this pasta rocks and rolls………In case you don’t know Yotam Ottolenghi is a genius. He is one of the most talented chefs out there. He also is a multi award wining Cook Book Author, chef, and restauranteur.

I almost followed the recipe exactly….As I was researching the recipe I did find some slight differences from different websites but nothing that I would consider a major change. I did the recipe posted on Food52 because they have Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad in a video making this recipe. I did only two changes….not because I wanted to change the recipe but due to what I had at home. I used spaghetti instead of the cavatappi or fusilli dry pasta because all I had at home was spaghetti…..I do recommend to NOT to use spaghetti like I did because I think spaghetti has more surface than the short curly pastas recommended. I think that the spaghetti gave off more starch and my sauce might have thickened more than it would with the recommended pasta. The only other change I made was that I used non fat milk instead of full fat milk but I don’t think that changed things up too much. It’s not really a part of the recipe to make the onions BUT IT IS ESSENTIAL TO TOP WITH CRISP ONIONS. In the beginning read before the recipe they say to slice very thinly a couple of onions and toss two tablespoons of cornstarch and fry in vegetable oil in about three batches till golden and season with salt…….or you can use already crisp fried onions from your local supermarket. I fried my own onions. I used slightly more cornstarch than recommended…(maybe my onions were bigger?)…. and they took me around 20 minutes and made far more than I needed but they are so tasty and great on salads, burgers, and other things. This recipe was written as 4-6 portions. I got more but then again I eat pasta as small side servings…..But each serving was FORKING AWSOME!

Ingredients for 4 servings

10 1/2 oz dried cavatappi or fusilli pasta

2 1/2 cups whole milk (add another 1/2 cup if needed)

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter (cut in small cubes)

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds – toasted- crushed (or you can use ground cumin but it won’t taste as good)

5 Tablespoons heavy cream

1 1/3 cup mature cheddar cheese – shredded (Costco sells it)

6 1/3 oz greek feta cheese – crumbled

kosher salt – to taste

fresh ground black pepper – to taste

1/2 cup crispy onions or shallots – either home made or store bought

1 large lemon (za’atar pesto)

3 Tablespoons za’atar (za’atar pesto)

1 cup cilantro – leaves and tender stems, chopped (za’atar pesto)

1 garlic clove – chopped

1/2 cup pine nuts – lightly toasted (za’atar pesto)

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (za’atar pesto)

Directions

Put the pasta, 2 1/2 cups milk, 1 1/2 cup water, butter, garlic, turmeric, 1 teaspoon salt, a good amount of fresh ground black pepperoni a large sauce pan on medium high heat. Bring to simmer and turn down to medium and cook stirring occasionally for around 10-14 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.You might need an extra 1/2 cup milk if your sauce got very thick. Turn heat down to low and add the cumin, cream, and cheeses until nicely melted.

While the pasta is cooking make the pesto. Grate the lemon. Slice off the skin of the lemon. Supreme the lemon and chop the supremes. The zest and chopped supremes go to the side. You should have some lemon left from the supremes and you can squeeze the juice in a bowl or food processor. to the bowl or food processor add za’atar, cilantro, pine nuts, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, a good grind of pepper, and half of the oil. Process or use a stick blender…..and if you don’t have either you can use a mortar or hand chop. Then add the lemon to the side and the rest of the oil.

Serve the macaroni right away. It is suggested to drizzle the pesto all over and then to top with a 1/2 cup of crispy onions.

This is FOKING Delicious!

A Special THANKS!!!! to The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen and Food52 for this FORKING AMAZING Recipe!

I was reading about a Southern Italian condiment that is also a Dressing and Marinade called Salmoriglio. It turns out that Salmoriglio is mainly olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, water, and salt. Salmoriglio varies slightly in different areas. Some places add parsley. Some add tomatoes and some add anchovies. It’s usually served on swordfish, other seafood, grilled meats, and vegetables. Today I thought those flavors might be good on roasted carrots. I added some toasted walnuts, and put the carrots over leftover rice. Besides rice…..noodles, polenta, potatoes, or beans would go well under the carrots…You can even serve them with some toasted bread. Serving size is difficult to judge….I’d say it make around 4 smaller side portions or two medium to large servings. I’ll round it to three servings.

Ingredients for around three servings

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice – dressing

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste – dressing

1 teaspoon sea salt – dressing

1 small dried Calabrian Chili – crushed (or use red pepper flakes to taste…but they don’t taste as good and are hotter with less flavor) – dressing

1 teaspoon dried oregano – dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil – dressing

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves – chopped – dressing

1 lb carrots – skin removed if not organic. I cut mine in half long ways.

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sea salt – to taste

Fresh ground pepper – to taste

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1+!/2 teaspoons dressing

1/3 cup walnuts – slightly Broken and slightly salted and toasted

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves torn or chopped

2 Tablespoons scallions sliced thin

Directions

Make the dressing

Mix together the lemon juice, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, dried chili, oregano, 1/4 cup olive oil, and parsley. Set to the side.

Set oven to 450 degrees F.

In a pan or large baking dish add the water, honey, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons dressing and mix around. Add the carrots. Cover tight with foil. Place in middle rack of preheated 450F oven for 30 minutes or until carrots are fork tender.

After carrots are fork tender….Drain the liquid…Spray carrots with extra virgin olive oil (about 2 Tablespoons) Season them lightly with a small amount of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Put them back in the oven to roast up a little (around 20 minutes).

Serve them on top of either rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, or whatever you like. Top the carrots with dressing, walnuts, basil, and scallions.

ENJOY!!

I was thinking about a custard filling for acorn squash that I had to use….The flavor spectrum is endless so I had many different ideas on different flavors. I thought a pumpkin pie kind of seasoning would work well and I had some walnuts that I thought I could work in with this nifty delicious Watkins Brand Maple Bourbon Rub that I have.

This one is pretty easy and it’s NOT low calorie but I think I made it lighter than a regular custard pie because there is no crust and I didn’t use any heavy cream and I used the sugar as sparingly as possible so it’s not too sweet either. I used two acorn squash so I think on the average you would eat one quarter of the squash so technically that should be around 8 servings unless you eat a whole half and then it would be 4 servings. Even though my squash differed in size I will guesstimate 8 servings. I also must add that this recipe isn’t fool proof and you might get mad at me because if you trim the squash off on the bottom it can leak while cooking. After making them…I’d recommend not to trim the bottom because if they leak you are done…..The squash will get soft when you do the roast so you can squish them into shape or use foil to get them to sit even.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

2 acorn squash – cut in half

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – melted – squash

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger – squash

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon – squash

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg – squash

2 Tablespoons sugar – squash

pinch sea salt – squash

1 cup walnut pieces – MB walnuts

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – melted – MB walnuts

1 teaspoon Watkins maple bourbon rub – MB walnuts

1 Tablespoon sugar – MB walnuts

1- 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk – custard

3 eggs – custard

2 teaspoons corn starch – custard

1 teaspoon ground ginger – custard

1 teaspoon cinnamon – custard

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg – custard

pinch sea salt – custard

non stick spray

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F

Squash halves go on baking sheets. Your squash might not sit even but keep in mind that if you do trim the squash might leak and your custard will run out.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the 2 Tablespoons butter,1/4 t. ginger, 1/4 t. cinnamon,1/8 t. nutmeg, 2 Tablespoons sugar and a pinch of sea salt. This mixture gets painted on the squash.

You put the squash in a preheated 400 degree F oven on the middle rack for around 40 minutes.

You can take a break for 40 minutes or if you have a second oven make the Maple Bourbon Walnuts. When you are ready to make the walnuts you need an oven preheated to 350 degrees F .

Mix together in a small bowl the walnuts, butter, Watkins maple bourbon rub and sugar. This mixture goes in a single layer on a sheet pan for only 10 minutes on the middle rack of your preheated oven. After around 10 minutes remove and let cool to the side.

By now your squash are out of the oven.

Leave them cool off some till they are warm. At this time you can do an extra step and grab a foil and spray with non stick spray…The idea is to balance the squash really well so you don’t have to cut the bottom off and get a leak. (see picture below the next one) The squash are also soft now and you can squish them a little to shape them to sit right.

Blend the coconut milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour the mixture into each squash half. (You might have extra custard depending on the size of your squash…..You can either toss or cook off in a small dish.

The custard filled squash need to stay in the oven for around 45 minutes.

Remove and top with the maple bourbon walnuts.

I would serve hot or warm…or maybe at room temperature but I don’t think cold would be best for the squash. The above photo is cold….The custard is a little softer when heated.

ENJOY!!

There is this one chef out there that is very inspiring and must be one of the most amazing chefs ever but his recipes never work out. Some chefs are really great but they don’t put much care into recipe writing. Or maybe they just write up their recipes with typos?????? I came up with corn patties to go with all the sauces that went with the chef’s recipe that doesn’t work out. He came up with a fancy baked corn dish that was suppose to come out solid so you could grill it……It did have a really great flavor but I renamed it and used it as Sofrito Corn Frosting. After it cooked it had a consistency of frosting. The corn patties are tasty, easy and pretty quick to prepare. They come out slightly crispy on the exterior and the inside is fluffy and moist sort of like a pancake. Sauces aren’t really necessary. But if you happen to feel like making pachamanca and huancaina sauce it wouldn’t hurt. This recipe made me 24 small patties. You will want to eat 2-4 patties a serving. So that means you will get around 6-12 servings depending on how big you want your portion size to be. I’ll round it up to 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings.

1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (around two medium ears)

1 cup onions – diced about corn kernel sized

1/3 cup scallions – sliced thin

3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon corn meal

2 teaspoons sea salt (I used my home made smoked pecan sea salt)

1 Tablespoon granulated onion

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

non stick spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Spray baking sheets with non stick spray and put to the side.

In a large mixing bowl combine the corn, onions, scallions, flour, baking powder, corn meal, salt, granulated onion, white pepper and sugar and mix well. In a small bowl beat the eggs and add the water. This gets mixed into the large bowl contents. Don’t worry it will look very dry.

I used my smallest scooper so the patties would be close to the same sizes.

I scooped them out like this and flattened them a little bit.

In my oven on the middle rack and lower rack mine took 20 minutes to be done. (timing can differ)

They came out slightly browned and nice light brown bottoms.

Then I added all these sauces I made and sherry soaked figs.

Enjoy!!!!

This recipe is my artsy variation of the Peruvian Dish Papa Rellenas………Just so you know Papa Rellenas are fried potato croquettes stuffed with seasoned beef filling with hard eggs. I did similar flavors but did something different. A word of warning…….This recipe called for several different Peruvian Peppers that you might not have… I used aji panca paste in the meatloaf for the main flavor. I used dried yellow Peruvian peppers in the Onion salsa (they are really great….a flavorful not too hot pepper) I recommend just a little bit of aji amarillo paste to flavor the potatoes (or a Peruvian sauce made with aji amarillo paste)……I also garnished with Peruvian Sweet Drop peppers. or me this recipe made 6 portions that aren’t the biggest.

Ingredients for around 6 portions

1 1/2 lbs potatoes – peeled, quartered, boiled till fork tender with a generous amount of salt (usually golden potatoes are used but I used russets because that’s what I had)

aji amarillo paste – to taste (or you can substitute spicy cilantro sauce RECIPE under Peruvian Roasted Chicken) (this goes into the potatoes or also delicious huancaina sauce….I made it not sure if published…love both these sauces……THEY ARE SO FORKING DELICIOUS….You should make them and keep small portions in your freezer like I do….You will thank me.)

1 egg – lightly beaten

3 eggs – boiled 7 minutes ( I washed mine off and added them 7 minutes in with the boiling potatoes because I knew that the potatoes would only take about 15 minutes)

1-lb lean ground turkey 93%

1/4 medium onion – fine chop

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 Tablespoon aji panca chili paste

14 olives – chopped

2 eggs – lightly beaten

1 mini red bell pepper – chopped (or around maybe 1/4 of a regular red bell pepper)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 Tablespoon slightly heaping Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base (I use this instead of salt because it adds more flavors and uses less salt)

1/4 cup golden raisins – lightly chopped

1/4 cup fresh parley leaves

non stick spray

1 red onion – cut in half, sliced very thin on mandolin

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

yellow Peruvian dried chili flakes – to taste

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

The first things to do are to boil the potatoes, then the eggs (if you haven’t already). The potatoes get mashed with either a very small amount of aji amarillo paste or a small amount of yellow cilantro sauce (that is made with aji amarillo) If you used a good amount of salt to boil the potatoes then they probably are seasoned enough…If not add some salt as needed. The eggs should go in an ice bath when done. When they are cool enough to handle peel them and keep the potatoes and eggs to the side.

Set oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a sheet pan or pans with non stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl combine the minced red onion, garlic (4), aji panca paste, olives, eggs, red bell, cumin, 1/2 t. black pepper, oregano, vegetable base, raisins, and parsley.

If you have a round ring pat the meat mixture into a ring on your non stick sprayed baking sheet and pat 1/2 an egg into it.

Repeat till you are done. This made 6 meatloafs for me.

I had only a little bit of meat left so I patted them on top of the eggs.

Then I scored the potatoes in the bowl in half and each half in thirds so I’d know about how much potato to put on each one.

You can just scoop them out if you don’t do pastry bags.

These went in the middle rack at pre-heated 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

While they were cooking I made the onion salsa.

In a medium size bowl combine the onions, garlic, dried yellow chili flakes to taste, lemon juice, cilantro, and sea salt and salt and pepper to taste.

If the potatoes aren’t brown enough you can broil them for about two minutes.

ENJOY!!!!

I made maybe the same Mexican style tuna last week and it turned out delicious so I thought I’d make it again but a little fancier. One of the KEY ingredients that makes this delicious are my home made pickled jalapeños. I even use some of the brine and that also adds good flavors. PLEASE do NOT BUY jarred jalapeños from the grocery store. They do not taste the same. It’s ok if you buy pickled jalapeños from a farmer’s market or maybe from your favorite Mexican restaurant…Or just make them the same way I did from here www.TheForkingTruth.com . You also might not have a spiral slicer to make the potato strings. They sell little pain in the butt ones that I don’t recamend. I also had and returned my Kitchen Aid Attachment that makes potato strings because it’s not so good…..Believe it or not the very best spiral slicer I’ve found is the Paderno Slicer that I found at one of those expensive kitchen stores at our high end mall.

It comes with three kinds of blades. One for strings, one for wide strings. one for wide ribbons. It’s great for potatoes but I found that it’s too hard to use on carrots. (The box pictures it making carrot strings)

ANYWAYS-

Portion size is very hard to judge. I made 12 stuffed peppers wrapped with strings. I’m going to guesstimate three lunches or 6 appetizers.

Ingredients for around 3 servings

1 – 6.4oz pack of chunk light drained tuna in water

1/4 medium onion – fine chop

2 pickled jalapeno peppers chopped (or around 1/4 cup)

1 small heirloom tomato chopped (around 2 1/2 oz)

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup pimento stuffed green olives – chopped

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

1/4 cup cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped

1 Tablespoon capers

1/2 teaspoon dried epazote (they sell this at Walmart and Whole Foods but you can use a small amount of fresh if you have it or substitute oregano)

pinch dried mint

2 Tablespoons jalapeno brine

1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons annatto oil (had this leftover from a recipe I made a few weeks back…it easy or use 2 Tablespoons olive oil and add a pinch of ground annatto)

1 lb mini bell peppers (you really need around 3/4 pound but I rounded up so you wouldn’t be short……..)

3 medium size russet potatoes (around a pound)

olive oil – to spray to tops of the potatoes

non stick spray – to spray sheet pans

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

Set oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a sheet pan with non stock spray and set to the side.

In a big mixing bowl combine the tuna, onion, jalapeños, tomato. raisins, olives, scallions, cilantro, capers, epazote, mint, jalapeño brine, lime juice, annatto oil and mix well.

You need to make “T” shape cuts on the mini bell peppers and remove seeds and maybe some membrane.

You open them up and stuff them full and press the stuffing in so it isn’t loose.

Make the potato strings and wrap them around the peppers trying to keep most of the potato strings on the top.

I had a small amount extra so I kept that on the side on a non stick sprayed pan. (At the end they can be added to the tops of the stuffed peppers.

All the potatoes get sprayed with olive oil and you need to season them with salt and pepper.

These go on the middle rack of a pre-heated 425 degree F oven for around 30 minutes or until nicely browned. (I put the extra tray of potatoes on the lowest rack for the same amount of time.)

My dogs were very interested.

You might want to add some avocado cream (a few recipes back) a few more scallions, and or a little tiny bit of fresh cilantro. I made some sour cream roses just to show off..

Enjoy!