Chopped Beet, Apple and Chestnut Salad with Green Garlic Vinaigrette

I picked up some really nice beets from the farmer’s market and I roasted them this time like the way you do carrots…but with the stems and part of the leaves on. (I used the bigger parts of the leaves for salads). A little water in the pan covered in a 350 degree F oven for about an hour.  I saw on a cooking show that the beets keep more flavor in if you leave the tops on when you cook them. I also heard that beets keep in more flavor when you roast them. These beets did come out very flavorful and very earthy. I read that Chestnuts pair with earthy flavors like mushrooms so I thought why isn’t anyone pairing beets with chestnuts?  I found out that beets do indeed pair very well with chestnuts…so I decided to make some sort of salad of the two together. I made a green garlic vinaigrette…(light on the e.v.o.o…..because that’s how I roll) and added other ingredients that I thought went together. The salad looked prettier on a dish or in bigger pieces more layered but I thought it was best tasting as a chopped salad so that’s how I prepared it.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

1 bunch green garlic – (washed cut in half and chopped. Place in water to remove dirt. Repeat as many times as necessary. Remove with a mesh ladle and put to the side)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more if desired)

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1 bunch  beets (don’t use golden unless you boil them soft)

1 apple – chopped

1/2 oz fresh basil – chopped

7 oz vacuumed packed chestnuts (hard ingredient that’s only fresh one week a year here) – chopped (not too small)

1/4 sweet onion – chopped

3/4 oz fresh sage

2 oz sweet butter

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 oz sharp hard Italian Cheese – shaved

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Wash your beets (yellow beets are not recommended for roasting because they oxidize from roasting and need to be boiled)  really well and if they are very large cut them in half. You can leave the leaves on if your not putting them in a salad. Place beets in pan with about a half inch of water and cover the pan. Roast till fork tender. (about an hour)

Allow to cool. When cool enough to handle peel beets and cut in desired shape. (something bite size)

In a large bowl combine the beets, basil, chestnuts and onion and put to the side.

In a small fry pan on medium heat add butter and 2 Tablespoons canola oil. When hot add the sage leaves. They crisp up fast. Remove leaves and place on paper towel to drain. Put to the side when done.

Add the apple to the flavored oil and quickly sauté the apple just for less than a minute just to pick up a little flavor. remove the apple pieces with a slotted or mesh spoon and add to the big bowl with beets.

Use the oil and add green garlic till soft about four minutes.

When the green garlic is cooler or just warm blend together the green garlic, sea salt, dijon, 1/4 cup olive oil, white vinegar, white pepper till smooth.

Add desired amount of dressing to portion of beet salad you are having and finish with sharp cheese and crisp sage leaves.

Chopped Beet, Apple and Chestnut Salad with Green Garlic Vinaigrette

I thought of a better presentation. I should have presented on a flat plate and just made rows of everything. It taste delicious the way I made it in photo. You will be pleasantly surprised. Something different and original to do with beets.

The Forking Truth

Kabocha Squash and Chestnut Gnocchi with Fried Sage and Browned Butter

These Kabocha Squash and Chestnut Gnocchi and Forking Delicious…….The Kabocha Squash is so sweet and chestnut- like tasting that they are meant to go together. So I combined some chestnut flour into the squash gnocchi and had some chestnuts cooking in the browning butter and the flavor really is off the charts great. I MUST ADMIT that this recipe is not recommended for people who are beginners at gnocchi making because these are harder to make than regular potato or cheese gnocchi. The squash doesn’t work as well with the flour and you might have trouble if your squash is too watery for this recipe to come out right. My squash was too hard for me to cut so I pierced it all over with a knife. Threw it on a pan with maybe 1/3rd of an inch of water at 400 degrees F. Covered the squash checked it at 45 minutes and it was still rock hard. It was a big kabocha. Checked every 15 minutes and it was “knife tender” not fork tender. At 90 minutes I got a knife tender kabocha.

The Squash should be cooked like this dry and not too moist or you have to make something else with it.

Ingredients for about 4 servings

1 cup mashed kabocha squash.

1 XL egg – slightly beaten

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 oz chestnut flour

3/4 cup ap  flour ( only up to 3/4 cup should start with 1/2 cup do a tester and work up if necessary )*

2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

pinch nutmeg

pinch white pepper

1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt – for boiling the gnocchi

4 oz sweet butter ( for sauce )

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil ( for sauce )

5 oz chestnuts – roasted, peeled ( for sauce )

one bunch sage leaves – cleaned  ( to flavor butter and to top gnocchi with )

4 heaping Tablespoons ricotta cheese -preferably home made ( to finish plate of gnocchi )

Directions

In a large bowl with a for mix together the squash, egg and chestnut flour and let it sit on a counter for about thirty minutes.

While the squash mixture is sitting prepare the sauce.

In a sauce pan add the butter and olive oil. Once melted turn to medium high. let it go a few minutes and then add the chestnuts on one half of the pan . You can break them down a little with a spoon here if you want too.  Place the sage leaves on the other half of the pan. When sage leaves are crisp remove and let drain on a towel. When the chestnuts are lightly browned remove them. Let the butter go till it looks a little lighter than caramel. Take off heat and leave to the side.

Put on a sauce pot to medium boil with a tablespoon of water. Tie some kitchen string to a handle. The string cuts the gnocchi like so. But be careful not to catch the string on fire.

In the squash mixture bowl you need to add the remaining ingredients of balsamic, *flour (read note at flour ingredients), 1 teaspoon sea salt, nutmeg, white pepper and brown sugar. Mix well.

Snip disposable pastry bag, fold and fill like picture.

Twist end.

Apply pressure and cut gnocchi off with string.

Gnocchi will float in about a minute. Let them cook about a minute after floating.

Scoop them out with a slotted spoon into a dish and top with a little bit of the butter from the pan and shake the dish so the gnocchi get buttered. Don’t worry about pasta water getting mixed in because you want that! It’s better that way.

Refill pastry bag and repeat.

Add the chestnuts. Top with sage and a dab of ricotta.

Kabocha Squash and Chestnut Gnocchi

Forking Delicious!

The Forking Truth

Rice and Zucchini Crostata

I watched Lidia Bastianich on her TV Show on PBS Cooking with Lidia making this incredible sounding Crostata. It is a bit of work. Lidia recommends to make your own ricotta cheese and I’m totally understand that so that’s ok for me. The taste is not the same if you purchase the cheese. It doesn’t compare. You also need a lot of zucchini and a lot of scallions. Lidia recommends to make the dough with a food processor. I find the recipe is very good and you can make the dough by hand like I did……Also a  baking stone is also recommended to get the bottom of the crust brown. The only issue I had with the recipe is that it doesn’t contain pepper. In my mind the recipe should have some pepper in it but I didn’t want to change the recipe so I finely chopped 4 Calabrian Chili Peppers in to the mix and they gave a nice little mild bit of heat in the finish. The recipe makes a generous amount of filling so you can do a little tester in an oven with a small amount of filling and taste it and then decide if you want to add a little bit of pepper or not. This recipe is considered an Appetizer or Hors D’ Oeuvres ……..?…..but I think it can be a breakfast, lunch or light dinner  (If you don’t cut it too large). I didn’t try it yet but Lidia wrote that leftovers freeze well.

Ingredients to make about 15 servings

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup cold water – plus more if needed

1 pound small zucchini (I needed three)

1/2 cup arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano rice

2 cups ricotta – preferably fresh drained over night

1 cup grated Grans Padano

2 bunched scallions finely chopped – (about two cups)(bunches by me are not big enough to make a cup)

3 large eggs slightly beaten

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons kosher salt

butter for baking pan – (I used non-stick spray)

Directions

If your making your own ricotta do that first…It will take about an hour plus. (basically 1 gallon milk, between 1 pint- 1 quart heavy cream 1 scant Tablespoon salt bring SLOWLY to rolling boil on medium heat. This will take at least an hour. Let it rolling boil a few minutes and add about fresh squeezed lemon juice SLOWLY until you see curds from about three medium sized lemons (you might not need all the juice if the lemons are very juicy but usually I need 3 lemons. You should see it curds now.

Let it cook just a few minutes and you can drain quickly with a mesh strainer. Your cheese will be ready as soon as it cools slightly. You will have more than double the cheese you need. Leftover cheese freezes very well.

Now make dough. If you have a food processor pour the flour, 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 olive oil and 1/3 cup cold water and pulse. Pulse and you should have a smooth dough but if it’s pebbly you might need a little more water. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest at least a 1/2 hour.

For the filling.- In a large bowl shred the zucchini on the course holes. Toss in the rice.and let it sit together 30-60 minutes. Then fold in the ricotta, grated cheese, eggs – beaten, milk and salt and mix well.

Add your baking stone to the oven on a middle rack and set the temperature to 375 degrees F.

On a floured surface roll out the dough till it’s about 4 inches larger than your pan. (if you can).

Butter your pan.

Roll the dough around the rolling pin so you can roll the dough off into the pan.

Place the dough in the pan the best you can and then add filling and fold the ends over the filling.

You might want to turn the crostata half way during cooking for even browning. In 45-60 minutes the Crostata should be done. (In my oven it took an hour to be done)

Let it rest and cool down a little before you put in the refrigerator. You are suppose to serve this slightly warm or at room temperature.

Rice and Zucchini Crostata

It’s delicious and very rich. I recommend to cut in small pieces. It’s a crowd pleaser!

Thanks to Chef Lidia for a great recipe!

The Forking Truth

Delicious Pickled Jalapeños

I got a bunch of Jalapeños that are HOT so I thought I’d pickle some of them. These Pickled Jalapeños are so delicious you can easily made lots of foods delicious with them easily. I do recommend to wear gloves because when you handle so many jalapeños because you will injure yourself. Your hands will burn the next day too so wear gloves. The recipe is pretty easy and you don’t really have to do the canning process because with all the vinegar it will stay fresh for several months or do the canning process if you prefer. I found out later that these Pickled Jalapeños make some VERY DELICIOUS Guacamole….It’s one of my new tricks! The other is that these Delicious Pickled Jalapeños help to make a really awesome chicken salad. I didn’t write down exactly how I made it but the chicken salad was made of pulled chicken, a good amount of the pickled jalapeños, dijon mustard, celery, green onions and a little water that emulsified with the dijon. I stuffed the chicken salad into mini bell peppers and it was Forking Great!

Ingredients for about 20 servings

1 lb jalapeños – cleaned, stems and cores removed and cut into rings

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups rice wine vinegar

2 cups water

4 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 sweet onion – cut in thin slices

6 cloves garlic – smashed

1 Tablespoon black peppercorns

1 Tablespoon coriander seeds

2 bay leaves

1 carrot – peeled and sliced very thin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

Set the Jalapeños carrots and onions in a large bowl and set to the side.

Get your large sauce pot on medium high heat with remaining ingredients and bring to a boil till sugar dissolves.

Reduce to simmer and let it go about ten minutes.

Place vegetables in containers. Add liquid. Place lids on when it’s cool.

Pickled Jalapeños

These were once jalapeños that were to hot to eat and now they are a yummy kinder heat that’s layered in flavor and delicious.

I found they add something super special to home made guacamole and they also are great in chicken salad and MORE!

Guacamole made with the Delicious Pickled Peppers

The Forking Truth