Forking Delicious Hatch Chile Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is pretty easy to prepare. I do some things different so I have a nice cheese sauce that doesn’t break. Some of the secrets to not breaking the sauce is to cook over medium – low heat most of the time. But it’s more about the ingredients. Most of the fat in the recipe should come from the cheese. You also have to use half or more mild cheese and slightly less than half xtra sharp cheese. This recipe contains delicious fired roasted Hatch Chile for a delicious kick! Don’t you dare use canned Hatch Chile……… because it will not taste similar. If you are in the Phoenix Area I do know that Fry’s and Walmart do sell frozen Hatch Chile. I haven’t tried them but they are recommended over canned.  I do note that you have to wing the amount of * Hatch Chile you add to the sauce because your peppers may not have the same heat and flavor as mine and your love of Hatch Chile may differ. I’m using these fire roasted Hatch Chile Peppers after they’ve been in my freezer since the fall and I think they are much more mellow now but still delicious. I note that when you make this kind of macaroni and cheese you add ONLY ABOUT HALF of the macaroni that you think you need because the pasta will drink up the sauce and the next day this will be very dry. I suggest to serve half a day latter or the next day after.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

2 cups cooked macaroni****** (or more) 2 cups is prefect if you are serving this latter or the next day because the pasta absorbs the liquid. Boil more if you are serving right away. – ( boil pasta for three minutes less than box suggest in salted water add the one Tablespoon of butter to the hot macaroni so it doesn’t stick)

1 1/2 cup xtra sharp aged cheddar cheese – shredded – packed really tight

1 1/2 cup Colby jack cheese  – shredded – packed really tight

4 oz fontina cheese – shredded

2 Tablespoons sweet butter – one Tablespoon for pasta so it doesn’t stick and the other for the cheese sauce

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1/3 cup flour

1 cup cold water

2 Tablespoons cayenne pepper sauce (Frank’s Red Hot is preferred)

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1 lb *hatch chile peppers – fire roasted, seeds, stem and most of skin removed – chopped (* amount of hatch chile may differ depending on heat and your love for hatch chile)

2 tablespoons of i’itoi;s onions – green parts – chopped fine or you can substitute scallions – the i’itoi’s have a slightly shallot taste to them but are similar to scallions.

Directions

In a small mixing bowl combine dry milk and flour. Add water and mix well till the mixture is lump free.

In your sauce pot on medium high heat add the remaining one tablespoon butter and let it melt. After the butter is melted whip in the contents of the small bowl. Mix well and bring it to  bubble, let it bubble a little and then add the cheeses and TURN DOWN the heat to medium low. Stir and add in the hot sauce, paprika, cayenne and white pepper.

By this time turn the heat down again to low.

Now you add the hatch chile to your liking. I used around a pound that were very hot when I froze them. So you might want to start with a cup of chopped hatch and then taste and see what you think and add maybe a half cup more at a time till you think you have the hatch chile taste you like.

Shut the heat off and add the scallion or i’itoi’s onions and lastly add the macaroni. I prefer to let the macaroni set and to reheat latter.

Forking Delicious Hatch Chile Macaroni and Cheese

Comes out Forking Delicious! I didn’t get to eat much of this one. My husband kept running back for more and was bummed when it was gone.

The Forking Truth

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