Recipe: Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Pasta

An eggplant. Missing ingredients. A car accident. The inability to read and follow simple directions.

What do all of these things have in common? You guessed it. My first foray into cooking in quite some time didn't go exactly as planned. The food was still delicious (which is of course the main point) but it took quite a bit longer and was much more frustrating than it should have been. Oh well.

I am, as I may have mentioned, house sitting. And I haven't entirely figured out their kitchen organizational system as of yet, which meant I was already a tad frustrated when I began because, really, how hard should it be to find a mixing bowl? Naturally it was in the last drawer that I looked in. Figures.

The first step in this vegetarian pasta is to roast your veggies. This was my first time ever cooking an eggplant, and I was pretty excited. Mostly because we ate a lot of eggplant in China and it was amazing. Amazing. Anyways, the selection of eggplants at Safeway was less than inspiring, but I managed. Cut it up into small chunks, along with some yellow pepper and onion. Toss the lot with olive oil and finely chopped garlic (the more the merrier, I always say) and spread in a shallow baking dish or on a cookie sheet and throw in the oven for approximately 30-45 minutes (depending on how big you chopped your veggies).

'

This phase of the operation went flawlessly and I was beginning to feel better about this whole cooking thing. [insert ominous music here] Then I went to pull out the ingredients for the pasta sauce so I could get going on that ... and I discovered that, sadly, in spite of multiple reminder notes to myself, I had forgotten to pick up the bottle of white wine from home, even though I had already been there twice that day. And since the sauce is basically pureed tomatoes, wine and goat cheese, the wine is a pretty crucial ingredient. I couldn't exactly skip it. But I didn't really want to go and get it and leave my veggies in the oven roasting all on their lonesome.

Well, I thought to myself, no problem. I'll just call my parents and invite them over for dinner too as long as they bring the wine. That way I can keep cooking and they get a free dinner out of it. Win-win, right? The only problem: they weren't home. And neither of them answer their cell phones (naturally). So what choice did I have? I could have dashed to the local liquor store and bought a whole new bottle, but I'm cheap and didn't want to do that. So I waited until my veggies were done, turned the stove off and dashed off to the parentals house.

Or at least I tried to. I got about 2 blocks from my housesitting place and then there was a giant accident blocking off the intersection and pretty much my only way out. And by giant I mean not giant, but it was still big enough to block Quadra for a good long ways. Super annoying. I had to take a ridiculously long detour to get to my parents house, grab the wine, and then get stuck in the traffic on the way back which was still held up from the accident. Good times.

Anyways, got back to my new place, started making the sauce. Put the pureed tomatoes and wine in the pan along with some oregano. Forgot that I was halving the recipe and put in too much wine. Oops.

Still tasted fine though. I just let it boil for a little while longer to get rid of some of the alcohol taste. While that was cooking I got the pasta started. I used my favourite (fusilli) but you of course could use whatever type of pasta you feel like.

After the sauce has been simmering for about 15 minutes, add in the roasted vegetables and simmer for another 10. By that time your pasta should be about done. Drain it and pour the sauce over top. Crumble the goat cheese on top with some fresh basil and mix thoroughly. The goat cheese will melt and give a delicious creaminess to the sauce. Yum.

Serve immediately. :)

Oh, and one last thing that went wrong with this meal -- I took all the photos for this blog post, but then realized I had left my camera cord in my other bag, which was still at my parents' house. So this post had to wait a couple of days for me to go back and get it. Sigh.

Here's the full recipe (which is, naturally, from The Girl Can't Cook)

Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Pasta

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, peeled, salted, and rinsed

1 large yellow bell pepper

1 large white onion

1 head garlic, cloves peeled

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 can (796 mL) Roma tomatoes, pureed

1 cup white wine

1 tsp dried oregano

1 lb. short pasta (penne, etc)

1 cup soft goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup slivered fresh basil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 F. Slice the eggplant and cut into 1-inch chunks. Cut the bell pepper into cubes and cut the onion into chunks. In a shallow roasting pan, combine the eggplant, pepper and onion with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Rost in the oven for 45 minutes, until tender, stirring once or twice.

2.  Meanwhile, in a large pot, combine the pureed tomatoes, wine and oregano and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to thicken. Stir in the roasted vegetables and simmer together for 10 minutes longer.

3. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well but don't rinse. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce and heat through. Add the crumbled cheese and basil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or turn into a casserole dish and bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown.

Recipe: Double-Dipped Chicken Fingers + Spinach Salad with Orange Goat Cheese Dressing

Yum. This was a delicious meal, and I can definitively say that this recipe is extremely flexible. Because for a  wide variety of reasons, I basically didn't follow the recipe at all. Oops. Oh well. It was still delicious. Yum.

First step is to make the dressing. The original recipe called for blue cheese and  lemon juice in the dressing, but that was obviously not going to happen. Blue cheese? Gross. So what did I substitute? Goat cheese, obviously. What else would I do? And I had every intention of using lemon juice. I really did. Except I didn't check the fridge before I went to the store. We only had like a tablespoon of lemon juice left in the bottle. And the only lemons in the fridge were growing some kind of funky fuzzy stuff. Ew. So instead, I used oranges. Totally the same thing, right? Oh, and last change to the dressing? I opted out of the chopped celery and threw in some dried cilantro. 

So to recap the ingredients: sour cream + goat cheese + hot sauce + freshly squeezed orange juice + orange zest + cilantro + salt and pepper. Whisk them all together, and you've got some fairly serious magic.

Toss about half of the dressing together with some spinach, finely chopped red onion, and mushrooms (optional). Set aside the rest of the dressing to be used as dip for the chicken fingers.

Meanwhile, heat up some oil in a deep pot and get your flour and buttermilk ready. Coat the chicken fillets once in flour and buttermilk, then twice, and then one last time in the flour before firing them into the oil. 

Cook to your preferred level of crispiness, remembering to turn them over about halfway through.

Once they're all crisped up, put them a plate lined with paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Throw the next batch in the oil, and keep going until they're all cooked.

Serve them beside the spinach salad with extra dressing for dipping sauce, or chop them up and sprinkle on top of the salad. Your choice. I added chopped peaches to my salad for garnish and a bit of a flavour pop (berries would work nice too -- blueberries in particular, I think) as well.

Enjoy :)

The original recipe comes from Rachel Ray's Express Lane Meals.

Double-Dipped Buttermilk Chicken Fingers on Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

(aka possibly the longest recipe name of all time)

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

A few dashes of hot sauce

1 cup blue cheese crumbles

1/2 cup sour scream

1 celery rib, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper

Vegetable oil, for frying

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon paprika, 1/3 palmful

1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken tenders

1 pound spinach

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

10 button mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the lemon juice, hot sauce, crumbled blue cheese, sour cream, celery, salt and pepper. Mix the dressing well and reserve.

2. Preheat 1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil in a large deep skillet. While the oil is heating, set up a breading assembly line near the stove. Put the flour in a large, wide bowl; pour the buttermilk into a second large, wide bowl; then stir in the lemon zest and paprika. Season the chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Working in 2 or 3 batches, dust the chicken tenders in the flour, shake off the excess, then coat in the buttermilk. Transfer them back to the flour and coat them thoroughly, then back to the buttermilk, and then back into the flour for one last coating.

3. To test the oil temperature, add a 1-inch cube of bread to the hot oil. If it turns deep golden brown by a count of 40, the oil is ready. If the bread cube browns too quickly, turn down the heat and wait a few minutes for it to cool down. Carefully place the first batch of coated tenders in the hot oil. Fry the tenders in small batches for 6 to 7 minutes, turning when the first side has become golden brown. Once cooked, remove from the oil to a paper-towel-lined plate and immediately sprinkle them with a little salt. Repeat until all the tenders are fried.

4. After the last batch of tenders goes into the oil, combine the spinach, red onion, and sliced mushrooms in a large salad bowl. Pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss it to coat. Top the salad with the fried chicken tenders, whole or chopped, your choice, and serve the remaining dressing on the side for dipping. 

Recipe: Spinach Salad with Steak & Blueberries

Normally, I'm not a salad person. Like at all. I'm pretty picky about what I like to put in salads (hint: tomatoes get a thumbs down). As a general rule, I don't eat salads with: a) nuts of any kind, b) cheese of any kind, or c) meat (unless it's chicken). As you may imagine, this severely limits my salad options. But like I said, I don't really like salad, so it doesn't really bother me.

All of this changed, however, when I had the California Spring Salad at Milestones Restaurant. This salad is magic, and I quite regularly make a copycat recipe at home. This is the salad which taught me that spinach + goat cheese + pecans + any kind of vinaigrette = deliciousness.

I know what you're thinking. Goat cheese? Pecans? I thought you don't eat salad with nuts or cheese, never mind both? This is all very true. But over the years I have given up trying to understand my very finicky tastebuds and have simply learned to embrace whatever they choose to tell me. In this case? That goat cheese and pecans are a match made in heaven.

Anyways, I digress. My mom brought the recipe for this scrumptious salad home from our local grocery store and I knew right away that it had to try it. Did it have goat cheese and pecans in it? No. But that was easily remedied. In fact, the original recipe called for feta and walnuts, both of which I hate, but the substitution was very easily done. I'm sure the original recipe is good too ... you know, if you're into that kind of thing.

Although this salad cost a mint to make (having none of the ingredients on hand except olive oil and salt/pepper, I was forced to make an emergency grocery store run. My recommendation? Make this recipe when blueberries are in season. Holy expensive fruit, Batman!) ...  it was absolutely worth it! Tangy, filling and delicious, it was also ready to eat in 15 minutes flat. Now that's my kind of meal!

The only remotely difficult thing about this recipe is cooking the steak to your desired level of well-doneness. If you can handle that, you're golden. First step? In a food processor or Magic Bullet, combine some blueberries, pecans, minced shallot, sugar, salt and vinegar to form a sort of paste which will be the base of your vinaigrette. When that's done, slowly blend in the olive oil until it's completely mixed in. It should look something like this:

Meanwhile, throw your steak on the grill/frying pan. It's getting to be barbecue season, so I recommend you cook it on the grill. But if Victoria is up to its usual weather antics and you don't want to brave the wet outdoors, then just cook it in a skillet on the stove top.

While the steak is cooking, rip the spinach into bite-size portions and pile on a plate. Top with toasted pecans (either whole or crumbled, your choice), fresh blueberries and crumbled goat cheese. When the steak is done, let it sit for a few minutes before slicing it into bite sliced strips and layering on top of the salad. Drizzle the vinaigrette on top, and devour at will.**

**A note about the vinaigrette: I followed the recipe exactly the first time, but as you can see from the pictures, the dressing still turned out quite thick. It tasted amazing, but for ease of pourage/presentation, I would double the amount of olive oil that it calls for.

Here's the full recipe:

Spinach Salad with Steak and Blueberries


Ingredients;
1 cup fresh blueberries, divided
1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans, toasted  (2-4 minutes in a dry skillet)
3 Tbsp fruity vinegar, such as raspberry vinegar
1 Tbsp minced shallot
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt, divided
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound sirloin or strip steak (1 - 1 1/4 inches thick), trimmed
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
8 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup crumbled feta/goat cheese

Directions;
1.  Preheat the grill to medium

2.  Pulse 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/4 nuts, vinegar, shallot, sugar and 1/4 tsp salt in a food processor to form a chunky paste. With the motor running, add oil until incorporated. Transfer the dressing to a large bowl.

3. Sprinkle steak with pepper and remaining salt. Grill the steak about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare, 6 minutes per side for medium. Let rest on a clean cutting board for 5 minutes.

4. Add spinach to the bowl with the dressing; toss to coat. Divide the spinach among 4 plates. Thinly slice the steak crosswise. Top the spinach with the steak, cheese, and remaining blueberries and walnuts.

Makes 2 very large portions.

Recipe: Bistro Ham and Cheese

Yum. For those of you who know me well, you know I am all about eating breakfast for dinner. It's pretty much my favourite thing. And this recipe? It's like French toast meets grilled cheese, which basically makes it the best breakfast-for-dinner sandwich EVER. Also, it takes all of 15 minutes to make. Bonus!

A key factor in this recipe is obviously the bread. I bought me some 3 cheese bread from Thrifty's, and it was perfect. Yum. Don't slice it too thick though if you want the sandwiches to heat evenly all the way through.

Slather one piece of bread with your preferred type of mustard - dijon, honey, regular ol' French's. Then layer Swiss cheese, smoked ham, and some more cheese. The original recipe called for slathering the top slice with mayonnaise, but I substituted some Chipotle Lemonaise instead. Yum.

Then dip the sandwich in the egg mixture, just like you would French toast. Shake off the extra liquid - you don't want it to be soggy! Then throw it in the frying pan.

Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and your preferred level of crispiness. Cut, and serve!

Here's the full recipe:

Bistro Ham and Cheese
Recipe from "The Guy Can't Cook" by Cinda Chavich


Ingredients:
8 slices French bread
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
8 slices Swiss cheese
12 thin slices lean, smoked ham
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk, or cream
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Spread four slices of bread with mustard and place on counter. Top each with a slice of cheese, three slices of ham, and another slice of cheese. Slather each of the remaining four slices of bread with mayonnaise and set on top, pressing down slightly, to make four sandwiches.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and salt. Pour into a wide, shallow dish, large enough to hold a sandwich.

3. In a large, non-stick skillet, heat half of the butter and oil together over medium heat. When the pan is hot, dip each side of the sandwich into the egg mixture. Shake off any excess and place in the hot pan. Fry until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches, then slice them on the diagonal to serve.

Serves 4 - and believe me, these sandwiches are plenty filling. 

Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I gave a lot of thought to what would be the first recipe I posted on this blog. Okay, okay. That's a lie. I took all of 10 seconds to flip through the recipes I've made in the last 6 weeks and picked this one because it was near the top and was utterly and completely delicious.

In future recipe posts I hope to be adding lots of pictures of the different stages along the way, but as I made this  approximately 6 weeks ago I, alas, have none. Oh well. What's a girl to do? Post a ridiculous cartoon about chickens, duh!


 


Anyways, on to the recipe, which I found in my current favourite cookbook, The Girl Can't Cook, by the amazing Cinda Chavich.


Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Red Peppers and Goat Cheese*

Ingredients:
2 red or yellow bell peppers

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ lb. (250g) creamy fresh goat cheese

1 Tbsp. (15 mL) olive oil

2 cups (500 mL) chicken broth

½ cup (125 mL) dry white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

2 green onions, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh herbs to garnish

Directions:

1. To roast the peppers, grill or broil until blackened on all sides. Place the peppers in a paper bag to steam and cool, then peel off the charred skin and remove the stems, ribs and seeds. Slice the peppers into thin strips and set aside.

2.  Lay the chicken breasts flat on a cutting board. Insert a small paring knife into the thickest part of the side of the chicken breast. Holding your palm over the breast, wiggle the knife back and forth to form a pocket, keeping the entry to the pocket small. Use your fingers to stuff the pockets with the goat cheese and roasted pepper.

3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy, non-stick skillet over high heat and brown the chicken quickly on both sides. This will take about 4 minutes. Add the broth and white wine to the pan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 6-7 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep it warm.

4. Boil the liquid in the pan hard until it has been reduced by half. Add the cream and cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the fresh herbs and green onion and simmer 1 minute longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm over low heat.

5. Slice the chicken breasts and arrange on warmed, individual plates. Drizzle with some of the sauce and garnish with more fresh herbs. Heat the remaining sauce and pass separately.

6. Dig in!

Bee's Notes

Something I learned from making this recipe? Roasted red pepper is really slimy. And stuffing raw chicken with slippery peppers and soft goat cheese makes one heck of a mess! Oh well. It was totally worth it!

I also found that the chicken took longer to cook than the recipe indicates. Maybe I stuffed them too full? But when cooking in the broth, I found that flipping them about halfway through helped to make sure they were cooked all the way through. Some of the cheese leaked out into the sauce while cooking, but don't worry about it -- it just made the sauce even more deliciously creamy. Mmmmmmm. 

The other great thing about this recipe is that once it's sliced and drizzled with sauce, the chicken looks amazing on a plate. Like something you got at a restaurant! This is one recipe that will definitely impress.

You could pretty much serve this with anything and have it be delicious, but I paired it with roasted asparagus and baby red potatoes. Yum!

 

* You may begin to notice a bit of a goat cheese theme crop up on this blog. I have no excuse other than the fact that I've recently discovered that goat cheese is freakin' DELICIOUS.