Recipe review from 1/21/08

Sorry, not as many pictures this week! The camera battery died and I kept forgetting to put it on the charger. It was quite the chilly week: highs right about 0*, lows consistently hitting -30* then throw on the windchills at -35* and that combination just calls for warm, spicy food.

Squash Curry Soup (Co-worker Kate) 3.5Last fall a co-worker gave me a couple of great looking recipes. It took me a little while, but I’ve finally gotten around to making one of them. The need to use up my butternut squash was behind this recipe, and I’m glad I tried it. Pretty simple recipe, and I modified it a bit. Instead of boiling my squash with the sauteed onion, I decided to oven roast it with ½ of the curry powder, salt, pepper and splash of olive oil for about 20 minutes. With the exception of a few of the larger pieces of squash, it baked up nice and golden. I then sauteed the onion and tossed in the other ½ of the curry powder. To this I added to roasted squash, vegetable broth (instead of water) and milk and brought to a boil. I let is simmer for just a bit then removed from heat and pulled out my FAVORITE kitchen tool, my immersion blender. A few buzzes around and it was pureed nice and thick. Almost too thick. I have had to add some milk upon reheating. I also skipped added the cashews directly into the soup and blending with everything else, opting instead to add the cashews more as a condiment. Love the curry taste against the rich squash with a splash of salty nuts.

Roasted Onions and Grilled Tuna (Giada Family Dinners, 122) 3

This recipe was modified quite a bit. First, I decided to use up a slightly freezer burned bag of pearl onions rather than buying some cippolini onions. I would have preferred the cippolini's, but I'm still working on that pantry reduction project.

Next, I missed the bit where I was supposed to roast the onions in the oven for an hour before prepping the fish. With the Husband due home for dinner in a half an hour and it takes a half an hour just to get the oven up to temp an alternative was needed. I heated up a generous amount of olive oil and tossed them in a pan to caramelize with a bit of salt and pepper.

And with temps well below reasonable, there was no way I was going to try and fire up the grill. If it was 30* above 0*, yes. 30* below...no way. I still marinated them in olive oil and tossed them in the pan with the onions.

All in all, this turned out pretty tasty. I over cooked my tuna just a tich so it ended up being well done rather than the medium well I prefer. Should have pulled them off the heat a bit sooner. I served roasted asparagus along side for a lovely green counterpoint. And I guess I would consider making this dish again, but perhaps waiting till I can grill again and doing everything outside.

Cranberry Scones (Everyday Food, Nov or Dec 2003) 4
I want to say I’ve made these before, but I can’t find when I did so. I know I’ve had them before because I got the recipe from the Mother. These are very tasty and so easy to make. Simply combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter and add half and half to make a moist, dough-like batter. Fold in the cranberry’s and form into a 1" thick disk. Bake for about 15 mintues. To me, these are the quintencential scone - a light, coarse crumb that is delicately sweet without being heavy on the tummy. I may have to make these again so I can start to use up the second bag of cranberries in my crisper drawer.

Photo from Pinterest via Food Network

Cheesy Baked Tortellini (Everyday Pasta by Giada Di Laurenttis, pg 171) 4This was a great dish. The reason it isn’t receiving a 5 is because of the chemicals in the packaged tortellini. Still, so very easy to make and incredibly tasty. Store bought tortellini (I used cheese) is cooked according to the directions on the package. Two cups of marinara are combined with 1/3 cup marscapone cheese and beaten till smooth. To this fresh thyme can be added, but as I was using homemade marinara that was already plenty seasoned I skipped the thyme. Add the sauce to the rinsed tortellini and put in a lightly greased 8x8 dish. Top with smoked cheese - recipe called for mozzarella but I couldn’t find any, so I subbed smoked gouda - and some grated parmesan. Bake covered for about 15 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes more. Honestly - that’s all there was to it! I served this with some roasted asparagus. This made a very generous 4 servings.