Mains | Food Nouveau

Artichoke and Prosciutto Lasagna (and How to Prepare Artichokes)

No, Sicily is not out of my head yet. Do you remember the gorgeous, fresh artichokes I saw at the market? Seeing mountains of these gorgeous buds on display every day made me long to find a Sicily-inspired, artichoke-based dish to make once I got back home. I found this recipe for Artichoke and Prosciutto Lasagna in the Italian Cucina Moderna magazine I bought at a newspaper kiosk in Catania. It sounded just perfect, with the creamy sauce nesting the sautéed artichokes and the prosciutto adding a salty bite to an otherwise-delicate dish. I translated the recipe and although I’m sure it would have been even better with fresh, Sicilian artichokes, the ones I found at my local produce grocer were very tasty and I loved the dish just as much as I had expected I would.

Have you ever prepared artichokes? It may sound intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy {see the detailed how to below!}.

Posted on March 28, 2012 • Category: Europe, How-Tos, Italy, Mains, Pasta/Pizza/Risotto, Recipes • 5 Comments

How to Make Arancine con Ragù (fried rice balls stuffed with meat sauce)

I discovered Arancine during one of my first trips to Italy, but I have truly fallen in love with them last month in Sicily. They’re the perfect finger food: creamy rice, slowly simmered meat sauce, melting cheese – all of that, fried in a neat little package? I can’t think of anything else to serve with cocktails at your next dinner party.

Arancine can simply be made with leftover risotto: just roll cooled risotto into balls, dredge in flour, eggs and breadcrumbs, fry and enjoy! If making Arancine from scratch is your goal, though, stuff it with ragù and mozzarella cheese and they become spectacular. You can make a simple and quick meat sauce (recipe follows), but I strongly suggest using leftover Bolognese sauce for a truly heavenly treat. As for the cheese, I used mini-bocconcini, which are handy because they’re already portioned and shaped into balls, but you can use cubed mozzarella, or any kind of melting cheese you like.

Posted on March 21, 2012 • Category: Appetizers, Europe, How-Tos, Italy, Lunch, Pasta/Pizza/Risotto, Recipes • 2 Comments

Brussels Sprout and Pancetta Pizza

Growing up, my mom never made us eat Brussels sprouts. Back then, I knew all of my friends hated them: they were too green, they stank, they tasted bad. I bragged about the fact that I didn’t have to suffer them (although we did eat lots of broccoli), but secretly, I was kind of attracted to them. I loved their petite shape, their bright color, their little leaves that you peeled like petals, and the beautiful gradation from green to yellow their insides revealed. I always thought, they’re so cute, they must taste good, right? But then again, if everybody says they’re bad, why should I risk a taste?

So I spent over 30 years without eating Brussels sprouts. Shameful, isn’t it? It’s not that I didn’t see them once in a while at the market; they just remained these little green balls of mystery to me. But my curiosity and the hunch that they certainly were tasty always remained.

Posted on February 16, 2012 • Category: Pasta/Pizza/Risotto, Recipes • 2 Comments

A Classic Québécois Dish: Beef and Winter Vegetables "Bouilli"

It’s such a universal truth that it has become a cliché: cold, winter temperatures make one yearn for comforting dishes. As much as I love delicate salads, they are definitely not what I need to fuel up on after shoveling show for over an hour.

Last weekend, as I was getting my workout shoveling said snow, a family dish popped into my head: I wanted make a bouilli (“boiled”, literally), just like my mom used to make when I was a kid. Bouilli is a classic Québécois dish which is a close cousin to the French pot-au-feu. It is usually made with low-cost cuts of beef and winter vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnip and cabbage, all of which are slowly cooked in a broth flavored with herbs.

Shoveling makes me hungry for hearty comfort food! After a snowstorm last week:

Posted on February 10, 2012 • Category: Mains, Meat, North America, Quebec (Province), Recipes • 3 Comments

An Elegant Japanese Dinner Menu

Every year, E and I reserve one night over the holidays to celebrate Christmas together, just the two of us. On that night, I like to cook a special meal, something fancy with many courses, usually inspired by a recent trip or cuisine discovery. This year, of course, it had to be Japan. Since we returned, I hadn’t yet tackled this fascinating country’s cuisine, and I admit I was rather intimidated by it, probably as much so (or even more) than before we’d been to Japan. You see, fine cuisine in Japan is all small servings of beautiful, meticulous dishes. I like to think of myself as a meticulous person, but since I don’t have a full kitchen’s restaurant staff on hand, I was a bit wary that creating a 5-course Japanese menu might be an impossible task.

I almost dropped the project, in fact. A week before Christmas, I vented to E, telling him I didn’t know where to start, that I wasn’t familiar enough with the techniques, that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find the ingredients.

Posted on December 30, 2011 • Category: Appetizers, Asia, Desserts, Fish/Seafood, Japan, Recipes • 0 Comments

A Heart-Warming Bowl of Sukiyaki Donburi – and a giveaway to benefit Japan’s tsunami victims (they still need help!)

Since we came back from Japan, E and I have been desperately trying to engrave rapidly fading souvenirs and tastes upon our memory. Isn’t it crazy how quickly we get back to our daily routine, even after a trip halfway around the world?

Over time, I’ve learned that one of the best ways to revisit a place you loved is to cook something from that destination, a dish linked to a cherished memory. A few days after our return home, I took out a small booklet that I had bought a few months ago, written by Humble Bean, a favorite blogger of mine. The author, Azusa, felt compelled to do her part for Japan’s earthquake and tsunami victims, being Japanese herself and having a special affection for two of the hardest hit areas, Iwate and Fukushima, after visiting twice as an exchange student. She gathered a collection of her favourite recipes into a booklet which she sold on Etsy, with all proceeds going to recovery efforts in Japan.

Posted on November 22, 2011 • Category: Asia, Giveaways, Japan, Mains, Noodles/Sautés, Recipes • 6 Comments

{Book Review} Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty – and Puy Lentil Galettes

I know, Plenty is hardly a new book, having been published last spring, but it looks as though its popularity isn’t due to run out of steam anytime soon. Still today, I continue to see Twitter, Facebook and blog posts written about it several times a week, and they are always positive, laudatory, even. It may be the best global PR campaign for vegetarianism ever.

Some may be surprised that the book’s author, chef Yotam Ottolenghi, is not himself a vegetarian, but nevertheless has become famous through his creative use of grains and vegetables at his London restaurant, Ottolenghi. It seemed a logical choice for the Guardian to recruit the chef in 2006 to write a new column called “The New Vegetarian”, but some readers were angry that “the new vegetarian wasn’t a vegetarian at all”. Over time, Ottolenghi’s creativity won readers over and the column’s popularity was channeled into this even more popular masterpiece of a cookbook, Plenty.

Posted on July 27, 2011 • Category: Books, Mains, Recipes, Vegetarian • 6 Comments

The Best Lobster Rolls Ever (Yes, Really!)

Yes, I know, my post title may sound a little exuberant and subjective. But seriously, I’m still recovering from the deliciousness of the lobster rolls we had for dinner last night. They were so good I have to restrain myself from planning to make more tonight, and tomorrow, and for the rest of the week!

For our vacation this summer, E and I are planning a road trip through New England and along the coast. When I was growing up, the beaches of Maine and Massachusetts were classic summer destinations and (although I probably bugged my parents all through the drive over: “are we there yet?”) I truly loved the trips, playing with my brother, discovering new scenery, crossing over the border and hearing people speak English, all of a sudden. Although I’ve driven several times to Boston, it’s been years since I’ve taken such a road trip to the Atlantic coast.

Posted on July 5, 2011 • Category: Fish/Seafood, Mains, North America, Recipes, Sandwiches/Tartines, US East Coast • 13 Comments

Poor Girl Gourmet’s Braised Pork Shoulder

At home, we don’t eat a lot of meat. This happens naturally, not because of personal beliefs or meatless trends. For a very long time, I was disdainful of manipulating raw meat (especially bone-in cuts), so I only bought prepared, cleaned meat cuts that required as little touching or cutting as possible. Yes, I’m now ashamed to admit, that included those pre-cut chicken strips I used to make fajitas once in a while. I didn’t buy pre-cut chicken strips to save time; I bought them just because I didn’t want to touch raw chicken.

Because I so rarely cooked meat, I became wary of cooking it at all; afraid I would botch good cuts or serve tough steaks. We are far from being vegetarians, though, and I continued incorporating easy, prepared cuts of meat into dishes like pasta, curries or stews. We chose meat-centric dishes when we went out to restaurants and enjoyed the fabulous slowly cooked or barbecued meats some of our friends turned out.

Posted on June 28, 2011 • Category: Mains, Meat, Recipes • 41 Comments

Rome’s Forno Campo de’ Fiori Pizza, At Home

I’ve recently noticed that when I think back on my recent trip to Rome, of all the amazing food I enjoyed, it’s pizza I remember best. Well, maybe it shouldn’t come as such a surprise given the city’s pizza-making notoriety, but I didn’t expect it to be the dish that would stick to my mind. During our stay in Italy’s capital, E and I had pizza at many different trattorie, but the one pizza I remember best and still long for, months after, was the one served by weight at a take-out counter. Forno di Campo di Fiori was always packed: keeping my place in line without being passed by locals used to the place’s chaotic ordering and check-outing process was always a bit of a sport, but the prize was absolutely worth the struggle.

Forno’s pizza is cooked as 6-foot long pies and is served with different toppings, but the combinations are always very simple.

Posted on June 22, 2011 • Category: Europe, How-Tos, Italy, Mains, Pasta/Pizza/Risotto, Recipes • 27 Comments

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