{Recipe of the Week}: Long Meetings, Snacks and Eggplant Caponata!

Tuesday morning {slash most of the day} we sat through a long {but VERY productive} meeting. We were talking about this Spring/Summer’s weddings! We are so excited for this season to get going! The meeting started at 10:00. We all arrived, coffees, menus and notepads in hand. And quickly 10:00 became 11:00 and before we knew it, 1:00 arrived. And darling Chef Jen brought us some snacks to get through the next TWO HOURS! Apples, crackers, cheese, a little toasted ciabatta bread, and…

 

 

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Ingredients

  • 1 large eggplant (1 1/2 pounds)
  • Good olive oil
  • 4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
  • 1/2 cup large green olives, pitted and chopped
  • 1 cup chopped yellow onion
  • 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
  • 3 tablespoons minced parsley
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons drained capers
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • Toasted pita triangles, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Place the whole eggplant on the pan, prick with a fork in several places, and rub with olive oil. Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the eggplant is very soft when pierced with a knife. Set aside to cool. Halve the eggplant, peel, and discard the skin. Place the eggplant, peppers, and olives in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour into a mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saute pan. Add the onion and red pepper flakes and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the onion is lightly browned. Add the garlic, cook for 1 minute, and add to the eggplant mixture. Add the parsley, pine nuts lemon juice, capers, tomato paste, vinegar, salt, and pepper and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to develop. Taste for seasonings and serve at room temperature with toasted pita triangles.

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Do you want to know how long it took us to devour the bowl? Probably not. It was DELISH. And gave us the energy we needed to power on! We are SO ready for this season.

 

{Recipe of the Week}: Prosciutto Wrapped Peaches!

Say, what?

Oh yes, we said it.

This here recipe is so easy. But {SO VERY} tasty. Serve it at your fancy wedding, or serve it on your back porch paired with some fruity sangria.


 

 

 

 

 

Go home tonight, fire up your grill {make sure you have peaches or apricots, prosciutto and basil, first}, and make a delicious hors d’Oeuvres.

Here’s how…

Peaches

Prosciutto

Basil Leaves, cut into strips

**There’s no real way to do this – cut the peach how you wish, pile on the prosciutto as thick as you wish, but we wouldn’t advise using TOO much basil

 

 

 

Place a few strips of basil onto a peach wedge, wrap with prosciutto as desired. And repeat.

Over medium-high heat, place peach wedges seam side down {prosciutto seam}. Let them cook until they have a nice bit of char. Flip and wait for more char.

And then, enjoy!

 

***Recipe alternative {taken from the wise Emily Cushing’s kitchen}: Use apricots instead of peaches. Omit the basil. And drizzle with MAPLE SYRUP when grilling.

{Recipe of the Week}: Grilled Pineapple Tart with Raspberries and Chipotle Cream

Wowsers. Perhaps an addition to your Easter menu? We’ve been all about tarts lately. They can be sweet or savory, or a combination of BOTH!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Epicurious recipe (yielded from Gourmet originally) combines the two.

 

 

 

Note: Before grilling the pineapple, be sure to preheat your grill rack and then clean it with a metal brush to remove any bits of previously grilled food, which can give an off flavor to the pineapple.

For crust
  • 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted, plus additional for greasing pan
  • Flour for dusting pan
  • 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (from 12 crackers, each about 4 3/4 by 2 1/4 inches)
  • 21/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For filling

  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo
  • 3/4 teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest
  • 6 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 pineapple (labeled “extra sweet”), trimmed, peeled, and quartered lengthwise, leaving core intact
  • 4 1/2 oz raspberries (1 cup)

For glaze

  • 1/4 cup apple jelly
  • 1 tablespoon water

Make crust:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour tart pan, knocking out excess flour.

Stir together all crust ingredients in a bowl with a fork until combined well, then press mixture with your fingers and the back of a spoon evenly and firmly onto bottom and up side of tart pan.

Bake crust until a shade darker, 8 to 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Make filling and grill pineapple:
While crust cools, whisk together sour cream, brown sugar, chiles, and zest in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Beat cream cheese in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth, then add sour cream mixture and beat until combined well. Keep covered with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Prepare grill for cooking. If using a charcoal grill, open vents on bottom of grill, then light charcoal. Charcoal fire is medium-hot when you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack for 3 to 4 seconds. If using a gas grill, preheat burners on high, covered, 10 minutes, then reduce heat to moderately high.

While coals are lighting, put pineapple quarters on a cutting board, long cut sides down, and cut lengthwise into slices slightly less than 1/4 inch thick with an adjustable-blade slicer or a knife (use caution; peeled pineapple is extremely slippery). Grill pineapple in 2 batches, covered only if using a gas grill, on lightly oiled grill rack, turning over once with tongs, until tender, about 5 minutes total. (If pineapple sticks to rack, use a metal spatula to loosen before turning.) Transfer to a platter and cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Trim pineapple and discard core from slices.

Assemble tart:
Spread filling in tart shell, then press raspberries into cream. Gently push up bottom of pan to loosen pan bottom (with crust) from side of pan, then carefully lift out tart and transfer to a work surface. Gently insert a thin wide metal spatula between crust and pan bottom, then run spatula under crust to loosen from pan. Using spatula, slide tart shell carefully onto a serving platter. Arrange pineapple decoratively over cream.

Make glaze:
Melt jelly with water in a small saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until smooth, then brush glaze onto pineapple with pastry brush.

{Recipe of the Week}: Pozole Verde

You know those days when you bring your lunch to work, with all intentions of eating that healthy salad you so thoughtfully packed the night before? But, once lunchtime arrives, you’ve abandoned all of those intentions? Or, you’re simply tempted by something else {something that looks a bit more delicious}. Well, we work for a catering company! It happens ALL OF THE TIME.

Yesterday we all had salads packed {they were good, hearty salads too}, but slowly, one by one, each of us came back to the office with fennel and sea salt shortbread. And then it was crusty bread with drizzled olive oil. And then there was soup. And it wasn’t just any soup, we came back Pozole Verde dressed with green onions, avocado, radishes and lime.

We have a message for you: abandon those brown bag lunches every now and then. It’s how you’ll get through your long work weeks!

Introducing Pazole Verde!


Directions:

Heat the canola oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Stir in the cumin and anise, then ad the chicken stock and chicken. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken to a cutting board and let cool.

Add the potatoes and hominy and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Shred the cooled chicken

Combine poblanos, jalapenos, chiles de arbol, tomatillos, cilantro, romaine, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste, in a blender. Blend on high until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Add blended mixture to the stockpot along with the shredded chicken and cook for about 5 or 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and garnish with slices of avocado, thinly sliced radish, queso fresco and chopped cilantro.

 

And, ENJOY!

 

{Photo of the Week}: Black Tea Cake!

We were chatting about brunch ideas the other day. You know, Spring is just around the corner; so, it’s time for bridal showers and post-wedding brunches. And I am even working with a bride and groom who are planning a wedding brunch (the menu is SO fabulous)!

So, with Spring and brunch food (and with that comes tea) on the mind, today’s photo is dedicated to BRUNCH (if you come back later in the week, there may be more brunch on our minds, hint hint). This Black Tea Cake with Strawberry Tea Jam looks (and looks like it tastes) DARLING.

{Photo of the Week}: Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas

There are a few reasons why this photo [and recipe] caught our eyes on this beautiful Monday morning. For starters, we’re always hungry here! So, recipes for little, in-between-meal-snacks are pretty much ALWAYS welcome. And, we had a little discussion/debate about chickpeas last week over lunch, so we thought it only fitting.

This week’s photo [with recipe included]…

Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas.

Would LOVE to be snacking on these right now!

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