Pasta Carbonara with Corn and Cherry Peppers

In my last post I mentioned high cholesterol and now I’m making pasta carbonara with egg yolks and cheese? Yeah yeah yeah, blame Rachael Ray. The August issue of her magazine has several recipes featuring corn, which is in season locally right now. This recipe is on the page opposite her Sea Scallops with Creamed Corn and Tarragon, one of the most delicious dinners I’ve made recently, so I had to try this one.

I’m a sucker for a good carbonara, but I hardly ever have it, maybe once a year. I still have memories of the delicious spaghetti carbonara at George’s in Brockton, Massachusetts, the first restaurant I ever worked in.

Since I used cherry peppers for this recipe, which are not that hot, I added crushed red pepper flakes as well. Rachael’s original recipe called for cherry peppers or Fresno peppers. Fresno peppers are much hotter than cherry peppers, heck, they’re hotter than jalapeno peppers. I couldn’t find any Fresno, but I love the taste and color of cherry peppers so I used those instead and increased the heat with pepper flakes.

If you like saucy creamy pastas and want to go way overboard on the fat, you could add cream at the end, just before adding the cheese. Some Italians will tell you that a true carbonara doesn’t have cream and others will argue that their mother added cream so that’s the way it’s done. I stay out of heated Italian cooking arguments. Do what you like.

Once again, the photographer was too excited about eating dinner and forgot to take pictures. Luckily Rachael relies on a professional whose work I’m stealing here.

photo by John Kernick from Every Day with Rachael Ray

Pasta Carbonara with Corn and Cherry Peppers

You’ll need a large pot with lid, ladle, colander, large skillet and a small bowl.

• Salt
• 1 pound fettuccine pasta
• Olive oil
• 6 slices bacon, chopped, or 1/4–1/3 lb. pancetta, finely diced
• 4 ears corn, kernels scraped from the cob, about 1-1/2 to 2 cups
• 2 small Italian cherry chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
  
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano (or parmesan) cheese
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino-romano cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Chives, snipped into 1-inch pieces

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add salt and the pasta. Cook until al dente, per package instructions. Just before draining, ladle out 1-1/2 cups of the pasta cooking water. Then drain in a colander.

While the pasta is working, heat a little bit of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and brown for about 3 minutes. Add the corn and lightly brown their edges, stirring, about 5 minutes. Add the cherry pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic and thyme and stir for 2 minutes. Add the parsley and wine and simmer on low heat.

In a small bowl, slowly add and beat 1 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water into the egg yolks to temper them.

Add the pasta and egg yolks to the corn sauce and toss. If you want more sauce, stir in some (or all) of the reserved ½ cup of pasta water. Remove from the heat and add a handful of each cheese and black pepper. Stir vigorously to form a silky sauce, 1 to 2 minutes. If you really want to be decadent, you could add a little butter at this point. Serve the pasta in shallow bowls and top with the chives and remaining cheese.

Original recipe: Pasta Carbonara with Corn and Chiles, Every Day with Rachael Ray, August 2011

Sea Scallops with Creamed Corn and Tarragon

In my last post, Thai-Style Ground Chicken with Basil & Chiles, I mentioned a delicious recipe from Rachael Ray that I wanted to share with you. I called it “perfect for a birthday dinner” and I stand by that description. However, my birthday dinner was prepared by someone else in a kitchen far away. 720 miles away. I’ll talk about that in Sunday’s post.

I’ve been itching to make sea scallops for a while now. They’re a bit pricey so I’ve been waiting for a sale, although even when they go on sale, they still bust my budget. But once I saw this recipe in the August issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray, I knew I had to make it for a Saturday night dinner.

This is a perfect way to show off local summer corn. Jim said it was the best creamed corn he’s ever had, and I agree. I didn’t grow tarragon this year, but next year I’m going to hunt some down because it adds so much to this recipe. Tarragon is also fantastic in egg, chicken and fish dishes. It’s especially good in chicken with mustard, tarragon, shallots, vermouth and cream that I no longer make because Jim hates mustard. But if he ever goes out of town without me, you know what I’ll be cooking.

You might not be overly familiar with (or fond of) some of the ingredients in this dish, like anchovies, vermouth or tarragon. But please don’t let those perceptions dissuade you from giving this a try. I promise you, you will not taste the anchovies. They provide a backbone of umami to the dish that you will not detect, but which adds oomph to the corn. The vermouth adds a hint of dry herbiness and the tarragon adds its own special flavor. I can’t imagine omitting any of these elements.

I served the scallops and creamed corn with a side of mushrooms. Sauté a mix of sliced cremini and shiitake mushrooms with garlic, black pepper, salt and fresh thyme. I also made some baked stuffed tomatoes. Split tomatoes in half cross-wise and top them with a bit of pesto, parmesan cheese and olive oil. What a sensational summer meal.

I was swooning so much I forgot to take a photo. I stole this photo by John Kernick from the recipe’s page on Rachael Ray’s site. I didn’t garnish mine with pea shoots. My creamed corn wasn’t as liquidy as the corn in the photo so I must have cooked mine much longer than Rachael (or her staff) cooked hers. Hers looks more like a soup; mine was a thick creamy bed of corn. Sigh.

photo by John Kernick via Every Day with Rachael Ray

Sea Scallops with Creamed Corn and Tarragon

You’ll need a large skillet for the corn and a large cast-iron pan or skillet for the scallops.

• Olive oil
• 4 flat anchovy fillets, or 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 4 ears corn, kernels scraped from the cob, scrape the cobs with the back of a knife to get all the sweet juice
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup white vermouth
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
• 12-16 large sea scallops, trimmed and patted dry
• Canola oil

In a large skillet, heat the oil (Rachael says 3 turns of the pan) over medium to medium-high heat. Add the anchovies and let them melt into the oil, stirring a bit to break them up. Add the corn and any liquid and cook about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Stir in the shallots and garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add the vermouth and cook a minute or two to reduce. Add the cream, stir, and season with a little black pepper. Lower the heat to medium-low and stir until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add the tarragon and simmer on low heat for a few minutes.

While the creamed corn is cooking, heat a large cast-iron skillet or other heavy pan over high heat. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Lightly coat the pan with canola oil and add the scallops. Cook, turning once, until caramelized to a dark golden color, about 2 minutes on each side. Please don’t overcook these expensive jewels. Err on the side of undercooked (perfectly fine) rather than making them too tough.

Serve the creamed corn in shallow bowls (or regular dinner plates). Top with scallops. Prepare for ecstasy.

Original recipe: Sea Scallops with Creamed Corn and Tarragon, Every Day with Rachael Ray, August 2011

Summer Vegetables with Pesto

Pesto lives in our freezer all year long thanks to my diligent harvesting of our basil plants throughout the summer and into the fall. Yet I tend to cook more with pesto in the summer. Pesto is summer. I’m always amazed at how damn good it tastes.

We only have three basil plants this year. Hopefully I’ll get enough pesto out of them to last until next summer. We’re still using last fall’s pesto so I’ve got a bit of a cushion.

Here’s a recipe that makes an appearance on our table at least every other week in the summer.

Photo of basil by Isaac Wedin

Summer Vegetables with Pesto

I make this recipe so often in the summer that I don’t really think of it in recipe terms. Like many Italian-style dishes I make, I don’t measure ingredients, but here’s an approximation of what I did last night.

You’ll need a large skillet.

• Olive oil
• 3 zucchini, sliced lengthwise, then into 1/4” slices
• 2 summer squash, sliced lengthwise, then into 1/4” slices
• 6-8 oz cremini or white mushrooms, sliced
• Salt
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• Kernels from 2 cobs of corn
• 4 ice cubes of frozen pesto, thawed, or 1/4-1/3 cup of prepared pesto (guessing at that amount)

Other options:

• What else do you have in the refrigerator that would work? Last night I had a broccoli stem after using the florets for salad. I chopped that up and added it to the pan. Roasted eggplant also works well in this dish.
• My pesto has garlic in it so I don’t feel the need to add any more to the pan, but if you’re garlic crazy, you might feel differently.
• Do you want a little heat? Add some red pepper flakes.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini, squash, mushrooms and a sprinkling of salt to the pan. Sauté until vegetables are just beginning to soften. Stir in tomatoes and corn, and sauté until tomatoes are beginning to soften. Stir in pesto and take off the heat.

Caramelized Chipotle Chicken

Chipotle makes everything better. We always have a container of chipotle in the refrigerator since most recipes don’t use up an entire can. If I don’t have plans for the rest of the can, I put the container in the freezer. It’s easy enough to pry out a frozen chunk if you need any.

I wouldn’t classify this as a quick dinner recipe since it takes about 1-1/2 hours to prepare but most of that time is hands-off. Besides the time spent chopping a huge onion and several cloves of garlic, the only other time-consuming tasks were skinning the chicken thighs and trimming the fat.

The original recipe from Gourmet was for more servings than we needed. Instead I used four thighs and originally thought I would only use half the sauce ingredients. But once the sauce started simmering, it smelled so good that I quickly added more ingredients to the mix. Gourmet’s version of the sauce looks really reduced in the photo on their website, mine was saucier, more like the photo below from the Elly Says Opa blog. Elly was kind enough to let me use this photo, thanks!

These ingredients reflect my estimated final quantities. We ended up with enough sauce for probably two extra thighs, but used it all up by mixing it into our roasted potatoes (leftovers from two nights ago) and boring steamed broccoli.

I served this with frozen corn that I first thawed and then added to sautéed onion, red bell pepper, garlic and cumin. I finished the dish by mixing in fresh chopped cilantro. It went really well with the chicken.

photo courtesy of Elly Says Opa (thanks!)

Caramelized Chipotle Chicken

• 2 Tbsp cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4-6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 1-1/2 cup)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsps packed dark brown sugar
• 3 Tbsps chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo, or less, depending on your heat tolerance
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbsps cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ tsp black pepper
• 4-6 bone-in chicken thighs, with skin removed, fat trimmed – or you could use any other part of the chicken, bone-in or boneless, but lessen the cooking time for boneless pieces.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Saute the onions, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown, about 10 minutes. One minute before they’re done, add the garlic and cook one minute, or until just turning slightly golden.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the chicken, to the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450.

Place the chicken in the baking dish and coat with half of the sauce. Roast for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with the remaining sauce. Continue roasting until the chicken is cooked through and well browned in spots, about 25 minutes more, or until it reaches 165 on an instant-read thermometer.

Make ahead note: Sauce can be made 1 day ahead and chilled.

Original recipe: Gourmet, September 2009

Photo credit: Elly Says Opa

Scrambled Eggs with Corn, Goat Cheese and Roasted Tomatoes

I have a new summer breakfast. This is scrumptious, easy and quick — a recipe from The Kitchn blog — Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Corn, Goat Cheese, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes. I had a surplus of corn and tomatoes, so I gave it a try. I made a few changes to the recipe (noted below) like skipping the step where the corn is microwaved because I like the crunch of fresh corn. I sautéed it a minute longer to make up for that.

Clearly I need to learn how to better operate this camera of mine, the one whose viewer screen is cracked and now permanently displays an abstract image of purple, white and black because I sat down on it one too many times climbing down into and up out of the Grand Canyon this spring. I took six photos on various settings but all of them turned out way too bright and not suitable for publishing so I’m showing you how it looked when The Kitchn made it.

Scrambled Eggs with Corn, Goat Cheese and Roasted Tomatoes

This recipe serves one.

• 2 thick slices of tomato (1/4 to 1/2″ thick)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• corn kernels scraped from 1 ear of corn
• 1 scallion or some chives, chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter — or bacon fat if you’re feeling decadent
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled — could substitute Muenster or Monterey Jack

Turn your broiler to high. Drizzle both sides of the tomato slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put them on a baking sheet (covered with foil to have an easy clean-up) and broil about 8-10 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to caramelize on top.

Melt your butter in a skillet. Add the corn and scallions, season with salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add eggs and scramble until just set (or however you like your eggs). Take the skillet off the heat and mix in the crumbled cheese.

Put the tomatoes on a plate and pile the eggs on top. Yum.

Photo from The Kitchn

Zucchini Relish Quesadillas

This quick relish takes only a little longer than the time it takes you to chop up the vegetables. It tastes fresh with a bit of crunch combined with a hint of tang and sweetness. I followed the recipe on Prudence Pennywise. When it came time to make a quesadilla I covered the whole tortilla with relish, instead of half, since this was dinner.

This tasty relish will also be great as a side dish if I don’t use it all for quesadillas.

Zucchini Relish

• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
• 2 zucchini, chopped – she calls for small squash but mine were medium
• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 1 cup corn, cut from the cob
• 1 large red tomato, chopped
• 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp lime juice

Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened. Add garlic, jalapeno, zucchini, squash, tomato and corn. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add brown sugar and lime juice. Cook for one additional minute, or until any liquid is gone. Season with salt and pepper.

Spray a skillet with cooking spray. Sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese over a whole wheat tortilla, then cover it with a layer of relish and top it with another tortilla. Heat on both sides until cheese is melted and tortillas are warm.

Original recipe: Quesadillas with Quick Zucchini Relish

Corn Salad and Plum Clafouti

Corn on the cob season is here! My guy was making ribs so I thought corn salad would be the perfect accompaniment to them. I have a corn salad recipe somewhere but since I couldn’t put my hands on it I took a look at some online recipes and relied on my memory to make what turned out to be a yummy dish.

Corn Salad

Ingredients — sorry, no real specifics, just eyeball what looks right to you

• 

  photo by Flikcr/normanack

  4 slices of bacon

• chopped red onion
• minced garlic
• 5 ears corn
• lima beans — frozen okay, thawed
• chopped red bell pepper
• chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
• vinegar — my old recipe called for champagne vinegar (can substitute rice wine vinegar for that), I used red wine vinegar
• chopped basil
• salt and pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pan, drain on paper and chop. Leave the bacon fat in the pan. Add red onion, saute until just getting soft. Add garlic, saute until just turning golden. Add corn, lima beans, red bell pepper and tomatoes and cook a few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in bacon, vinegar, salt, pepper and basil. Serve warm or cold.

Plum Clafouti

Clafoutis are rustic French desserts that are sort of like a cross between a pancake and a custardy pudding. They’re a cinch to make (no mixer needed) and are a great way to feature seasonal fruit. Plums were looking enticing so I decided to whip one of these up for dessert. They also make a great breakfast too — warm, room temp or cold.

• 

  photo by flickr/Secret_Tenerife

  3 eggs

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• ½ tsp vanilla
• optional: 2 tsp rum
• 5-7 plums, halved and pitted (as many that fit into bottom of dish/pan)
• butter for greasing dish/pan

Preheat oven to 400. Whisk sugar and eggs until they are lighter in color. Gradually add butter, whisking to incorporate. Add flour all at once, whisk until batter is a homogeneous mixture. Slowly pour in milk a little at a time. Add vanilla, and rum if you’re using it, mixing well. Batter should be very smooth and shiny.

Place plums in a buttered baking dish, cake pan (9” or 10”) or skillet that can go in the oven. Pour batter over fruit. Bake in preheated oven about 40 minutes (but check earlier) until slightly browned and almost completely set in middle. Let sit at least 15 mins before turning out onto a plate and serving.