Outstanding Orzo

Orzo.  Where have you been all of my life?  Orzo is a pasta that looks like a large grain of rice before cooking.  Lucia’s has a pretty good orzo dish, but it has raw onions in it, and more olive oil than I’d use.  In my opinion, raw onions can ruin a perfectly good “fill in the blank” - anything!  I just don’t care for it.  I blame my older brother for the onion thing.  He didn’t like raw onions.  I think he was trying to rally up the troops against my mother using them.  Generally, it worked.  She would often put them in the blender, so we wouldn’t complain too much.  I’m sure she complained about us not liking them!  Oh, well.  I still don’t like them.  BTW, cooked onions are fine, in most cases.  Onion soup?  Love it, as long as it’s not too salty.  Crazy.  For a really subtle, onion flavor:  leeks.  I had ordered some leeks, fennel, and, of course, kale last week from my new grocery delivery service.  I had planned to make risotto.  Only one problem, no rice for it!  Duh, me!  Again, my creations often stem from my lack of desire to run to the store on the weekends, when I do most of my cooking.  This is a classic example.  

None of my PBS cooking shows were on yesterday.  They are fundraising.  I’m usually inspired by something I see on one of the Saturday PBS cooking shows.  

I had make an olive ciabatta bread this morning.  Yum!  I used the recipe that I posted last week and just added some kalamati olives (the Greek kind).  I had some extra black olives that I’d planned to add to the dough this morning, but was afraid of losing the bubbles that form overnight in the dough.  I had already opened them.  That’s how this got started!  I also have some ricotta cheese that I’ve been trying to use.  I couldn’t figure out how to use that. I froze it to use in lasagna another day.  

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place 2 cast iron pans inside to heat.

• 1 cup of uncooked orzo.
• Olive oil.  Use just enough to coat the orzo (a few tablespoons).
• 1 fennel bulb, chopped.  Save the small, airy, green tops for later in this recipe.
• 3 leek stalks.  Cut off the root end.  I use 3-4 inches above that and use the rest for compost.  It’s too tough.  The white part is the most tender.  Rinse what you plan to use really well.  There is often dirt in between the layers.
• 1 bunch of kale.  Remove greens from stem and chop.
• 3 tsp. butter.
• Airy green top from fennel bulb.  It looks a lot like fresh dill.  Too pretty to waste.  
• Fresh herbs.  The more variety, the merrier.  I had rosemary, thyme, arugula, cilantro, and fresh parsley.)
• Cayenne Pepper (dash).
• 1 small can of black olives.
• Shredded cheese (asiago , feta, or moz.).
• Toasted nuts (I used pine nuts).

1. Cook the orzo (al dante) for about 8 minutes in lots of boiling water.  Drain.
2. While cooking the orzo, roast fennel bulb, leeks, and kale in cast iron pans with a little bit of butter.  I cook each of the veggies separately.  They don’t all cook evenly.  This mitigates over-cooking some and under-cooking others.
3. Add roasted veggies to the cooked and oiled orzo.
4. Add the fennel green top, fresh herbs, and black olives.  
5. Before serving, top with a little bit of cheese and some toasted nuts.  I don’t add these things until serving.  They would get too damp, to be at their peak, after sitting in the fridge.

This can be served cold or at room temp.  It is a dish that you will want to eat slowly to identify the fresh herbs, roasted veggies and complexity of the different textures.  The leeks provide a mild onion flavor.  The fennel, actually has a licorice kind of “cabbagey” flavor.  Kale is always delicious!  With the olive ciabatta bread that I made.  Even better.

Tomato Soup

This is a healthy and foolproof recipe.  It’s also easy to keep the ingredients in the house, and quick to make!  It’s not the best tomato soup that I’ve ever had (bad introduction, but full disclosure), but it’s non dairy, low in fat/calories, and easy to make.  I’ve adapted this recipe from the stock class I took at Kitchen Window a couple of weeks ago.  http://www.kitchenwindow.com/.  This recipe starts with chicken stock.  More on that later.  I cheated on this one, since I didn’t have any chicken.  This is a critical ingredient to make chicken stock.  I made veggie stock with Chicken Soup Base that I had in the fridge.  Reasoning:  I had two bags of groceries to carry home from the bus the other day and couldn’t bear to add a chicken to the load.  That was poor planning.  I just signed up for grocery delivery.  One less chore to do in my free time.  Yeah!  Is this a great country, or what?

Ingredients:

• 1 can whole peeled tomatoes (I use an imported brand from Italy.  Kind of snooty, but delicious!)  Strain out the juice and keep to add later.
• 2 tbsp. extra butter.
• 1 cup yellow onion, chopped.
• 1/2 cup carrot, peeled and chopped (doesn’t need to be pretty)  This soup gets blended at the end.
• 1/2 cup celery (chopped).
• 2 cloves garlic.
• 1 cup chicken stock.
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (or other seasoning).

Garnish with fresh parsley, cilantro, other herbs, cream, sour cream, or whatever you like.

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  On parchment paper, place tomatoes topped with garlic.  You don’t want to cook tomatoes on a metal surface.  Place onion, carrot, and celery in hot cast iron pan with butter.  Put all veggies in the oven for 10 minutes or so.  The tomatoes will blacken pretty quickly.  They’ll need to come out first.  Leave the other veggies in for another 10-15 minutes.
2. Heat the stock while the veggies are in the oven, in a saucepan.
3. Add veggies when they are caramelized and tomato juice that was strained earlier.  Add other veggies.  Heat stock and veggies until carrots and celery are soft. This takes 15-20 minutes.
4. Puree.  I used a blender, but you can do this a lot of different ways.  Make sure the blender can breathe.  Place a towel over the top, rather than the lid.  If it’s airtight, it’ll form pressure that will make a mess, at a minimum, and may even be dangerous.
5. Serve with garnish and some fresh bread.  This would be really great with a grilled cheese sandwich.  Even though this soup sounds kind of light, it’s actually really filling.  

Cast Iron Pans

I use two Lodge Cast Iron Frying Pans, consistently.  I’ve gotten rid of all of my non-stick pans.  A few years ago, they started talking about the damage those do to your lungs.  Gross!  I have a gas stove, for the first time in my life, so it makes even more sense.  Top Ten Reasons that I love my cast iron pans:

1. Easy clean up.  I just wipe the cooled pan down with a paper towel.  You can then put it in a really hot oven, if you’re a clean freak.  You can also hand wash and hand dry, but really???  I leave mine out on the stovetop.  I put them in the oven if I don’t want to look at them.  Mine are really well seasoned.
2. Fast cooking.  You always heat the pan up before cooking.  This is not a good idea with non-stick pans.  You can cook at much higher temps., too.  You can roast meat or veggies in the cast iron pan, too.  I bake bread in mine, as you may already know.
3. Beautiful browning.  I especially like this for veggies.  Again, they cook up fast.  You can just put the pans with a layer of veggies (2) in the oven and go and do something else. 
4. Even heat.  Since the pan is heavy, the heat is even.  This is forgiving.  Who doesn’t need a little bit of this, every now and again?
5. Inexpensive.  This is one of my favorite things.  I don’t think I’ve ever spent $100 on any pan in my life.  They still got trashed.  I have two cast iron frying pans.  I spent less than $50 on the two of them.  I did splurge on glass lids for both of them and a panini press that looks like an antique iron.  Cute!
6. Available at big box stores.  Because they are inexpensive, you can get them at Target, Walmart, or Fleet Farm!  
7. Health benefits.  Some of the “granola heads” say that food cooked in an uncoated/untreated cast iron pan provide essential minerals/metals that we don’t often get in our cooking.
8. Versatile.  These pans go from stovetop to oven and from the grill to the camp fire!  
9. Cooks at high temps. without killing the canary!  Do I really need to say any more?
10. Self defense weapon.  I’m just sayin’.  If an intruder got in to your house, you could just clock him with one of these.  Careful.  Make sure he falls/collapses IN the house, not outside.  Otherwise, the other nine reasons would likely be offset by our criminal justice system! :-)  I’m just kidding about this one, of course.

Ciabatta Bread

I’ve tried and failed to make a decent ciabatta bread, until now!!!  Very exciting!  I’ve adapted this from lifehack.org.  He calls it “one minute ciabatta”.  This may be stretching the truth a little bit, as the dough has to rise/rest for 8-12 hours.  I mixed it and covered it  in a few minutes, just before “retiring” last night.  I was so excited when I woke up and saw that the dough was still sticky and had tripled in size, just as it was supposed to!  That hardly ever happens to me!  Another option would be to mix it up and let it rest all day.  You’d have warm, fresh bread for dinner!

Again, I used my Kitchenaid mixer to mix this up.  Easy and fast!  This is not the way a lady wants to be described, but I’m not talking about a lady.  I’m talking about the hard working and versatile equipment in my little kitchen!  I have the professional model, which is really not at all like me.  I pretend to be a professional, but am usually to cheap and practical to buy the biggest and best.  :-)  I blame that on my very practical Wisconsin roots.  Speaking of practical, I baked this in my cast iron pan.  More on this, too.  Let’s do it!

Ingredients:

2 cups of hot tap water (not microwaved, just from the tap).

1/4 tsp. yeast (keep it fresh).  It should bubble a little when added to warm water.

3 1/2 c. bread flour (can use all purpose).

1/2 tsp. salt.

Process:

• ADD.  This sounds like a math problem, but it isn’t!  Add hot tap water and yeast to the warm mixing bowl.  You can mix this up with a whisk or fork.  Then, let it sit for a few minutes.  Add the flour.  Add the salt.  Add some dried herbs, if you want to be really fancy.
• MIX.  I use the dough hook on the mixer for this.  Just mix until all ingredients are incorporated.  The “ball” of dough is not really a ball here.  It’s pretty sticky and wet, much more than a french or italian dough.  It looks pretty small, but don’t get discouraged.
• RISE/REST.  Leave the dough in the mixer bowl.  (Why dirty another big bowl?) Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel.  Place in a warm and draft free place for 8-12 hours.  (I put it in the oven, mostly so Belle doesn’t decide to have a midnight snack!)
• BAKE:  As noted below, heat up one pan of water.  (I use my 2 qt. sauce pan for this.)  Place the cast iron pan (or baking sheet) in the oven to preheat at 450 degrees.  You don’t need to put flour, corn meal, or parchment paper on the cast iron.  GENIOUS!!!!  When the oven is hot, carefully pour the dough in to the hot cast iron pan.  Gentle, gentle, gentle.  The air bubbles that are in the dough make this work.  I carefully scraped the side of the bowl as the dough was coming out of the bowl.  Bake until brown (20-30 minutes).
• COOL.  Just be cool.  Carefully, place the finished loaf on a cooling rack.  Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing, so the bread does not collapse.  
• Slice and enjoy!  This is the best part!  So delicious! Mine was a little bit mis-shapen, but looks like “the real deal”, when sliced.  

Tips:  

Warm up the mixing bowl before adding the water and yeast.  Cold kills yeast.

I leave the yeast and water in the warmed up bowl for a few minutes before adding the flour.  Then, I pour all of the flour on top of the water and yeast.  I put the salt on top of the flour.  Remember, salt kills yeast, too.

When preheating the oven, boil a pan of water (about an inch in the bottom of the pan), put the cast iron pan in the oven, or heat it up on the stove.  Note:  the pan with boiling water is not the same pan that you will be baking in.  Oddly, a pan of hot water in the oven, helps to crisp up the crust.  I place this on the rack below the rack that the bread is on.  Having water in a spray bottle and spraying the oven walls just after placing the dough in the hot oven helps, too.  

You can add dried herbs or some nice parm. cheese.  Again, not the stuff in the green can.  Adding a little bit (1 tbsp.) of melted butter will help to brown the loaf.  

Some recipes call for a baking stone or pizza slider thingy (not it’s technical name).  Again, I have a really tiny kitchen in a house that was built in the 1930’s or 40’s, so less is better.  I don’t need either one of those things, since I have the cast iron pan!

Easy clean up!  I used just one measuring cup, one measuring spoon, my Kitchenaid mixing bowl, and the dough hook.  You could live really large with one more bowl.  After mixing the dough, pour half of it in another bowl.  You could make two smaller loaves.  You could also top the first “layer” from one bowl with cheese, add the other half of the dough, and top that with cheese!  The possibilities are endless!

My friend, Tadd, would toast this bread.  I’ll probably take a couple of slices, lightly butter both sides, and “grill” in a hot cast iron pan!