sel et sucre

Category: entrees

  • How to Host the Perfect Pizza Party

    anchovies, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions

    Making pizza at my house is all about interactive cooking. People love assembling pizzas with a variety of toppings and watching delicious steaming hot pizzas emerge from the oven. Once you have a portion of the perfect pizza dough waiting in your refrigerator, it’s simply a matter of gathering guests and toppings. You’re going to want to plan on having one pizza per guest (and maybe one extra), and I find it’s easiest to provide the pizza sauce and cheese myself while requesting that guests bring a variety of toppings (check out my suggestions at the bottom of the post).

    Keep in mind, one person will have to be dedicated to transporting pizzas in and out of the oven and keeping a close eye on them inbetween. This person will be quite busy the whole time but will also be very well-loved; choose wisely! In my house, my boyfriend typically fills this role because he deals much better with the running back and forth than I do.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Zucchini Risotto

    Zucchini Risotto

    I’ve declared this week Zucchini Week. Harvest those last zucchinis in your garden or buy them up at the farmers market and grocery store on sale, and make these delicious recipes! See my Zucchini Chard Gratin and Zucchini Fritter Stacks from earlier this week.

    This recipe is a great transition from summer to fall. Prepare for the cooler weather with the flavor of dry hard cider and the richness of aged cheese in this creamy risotto. The basic method for cooking risotto is also surprisingly easy and a good technique to have under your belt, as it can stand up to many adaptations. Despite what you may have heard about risotto, don’t worry about stirring constantly; you just need to stir enough that the rice is cooking evenly and the pan never gets dry.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Zucchini Fritter Stacks

    Zucchini Fritter Stacks

    I’ve declared this week Zucchini Week. Harvest those last zucchinis in your garden or buy them up at the farmers market and grocery store on sale, and make these delicious recipes! See my Zucchini Chard Gratin from Monday and come back Friday for another zucchini recipe.

    I made these zucchini fritter stacks as a lunchtime meal, but I think they would be amazing as an appetizer or party snack. The fritter itself is crispy with lots of flavor from the zucchini, cheese, and beer. Add tomato and avocado slices on top (and some bacon and extra cheese, of course) and you have a delicious combination of textures and tastes. You can deep-fry the fritters, but I don’t like using that amount of oil (it seems like a waste (although you can filter and save the oil), and the more hot oil there is, the more scared I am of getting burnt), so I use a shallow-fry technique here.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Zucchini Chard Gratin

    Zucchini Chard Gratin

    I’ve declared this week Zucchini Week. Harvest those last zucchinis in your garden or buy them up at the farmers market and grocery store on sale, and make these delicious recipes! Come back on Wednesday and Friday for more zucchini recipes.

    This gratin is almost like a quiche, but the egg here is just enough to hold together the zucchini, swiss chard, bacon, and cheese packed into the dish. The flavor, upped by the inclusion of herbs and garlic, is amazing, and when I made this, I lamented not having made twice as much. So this recipe is twice the amount that I made; expect your gratin to be about twice as thick as mine – and you won’t be sorry.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Chinese Beef and Broccoli

    Chinese Beef and Broccoli

    Growing up, beef and broccoli was always my favorite dish to order at Chinese restaurants. But naturally, the heavily Americanized versions feature an overly sweet and thick sauce that I now find much less appealing. This version of Chinese beef and broccoli is a bit more subtle, with the flavors of rice wine, black vinegar, and oyster sauce.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Summer Succotash

    Summer Succotash

    I love the abundance of fresh high-quality produce that’s available in the summer.  The farmers’ market sets up shop one block from me every Sunday, and I like to spend my morning strolling through, sampling peaches here and heirloom tomatoes there, not to mention cheese from Keswick Creamery, bacon from Truck Patch Farms, and gelato from Dolcezza Gelato.  Yes, I’m very spoiled (from May to November, at least).

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Roasted Veggie Pasta with Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction

    Roasted Veggie Pasta with Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction

    Although I often enjoy spending multiple hours preparing elaborate meals, there’s a certain joy in creating a delicious simple meal in just half an hour.  This pasta is perfect for that as the three main components can easily be prepared in parallel, and all of them are fairly straightforward.  I always admire versatility in recipes, and this one is most certainly versatile; use almost any pasta or veggies to customize your meal.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Vegetarian Moroccan Tagine

    Vegetarian Moroccan Tagine

    Three years ago, in the summer of 2008, I spent two weeks traveling around Morocco with a friend. We had both been studying Arabic and thought this would be a good chance to practice; of course, once we arrived, we quickly realized that Moroccan Arabic is so different from Modern Standard Arabic that we were better off falling back on our knowledge of French! Luckily, my friend was practically fluent and I had five years of middle school and high school French classes under my belt – not that it did me all that much good, as this trip was probably the only time I’ve had people ask me why I’m so quiet and shy.

    (more…)

    Related Posts: