spaghetti con zucchine di villa maria

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Hey, it’s me again, brian, not kathy. Its been over 2 years since my first (and only) post to the blog. Well… I’m back! Now some of you may be thinking, “What happened to Kathy?” She’s still around, and I’m sure we will continue to hear from her (It is her blog and all), but work has been chaos and I’m going to take over some of the cooking[ref]One night a week, although I consider any night we go out my night too.[/ref], which I guess means some of the blogging too. So, without further ado, onto the food.

A while back[ref]May 31, 2010[/ref] Food Network began a new TV channel entitled Cooking Channel. This “hipper” alternative food station premiered with new chefs and shows we in the US had never heard of: Chuck Hughes, Roger Mooking and Food Jammers. This wasn’t the prim and proper food of Ina Garten, or the butter laden dishes of Paula Deen. It was more exotic, grittier and possibly more authentic, and it was here that we first encountered the italian cooking of David Rocco.Again, this wasn’t the prissy, baby talk italian food of Giada. It was simple, rustic and friendly. When we saw his bolognese sauce for the first time, we decided we needed to make it right away, and we did[ref]Our recipe for bolognese.[/ref], to delighted food coma bliss. We have since purchased one of his cookbooks, Made in Italy, and it was from this that I decided to make dinner.

Spaghetti con Zucchine di Villa Maria, or for those of you like me who don’t speak italian, Villa Maria’s Spaghetti and Zucchini.  The recipe seemed easy, the picture looked delicious and the ingredients called for flavors I’ve never had in a pasta dish as well as the lack of the classic[ref]what we think of as classic: parmesan, red chilies, tomato sauce, basil[/ref] flavors. It called for zucchini, fresh mint, capers and red wine vinegar. Not your usual pasta dish, but I’m up for trying anything[ref]almost[/ref].

My first problem occurred with frying the zucchini, our stove is a glasstop and can’t maintain a constant temperature. It gets scaldingly hot, then shuts off and cools down so low the oil isn’t hot enough to fry, then repeats, ad infinitum. You can use cast iron, or very heavy pots to help maintain a temperature, but you shouldn’t use cast iron on a glasstop. Its annoying. We either end up with burnt uncooked zucchini or limp cooked zucchini, the second being the case for tonight.

The second issue ensued when I was done frying the zucchini. The recipe said to remove the zucchini, turn the pan to low and add the capers and mint. Wait a minute… What do I do with all the oil used to fry the zucchini? Do I just add everything to the oil, or drain off the excess, or dump it and use some new (unburnt) oil. What a conundrum. I opted for the second, dumping the excess oil and leaving enough for tossing the mint and capers in. We will never know if this was the right call, or if I was supposed to end up with noodles swimming in oil.

Thirty minutes later and the dish was finished. It looked pretty good.Not exactly like the picture in the book, but they never do. “How was it?” you ask. Well, it was different. Not bad different, but not the normal american flavor profile for pasta. When you ate all the ingredients together it tasted pretty good, the capers added that nice salty touch. But if any of the ingredients were missing from a forkful, it was a little bland. Kathy commented that she thought it was similar to buttered noodles, but I had to heartily disagree. It was missing any hint of butter and parmesan, and had the added flavor of fresh mint. It definitely wasn’t  buttered noodles. In the end we both ate our plate full of noodles, conveniently decided there wouldn’t be any leftovers for work lunch the next day and that we probably wouldn’t make the dish again in the future.

 

b.a.d. burger – burgerfi

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went to a new pizza joint in Winter Park on Friday night called burgerfi.  Not sure exactly what the name means but it is a fun place.  They have silly meat hook and edison bulb decor along with some beer, the thickest onion rings I ever saw, Chicago dogs and of course burgers. I tried out the b.a.d. burger which stands for breakfast all day.  A griddled but fairly thick burger topped with a fried egg, bacon and hashbrowns.  I could maybe have done without the hashbrowns as I didn’t see where they either added or took away from the burger and I liked the fries on the side better.  Z had a cheeseburger with added applewood smoked bacon and jalapenos.  We both liked the branded (w/ burgerfi) potato bun and the crunch the fries and rings had.  I appreciated some technology and campyness sprinkled throughout the restaurant (freestyle coke machines next to old school strawberry lemonade-so good juice dispenser, this buzzer chip technology business on the table so the server can find your pager thing and of course the aforementioned meathook edison bulb chandeliers.  I could somewhat have done without the Friday night Winter Park kids and family crowd but it adds to the charm and gives something to watch.    The website for burgerfi advertises a lot of eco-friendly things like that the chairs are made of recycled Coke bottles and the tables of compressed recycled wood alongside farm based socially conscious food-but it didn’t seem to play that way in real life.  All in all we enjoyed it and will likely go back.  I kind of hope one pops up in my neighborhood though.

cheat’s pizza

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Jamie Oliver is one of my favorite chefs and his most recent show on BBC America is called Meals in Minutes.  I pulled one recipe and kind of brutalized it but it tasted fairly nice anyhow.  If you’d like to see how he wrote it click on the link.  The dough was a little (or lot) thicker than I’d usually like and some other experiments were made with it involving sugar and cinnamon that were unduly discarded. All in all though, pretty fun and a nice Monday night supper.

 

pantry

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ok, so I got two cookbooks on preserving summertime bounty.  Nevermind that it is always summer here.  Nevermind that the idea of botulism terrifies me.  I have pretty much figured out that botulism is fairly rare if you use vinegars or are using highly acidic foods so green beans are probably out.  The recipes in the photo are all results from one of the current food world darlings, Marisa McClellan of Food In Jars and her recent book.  I am finding my way and realized that I have tried eight (!?) over the last month including:  Canteloupe Vanilla Bean Jam, Rainer Cherry Lemon Jam, Sweet & Sour Onions, Bread & Butter Pickles, Lime Curd, Blueberry Jam, Pickled Jalapenos and Lemon Cauliflower.  I have cherries at the ready for a mostarda later today which I am kind of excited about.  Z rightly called me out on the fact that I want to have a cute cupboard full as much as I want to give them away or eat them although I have eaten tiny jar of Rainier cherry lemon jam, one jar of lime curd (in yogurt-amazing!) and one jar of blueberry jam that didn’t seal.  All delicious and all made by me.

belated

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these cookbooks found their way into my cases on my big four-oh.  So far I am pleased with the results and a little frightened.  More on that as it happens.