Recipes

One-pot French onion and mushroom pasta

Now that we’re done with Thanksgiving and in Christmas mode, I’m spending less time in the kitchen and more time shopping online and out there. Easy and quick dinners are a must no matter what time of the year, but for me, December is the winner month for all fast meals.

This one-pot French onion and mushroom pasta is one of the easiest and tastiest dishes to make—and eat! It’s just so good. The pasta, the caramelized onions, the mushrooms and the cheese. Love, love and love it! And because this is dealicious cooking, here’s the deal: everything gets started in one pot and ends in the same pot!

Confession alert! I’m not a one-pot pasta believer. I still think that pasta needs to be cooked separately, always al dente and finished in whatever sauce or juice it’s destined to be. But this recipe works better in one pot where most of the sauce is absorbed by the pasta and a little cream plus cheese help to wrap the flavors together.

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Chai White Russian

It’s almost Thanksgiving! I’m not going to bother you with side dish recipes or tips on how to make your turkey taste less like turkey. We know it’s all about the stuffing and the booze!

And this year, for dessert, I’m skipping the store bought pumpkin pie and drinking this Chai White Russian instead.

It’s a classic drink with a twist. Vodka, Kahlua and Chai milk tea.

For the milk tea I used almond coconut blend, but it can be replaced with regular milk or even heavy cream—which is more like the original White Russian. Bring one cup of milk or cream to a boil, mix a tablespoon of agave syrup, turn heat off, throw in a Chai tea bag, and let it sit covered for a while.  Keep the Chai milk tea in the refrigerator until cocktail time.

  

Before I got busy with the shaker I fancied my glass up with a graham cracker crumbs rim—but this is totally optional, and frankly, I only did it for the looks.

Chai White Russian deconstructed:

  • 2 generous ounces of vodka
  • 1 ounce of Kahlua Liquor
  • Mix it in a shaker (or tall glass) with lots of ice. Pour it on a ‘old fashioned’ glass filled with ice. Top it with 2 ounces of Chai milk tea. Garnish with ground nutmeg and a cinnamon stick for stirring.
  • Find a comfortable spot in the couch to enjoy it, count your blessings, and get ready for Christmas. Yikes!

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Roasted Kabocha and kale salad

This salad is like fall in a plate. Hearty roasted Kabocha, sweet pomegranate seeds, and slightly wilted kale all combine for a filling salad.

But before we dive into this fall recipe, meet my favorite winter squash: The Kabocha. This super versatile squash is perfect for roasting, stuffing, and souping (not sure that’s a real verb.) It looks like pumpkin’s green stocky cousin but it doesn’t taste like pumpkin at all. It has an unique flavor and more of a sweet potato texture. If you haven’t taste it yet, give it a try!  You most likely to find it at Asian markets and it’ll be cheap–especially during fall and winter. Definitely ‘dealicious’! 

Oh, can we briefly discuss this sweet+tangy+warm dressing?!! So simple and so good. And you want it warm because it helps make the kale slightly softer, giving it the right texture for those of us turned off by the coarse greens. Top it all with some fresh-grated Pecorino to add a creamy spin to the salad and there you have it. Fall perfection!

 

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Brown butter butternut squash Alfredo

I’m not going to bore you with an elaborated blog story about how I ended up with too much butternut squash and how I’m now challenged with putting it on everything I’ll cook for the next couple of weeks. Simply put, fairly big butternut squashes were 99 cents EACH–great ‘deal’– so I bought a lot of them. Now, I have them all in my counter, looking at me as if they expect to become something more than soup!

I started downsizing my butternut squash stash with this brown butter butternut squash Alfredo recipe. Although I called it “Alfredo” this isn’t exactly the right name tag for this sauce. It’s not “real” Alfredo! The original stuff is much different than the Parmesan-heavy and delicious but pretty generic cream sauce normally described as Alfredo.

Tagliolini nests was the only pasta left in my pantry so that’s what I used, but you can use any kind of stringy pasta (fettuccini, spaghetti, even angel hair.) As long is cooked in water with loads of salt and ‘al dente’ it’s all good!

Roasted butternut squash always turns out sweeter and flavorful but it does take time. If you are in a hurry you can simply boil it for 15-20 minutes. Once your butternut squash is cooked, blend it with the milk and cream.

The last ingredient to be added to the sauce is the cheese. I used a mix of parmesan and Catamount Hills cheese–you can read more about it here) Parmesan and asiago can be a good combination too but if you only have Parmesan so be it! I transferred the pasta directly from the boiling pot to the sauce pan. Toss and twirl and lift and toss and twirl some more. Eventually the cheese will be melted and smoothly coating the pasta.

Serve it immediately!  Don’t wait. Plate it hot. Eat it hot. Even better with some chilled white wine!

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Hard cider braised chicken tacos with avocado apple pomegranate salsa

Another Tuesday. Another taco dinner. But these ‘no ordinary tacos’ were by far one of the best I’ve ever prepared.

Ohhh the avocado pomegranate salsa! It’s like ” Hey Summer, meet fall.”  This gorgeous salsa (and I rarely use the word gorgeous) is great for dipping, topping, or just looking at!

Chicken loves hard apple cider, especially when braised in it. And the chicken turned out as tender as crockpot pulled chicken without having to let it sit in a crockpot overnight. In order to achieve all the gloriousness of braising,  you must deglaze the pan and scrape up all the browned bits. Don’t skip this step. The bits are full of flavor that you want to incorporate into the sauce.

Can we talk about this salsa some more? How can three ingredients get along so well? Avocado, apple, and pomegranate with a little help of Poblano pepper, green onions, cilantro and lime juice. That’s it! So simple and yet so frigging good. I don’t consider my kids picky eaters, but I totally thought this salsa was not going to impress. Boy was I wrong. We ended up fighting for the leftover on a epic tortilla chip battle where everyone won.

 

 

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Chai pumpkin bread with Chai tea icing

While some wait all year for the warm tastes of nutmeg and pumpkin, I get exhausted by the pumpkin spice everything on fall everything, and everything food in fall. However, I too drank the pumpkin Kool-Aid and embraced the season I like the least–my ‘Making peace with fall’ entry explains.

This Chai pumpkin bread is my contribution to the pumpkin everything marathon 2017. It’s so good that I’ll consider baking this again…in summer. And this Chai tea icing is everything! Everything!

 

 

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7UP lemon cake recipe

Baking is usually not fun for me, but when my daughter asked to bake something fun together I caved in. It was her free afternoon Friday and she wanted to bake with me. No musical.ly. No YouTube. The kid wanted mom and daughter bake time!

So, I started scrolling the baking recipe index in that corner of my brain that I don’t normally go to very often. What was that soda cake? Fanta or Coke cake? She doesn’t like Coke. Or Fanta. Wait, was it 7Up? Yeah…it was. We are making 7Up cake! Fun enough, right?

Now, I’m not a big fan of making things ‘not from scratch’ but when it comes to baking, the easier the better. This recipe is definitely easy, quick and so tasty you forget all the artificial flavors and ‘who knows what’ ingredients in a cake box, pudding box and 7Up alone. But I figured we eat pretty healthy around here so opening a box once in a while won’t kill us. We did it. It was fun and pretty delicious.

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Roasted Brussels sprouts recipe

This is how you clean up Brussels sprouts bad reputation. Roast them with some sage infused brown butter, add chopped hazelnuts, finish with a drizzle of honey. There you have it! Crunchy, nutty, salty and sweet, full of texture and flavor!

Start by browning the butter. Melt it slowly over medium heat swirling occasionally to brown it evenly. When the butter starts to foam and turn tan throw the sage in. Let butter turn brown lightly and remove.

Dress the sprouts with the brown butter, salt, pepper, and chopped hazelnuts and they are ready to roast.

Roast at 400F for 15 minutes. Toss them around halfway. Place it on a serving plate. Drizzle with honey. Heaven!

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Pear Mint Chardonnay Sorbet

Need I say more? It’s my favorite fruit paired with wine in a dessert form. It’s delicate, refreshing and a little boozy!

It was my first time making this so I based my proportions on basic sorbet recipes. I think I could’ve used one more pear–but who knows? Maybe it’s just my pear obsession talking! I went with organic green anjou pears but any pear will do.

I kept the skin on to get the most flavor and some color out of the pears. They were so ripe that it took less than 5 minutes for them to cook.

The most labored part of this recipe was straining the ingredients. I used a super fine mesh strainer–not the best choice. It took a while and the idea of throwing it all in the blender crossed my mind. Note to self and to you: use a strainer with larger perforation.

I used a buttery and slightly citrus Chardonnay to balance the sweet–Slow Press Chardonnay 2014 found at Costco for under 12 dollars.

 When using a ice-cream maker is important to let the mixture cool down–about 45 minutes in the fridge. If you don’t have a ice-cream machine you still can make this by placing it in the freezer and steering it every so often until it’s smooth–about every 15 minutes for hours and hours and hours. You can either go get a ice-cream machine (trust me, it’s worth it!) or you can sip on the leftover wine to help you cope with the the 132 trips you’re about to make to the fridge!

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Falafel Stuffed Eggplant with Yogurt Mint Sauce

I love falafel and I love eggplant. Putting them together this intimately was one of the best things it ever happen in my kitchen. No exaggeration here. And topping it all up with a creamy and tangy yogurt sauce makes this combo even better. Sounds like vegan porn to me.

Here is how you make it:

Wash and dry 2 medium eggplants. Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise and score cut sides with a crosshatch pattern. Drizzle some olive oil and salt on the eggplant halves. Place them cut sides down, on a baking sheet lightly coated with olive oil. Bake at 475° for 7 minutes or until slightly tender.

While the eggplant halves are baking prepare the falafel mixture according to box directions–I used a whole box of Cashab Falafel Mix for this recipe and it was almost the perfect amount of stuffing. I overfilled mine halves and, if you love falafel as much as I do, you should overfilled yours too!

Remove from oven and carefully scoop out pulp, leaving a 3/4-inch shell. You can reserve the pulp for another use or you can shamelessly eat it right away just like it did!

  

Spoon the falafel mixture into each eggplant shell. Bake at 450° for 25-30 minutes or until the falafel is browned and crispy.

To make the Mint Yogurt Sauce, follow the recipe below. You can serve the sauce on the side or drizzle it all over the eggplant. Why not do both?

Since I made this recipe I keep thinking what else can I possibly stuff with falafel. I’m obsessed!

Yogurt Mint Sauce

Dominique for dealiciouscooking.com/blog
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup plain yogurt I used whole milk yogurt. No regrets!
  • ¼ cup minced mint
  • ½ clove garlic finely diced or grated
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • Salt to taste Start with a little and add as much as you like, always tasting in between. I'm horrible when it comes to salting my recipes. Still learning!

Instructions
 

  • Place yogurt, mint, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, and cayenne in a small bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. It'll be best to let sit for 30 minutes but it can be served right away. Store on an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.