Even though school is out for the summer, I'm clinging to what's left of the mild spring weather since so much of this season was rainy this year in Boston. Of course this weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, but there's no need to hurry into summer and cut this season short! This week I was experimenting in the kitchen, and came up with a seasonal pasta salad featuring artichokes and edamame. It's perfect for pot-lucks, picnics and grill outs, because it doesn't have any mayonnaise. I'm just going to let you know now, I found that the spaghetti was a little unwieldy, so in the recipe I'm going to recommend a short pasta even though it's spaghetti in the picture.
Late Spring Pasta Salad
1- 1 lb box rotini cooked and drained
4 oz. finely cubed pancetta
2 cups fresh, shelled edamame beans
1- 8oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts
as much finely grated Parmesan cheese as it takes to make you happy
In a medium frying pan, on medium heat cook the pancetta for about7-9 minutes, or until it's crispy. Add the beans and the artichoke hearts (including the marinating liquid) and cook for 2 more minutes until it's all warmed through. Pour this mixture over the pasta and toss to coat the noodles. Serve with shredded cheese on the side so people can add to their liking.
That's it! You can serve it warm or cold. It's yummy either way!
Do you have any plans for Memorial Day weekend? What are they? I'm going to see these guys in concert on Friday, and I'm REALLY excited!!
Yesterday was such a happy day for so many people in my life! A lot of our friends graduated, it was my aunt's birthday, my cousin's birthday, a family friend went to her prom *AND* Brad and I attended a fantastic wedding celebration! Phew! So much happiness! The wedding reception was a luau themed pot-luck (complete with a tiki piñata!-Aweseome.) so I decided to make a popular Hawaiian snack, Spam Musubi (it's like sushi, but with spam instead of fish), and a cheese dip that my cousin Nicky likes to make, which had come highly recommended from my mom. :o) I will warn you, the Spam Musubi recipe looks long, but that's mostly because I'm describing ingredients that I think many people will find to be foreign and exotic. It's an easy recipe, I promise!
Spam Musubi
3 cups sushi rice
4 cups water
1 can spam
4 tbsp mirin*
2 tbsp soy sauce
5 sheets or yaki nori**
Start by putting the rice into a 2 quart pot. Rinse the rice 7 times by filling the pot with water and dumping it out carefully so you don't spill the rice everywhere. There is a lot of starch on the rice that will just make a gooey film. Not good for sushi. After you pour the water out for the final time, put the measured water into the pot with the rice. Bring the rice to a boil on medium high heat. Then cover it, reduce the heat to medium low, and cook for 20 minutes. Finally, turn off the heat and let it stand covered for 10 minutes before fluffing and cooling the rice so you can handle it.
While the rice is cooling, mix together the mirin and the soy sauce in a small bowl or container, so you can pour it easily. Set that aside
Next prepare the spam by removing it from the can as unmarred as possible. Be patient, and maybe cut out a very small sliver from one of the short sides to release the vacuum, so you can just shake it out of the can. Any way once it's out of the can, slice it in half from top to bottom, making a left half and a right half. Then lay the cut sides on the cutting board and slice each half into 10 even slices making your cuts parallel to what were the top and bottom of the ham. You should end up with twenty 2 inch squares.
Then take your yaki nori and use kitchen shears to cut each sheet into 4 even strips. You'll notice there is a rough side and a shiny side, you want the shiny side facing out once the musubi are done, so just lay the strips in a stack on your work surface with the rough side facing up.
Heat a large frying pan on medium high heat, and lay out 10 of your spam slices in an even layer on the pan. Fry for 2 minutes and then flip them over. Add the soy sauce mixture and slide the spam around to soak up the sauce and to prevent sticking for another minute or two. Once the sauce starts reducing (you'll see it, it happens quickly), flip the spam over again and keep sliding it around until all the sauce is soaked up. Turn the heat off, but leave the spam in the hot pan to continue caramelizing.
Now you're ready to assemble. I usually stir the rice around gently, maybe it's more of a cutting and flipping motion, to release the heat pockets. Once the rice is cool enough to handle, wet your hands (you don't want them dripping, but you want a nice coat of water so the rice doesn't stick to them. Also, do re-wet them in between each musubi) and form the rice into a little round puck, about 2 inches in diameter and an inch thick. You want to pack it tight enough so it will stick together, but not so tight that smash the rice. Place a spam square on top of the rice pillow, and place them spam side down on the center of one of the nori strips. Fold one of the ends of the strip over the disk, and take 3-4 grains of rice from the pot to use it like an adhesive to fold the other end over so it will all stick. Set it on your serving platter with the spam side up. (Like in the photo) and you're done! You have just made one of President Obama's favorite foods! :o)
Nicky's Cheese Dip
A small piece of onion that will result in 1 tbsp when it's finely minced
A small piece of bell pepper that will result in 1/4 cup when it's finely minced
2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1- 15 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained well
chopped pecans to taste
Put the onion and pepper in a food processor and pulse until they're in 1/4 inch pieces. Cut the cream cheese into about 3 pieces each, and put that plus the pineapple into the food processor. Process until thoroughly combined.
If you have a spring form pan or mold, you can put the pecans in a layer on the bottom. Pack the dip into the vessel, and cover with foil or plastic wrap. Place this in the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm up.
If you don't, just grab some cling wrap, and use it to form a ball with the dip. Refrigerate the ball, which is now covered in the cling wrap for 1 hour. When you're ready to serve it, just roll the ball in the pecans before setting it out.
Or, if you're really in a hurry, just place the soft dip into a bowl and sprinkle the nuts on top.
This is a fairly sturdy dip so it's good for firm veggies, like carrots or sturdy crackers like Triscuits.
I'm not sure what "version city time" is , but I'll venture a guess that it happened yesterday.
* Mirin is a rice wine, similar to sake, but MUCH sweeter. It is usually next to the soy sauce at the supermarket.
** you can get yaki nori at an Asian specialty supermarket. You can get all the other ingredients for this recipe at a specialty market, but they're probably cheaper at the regular supermarket. Anyway, it looks like this:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am a sugar ADDICT. Sometimes I feel like it's a chicken and egg problem. Do I love to bake because I'm addicted to sugar? OR, am I addicted to sugar because I love to bake? Brad and I also have a really bad ice cream problem. I think it's something about the ice cream tradition in New England. It's custard based, so it's rich and tasty! And the flavors! Don't get me started. At any rate, I'm trying to curb my cravings by increasing my fruit intake. Enter the smoothie! I've started just popping the fruit I don't get to finish into the freezer when it's just over ripe. This preserves the fruit at it's sweetest. Then on days when I would have ice cream, I whip up this smoothie!
1 cup of frozen fruit, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces*
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup milk
Use a blender or food processor to liquefy to the desired consistency. This recipe is rather thick, more like a milk shake than a smoothie. Just add more milk until it's where you like it.
Take your smoothie to a viewing of the sunset and play this whole album from beginning to end. Does it get any smoother than this? I think not.
*The smoothie in the photo is made up of equal parts pineapple, strawberry and banana.
