At this time of year I get so anxious for spring to arrive. The first few weeks of April are a special kind of torture for New Englanders. One moment it’s 70° and sunny and I’m sure that it’s time to plant the tomatoes, and the next day I’m wearing three layers while trodding through the rain. Every year I find myself scrolling back through my Instagram feed trying to find the moment when spring arrived. When did the apple trees bloom? When did the crocuses pop? It had to be earlier last year, didn’t it?

Slowly but surely, it’s coming. We had a weekend with a hint of sunburn, a beer on the porch in the afternoon, and a promise of more warm days to come. The peas have sprouted and we check on them three times a day, the only denizens of our garden so far. The trees are in that tentative green stage, and I find myself looking up every 10 minutes, as if they may somehow magically burst into blossom over the course of an afternoon. But that’s how it feels when it finally happens, isn’t it? One morning the gray branches and bare against the spring blue sky, practically bursting with anticipation, and the next somehow everything is green and lush.

But all this is the essence of spring, is it not? The uncertainty, the anticipation, the oscillation between summer and winter. So, thank you, spring, for showing up. For teasing us with sunshine and letting us plunge our hands into the soil. For the first signs of green and even for the cool nip in the wind. I promise to enjoy every moment of you, the most fleeting of seasons. I’ll enjoy the rainy days with fat raindrops pounding against the roof. I’ll enjoy every blossom you toss our way – first, the purple and yellow crocus tips, then the showy magnolia blooms, the showers of pink apple blossoms and the regal irises.

Because every season needs at least one or two go-to pasta recipes, I’ve been developing spring pastas. I’m trying to build a collection for each season, like this Creamy Mushroom Pasta and this Heirloom Tomato Spaghetti. And now, my latest for spring – Goat Cheese Stuffed Shells with Spring Vegetables. They have all the usual spring suspects – peas, asparagus, goat cheese, lemon – tucked inside thick pasta shells. The filling also includes ricotta, mozzarella, and chopped spinach. So much cheese! So many vegetables! The finishing touch is a quick bechamel sauce and just a little bit more cheese before baking.

A word of warning: these contain an almost lethal amount of cheese, as you might have guessed from the above. Pace yourself and remember that this batch should serve 8-10 people! Four or five shells is a good serving size, and it’s easy to wolf them down. Serve alongside a salad or some bright steamed asparagus for balance.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Shells with Peas and Asparagus

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipes. Serves 8-10.

• One 12-oz. box of jumbo pasta shells
• 6 oz. soft goat cheese
• 1 lb. ricotta cheese
• 8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated and divided
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (6 oz.) frozen spinach
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 1 lb. asparagus, ends trimmed
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 TBS butter
• 3 TBS flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk, warmed in the microwave
• sea salt

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta shells and cook for the amount of time specified on the packages. Err on the side of undercooking the pasta just a little bit – if you overcook the shells they are more likely to fall apart when stuffing. Drain the shells and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the goat cheese until smooth and creamy. Add the ricotta cheese and 6 oz of the mozzarella cheese and stir to combine. Reserve the remaining mozzarella cheese for topping the shells. Add the egg to the cheese mixture and beat slightly, stirring to combine evenly with the cheeses.
3. Add the frozen spinach to a microwaveable bowl with a little bit of water. Microwave until fully thawed, about 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Use a spoon to press any excess liquid out of the spinach, draining the liquid out of the bowl. When the spinach is dry, add to the bowl with the cheeses and stir to combine. Now add the peas to the microwaveable bowl with a little water and microwave for 60-90 seconds to defrost the peas. Drain the liquid from the bowl and add the peas to the spinach and cheese mixture, stirring to combine.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a simmer. When simmering, add the asparagus and blanch until bright green, about 90 seconds. Drain immediately and rinse the asparagus under cold running water to stop the cooking. Cut the asparagus into small pieces, about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch long, and add to the cheese filling. Add the lemon zest and black pepper, stir to combine, and set aside.
5. To prepare the bechamel sauce, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir into the butter. Cook the flour and butter, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just beginning to color, about 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the warm milk, stirring as you do to incorporate the milk into the roux. Cook the bechamel, stirring the whole time, until it has thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon but still runs freely when lifted. This should only take 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and season to taste with sea salt.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread a little bit of the bechamel sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 inch casserole dish (to help keep the shells in place as you fill them). Working one at a time, spoon the cheese and vegetable mixture inside the pasta shells, using about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of filling per shell. As you stuff them, line the shells up on the casserole dish in a single layer. Pour the bechamel sauce over the top of the shells, then sprinkle the reserved grated mozzarella over the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until cheese is golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm.

The post Goat Cheese Stuffed Shells with Peas and Asparagus appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I recently discovered two things. First, Cara Cara oranges. Have you ever had one? They’re amazing. Whoever invented orange-flavored candies was definitely inspired by these guys. They are so much sweeter, juicier, and just more wonderful than regular oranges, and they’re a beautiful pink color inside, too. Although I usually associate citrus with January and February, Cara Caras seem to just be hitting their peak season now. At least, Wholefoods is full of them: no ramps or fava beans, just a lot of oranges. Although to be honest, I think my expectations for the seasonal produce that should be available in April have always been a little out of touch with reality. It was snowing two weeks ago, after all.

Writing the above paragraph has sent me down an internet rabbit hole looking for orange trees online. Because wouldn’t a Cara Cara orange tree be the perfect addition to our collection of trees that you probably shouldn’t try and grow in Boston? Our impulse-tree-purchase rate is way up this month anyways – last weekend alone we bought an olive tree and a coral bark Japanese Maple. What would harm could one more citrus tree do?

The second thing I discovered is that I’ve been cooking asparagus wrong. My standard cooking method for most vegetables is this: douse liberally with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, roast at 400°F until nicely charred. I like my roasted vegetables to be borderline carcinogenic. Especially brussels sprouts – I love the way the leaves get translucent and crunchy. Unfortunately, this method has left me unsatisfied when it comes to asparagus. If you roast asparagus even a little bit too long, it becomes stringy and mushy. So I recently tried a recipe in Diana Henry’s Simple which calls for you to lightly steam the asparagus by putting the thick ends in an inch or two of simmering water and pushing the tips just below the edge of the pot, without putting the whole stalk underwater. You only cook the asparagus for a few minutes, until they’re bright green, then drain immediately. This method resulted in asparagus that was fresh, tender, and perfectly cooked without being limp or mushy or stringy. Success!

In this recipe I’ve brought these two April delicacies together in – surprise! – a bowl. I just like things better when they’re in bowl form, OK? It’s a trend that makes me eat my vegetables. I’ve built on the Diana Henry recipe I mentioned above, which served the steamed asparagus with goat cheese and lemon butter, to build a warm bowl that screams spring. The base of the bowl is Israeli Couscous tossed with butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest while the couscous is still warm. Adding spinach, steamed asparagus, goat cheese, the lovely Cara Cara oranges, and shelled pistachios makes a healthy spring dinner that is complete and satisfying.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Lemony Israeli Couscous with Asparagus, Oranges, and Goat Cheese

Inspired by Simple. Serves 2.

• 1 cup of uncooked Israeli couscous
• 2 TBS butter
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• black pepper
• 1/2 pound of asparagus
• 3 oz. of baby spinach
• 1 Cara Cara orange, peeled and supremed (cut into segments)
• 3 oz. soft goat cheese, cut into slices
• 1/4 cup of shelled pistachios

1. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat (the pot should be slightly less wide than the length of your asparagus stalks). Add the couscous to the boiling water and stir. Cook until tender and chewy, about 5-7 minutes, then drain. Transfer to a bowl and add the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and black pepper while couscous is warm. Stir until the couscous is evenly coated with the lemon butter and set aside.
2. Add about 2 inches of water to the pot and return to the stove. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Prepare the asparagus by snapping or trimming off the thick woody end of each stalk, usually about the bottom 1 inch. (You can gently bend the asparagus to find the natural breaking point as a guide). Place the thick end of the stalks in the simmering water in the bottom of the pot. Gently bend the asparagus so the tips are resting just inside the pot but aren’t submerged in the water, so they will steam but not boil. Cook the asparagus in this way until bright green, which should take about 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of your asparagus. Remove from the heat, drain, and run under cold water for 60 seconds to stop the cooking process.
3. To assemble the salads, divide the couscous and spinach between two bowls. Top with asparagus, orange segments, goat cheese, and pistachios. Serve warm.

The post Lemony Israeli Couscous with Asparagus, Oranges, and Goat Cheese appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’ve been running for most of my life. I started training for the cross-country team when I was 13 and never stopped. Ten miles a week, 52 weeks a year, and 15 years later I’ve run at least 8,000 miles. Probably more like 10,000 when you factor in the long runs, the half marathons, the heavy training periods.

When we were in high school, our coach used to read aloud to us from Once A Runner, to psych us up before races. I’ve never actually read the book, but the title echoes through my head all the time – it resonates. Running is such an essential part of who I am. It’s when I’m running that I feel most like myself, most in tune with my own thoughts. It’s my quiet time, the time when I allow my thoughts to spin unstructured through my mind and let them sort themselves out. When I’m angry I come back calm, and when I’m tired I come back reinvigorated. I’ve made my most difficult decisions in the space of 4 miles without even realizing I was making them.

Running has also taken me to corners of the world where I’d never find myself otherwise. Sunrise runs in Dublin along the quiet banks of the grand canal, past medeival cathedrals and castles. Hot, impossibly humid runs in Hong Kong along an elevated running track in the jungle, looking straight into the tops of skyscrapers. Just a month ago, we set out from Evora into the Alentejan countryside and found ourselves on a dirt path, running through olive and cork groves. It’s the most amazing way to explore somewhere new.

Don’t get me wrong – there are times when running is an absolute slog. When it’s hot and hard to breathe and I heave myself around the streets feeling like I weigh 100 pounds more than I do. But it’s not those times that keep me coming back. It’s the times when it’s cool and quiet and I feel strong and light. It’s the feeling of strength in my legs as my feet bounce repeatedly off the pavement. The sound of my breath in my chest, even and heavy, condensing in clouds around my face when it’s cold. The moment when I hit the second mile, which is always faster, looser than the first.

That steadiness, that strength and clarity, that feeling of self is why I keep running. It’s why I pull on fleece-lined leggings when there’s a wind chill of 0°F. Why I groggily lace up my shoes before dawn and run through the sunrise before my mind is even awake. Why I push through the awful runs and anticipate the great ones. Like they say, once a runner.

I’m writing this as part of my #EatSmarterMoveMore resolution this year. The “eat smart” part is so important to being able to feel good on a run. Running requires fuel – a mix of protein and carbohydrates – and nothing too heavy or rich. My parents used to host dinners for our team the night before we raced, and the living room would fill with skinny teenage girls who ate bowl after bowl of soup and homemade bread. Now that we’re getting into spring running, when the sidewalks are free of ice and my fingers don’t freeze during the first mile, I’m craving light, bright flavors as fuel. So I put together a falafel salad, dressed up for spring with bright, crunchy asparagus and carrot pickles, pistachios, feta and a green herb aioli.

I’ve posted falafel recipes before – it was one of my first posts ever, and I shared this healthy Baked Herb and Pistachio Falafel from Green Kitchen Stories. But to be honest, baked falafel is just not the same. I don’t deep fry mine, I just pan fry them in a little olive oil, which works beautifully. I’ve also started using a 50-50 mix of fava beans and chickpeas, which gives the falafel more flavor and heft.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Spring Falafel Salad

Serves 4.

• 5 oz. baby spinach leaves
• 3 oz. swiss chard leaves, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 recipe Fava Bean and Chickpea Falafel, recipe below
• 1 cup roughly chopped Spring Pickles, recipe below
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3/4 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Fresh Herb Aioli

1. Mix spinach and chard leave together and divide between four bowls. Top each bowl with 4-5 pieces of falafel, 1/4 cup of spring pickles, 2 tablespoons of feta cheese, and 3 tabplesoons of chopped pistachios. Drizzle a few tablespoons of aioli on top of each bowl and serve.

Fava Bean and Chickpea Falafel

Adapted loosely from Epicurious. Serves 4.

• 1/2 onion, peeled and cut into chunks
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 c. cooked fava beans (originally dried)
• 1 cup fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 TBS flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil, for frying

1. Add onion, garlic, half of the chickpeas, half of the fava beans, and the parsley leaves to a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is finely and evenly chopped, but not quite a paste. Add the remaining chickpeas and fava beans to the food processor, and pulse a few times more – most of the mixture should be smooth with a few larger pieces of bean left intact.
2. Scrape the bean mixture into a bowl and stir in the ground cumin, ground coriander, sea salt, and baking powder until evenly mixed. Add the flour and stir. Form a small ball of dough with your hands – if the dough comes together easily without sticking to your hands, it’s ready. If not, add another 1 to 2 TBS of flour. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
3. When ready to cook, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Form the falafel dough into balls roughly the size of a golf ball. Add 5 or 6 of the falafel to the pan and fry until deep golden brown on each side, using tongs to gently turn them as each side cooks. Each batch of falafel will take 5-7 minutes to cook completely. Use tongs to remove the falafel to a paper-towel lined plate. Repeat until you have cooked all of the falafel. Serve immediately.

Spring Pickles – Asparagus, Carrot, Radish, and Swiss Chard

Adapted from Splendid Table. Makes 2 quarts of pickles.

• 10 thin spring carrots
• 20 pencil-thin stalks of asparagus
• 8 swiss chard stems
• 10-12 radishes
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 1/2 cups of white wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of kosher salt
• 1 TBS dill seeds

1. Bring a large pot water to a boil. Thoroughly clean two quart-size canning jars and fill with very hot water. Set aside.
2. Cut the greens from the carrots and discard or reserve for another use. Wash the carrots. If the carrots are thinner than a sharpie marker, leave whole (cutting in half cross-wise only if they are taller than your pickling jars). If they are much thicker, cut them in half lengthwise. When the water is boiling, add the carrots to the water and blanch for 1-2 minutes, then drain them and run the carrots under cold water for 1-2 minutes.
3. Wash the asparagus stalks and cut in half cross-wise. Wash the chard stems and slice in half length-wise. All of your long vegetables (carrots, asparagus, chard stems) should be roughly the same length and width. Wash the radishes and cut in half.
4. Empty the canning jars of the hot water. Divide the vegetables between the two jars, standing the long vegetables up inside the jars and filling the gaps in with radishes. Add some of the garlic slices to each jar. Pack the jars as full as you can, and make them pretty!
5. Add the white wine vinegar, 2 1/2 cups of water, honey, kosher salt, and dill seeds to a small saucepan. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and simmer for 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat. Using a funnel if you have one, pour the hot pickling liquid into the jars over the vegetables. The pickling liquid should come all the way to the top of the vegetables. Let jars cool on the counter for 20-30 minutes before capping and refrigerating them. Refrigerate for at least 2 days before serving.

The post Spring Falafel Salad // #EatSmarterMoveMore: Why I Run appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The Book: It’s been ages since I’ve done a cookbook review – my last one was way back in August! That’s partly because my cookbook shelves are not just full, but crammed, so last fall I forced myself to take a break from ordering and requesting cookbooks. But when I got back from Asia all that restraint flew out the window – one of the first things I did after getting home was order 4 Japanese and Vietnamese cookbooks, and now I have a sizable stack of books awaiting review sitting next to my desk. I guess it’s time to clean out those cookbook shelves and make room for the new!

Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Phô, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals, successfully capitalizes on the intersection of two trends: the rage for “bowl food” and the rising popularity of authentic Asian cuisine in Western cultures. The book covers a lot of cultural ground, ranging from ramen and phô, bibimbap and even polenta, but is fundamentally organized by grain type, starting with wheat (ramen, soba), moving through rice (phô, bibimbap), and then onto other grains and dumplings. The flavors and techniques showcased here are not exactly classic – I’m sure many ramen chefs would cringe to see brussels sprouts and kabocha squash included in a ramen recipe – but they are modern, refreshing, and clever twists on traditional Asian dishes. There were a few flavor combinations that were a bit too far fetched for me (soba, kimchi, and pickled apple?), but far more that sounded absolutely delicious. I particularly love the seasonal variations, like summer ramen with corn, basil, and cherry tomatoes as toppings, or the winter bibimbap with gochujang-roasted sweet potatoes and kale. The dumpling chapter was also intriguing, and even includes an overview of the 5 kinds of dumpling folding styles, which is exactly the type of new-to-me information I love to find in the middle of a cookbook. And although the dishes themselves are a little irreverent, there are some good tips and historical tidbits included – now I know to rinse my ramen noodles post cooking to remove the excess starch and up the “slurp factor,” and that phô is traditionally served for breakfast.

The Food: I have to admit, I was skeptical about how satisfying a vegetarian ramen broth would be. I loved the idea of a light, vegetarian bowl of ramen, but I couldn’t imagine the soup without the salty, golden yellow broth I’d come to revere during our time in Asia. I considered making one of the broth-free recipes for this review, like the leek and mushroom shumai dumplings, but decided that I couldn’t give a fair review of a vegetarian ramen book without making, well, vegetarian ramen. I would put it to the test – could a handful of dried mushrooms, asparagus stems, sheets of seaweed, and a spoonful of miso make a satisfying soup?

I ended up loving the soup. Sure, the broth on its own wasn’t the same as a really perfect chicken broth, but the combination of the noodles, the raw and grassy asparagus, the sweet, crunchy peas, the bright lemon and ginger, the creamy egg, and the charred, bitter but sweet shallots was almost perfect. I went back for seconds and felt nourished and satisfied and happy. The recipe does require dirtying a number of different pots and pans to make all the components, but despite that, it wasn’t very time consuming to pull together.

Recipe Shortlist: Autumn Ramen with Brussels Sprouts, Roasted Mushrooms, and Chili Broth; Vegetairan Curry Laksa; Fennel Pho; Spring Bibimbap with Kimchi, Swiss Chard, and Avocado; Sprouted Lentil Bowl; Edamame Dumplings; Leek and Mushroom Shumai; Chickpea Potstickers

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Google+. Thanks for reading!

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Phô, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Vegetarian Spring Ramen

Recipe adapted slightly from Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Phô, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals. Serves 4.

• 8 oz. asparagus
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 9 cups water
• Four 2-inch squares of kombu
• 2 TBS minute miso
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 large eggs
• 4 oz. sugar snap peas, trimmed of strings
• 2 TBS canola oil
• 3 shallots, peeled and sliced into thin rings
• 12 oz. fresh or frozen ramen noodles
• 4 pinches of freshly grated lemon zest
• 4 tsp freshly grated ginger pulp

1. To make the broth: thoroughly rinse the asparagus, then snap off the tough ends by bending each piece of asparagus in the middle and letting it snap at the natural point. Place the tough ends of the asparagus, the dried mushrooms, garlic, and water in a pot, and bring to a boil. Cover and keep at a low boil for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the kombu, and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes. Strain the broth into a clean bowl, discarding the solids. Stir the miso into the hot broth, then taste and adjust seasoning with additional miso or salt as needed.
2. To prepare the ramen toppings: bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil. Use a slotted spoon to carefully lower the eggs into the boiling water. Boil the eggs for exactly 7 minutes, then immediately use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs to an ice bath. Soak in the ice bath until cool, then carefully peel.
3. Add the snap peas to the boiling water you used for the eggs and blanch them until bright green, about 2 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to transfer them to an ice bath. Keep the water at a gentle boil. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the raw asparagus into long, thin strips (like flat noodles), and set aside. Then add the canola oil to a frying pan and heat over medium heat, add the shallots (test one shallot first – it should sizzle as soon as it hits the oil) and saute, stirring frequently, until the shallots are dark brown, about 3 minutes. Remove the shallots to a paper towel-lined plate and salt generously. Set aside.
4. To assemble the ramen: bring the vegetable broth back to a gentle simmer. Add the ramen noodles to the boiling water and cook according to package directions, usually about 2 minutes for fresh noodles. When noodles are tender, use a slotted spoon or skimmer to remove the noodles from the pot and rinse in cold water to remove the excess starch, then quickly dunk them back in the hot water just to reheat them. Add a pinch each of the lemon zest and ginger pulp to each of your serving bowls, then cover with a few ladlefuls of the hot broth and add a serving of noodles. Top each bowl with a handful of the asparagus “noodles,” a few blanched snap peas, a soft-boiled egg, and a spoonful of the fried shallots. Serve immediately.

The post Book Club: Bowl Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen // Spring Ramen appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

While Trevor works on his Comp-Sci masters, he’s started working part time, primarily hosting at a local restaurant. Unfortunately for me, he works nights, which means I suddenly have an abundance of evenings to myself. I’d much rather have him to hang out with, but I’ve been trying to make the most of it by alternatively being productive and indulging in things I wouldn’t otherwise. One night last week, one of the indulgent nights, I was flicking through Amazon Prime looking for something to watch, and Out of Africa popped up, with a little footnote saying it was leaving Prime at the end of the month. I knew nothing about the movie, other than that it was old, and that it had Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, so I figured I’d watch it and write at the same time. Needless, to say, the writing didn’t happen – I was not prepared for how sexy an eighties movie about Africa could be! All this to say, if you have any recommendations for more movies I can watch on my solo nights in, preferably accompanied by a big salad and a glass of chardonnay, send them my way. I’m planning on enjoying my nights for one as much as possible.

Solo dinners at home have proved to be mostly positive for my diet – I’m much less likely to cook something major when it’s just me (although I will admit that I also feel less guilty ordering take-out). This salad is inspired by the spring offerings at Sweetgreen, an establishment I have a love-hate relationship with. How do they continually get me to pay $12 for a salad? Why do people wait in line for over an hour when you can order online 15 minutes ahead of time and walk in front of those poor suckers waiting in line, glaring at you? Why is it that their salads are so much better than any other salad offering within walking distance of my office? Whatever the answers, I love the new combination of salmon, new potatoes, and asparagus that they offer. I took it a step further at home, adding a pesto dressing, feta cheese and a soft-boiled egg. It’s not the world’s lightest salad – I wanted the potatoes almost poached in olive oil – but it’s got lots of good nutrients, it’s seasonal, and it makes a very satisfying meal. And it goes really nicely with Meryl Streep movies.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Salmon, Asparagus, and Roasted Potato Bowl with Pesto Dressing

Inspired by Sweetgreen. Serves 4.

• 4 small Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/4 inch round slices
• 1/4 c. plus 1 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. salmon fillet, deboned
• 4 large eggs
• 1 bunch of fresh asparagus, woody ends trimmed
• 4 oz. feta cheese
• 8 oz. fresh spinach or arugula
• pesto salad dressing, such as this, or store-bought pesto thinned with olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the sliced potato rounds with the 1/4 c. of olive oil and spread in a single layer on a roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, and roast until tender, about 20-25 minutes, flipping potatoes once halfway through cooking. Remove the potatoes from the oven and set aside.
2. Increase oven temperature to 425°F. Line a small roasting pan with tin foil. Drizzle half of the 1 TBS of olive oil on the tin foil, then place salmon fillet skin side down on foil. Drizzle remaining olive oil on top of fillet and season with salt and pepper. Roast until cooked through, about 12-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fillet.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat so water is at a rapid simmer, and gently add eggs. Set timer for 6 minutes. Remove the eggs precisely at 6 minutes with a slotted spoon and run under cold water. Once eggs have reached room temperature, peel eggs and set aside.
4. Add the asparagus to the simmering water that you cooked the eggs in. Simmer the asparagus until bright green, about 2-3 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat, drain the asparagus, and rinse with cold water. Set asparagus aside.
5. To assemble the salads, divide spinach or arugula between plates. Top with a generous piece of roasted salmon, a few potatoes, the blanched asparagus, and a sprinkling of feta cheese. Drizzle with pesto dressing and serve immediately.

The post Nights for One // Salmon, Asparagus, and Roasted Potato Salad with Pesto Dressing appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

When this time of year arrives – that first week when the trees have those few, glorious days of pale greenness, and all of the spring flowers that have been patiently waiting their turn through the cold spring bloom at the same time; when we shed our layers and revel in the feeling of fresh air on our bare legs and everyone lights their grills for their first time in months so that whole neighborhoods smell of smoky charcoal – I feel as though something that I’ve been waiting for, without even realizing how desperately I was waiting, has finally arrived. It feels as though things should change, routines should fly out the window, evenings should be reserved exclusively for long conversations on the porch with old friends and cold beers, and the biggest decision to be made during the day should be whether to spend it at the beach, hiking somewhere densely green, or simply sipping lemonade in the backyard. Of course, for most of us, routines don’t change just because it’s almost summer, as much as years and years of summer vacations may have conditioned us to feel like they should. But we can certainly try to do a little more to embrace the season, and let some of our responsibilities slide, just for a while.

I took yesterday off, partly to get my life organized between trips, and partly just to savor the day. I woke up early to long morning shadows, a cool breeze on my face, cool clean sheets, and the first chirps of birds. Waking up early is such a pleasure when it’s a choice and not a necessity. I spent the day doing a mix of chores and treating myself to small breaks, like a trip to the bookstore to pick up a stack of new paperbacks for the summer and an invigorating workout. I walked everywhere. Something about the day kickstarted my creativity again. By the end of the day I’d jotted 5 or 6 new recipe ideas in my notebook, something I haven’t done in months. It’s a good reminder of how important it is to rest – and that even days with chores and errands can be restful if you approach them with the right mindset. After a winter spent in a melancholy fog and a hectic spring, I need more days like this. Days that open me up to hope and possibility and peace again. Almost summer days.

I wanted to make something to celebrate this time – something light and effervescent, that would capture this fleeting, pale green moment. Perhaps it’s a bit literal, but asparagus souffles – pale green, quickly deflating – are what came to mind. With blanched asparagus, butter-sauteed leeks, and fresh tangy goat cheese pureed into the batter, these souffles are light, savory, and just slightly vegetal. They would be the perfect addition to a brunch or as a light lunch all on their own. Souffles can be intimidating but really, does it matter if they fall? They will still be just as airy and delicious. I promise you no one will complain.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door in the box on the right, on Feedly or Bloglovin‘, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Google+. Thanks for reading!

Asparagus, Leek, and Goat Cheese Souffles

Makes 8-10 souffles. Adapted from Simply Recipes and All Recipes. 

• 1/2 lb. asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 small leek, washed and sliced into half-moons
• 4 TBS butter, divided, plus more for buttering the ramekins
• 3 TBS cake flour (AP flour is a fine substitute)
• 1 1/4 c. whole milk
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled
• 6 egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Generously butter eight 6-0z. ramekins and set aside on a baking tray.
2. Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the asparagus pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes, until bright green and just tender. Drain immediately and rinse with cold water two to three times, until asparagus is room temperature. Drain thoroughly and place in a blender.
3. Return the small pot to the stove, over medium-low heat. Melt 1 TBS of the butter in the pot and add the leeks. Saute leeks until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add to the blender with the asparagus.
4. In a large pot, melt the remaining 3 TBS of butter over medium heat. Add the cake flour and stir into the butter, cooking until golden brown and nutty smelling, about 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking to make a smooth batter between additions. Once all the milk is added and the batter is smooth, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cook for 2-3 minutes longer over medium-low heat, then remove from the heat. Pour into the blender with the asparagus. Blend the mixture on high until smooth, then add the egg yolks and blend again. Pour the batter back into the pot (no longer over the heat), and stir the goat cheese into the warm batter until melted. Set batter aside.
5. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold 1/2 of the egg whites into the batter until incorporated. Very lightly fold the second 1/2 of the egg whites into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins, filling 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake the souffles for 15-20 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

The post That Pale Green Moment // Asparagus, Leek, and Goat Cheese Souffles appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

April’s goal was my least successful so far. It turns out that cumulative goals are much easier for me than daily goals, where you have no room to recover from a bad day and make up for it later. 8,000 steps a day seemed like an easy target, but weekends in particular – my sore spot to begin with – proved much more challenging than I expected. Some of the 11 days that I came in under 8,000 I’m excusing myself for: there were a few days where we spent all day outside in the garden, and although walking up and down a hill with watering cans and shoveling compost for hours may only count as 5,000 steps, it’s certainly more active (and exhausting), then taking a walk through the park. Other days I think my tracker app was a little glitchy – like when it thought I slept at the liquor store and drove for the entire 15 minute walk to the train. But really, I don’t want to make too many excuses. I just didn’t quite succeed, and I need to recognize that.

But failing doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good goal – on the contrary, it means it was a hard goal and therefore a great goal. There’s no point in setting your sights too low. So although I have a new official goal for May, I’m not taking the 8,000 steps off my list, either. I know I won’t get it every day, but having it in the back of my mind makes me so much more conscious of how active I’m being, and even on the days that I fell short, I made an effort to get out at lunchtime, or walk through the park on my way home. So I want to keep doing that, and I’m considering ordering a real tracker to help with the technological frustration piece. Although, the idea should be the movement, not the number. We’ll see.

Moving forward… it’s May! How on earth did that happen so fast? I think my problem is that I spent so much of January, February, and March yearning for the next season, and then you get here and realize that the year is almost half gone. I’ve been doing a good job keeping up with my running, getting faster and feeling better, and I’ve been toying with the idea of making this summer another racing season (it’s been over a year since my last race). What I haven’t been doing so well with is my cross-training: I’ve only been to ballet twice in the last six weeks and I’ve completely abandoned my Nike Training Club strength workouts. And once you stop doing those, it’s really hard to start from scratch again. So that’s my goal for May, to work that stuff back into my routine, without letting the running slip either. Specifically, I want to do 180 minutes of NTC workouts this month: ideally, I’ll be building in 15 minute sessions to the end of my runs, but in case that isn’t working out for me, I can also do more intense 45 minute sessions once a week. I know the first few sessions are going to be killer, but it will be so satisfying to feel toned again.

As for this month’s healthy recipe, Trevor and I are arguing about what to call it because I wanted to call it a “bounty bowl,” which he insists is vomit-inducing (his suggestion: “It’s A Fucking Salad, Get Over It.” So crass, that boy.) As you can see, we’ve compromised with Warm Arugula Salad (boring). But it doesn’t matter what you call it – what matters is that the maple-mustard dressing is so addictive, I would eat anything that you put underneath it. That said, I highly recommend this particular combination of ingredients: spicy arugula, warm crumbled Italian sausage, wheat berries, goat cheese, and roasted asparagus. It’s got spring freshness and zip from the arugula and asparagus, but with the warm sausage and wheat berries it’s hearty enough for chilly nights.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door on Feedly or Bloglovin’, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Maple-Mustard Bounty Bowl

Serves 2.

• 2/3 c. wheat berries
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1/2 bunch thin asparagus
• 2 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 1/3 lb. hot Italian sausage
• 4 c. fresh baby arugula leaves
• 2 oz. soft goat cheese
• 2 TBS mustard
• 1 TBS white wine vinegar
• 1 TBS maple syrup

1. Add the wheat berries and the chicken broth to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and cover pan, and simmer for 40-50 minutes, until wheat berries are tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the stem ends from the asparagus and discard. Chop the asparagus into 2-inch lengths, then toss with 1 TBS olive oil and sea salt. Place on a baking sheet and roast until bright green and tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
3. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat and squeeze the sausage into the pan in small pieces. Break up further with the back of a spoon, and cook, stirring frequently, until cooked through and browned all over, about 5-7  minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Assemble the salad. Toss the arugula with the wheat berries, roasted asparagus, and warm cooked sausage. Divide between two bowls, and dot each bowl with 1 oz. of goat cheese. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, white wine vinegar, maple syrup, and remaining 1 TBS of olive oil until smooth. Drizzle the dressing over the salads and serve.

The post Monthly Fitness Goals: May // Warm Arugula Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

A few weeks back Trevor and I were raiding the North Andover Market Basket on a trip home for cheap meat and ethnic produce (think yuca, hot peppers, plaintains), basically grabbing everything that’s particularly overpriced at Wholefoods and throwing it in our cart. As we strolled the aisles, I saw a container of tiny, spotted quail eggs, and for some reason had to have them. I had no idea what I was going to cook with them, but they were so delicate and pretty I knew I wanted a good reason to photograph them and share them here.

Since then, every time I open the fridge the quail eggs are staring at me, questioning me. What will you make with us? Hard-boiling quail eggs seemed way too tedious for me, although I’m sure you could make an adorable plate of deviled quail eggs if you’re the patient type (the internet confirms, and with caviar nonetheless). Baking seemed inappropriate, as the whole point is their tiny cuteness, and who wants to convert “2 large eggs” into quail eggs? Basically, the only option that was both visually appealing and non-tedious was frying them, so that’s what I decided to do, although really, that only limits the recipe choices to things you would put a fried egg on, which isn’t limiting at all.

Since Easter is just around the corner, and eggs, particularly tiny spotted ones, are a harbinger of spring and new life (plus these quail eggs mostly just made me crave Cadbury Mini Eggs), the rest of the recipe evolved into something that would be a pretty appetizer for Easter brunch. Inspired, too, by our recent trip to Au Pied de Cochon’s Sugar Shack in Montreal, where practically every course involved duck fat, I unearthed our giant vat of duck fat from the freezer. Baguette was sliced and crisped in the duck fat, basil and asparagus were blended into pesto, and the tiny eggs were fried in the duck fat drippings. A few slices of Trevor’s home-cured guanciale (which, to be honest, I haven’t tried yet, due to fear of botulism) rounded out the springtime spread. The resulting toasts were pretty, seasonal, finger foods, that crunch and smush when you bite into them in a very satisfying way. If you’re looking for something to put out with the champagne this  Sunday that will have everyone licking their fingers, consider these.

I should probably call out right now that I realize this recipe is a little bit ridiculous. Plain toast too boring? Add duck fat! Regular eggs too big? Find tiny quail eggs! Basil pesto been done? Add asparagus! But hey, sometimes what I want is food that’s quick and simple and sometimes I want something over the top and chef-y. And you know what? If you wanted to make this with big eggs, regular pesto, and full-sized slices of toast, it would probably be just as good. I do insist on the duck fat, though – it does magical things to toast.

Duck Fat Toasts with Quail Eggs and Asparagus Pesto

Serves 6 as an appetizer.

• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/4 c. pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 1/2 c. cubed parmesan cheese
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 10 thin stalks asparagus, woody ends trimmed
• 3/4 c. packed basil leaves
• 3-5 TBS duck fat
• 1 baguette, sliced on a diagonal into at least 12 slices
• sea salt to taste
• 12 quail eggs
• 12 small slices guanciale or prosciutto (optional)
• black pepper to taste

1. Make the pesto: add the garlic, toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil to a food processor, and pulse until very finely chopped. Add the asparagus and the basil and pulse until fully blended, adding additional olive oil if needed. Set pesto aside.
2. Heat 2 TBS of the duck fat in a frying pan over medium heat. Once melted, add as many slices of baguette as will comfortably fit in the pan. Cook until golden brown on both sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining toasts, adding more duck fat as necessary to ensure that crisp, golden outside. Lightly salt the toasts with sea salt as soon as they finish cooking. Set finished toasts aside.
3. Lower the heat to medium-low, and let pan cool off slightly, before carefully cracking quail eggs into pan. Shells are a bit harder to crack then chicken eggs – using a knife may help you crack them neatly. Fry until whites are set, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, then carefully transfer to a plate.
4. To assemble: spread a spoonful of pesto on each toast. If you’d like, top with a small slice of guanciale, then place one of the fried eggs on top. Grind a small amount of fresh black pepper on top. Serve within 30 minutes (you can make everything in advance except the fried eggs).

The post An Easter Appetizer // Duck Fat Toasts with Quail Eggs and Asparagus Pesto appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m writing this after a particularly frustrating run because I need to give myself some perspective. It’s a cold Tuesday night at the end of March, and I’ve been cranky since my miserable WWE-fan filled train ride back into the city from Andover. I really don’t want to go for a run but I still have 10 miles left to meet my March goal, and only five days to complete them in, so I talk myself into going with the old “I promise you can stop after two miles” trick, which works every time, surprisingly. I start out, and I feel OK, if a little cold, and at about a quarter mile shy of my two mile mark, I realize that I’m going fast enough that I’m within striking distance of my 5K PR, and I pick up the pace and go for it. Eight minutes later, I stop, wheezing like I haven’t since high school cross country races, and look at my iPod. Ten seconds short of my 5K PR. Eight seconds short of my 1 mile PR. I’m incredibly frustrated, in pain, and in an even worse mood than when I started. The wine is poured as soon as I walk in the door.

As frustrated as I am, I know in the back of my mind that I’ve made a ton of progress this month, and I need to take a minute to recognize that. My mile time tonight was 7:13, and my 5K time was 23:50. My fastest mile in February? 8:24. And 8:37 in January. Earlier this winter it was even slower. That’s a big improvement. Last Saturday I ran 5.3 miles, which is more than I’ve run in one go since my half-marathon training two years ago. I’ve really been pushing myself this month, in large part because of this 40 mile goal I’ve set, and it’s paying off. I’m faster and stronger, and (bonus!) I’ve lost 7 pounds since January, which feels like the first meaningful weight loss I’ve had in years. So despite nights like tonight, I’m sticking with these monthly goals!

Writing the above a few weeks ago was really empowering – it’s the kind of thing I need to write down so that I can go back to it as I encounter the inevitable fitness frustrations the future will bring. Later that week I did beat my 5K record, and I managed to run 43 miles in total in March. A big success, and a goal that really made me focus on what I wanted to achieve.

My goal for April is to take 8,000 steps a day, at least on all the days when I’m not traveling (you don’t really have full control over your activity levels when you spend an entire day on a plane). I’ve been using the Moves app as a pedometer in my phone since January, when I decided I wanted a FitBit but wasn’t sure which model. A few Google searches and I came across the free app which serves my purposes very adequately, negating the need to buy a new device. As I did my research, I also came across the “10,000 steps” goal that most pedometer users strive for – it was mentioned on almost every website I read. I consider myself a pretty active person, so I wasn’t expecting reaching 10,000 steps to be hard, but I was sort of shocked by the low numbers in my first few weeks of tracking. To be fair, I don’t bring it with me when I’m running, but still, I don’t run every day, and it was particularly eye-opening to see that on most weekend days, I barely take 1,000 steps out of the house. Since I’ve only gone above 10,000 a handful of times, I decided that 8,000 would be challenging enough to do every single day, and if I can hit that, I can move up from there.

This month is off to a bit of a rocky start, as I whiffed on the 8,000 number last Sunday, racing to the grocery store in the dark after a long day in the garden, trying to get those last 3,000 steps in before our friends came over. I only made it to 6,000 that day, but in a way, that means I’m setting goals that are hard enough. On weekdays it’s fairly straightforward to hit my goal – I just replace my subway transfer with a 15 minute walk through the park on either end of my commute, a pleasant addition to my day now that it’s finally warm. But those weekend days are hard! So wish me luck with the next few weeks.

As for this month’s healthy recipe, I’m celebrating the return of green to the world by packing as many green spring vegetables and herbs as I can into one bowl of couscous. I mentioned last week that I had caved and bought some of the not-local-at-all fava beans and asparagus I’ve been seeing at the grocery store, and my consumption of spring greens hasn’t slowed down at all since. This salad is mostly vegetables, dressed lightly with lemon, herbs, and salt. You can add as much or as little couscous as you want – just a cup or two and you’ll have something akin to a tabbouleh; the full amount listed below and it will be more like a pasta salad. The ingredients are good in almost any ratio, so feel free to interpret the recipe loosely and incorporate whatever spring greens are currently inspiring you.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door on Feedly or Bloglovin’, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous

Serves 8-10.

• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 c. couscous
• 2 TBS basil olive oil or regular olive oil
• sea salt to taste
• 2 c. shelled fresh fava beans (from about 2 lbs. in their pods)
• 1 c. shelled fresh English peas
• 1 c. very thinly sliced asparagus rounds, from about 1/3 lb. asparagus stalks
• 1/3 c. finely minced fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 c. finely minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1/3 c. finely minced fresh chives
• juice from 1 lemon

1. Bring chicken stock to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. As soon as it reaches a boil, add the couscous, cover with a lid, and remove from the heat. Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes, then remove the lid and fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the basil olive oil and stir to coat the couscous, then season to taste with sea salt.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the shelled fava beans and the peas, and blanch until peas are bright green, about 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse the beans and peas in cold water, then drain again. Remove the skin from the fava beans by slitting one end with your thumb and popping the bright green bean out by squeezing the other end. Roughly chop the fava beans, and place in a large bowl with the peas.
3. Add the asparagus rounds, the basil, the parsley, the chives, and the lemon juice to the bowl with the favas and peas. Stir to mix. Add the couscous to the greens and stir to coat. Season to taste with sea salt. Serve room temperature or chilled.

The post Monthly Fitness Goals: April // Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

It’s been ages since my last Sunday Dinner post. Five months to be exact. I’ve had a blog-color-coded Google Calendar event called “Sunday Dinner!” that I’ve been dutifully dragging forward from Sunday to Sunday, month after month, until finally, it found its resting place last week. Since we had just gotten back from two completely cooking-free weeks, I was fired up to be back in the kitchen, and looking ahead at the busyness of April, it didn’t seem like there would be another chance to do a Sunday Dinner for a while, so I went all out. Although it is decidedly still wintery in Boston, the fava beans, English peas, asparagus, and strawberries that are being flown in from California were too tempting to pass up, so I pretended that I lived somewhere where it was spring and bought a little bit of everything.

I haven’t cooked from Girl in the Kitchen in a while, so I decided to make it the theme of this dinner. Stephanie Izard is a wonderfully creative cook, and I’ve made some great spring recipes from her in the past (like this Asparagus Pasta with Almond-Parmesan Crumble and a Poached Rhubarb and Goat Cheese Salad). This time, I chose to make the Fried Halloumi with Spring Veggies and Strawberry-Basil Gastrique as an appetizer, followed by French Gnocchi with Watercress Sauce as a main. Fried halloumi is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while, but the warm and gooey cheese ended up playing second fiddle to its toppings. The lightly dressed mixture of favas, peas, raw asparagus, and basil was fresh and lemony and very spring-like, and I would make just this component again to serve on its own, or perhaps to mix with couscous or scrambled eggs. The strawberry-basil gastrique was the polar opposite of the veggies – thicky, syrupy, sweet, and intense, paired with the fresh-tasting vegetables and the warm and mild cheese it was quite the flavor combination. The only challenge was finding an elegant way to eat them, as they’re not quite finger food but not really large enough for a fork and knife.

On to course two: we’ve made gnocchi a lot of different ways. We’ve made the traditional potato version (served with Argentinean-style beef short ribs), we’ve made sweet potato gnocchi, we’ve made ricotta gnocchi with corn and mushrooms (one of my all-time favorite recipes), and now, we’ve made “French” gnocchi. In the intro to this recipe, Stephanie explains that you can make a type of gnocchi by making a classic pate a choux dough, piping it into gnocchi-sized rounds, freezing them, and then cooking them still frozen. I was intrigued by this idea, as it’s quite different than traditional gnocchi recipes I’ve seen, so I decided to give it a try. Ten eggs and a stick of butter went into the dough, so I had high hopes for its flavor, but in the end, I was kind of disappointed. While it’s an interesting technique, my “gnocchi” spread out to the point that they looked more like little pancakes, and they kind of tasted like pancakes too. The simple watercress sauce they were served in was a beautiful color, but mostly just tasted like butter, in a sort of overwhelming way. I’m still sharing the recipe, as it has its strong points, but I wanted to give you my honest take on it, first.

As for dessert, I knew we would want something light after all that butter, and I wanted to use up at least a few of the 10 egg whites I had leftover from making the gnocchi. We also still have several pounds of rhubarb in our freezer from last spring, so it was high time that some of that got used up. With those constraints, I whipped up a sort of crustless strawberry-rhubarb meringue pie, baked in a casserole dish like a crisp or a crumble, and it ended up being my favorite course. I used a fair bit of cornstarch in the filling to make sure that the dessert would be semi-spoonable, then chilled it thoroughly before quickly broiling the meringue topping. With just a hint of vanilla, it was light, sweet, and just the right ending for a spring dinner.

The Menu

Fried Halloumi with Spring Veggies and Strawberry-Basil Gastrique – see recipe below
French Gnocchi with Watercress Sauce – see recipe below
Strawberry-Rhubarb Meringue Pots – see recipe below

Past Sunday Dinners:

May 26, 2013: Coffee-and-Chile Rubbed Strip Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce; Charred and Smoky Belgian Endives; Oven-Roasted Potatoes; Strawberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream

July 1, 2013: Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca; Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini; Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt; Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms; Ricotta Bavarese with Red-Wine Poached Rhubarb

October 28, 2013: Braised Lamb Shanks with Gremolata; Creamy Polenta with Fresh Corn and Blue Cheese; Roasted Brussels Sprouts; Classic Apple Pie

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Katie at the Kitchen Door on Feedly or Bloglovin’, or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

Fried Halloumi with Spring Veggies and Strawberry-Basil Gastrique

Adapted from Girl in the Kitchen. Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.

For the Strawberry-Basil Gastrique:

• 1 c. white balsamic vinegar
• 1 c. sliced fresh strawberries
• 1/4 c. packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

1. Add the vinegar, strawberries, basil, sugar, and lemon juice to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and then immediately reduce heat (keep an eye on it to prevent it from boiling over). Simmer to reduce the liquid by half, which should take 25-35 minutes. Strain, discard the solids, and allow the liquid to cool.

For the veggies and cheese:

• 3/4 c. shelled fresh fava beans
• 1/2 c. shelled English peas
• 4 spears of fresh asparagus
• 5 fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded
• 1 lemon
• 2 TBS olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 c. shredded halloumi or oaxaca cheese
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 TBS flour
• 2 TBS canola oil
• 1 or 2 pieces of lavash, torn into bite-sized pieces (10 to 12 pieces needed)

1. Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fava beans and English peas and boil just until bright green, about 2-3 minutes. Drain the beans and peas and plunge in ice water to cool. Pop the fava beans out of their paler shell by slitting with your thumb and pressing on the other end.
2. Slice the asparagus into very thin rounds. Add the asparagus rounds, fava beans, peas, and basil to a small bowl. Zest and juice the lemon, adding both to the bowl with the vegetables. Add olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to thoroughly mix, and set aside.
3. Just before serving, stir together the shredded cheese, egg, flour, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Place spoonfuls of the cheese mixture into the pan, forming small round pancakes, and pressing down lightly to compress the cheese. Cook until golden brown, about 1 minute on each side, then transfer to a paper towel. Repeat until all the cheese mixture is used up. Place the warm fried cheese on top of pieces of lavash, and top with a spoonful of the vegetables and a drizzle of the gastrique. Serve immediately.

French Gnocchi with Watercress Sauce

Adapted from Girl in the Kitchen. Serves 4.

• 2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• salt
• 1/2 c. plus 2 TBS flour
• 8 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• 8 oz. fresh watercress, roots/stems removed
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Add 1 stick of butter, milk, pepper, and 1/2 tsp of salt to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pot. Cook for 30-60 seconds longer, still stirring, then remove from heat and continue stirring until the dough has cooled to room temperature.
2. Beat in the egg yolks and eggs one at a time, mixing completely between additions. The dough should have the consistency of a tacky paste. If the dough seems runny, chill the dough in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before piping/forming the gnocchi.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Either use a pastry bag to pipe 1-inch dots of the dough onto the baking sheet, or use a tablespoon measure to scoop small rounds (I tried both and preferred scooping). Once the baking sheet is filled, freeze until gnocchi are solid, which should only take 10-15 minutes.
4. When ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the frozen gnocchi to the boiling water and cook them for about 4 minutes – they will float to the top when they are done. Remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a large bowl.
5. Add the watercress to the boiling pasta water and blanch until tender, about 2-3 minutes. In a small pot, melt 6 TBS of the remaining stick of butter. Add the melted butter to a blender, then use a slotted spoon or tongs to transfer the cooked watercress from the pot to the blender. Blend on high until smooth, then season with red pepper flakes and salt.
6. Place the remaining 2 TBS of butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the gnocchi to the pan and saute until they are golden brown. Toss with the watercress sauce and serve.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Meringue Pots

Serves 4.

• 2 c. sliced rhubarb, in 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 c. sliced strawberries
• 3/4 c. plus 1/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1/4 c. cornstarch
• 3 egg whites

1. Add rhubarb, strawberries, 3/4 c. of the sugar, and cornstarch to a small saucepan, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture is very thick and fruit is broken down, about 10 minutes. Pour mixture into a small, oven proof casserole dish or ramekin. Refrigerate until chilled.
2. Beat the egg whites on high until frothy, then add sugar and continue to beat until whites are stiff and shiny. Spread meringue over the top of the strawberry-rhubarb mixture with a spatula, forming peaks as you do. Preheat the broiler. Broil on high until meringue is just beginning to turn golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

The post Sunday Dinner // Fried Halloumi with Spring Veggies, French Gnocchi with Watercress Sauce, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Meringue Pots appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Drinks

Rhubarb Prosecco Spritzer

Rhubarb is one of the first plants to poke out of the ground, and its small pink buds are certainly a welcome sight. This cocktail celebrates the return of color to the earth with a simple rhubarb syrup and a splash of bubbly, a pretty pink drink for early spring.

Green Pea Rum Cooler

A mix of fresh peas, cucumber, and tarragon muddled together with rum, this vibrant green cocktail is an unexpected departure from typical spring drinks. It’s vegetal yet still sweet, and great for mixing things up a little.

Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca

This non-acoholic drink is the ultimate refreshing drink for a hot day. When you see perfectly red, juicy sweet strawberries at the market, this is the thing to make with them. Sweet and citrusy, you’ll never go back to lemonade.

Salads and Mains

Cacio e Pepe with English Peas

This recipe was inspired by our trip to Italy last spring, where we had a wonderfully creative version of Cacio e Pepe served on a black bean puree at Il Santo Bevitore in Florence. Instead of black beans, we used fresh English peas to recreate the recipe and celebrate spring.

Green Pea and Wasabi Soup

A head-clearing recipe for early spring, this soup plays on the concept of wasabi peas, using fresh peas and wasabi to make the base and then topping the soup with the classic crunchy snack.

Strawberry Balsamic Salad with Candied Pecans and Goat Cheese

This salad should almost be in the dessert section, with its super-sweet strawberries, crunchy sugared pecans, and creamy soft goat cheese. But, if you promise to eat all the spinach, too, I’ll let you count it as a healthy meal instead.

Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini

These bright little appetizers are a little sweet, a little salty, a little lemony, and a little herbal. On a warm spring evening, you might find that these crostini and a glass of white wine make a perfect dinner all on their own.

Pea, Fava Bean, and Asparagus Risotto

Come April and May, I start throwing English peas, fava beans, and asparagus into pretty much every recipe I make. So why not risotto too? The fresh bite of the green vegetables is a perfect counterpoint to the creamy richness of the mascarpone-laced rice.

Fresh Snap Pea and Radish Salad

This salad uses three quintessential spring ingredients – snap peas, radishes, and mint – to create a nutritious and light dish that’s packed with freshness and flavor.

Asparagus and Arugula Pasta with Almond Parmesan Crumble

You should be warned – if you make this recipe, you’ll become addicted to the almond parmesan crumble that goes on top. It’s the most delicious. The buttery sauteed asparagus and wilted arugula don’t hurt either.

Desserts

Rhubarb-Ginger Bars

These tangy bars are a favorite of mine – with a peppery, gingery shortbread crust topped with tart pink custard, they’re basically dressed up lemon squares. I think these might be first on my list for rhubarb season this year.

Lilac and Blackberry Pavlovas

Did you know that lilacs are edible? While a bit painstaking to clean, infusing desserts with their delicate color and scent is totally worth it. These super light pavlovas with lilac blackberry syrup are a very elegant addition to the spring dessert table.

Strawberry Almond Cream Tart

A very traditional pastry, strawberry cream tarts are always sure to please a crowd. They’re at their prettiest when made with those perfect market strawberries, the ones that don’t need any sugaring, mashing, or macerating to be tasty.

The post 13 Recipes for Looking Forward to Spring appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Last weekend I finally had time to put together another Sunday Dinner menu. I’d been mulling over this one for almost a month, the inspiration coming mainly from the beautiful (if slightly challenging) modern Italian cookbook SPQR. While planning the first round of ingredient of the week (starring rhubarb!), the recipe for Ricotta Bavarese with Verjus-Poached Rhubarb caught my eye. It ended up being too complicated to make (and photograph and write about) on a weeknight, but I made it a few weeks later, and proceeded to plan a menu around it. SPQR is organized into regional sections based on the eight major thoroughfares in Ancient Rome, and the bavarese recipe came from the Trentino-Alto Adige section, focusing on recipes from the Northernmost part of Italy. Since I loved the idea of making a coherent, regionally-specific meal, I chose two other recipes from the same section that also utilized spring ingredients to complete the menu – Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt and Fish Roe, and Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms. Of course, then I went and served a Mexican drink where a glass of white wine would probably have been more appropriate, but hey, it was really hot.

In contrast to the first Sunday Dinner I posted, this menu is quite elegant, the trade-off being that it’s a bit time consuming to prepare if you’re ambitious enough to make everything. Of course, everything except the spaetzle can be made ahead of time and served chilled, so it actually might make a wise choice for a dinner party. The thing I love about this menu is that it stars so many of my favorite spring foods – strawberries in the agua fresca, English peas in the crostini, asparagus in the soup, mushrooms in the spaetzle, and rhubarb in the dessert. Each dish is flavorful and elegant in its own right, and all together they make a luxurious and impressive meal. Since I’ve already written about the agua fresca, the crostini, and the bavarese, a few notes about the soup and the spaetzle: the asparagus soup is both refreshing and filling at the same time. The cream lends it a rich sweetness, and the asparagus flavor is not overwhelming. The lemon yogurt is essential – it provides a much needed acidic counterpart to the rich soup – so don’t skip it! The spaetzle is surprisingly easy to make, once you’ve got the hang of grating it into the boiling water. It feels both fancy and rustic, and it becomes extremely luxurious with a spoonful of cold creme fraiche stirred into the hot pasta just before serving – like the most grown-up mac and cheese you can imagine. Whether you only try one of these recipes, or you try them all together, I hope you enjoy them!

The Menu

Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca (adapted from Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales)
Smashed Pea, Dill and Feta Crostini (adapted from The Modern Vegetarian)
Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt – see below (adapted from SPQR)
Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms – see below (adapted from SPQR)
Ricotta Bavarese with Red-Wine Poached Rhubarb (adapted from SPQR)

Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt

Adapted slightly from SPQR. Serves 4-6.

• 2 lb. asparagus
• salt
• 4 c. spinach
• 2 c. flat-leaf Italian parsley
• olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 medium leek, roots and dark green parts removed, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks spring garlic or 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 c. plus 2/3 c. of heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 packet of gelatin (3.5g or 1/8 of an oz)
• 1 c. whole-milk plain yogurt
• zest of 1 meyer lemon
• 1/4 c. fresh meyer lemon juice (from 1-2 meyer lemons)
• 1 oz. fish roe

1. Cut the tips from the ends of the asparagus stalks. Prepare an ice bath, and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the asparagus tips in the salted water until bright green, about 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge into the ice bath. Let chill completely, then remove from the ice bath, place in a covered bowl, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
2. Add the spinach and the parsley to the boiling water. Blanch for 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into the ice bath. When chilled, remove from the ice bath and squeeze the greens to remove excess water. Set aside. Dump the boiling water from the pot.
3. Remove the bottom half inch from each asparagus stalk and discard. Slice the remaining stalks into rounds about 1/4-inch thick. Add a thin film of olive oil to the bottom of the pot, and heat over medium-low heat. Add the onion, leek, and spring garlic and saute until translucent, about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Do not let the vegetables begin to caramelize. Stir in the asparagus and cook until softened, about 5 minutes longer. Turn off the heat and pour in 3 cups of the heavy cream and the blanched greens. Season with salt and pepper and place in a blender. Blend until smooth, then strain into a large bowl through a fine mesh strainer, pressing on the pulp to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard the green pulp. Taste the soup, season with salt and pepper, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least one hour.
4. To prepare the meyer lemon yogurt, dissolve the gelatin in 1/3 c. of the remaining heavy cream, whisking to combine. Heat the other 1/3 c. of the cream in a small saucepan over low heat, until just beginning to simmer, then pour over the gelatin. Whisk to combine and dissolve fully. Whisk in the yogurt, meyer lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Once chilled, yogurt should be semi-solid.
5. To serve, pour the soup into 4 to 6 chilled bowls. Dress the asparagus tips with the meyer lemon zest, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt. Top each bowl of soup with a scoop of the meyer lemon yogurt, a few asparagus tips, and a small spoonful of fish roe. Serve cold.

Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms

Recipe adapted from SPQR. Serves 6.

• 2 c. whole-milk plain yogurt
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 egg white
• 3 TBS Dijon mustard
• 2 1/3 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• olive oil
• 8 oz. sliced mixed mushrooms
• 2 TBS butter
• 2 c. baby spinach
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, eggs, egg white, and mustard until mixture is smooth. Add flour in three additions, whisking until smooth between additions. Stir in the salt and pepper, then cover spaetzle batter and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to 6 hours.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Use a spaetzle maker or a large-holed box grater to grate the spaetzle batter directly into the boiling water in batches. Cook each batch for 2-3 minutes, or until the spaetzle float to the top, then remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl with a little olive oil to keep them from sticking. Repeat until all the batter is used.
3. Heat a thin film of olive oil in a very large saute pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute until golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the cooked spaetzle and cook, stirring occasionally, until spaetzle are golden brown in places, another 4-5 minutes. Add the butter and stir to melt. Add the spinach and stir it into the spaetzle, cooking until wilted, about 2 minutes.
4. Remove the spaetzle from the heat and scoop into bowls. Top with the grated Parmesan and serve hot.

The post Sunday Dinner // Chilled Asparagus Soup, Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m here to tell you about our garden.

Finally.

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post since the beginning of February, when I planted the first tiny parsley seeds and proceeded to check them hourly for signs of growth.  I’ve taken hundreds of pictures, from those first tiny sprouts to the squash flowers that have just opened up to the fat little pea pods on the vines (peas! actual peas!)  and I’ve been dying to share them.  Well, I’ve shared a couple.  But really, I didn’t want to say too much about the garden in case it was a total failure.  Having written about it prematurely would only have compounded my disappointment.  I love this garden.  Like, I really love it.

From the get-go, I decided that if I ate even one thing from the garden, I would consider it a success.  And now that I’ve harvested not one, but two things from the garden (arugula! peas!), I’m taking a deep breath and declaring success.  And telling you all about it.

Dork alert: I’ve been keeping a garden diary.  Growing things is not something I have that much experience with, and when I’m unsure about something, I write about it until I understand it.  That’s why I have 8 journals full of notes about boys – they’re not as simple as they seem at first, what can I say?  But looking back at the notes I’ve taken in the past 4 months reveals how much uncertainty there is for a first time gardener – there was the week when the trees leafed out and the raised bed stopped getting morning sun, and I wondered if the sun would ever be high enough in the sky to give it afternoon sun (it is).  The days when the lemon tree suddenly dropped all it’s leaves caused a bit of panic too (it’s covered in blossoms now, although still a little low on greenery).  Just the other morning I found that some creature had hopped into the raised bed and eaten an entire kale plant, leaving no signs that the plant had ever existed.  Little heartaches are left and right in this process, but working in the garden with Trevor has become one of my favorite activities, and eating the first fresh peas this week has seemed more like icing on the cake than the natural outcome of all the hard work we’ve put into it.

I started planning the garden out in January.  I’ll admit, we were a little over-zealous, and the garden quickly spread from being contained in a 16 sq. ft raised bed, to a 16 sq. ft raised bed and about 20 pots and containers along the driveway.  With the exception of 1 eggplant, the thyme, the oregano, and the trees, we started everything from seed.  In February, we started the basil, sage, parsley, oregano, thyme, broccoli, eggplant, and tomatoes.  I invested in a heating mat and found that, even though they seem like a waste of money, the Jiffy pop-up seed pods were much more effective than planting in little pots with seed starter.  The oregano and thyme sprouted but never really grew, so we replaced them with big plants from Pemberton.  That first batch of basil got dried out when I went away for the weekend and had to be restarted.  The parsley was a slow-starter, but is now doing OK in the raised bed.  One of the eggplants really took off, and has it’s first flowers now.  The tomatoes have been the biggest success – San Marzanos and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.  The 5 cherry tomatoes are all huge and just getting their first tiny green tomatoes.  In March, the shelling peas and fava beans got planted directly in the bed, the lettuces went into a large stone bird bath, and brussels sprouts and kale got planted inside.  Then in April, the squash, cucumbers, and beets went in.

And now?  In the raised bed are 2 varieties of English shelling peas, fava beans, parsley, broccoli, cucumbers, roma beans, edamame, kale, and brussels sprouts.  On the porch?  A fig tree and a strawberry plant.  In the backyard, a planter that’s overgrown with arugula, parsley, radicchio, and lettuce, and containers with raspberries, more broccoli, mint, and sage.  In pots along the driveway, where it’s the sunniest, are the meyer lemon tree, tomatoes, summer squash, watermelons, basil – both green and purple, and cucumbers.  It’s a giant hodge podge of green, and I have no idea what will work and what won’t, but it’s the best experiment I’ve done in a long time.

To celebrate the arrival of the peas, the success of the garden, and the beginning of summer, I had a little dinner for Trevor and I on Saturday night.  An actual dinner – with a glass of prosecco, a main course, and a dessert, where we sat down at the same time at the table with bowls and forks rather than eating out of tupperware from the fridge.  Mostly I just eat the peas straight while I’m sitting in the garden – they are so incredibly sweet and cool and juicy – but I wanted to use at least a few in a real meal.  So I made a spring risotto, with peas, fava beans, asparagus, mascarpone, and pecorino – all the flavors of spring.  The fava beans and asparagus aren’t from our garden, but they are local and very tender and flavorful, so we’ll take ’em.  It was delicious.  And for dessert, there were parfaits with chocolate shortbread, whipped mascarpone, and lovely red-ripe strawberries from the farmer’s market… but you’ll have to wait for Tuesday for that recipe!

Spring Risotto with Peas, Favas, Asparagus, and Mascarpone

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original.  Serves 4.

• 1 1/2 c. arborio rice
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1 c. water
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 1/2 c. shucked fava beans (about 1 lb. with pods)
• 1/2 bunch asparagus (about 15 thin stalks), trimmed and sliced on a bias into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen English shelling peas
• 1/3 c. mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 c. grated pecorino romano
• leaves from 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• extra thyme and shards of pecorino romano for garnish

1. Prepare the vegetables.  Heat the chicken stock plus 1 c. water in a large pot over medium heat until it comes to a low boil.  Add the fava beans and asparagus, and boil for 2-3 minutes, until asparagus is bright green.  Remove vegetables with a skimmer and plunge into very cold or ice water to stop the cooking.  When cool, skin the fava beans – the easiest way to do this is to puncture the skin (which should feel a bit loose after cooking) with your thumbnail and then gently pop the bean out of it’s skin.  The bean on the inside should be bright green.  Set aside the vegetables, and lower the heat of the chicken stock to maintain a gentle simmer.
2. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes, until translucent.  Dont’ allow it to brown.  Add the rice to the pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute, until edges are translucent.  Add the white wine and cook, stirring until fully absorbed.
3. For the remainder of the cooking process, add the hot stock to the rice 1 ladleful (about 1/2 c.) at a time, stirring all the while and cooking until each ladleful is absorbed.  The entire process will take about 20 minutes.  If you find that you are running out of stock, add a bit of water to the simmering stock.  The risotto is done when it is mostly tender but retains a bit of bite – you don’t want it to get mushy.  When it reaches this stage turn off the heat.  Stir in the grated pecorino, the mascarpone, and the thyme leaves until the cheese have melted.  Add the prepared vegetables and the fresh or frozen peas.  If the peas are very young and tender, the heat from the risotto will cook them just enough.  If the peas are tougher and starchier, you may want to prepare them in the same manner as the fava beans and the asparagus.
4. Serve hot, with extra thyme and shards of pecorino romano.

The post Garden: Pea, Fava Bean, and Asparagus Risotto appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I didn’t do a whole lot of cooking last week.  Do you have weeks like that?  Where the whole shebang – planning out your meals, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning up – just feels like a little bit too much effort for the return?  I assume everyone but the most energetic people does, at least every once in a while.  It didn’t help that our kitchen sink wasn’t draining properly – washing dishes in a sink full of murky standing water is even less appealing than washing dishes regularly is.  Luckily for me, my life is still flexible enough that if I don’t feel like cooking for a week, I don’t have to.  And cheap eats in Boston aren’t hard to find, so I enjoyed a week of takeout, dinners with friends, scrambled eggs, fruit smoothies, and leftovers from the freezer.  It was nice.

What I have been doing for the past week is reading cookbooks – lots of cookbooks.  It seems I went on a bit of a library spree (OK, I do that every time I go to the library), and I now have 8 cookbooks on my “read soon!” shelf.  Some of the titles I picked up on a whim (River Cottage Every Day, Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat), and others I’ve been waiting to get my hands on for a while (In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, Falling Cloudberries). And now, with the kitchen sink fixed and the type of inspiration that only comes from taking a real break, I’m back in the kitchen.  What better way to dive back into cooking than to test out some of the borrowed cookbooks?  (And decide if they’re worth permanently adding to my collection).

So far, the book I’m loving the most is Girl in the Kitchen, by Stephanie Izard, winner of Top Chef and chef at Chicago’s Girl and the Goat restaurant.  Something about the book is very inviting – it’s got big, colorful pictures, great graphic design, and fun side blurbs like drink pairings and ingredient spotlights.  This book just has energy.  And the recipes?  They’re fun too.  None of Stephanie’s recipes are tired or overdone; in fact, most of them are entirely new-to-me flavor combinations, like asparagus, goat cheese, and rhubarb salad, or chestnut confit with roasted potatoes, bacon, and kumquats.  Her food also sticks to seasonal pairings, and her techniques and ingredients aren’t on the cutting edge of gastronomy.  It’s just good, honest food, but slightly elevated.  This book makes me want to cook – now.

The first recipe I tried was this asparagus linguine with almond butter crisp, and oh man was it good.  The crisp, which is made from roasted garlic, butter, toasted almonds, bread crumbs, parmesan, and a dash of red pepper, is like crack – it’s not good for you and you just can’t stop.  Good thing there’s a bit of nutrition in the rest of the dish – it’s by no means diet food, but the large quantities of arugula and asparagus bulk up its health factor a little.  I played around with the proportions of this recipe based on what I had on hand and what I like – e.g. doubling the roasted garlic, slightly reducing the arugula (typical, huh?), etc.  I also didn’t think it needed any added salt as called for in the crisp or the sauce, given that the soy sauce, preserved lemon, and parmesan all provide a salty punch.  It’s a stellar combination of ingredients though.  I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from this book, like this pear, parsnip, and pistachio soup that’s on the menu for later this week… and to eating these leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Asparagus Linguine with Almond Butter Crisp

Recipe adapted from  Girl in the Kitchen.  Serves 4.

• 2 heads garlic
• 3 TBS butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 c. panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4 c. slivered almonds, toasted
• 3/4 lb. linguine
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 lb asparagus, sliced diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 5 oz. (1 standard grocery store container) baby arugula
• 2 TBS preserved lemon, sliced thinly
• 8 sprigs fresh mint

1. Roast the garlic – cut off the top of the garlic heads, and place heads, skins and all, in a tinfoil pouch with a bit of olive oil and sea salt.  Roast in the oven for 40 minutes at 400ºF.  Let cool, then squeeze the cloves out of the skins and into a bowl.  (I did this step the morning before, so the dinner-making process would take less time).
2. Mash the roasted garlic with the butter, parmesan, panko, and red pepper flakes, until crumbly.  Stir in toasted almonds, and place mixture in fridge until just before toasting.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add linguine, and cook according to package directions.
4. At the same time you add the linguine to the water, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add the asparagus pieces, and sautee for 3-4 minutes, or until bright green.  At this point, add the chicken broth, soy sauce, and 1/3 c. of the pasta water (just dip a cup measure into the pot while it’s cooking and add it to the sauce).  Turn the heat up to medium high, and let cook until sauce is reduced by 1/2, about 3 minutes.  Add the preserved lemon and arugula and turn off heat, stirring to wilt the arugula.  If you’re lucky, your pasta will have finished while the sauce is reducing, and you can just add the sauce to the drained pasta.  If not, wait for the pasta to finish cooking, drain, then add the asparagus and arugula sauce to the pasta pot.
5. Return the frying pan (now empty of sauce) to the stove, over medium heat.  Add the chilled almond-butter mixture to the pan in a single layer, and fry, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown.  Turn off heat.  Plate the pasta, and top each portion with some of the almond crisp and 2 sprigs of mint.  (Alternatively, you can add the mint to the sauce with the arugula).

The post Asparagus and Arugula Pasta with Almond-Parmesan Crumble appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Starting work has come with some unexpected changes – during the week, time is more structured than it was while I was in school, and I feel like I barely have any free time on weeknights.  On the weekend, however, time is wide open – no homework, or meetings, or school events, just picnics and long runs and parties and catching up on sleep.  Overall, I probably have more free time than I ever did in college, it’s just allocated differently, and it’s taking me a while to get used to it.  One of the effects of this time crunch is that I’ve barely eaten at home in the past few weeks.  OK, to be honest, it’s also partly because it’s the first time I have a real income and because I’m suddenly living in a place where restaurant food is super accessible and delicious and varied.  And also because my job seems to provide me with at least 3 utterly delicious, fully compensated meals a week.  All told, the kitchen and I are a bit estranged.

Hopefully I’ll fall back into a more balanced cooking pattern soon, especially because I can imagine my healthfulness deteriorating quite quickly if I stay on a restaurant-centric diet, but for now I’m kind of enjoying all the new dishes I’ve tried.  Some have been less than memorable, like the delicious-sounding but not-that great blue-cheese and steak dim sum I had in Orlando, or the mediocre sandwiches I’ve had in transit.  Others, however, have been truly delicious, and my two favorites in the past few week were some garlic-crusted soft pretzels with spicy queso dip, and this asparagus, edamame, smoked gouda, and serrano ham salad, which I liked so much that I decided to recreate it for one of my rare at home meals.

I ordered this salad at a get-to-know you lunch with one of my managers, thinking it would be light, not too messy, and easy to eat while talking.  I wasn’t expecting anything special, but oh-man did I enjoy this.  It definitely is very light, but substantial at the same time, and the simple dressing of olive oil and salt allows the flavors of each ingredient to shine through.  At the restaurant it was served with fava beans, but I have only seen fresh fava beans once in my life, and wasn’t keen on spending a whole day searching for them, so I substituted edamame.  I think the favas were a little bit better, as their distinctive almost-bitter flavor played off the salty flavors well, but the edamame was a decent substitution.  In any case, this salad was just as fresh and delicious when I had it at home, and very easy to throw together to boot.  If you’re looking for a change in your salad routine, I’d definitely recommend this one.

Asparagus, Gouda, Serrano Ham, and Edamame Salad

Serves 1.

• 1/2 lb. asparagus
• olive oil
• coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 c. mixed greens with dill
• 1/2 c. frozen edamame, cooked according to package directions
• 3 oz. smoked gouda, cubed
• 1 oz. serrano ham, pulled into thin slices

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Rinse asparagus and trim thick ends by about an inch.  Place on baking sheet and drizzle generously with olive oil and sea salt.  The oil and salt from the asparagus will be used to dress the entire salad.  Roast for 8 mins, until tips are beginning to brown and spears are crisp-tender, then remove and cut spears in half.
2. Toss greens, asparagus, gouda cubes, and cooked edamame together.  Top with slices of serrano ham.  Drizzle with additional olive oil if necessary.  Serve while asparagus is still warm.

The post Asparagus, Smoked Gouda, and Serrano Ham Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.