donna's daily dish

meatless Monday

1/11/2023

I love to both cook and eat! My morning breakfast consists of low-fat Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries or blueberries and granola. Sometimes I munch on the granola when I’m hungry; this isn’t good. I store my Christmas cookies in our front storage attic where its dry and cold, thereby keeping them fresh longer. If you want a cookie, you’ll have to work for it. As of this week, I finished the granola. Breakfast will either be cereal or yogurt with fruit. I have reduced my cookie intake to one, or sometimes two cookies per day. I snacking on Honeycrisp apples when I desire something sweet.

risotto simplified

1/9/2023

This past weekend I had a craving for risotto and recently caught an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where Elle Simone Scott demonstrated an easier method for making shrimp risotto; constant stirring wasn’t required.

For the recipe you’ll need 1-pound extra-large shrimp, table salt, vegetable oil, water, whole black peppercorns, bay leaves, unsalted butter, an onion, a fennel bulb, baking soda, minced fresh garlic, Arborio rice, dry white wine, Parmesan cheese, minced fresh chives, lemon zest and lemon juice.

about that five hour recipe

1/9/2023

A few weeks ago on public broadcasting, 177 Milk Street aired an episode on focaccia. What is focaccia? In Italy it’s considered a street food, a flat bread made with a dough similar to pizza. Focaccia can either be sweet or savory. The version Milk Street demonstrated was savory. The focaccia was topped with green Castelvetrano and grape tomatoes. The dough has a high ratio of water to flour, which makes the focaccia light and airy.

For the recipe you will need bread flour, yeast, granulated sugar, water, olive oil, grape tomatoes, Castelvetrano olives, dried oregano, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. You will also need an extra-large bowl in which the dough will rise.

what's new and tasty

12/5/2022

After recovering from Thanksgiving, I’m ready to try some new recipes that I can prepare during the upcoming holiday season. Recently on “America’s Test Kitchen, which airs on public broadcasting, they demonstrated a recipe for Easy Pancakes. I’ve been making a Betty Crocker recipe for many years that uses buttermilk and makes light and fluffy pancakes. However, sometimes you don’t have buttermilk on hand and an easy, from scratch recipe, is just as quick as a box mix. For the recipe you’ll need all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract. To achieve fluffy pancakes, ATK amped up the amount of baking powder, with minimal amounts of baking soda and liquid. The proportions make for a thick batter that should also have some lumps, no over mixing here, and rests for 10 minutes before preparing.

As I don’t have the patience in the morning to wait 10 minutes for the dry ingredients to absorb the liquid, I opted to make these for my lunch the other day. In order to achieve an even golden pancake, the recipe calls for pouring a tablespoon of vegetable oil on the griddle and wiping the oil around until you have a light film on the pan. The best way to test if your griddle is ready for cooking, is to lightly sprinkle the surface with water. If the water beads up and dissipates, your griddle is ready.

healthy dinner for two

2/28/2022

For Valentine’s Day I prepared a heart healthy meal for my husband and I. From the January 2022 issue of “Charleston Magazine,” there was a delicious recipe for Warm Lentil, Roasted Carrot & Herb Salad from chef Cynthia Groseclose. Ms. Groseclose is a plant-based chef and owner of Plant Pâstissiére in Charleston, SC.

two for two

2/25/2022

Recently, I was in a very veggie mood. My husband and I both came across a wonderful soup recipe in “Charleston Magazine” (January 2022) for Broccoli and Arugula Soup. This vegetarian soup was so easy to make and despite the fact there was no cream in the recipe, it was a rich and creamy soup.

For the recipe you’ll need extra virgin olive oil, one sweet onion, fresh garlic, broccoli florets, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, vegetable stock, arugula leaves and a lemon.

The onions are diced and the garlic minced as they are set in a large pot with olive oil to cook until translucent. The florets are added and seasoned with salt and pepper. The broccoli is cooked until bright green and then the vegetable stock is added. The mixture is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer until the broccoli is tender.

csa week 27

11/22/2021

Dreyer Farms CSA for the 2021 season ended last Tuesday. It was a wonderful 27 weeks of fresh, local farm produce. This season didn’t disappointment. I found new challenges for many vegetables I hadn’t had before.

In my Instagram feed I follow chef Sara Moulton. First, a little background on Sara. She had one of the first cooking shows on the Food Network called “Cooking Live.” She had one hour to prepare a meal and answer callers questions all while preparing a meal in real time. Sara was also the executive chef of Gourmet magazine and a protégée of Julia Child. Currently, you can find Sara on public television with her series “Sara’s Weeknight Meals.”

roundup

11/19/2021

In our CSA box of week 25 I had yet another new variety of squash, kabocha. Kabocha is also known as Japanese pumpkin and is very versatile as it can be stuffed, pureed or cooked on a stove top. Kabocha taste is a cross between pumpkin and sweet potato.

I found a recipe at NYT Cooking/The New York Times, Simmered Kabocha Squash with Scallions. The recipe is originally from Cynthia Chen McTernan, whose blog is “Two Red Bowls.” Julia Moskin of the Times, adapted the recipe below. The appealing part is it contains just five ingredients, not including kosher salt and pepper. Also, the Cook’s comments were very positive.

For the recipe you’ll need vegetable oil, the kabocha squash, scallions, chicken or vegetable broth, salt, pepper and either Sriracha, soy sauce or both. It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish to prepare this dish.

CSA week 23 & 24, cauliflower

11/12/2021

Peak season for cauliflower is from September through November and n our CSA box for week 23 and 24 we received a head of white cauliflower and the following week, purple. The white cauliflower was transformed into a delicious and velvety cream of cauliflower soup. I was unsure what to do with a purple head, until I read the Cook’s notes for Melissa Clark’s recipe for Lemony Carrot and Cauliflower Soup. The commenter suggested using purple cauliflower.

csa week 24 and 25

11/8/2021

Our CSA is coming to an end and it with comes hardier vegetables and greens that can withstand the cooler nights. My recent items were radishes and arugula. When I was growing up, radishes were added to a nightly salad. Arugula a very popular green in recent years, appears in salads and as a topping on gourmet pizzas. Not wanting to do either of those, I came across two great recipes from The New York Times Cooking app. The first is from David Tanis for Butter-Stewed Radishes and the other from Mark Bittman for Pasta with Gorgonzola and Arugula.