Shiitake and Pumpkin Ravioli

I'm cleaning out my cabinets (as well as the freezer and fridge) this week because.. wait for it... Tim and I are moving to Bangkok, Thailand.  Woo!  More details to come soon over at the other blog.  For purposes of this blog, moving means cooking and eating through the substantial pantry I have built up over the past couple years here in Jakarta.  This meal made a dent, taking care of: a can of pumpkin, half a container of walnuts, parmesan cheese, and a pack of gyoza wrappers from the freezer.

I used this recipe for shiitake and pumpkin ravioli, although I changed it up a teeny bit, using regular soy sauce in lieu of tamari and rosemary in lieu of sage.  Also, for the sauce, I browned the butter with a handful of chopped walnuts and minced rosemary.  Awesomesauce.  Literally.

I highly recommend this recipe- it's super easy and quite a tasty delight.  The sweetness from the pumpkin is great with the savory/umami of the mushrooms and soy.  Perfect!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a good holiday!

Tim and I got a head start on the festivities by cooking a turkey and mini-Thanksgiving meal this past Sunday to ensure that we had leftovers.  We've also got a pot-luck party coming up on Thanksgiving itself with a bunch of folks we met here in Jakarta. 

Here's how we did our turkey... it was a bit of free wheelin', so bear with me:

• cleaned the bird up, salt and peppered the cavity
• stuffed it with half an onion (cubed), half a head of garlic (cut in half), half a lemon, a carrot (rough cut), a handful of fresh thyme, rosemary and sage
• rubbed it and stuffed the skin with a compound butter made with minced rosemary, sage and garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper
• tied up the legs with a strip of foil, tucked the wings in
• put it in our pre-heated mini oven (adopted from Ben and Erin), which was at approximately 375 F, give or take
• let it brown a bit, then loosely covered it in foil
• let it cook for about 3 hours, taking off the foil again towards the end to brown it up again
• let it rest for 20 minutes while 

It came out pretty tasty!  Definitely not overcooked, definitely moist, definitely delicious.

We also had some great leftovers concoctions:

1. The most delicious leftovers sandwich ever: toasted bread spread with mayo on one side, cranberry sauce on the other, a thin layer of stuffing, mixed white and dark meat turkey, lots of lettuce and two pieces of bacon.  Awesome.  Like a Thanksgiving turkey club.

2. Turkey and white bean chili, made loosely based on this Martha Stewart recipe, with the addition of 2 chipotles in adobo, 2 cloves of garlic, and a handful of leftover stuffing to thicken it up.  I also left out the water because it looked far too liquidy already.  Pretty good, though!

Slow roasted leg of lamb with arugula, lemon, goat cheese salad

Anthony Bourdain is on his last few episodes of No Reservations (very sad).  Last week's episode was in Sydney.  Amazing food.  Porteno Restaurant in Sydney serves an 8 hour wood fired leg of lamb.  Awe inspiring. 

 So, I got my own 6 lb leg of lamb.

Schmered it with a paste of garlic, rosemary, salt and olive oil. 

Cooked it covered in foil for 8 hours at 250 degrees F.   

Took the foil off and cooked for 40 minutes at 475 degrees F (would reduce that time at higher heat next go around).

Served it on a marble cutting board with an arugula/lemon juice/chevre/S&P salad.  Fantastic group fest.

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Marmalade and Blackberry Lemon Rosemary Preserves

I got a bunch of Meyer lemons from Costco and wasn't sure what do to with them, so I made a couple of batches of jam with my new canning set from Target.

I more or less followed these recipes and added my own spin to each:

Blackberry Preserves (with lots of lemon juice and rosemary added)

Blackberry preserves at full boil

Pouring mixture into jelly jars

Blackberry preserves ready for water bath

Meyer Lemon Marmalade (with cranberry option described in comment section):

Meyer lemon/cranberry prep

Finished products!

Rosemary Gin Fizz

I bought some rosemary last week on a whim and didn't get around to using it (turns out lots of rosemary recipes involve roasting... in an oven... which I don't have.)...  rather than let the rosemary go bad while I am gallivanting around Indonesia with Liz and Meghan (yay!),  I decided to make a rosemary syrup to mix with gin for a welcome drink for them:

Rosemary gin fizz... pretty good!  The rosemary plays off the gin pretty well!

Arugula and Beet Salad with Fried Goat Cheese Discs, Roast Beef, Hazelnuts and Orange Vinaigrette

Riffing off of a number of different recipes, we pieced this healthy and very brightly colored salad together after checking out the cherry blossoms on this random 80 degree day.

We mixed together arugula, roasted beets, toasted hazelnuts, and orange segments, then we topped that with sliced roast beef and this orange vinaigrette from Cooking Light, and finally, we borrowed the crispy fried goat cheese discs from this John Besh recipe.

We give thumbs up to the recipe as a whole, but think that the roast beef may have been unnecessary, as it gets lost amid all of the other strong flavors in the salad.

Easy Salmon Dinner

Sunday Dinner: Roasted Miso Salmon with Lemon, really easy recipe!

The only thing that I did different from the recipe is the amount of cooking time. The recipe says to cook the salmon and potatoes at the same time, for the same amount of time :( Totally can't cook potatoes completely without overcooking the salmon. Instead, I put the potatoes in about 15-20 minutes before the fish, then left both in for another 10-15 minutes.

Also did asparagus with garlic, s & p, red pepper flakes, and lemon...easy and yummy!

Rosemary Rack of Lamb and Carrot/Cranberry Salad

Pulled together this quick meal amidst preparation for the Super Bowl... loosely based on these two recipes, the rack of lamb was quickly defrosted, rubbed with minced rosemary, thyme and garlic, then quickly seared in a cast iron pan and thrown in a super hot oven for 15 minutes.
This carrot, dried cranberry and toasted almond salad brightened up the rainy day... so good. I juilienned the carrots rather than using shredded carrots, because I like the crunch, and I used thinly sliced scallions instead of red onion. I also threw the carrots salad over some leftover arugula. The lemony dressing dripped down on the arugula and it was awesome. This might be my new go-to salad!

Pork Roast with Prunes, Red Wine and Rosemary

I had the girls over for "TV Club," which is basically book club, but instead of reading a book every couple months and talking about it, we watch DVDs of shows from the premium channels that all of us are too cheap to buy. Last round we watched the first 2 seasons of True Blood, which is bloody and campy (and a little confusing if you've read the books), and now we're watching United States of Tara, which is pretty funny and thought-provoking.

Today's meeting was over lunch. Roast pork loin in a rosemary, red wine and prune sauce was the main course. Yes, I know prunes have a bad rep... they even had to change their name to "dried plums" because everyone has such negative associations with prunes. But this recipe was really good! Earthy, rich, fruity, a little sweet... I pureed the sauce while the pork was resting, which I think was a nice touch. Served with Israeli couscous, kohlrabi/carrot/apple salad, and a green mixed salad, topped off with some totally addictive "puppy chow." Pretty tasty all around!

Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing, Take Two

Remember this tasty salad that I made a couple years back? Yeah, it's still tasty, still easy, still pretty healthy. Try it.This time I served the salad lettuce-wrap style with some Bibb lettuce alongside some rosemary focaccia made from leftover pizza dough. Yum.

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

I needed some bread to accompany my chicken sausage lasagna, and I didn't feel like buying bread, particularly in light of how terrible the bakery options are in Columbia Heights. So I decided to make some rosemary bread... not too bad!The crust doesn't get super crispy, but the flavor is good- herby and fresh. I didn't have any whole wheat flour, so I used all AP flour to good results.

Grilled Rosemary and Dijon Chicken Thighs

Lots of leftover chicken after our beach weekend. Needed an easy way to cook and use it up quickly... queue Meghan and Liz, who volunteered their rooftop for some grillin'. I marinated the chicken thighs in rosemary, Dijon, honey and garlic, based on this recipe, figuring that was a good flavor combination for re-use of leftovers in chicken salad, etc. I forgot to take a picture of the grilled chicken itself because it was a wee bit dark on the rooftop (better to see the cool moon last night).However, I did get a photo of the chicken salad made with the leftover chicken... made with Greek yogurt, mayo, celery, green onions, apples, dried cranberries and a touch of parsley. Mmm.

Pork Tenderloin with Plum and Rosemary Coulis

I got a pint of pretty plums from the CSA and accidentally let them get overly ripe on the counter... they were super soft, so I figured they would be good in a sauce. I was right!
This recipe was really easy, tasted great and looked pretty impressive (although apparently I was incapable of taking a good photo of it!). The pork was perfectly complimented by the sweet plum and the rosemary made it very earthy.

Butternut, Rosemary, Spinach and Gorgonzola Risotto

Oh my god, this risotto recipe is awesome! I would highly recommend it, as would Chuck, Tim and Tony. But Tony would recommend the recipe more if you call it "butternut, rosemary, spinach and 'whoregonzola' risotto."

I did switch it up a teensy bit from the recipe: I added some garlic in with the onion, skipped the cream (risotto is creamy enough), used frozen spinach (nuked a little and squeezed out), and added a little more than the requisite gorgonzola.

We served it with this crispy baked chicken recipe with garlic and rosemary... also pretty awesome. Panko is one of my favorite ingredients...

Baked Shrimp Scampi

This baked shrimp scampi is a pretty reliable Ina Garten recipe that I've made several times. However, I think this time I squished the shrimp too close together in the dish, because it took waaaaaay too long to cook the shrimp in the center. Perhaps next time I'll do these in individual dishes.Anyway, it's garlicky, buttery and delicious- good with some bread to dip in the sauce! We took the tails off for ease of eating, but they do make the presentation a little bit fancier.

Grilled Flank Steak with Rosemary

This was a simple marinade for a grilled or broiled flank steak, but actually finding flank steak at the grocery store these days: not so easy.

Soy sauce, honey, rosemary, garlic, olive oil... the usual. Simple and tasty. Served with roasted broccoli and mushroom risotto on the side.

Roasted Balsamic and Rosemary Mushroom Risotto

I saw this recipe on a blog I've been following lately after Joy the Baker introduced me to it. The photos were beautiful and I had mushrooms from the CSA, rosemary braving the winter on the roof, and like 4 bottles of balsamic crowding the cupboard (don't ask), so I gave it a try.

This was really good! Like the mushroom soup I made recently, it is very meaty and earthy. It could definitely be a main dish if you'd like.

Chicken Parmesan

In order to use up some more of our myriad tomatoes, a bunch of herbs, and some chicken tenders we had in the fridge, I pulled together this chicken parmesan.

I used the herby breading from this Rachael Ray recipe (includes fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley with the breadcrumbs and cheese), the cooking method of this crispy chicken recipe (baking the chicken strips on a metal rack at high heat to get them crispy all around). Then I put the chicken in one of my new baking dishes, covered it with the homemade sauce from last night and some mozzarella and broiled it.

Served over orzo, alongside some roasted broccoli.

Chicken with Mustard Sage Sauce

The first time I made this, I asked Tim to get me some whole-grain mustard at the store... he was confused, so I clarified by describing the mustard as "the one with all the tiny balls in it." That seemed to work for him.

I've made this chicken recipe a bunch of times and it's really tasty and easy. Made even easier if you use chicken tenders like I did... they don't take very long to cook. I used sage from our rooftop garden. I like the flexibility of this sauce- you can make it as is, or you can splash some cream in. Mmm.

Served with roasted potatoes with garlic and rooftop rosemary (the potatoes were fresh from the soil as of today... picked by yours truly at Amy's CSA farm). Also, roasted broccoli with garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon juice.

Onion Rosemary Focaccia

Made this focaccia with rosemary from our rooftop garden, onions from the CSA, and the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Pretty tasty - soft and herby!