Forget Fall, Let's DIVE In!

I've got another easy, flavorful fall recipe. Yesterday, in the grocery store I saw a beautiful head of cauliflower and some leafy green kale. I found some gorgeous boneless pork tenderloin chops at the butcher and, behold, a meal was born! Sometimes I just browse the produce section to see what looks good and that's how I figure out what to make for dinner. I love to find something that's in-season and keep it simple when it comes to cooking it up. It keeps everything tasting fresh and most importantly, healthy. Kale is a newer vegetable for me, one that I've not made much in the past but I am LOVING it this fall! It also made it really easy that the cauliflower and pork chops could roast in the oven together at the same temperature and I had time to focus on my kale. 


Roast Cauliflower - serves 4
1 head fresh cauliflower
1 - 2 Tbs Olive Oil
Kosher salt
1/2 Tbs Cumin
1/8 Tsp Cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the cauliflower head into florets and place on a sheet tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, cumin and cayenne pepper and toss to combine thoroughly. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, toss and bake another 20 minutes until golden brown.


Pork Chops - serves 4
4 boneless pork tenderloin chops (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 Tbs chopped fresh thyme (or rosemary, whatever fresh herbs you have on hand)
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Season the pork chops on both sides with the salt, pepper and fresh herbs, and rub with olive oil. Cook in a saute pan over medium high heat and sear on both sides, about 2 - 3 minutes each. Place the oven-safe pan into the oven and roast for another 7 - 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes before serving.

Sauteed Kale - serves 4
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Pinch of crushed red pepper
3 Cloves of garlic - smashed
8 Cups of kale - you can buy this in pre-washed bags at the market or use 2 fresh bunches
1/4 Cup chicken stock
2 Tbs sherry vinegar

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil and add the garlic and crushed red pepper. Bring pan to medium heat until garlic becomes fragrant and start to brown. Remove the garlic from the pan and discard. Add the kale and stir to coat with the oil. Add the chicken stock and cover to cook the kale until just wilted, about 2 - 3 minutes. Uncover and allow the remaining moisture to evaporate. Sprinkle with the sherry vinegar and serve.

Forget Fall - don't you just want to DIVE into that plate??

Enjoy!
xoxo
Chef AP

Easy, healthy weeknight staples

Here's a weeknight staple I love that's great to serve year round. Fall puts me in the mood for anything roasted and there's nothing like roast chicken when you want some comfort food. Anything you can stick in the oven for 45 minutes and leave unattended is pretty stress-free, in my book!


The biggest secret to moist, mouth-watering chicken is buying a skin-on bone-in cut; the bone is what keeps it juicy. Buying a split chicken breast allows you to still have all white meat that doesn't dry out during cooking. 


I chose to serve mine with some baby carrots and a Moroccan couscous because I happened to have that in the house. If you have regular carrots, you could chop them up, sprinkle on some olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them in at the same time as the chicken. They'll both be done together! Otherwise make the carrots and couscous about 15 minutes before the chicken is due to come out of the oven.


You'll notice I always specify Kosher salt and unsalted butter for two reasons. Kosher salt is lower in sodium than regular table salt. Using unsalted butter is another way of controlling the amount of salt that goes in your food.


Roast Chicken
1 skin-on, bone-in split chicken breast (per person) 
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Fresh rosemary (or thyme, whichever you have)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat the chicken breasts dry and place on a large roasting sheet/cookie tray. Using your fingers, slide one whole branch of fresh rosemary under the skin. Season skin generously (or to your taste) with salt and pepper. Apply olive oil to skin and massage in with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for approximately 35 - 45 minutes. Remove herbs before eating.


Sauteed Carrots (serves 4; for 2, just cut everything in half)
1 Pound baby carrots
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbs honey
1 Tbs unsalted butter
Kosher salt
Black Pepper


Bring a pot of water to boil, add 2 tbs of kosher salt and carrots. Once carrots are fork tender (approximately 5 minutes) drain and return to pot. Lower pot to medium heat; add butter, lemon juice and honey. Stir occasionally until sauce thickens approximately 3 minutes. Serve while hot!


Moroccan Couscous (serves 4, generously)
1 Tbs unsalted butter
2 Medium shallots, chopped
1 1/2 Cups Israeli couscous 
1/2 Cup toasted pine nuts (heat a small pan on medium and toast nuts until fragrant, light brown, about 5 minutes)
1/4 Cup currants - or raisins, whichever you have
3 Cups low sodium chicken stock or broth
Kosher salt
Black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saute pan, add the shallots and cook for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the chicken stock, salt and pepper, raise the heat to high and bring the stock to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the couscous. Cover the pan and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Add the pignoli nuts and currants to the couscous, stir and serve.

PS - don't hate me, but this is actually pretty healthy. Substitute the couscous with some quinoa (will post a recipe for this another day this week) and you're gluten free, too.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Chef AP

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and he took me out for a special dinner, for which he did all the planning. Score! So while I didn't cook anything yesterday I do still have a little something for you to feast your eyes on today.

On our anniversary, naturally I thought of our wedding. And, in light of this blog, more specifically I thought about our wedding cake. Our cake was gorgeous. I may be biased, but you can judge for yourself from the picture below. Side note: all I can hear in my head right now is Julia Roberts’ voice in ‘Steel Magnolias’ bragging about, ‘My reception! MY reception!’ Thankfully, our reception did not include a bleeding armadillo groom’s cake. 

Cutting our cake at our wedding

Our cake was baked by the incredibly talented Anne Heap and her team at Pink Cake Box. Please visit her site and check out her amazing cakes and other goodies at www.pinkcakebox.com. PS - the flowers on top - those are NOT real; they were all sugar flowers artfully crafted by Anne!! It was not only beautiful, it was also beyond decadent and delicious to the taste. We had four tiers: red velvet cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, chocolate cake with peanut butter and cookies and cream frosting, coconut cake with lemon buttercream frosting, and finally another layer of the chocolate combo as the tier. So indulgent, but hey, it’s a wedding cake. My husband and I each had one and only one bite at the wedding - the bite we served each other when we cut it. A spare piece of cake could not be found the rest of the night as our guests ate it all. Some requested seconds, and others even requested to taste the other flavors they hadn’t been served! 

Instead of properly preserving the top tier to eat on our first anniversary, as is a widespread tradition, the next day hubs and I dug in and ate as much as we liked. We destroyed it, but man, was that cake good! I digress, but here comes the point of this story so hang on a few sentences more. Since our remaining tier is half-eaten and freezer-burned, I decided to try to recreate it, and I use the word 'recreate' loosely. Friday, I tested out a recipe for chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (it was a little tricky to make so I'm not posting it here). It didn’t look nearly as pretty as our wedding cake, but it was delicious and tasting it brought us back to those happy moments we shared that day. 

And here, finally, is the point: bake something special for someone you love and enjoy it together today!

xoxo

Chef AP

My version of our chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting

Calling all chowda-heads!

You don't have to be a Red Sox fan to love this seafood chowder! It's wicked tasty and super elegant, but I swear on Fenway it's not tough to make! I served it recently for dinner with two of our great friends and there was just enough left over for me and my darling husband to have again another night this week. I even gave a bowl away to our own little Kramer across the hall, my little brother-in-law. Note: said brother-in-law, who we will affectionately refer to as 'The Little Guy,' will make many guest appearances as a distinguished taste-tester (and lover) of all recipes frequently throughout this blog.


Now on to the important part: some of this recipe is admittedly a little bit of a labor of love. It calls for homemade fish stock, which would be no trouble if you didn't have to shell the shrimp yourself.  Say that three times fast, I dare you! I promise it is totally worth it, though. But, if you have neither the time, nor the patience (nor the stomach) to do that bit yourself, purchasing the stock from the same place as the fish is totally acceptable. I made the stock the day before to simplify cooking the night of a dinner party and kept in the fridge until it was time to use it; doing that saved me time the day of.  This dish in general made having guests so much easier - when they came over I was able to sit and enjoy their company while a yummy, one-pot meal simmered away on the stove until WE were ready for IT, instead of the other way around. It's even hearty enough to stand alone without side dishes. I did make a couple of notes below so be sure to look out for them when reading through the recipe. Enjoy!

Seafood Stock:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Shells from 1 pound large shrimp
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)*
• 2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped*
• 3 stalks celery, chopped*
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup good white wine
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme, including stems
• *Chef's note - you are going to strain everything out of the stock before using, but you will get more flavor from the veggies if you chop the pieces smaller. Just a rough chop, nothing too fine, but don't cut it into huge pieces, either.

Warm the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the shrimp shells, onions, carrots, and celery and saute for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add 1 1/2 quarts of water, the white wine, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve, pressing the solids. You should have approximately 1 quart of stock. You can make up the difference with water or wine if you need to.

Chowder Ingredients

• 1 pound large shrimp (32 to 36 per pound), peeled and deveined (save shells for stock)*
• 1/2 pound scallops**
• 1/2 pound monkfish***
• 1/2 pound fresh lump crabmeat (I bought mine in a jar)
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter
• 1 cup peeled and medium-diced carrots (4 carrots)
• 1/2 cup medium-diced yellow onion (1 onion)
• 1 cup medium-diced celery (3 stalks)
• 1 cup medium-diced small white or red potatoes
• 1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour****
• 1 recipe Seafood Stock (recipe above)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream (optional but I used it)
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• *Chef's note: I used jumbo shrimp because it was what they had and it was less to peel and clean; worked great!
• **Chef's note: I used bay scallops instead of sea for two reasons - they are smaller (no need to cut to size) and sweeter.
• ***Chef's note: I used cod instead of monkfish because it's what they had; you can substitute with any meaty white fish your fishmonger can recommend.
• ****Chef's note: I substituted 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for the 1/4 cup of flour to keep it gluten free.

Directions

Cut the shrimp, scallops, and monkfish into bite-sized pieces and place them in a bowl with the crabmeat.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter; add the carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, and corn and saute over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are barely cooked, stirring occasionally. Add the flour (or cornstarch); reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Add the Seafood Stock and bring to a boil. Add the seafood; reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 7 to 10 minutes, until the fish is just cooked. Add the heavy cream, if desired, and the parsley just before ladling into dishes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

What I did differently was this - at the point I added the stock, instead of bringing to a boil I put the heat on low so it could come up to temperature slowly while we enjoyed cocktails for 30 minutes or so. Ten minutes before we were ready to eat it was it was already at a low boil so I threw in the fish then instead of letting everything overcook and get too chewy.

And here is what landed on the table with a piece of crusty bread:

It was rich and complex, with great depth of flavor without being too heavy. And, it was a nice spin on soup during the fall! We all went back for seconds. :) 

Are you having a dinner party anytime soon? E-mail me with your photos and recipes! 

xoxo

Chef AP

It's easy bein' cheesy

I think homemade ricotta is a great place to start: this is definitely one of those things that sounds like it took a LOT of work, tastes great and is actually really easy to make. You need some basic kitchen tools and a little patience; the rest takes care of itself. 

Ingredients

• 6 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, heavy cream, vinegar and salt. Place the pan over a medium heat and slowly bring the milk mixture to a simmer. Simmer the milk mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, you will see curds begin to form. 

Line a mesh strainer with several layers of damp cheesecloth. Gently pour the curds and whey through into the strainer and let drain for 15 minutes. Gather the cheesecloth together and gently squeeze some of the excess liquid from the ricotta. 

And that's it - you're DONE! Homemade, fresh ricotta using simple ingredients. Great to serve as an appetizer, snack on for breakfast or whenever. Toast a crusty bread and drizzle on some olive oil, whatever your pleasure and try to stop yourself from eating the whole bowl! I ate mine on some plain old toast with a little honey for breakfast:

Enjoy! 
xoxo
Chef AP

Welcome!

Hello friends, and welcome to Cheffortless!

My hope for this blog is really just to spread my love and passion for spending time in the kitchen. My friends and family often seem amazed at how easy I make it look when I cook for them, and the secret is that it really is that easy. Confession: I am often amazed as well that I made this or that, too, but I would like to demystify how to do the things that seem so daunting and get people into the kitchen and hope they love it as much as I do.

Everyone has their own way that they like to unwind. Some people golf, others surf and some go for a run to relax; I cook. It takes attention and focus, and directing that energy toward whatever's simmering on the stove allows me a temporary mental vacation from life's daily grind. Everyone also has a creative side. While I may not be a skilled artist with a brush, cooking allows me to express my creativity and actually make something; it's like my own kind of edible art. Have you found the way that you express yourself? I love to cook just about anything and the thing I enjoy most about it is seeing others enjoy it. That said, I love to take requests if there's something you'd like to see please let me know and I will check it out. I find the cravings and desires of others a great inspiration and opportunity to learn something new.

My philosophy on cooking, and style in life in general, is to keep it simple and use great ingredients. You can never go wrong when you start there and add your love to it; that's always what makes it taste great.

I hope you enjoy and, please, do share your experiences in return!

xoxo

Chef AP