Smoked Turkey Carbonara

 

I may have mentioned a time or two I'm obsessed with my Traeger woodfired grill.  LOVE IT.  I use it at least twice a month for the protein portion of a meal.  For Thanksgiving I did a huge turkey breast and used the Traeger Mesquite pellets as they are just a hint of sweet that plays so well with Turkey.  I opted for the huge breast so I'd have lots of left overs for things like Smoked Turkey Carbonara.

This recipe is cut down from a similar version I did recently.  It makes 4 healthy servings as I cut down the ingredients by a quarter to reduce left overs.

Smoked Turkey Carbonara

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Cubed Smoked Turkey
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 shallot thinly sliced
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 c Pecorino Romano (grated)
• 1/2 c dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
• 1 T butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 ounces spaghetti
• 3/4 C pasta water
• minced parsley 

Put pasta in boiling water and cook until al dente according to package directions (about 10-12 minutes).  While spaghetti cooks continue with the  other steps.

Over medium heat add a tablespoon olive oil to a large skillet.  Add thinly sliced shallot and cubed turkey.  Sautee' lightly 3-4 minutes until shallots are translucent and smoked turkey is warmed through.

Add peas and white wine and toss to combine with the other ingredients in skillet.  White wine will reduce to a thin mixture when most of it has been evaporated.  Turn off burner at this point.

In a large mixing bowl add eggs, yolks and Pecorino Roman cheese. Whisk well until combined.

Reserve 3/4 c pasta water from the pot and cool 2 minutes.   Add cooked pasta to skillet with the turkey mixture and toss lightly to combine.

Whisking constantly slowly drizzle the slightly cooled pasta water into the egg mixture until well incorporated.

Turn burner under skillet to low.  Slowly pour egg mixture, stirring constantly with a large spoon or pasta spoon into the skillet until all is incorporated and the sauce has coated all of the pasta and turkey mixture.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Toss in the butter until it is melted into the sauce.  Garnish with some minced parsley.  Turn off heat and serve immediately.

Ham and Peas Carbonara

 

I stumbled across a great carbonara recipe that is stupid easy and as tasty as I had in Rome. I adapted it to family tastes, IE no visible onion that coincidentally is not in a traditional recipe in Rome. My son and wife said I definitely need to add to the rotation.  It was so good.  

This recipe differs from so many others as it used Pecorino Romano as the cheese of choice rather than Parmesan.  Makes a big difference in taste, worth the searching for the Pecorino.  This cheese has a deeper funk to it as its made from sheep's milk and isn't quite as mild as Parmesan.  I'm a convert.

Interesting adaptation for this market was the use of diced ham instead of the hard to find guanciale in the local markets.  (How I yearn for a close by Eataly).

Be forewarned this makes 8 servings.  

Ham and Peas Carbonara

• 8oz diced ham
• 1 C peas, thawed if frozen
• 3/4 C hot water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 c Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving
• 1T butter, melted
• 1t fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t ground pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 C pasta water
• 2 T Minced Parsley

Over medium heat add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to a skillet over medium heat.  Add ham and cook 3-4 minutes until starting to brown on the edges.  Add peas and toss lightly.  Add 3/4 cup hot water to pan and cook until peas are thawed and tender.

In a mixing bowl add eggs and egg yolks. Whisk in Pecorino Romano cheese until well combined.  Add salt and pepper.

Cook pasta as directed on package.  Reserve 1 cup of hot pasta water.  Cool hot pasta water 2 minutes. Add cooked pasta to the ham and pea mixture, its ok if some water makes it the the skillet, no need to drain completely.  Turn off heat to skillet and toss the pan a few times to disperse peas and ham with the pasta.

Take cooled pasta water and slowly drizzle in to egg mixture whisking continuously so as to NOT scramble the egg mixture.  When water fully incorporated into eggs, turn stove onto low and replace skillet over the flame.  Stirring constantly with tongs, drizzle in the egg mixture to the pasta mixture and cook 2 minutes.  Remove from flame.

Add melted butter and lemon juice,  Sprinkle on minced parsley.  Toss gently then serve with additional Pecorino Romano over the pasta and enjoy with a nice Pinot Grigio and slice of garlic bread.

Gnocchi in brown butter with spinach and walnuts.

 

We're big fans of gnocchi in my household.  Problem is that we don't have a good source of fresh gnocchi like we did at Eataly when we lived in L.A.  You'd think as the 4th largest city in the country we'd have one, but no such luck.

These aren't scratch made gnocchi.  Its a vacuum sealed pasta from Target, the DeLallo brand.  They are decent gnocchi, not gummy or dense and worked well with this recipe.  

Gnocchi in Brown Butter with Spinach and Walnuts

Ingredients

• 1 lb favorite ready to use Gnocchi
• 1 lb spinach
• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts
• 1/4 c minced sweet onion
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg

Prepare Gnocchi according to package instructions.

Place butter in a large skillet.  Over medium heat stir butter while it browns to a deep golden color.  When it stopped foaming add walnuts and onion.  Stir and cook until onion is transparent (2-3 minutes)/

Add Gnocchi to skillet and toss to coat evenly with butter mixture.  Add spinach.  Salt and Pepper to taste along with the nutmeg.  Cover for 4-5 minutes until spinach is starting to wilt.  Remove lid and toss with the gnocchi until spinach is evenly distributed.

Serve warm with a slice of garlic bread om the side and a nice Italian white like a pinot grigio that will cut through the rich brown butter sauce.  a few scrapes of fresh parmesan off the grater would be a nice touch too. 

Butterscotch Toffee Blondies

 My wife is barely a dessert person let alone a sweets person.  One bit and she exclaimed "THESE MUST BE IN THE ROTATION",  What's not to like, buttery rich blondie with butterscotch and toffee bits to liven up the flavor and texture?   So here they are immortalized in bytes in the interwebs.  

Butterscotch Toffee Blondies

Ingredients:

• 1c Room temperature butter
• 1 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 c butterscotch chips
• 3/4 c toffee chips

·         Preheat oven to 350f.  Line 9X13 baking dish with parchment paper or heavily butter pan.

Cream butter with brown sugar and vanilla well until smooth and fluffy.   Add eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate.

Mix flour and baking powder together and whisk until combined.  Gradually add dry to wet ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms.

Fold in butterscotch chips and toffee chips.

Spread dough into the prepared pan. 

Bake 25-30 minutes or until top is golden and a toothpick in center comes out nearly clean.

Cool completely before slicing into bars.

Cherry Almond Galette

 

About a month ago I mentioned on Insta that I had checked out a book "Baking for 2" at the local Library.  It gave me good ideas on how to cut things down for 2 people or 2-4 servings.  This gives better portion control and not a lot of leftovers.  Desserts are a weekend treat here so I don't need left overs.

This recipe is an amalgamation of a couple of recipes in my repertoire of desserts.  What I like about the galette is that its a free form dessert kind of a cross between a pie and a tart, just no pie plate or tart shell to fight it out with.  Super simple, stupid easy even, to roll out a circle of dough, fill it and flip the edges towards the center.  

Cherry Almond Galette

Pastry 

• 300 grams AP Flour (approx 1 c + 2T) 
• 1/2 t fine sea salt
• 1 T sugar
• 125 grams butter (approx 1 stick butter + 1 T)
• 4 T ice water

Filling

• 12 oz bag frozen sour cherries - thawed
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 T corn starch
• pinch salt
• 1/4 almond extract
• 1/4 coarse ground almonds
• 2 T sugar (I use the turbinado dark coarse sugar)
• 1 egg beaten

Preheat oven to 400F when you are starting to assemble the galettes.

Combine thawed cherries and all their juices with the sugar, corn starch and salt into a non reactive pan.

Cook over medium heat folding gently until sugar and corn starch are dissolved. Cook over medium low heat just until the filling is translucent and thickened to a syrupy consistency.  Softly fold the mixture with a spatula taking care to NOT mash up the cherries.   Once consistency reached, remove from heat and stir in almond extract.  Cool to room temperature.

While filling cools make the pastry.  In food processor add flour, sugar, and salt.  Pulse a couple of times to combine those dry ingredients.  Add cold butter to mixture, pulse until the butter is covered with flour and about the size of peas.  Add cold water.  Pulse a few times until a dough ball begins to form.  Remove dough and gently combine any crumbs left in the bowl.  Dived into 4 equal balls and flatten each slightly.  Wrap dough in cling film and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

To assemble line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat liner.  Take one ball of dough.  On a floured board roll dough out to an 8" circle.  Place dough onto  lined baking sheet.  Put 1 Tablespoon ground almonds in center and spread gently on dough leaving 1 to 1 1/2 inches border.  Add one quarter of the cooled cherry filling and spread lightly over almonds maintaining the clean border.  Pick up one edge of pastry and fold it up towards center resting on the filling.  Working around the whole galette.  Repeat process with remaining three dough balls.

Once all of the galettes have been assembled.  Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle a quarter of the sugar on the pastry.  Chill in refrigerator until oven is preheated.  Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Place the baked pastry on a cooling rack until ready to eat.

Take warm galette and top with some good ice cream or whipped cream.

Lemony Orzo and Shrimp

This dish was an instant hit.  A combination of a few different recipes I've read in recent days.   My addition was to add shrimp to make a complete main course instead of a delectable side.  Its a spin on scampi flavors with a little something extra from the spinach and peas in it.

Lemony Orzo and Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb peeled and deveined 16-20 count shrimp
• 3/4 raw orzo pasta
• 2 strips bacon cut into lardons
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 C frozen peas 
• 1 C frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• zest of one lemon
• juice of two lemons (about 3-4 tablespoons)
• 2 T grated parmesan
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot bring 6 cups water to the boil, salting water well.  Cook orzo to package directions for al dente.  Reserve 1/4 cup hot pasta water,  drain remaining in a colander.  Set aside.

Over medium heat fry up the bacon in the olive oil to get it rendering faster.  When the bacon is browned and starting to get crispy, add the shrimp and garlic.  Cook stirring often 2-4 minutes until shrimp just cooked through.

Add cooked pasta, lemon zest and juice with the peas and spinach.  Cook 2-3 minutes until peas thawed and spinach warmed through.  Add pasta and toss to coat, heat gently until warm about a minute or so.  Add parmesan and toss to combine, if sauce is a bit tight add reserved pasta water to loosen it up and create a thin silky  sauce.   Serve immediately with a nice glass of Tuscan dry white wine such as Villa Antinori.

 

Cherry Cobbler

Ah...have I mentioned how much I love the old H*E*B Markets here in Texas?  I do, I do, I do.  They are terrific for stocking rare things much better than the local Kroger or not so local Randalls (An Albertson/Safeway outlet).

Allow me to digress a bit.  Growing up in Michigan Mom would swoop in on the "sour cherries" for fresh baked cherry pie.  When we moved to Missouri they were called "pie cherries" and a neighbor allowed us to harvest as much as we wanted in exchange for one of Moms famous cherry pies.  Here at H*E*B they were labeled "Tart Cherries" and were exactly what I've been looking for for years tucked away on a shelf in the frozen fruit section of the frozen foods aisles.  Yahoo....baking time here and Cherry anything is a favorite or my wife and me.

This recipe was created with the help of Moms old handwritten recipe and a cobbler topping I use from time to time.  Here joined together for a dessert my wife insists we work into the regular repertoire. 

Cherry Cobbler

Filling

• 2, 12 oz frozen tart cherries, thawed
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 T Cornstarch
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/2 t almond extract
• juice of one lemon 

Topping

• 1½ C all-purpose flour
• ½ C brown sugar
• 1 t cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 C cold butter (cubed)
• 1/4 C chopped walnuts or almonds

Preheat oven to 350F.

Butter an 8X8 baking dish

Combine filling ingredients and and fold gently so as to not break up cherries but sugar is dissolved.  Pour into prepared baking dish.

In a stand mixer with whisk attachment add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Pulse mixer to evenly combine ingredients.  Add cubed butter to dry and turn mixer on medium low.  Allow the butter to be cut into the dry ingredients and it resembles coarse sand, about 5 minutes. Fold in chopped nuts.  Sprinkle topping evenly over the fruit mixture.

Place the baking dish on a sheet tray to catch any boil over.  Bake 40-50 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.  Cool on a wire wrack at least 30 minutes or room temperature.  Add a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and enjoy.