Food - Kate Degelau-Pierce

Carb-o-riffic dinner

Spicy bucatini is one of our favorite weeknight meals. It’s quick and easy and simple to make gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta. We eat this very regularly. We’ve been making it for so long, I’m not even sure where we got the recipe from. This one’s pulled from my memory.

Spicy Bucatini

2T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
0.25 – 0.5t red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
0.25lb pancetta, diced
28oz petit diced tomatoes (You can use the regular diced tomatoes. I prefer the smaller cut.)
2T minced fresh sage
0.5c parmesan, freshly shredded
1lb bucatini or other long, thin pasta

Heat the olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and pancetta over medium heat in a saucepan until fragrant (about 2-3 minutes). Add tomatoes, simmer for 10 minutes, until thicker. Add sage.
Meanwhile, heat 4qts water to boil. Cook your pasta as directed, reserving 0.25c before you drain it.
Return pasta to pot, add sauce & cheese. Stir to combine over the still-warm burner for about a minute. Add as much leftover water as needed to make it smooth.
Serve, with extra cheese to pass if you like parmesan. Mmmm, parmesan.

Soup for the whole family

I freaking love tortilla soup. I love its warmth, its spiciness, how filling it is, and I love that it’s a soup the rest of my family will eat. I’m the soup person in my family, and finding one that we all like can be a challenge. This is a go-to. Note: this is a weekend recipe, not a weeknight recipe. It takes 60-90 minutes to make, so unless you have extra time, don’t try to squeeze it in after work.

Tortilla Soup
tortilla strips
8 6″ corn tortillas, cut into 0.5″ wide strips
vegetable oil
salt

soup
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (or 4 bone-in, skin-on thighs)
8c chicken broth (you can used canned, but homemade is yummier)
1 large white onion, root end trimmed, and quartered
4 medium garlic cloves, peeled
8-10 sprigs fresh cilantro
1 sprig fresh oregano
salt
2 medium tomatoes, cored, quartered
0.5 medium jalapeño
1 chipotle chile in adobo + 1t sauce
1T veg oil

garnishes
1 lime, cut in wedges
1 avocado, diced fine
8 oz cotija (crumbled) or monterey jack (cubed)
cilantro, chopped
minced jalapeño
sour cream

Heat oven to 425F. Spread tortilla strips on baking sheet, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt. Cook for 7 minutes, flip strips over, cook for another 7 minutes.
While tortilla strips bake, bring chicken, broth, 2 onion quarters, 2 garlic cloves, cilantro, oregano, and 0.5t salt to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken to plate (or cutting board), and strain broth into bowl. Discard solids in strainer.
While broth is simmering, puree tomatoes, remaining onion and garlic cloves, jalapeño, chipotle, and adobo sauce in food processor until smooth. Once broth is strained, use soup pan to heat veg oil over high heat until shimmering. Add puree and cook (still over high heat), stirring nearly constantly, until mixture has darkened in color and most of water has evaporated – about 10 minutes. Stir strained broth back into tomato mixture. Bring to boil, then let simmer for 15 minutes.
Cut chicken meat into 0.25″ cubes. Add to broth, then simmer for about 5 minutes. To serve, place portion of tortilla strips in bowl, ladle soup into bowls, pass garnishes separately.

A weeknight pasta

Salmon with farfalle is one of our long-standing pasta dishes. It precedes our gluten-free days, but easily adapted since it’s pretty easy to find gluten-free pasta. We use Barilla – but they don’t make it in farfalle form – so we used penne here. My kingdom for all the different pasta shapes with gluten-free ingredients…

Salmon with Farfalle
2T olive oil
2 medium minced garlic cloves
0.25t hot red pepper flakes
20oz can petit diced tomatoes
0.5t salt
0.5lb salmon filet, skinned and coarsely chopped
0.5c heavy cream
ground black pepper to taste
2T minced fresh basil (we skipped it this time as it’s not basil season)
1lb gluten-free farfalle (or regular farfalle. whichever.)

Heat oil, garlic, and hot red pepper flakes in skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Add tomatoes, simmer for 10 minutes. Mix in salt. Add salmon & cream, mixing to blend. Heat for another 5 minutes, until fish is cooked. Add pepper and basil.
Meanwhile, heat 4 quarts of water over high heat for the pasta. Once boiling, add 1T salt and pasta. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain. Return to pan. Toss with sauce. Serve immediately.

Tacos are messy

Tacos have long been a weeknight staple in our house. This particular recipe is from an old Cook’s Illustrated – I ended up taping that issue back together because there were so many good recipes in it that we used just infrequently enough that I didn’t memorize them. But I memorized this one. Easily.

Beef Tacos
1T veg oil
1 small onion chopped
2 minced cloves of garlic
2T chili powder
1t cumin
1t coriander
0.5t salt
0.5t mexican oregano
0.25t cayenne pepper
1lb ground beef
0.5c chicken stock
0.5c tomato sauce
2t brown sugar
1t apple cider vinegar

toppings:
taco shells
refried beans
cheese
lettuce
salsa
sour cream
diced avocado

Saute the onion in the vegetable oil. Add all the spices, stir till fragrant. Add beef, breaking up into pieces until it’s no longer pink. Then add stock, sauce, sugar, and vinegar. Bring to boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with whichever toppings you want.

Using up the vegetables

I came up with this recipe last winter, I think, when we got a CSA box with fennel and leeks, and I thought to myself: what on earth can I make with fennel? So I made up a fennel-leek-potato soup (since I love potato-leek soup). It’s light enough that it needs something else with it – bread (if you eat it), salad (like you see in the photo), or maybe it’s a starter for your main meal. Regardless, it’s a good winter soup.

Fennel-Leek-Potato Soup

Saute in olive oil:
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced, white and light green parts only
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 diced fennel bulb

Once they’re soft, add:
~6 yukon gold potatoes, diced (I had red potatoes on hand, so I used those instead this time – probably about a pound’s worth.)
2 minced garlic cloves
~0.25c minced parsley
3c chicken stock (I subbed in vegetable stock in this batch. Again, it was to hand.)
5c water

Bring to a boil, then simmer for ~45 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, stir in 0.5c heavy cream, add salt & pepper to taste.

Meet the meat

In truth, this weekend was all about celery. I had some in the fridge, and it was wilting. I made tuna salad and potato-leek-fennel soup (which also uses celery) and this lovely little stir fry from Cook’s Illustrated known as Chinese Chicken Wraps. The kid, of course, still eats around the vegetables, but she does eat it. It’s intended to be an appetizer (if you spoon the filling into each lettuce leaf, rather than pile it all on top like I did), but add some rice and it’s a robust meal.

Chicken
1lb chicken thighs, cut into 1″ cubes
2t sherry
2t tamari
2t sesame oil
2t cornstarch

Place chicken on large plate, freeze until edges are getting hard. About 20 minutes. Mix all other ingredients in medium bowl. Pulse meat in food processor for 10-1 sec pulses. Transfer meat to medium bowl with sauce. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Sauce
3T oyster sauce
1T sherry
2t tamari
2t sesame oil
0.5t sugar
0.25t red pepper flakes

Whisk all ingredients together. Set aside.

Stir fry
2T veg oil
2 celery ribs, diced
6oz shitake mushrooms, stemmed & sliced thin
0.5c water chestnuts, cut into 1/4″ pieces
2 scallions, white parts minced, green parts sliced thin
2 garlic cloves
8 leaves bibb lettuce

Heat 1T oil in 12″ non-stick skillet over high heat till smoking. Cook chicken. Move to separate bowl. Wipe out skillet. Heat remaining 1T oil (high heat, till smoking). Add celery & mushrooms; cook, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are about half the size, 3-4 minutes. Add water chestnuts, scallion whites, and garlic. Cook till fragrant, about 1 minute. Whisk sauce to recombine. Add chicken to skillet, then add sauce. Stir to combine. Serve over lettuce leaves.

Chicken Soup for Lunch

This recipe – Chicken Soup with Kale and Carrots – is all right. It’s certainly easy, if a little time consuming, just because you’re making the stock from scratch. However, it’s a little bland. I made it a week ago and have been heating up the leftovers for lunch. I should have added more salt & pepper when I made it, I think. Overall, though, it’s a filling, healthy lunch.

Chicken Soup with Kale & Carrots (from It’s All Good)

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 large leek (I used 2) roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped + 2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
0.5t black peppercorns
2t salt
1 bunch kale, leaves stripped off stems in bite-sized pieces
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the chicken, leek, celery, roughly chopped carrot, onion, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns and salt in a large soup pot and cover with water (~10c). Bring the soup to boil over high heat, then reduce to simmer for about 2 hours. Strain the stock and pull out the white meat (I used both the white and dark meat, you can use just the white and reserve the dark for another use. However, pulling just the meat out wasn’t the easiest thing in the world and further separating light from dark just wasn’t going to happen.) Dice the chicken meat. Add to soup along with remaining carrots and the kale (I also threw in a handful of brown rice.) Simmer for an additional 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Breakfast quinoa, now with kale

I’ve dubbed this Breakfast Quinoa. The recipe is from It’s All Good, and it’s a filling, simple, delicious start to my day. I actually don’t mind eating Kale!

1T olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 leaves kale, sliced thinly, stem removed
0.5c cooked quinoa (I often cook up a batch of quinoa on Sunday and leave it in the fridge through the week for this and for salads)
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil and garlic in a small skillet over medium heat until oil is shimmering. Add kale and cook until just slightly wilted – it should look to be a really bright green. Add quinoa and cook until just warmed through. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with an egg in some form: hard-boiled, scrambled, poached, whatever. I prefer hard-boiled because it’s easy when I’m bleary-eyed in the morning. This recipe makes just enough for one.

The best holiday treat

My mom probably rues the day she first made these. They’re known as buckeyes around my house, but I’m pretty sure the rest of the world calls them peanut butter truffles. My mom’s line is: “They are a pain to make. You either have to love them or love someone who does.” I love them. Fully and wholeheartedly. They are like your own peanut butter cup. What could be better?

Peanut Butter Truffles

2 sticks butter, melted
2c peanut butter
6c powdered sugar
24oz chocolate chips

Mix butter, peanut butter, and sugar together. Make 1” balls. Chill for at least 2 hours.
Melt chocolate. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate until completely covered. Gently shake off excess chocolate and place on wax paper. Let sit until chocolate is hard. (May need to re-warm chocolate.)

Peanut butter makes me happy

These might be my new favorite cookie. I mean, I love a good chocolate chip, but peanut butter + sugar… I can lose control.

Peanut Butter Cookies
(adapted from ATK’s gluten-free cookbook)

8oz gluten-free flour
1t baking soda
0.5t salt
0.25t xanthan gum
7oz light brown sugar
5.25oz sugar
1c creamy peanut butter
8T unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1t vanilla
1/3c peanuts, chopped fine

Whisk flour, soda, salt, xanthan gum in medium bowl. Set aside. Combine sugars and peanut butter into large bowl. Pour butter over sugar and mix. Whisk in eggs and vanilla and stir until smooth. Stir in dry ingredients and mix until homogeneous dough forms. Let rest 30 min.
Heat oven to 350F with rack in the middle. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Working with 2 generous tablespoons of dough, roll into balls and place 2” apart on the sheets. Press dough to 0.75” thickness using bottom of greased measuring cup. Sprinkle w/ peanuts.
Bake cookies until puffed and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look underdone), 12-14 minutes, rotating halfway through cooking. Let cool on sheet for 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack to complete cooling.