"Real" Baby Carrots Roasted with Thyme and Garlic

Carrots roasted with salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil at 450F for 20 minutes. Sliced garlic and thyme tossed in and roasted for an additional 3 minutes. Simplicity at its best.

Spaghetti Squash with Sage

I intended to post this recipe prior to Thanksgiving, but alas, I got wrapped up preparing the big feast.  While it would be perfect on Turkey Day for the nice presentation, this roasted spaghetti squash, adapted from Andrew Carmellini's Urban Italian, is simple enough to have as a side dish for a weeknight meal.  Carmellini calls for walnuts, but they didn't do too much for me; to add a little crunch I would try mixing in some toasted squash or pumpkin seeds.  Carmellini also suggests adding grated Parmesan cheese to the squash, so if you have cheese on hand, feel free to use it.

Roasted Spagghetti Squash with Sage and Squash Seeds
Adapted from Urban Italian

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash
• salt and pepper
• 5 tbsp butter, divided in 1 tbsp pieces
• 15 fresh sage leaved

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Slice the squash in half lengthwise.  
3. Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and set the seeds aside.  
4. Season both halves of the squash with salt and pepper.  
5. Place 1 tbsp butter and 2 sage leaves in the cavity of each squash half and roast on a baking sheet until the squash is completely tender, about one hour.
6. Use a fork to to scrape out the meat from each squash half.  Reserve the squash skins and put the strands of squash in a bowl.  
7. Heat the remaining 3 tbsp butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.  
8. Add the squash seeds to the sauce pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are golden, 3 to 5 minutes.
9. Add the remaining sage leaves to the sauce pan and cook until they are fragrant, about 1 minutes.
10. Stir the squash into the pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly to mix all of the ingredients together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
11. Remove the squash from the pan and serve it in one of the squash skins.
    

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Lemon, and Chili Flakes

You still have time to finish your Thanksgiving menu.  Here's a simple side that sure to please even the Brussels sprout haters.  Between the heat of the chili flakes, the acidity of the lemon, the sweetness of the bacon and Brussels sprouts, and the fresh flavor of the mint, I love the flavor contrasts in this dish.

Sauteed Brussels Sports with Bacon, Lemon, Chili Flakes, and Mint
Serves 2 to 3
 
Ingredients:

• 3 slices of bacon, diced
• 12 oz. Brussels sprouts, cut in half if large
• juice from half a lemon
• 1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
  

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is crisp. about 3 minutes.  Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon.
2. Add the Brussels sprouts to the skillet and season with salt and pepper.  Cook the Brussels sprouts, stirring occasionally, until they brown on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes.  
3. Add the chili flakes to the pan and reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook until the Brussels sprouts soften, another 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to low.  Pour in the lemon juice and season the Brussels sprouts with salt and pepper to taste.  
5. Put the Brussels sprouts in a bowl and top with the reserved bacon and the mint.  Serve immediately.
   

 

Brussel Sprouts a la Colicchio

As I will be contributing a few dishes to the Thanksgiving meal that my brother and sister-in-law are hosting this year, it is now crunch time for me to perfect the items that I am planning to bring and prove my food blogging worthiness to my family. First up on my list is brussel sprouts, which I had been planning to simply pan roast with bacon. However, after coming across an interesting preparation for brussel sprouts in Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef, in which the brussel sprout leaves are blanched, then briefly sautéed in with bacon, I decided to see if it could improve upon the pan roasting method. While Colicchio's technique resulted in a wonderful vegetable side dish, with two blanching sessions and lots of brussel sprout leaves to separate, it is a bit too labor- and pan-intensive for Thanksgiving. For the big day, I will stick to the pan roast method. However, I will definitely keep this brussel sprouts technique in my fall repertoire as it produces perfectly tender brussel sprout leaves with no hint of bitterness.

Sautéed Brussel Sprout Leaves with Bacon
Adapted from Think Like a Chef

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb brussel sprouts
• 1/4 lb bacon, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Cut the base off of the brussel sprouts and cut them in half.
2. Toss the halves into boiling, salted water and boil until the leaves begin to separate, about 3 minutes. Remove the brussel sprouts with a slotted spoon and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Keep the water in the pot that was used to cook the brussel sprouts at a boil.
3. Separate the leaves of each brussel sprouts from the core, discarding the core. Place the leaves back into the boiling water and cook until they are tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the leaves and rinse them under cold water. Blot the leaves dry with paper towels.
4. Fry the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is beginning to brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the brussel sprout leaves. Briefly toss the leaves with the bacon and bacon fat. Taste the leaves for salt and pepper and serve them immediately.

Corn Pudding

New York's corn has not been very sweet this summer, so I have largely forgone eating the grain in its purest form, roasted on the cob. Luckily, Andrew Carmellini's pappardelle with corn and this wonderful recipe for corn pudding from The Spamwise Chronicles have helped pull me through this bummer of a corn harvest.

Something New to try with Beets

President Obama's dislike for beets will no doubt ensure that beets remain at the bottom of the vegetable popularity rankings for the next four years. Nonetheless, here is an easy dish that the few remaining beet lovers should try.

Beet Greens with Roast Beets and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of beets with greens intact
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Meanwhile, trim greens from beet bulbs, leaving about half an inch of the stem attached to each beet, Wash greens and scrub bulbs.
2. Wrap each beet bulb in foil. Place bulbs on an oven tray and roast until tender, 45 minutes to one hour. Let beets cool.
3. Once beets have cooled, peel the skin off. Chop beet bulbs into 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
5. Add beat greens and saute until they begin to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve beet greens topped with roasted beets and goat cheese.