Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Spinach Ricotta Pie


Anna had been raving about this spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook that she had made, and when she told me she had just made it again, I figured I had to try it. Coincidentally, I went over to Linnea's house and she made spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood cookbook while we were there. It was good. I was hooked. Anna sent me the recipe, and I *almost* managed to follow it all the way through. It appears to be a fairly forgiving dish (like most things I cook, it better be forgiving or it isn't going to taste so good), and I ended up putting in spinach, onion, mushrooms, ground beef, and cheddar, which were all things living on the bottom shelf of my fridge that really wanted to be eaten. I meant to put in corn kernels too, but forgot and left them in the freezer. I think you could add anything, its one of those leftover-user-upper dishes, only it tastes good.

The recipe I used was a little too big for the pie crust, 2/3 of the filling fit comfortably. The other third of the filling I turned into little mini crustless quiche-y things, and they're really good. Better than the pie, actually, because they're bite-sized. I recommend making the whole recipe into little mini crustless quiche-y things, they'd be really good as an appetizer or a snack. The cheddar makes it.

Spinach Ricotta Pie - Alex's version
Crust: (use your favorite pie crust, or use this one)
1.25C flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs frozen butter
3 tbs frozen bacon grease
~1/4C cold water

Filling:
3 eggs
3C skim milk ricotta (or any kind of ricotta, I just used skim)
1lb spinach - I used frozen
1 onion
~1tbs olive oil
2C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp salt
6-10 mushrooms, chopped
3oz ground beef, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced

To make the crust, put the flour and the salt and the butter and the bacon grease into a food processor. Process. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, processing it in between additions, until the dough pinches together. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Cook the filling. Sweat the onions in the olive oil, then add the garlic. Then add the mushrooms and spinach, cook until most of the water is out of these. Cook the ground beef. Chop things up until they're at the size you feel like putting into your pie.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Beat the eggs together in a big bowl. Add the ricotta. Mix it around. Add the rest of the stuff, except the cheddar. Mix it all around until it looks homogenous.

Roll out your pie crust, dock it, and bake it until it is just starting to firm up. Then add the filling. Put a generous layer of cheese on top, and pop that sucker in the oven for 40-45 minutes. If the cheese isn't brown on top when its done, stick it under the broil for a minute or so. Ideally, you'll let this cool and set up a bit before you eat it.

If you have extra filling, you can bake it into little mini crustless quiche-y things. Add any leftover cheese into the filling (very important, otherwise these things won't taste cheesy, which is vital to their goodness). Grease a mini muffin pan, and then fill it to the top or overflowing with the extra filling. Bake until they aren't jiggly any more and they smell cheesy and delicious.

So this thing probably takes about an hour and a half end to end. Not the quickest, but it was durn good. Thanks Anna :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mussels!


'Nuff said. Go buy a bag of mussels, they tend to come in 2-lb sacks. Take them home. Rinse them until they don't feel sandy on the outsides of the shells anymore. Put them in a big pot. Fill with a cup or so of wine, a can of diced tomatoes, and another cup or two of water or stock. Bring to a boil, add some shallots, some basil, and some corn kernels (frozen is fine). Once the mussels open up, take them off the stove, put in a big dish, and slurp them out of their shells. I guess you could use a fork and be all fancy, but we found they were much tastier if we just slurped them. Then you get more of the broth and stuff too. Yum!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Chocolate Zucchini Cake


Read this first. Testament to how awesome this cake really is.

This recipe is another one taken straight from King Arthur Flour, which I had tried before but forgotten to take pictures. It was so good that I decided to do it a second time, and it was well worth it, as always. The original recipe is here, but I didn't put any chocolate chips in it or on it this time, because I didn't have any. The cake was fine without them, but would have been even better with more chocolate.



In case the King Arthur website ever goes down, I am reprinting the recipe (please don't sue me):

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter*
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sour cream or yogurt (I used yogurt this time, last time I used sour cream)
2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounce) Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional but tasty
2 cups shredded zucchini (about one 10" zucchini, about 12 ounces)
1/2 cup (3 ounces) chocolate chips (didn't use these this time)
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips, for icing (didn't use these this time)

*being lazy, I only used oil.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lighlty grease a 9" x 13" pan. (I also made half the recipe with the full amount of zucchini, because I only have a 8x8" pan)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the eggs.

Stir in the sour cream or yogurt alternately with the flour. Then add the cocoa and espresso powder, mixing till smooth. Finally, fold in the zucchini and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, till the top springs back lightly when touched, and it seems set. Slide the cake out of the oven, sprinkle it evenly with the 1 cup chocolate chips, and return it to the oven for 5 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, and use a cake spatula or rubber spatula to spread the chocolate chips into a smooth glaze. Cool on a rack. Yield: 24 servings.