Ricotta Stuffed Pattypan Squash

Earlier in the Fall, Headhouse Farmer's market had some bright little Pattypan squash showing - Elizabeth picked up a pint and proceeded later that evening to adapt a recipe from her childhood to reduce our ricotta stockpile.

Claudio's ricotta, at $4 per lb. is a steal - we're basically trying to work it into every dish imaginable. This was one of the better experiments...a gratin of sorts placed into the hollowed out squash.

A mix of sautéed squash & shallots, along with some seasoned ricotta, go back into the squash and into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until warmed through.

We served the squash alongside roast leg of lamb and prosciutto-wrapped fingerling potatoes for a comforting Sunday Night meal; the fingerlings were a take on something I saw over on Studiokitchen earlier this year, fingerlings cooked in peanut oil, then wrapped in Iberico ham and deep fried. I didn't go as luxe as Shola's version, just boiling the potatoes, wrapping them in prosciutto and finishing them with a pan-fry...neglected to snap a photo of mine but they looked something like this...photogenically nowhere near as close to what Studiokitchen cranks out though.

Riffin on Tiffin - Homemade Keema Mattar

Now that the summer of the burger is over, it seems like pizza will be the new food proving grounds in Philly kitchens. Cruising by Starr's new Stella tonight and seeing the packed crowds of happy diners munching down on thin-crust pizza got me in the mood to recall one of our pizza experiments at home.

Recent favorites of ours are Tiffin's pizza offerings. The Indian twist on thin crust was right up our alley...and considering our near addiction to lamb, the Keema Mattar pizza, a minced lamb and pesto pizza pictured above, seemed like the perfect redux for home.

SuperFresh had a leg of lamb on sale last week for under $15, so I portioned it out into a shank, a roast and then minced the scraps up for the Keema Mattar topping.

The minced meat was simply seasoned and seared...I added a little dry mint to the meat as it finished, just to make sure that the flavor came through.

The pesto was a blend of mint and parsley, with a clove of garlic.

I didn't have time to pound out some pizza dough and then let it rise, so I used two pieces of lavash bread for the crust, brushed in olive oil and slathered in a greek yogurt and ricotta mix. These went into a 500 degree oven for a quick crisp.

Once the crust had firmed up, I just sprinkled on some peas and minced lamb to coat.

The end result wasn't even close to Tiffin's (the pesto was too minty and when it mixed with the ricotta it tasted "like toothpaste" quipped Elizabeth) . Next time, I'll probably not cheap out on the dough by going pre-made, use less topping and spread it around a bit more and most definitely go easier on the mint, maybe blending in some spinach with the pesto instead of parsley.

Sopes - Crab & Tomatillo vs Chorizo

Having picked up a large amount of tomatillos from the market, we wanted to roast them slightly and combine them with crab to serve on a masa flour sope. The crab mixture was seasoned with a little bit of olive oil and small diced hot peppers fro a tickle of heat.

Here's a great post on creating sopes and then loading them up with all sorts of toppings; it's a good guide to making sopes the right way. We cheated a bit on ours and didn't crimp the rims because it really uses alot more oil to fry these little guys and we were trying to make them not heavily fried.

The chorizo was standard fare picked up from Whole Foods. Crumbled atop a smidge of greek yogurt to keep the heat in check and help hold it to the pan, the spicy sausage was a contract to the tangy & cool crab.

Tortillita - Savory Spanish Seafood Chickpea Pancake

We recently bought a bag of chickpea flour, hoping to recreate a version of hummus that we hadn't enjoyed for years. Unfortunately, we were totally off the mark with the recipe and as a result we wound up with lots of the stuff to experiment with.

A quick search on Google found this hidden gem of a dish from New York Times writer Mark Bittman, the Tortillita or Spanish Chickpea Seafood Pancakes

Watch Mark throw one together in a demonstration video - as always his low-key delivery underscores how straightforward this thing is to make, plus he talks a lot about his several attempts and the variations.

Tortillitas hit all of our favorite criteria; appetizer/tapas sized, involves some type of seafood, and is easy to create in a pinch using basic ingredients, except for the chickpea flour.

Shrimp Tortillitas - Mark Bittman

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion or scallions
About 1/2 cup raw shrimp, chopped, or scallops or other shellfish or fish
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped chives, parsley, thyme or cilantro
Olive oil

Mix the dry ingredients together, I like this recipe becasue it's easy to memorize the ratios - 1/2 regular flour to 1/2 chickpea flour, then an amount of water equal to the amount of flour...just remember to put in 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder for every cup of flour you use.

Slowly add in the water...the chickpea flour will cause the mix to clump up if you go too fast.

The recipe mentioned throwing the fish or shellfish into the batter, then ladling it into a hot pan for a shallow fry in the olive oil, but we found that it was best to keep the fish out, ladle the mix in and immediately throw the fish on top as you evened out the batter...you have more control with your placement of the fish and can spread it around, plus the portioning comes out equal and you're not left with one skimpy tortillita and one bulging with fish.

Flip it after about 3 minutes as the edges get crispy; you can use the traditional pancake toss if you want, but I didn't want the fish slopping all over the place, so I turned it in the pan.

After it's golden on the other side, about 3 more minutes, just remove and serve. Here we sliced it into wedges, garnished with a bit of the fish and served it on a bed of warmed rocket.

The flavor of the chickpea flour delivers the umame while the lack of gluten in creates a crispier texture around the edges of the tortillita. You can use pretty much any kind of seafood with this - cod, shrimp, calamari - it just has to be cut small enough to cook fast and not break the pancake as it's forming.

We've made them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night snacks and they never fail to please.

Summer Scallops w/Sauteed Corn, Pepper & Avacado

One last go around for the summer combo of corn & scallops. This time we added a slight mash of avocado beneath each scallop to fix them in place on the bed of summer corn.

These avocado were a little less ripe than we would have liked, but the stronger 'green' flavor that an under-ripened avocado has worked well with the peppers in the corn.

The avocado was slightly seasoned with a bit of salt and a touch of olive oil to give it some smoothness.

Here's a shot of the black peppers that we picked up from Savoie Farms at Headhouse Market. The flesh of the black pepper was a little thicker and had a pronounced crunch, which worked well to marry the green-ish tinge of the avocado to the corn.

The corn was sliced off the cob and then added to the diced pepper.

Sauteed with a touch of butter and olive oil, we didn't overseason the corn.

Final step was to create little lillypads for the scallops to rest upon.

This is starting to become a habit - more seared scallops.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart

Spurred on by the success of her last experiment and the ever-growing mountain of cherry tomatoes being pushed out by the Sweet 100 plants, Elizabeth decided to make a Roasted Cherry Tomato Tart (link to recipe) to go along with a rack of lamb we were having for dinner.

To make the tart visually interesting, she threw in a few different tomato varieties that we had picked up at the farmer's market. One of my favorties was the Black Cherry Tomatoes from Savoie Organic Farms; these were a little firmer fleshed and have a deeper, less tart taste than your typical cherry.

Oiled and seasoned with some salt, pepper and Early Italian Purple Garlic from the market, these went into a 400 degree oven to roast away. After about 30 minutes, they were cooled off and the liquid they were released was drained off to use in a marinade for the lamb.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth made the tart shell using your standard pie-crust kind of recipe...cold cubed butter, pulsed in the food processor with flour & dash of salt, then a little bit of cold water & dash of lemon juice mixed in...she left the cornmeal out of that the recipe called for.

The dough went into a little tapas pan and then into the oven until golden brown; it was left to cool alongside the tomatoes.

Next, she mixed together equal parts goat cheese and thick Greek Yogurt (we use Fage 0% Fat), mashing in a little nub of leftover ricotta salata to add some saltiness. She left out the mustard and instead simply spread the cheese across the now-cool tart crust.

Next, time to load it up with tomatoes!

The tart went back into the oven for a brief time to warm through and get all the flavors to marry, then out it came, sprinked with fresh thyme.

Here's the final result, served alongside a slice of lamb. This tart was a little heavier on the tomato than the example from the recipe, but when it's being served alongside lamb rack, the tart cherries, creamy goat cheese and crispy tart crust was a perfect match to the juicy lamb, served rare.

Farmer's Market Finds

Random finds at Headhouse Market.

Gardencress...if watercress and parsley had a baby, with a tiny touch of sweetness in it.

Melon box...we grabbed a midget cantelope...sweet and ripe...great with prosciutto.

Squid, Octopus, Olive & Roasted Cherry Tomato Salad

Last week we stopped into Bocca mid-day to grab a few of the plates that seems to be above average for Old City fare...read what the professionals are saying about the cretivity coming out of the kitchen here.

One dish that really grabbed our attention was the octopus salad; served with an brushed olive glaze and little roasted cherry tomatoes with crispy tomato-skin 'flags' still attached, it was instant inspiration for a great summer seafood starter. The chef came out to ask us if we liked the dish and when we pried for his technique on the roasted tomatoes, he playfully laughed and said it was a secret.

We just so happen to be neck-deep in cherry tomatoes thanks to the Sweet 100 plant in the container garden, so we figured why not try and recreate those little garnishes...and while we're at it, thrown in a squid & octopus salad to boot.

Here's the results of Elizabeth's experiments with the tomatoes. A little bit of oil and a slow roast kept the body intact while crisping up the skin...getting them to stay upright was the only challenge.

As for the seafood, we purchased some squid caps and baby octopus from Whole Foods. Marinated in some olive oil then flashed on a hot grill pan and sprinkled with mint, they turned out just right.

Finally, we tossed the squid & octopus in with some kalamatas, a little bit of torn arugula and laid it on a spread of tapenade we made with the leftover olives. Finally, our cheery cherry tomatoes studded the salad plate...It wasn't as pretty as Bocca's, but the flavors were pretty darn close and those little tomatoes will probably make a repeat appearance later this summer.

Jules Thin Crust Pizza - Doylestown

On a day trip passing through Doylestown we stopped at Jules Thin Crust Pizza. I figured with a name like that, they'd probably be able to deliver on what has become our latest obsession...well made pizza crust.

I wasnt' quite sure what to expect as we walked into the place. I thought it was going to be a little sit-down place w/a wood fired oven being tended by a pizzaioli...instead, it was like a Subways meets California Pizza Kitchen...but in a good way.

Basically you pay by the slice and choose from a spread of at least a dozen or more pizzas already cooked up...tell them what you're after and they run it through a conveyor oven to crisp the dough up. The place seemed to be geared for handling lunch crowds but we found the service was cheerful and patient while we stared out blankly over the row upon row of pizzas to pick from.

Of course, they had your traditional pork-centric pizzas, which looked really tasty..all the meat comes from hormone-free animals and they seemed to have a focus on quality ingredient. They had alot of veggie pies to choose from, as well as whole-wheat crust options.

First, we picked a slice of the artichoke, basil & tomato white pizza...even with all the veg, the crust held up perfectly and it wasn't a gloppy mess as is so often the case with marinated artichoke toppings.

Then we chose the more classic tomato & basil pizza...again, crunchy crust and flavorful toppings made for a great lunch...I wish they had one of these near my office so I could pop out for a slice at lunch.

Fresh Peach, Thyme & Goat Cheese Pizza

We were visiting my family last weekend and my dad happened to bring up a crate of fresh peaches from South Carolina. We grabbed a dozen to take back to Philly. These guys were perfectly ripened - during the car ride we kept smelling those fresh peaches waft from the back seat.



After the success of the last seasonal fruit pizza, Strawberry, Cashew & Goat Cheese Pizza, we were itching to do something with these peaches that involved grilling the delicious ripe & juicy flesh.

A quick Google popped up this recipe for Grilled Peach Pizza, but the pizza was actually thrown on the grill whole as opposed to grilling the peaches...we were after that charred peach flavor, so I kinda made this up as I went along.



Trader Joe's always has a good deal on goat cheese logs, so used some of that, along with some thyme from the garden. Normally I would make a dough, but lately I've been using lavash brushed in olive oil for a good thin crust.

With the crust brushed in olive oil & sprinkled with thmye & goat cheese crumbles, it goes into a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes to firm up.



Meanwhile the thinly sliced peaches go onto a grooved grill pan to get marked and get a little softened up. These peaches were so ripe that I had to be gentle with these to keep them from tearing apart.



The end result was a simple flatbread pizza spiked with tart goat cheese with rich, gooey slices of grilled peach. The grill brings out the meaty-character of peach flesh while removing the syrupy sweetness. The crispy thin crust was a great counter to the peaches...I couldn't see this working too well with a softer crust.