Showing posts with label for Greek you gotta pay extra.. Show all posts

Creamy Squash Lemon Pasta  

Posted by Matt in , , , , , , ,


So Jeremy and I were talking about how Mike needs to take his French Toast recipe and turn it into a Boston Cream Pie French Toast. Jeremy linked to a recipe that looked damn good on this blog. I looked over the site and found a recipe that would work with some stuff I had in my house and made this.
http://cakebatterandbowl.com/creamy-lemon-summer-squash-pasta.html
Though I did make some modifications and I'm posting my recipe here.

1 lbs whole wheat penne pasta
2 large yellow squashes, chopped
2 large zucchinis, chopped
1 package stir fry chicken
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
Juice and zest of 2 limes
6 oz greek yogurt
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
salt
pepper
olive oil

Cook the penne pasta like you know what you are doing.
Saute the squash and zucchini in olive oil and put aside until later.
In the same pan, saute the onions and in the last minute, add the garlic. Put these aside with the squash.
Cook up the chicken with a little more olive oil until brown.
About this time the pasta should be done. Drain it, and in the pot it was cooked in, add the chicken stock, yogurt, lime and basil. The original recipe said to add the cheese which I did and it just ended up get all clumpy and sticking to the spoon rather then getting creamy. I recommend adding the cheese at the very end to get good coverage. Instead you'll need to get the sauce creamy another way. You could make a roux and add that, or add the squash and zucchini and get some of the starch from them to help cream up the sauce.
Either way, mix the veggies and chicken and pasta all back together. Mix it up real good, and sprinkle on the cup of parmesan while stirring. I idea is to get the parmesean to stick on each piece of food rather then sticking to itself in one, maybe delicious, clump.

I added some more parmesan to my bowl to serve but it wouldn't have been necessary if the parmesan was creamy to start with.

I really enjoyed this pasta dish. I've had dishes similar with the veggies and cheese and creamy bits. But the addition of the lemon juice, or lime juice in my case, and the yogurt is really nice. It helped to bring out the saltiness of it all.
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Steak with Tzatziki and a Salad  

Posted by Matt in , , , , , , , , ,



So this is my first meal I made after moving to Portland. It is fairly simple because we didn't have many supplies to use and pretty much all of the utensils were still packed up.

Tzatziki Sauce
Small container of Greek Plain Yogurt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3-5 inch chunk of cucumber, chopped
Dill weed
olive oil
tsp. vinegar
salt pepper

I would have used a medium/fine grater on the cucumber but couldn't because I didn't have one. So I chopped the cuc up until it was really fine. I then squeezed as much liquid out as I could using a paper towel. Everything else I just mixed up in the yogurt until it tasted good

Salad
Lettuce
Spinach
Green Beans
Caesar dressing

We went to the Farmers Market to pick up some produce. I found a small head of unspecified lettuce, a bunch of spinach, and green beans. There was a bunch of other stuff as well but I'll save that for other Vittles And Mangia posts. I briefly boiled the Green Beans and chopped the rest.

The steak was seasoned by Tarrin using various spices we found in my roommate Michelle's spice rack.

I didn't have any spatulas or tongs and only one fork in the whole house, so that is what I used to flip the steaks and pull the green beans out of the water. While eating, Tarrin and I had to pass the fork back and forth to eat our salads and steaks. Good times.

Slider Party: Lamb Sliders with Tzatziki Sauce.  

Posted by Jeremy in , ,


What...someone's posting? To the food blog? Unheard of! This was my contribution to Slider Party. The Tzatziki sauce was not my recipe.

Tzatziki

  • 1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt
  • 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 3 tablespoons grated cucumber
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
The patties were made from 1 pound of ground lamb, and about 1/4th pound of ground pork for texture and fat. Added salt, pepper, and some minced garlic, fried them on a cast aluminum pan that was blazing hot on top of a grill. They cooked for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Each slider was served on a small potato roll, and slapped with a generous amount of sauce.