Old 'Brainy' Favorite... Spaghetti and Meatballs

Whether you make spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti bolognse, its always going to be 'Brainy'. Its one of the simplest dishes you can make and one that is forever memorable...like grandma used to make.

To begin this favorite, you will need: ground veal or turkey or pork (+ 1 egg optional) along with onion (one large), heavy cream, bread crumbs, dried herbs, tomatoes (fresh or canned) and spaghetti pasta.

Mix about 1 pound of ground meat with bread crumbs, heavy cream, dried herbs and a pinch of salt and garlic powder. Start adding each ingredient little by little making sure that the meatballs are not too bready or to creamy. Set aside after forming the meatballs. Next, chop the onion and brown in olive oil. Push aside and in the same skillet, brown the meatballs.

Bring the onion back in around the meatballs and pour in one can of Red Gold crushed 'red' tomatoes unless you have fresh (washed, peeled and chopped).  Boil the pasta in salted water until tender, drain and rinse. Ladle onto a low lipped serving plate and top with meatballs and sauce.

... pour on the Parmesan cheese!



~ Tutti a Tavola!

Polish or Ukrainian Meatballs in White Gravy...

Polish meatballs are called pulpety. Fixed in sour cream with mushrooms and you have Pulpeciki w sosie śmietanowo - grzybowym. The meatballs are made in the same way you make them for spaghetti and meatballs. Just use either ground pork, beef, and veal (+ 1 egg optional). For this version, ground turkey was used and mushrooms were omitted; only because there weren't any in the fridge.

Using ground turkey, (can also use ground pork or veal) meatballs made the 'basic' brainy way: bread crumbs, herbs, garlic powder, a pinch of salt and heavy cream/sour cream + one egg. First, saute chopped onion in olive oil until browned. Add the meatballs to brown on all sides. Next, pour in about 1/2 cup of beef stock. Let this bubble away while you prepare the side, potatoes if you like. 

Lastly, as the beef stock has reduced a bit, pour in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. To thicken you can add either 1/4 cup of sour cream and or a gravy thickening mix (flour and water -1/4 cup). Once, it is thickened, let simmer on very low while you make potatoes, rice or wide egg noodles to serve. Top with fresh green parsley. 

~ Tutti a Tavola!

Be Brainy... Stuffed Peppers Your Way!

Stuffed peppers... everybody who has ever cooked at home has probably made stuffed peppers. There are plenty of recipes out there and nearly everyone of them tells you its the best one or grandma's best or mama's. When it comes to home cooking... its always the taste you remember made with love.

There are recipes that use ground Italian sausage, ground turkey or beef, as well as veal and chicken. Some use squash and add other veggies like corn. Some recipes call for eggs, milk, bread or cracker crumbs not to mention barley, potato chips, ketchup and cheese. There are all good. It just depends on your own taste preferences.

You don't have to be fancy either. Sometimes simple is the way to go. For this version, ground veal was used to stuff red/orange peppers combined with cooked brown rice and bread crumbs also adding these seasonings: garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and dried herbs (oregano, sage, mint and rosemary.

A deep baking dish was used drizzled with olive oil. A squirt of Worcestershire sauce and then a spoon of Marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese to top off each stuffed pepper.

Lastly, pop them into a hot oven (375f) for ten minutes. After that time, 1/4 cup of beef stock was added and the peppers covered with foil to finish out a bake time of about 40-45 min. Serve with any side and or salad.

~ Tutti a Tavola!

Brainy Spanish Chicken with Rice and Black Beans...

Ah, Barcelona ... One can only imagine the dishes being prepared. 

It sounds exotic but if you have in your pantry: rice, onion, green olives, jarred roasted red pepper, canned diced tomatoes and black beans... you have the making of a great Spanish dish. The only item you may have to pick up on your way home is a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

To begin, in a deep small skillet, saute chopped onion and diced roasted red pepper in olive oil. Push aside to add the chicken thighs. Sear a bit then bring back over the top the onion and pepper. Cover for about 6 min. Next, add as many green olives as you like, pitted and cut in half if you like. 

Turn the oven to 375F. Pour out the chicken, onion, red pepper and olives into a ceramic or glass baking dish, cover with one small can of diced tomatoes. Drop in a few dashes of Tabasco, red pepper flakes, and dried herbs. Cover and bake in the oven for about 40 min. reducing the heat to 350 after the first 25-30 min.

In this time, prepare the rice (boil on the stove/range) and black beans in the same skillet as the onion, pepper, olives and chicken. Once the rice is tender, drain and ladle onto a low lipped serving dish including the beans, top with grated cheese. When you set out the Spanish Chicken, squeeze fresh either lemon or lime juice over the top and or fresh chopped cilantro or parsley.

Leave the Tabasco on the table, pour the wine and enjoy!

~ Tutti a Tavola!

Root Vegetables are Brainy Gourmet...

Gimme some roots...

Veggies don't have to be green to be good!

French cut parsnips and carrots sauteed or roasted are delicious. The taste is a sweet-savory nutty flavor. This vegetable side is very easy to prepare and goes with any meat. If you don't want a whole bag of em, look for them sold singly... use one large parsnip and carrot. Just slice them lengthwise which is a 'french cut-julienne' or ... larger like French Fries.

To a covered skillet, add olive oil and preferred seasonings are: garlic powder, sea salt,and  red pepper flakes along with dried herbs - rosemary, mint and oregano. In ten to twelve minutes, voila.  The cost of this side is less than $2.00.

Home Baked Bread... nothing compares!

Ingredients:
7 and 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3 and 1/2 cups lukewarm water – 100 degrees
1 tbsp. granulated yeast= 1 small package of instant
1 and 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt, and 1tsp of sugar.

In a bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast, salt and sugar. Using warm water allows the dough to rise quickly and to the right height. This dough needs at least 6-8 hrs to rise in a warm place. When it has mushroomed, use the “scoop and sweep” method.

This is done by reaching into the flour container with a cup and scooping up a full measure all at once sweeping the top of the cup level with a knife.  Do not knead the dough!

Do not punch down the dough, do not play with it. With this method, you are trying to retain as much gas in the dough as possible and punching it down knocks out gas. The gas bubbles create a light and crispy crust.

To bake: preheat the oven to 425, take a handful of dough and plop it down on a prepared pizza pan (oiled and sprinkled with dry bread crumbs). Drizzle olive oil over the top of the dough along with a generous sprinkle of fresh dried herbs before baking. Pop in the oven and watch it get crusty brown providing a kitchen full splendid aroma.

After slicing, cut thick slices (toasted or not) and pour on the olive oil...

*Note ~ This recipe makes a lot of dough; whatever you don't use can be refrigerated or frozen.

Stir Fry ~ Fast and Frugal...

A few things that the Brainy Gourmet has always advocated and will continue to do: fast, frugal and delicious. How to arrive at that? Do what the Brainy Gourmet started doing, adhere to your preferences in terms of taste: sweet and savory.

In respect to savory, there is included preferences for saltiness, bitterness and spiciness... Once you understand your preferences, you won't really need a recipe. You will come to know through practice just how much of one thing over another makes the taste you like.

Begin with a stir fry dish because that is where sweet and savory meet up in a flash in a pan. And, you won't go broke experimenting since you can begin with simple ingredients: fresh green and red peppers, zucchini, broccoli, silvered carrots and chicken breast strips... or just opt to keep it veggie.

The usual spices go like this: red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt, coriander, turmeric/cumin, ginger and soy sauce.  You may not know it but in the coriander is a bit of sweetness. For the sweeter taste bud, use honey and even cooking sherry will add sweetness.

Also, keep in mind that the veggies used contain sugar. Carrots and broccoli have enough glucose to sweetened any dish; but those are my taste buds talking.

For this stir fry, lean pork loin was used cut into small half dollar sizes and seared in garlic infused olive oil; and of course, adding my preferences for sweet and savory. Green and red pepper were tossed in last so that they remained crisp... all of which was served over brown rice noodles.

~ Tutti a Tavola!