Guest Post: Lighter Mac and Cheese with Suvarna!

Please welcome my friend and law school classmate, Suvarna, who is also a lover of food and the law.  You may remember Suvarna from our earlier cooking adventure in 2009, when we made a delectable, but very rich baked mac and cheese. Here, we take on a lighter and healthier version. Enjoy!

As the readers on this site already know, Cheryl’s blog is called “Food Judicata – Food that has been judged.”  I’ve been and fan and avid reader of Cheryl’s blog since we graduated from law school because I too love food and civil procedure.  I think Cheryl has been so courageous in sharing her recent journey to a healthier lifestyle. She has inspired me and shared countless tips about calorie counters on phones, steaming vegetables, and portion control.  Accordingly, when planning my visit to Cheryl’s I challenged the both of us to come up with a recipe that would incorporate the ice cream from a local Jersey City ice cream shop, Torico.  Cheryl came up with the idea of making these delicious banana-split mini bites  and our cooking plans and my visit to Jersey City were set.

Right before our Jersey City day of cooking, I emailed Cheryl to check if she needed any ingredients.  Not surprisingly, she had everything we needed!  However, she did top my healthy ice cream recipe challenge with a healthy macaroni and cheese challenge!  Cheryl was kind enough to let me guest cook with her back in 2009, where we made a baked macaroni and cheese using this beautiful blue Le Creuset pot that I purchased with my Westlaw points. She thought on our second time cooking together, and in the spirit of healthy eating, we should revise or previous macaroni and cheese recipe with a new healthier one.  So we chose this one from Skinny Taste.  On a side note, Cheryl is a mac n’ cheese expert, having also made and written about the much loved dish in 2011. Then on the train ride up to Jersey City, I received a text from Cheryl asking if I liked asparagus.  I wrote back of course I do and that I loved the fact that it was a “spring” vegetable.  Thus, we added asparagus to our ambitious day of healthy cooking.

Upon arriving in Jersey City, I immediately realized what a fun place it is to live.  There was a huge sign at the train station announcing an upcoming Indian Holi celebration, food vendors, and so many cute shops and corner grocery stores.  Since Cheryl had all the ingredients for the recipes, and I just could not go to celebrate a new apartment empty handed, I stopped at a flower store to pick up some spring tulips.  I love flowers and since my mother is a tireless gardener flowers fill our home all year long.  Incidentally, Cheryl’s family is in the floral business and she has random knowledge about flowers – like the fact that tulips open during the day and shut at night!  Anyway I know I digress, I was so excited about seeing not just an ordinary ice cream shop, but instead “Torico Homemade Ice Cream Parlor.”  They have so many cool flavors like avocado, lychee, and ginger, in addition to the traditional flavors. 

After getting a grand tour of the apartment (what a gorgeous kitchen) and catching up (I think I hadn’t seen Cheryl in over year!), we got down to work.  The author of the recipe touted it as being kid-friendly and it did not disappoint!  We added spinach and used home-made bread crumbs.  Cheryl also added a secret ingredient – cayenne pepper – amazing.  The difference between the 2013 and 2009 recipe is visible – our new version looks not as greasy as the first and it tasted delicious. We may have made enough macaroni and cheese to last Cheryl and J. for the entire spring – but I suppose you can never have too much of a good thing! 

The cheese mixture with our "secret" ingredient

Ready for the oven!

The finished product

The recipe for the new and improved macaroni and cheese can be found here. 

As for the asparagus, we steamed it, tossed it in olive oil, added some chopped raw almonds, and some salt and pepper (in Cheryl’s cool new pepper grinder).  Cheryl taught me a new trick where you run the asparagus under cold water so that it stops the cooking process and the vegetables remain crunchy.  

Asparagus after a cold shower

Unfortunately, after a busy morning of cooking, we did not have time to make dessert!  J. is one of the founding members of Jersey City Ties, “a new group for young professionals that focuses on fun social events, networking, and helping out the Jersey City community.”  The group was hosting a NCAA March Madness Event and so we ended our day of cooking a little early to go enjoy some basketball and meet up with new and old friends.  This is a really great group of people and anyone in the Jersey City area should check out an event if they have the chance.  I’m not too worried about the banana split mini bites, I’ll just have to make another trip to Jersey City in the summer – apparently the ice cream parlor is the place to be in the warmer months!!

On a final note, “Grazie Mille,” to Cheryl for being so gracious to let me guest blog once again, write my first ever blog entry, show me around Jersey City, and introduce me to a new great group of people.  Special thanks to J. for helping eat all that mac n’ cheese and raid his kitchen too!

Italian Sausage and Peppers - Two Ways

After we came back from Chicago, J. bought two long links of sweet Italian sausage from Moloney's Meat Market in Jersey City.  It was my job to figure out what to do with them.  I had never cooked with Italian sausage before but I love to get sausage and peppers at street festivals.  So I made two variations, pasta and sandwich, over the course of two nights.  Both are essentially the same ingredients, but tweaks in the method.  My preferred method is the sandwich version because the roll does a better job soaking up the juices.

Night 1: Sausage and Pepper Pasta (pictured above)

1 10 inch link of sweet Italian sausage, sliced at angle.  (I didn't remove the casing, you really should)
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped into bite-size pieces
handful of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
1/2 pound of whole-wheat penne pasta
parmesan cheese for sprinkling at the end
1 T and 1 tsp (separated) olive oil

1. Start boiling water for pasta.  When it reaches a rolling boil, drop in pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Reserve about 1/3 cup of pasta water for later.  Drain pasta.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Cook sausage slices until browned. Set aside

3. Return pan to heat. (add a little more oil if necessary).  Add red and green peppers and onion. Cook until they start to brown.  Push the vegetables to the edges of the pan, and in the empty space in the middle, add 1 tsp of oil and minced garlic.  Cook for about 30 seconds or until fragrant, and stir the garlic with the rest of the mixture.  Add grape tomatoes. Cook for about another minute or two.

4.  Add cooked pasta, and reserved cooking water to the pan and toss.

5.  Sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and serve.

Makes about two servings

Night 2: Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches


Same ingredients as above, except swap the pasta for two rolls, and omit the tomatoes.  We bought rolls from the bodega around the corner from us.  They came from one of those plastic bins that you fish out the rolls with tongs.  The bin didn't have a label, but I think they are portuguese rolls.  Also instead of chopping and mincing the vegetables into small pieces, I simply sliced them so they would be easier to eat in a roll.

Cook the sausage and vegetables the same way as above.  But instead of mixing it with pasta, spoon it in to rolls.

Zesty Tomato Orzo

This dish has an identity crisis. It can't decide whether it is a pasta dish, soup, or a stew. I came home from work today, craving soup, now that the weather is getting cold. I originally planned on making a chicken and orzo soup, to use up the carton of chicken broth and aromatics I had left over from Thanksgiving. But then a recipe for "Roasted Tomato-Garlic Soup" on the back of the box of orzo caught my eye. It seemed simple enough, combine tomato sauce, chicken broth and fresh herbs in a pot, bring to a boil, and 1/2 cup of orzo, and cook until the orzo is tender. It also provided a simple recipe for homemade pesto sauce, to garnish at the end.

But of course, I am not one to follow directions.

To start, I wanted to use the celery, onion, and carrot that were taking up space in my vegetable crisper. So I chopped them up and sauteed the vegetables and two minced cloves of garlic in olive oil. I had infused the olive oil with some red pepper flakes to give the soup some spiciness. This is a method that I use for making almost all my soups. I then added two cups of tomato sauce, and about two cups of chicken broth and brought the mixture to a boil. So far so good. I haven't diverged from the recipe too far yet.

Then it came time to add the orzo. I first stirred 1/2 cup of orzo as the recipe called for. But then that didn't seem like enough pasta, so I added another half cup. Then I didn't stir the bottom of the pot very well while the orzo was cooking, so much of it stuck to the bottom and burned. About seven minutes later, I stirred in chopped fresh thyme, oregano, and sage. I ended up with the thick, not very soupy mixture, very much like you see above. I spooned some into a bowl, and added a dollop of pesto that I already made weeks ago, and kept frozen in the freezer. That's what that greenish blob is on top.

All things considered, it didn't come out bad, in fact it was suprisingly tasty. But it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. The next time I attempt this, I will stick to the 1/2 cup of orzo, which seems to be my downfall in this recipe since the orzo absorbed most of the liquid. And use more cooking liquid so it will be more soup like. The way it is now would probably make a good side dish, and its vegetarian adaptable if you substitute to the chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Zesty Tomato Orzo

1 small onion, chopped
3 carrots, sliced into coins
4 stalks of celery. chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 cups prepared tomato sauce
1 cup orzo
1 teaspoon fresh herbs
1 teaspoon oregano
1 stem of sage*
1 Tbs prepared pesto sauce

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Add onions, carrots, and celery and cook until the onion becomes translucent. (Probably about five minutes). Stir in garlic and cook for another minute or so. (Adding the garlic later prevents it from burning). Stir in sauce and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Stir in orzo and cook according to package directions. Be sure to stir frequently and scrape the bottom of the pot, or it will stick. When there are about two minutes left in the cooking time, stir in chopped fresh herbs. Garnish with a dollop of pesto sauce and grated parmesan cheese.

*Another thing I learned about sage. While it is delicious in turkey, it is a very strong flavored-herb. Chopping it up and stirring into soup, results in biting down on a very overpowering herb flavor. Next time, I would leave the stem whole while cooking, and remove at the end, like a bay leaf. Or just leave it out.

Cooking with Suvarna!

This post is to prove that lawyers are not just soulless, money-grubbing, ambulance chasers. Some of us can cook too! Suvarna was gracious enough to let me raid her kitchen for a day (Thanks, Suvarna!) Hence, the much classier table setting here, rather than my usual ugly brown wooden table. On the menu was baked macaroni and cheese, fresh spinach salad (pictured above), and cheesecake-swirled brownies. The mac and cheese turned our rich, creamy, and delicious because we followed the recipe (more or less). The cheesecake-swirled brownies came out soft and chewy and well, chocolatey - despite a minor scare of what we thought would doom the brownies (more on that in another post).

Baked Macaroni and Cheese fresh and bubbly in the oven

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
adapted from Everyday Food (original recipe here)

Ingredients:
1 pound elbow pasta
5 Tbs butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees.

2. Boil pasta in salted water for about two minutes less than instructed on the box. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. (It will cook more in the oven). Return to the cooking pot.

3. While the pasta is cooking, melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan. Once melted, whisk in flour and cook for about one minute. Add milk, about two teaspoons of salt and a good pinch of pepper and bring to a simmer. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, for about two to three minutes (when mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon). Whisk in cheese until smooth. Pour cheese mixture over the cooked and drained pasta, and mix together until the pasta is evenly coated.

4. Melt remaining tablespoon of butter and toss with breadcrumbs.

5. Pour pasta mixture in a large baking dish. Sprinkle buttered breadcrumbs on top. Cover with foil and place in the preheated oven for about 55-60 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until golden.

Serves 6.