Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Butternut Squash Risotto

Squash and pumpkin are my two favorite vegetables this time of year.  I plan on making some squash soup for thanksgiving to rival the pumpkin soups I made this time last year and shared here. I figured that squash (or pumpkin) would make a delicious risotto, and I was definitely correct. I engineered this recipe, but this time my husband executed and prepared it - it was a delicious and perfect fall treat, prepared using the delicious ShopRite risotto that I received as part of the ShopRite blog panel that I am part of. You really could make this with fresh pumpkin as well, and it would also be great. You can prepare this using fresh butternut squash from your garden, or make it easy on yourself and buy it already cut up. Either way, the dish is surprisingly easy to make once you have the risotto making art down pat. Risotto is one of my husband's favorite dishes (both to make and to eat) and this one is certain to appear again on our dinner table. Brad and I are hosting Thanksgiving for my family this year, so I am really excited to try some great new pumpkin and squash recipes along with our holiday turkey!


Sasha & Brad's Butternut Squash Risotto
1 lb fresh squash, broiled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 T of butter or olive oil
1 cup white cooking wine
4-5 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1 1/2 cups of risotto
1/2 tsp cinnamon

To prepare the risotto, first roast the butternut squash at 400 degrees for about an hour and a half, until cooked. If you are using fresh squash, then get rid of the skin. If using cut up squash, you can then cut into smaller pieces. Squash is really hard to cut before you broil it - I always have a hard time cutting whole squashes open before putting them in the oven!

Cut up the onion and saute in the butter or olive oil. Then add the rice and coat in the olive oil / butter. Add the white wine, and allow to reduce by half. Add the chicken stock, one cup at a time, allowing the first cup of chicken stock to reduce by at least half before adding the next cup. In total, you will add somewhere between 4 to 5 cups of chicken stock before it gets to the right texture. Just before the risotto is done, mix in the cinnamon.

Usually we make risotto with parmesan cheese, but this time we left it out and it was just perfect - and healthier too! I did garnish with a tiny bit on top.

Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Butternut Squash Risotto

Brad's Kitchen: Belgian Frites with Spicy Mayo

My wife Sasha and I are taking a trip to Europe in a week and a half and one of the places we plan to visit is Brussels, Belgium. Belgium is probably best known for its food, including Belgian waffles, frites, beef carbonnade, mussels, chocolate and beer. We can't wait to try all of those things on our trip. Since Sasha & I both love Belgian frites with spicy mayo, we decided to try our hand in making them at home as a preview for our trip. It was actually not too difficult and the result was pretty authentic and quite satisfying.

Brad's Belgian Frites
5 medium sized potatoes

Canola Oil

salt

mayonnaise

1 T dijon mustard

cayenne pepper

To prepare the frites, first peel five medium sized potatoes. Then slice the potatoes into strips which are about the size of the fries that you want to prepare. I used our hot pot to deep fry the frites. I made the fries in two separate batches, filling the hot pot about half way with canola oil and placing the metal basket with the sliced potatoes into the fryer. I set the temperature to 375 degrees and fried for about 10-15 minutes until each batch was golden brown. The first batch took longer than the second one, because the oil needed time to heat up to the right temperature.

I salted the frites immediately after removing them from the fryer. Just like in Belgium, we ate our frites with spicy mayo, which we prepared by simply combining lowfat mayonnaise with a bit of dijon mustard and a healthy amount of cayenne pepper, to taste.

We served the frites as a side dish for our dinner along with some healthy chicken bratwursts that we got from Fresh Direct.

Belgian Frites

Brad's Kitchen: Belgian Frites with Spicy Mayo

Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Mushroom Saffron Risotto

Risotto is one of my husband's favorite dishes.  We make a number of different risottos, usually with me designing the recipe and Brad executing the recipe on the stove.  I decided to combine saffron and cremeni mushrooms to make a new risotto.  I love the flavor of saffron in just about anything. I used to be lucky enough to have saffron powder (which is fantastic, by the way if you can get your hands on it) that my mom brought back from Thailand.  With that all gone, I realized that it's a bit hard to come by, so I had to go with the more traditional saffron threads to achieve the saffron flavor.  The flavor is a bit milder with the threads than it was with the powder.

We used chicken stock in preparing this recipe, as I usually do with my risottos.  However, if you want to go vegetarian, you can prepare it with a homemade mushroom stock.  This would likely be fantastic, and is something that I have been meaning to try out, but we never seem to have the time on weekdays, which is usually when we make risotto.

Sasha & Brad's Saffron Mushroom Risotto
2 cups organic low sodium chicken stock (or homemade mushroom stock)
1 onion, diced
2 T of butter
1 cup arborio rice
2 T canola oil
About 12-16 oz of cremeni mushrooms (sliced, with the stems removed)
pinch of saffron threads
1/2 cup of white cooking wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

To prepare the risotto, saute the chopped onions in 2 tablespoons of Canola Oil and two tablespoons of butter.  Next, add a cup of the arborio rice and stir for a couple of minutes.  Next, add the chicken stock, one cup at a time to the rice, along with the white cooking wine. Make sure to add the stock in one cup increments as the stock reduces, stirring every couple of minutes while the risotto cooks, allowing the stock to reduce, gradually.

In the meantime, saute the mushrooms in canola oil in a separate pan. Midway through the third cup of chicken stock reducing, add the mushrooms and the saffron to the stock and rice. Continue reducing until the third cup of stock has fully reduced and the risotto has the proper consistency (tacky, not runny).  You can add the grated parmesan cheese as the final step and serve hot.  This dish was a real mid-week treat!

Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Mushroom Saffron Risotto

Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Veal Marsala (Valentine's Day Special)

Veal marsala is one of my husband's and my favorite Italian dishes.  As I have mentioned before on this site, I much prefer the taste of veal to chicken, most of the time.  I am including our signature veal marsala as a Valentine's Day dinner recommendation because the combination of the mushrooms, marsala wine and Italian cuisine makes veal marsala a romantic dish.  In addition, this is a specialty of our house that my husband and I lovingly prepare together as a team.  The key to this dish is mushrooms and the marsala sauce.  The mushrooms are so delectable when they soak up the sauce, so they must be prepared in a way that allows them to soak up the maximum sauce.  They type of mushrooms that you use matters considerably less than simply making sure they absorb enough of the marsala wine sauce.  Obviously, you also want to make sure to purchase high quality veal scallopini.

Brad has previously written about how to prepare a delicious chicken marsala, and the recipe and technique used to prepare veal marsala are very similar.  We actually made this dish and took the photos a week or two ago.  Brad prides himself on doing most of the execution of this recipe, although we worked out the specifics together.

1 onion, diced
1.5 lbs of veal scallopini
several teaspoons of paprika
1 cup of chicken stock or beef stock
3/4 cup of marsala wine
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
several tablespoons of flour
2 pints of sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
granted parmesan cheese


To prepare the veal scallopini, coat in flour and several teaspoons of paprika for seasoning.  Further season with salt and pepper.  The paprika adds a nice flavor to this dish that complements the marsala sauce well. 
Chop the onion and saute in canola oil or butter (we usually use butter for this dish) for a couple minutes to soften the onions.  Add the garlic and the mushrooms, and saute until the mushrooms reduce in size slightly and until the mushroom juices fill the pan.

Sear the veal in the pan, using canola oil, and cook the scallopini on both sides in a separate saute pan.  Referring back to the mushroom pan, add the marsala wine and stir occasionally for about 5-7 minutes while the marsala wine reduces in half.  Add the chicken stock, thyme and rosemark and continue reducing for approximately 5-7 minutes.  You can also season further with salt and pepper to taste.  At this point, add the veal scallopini to the pan.

This recipe serves two to four people, depending on your appetite, but it makes for perfect leftovers as well.  Like I said, my husband and I prepare this dish together, but he does a good part of the work on this one - thus we do consider it one his house specialties.

Veal

Sasha & Brad's Kitchen: Veal Marsala (Valentine's Day Special)

Brad's Kitchen in Brooklyn: Green Apple Risotto

I basically have a few speciality dishes that I am able to make myself from start to finish without any assistance. One I wrote about recently, and that is chicken marsala. The other happens to be various incarnations of risotto. One of my favorites is a recipe I garnered from Mario Batali's Simple Italian Food cookbook, Green Apple Risotto.

Here is the recipe itself, with a couple of slight modifications, and listed in the order ingredients are added:

2 tablespoons unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons Canola Oil
1 large Onion, finely chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
2 cups Arborio Rice (risotto rice)
1 cup dry White cooking Wine
4 to 5 cups Chicken Stock, added one cup at a time
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
A sprinkle of finely chopped Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

For this recipe, however I actually do ask my wife Sasha's help on a couple of preparatory items. The first is chopping an onion, which she is quite skilled at and saves me the trouble of having my eyes become watery. The second is peeling and slicing the apples. Ever since I accidentally peeled some of my finger while peeling a small papaya, my wife has been in charge of peeling round fruits or vegetables in our house. The only thing I peel now is cucumbers.

At any rate, the first step is to heat the butter & oil in a caserole dish at medium heat. Then add the chopped onions and cook until they soften but not brown for several minutes. Next add the apples and rice simultaneously and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the wine and mix with all the ingredients.

The key once you start adding the liquid, wine in this case, and later the chicken stock, is to make sure there is always some liquid mixed with the rice and other ingredients - at least until the point where the dish is ready. Another tip is to stir with some frequency throughout the process. This way the rice will not stick to the bottom of the dish, which is something you want to avoid.

After a few minutes when you notice the wine has reduced, add the first cup of chicken stock and stir together with the ingredients. Continue to add the remaining chicken stock, one cup at a time at the point where the previous cup has reduced in half. The entire cup adding process & stirring should take about 20-25 minutes. After the last cup of stock has been added and just about fully reduced, you can add in the parmigiano-reggiano cheese, parsley, salt & pepper and mix together fully. Then you are ready to dispatch from the caserole dish into a serving dish for your meal.



If you would like to check out another risotto recipe on this website, check out Sasha's Triple Mushroom Risotto, or Eric's Mussels Risotto.

Brad's Kitchen in Brooklyn: Green Apple Risotto

Brad's Kitchen In Brooklyn: Chicken Marsala

As my wife’s sous chef and a proficient cleaner upper, I have only really dabbled at times in the cooking department. I had traditionally limited myself to grilling meats and such. However, somewhere along the line I developed a specialty of my own for one of my favorite main courses, Chicken Marsala. It’s actually relatively easy to make, although does require about an hour of time to prepare.

The ingredients include the following items:

1 T butter
1 T canola oil
1 chopped onion
2 packages of clean & sliced mushrooms
¾ cup marsala wine
1 cup chicken stock
1-2 packages of boneless & skinless Empire chicken breasts
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
Grated parmesan cheese

The first step is to simply chop a regular onion. I usually have my wife do this since onions sometimes make my eyes watery. You then melt the butter & heat oil in a 12” skillet or casserole dish at medium-high heat. Then add the chopped onions and sauté for several minutes until they soften. Next add the mushrooms and sauté until they start to reduce slightly in size and the mushroom juices fill the pan.

While you are doing this, you concurrently will want to bake the chicken breasts in the oven. This usually takes approximately 50 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts, at temperature of 350 F.

Referring back to the mushroom pan, next add in the Marsala wine and stir occasionally for 5-7 minutes while the wine reduces in half. Once that has taken place, add the chicken stock to the pan and again stir while the combined Marsala/chicken stock reduces again by half. This should take another 7-10 minutes.

I suggest adding garlic, although this is more of an optional ingredient. Also add a touch of salt and some pepper to the sautéing ingredients, while the chicken finishes baking in the oven.

At last, once the chicken is done, slice into small pieces and add to the sauté pan. Allow the pieces of chicken to soak up and mix well with the Marsala/chicken stock in the pan. When ready, you may serve with grated parmesan cheese, which I think does add to the flavor. This recipe is appropriate for 2-4 people.

Brad's Kitchen In Brooklyn: Chicken Marsala

Brad's Kitchen In Brooklyn: Greek Cuisine - Spanakopita

When my wife and I began cooking frequently, one of the first recipes I wanted to learn how to make was spanakopita. Spanakopita is a classic Greek dish, consisting of filo dough pastries filled with spinach and feta cheese. My ancestry is part Greek-Jewish (my grandfather’s family came here from Greece), hence my interest in preparing the dish. I enjoyed eating them when I visited Greece on a family vacation in 1999.

My wife and I have prepared this dish several different ways. Usually, we use pre-made filo dough, which can be purchased at any supermarket. This dough has a nice texture and is light and airy when filled and baked. The downside is that it is difficult to form with your hands because of its flaky texture and the pastries are never professional looking. It rips apart easily.

Tonight, we prepared spanakopita using filo dough that we made in our artisan mixer. We were initially planning on using store bought filo dough that had been frozen. However, the filo was no longer in good shape and broke apart when I touched it. Hence, my wife filled in by quickly preparing her own filo dough.

This homemade dough was also tasty and easier to shape into a nice triangular pastry, because it is malleable. However, it is decidedly less crisp and flaky than the store bought filo dough. After doing a little bit of research, I learned that this homemade filo is actually closer to the more genuine Greek filo dough, as most Greeks preparing the dish will make the dough themselves using a similar recipe as we did. Although this is the authentic way, I personally prefer the thin and crispy store bought filo dough for a lighter pastry that highlights the spinach & feta filling. However, my wife, Sasha preferred the homemade version.

Spanakopita Filling

16 oz Spinach (we used two packages of frozen spinach, defrosted)
16 oz Feta Cheese (two packages; you can also use lowfat Feta if you prefer)
1 T melted butter
1 beaten egg
¼ cup of canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Greek Filo Dough

5 cups flour
5 T oil
2 ½ cups of hot water
2 T vinegar
Pinch of salt

- or use store bought filo dough roll

After you prepare the filling, make the dough in your artisan stand mixer. You can add a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky. When you have the dough at the right consistency, roll it out on a flat surface using a rolling pin.

Cut large circles on the dough and fill with the filling. Then fold the dough over and pinch into a triangle, much the same way as you would prepare a hamentaschen.

When the pastries are done, glaze with an egg wash, consisting of one beaten egg and 1 T of melted butter, using a pastry brush.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until the spanakopita are lightly browned.

Note: This recipe makes about 12 good-sized spanakopitas. If you want to make less, you can easily cut the recipe in half without a problem. You could also make them smaller, as an appetizer, rather than as a main course.

This article was written with a bit of assistance from my wife, Sasha.

Brad's Kitchen In Brooklyn: Greek Cuisine - Spanakopita