Things a Good Kitchen Should Always Have

Here are a list of things that are always found in my kitchen, and if they are missing, all hell breaks loose.

1. Olive oil: extra virgin, cold pressed.  The greener, the better.  It's expensive but worth it.  This is the olive oil you dress your salads with, and eat raw. 
2. Olive oil to cook with: Should still be extra virgin and cold pressed, but a cheaper variety is ok here.  Buy a bottle that doesn't come with a nozzle. 
3. Fresh garlic.  This lasts a long time and I cook with it every day.
4. Onions, especially red and yellow.  These also last a long time if they haven't been cut yet.
5. Red chili pepper, dried or fresh. 
6. Herbs, depending on the season.  Fall and Winter: Rosemary, thyme.  Spring and summer: endless basil, and oregano. 
7. A forever rotating collection of fresh, organic vegetables, depending on what's good during the season.  During spring, summer and fall we are never without zucchini.  Fall and winter we collect all kinds of squashes, as well as greens, like kale and collards.  Spring and summer are asparagus and artichoke time.  Summer and early fall are when to eat tomatoes.
8.  Brown rice, never ever white rice.  Replace all white rice recipes with brown.  To keep it interesting, I also buy wild rice, red rice, mixed rice, etc. 
9. Other grains, like millet and quinoa. 
10. And, because this is an Italian kitchen, endless pasta: We are never without spaghetti, penne, linguine, fusili, and orzo.  Don't bother with the whole wheat kinds, because they're no better for you than the white kinds, unless if it's protein you want.  Pasta, and all wheat products, is unfortunately not healthy for you and should be eaten only occasionally, though I have to admit here that pasta is just a part of my daily life.  (I do buy brown rice pastas, which aren't bad if you try the penne kind.)
11. Organic, cage free eggs.  Why organic?  Why cafe-free?  In general, you may want to watch the film Food, Inc if you can't answer that yourself.  But basically, eating eggs otherwise is the equivalent to consuming tons of antibiotics and other gross things I don't want to mention here.
12.  Dry white and full-bodied red wines to cook with.  They need not be expensive.  But they should at least taste good.  An example of a dry white: chardonnay.  An example of a full-bodied red: Bordeaux.  An example of the opposite: Beaujolais. 
13. Dried beans, especially red lentils, cannellini, and garbanzo.  I'll explain what to do with these in a later post. 
14. Vegetable broth, of a healthy variety.  I make my own.  Post to come.
15. Rustic, simple breads from good markets.  Your bread should contain no ingredients that you've never heard of before, no additives, no preservatives, no sweeteners, etc.  Simply yeast, wheat, water, etc.  Don't throw them out if they go stale.  There is so much you can do with stale bread!
16.  Seasonal fruit, though you should only be eating a little of this (definitely not 5 servings a day -- try 1).
17. Coarse sea salt and black peppercorns for grinding.  

And that's it.  That describes, in a nut shell, all I ever need to eat.
Photos of the Palma pantry to come soon.

Homemade Butternut Squash Soup

Olive oil, or coconut oil if you don't mind the flavor
1 large carrot, diced
1 large celery stalk, diced 
1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
1 butternut squash, cut into cubes (instructions below)
Fresh thyme
4 cups Imagine Low Sodium Vegetable Broth (Found at Whole Foods)
Sea salt, freshly ground pepper

Cutting a butternut squash is not difficult, it just takes some time.  Lay the squash on its side and cut large circles with a good, serrated knife, in the same way you would cut a zucchini into circles.  Slices should be about 1/2-inch thick.  Leave the wide, bottom half alone, we'll deal with that in a minute. 

Remove the skin from the flesh with your knife.  Then chop the flesh into small little pieces. 

Discard the skins.  Take the wide part of your squash and cut it in half.  Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and pulp as you would with a cantaloupe.  Now, using your imagination, find a way to cut this into pieces that resemble what you have already cut, being sure to discard any skin.

Ok.  Now, in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, add some oil on medium heat.  Once that has heated, add your diced onion, celery, and carrot.  Cook them for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent. 

Add in all the butternut squash and your fresh thyme, about a half teaspoon or so.  Stir the vegetables together.  Should look something like this: 

 

Now add the four cups of broth, and your pepper.  If you want salt, do a little.  I didn't think it needed any.  

Let everything come to a boil.  Once it does, reduce the heat to low and simmer it for 30 minutes, or until the squash is tender when you pierce it with a fork.  If your squash is cut small like mine, it won't take as long to cook.  Stir occasionally.  

Once it has cooked, remove from heat and take out your blender.  Then carefully ladle the soup into a blender and blend it until completely smooth.  You will have to do this in sections, pouring out the blended soup into your serving bowl, adding more soup and blending, etc, til all is blended.

Serve hot and garnish with thyme. 

(Photo credit: Dana Marr)

<3

Fall = Rosemary

I didn't post all summer, which is unfortunate because I missed the opportunity to share summer recipes, which are my favorite.  It's only now that I remembered this thing existed.  From now on, more recipes!  More posts! 

Rosemary is, believe it or not, one of my least favorite herbs.  In general, I find it too strong, and the taste reminds me of chicken, something I stopped eating over five years ago.

But rosemary, in moderate amounts, is delicious, and above all it is one of the best herbs for fall.  Its flavor goes perfectly with fall vegetables, and stuck under the broiler, it's amazing.


This is what I just had for lunch.  Enjoy.

Rosemary Scrambled Eggs with Roasted Peppers
(roasted peppers can be bought in a jar at any market, but homemade they are about 500,000 times better.  so, below is my dad's old method for roasting bell peppers.)

Roasted Peppers (You will need):
-bell peppers, preferably organic, very fresh and crisp (wrinkly, soft skin will not work)
-tongs
-brown paper bag

1. Set oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. After oven has heated, remove stems of peppers, and place cleaned and dried bell peppers (whole) on a cookie sheet in the broiler.
3. Let the peppers roast for 5 or more minutes until charred black.  Use tongs to flip to other side, and let them roast 5 minutes again.
4. Put the peppers in brown paper bags; leave alone for an hour or more.
5. The charred part comes right off, and voila, you have roasted peppers. 

Scrambled Eggs with Roasted Peppers (serves one)
-2 organic, cage free large or jumbo eggs
-white onion
-cherry or grape tomatoes (need I say organic again?)
-fresh rosemary
-sea salt and black pepper to taste

This can also be made with garlic, in which case you'd use only a half clove of garlic if it's small or a quarter clove if it's big.  Trust me, garlic comes out really strong in eggs. 

1. Heat oil in a skillet, and add onion and your roasted bell peppers, cut in big slices.  Heat them up, and season however you please.
2. Chop about 1/4th of a white onion.
3. Wash the tomatoes and cut in halves, preferably cross-wise. 
4. Crack two eggs into a bowl, and whisk with a fork, or a wire whisk, if you're feeling that fancy.  Whisk, and whisk, and keep whisking, and then whisk some more.  Your eggs should be completely blended and smooth.  Add sea salt and black pepper in the bowl, and whisk some more. 
5. Using the same skillet, add some more oil and reduce heat to low. 
6. Saute the onion til translucent, then add the tomatoes.  Then take your rosemary, and add a pinch to the pan, stirring quickly and constantly so it doesn't burn.  If you have a stem of rosemary, you'd hold the stem at one end and run your thumb and pointer over the entire stem, going in the opposite direction of how the leaves grow, and it will come off easily. 
7.  Add the eggs immediately after, stirring them continuously with a spatula.  This method, provided the skillet is kept on low heat, will assure that your eggs come out moist and fluffy, as opposed to dry and congealed. 

Serve the peppers next to or on top of the eggs.