I like this recipe a lot because you can substitute with abandon. No fish stock? Use chicken or vegetable! No lime leaves? Use some zest. It continues on like that…I’ve made this once with all the right ingredients and once with a lot of substitutions and both turned out delicious. They didn’t taste exactly the same but this is a recipe that lends itself (imho) to experimentation and variation. Also, jwa, who generally dislikes fish soups/stews loved this. That’s high praise right there, people.

This last time I didn’t have any lime leaves, green onions or lemongrass. My substitutions: strips of lime zest, a little lime juice, chopped white onion and two herbal lemongrass tea bags. Stash Lemon Blossom, to be exact.

Oh and also this is a great use of frozen scallops. Scallops are very expensive and you need the fresh, dry-packed ones to sear. This recipe is nice in that the scallops are cooked in the soup, no searing involved. So, if you find good frozen ones that you like (the Trader Joe’s Wild Japanese Scallops have always been sweet and tender for me), this is a great budget scallop recipe!

Asian Scallop Soup
Adapted from a recipe for Scallop Soup by Capiral Pence!
5 cups fish, chicken or vegetable stock (I like using half vegetable/half chicken stock)
2-3 kaffir lime leaves (or zest and juice of 1 lime)
1 stalk lemongrass
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small carrots, julienned
1 zucchini, julienned
1 bunch green onions
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, grated finely
fish sauce to taste (1-3 tbsp)
1/2 can coconut milk (can be lowfat, if so, use the full can)
12 large scallops
1 tsp roasted chili paste (you can also use a little cayenne pepper)
8 oz udon or soba noodles, cooked
Garnishes: Any or all of the following — mint leaves, cilantro leaves, bail leaves, chili oil, peanuts

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring the stock, lime leaves or zest, and lemongrass (or tea bags) to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer and cook the broth for 5-10 minutes until the stock is infused with flavor.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, zucchini,l green onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until tender, about 3 minutes. If you are using chili paste, add it now.

Strain the stock through a sieve into the stockpot with the vegetables. Discard any solids in the sieve.

Add the coconut milk to the broth and bring to a light boil.

Add the scallops and simmer until just opaque and cooked through.

If you are using frozen scallops, don’t bother defrosting. Mine took about 6 minutes. You can always pull one out and cut it in half to see if it’s opaque.

Testing a scallop for doneness

Season with the fish sauce (I used about 3 tablespoons, but start with one and increase from there) and cayenne pepper, if using.

Place the cooked noodles in 4 bowls and top the noodles with 3-4 scallops and some of the broth. Garnish with the garnishes.

The other day, I found myself with a container of ricotta that needed to be used. The weather wasn’t really cooperating for something with pasta, so I set out to find a recipe for something a little different. I came across this one and thought, “Oh! I can use my oven on a 95F degree day!” and decided to make some muffins. Because I have no sense.

Anyway, I got these baked before it got too terribly hot out and was rewarded with delightful, melt-in-your-mouth, lemony, blueberry, almond-y muffins. Now, I normally make pretty healthy muffins but these are not those kind of muffins. These are ricotta cheese + butter kind of muffins. Sometimes, you just need to shrug and grab that stick of butter.

I used a jumbo six muffin cup pan. The recipe should also make 12 regular-sized muffins. In fact, with my bigger muffins, I had a little leftover muffin batter that I baked in a smaller dish. Oh and the almonds and sugar on the top is delicious, don’t skip that part if you can help it.

Lemon Ricotta Blueberry & Almond Muffins
Adapted from the recipe, Nonna’s Lemon Ricotta Biscuits, by Giada De Laurentiis
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup blueberries (I was a little under, between 3/4 and 1 cup)
1/3 cup almonds, either sliced or whole almonds that you have crushed up a bit
1 tbsp raw sugar for dusting the tops of the muffins (you can also use regular sugar)

Spray 6 large muffin cups or 12 regular-sized muffin cups with butter/flour spray. You can also line the cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend.

Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup sugar, butter, and lemon zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta.

Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients and blueberries. Stir just until blended. The batter will be very thick, almost like a scone dough.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups.

Sprinkle the almonds and then the raw sugar over the muffins. If you have any extra muffin batter, put in in a small, buttered & floured, oven-safe dish and bake that along with the muffin pan.

Bake until the muffins just become pale golden on top, about 20-25 minutes.

If you are using the 6 jumbo muffin cup size, it will be closer to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in the muffin pan.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Is it hot out? Make this then. There’s a little stove-top time with the pancetta, but only for a few minutes. Besides, it’s totally worth it!

The pancetta in this salad is from a recipe for Frisee with Pears and Honeyed Lardons in The New Spanish Table (my new favorite cookbook, it seems), but I kind of just used what I had rather than following the recipe completely. So, I ended up with spinach, dried apricots and pecans. Not a bad combination at all!

Spinach Salad with Candied Pancetta, Pecans & Dried Apricots
3 ounces pancetta, diced
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp red wine vinegar (+ 2 tbsp more for dressing)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 bag baby spinach, washed and spun dry
1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered
1/4 cup toasted pecans
course sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Garnish: Cheese — shaved parmesan, asiago or something like that works well, I used Robusto (hmmm, I think feta would also be quite tasty)

Place pancetta in a small skillet and cook, over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes, until it starts to render its fat. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking until it’s light brown. Pour a little fat out if there is too much. Add the honey and 1 tablespoon of the vinegar, stirring until the honey dissolves. This will happen quickly and it can burn very easily. Be careful! I actually had to make two batches because I burnt my first batch. So sad.

Remove the pancetta from the pan and let cool on a plate. If it hardens up like panchetta brittle, just break it up.

Make the dressing — whisk the remaining vinegar with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Next, toss the salad with the apricots, pecans, dressing and cooled pancetta. Add the dressing and toss some more until the leaves are coated. Top with some cheese.

It is so good! Better than a spinach sald has any right to be. I am giving credit to the crunchy, sweet pancetta.

Okay, there should be another post this week and I promise that it will not have any pork in it! Need a break from pork. Hard to believe but true…

Mostly pictures today! We went to the Dayton and Dundee area a couple of weeks ago and I took a lot of pictures. It was a beautiful day — sunny and not too warm. A great day for buying an olive plant and tasting some wine!

First stop, Red Ridge Farms, 5510 NE Breyman Orchards Rd, Dayton, OR. I love this place. I could wander around here all day.

Lavender plants.

More lavender.

Rosemary for sale!

Olive plants — they had three varieties that supposedly thrive in Oregon. A Greek one, a Spanish one and an Italian one. I believe we got the Greek variety.

More olive plants.

Fields of lavender.

Sokol Blosser winery. 5000 Sokol Blosser Lane, Dundee, OR. It’s actually just up the road from Red Ridge Farms.

Pinot Noir grapes.

Close-up of grapes.

A big tree at the winery.

Grape fields.

Grapes outside the tasting room.

They compost!

Argyle Winery drive-by.

We also went to Domaine Drouhin, 6750 Breyman Orchards Road, Dayton, OR. Again, right in the nearby area. This is a view from inside the tasting room, looking out at some grape fields.

Wine casks in the winery.

Outside the DD tasting room.

A fig tree!

More scenery.

More grape fields.

Domaine Drouhin tasting room.

I think a good alternative title for this recipe would be, “here, piggy, piggy!” Pork three ways — pork chops, prosciutto and pancetta. Delicious! I pretty much followed the recipe as is, except I brined my chops and I crisped the potatoes up in a pan before placing the chops on top for the oven.

I thought this was wonderful, but then I’ve really come to expect that from any Jaime Oliver recipe. Even the picture in the cookbook makes you want to just reach through the page and grab a chop. Sadly, that doesn’t really work, so just make the recipe instead!

Basic Pork Chop Brine
4 cups cold water
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 peppercorns
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4-6 sage leaves, torn

Mix all the above together, stirring until the salt and sugar dissolves. If it’s not already, transfer it to a container (that has a lid) that’s big enough to also hold the pork chops. Submerge the chops, weighing them down with a small dish if needed. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Pork Chops with Sage or Costolette di Maiale con Salvia
From the cookbook, Jamie’s Italy…I halved this recipe as there were only 2 of us.
2-1/2 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 thick pork chops, on the bone
24 fresh sage leaves
1 bulb of garlic
4 slices of prosciutto
4 tablespoons butter, finely diced
4 dried apricots
extra virgin olive oil
flour
6 thick strips of pancetta or bacon (1/2 inch thick, if possible), or an 8-oz. package of pancetta lardons

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put your potatoes into a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Give them 3 or 4 minutes - you only want to parboil them - then drain them and allow them to dry.

If you brined your chops, dry them off. Then, lay your pork chops on a board and insert a small paring knife horizontally into the side of each chop to make a hidden pocket. Make sure the tip of your knife stays in the middle of the chop, as you don’t want to cut through the meat to either side. Be careful - watch your fingers!

Set aside 8 of the largest sage leaves. Add 8 more leaves to your food processor with a peeled clove of garlic, the prosciutto, butter, apricots, and a pinch of salt and pepper and process. This is now a beautifully flavored butter that can be divided between the pork chops and pushed into the pockets.

Dress the 8 large sage leaves that you set aside with a little oil and press one side of them into some flour. Press a leaf, flour side down, onto each side of the chops (so you have 2 leaves on each chop). Leave the chops on a plate, covered with plastic wrap, to come to room temperature while you get your potatoes ready.

If you’re using thick strips of pancetta, slice them into matchsticks, as thick as a pencil. Then, I transferred the pancetta to a large roasting pan, with the potatoes, the remaining sage leaves, and the rest of your whole unpeeled garlic cloves.

Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and put the pan into the preheated oven.

After 10 minutes, put a frying pan on the burner and get it very hot. Add a touch of olive oil and put in your seasoned pork chops. Fry for 10 minutes, until golden and crisp on both sides, then remove the pan of potatoes from the oven - they should be nice and light golden by now - and place the chops on top. If they are not, and mine weren’t, transfer the potatoes and pancetta to the pan you just cooked the pork chops in and give them a few minutes over medium-high heat to get some good color on them. Then, return them to the baking dish and put the pork chops on top of the potatoes.

Put the baking dish back into the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick the chops are, then remove the pan from the oven and serve.