Orecchiette & Rappini

Orecchiette with rappini, I saw this recipe on Saveur magazine and loved it immediately. Also called broccoli rabe, rappi, friarelli, broccoletti or broccoli di rape in Napoli. It is a common vegetable in the south of Italy, northwest of Spain and China. I thought it was part of the broccoli family but no its related to turnips.

Orecchitte, Rapini, garlic, lemon, red chile flakes, salt and olive oil.

I am doing my mini project a jardin parisien at my kitchen balcony so I could have my petit-déjeuner with a view,  this time I had the orecchitte with a glass of wine for lunch and I guess with all of you who are reading this.

The flavor is a bit bitter but the lemon peel gives an intensive aroma, the red chile flakes and the garlic are the perfect blend to the dish.

Ingredients:

1 box of Orecchiette pasta

1 bunch of rapini

6 garlic cloves crushed

1 teaspoon of red chile flakes

1 lemon zest

Olive oil

I boiled the rapini for about 3 to 4 minutes and transferred them to a bowl of cool ice water, drained them and set them aside. (this will help them crispy). In a saute pan with olive oil add the garlic and cook until golden incorporating the chile flakes and rapini already chopped. Add the lemon zest, season with salt and toss with the pasta already cooked al dente.

I added a topping of toasted pignoli and shaved pecorino cheese, in the original recipe they added a dollop of goat cheese, in all cases it's always delicious. Even without cheese it tastes great!

Chinatown in NY

There is always a feeling of excitement and adventure every time I go to Chinatown, this time

I went  with the idea of trying the authentic Hot Mini cakes on the street. They told me the location would be between Canal St and Bowery so Esteban, Sebastian, Laura and I searched for the cart. We looked around the area but we couldn't find it and decided maybe 

he wasn't there that day.

Instead we ended up going to a Chinese bakery and we tried a bean bun and other sweet goodies meanwhile to calm our desire of  low sugar level.

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, with such a big name was a little store with a big line of people buying ice cream. They were really delicious. We tried the lychee, pistachio and ginger ice cream. The lychee was amazing I would buy it and serve it at home were it would be very appreciated in a nice plate as an exotic dessert for a dinner.

Something I really like is what NY City is doing to restaurants by requiring them to post a letter grade to correspond to scores that they received according to their sanitary inspections. That was a must to me when choosing a place to eat. The inspectors check food handling, temperature, personal hygiene and vermin control.

 

A variety of interesting fresh seafood was being sold from octopus, squid to fish ball.

Of course you can see cooked ducks hanging everywere ready for the Peking duck ....

While I was continuing to walk these hanging ducks caught my attention because they were totally raw I don't  know which score would these restaurant get once it is inspected....

Anyway I still love Chinatown.......

GIVEAWAY WINNER!

After reading all these great comments, I realized this was going to be harder than I thought. There were so many great responses!

Like the acrostic poem from "Nancy":

Cook various truffles
Hope my friends like them
Entertain them at a party
Extra varieties on the board
Show type written on slate
Expect rave reviews

Slate keeps the truffles cool
Lovely dessert display
Another use of the cheese slate
Terrific for many uses
Excellent hostess gift, too!

"MamiS"  special dinner she was going to prepare for when her husband came back from Afghanistan, The Greek dinner being prepared by "Shelby",  "carolipie's" use of the Rivage Tea Towel as work of art, "Adri17's" wonderful thai dinner,  "Gayle C's" tea party under the summer trees, "Ally's" amazing captions for the Cake Vintage Placement, to even "parisrobyn18" special scavenger hunt for her husband wearing just the orange apron..

There were so many comments that caught my attention and for that I want to congratulate all of you! But in the end, one really stood out for me from all the rest and that was "Devon Rachel" from Cleveland, Ohio with her creative entry:

"Hi, I live in Cleveland,OH. Aside from a few months a year our skies are pretty gray. What we do have here all the time is great food. My husband and I are always the ones bringing the food to the party and we enjoy cooking together and treating our friends to something great on another gray day in Cleveland.The tray would be a fun way to entertain.

We do our shopping at The West Side Market, it's a huge indoor market that you can get pretty much anything you desire. Your reusable grocery bag would be a bonus as not only does it seem more sturdy but the bright colors would hopefully help my husband find me easily in the crowd as I tend to wander in a place like that.

The mug is simply a great idea and i'm surprised I haven't seen more. Surely a thing I would take to work so no one else would use it,we have a coffe mug collection for some reason. Or to remind myself of an early meeting and to drink another cup!

The apron looks like you would be able to maybe just wipe off some smaller spills or splatters instead of have to wash it all the time. More prtoction from catching on fire is always a plus, I actually have had apron get burned :(

Your site has a lot of great products, i'm just glad I happed to come across it."

Thanks again to all who participated, you are all winners and very soon everyone who participated will receive a little token of appreciation from Lola Lobato.

Congratulations Devon Rachel you will be receiving your goodies very soon!!

Package almost ready to send

To you, 

I will be posting the winner and sending the goodies on Monday.


From


Lola xoxo
    

Are you eating farmed salmon?

Watch the trailer and see by yourself, this is one of the reasons why I do not buy farmed salmon.

Farmed salmon is significantly higher in toxins, it may contains antibiotics and pesticides. Wild salmon is superior nutritionally, it is higher in omega -3 and better environmentally.

For me the best option is wild Alaska Salmon. They are the best, even their taste and texture are different. If you buy them frozen, buy vacuum sealed and check for the FAS ( frozen at sea).  It is caught, processed and frozen while still at sea.

 And please, always  ask were the fish comes from?

Environmental Defense Fund

Pure Salmon Campaign 

7 DAYS left till giveaway deadline!

There is only 7 DAYS left till the giveaway deadline..

Don't forget to subscribe to my store at http://shop.lolalobato.com and leave a comment at http://lolalobato.blogspot.com/2011/06/giveaways.html to be able to participate.

I am very excited to read every ones comments!

Cooking with Umami

I wrote about Umami before http://lolalobato.blogspot.com/2010/06/unami.html but at that time it was not available yet in USA. Now I finally bought one at Dean & Deluca in NY City.   

I cooked the salmon packets http://lolalobato.blogspot.com/2011/02/cajitas-de-filo-rellenas-de-salmon-con.html but this time adding taste number 5.

I seasoned the salmon with salt, pepper, crushed garlic, grated ginger, lemon peel and Umami paste.

I  wrapped the salmon filets on phyllo dough and sealed them with olive oil.

I baked them brushing olive oil on top until they got golden brown, I accompanied the salmon packets with a tomato chutney and served it with esparragos, french lentils and couscous.

It does enhance the flavor slightly, just as similar as Worcestershire sauce would do, next time I will add more Umami to the salmon packets to really feel the difference and I will continue to experiment with the taste # 5. Have you tried it yet?

Umami is the scientifically proven fifth taste, It's the flavor that makes you mmmmm......