Lasagna? Not so fast my friend....

On a trip to Trader Joe's the other day, I made the impulse purchase of fennel.  I'm not a huge fan of licorice, but I am a huge fan of fennel (see Blue Monk post).  I mentioned the purchase to MM and said "I have no idea what I'm going to do with it."  His suggestion?  Chicken fennel lasagna.  Done and done.


So where did MM dream this up?  Our favorite Italian place in Raleigh, Bella Monica, serves great Italian classics and specialize in their weekly specials that spin the classics. Every Tuesday, they serve Chicken Fennel Lasagna as a special.  It's so special that if you go for dinner at 7pm, it's long gone.  I have been fortunate enough to have this special, and can see why it sells out so quickly.


So as I start perusing my normal recipe websites for a chicken fennel lasagna recipe, I can't find anything.  I'm surprised, so I google chicken fennel lasagna, and the only recipe that comes back is from the Sorrento Cheese website (Sorrento is based in Buffalo - home bias already).  The recipe is for Chicken Lasagna with Fennel and Cauliflower. Cauliflower? on lasagna?  As I read the recipe, I realized the cauliflower is actually a substitution for the ricotta.  So a random trip to the grocery store turns into an opportunity to tweak a favorite meal of MM's into a healthy, low fat alternative.


The lasagna was delicious!  Using chicken and cauliflower made this much lighter than being weighed down by 4 pounds of cheese.  Roasting the cauliflower and fennel enhances the flavor of the vegetables, and making my own bechamel sauce helps to control the fat of the sauce. The roasted cauliflower is softened and gives a similar texture to the ricotta that it is substituting. I opted to use ground chicken instead of cut up chicken, and omitted the bread crumbs (didn't seem to fit in lasagna).  I cut the vegetables as the original recipe called, but felt they were a little too large.  I'd advise chopping them into smaller pieces to fit.

Chicken, Roasted Fennel, and Cauliflower Lasagna

Ingredients

• 16 oz. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 Fennel Bulbs, sliced and chopped
• 1 Cauliflower, cut into florets and chopped
• 2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 lb ground chicken, cooked
• 2 cups Basic Tomato Sauce, divided
• 2 cups Bechamel sauce, divided
• 12 sheets Lasagna Noodles, cook as directed

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Toss fennel and cauliflower with oil in a large mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper. Roast in single layer on a baking sheet until caramelized, about 30 minutes.  Toss ½ of the chicken in 1 cup tomato sauce and the other in 1 cup of the béchamel. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1 cups béchamel sauce on the bottom of the dish. Top with 4 sheets of the lasagna noodles and then the tomato-chicken mixture. Top with ½ of the vegetables  and ¼ of the mozzarella. Continue to layer with 4 more lasagna noodles, the béchamel-chicken mixture, the rest of the vegetables and ¼ of the mozzarella. Finish layering with the last 4 noodles, 1½ cups tomato sauce, and the remaining mozzarella. Cover with parchment and then aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes until slightly bubbling. Remove foil and parchment and continue to bake until top is browned, about 10 minutes more. Cool 15 minutes before serving to allow lasagna to set up.

Zillycakes & Blue Monk Buffalo 10-15-11

When I travel back to Buffalo, the weekend schedule is usually trying to cram all my favorite hometown foods and specialties into a 72 hour span - Mighty Taco, A Royal from Penora's, Pizza & Wings from anywhere, Beef on Weck are usually the menu (I believe to the chagrin of my mother, who always wants to make me a home cooked meal...)  Since I'm always chasing down the old standbys, I never really get to try new restaurants in the area.


My last trip home, my sister & I went down to the Elmwood Strip,  a 2 mile stretch of Elmwood Avenue, lined with bars and eclectic shops near the Buffalo State College campus.  The day was cold and rainy, so our plan to walk the strip was altered to jump in the car and drive 5 blocks to the next group of stores, but still fun nonetheless to explore.


While we were up at the northern end of the strip, we saw Zillycakes, a specialty cake and cupcake shop. Their main business is designing cakes, but they do have a walk-in cupcake bar.  The walk-in area is TINY - there is a small bar with a couple stools, but is adjacent to the bar, so when someone else walks in, you are cramped.  Fortunately, we had some space when making our selections.


All the cupcakes at the cupcake bar are made to order - you pick your cupcake, your frosting, and if you desire, your toppings.  They had the standard cupcakes - yellow, chocolate, red velvet - but they had special cupcakes - apple almond, and lime thai chile.  Same goes with the frosting - standard buttercreams and cream cheese, but also had apple cider buttercream, which sounded perfect on a fall day, so we went with the apple almond cupcake to complement the apple cider buttercream.  They sprinkled almond slivers a top the cupcake, and was beautifully presented.

The cake was super moist, and frosting had hints of apple and spice, but not overpowering.  The almonds gave it texture.  Definitely a great cupcake.  Since Zilly (the owner, hence the name) was recently on Food Network Halloween Challenge, she may want to think about expanding, because her walk-in business will do the same.


Shopping makes me hungry....and thirsty.  As we continue down Elmwood, we were going to stop somewhere to knock another Buffalo staple off my list, but we ended up near the Blue Monk, a gastropub that opened in 2010.  And being from Buffalo, it's very standard to say "want to get a drink?" at 2pm.  So of course, my arm was twisted and off we got out of the rain.  The windows are tainted dark, so it was hard to see in from across Elmwood Avenue, and we wondered if they were open....oh, they were open, all right.


We walk in and the place is PACKED.  At 2pm.  On a Saturday.  The only place we can grab seats is at the bar near the door, coincidentally where we had sat when I had first come to Blue Monk on a Saturday evening out with my sister earlier in the spring.  We had only come for drinks that evening, but had looked at the menu and was intrigued and wanted to come back.


The restaurant is long and narrow, as most businesses on Elmwood are.  The bar runs along the right side before a staircase takes you upstairs to the dining area.  To the right of the steps is a huge blackboard listing all their beers on tap.  They run approximately 32 beers on tap in a wide variety of craft beers.  I go with a Flying Bison Rusty Chain, a Vienna lager which is locally brewed and only locally distributed.  Great flavor and always have when I'm in town.  Sis goes with a Southern Tier Pumking, a seasonal pumpkin ale which is brewed an hour south of Buffalo in Lakewood, NY, but is distributed regionally.  I had this beer in Raleigh a few weeks earlier, and loved it, so introduced it to my family when I was home, and Kim was hooked.  Balanced pumpkin flavor that doesn't overpower you (hmmm...now I need to go downstairs and crack the growler of it I bought yesterday....)


The menu is gastropub food, highlighted by the Duck Frites - belgian style fries cooked in duck fat, and served with a choice of 2 sauces.  We went with chipotle bacon mayo and wasabi aioli.  Since it was a cold day, soup sounded good, and the soup of the day was a creamy fennel and greens soup with goat cheese crostini.  I love fennel and I love goat cheese, and in soup?  Immediately intrigued.  We each got a bowl.  


The frites were perfectly cooked - slight crunch on the outside, yet soft inside.  The chipotle bacon surprisingly was my favorite of the two sauces we selected - the smokiness of the bacon and the slight heat of the chipotle made for a great sauce.  The wasabi aioli was good, but I didn't think the wasabi was strong enough against the mayo.  


The soup was even better.  Shame on me for not taking a picture of it.  The goat cheese was spread on top of the crostini, and placed on top of the soup.  The soup itself was delicious - hints of fennel and the creamy warmth of the soup made for a perfect fall meal, but once the crostini softened to break up and eat, the soup took new dimension.  The goat cheese heightened the creaminess and the flavor, and was so delicious. I immediately wanted another bowl, but then remembered I had to gorge on other Buffalo delicacies later, so I declined.


We stuck around for another beverage, and this time I went with Three Heads The Kind India Pale Ale from nearby Rochester.  I usually don't drink IPA's because they are too hoppy, but sometimes they can surprise me, as this one did, since it more resembled a Pale Ale, which is my beer style of choice.


Blue Monk is not a place I'd expect in Buffalo.  Buffalo bars are like the city and their people - simple, no frills, and great heart & soul.  This bar seems to be more high end and something I'd see in New York, but given the crowd on a Saturday afternoon, Buffalo embraces it, and so do I.  Next time, I will do a full meal, complemented with an Rusty Chain, of course.

Mac and Cheese? Not so fast, my friend...

• If I was granted one last meal before I parted this earth, I'm 99.9% sure I would have macaroni and cheese.  And not that blue box powder stuff....REAL mac and cheese with REAL cheese and noodles....from scratch. As a good catholic girl (at least one that still doesn't eat meat on Fridays during Lent), I will make a big pan of homemade mac and cheese.  Eating as a full meal is a lenten treat to help me forget I can't have chicken or steak on Fridays for eight weeks, but the fat and cheese and all things that make it the king of comfort foods makes me sadly keep it out of my diet on a regular basis.

  I have always loved butternut squash, which has its own comfort quality about it.  It's a sign of fall - crisp air, walking outside in a light sweater, leaves morphing into beautiful hues of reds and yellows.  I always jump at the chance to have butternut squash at a restaurant, but usually don't cook with it.  Fortunately, my friendly produce delivery service forces my hand, and now to find something for butternut squash....
  
  
  So when I stumbled upon a lighter version of mac and cheese substituting butternut squash for some of the cheese, I was immediately intrigued.  I did opt for a lower-calorie recipe, as I wanted to pare down the recipe as much as I could.  Looking at this picture, could you tell this isn't full-on homemade mac and cheese??
  
  
  
  
  
  The squash once mashed down and combined with the cheese gives that cheesy consistency, as well as acts as a binding agent.  Yes, it tastes like butternut squash, but it gives the illusion of that warm comfort yummy-in-your-belly while sneaking in some veggies and fiber.  I used high fiber pasta to even get a little more fiber in the recipe, which does help fill you up faster so you only eat a cup, instead of the entire pan.

  Macaroni & Cheese with Butternut Squash

• 
  
• 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
• 1 cup homemade or low-sodium canned chicken stock, skimmed of fat (vegetarian option - swap for veggie broth)
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound elbow macaroni (I use Barilla Plus to get that extra punch of fiber)
• 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup)
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated (1 ounce)
• 2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs (I omitted this, as to reduce carbohydrates/not a fan of crumb tops)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Olive-oil, cooking spray
• 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine squash, stock, and milk in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Mash contents of saucepan; stir in nutmeg, cayenne, and salt, and season with black pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles; cook until al dente according to package instructions, about 8 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl; stir in squash mixture, cheddar, ricotta, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
3. Lightly coat a 9-inch square baking dish (4 inches deep) with cooking spray. Transfer noodle mixture to dish. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan, and oil; sprinkle evenly over noodle mixture.
4. Cover with foil, and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking until lightly browned and crisp on top, 30 to 40 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Poole's Diner 9-29-11

So the annual treat of my birthday dinner - the time where I can pick where I want to go.  Hooray me!!  So I chose Poole's Diner - the old diner in downtown Raleigh that has been turned into a foodie mecca.  Right in my wheel house. Chef Ashley Christensen's restaurant has received tons of praise and accolades, and she took on Bobby Flay on Iron Chef.

We show up at 7:30, and since they don't take reservations, we end up standing out front of the storefront on a beautiful fall evening in NC, since the waiting area is basically 4 seats.  We grabbed drinks between the two lunch counters where you can sit to eat (packed, of course), and stood outside our table was ready.  I had the Milan Mule - Tito's vodka muddled basil jalapeno/ginger sugar and lemon. The jalapeno came through a little more than I was expecting, but the basil and ginger gave this cocktail a definite different spin.  MM had a dark and stormy goslings black seal rum line spicy Ginger syrup and soda.

There are no menus at Poole's - there are chalkboards along the walls with appetizers, main courses and desserts.  Even the wine list and drink menus are on chalkboards. Wine prices seemed quite reasonable, and we order a bottle of Fontanafredda Barolo.  Not my favorite Barolo of all time - the finish was quite harsh.

MM's appetizer was beef tartare w marinated chick peas and piquillo aioli.  I'm still trying to figure out what the herb in the chick peas was, because it complimented the beef tartare so well.  My guess was tarragon, but as soon as that taste hits my lips again.....I'll remember.  My appetizer was a warm pistachio crusted goat cheese w roasted beets charred sweet onions Belgium endive and orange horseradish viniagrette.   I love beets and don't get enough.  And putting it with goat cheese and pistachios?  Party in my mouth.

My entree was braised boarder leg of lamb w begula lentils roasted tomatoes and oyster mushrooms.  By far the best lamb I've ever had.  That is no easy task, since I had some fantastic lamb at The First Crush in San Francisco on our honeymoon. (HIGHLY recommended...)  So tender, and the lentils brought a different texture to the meal.  I wouldn't ever go out of my way to eat lentils, but this meal made reconsider that decision. MM had rosemary roasted chicken w mashed yukons and double chicken stock.  Chicken was moist and flavorful, but after having the roast chicken at Bouchon, it's a tough, if not impossible, comparison.

Macaroni au gratin was our side, which is the house specialty.  The crust on the mac and cheese was nice and crunchy and delicious, but the molten lava underneath was tough to enjoy at first.  Once it finally came down to edible temperature, the wonderful crust flavor had lost its luster.  It was good.  Had they been able to put the warm crust with the edible heat of the pasta, it would have been perfect, but on each side something was lost.

For dessert, MM had hazelnut panna cotta with chocolate sauce toasted hazelnuts and meringues, and in my non-chocolate ways, had carrot cake w cream cheese mousse and ginger anglaise.  The desserts, sadly, were disappointing.  The anglaise just didn't seem to work well with the carrot cake in my opinion.

Dinner was delicious and I would say it makes my list of top 5 meals in Raleigh.  However, sometimes the hype can leave you underwhelmed, which I think is the case here.  I would be interested to go back to Poole's again, when my expectations were not as high.  I'll have to bear that in mind when I check out Ms. Christensen's other recently-opened restaurants in the City of Oaks.