Pesto pasta salad Renal/Kidney Diet

This is a basic pasta salad I made for a superbowl party and forgot to post up.

The creation is relatively simple.

1. I cooked 1lb bowtie/fafarelle pasta in unsalted water until al-dente
2. I thinly sliced 5 zucchini and 2 onions, sauteing them together in 1 tbspn olive oil
3. I placed 6oz. basil leaves, 1/2 cup minced garlic and 1/2 cup olive oil in a food processor to make the "pesto" (no pine nuts as they are high in potassium)
4. I then tossed all this together with 1/2 tspn salt, pepper to taste, and 3 ounces shaved romano (which is more than you think)

Overall it was pretty yummy, especially when warm, though I definitely felt it needed a bit more salt and maybe more pepper.  Maybe next time I'll add lemon juice or another 1/2 tspn salt.

Here are some leftovers:

This makes a very large amount of pasta so I listed it as 10 servings.

Nutrient	Unit	1lb pasta	6ounces basil	½ cup garlic	½ tspn salt	½ cup olive oil	3 oz romano	5 med. Zucchini	2 small onion	TOTAL	Serving (10)
Energy	kcal	1692	39	101	0	955	329	167	56	3339	333.9
Protein	g	59.46	5.35	4.32	0	0	27.05	11.86	1.54	109.58	10.958
Total lipid (fat)	g	6.89	1.09	0.34	0	108	22.91	3.14	0.14	142.51	14.251
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	340.5	4.5	22.48	0	0	3.09	30.48	13.08	414.13	41.413
Fiber, total dietary	g	14.6	2.7	1.4	0	0	0	9.8	2.4	30.9	3.09
Sugars, total	g	12.18	0.51	0.68	0	0	0.62	24.5	5.94	44.43	4.443
Minerals										0	0
Calcium, Ca	mg	96	301	123	1	1	905	157	32	1616	161.6
Iron, Fe	mg	5.93	5.39	1.16	0.01	0.6	0.65	3.63	0.29	17.66	1.766
Magnesium, Mg	mg	242	109	17	0	0	35	176	14	593	59.3
Phosphorus, P	mg	862	95	104	0	0	646	372	41	2120	212
Potassium, K	mg	1017	502	273	0	1	73	2558	204	4628	462.8
Sodium, Na	mg	27	7	12	1163	2	1219	78	6	2514	251.4
Zinc, Zn	mg	6.43	1.38	0.79	0	0	2.19	3.14	0.24	14.17	1.417
Vitamins										0	0
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0	30.6	21.2	0	0	0	175.4	10.4	237.6	23.76
Thiamin	mg	0.41	0.058	0.136	0	0	0.031	0.441	0.064	1.14	0.114
Riboflavin	mg	0.274	0.129	0.075	0	0	0.315	0.921	0.038	1.752	0.1752
Niacin	mg	7.752	1.533	0.476	0	0	0.065	4.42	0.162	14.408	1.4408
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.648	0.264	0.84	0	0	0.072	1.597	0.168	3.589	0.3589
Folate, DFE	µg	82	116	2	0	0	6	235	27	468	46.8
Vitamin B-12	µg	0	0	0	0	0	0.95	0	0	0.95	0.095
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	0	449	0	0	0	82	98	0	629	62.9
Vitamin A, IU	IU	0	8968	6	0	0	353	1960	3	11290	1129
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.5	1.36	0.05	0	15.5	0.2	1.18	0.03	18.82	1.882
Vitamin D (D2 + D3)	µg	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	0	0	0.4	0.04
Vitamin D	IU	0	0	0	0	0	17	0	0	17	1.7
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	0.5	705.2	1.2	0	65	1.9	42.1	0.6	816.5	81.65
Lipids										0	0
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	1.263	0.07	0.061	0	14.913	14.556	0.823	0.059	31.745	3.1745
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.78	0.15	0.007	0	78.798	6.666	0.108	0.018	86.527	8.6527
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	2.572	0.661	0.169	0	11.365	0.504	0.892	0.024	16.187	1.6187

Ratatouille

OMG, a new post!
The horrid summer heat of Walnut Creek is receding, and a young girl's thoughts turn once more to ovens.

I looked in my fridge Thursday and realized that the only thing in there was all the ingredients for ratatouille.  Sio that had to happen!

There are a million ways to make this dish, but I primarily read Julia Child's recipe, the wikipedia article and a nice article in the Guardian.  (A shout out here to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, my 2yr home town paper).

Rifling through these I evaluated all steps for a) necessity and b) difficulty.  Here is what I did:

Step 1) make a piperade

• Saute one large onion (finely diced) and 2 bell peppers (finely diced) until soft
• Add minced garlic to taste, bay, thyme, and herbs de provence
• Add 2-3 small tomatoes (also finely chopped but neither peeled nor seeded) and simmer down till thick

Piperade

Grilled veggies are yumm

Step 2) grill veggies slices

• Slice up equal amounts of eggplant (1med-peeled)  zucchini (2 large) and tomatoes (3 med)
• Grill the zucchini and eggplant slices.  I did this on my cast iron griddle while simmering the piperade and it was very little effort for big payoff.

Step 3) bake it

• In a pot (I used the same cast iron one I had made the piperade in) layer piperade, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, more piprerade.
•   I think I should actually have put the tomatoes between the eggplant and zucchini.
• Place in a 350F oven with a lid 3/4 on, and leave to bake down for 90min-2hrs/when your house starts smelling like deliciousness

I ate it with some Parmesan cheese over rice.  My only two criticisms:   Needs more eggplant!!!  Also, it seems a waste to cook heirloom tomatoes, given how delicious they are raw.  Especially in caprese.

Fun fact:  I found out while doing research that Thomas Keller was the consulting chef for the film Ratatouille.  I suspect this was just so Pixar guys could try and work expense meals at the French Laundry (The first place I will eat upon becoming filthy rich).

Heirloom tomatoes in all their glory

My camera is useless once the sun goes down.  I promise this looked more appealing than the amorphous yellow blob leftover when I remembered to take a pic at 10pm

Insalata Caprese

Unlike most posts here, which I write so that I can remember how to make food, this post in being written to share my favorite recipe.  I will never forget how to make it because a) it is dead simple and b) I make it 2-3x/month year round.

Insalata caprese is a 3 ingredient, uncooked, dish which means that it is ALL ABOUT ingredient quality.  Flavorless, unripe tomatoes will ruin it, and actual buffalo mozzarella takes it to the next level (for a while our local Costco sold giant tubs of authentic mozzarella buffala for $12.)

Ok, so you have assembled your perfect ingredients which are tomatoes, ovoline mozzarella, and basil leaves.  here is what you do with them:

• Slice the tomatoes thickly
• Put salt and pepper directly on the tomatoe (to taste)
• Slice the ovoline mozzarella more thinly, or in thick slices but cut in half, and place on top.  I usually do 1 ovoline per 2-3 tomatoes
• drizzle olive oil over this, or, if you have a Misto sprayer you can use that for an even coating
• top with a basil leaf

Look at that deliciousness!

Lentils and Rice with Salad

As summer turns our kitchen into a 95F sweat-box I will be cooking less, and you will see a lot more recipes based around not turning on the stove.

This is my attempt to re-create a dish I had at Aladdin's Eatery in Squirrel Hill.
The dish is a mix of rice, lentils and fried onions, topped with a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes.  The base makes enough for leftovers, but I assembled the salad fresh each time.

Part one, the base: (4-6 servings)

• Put 2 cups of brown rice in a rice cooker along with 2 chicken bouillon cubes, the juice of one lemon and 2 tbspns of olive oil (plus the recommended water for your cooker)
• Open and rinse a packages of Trader Joe's precooked lentils.
• Mix all these together, along with ~ 1 cup fried onions-- we bought ours at a middle eastern grocer, but I think you could also substitute sauteed onions made at home

Part two, the salad (2 servings)

• Take 1/2 a package of cherry tomatoes (1.5 cups)
• Add 3 Persian cucumbers, sliced
• Mix with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil to taste

Then you just put everything together like in this picture:

Without the bouillon this is a vegetarian dish (replace the water with vegetable stock for the rice).  I found it very tasty and filling.

Bruschetta

I made this as a quick lunch this weekend and wanted to note it down.  I am calling it bruschetta, but I think this may be a lie or an unforgivable abuse of grammar/the Italian language.  With the summer heat approaching I need a library of quick, cold, but satisfying meals.

Step One:  Toast 2 slices bread (optionally brush with olive oil first)
Step Two: make bruschetta by mixing these ingredients with salt and pepper to taste:

• Two tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup sweet onion finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, cut as fine as you can

Step 3: Layer sliced ovaline mozzarella and generous portions of bruschetta on the toast.  The above amount does well for 2 people, with the toasts cut in half for 2 bruschetta each.

(almost vegetarian) Lasagna

I used my second batch of Fresh Pasta to make Lasagna.  First let me say that my "brilliant" plan to try and make a more "authentic" fresh pasta using 1/2 bread flour instead of 100% semolina flour resulted in me losing 2 hours of my life.  The dough had this extra spring that meant it took the length of an entire film to roll it out, and the process involved me pushing down with my entire weight on the rolling pin.  So from this point on, it's 100% semolina flour for me.

3 eggs of pasta yielded enough for a 2 layer lasagna.  The process is exactly the same as the other page, but I stored it in a bag in the freezer with extra semolina flour in-between each layer at the end, and never boiled it.

The rest of this recipe is very un-exact. . .

I took 3 yellow onions and a bag of mushrooms (this is a very technical term for something like 1.5-2lbs, aka what I shoved in a bag at Whole Foods).  Dropped them in my food processor on slice and then cooked them down with butter, salt, and pepper.

Next I sliced and cooked 6 zucchini and ~8 carrots, in the same fashion, but for less time.

At this point I added the sliced meat of 4 boned chicken thighs, which ended up being a completely irrelevant amount of meat.  Finding the chicken in this lasagna is like hunting for the baby in a King Cake.

Everything was mixed together in a bowl, with 1.5 jars of tomato sauce and dried oregano and basil.

Finally in my roasting pan I layered noodles (uncooked), skim milk ricotta (a thin layer -- I used 1 container in my 2 layer lasagna), and ~1inch of the veggie/sauce/meat mix.  Atop the last layer of noodles I put a thin film of sauce (i had been scooping the veggie mix with a slotted spoon) and then covered it with Ramano cheese before baking at 375 for 1 hour.

Why Romano you ask?  Because you can buy something like 3lbs of Romano cheese for $10 at Costco in a big block and I was out of mozzarella.  Handy kitchen tip:  When refrigerated Romano is put through the shredder on a food processor you get shredded cheese, but when frozen Romano is put through the same shredder you get finely ground cheese.  In this way you can imitate both types of high-end Parmesan at like 1/10th the price.

Here is a photo:

P.S. this feels like my most surly post to date.