Spaghetti Squash and Corn Truffle

Tonight’s meal wasn’t color pleasing as it was mostly yellow. However, it was stomach pleasing.  I bought a spaghetti squash. They are delicious and simple to make! Prick it,  throw it (well place it) in the oven for 45min- 1 hour at 375 degrees. When it’s done, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Then separate the strands by running a fork through it; the squash should easily form spaghetti like strands. I topped it with spaghetti sauce this meal. It was delicious.  And below is the recipe for Corn Truffle which was awesome and Meyer Lemon and Nut Cake with Honey Syrup.

Truffled Corn Pudding

(chubbyvegetarian.blogspot.com)

5 ears of corn

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tbsp corn meal or grits

1/4 cup half & half

1/4 cup 2% milk

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 whole eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup parm cheese

1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the corn off the cob. In a large bowl, whisk milk, half & half, salt, eggs, egg yolk, and melted butters.  Add the flour and grits and whisk again.  Add the corn mixture and stir to combine.   Pour into a shallow, buttered  baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese and a few dashes of paprika.  Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Once cooked, let it sit for 10 minutes to settle.

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I don’t ever remember eating fruitcake. I only know about it as the classic Christmas gift but if I had to think about how it would taste, this cake would be it with a twist. I halved the recipe, put it in muffin cups, and used a variety of mixed nuts as well as a variety of dried fruits. It is heavy but tasty. I had some lemons to use up so I found this recipe on thekitchn.com

Meyer Lemon and Walnut Cake with Honey Syrup

3 cups walnuts
2 Meyer lemons
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup sugar
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup golden raisins

2 Meyer lemons
1/2 cup juice (from 4 lemons – supplement with water if not enough liquid to make 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey

Heat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9″ springform pan. Grind the walnuts until fine in a food processor and set aside. Grate 2 Meyer lemons (save juice for later).

Cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy. Add the eggs and beat on high speed until lightened and fluffy. It is very important that these are lightened and airy before adding the dry ingredients; any leavening the cake has comes from the eggs.

Beat in the flour, salt, ground walnuts, and Meyer lemon zest. Stir in the raisins.

Pour in the pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, juice the two lemons you zested for the cake. Zest two more lemons and juice them as well. Simmer all the juice, sugar, and honey until reduced by about half and syrupy. Stir in the zest.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes on top with a toothpick and pour about half the syrup over top. Cover. When the cake is cool, wrap tightly and leave at least overnight – it is significantly better the next day. Serve with any remaining syrup, reheated.

Spanish Spinach, Almond, and Egg Empanaditas

This is now one of my NEW FAVORITE recipes! The wonderfully flaky crust and the flavor explosion combined to make a great dish! I found this in a book called New Vegetarian, however, since it was copyrighted in 2009, its not really new anymore. Oh, and one of my favorite parts was made possible because of my substitution. Instead of corn flour in the crust, I crushed up some pretzels, giving it a wonderfully salty texture. Anyways, here’s the recipe:

Spanish Spinach, Almond, and Egg Empanaditas

Ingredients:

2 ½ c. four
½ c. corn flour (or ½ c. crushed pretzels)
½ tsp. salt, less if using pretzels
1 tsp. baking powder
4 TBSP unsalted butter, chilled
¼ c. EVOO (olive oil)
1 egg
½ c. milk
Filling:
1 ½ lbs spinach, washed and stemmed
2 TBSP EVOO
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large tomato, chopped and drained
4 eggs, boiled, peeled, & chopped
½ c. slivered almonds, toasted (or chunk whole almonds)
½ tsp. salt

1 egg yolk
1 TBSP milk

1. In a large bowl, mix flours, salt, and baking pwd. Grate in butter. Sprinkle in oil and stir lightly to swirl it. Combine egg and milk and stir into dry ingredients. Knead gently until a dough is formed. Divide dough into 16 pieces. Cover and let rest for 30 min. Preheat oven to 400.
2. To make the filling: In a large pot, boil an inch of water and wilt spinach (or use a steamer). Then dry with towel and chop finely.
3. Heat olive oil, sauté garlic, add tomato. Stir in spinach, chopped eggs, almonds, and salt. Stir to mix, remove from heat and let cool.
4. Roll each portion of dough and place 3 TBSP of filling on each. Fold dough over and seal. Just before baking, brush with the egg yolk thinned with milk. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 min. Serve warm.

And I couldn’t resist making dessert empanaditas. I chopped strawberries, added a small amount of strawberry jam, and topped it off with a little bit of dark chocolate. The filling made it an awesome dessert!