Fat-free Fruited Broccoli Salad - 1pts+

Sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention.  It was 4 pm, and I still didn't know what I was bringing to a July 4th party at 5 pm.  All I knew was that the host said "something fruity" and talked about a few side dishes - so, no dessert.  The day had simply gotten away from me, so I had to get inventive - and FAST!

Check the fridge: not much.... some carrots, scallions, lemon juice, soy sauce, two really ripe and juicy peaches.   Check the freezer:  broccoli florets and sunflower seeds.  Add in a diced apple and some craisins, and you have a salad that won't wilt!

This dressing is so amazingly delicious, but I just threw things together, so I knew I better write a post so I won't forget.  I will definitely want to make this dressing again and again and again!

Dressing:
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C pure maple syrup
2 Tbs lite soy sauce
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs dijon mustard (already prepared)
1 C fat free plain yogurt

Whisk everything together till smooth, then taste for salt, sour and sweet.

make approximately 1 3/4 C dressing; entire dressing recipe is 10 WW points+
 1.5 pts+ per 1/4 C
1 points+ per 3 Tbs

Rebecca or Diane's Pascha Cheese 2012

Just a quick note about Sirnaya Pascha, aka Pascha Cheese.

If you've been reading my cooking blog, you know all about my search for the perfect recipe for Pascha Cheese, and also for my endless search for Tvorog (fresh farmer's cheese) to make it.  Here in the deep, deep south, it's really difficult to get some food items, and farmer's cheese is one of those hard to get ones.  However, a couple of years ago, Publix and Fresh Market began carrying it!  My life was complete!  Kindasorta.  It was very, very expensive, $6 for 8 oz in one store, and $9 for a pound in the other.  I sprung for it the first year, but then in 2011, my friend Ksenia posted on Facebook that she was making her cheese.  A light went off for me - I've made yogurt and buttermilk before.  I've drained yogurt to make cheese.  I've made a stinky, but delicious, middle eastern cheese that my father-in-law absolutely adored called shankleesh.  Why not farmer's cheese?  Ksenia gave me her recipe, and I looked online as well.  It was a success!  One $3 gallon of milk plus one $3 quart of buttermilk yielded just about 2 lbs of farmer's cheese!

Yulinka has a great tutorial on how to make it.  Click here to check it out.

So, this year, I made it again, with great success, though I drained it overnight which produced a very, very dry and dense cheese, about 1.75 lbs.  It's enough to make enough pascha cheese to fill my little red plastic mold, though.

What recipe will I use for Pascha Cheese this year?  I haven't decided.  I have two absolutely AMAZING recipes here on my blog:  Diane's Perfect Pascha Cheese and Rebecca M's Sirnaya Pascha.  After many years of experimentation and searching, I have finally completely given up on the cooked custard based recipes because they never seem to turn out any tastier than these two recipes, and oftentimes don't set up as well.  There is also a recipe making the rounds that calls for lots of American-style cream cheese which is very tasty, too, but I guess I hung out with Russians too long to make that one.  Anyway, one of my church folk makes it every year, so I always take a taste. I, however, am true to the two recipes which are more traditional - either Diane's or Rebecca's.

Try one of these great recipes this year!  I guarantee that you will not be disappointed!

Pascha Cheese 2008

In my never-ending quest for the perfect Pascha Cheese recipe, this year I tried the recipe from Larousse Gastronomique circa 1938, slightly adapted. I tried this recipe because it uses cottage cheese rather than farmer's cheese, pot cheese or even ricotta - all of which are outrageously expensive this year. Fresh Market will gladly order me the first two, at $8.50 and $9.00 per pound!!!! Yikes!

Once again, I broke the recipe into thirds and flavored them according to my own tastes. The most popular flavor last year at the Agape meal following the Paschal liturgy was the orange and almond flavor which is a riff on the famous Italian Easter dessert pie, Pizza Dolce. There is something about those flavors that mean Pascha to me and makes my Italian heart happy! I was feeling particularly Italian, so the second flavor is chocolate and hazelnut, which I'm calling Nutella. Original, eh? Since I had a theme going here, I decided to make the third portion to mimic my most beloved Grammie's pannettone - butter, lemon, honey and anisette. Oh yeah!

So, this year's flavors are: Pizza Dolce, Nutella and Pannettone! I'll let you know how they went over on Sunday!

Here is the basic Larousse recipe which I adapted to ingredients available to me:
4 lbs creamed cottage cheese (or 3 lbs dry curd cottage cheese)
1/2 C sour cream
1/4 lb salted butter, room temperature
2/3 C white sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Prepare creamed cottage cheese by placing in a fine mesh colander and rinsing under running water until the water is completely clear. Place the rinsed cheese curds in a large square of cheese cloth, tie tightly, and place back in the colander. Place the colander in a bowl to catch the drippings. Weigh the cheese curds down with a large can of tomatoes and set in the fridge for 2 days. At the end of the two days, the curds should be very, very dry and there should be a lot of water in the bowl. Discard the water. If you can get the dry curds, you can omit this step.

Place the dried curds into a food processor and whiz until smooth. Add the sugar and whiz some more. Then add the sour cream, vanilla and the butter and whiz for a couple of minutes until it is perfectly smooth and creamy. You can stop at this point and set it to drain as one large pascha cheese, adding fruit and nuts as you desire.

I then divided the vanilla mixture back into the three large cottage cheese containers for individual flavoring

Pizza Dolce: 1 scant tsp finely grated orange zest + 3/4 tsp almond flavoring

Nutella: 1 1/2 tsp hazelnut flavored coffee flavoring syrup (Torani brand is what I have) + 2 - 3 Tbs chocolate syrup

Pannettone: 1/2 tsp butter flavoring (I would have used more butter but I didn't have any since we are vegans!), 1/4 - 1/2 tsp anise flavoring, 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest, + 1 1/2 Tbs honey

To see my prior years pascha cheese recipes, go here and here.

I'll take a photo of this year's batch later on when DD is home from school, since the camera was last seen in her hands.....

Ribollita

I live in the deep south, and as such, there are certain types of food which I cannot easily find. Savoy cabbage is one thing that I think I've found just twice in the last 10 years. Last weekend, though we were in Atlanta and made a visit to the Decatur Farmer's Market. Oh JOY! Oh BLISS! Oh HEAVEN ON EARTH! As soon as I walked in, I told DD that I wished I had brought my little two man tent because I was moving in! They had everything I ever wanted and then some, and everything was perfect and everything was very, very inexpensive. If I shopped there regularly, I think my food bills would go down maybe 25% . I saw a perfect, small savoy cabbage and brought it home. Tonight, I cooked half of it in a traditional Tuscan soup called Ribollita.

Ribollita means "cooked again" in Italy, and refers to the long, slow cooking that gives this soup its characteristic thick character. However, since I had two starving teenagers to feed, the soup did not cook a long time. Its now after dinner, and the leftovers are quietly simmering on the stove, so I expect the soup to be perfect tomorrow. This soup is also a candidate for the crockpot; just set everything to cook in the morning and come home to a delicious dinner.

In Tuscany, the preferred green vegetable is a variety of black kale and the preferred bean is cannelini. Here in America, any type of kale or cabbage will do, but sharply flavored greens such as mustard greens would overpower this simple dish. Cannelini beans are easily available, but any white bean such as Great Northern, flageolets, or even navy beans would be good substitutes.

Ribollita
Extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 - 4 oz pancetta, diced (optional) OR 1 tsp liquid smoke
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 leek, cleaned well and diced
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 Tbs Herbes de Provence
1 Tbs dried basil or 3 Tbs fresh basil, minced
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 15 oz can cannelini beans, drained
6 C chicken (or vegetable stock)
1 bay leaf
A 3-inch piece of dried out parmesan rind
6 - 8 oz (half a small head) of savoy cabbage, sliced into ribbons

Put about 2 Tbs olive oil in the bottom of a large, thick bottomed pot. Over medium high heat, saute the onion, leek, celery, carrot, and pancetta if you are using it, until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the edges of the vegetables are just beginning to turn golden. Stir in the salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, basil and bay leaf and saute for a minute, then add in the tomatoes with their juice, the drained cannelini beans, the stock, parmesan rind and cabbage. Stir well, bring to a simmer, and reduce heat to medium low to keep it slowly simmering. Simmer for at least 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender. If you can simmer for a few hours, it will be more delicious, but its plenty good after 30 or 45 minutes.

Serve with large croutons. To make croutons, take a slice of bread, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on one side, and toast until golden brown. I used greek flat breads and they were delicious.

Place a crouton in the bottom of the bowl and ladle the soup over it. Sprinkle with parmesan if you want (we didn't) and enjoy!

DD has a new boyfriend, hereinafter known as TBF2, and he liked the soup enough to ask for the recipe, so I guess this is a winner!

To make this vegan is simple: Use vegetable broth, or use 6 C water plus 1 1/2 Tbs Vogue Veggie Base. Omit the pancetta, but towards the last 15 minutes of cooking, stir in 1 tsp liquid smoke, which is what I did. You can omit the parmesan entirely and its still a delicious soup.