Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini

Don't you hate when a book (or cookbook) you've heard great things about and decide to shell out the money for ends up being a disappointment?  I don't often purchase books to own because I'm always worried I'll waste my money on something I don't like.  Instead, I usually borrow books or end up taking risks picking up books in clearance sections, figuring that if I don't end up loving them, it won't be such a big disappointment.  Sometimes, these books are in the clearance section for a reason, but other times the risk pays off with a big reward, as was the case when I picked up The Modern Vegetarian.  It's a vegetarian cookbook that has some of the most unique and creative recipes I've ever seen, like watermelon curry with black beans and paneer, or lemongrass, ginger, and lime leaf chocolate tart.  It's definitely a great example of how vegetarian food doesn't have to be boring!

I started off with one of the easier recipes in the book, this smashed pea, dill, and feta crostini, because fresh peas are in season in Ontario right now (June-July), and I'd been wanting to make a pea crostini for a while!

This turned out wonderfully.  Fresh sweet green peas are combined with tangy lemon and dill and salty feta on a piece of toasted bread for a light and fresh summer appetizer that's bursting with bright flavour. 

The original recipe didn't call for cooking the peas first, but if you've ever tried to smash a fresh pea, it's not easy!  Every time I pinned a little pea under my pestle and tried to press down, it would invariably end up escaping and flying across the kitchen.  So I decided to give the peas a quick blanch followed by a dunk in ice water so they'd maintain their bright green colour, and this made them much easier to smash! (sorry little peas, you can't escape me!)   I also left out the parmesan from the recipe because I didn't want to overwhelm the peas' flavour too much, and made a few minor adjustments to some of the ingredient amounts.

This would make a great elegant appetizer to impress guests, even though it's so easy to make.  Or you could just eat it all yourself for lunch like I did! 

With the weekend coming up, and with peas in season (at least where I live), this is a perfect snack to eat while sitting outside on the patio - if you can handle the crazy heat outside!  I'm loving the hot weather but hoping the suffocating humidity tones itself down a bit for the weekend!

 Hope you all have a great weekend :)

Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini

Adapted from The Modern Vegetarian cookbook

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

1 ciabatta baguette, sliced into thin (~1/2 inch) pieces (you probably won’t use the whole loaf)

5 oz fresh shelled green peas (around 3/4 cup peas, from around 40 pea pods)

1 small garlic clove

2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced

Sea salt

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Brush ciabatta slices with olive oil or spray with cooking spray, place on a baking sheet, and bake for 5-10 minutes until toasted.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and blanch peas for 2-3 minutes.  Drain into a colander or sieve, then place the colander/sieve in a large bowl of ice water to immediately stop the cooking.

Place garlic, dill, and a pinch of salt in a mortar and smash with a pestle until crushed.  Transfer to a small bowl.

Add peas to mortar in a few batches (depending how big your mortar is), adding a small pinch of salt and drizzle of olive oil to each batch and smashing with a pestle.

Transfer smashed peas to a medium bowl and add the dill-garlic mixture, feta, and lemon juice.  Mix with a fork and season with additional salt and pepper to taste, if desired.  Top ciabatta slices with the smashed pea mixture and serve.

Risotto with Peas

I absolutely love risotto, but for some reason, I’ve never made it myself. I guess it’s one of those things that I’ve always just assumed is way too hard for someone like me to make (probably because I watch too much Top Chef and risotto always seems to be the dish that the judges criticize the most).

Today, however, I discovered that risotto is actually quite easy to make at home, and I’m kicking myself for not trying it sooner! I feel like now I have to go back and find all those delicious risotto recipes I’ve seen on other blogs but haven’t bothered to bookmark because I thought I couldn’t make them (most recently, for example, this farro risotto with squash and kale from Love & Olive Oil).

Sure, it’s a bit labor intensive because you have to stir the risotto constantly for 20 minutes, but just think of it as your workout for the day. I’m sure you could simultaneously throw in some squats or lunges as you stir, but because I’m on holidays, stirring was enough exertion for me. The rest is easy peasy, as long as you get all your ingredients ready ahead of time (which doesn’t take long at all).

I was nervous that because this was my first time making risotto, it would end up inedible, but it turned out to be amazing! The risotto was creamy, the rice was just the right al dente texture, and the peas added the perfect burst of sweetness to balance out the richness of the dish. Even my dad exclaimed that it was delicious, and he is much more experienced at making risotto than I am!

I’ve written out the recipe as I made it below, but the original version is actually from a video (or “recipideo”: a recipe demonstrated in a video in under 4 minutes), so you can watch this link to see exactly how the risotto is made (and how easy it is!) As you can see, I made a few changes to the original recipe, such as adding parsley, garlic, salt and pepper for added flavour, and leaving out the butter because I thought the risotto tasted rich enough without it.

Now here’s the fun part: Aurora, the company that makes all those delicious Italian products you see in the grocery stores, and who made the recipideo for this risotto, is offering you the chance to win a $50.00 gift certificate to My Italian Cantina, an online store where you can purchase a variety of Italian and European products. All you have to do is make this risotto with peas dish yourself at home (and feel free to make your own substitutions like I did), then snap a photo and visit this link to submit it and be entered to win the $50.00 gift certificate! You have until January 3^rd to enter, and the winners will be announced January 6^th. So hurry up and watch the recipideo, make this delicious risotto, take a quick picture, and enter the contest! Just be warned that the video is set to an extremely catchy song that may end up stuck in your head all day :) Good luck!

UPDATE: The above contest is now closed.

Risotto with Peas

Adapted from Aurora Importing

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

9 cups water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 vegetable bouillon cube (chicken bouillon would also work)

1-1/2 cups superfine Arborio rice

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1-1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

3-4 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt & pepper

Directions:

Add the water to a large pot and bring to a boil on the stove. Leave simmering as you make the risotto.

As you wait for the water to boil, prepare all your ingredients so everything is ready to go (chop onion, garlic, and parsley; rinse peas to thaw; grate parmesan; measure out the rice and wine).

Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the bouillon cube, rice, and garlic, and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the white wine and stir until absorbed. Set a timer for 18 minutes.

For the duration of the timer, continuously add the simmering water to the rice a ladle at a time, stir until absorbed by the rice, then add another ladle, stir again, etc. Keep stirring constantly! When there are about 3 minutes left on the timer, add the peas.

By the time the 18 minutes is up, you should be almost out of water and the rice should be creamy and al dente.

When done, remove from heat and stir in the parmesan cheese and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Summer Vegetable Crepes with Dill Yogurt Sauce

If all has gone according to plan, then at the time this entry is automatically posted, I will be on vacation up North, sitting by the lake with a book in one hand and a beer in the other :) And while I'm enjoying the best of what summer has to offer in the form of nature, you can enjoy summer's best offerings in the form of food!

I've actually never made a savory crepe dish before so I wasn't sure what to expect with this recipe, but it surprised me with the way it really highlights the bright flavours of the summer vegetables and herbs. Fresh vegetables are cooked with some light ricotta to add some creaminess to the filling without overpowering the taste of the vegetables, then they're wrapped in a soft crepe and covered in a refreshing dill yogurt sauce. The great thing about this recipe is that it's completely customizable. If you're not a fan of dill, just substitute your favourite fresh herb (the original recipe called for chives, but I'm sure other herbs would work too), and the vegetable filling can consist of whatever looks good at the market, whatever you have too much of growing in the garden, or whatever needs to be used up from your fridge. I loved the combo of corn, peas, beans and yellow summer squash I used in mine, but feel free to mix it up!

If you've never made crepes before, now is your chance to try! I know they've kinda got a reputation for being difficult, but I promise they're not hard. The first time I ever tried making them was about a month after I first started cooking. And if you've read my story, you'll know that I had pretty much zero cooking skills at the time. But they came out perfectly then, as they have every time since, so I really don't know why poor crepes have such a bad rap. Sure you might get a couple duds that just rip to shreds when you try to flip them, but that just gives you some extra snacking material to keep you energized as you go! Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can!

In case you're still worried, the amount of batter I've called for in the recipe below should make about twice what you will actually need for the serving size, which leaves plenty of room for mistake crepes. And if you're lucky enough to have every crepe turn out perfectly, don't throw the extras out! Keep them in your fridge and use them to make quick wraps for lunch the next day. I used my extras for turkey wraps with lettuce and cheese and I thought they were so much better than a standard tortilla wrap! A crepe is much easier to wrap around the filling without tearing, and since it's so thin, the filling really takes center stage rather than the wrapper (and nobody likes a bready wrap).

I've posted my version of the recipe below. I know it looks like a lot of steps but it comes together pretty quickly, and if you're lucky enough to have someone else to clean up after you (I wish) then you'll save yourself from the worst part!


Summer Vegetable Crepes with Dill Yogurt Sauce

Adapted from Eating Well

Makes 4 crepes (2 servings)

Crepes:

1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk until lumps removed. Start with slightly less flour than called for and continue adding until the proper consistency is reached – it should be thin and pourable, like a drinkable yogurt.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Pour ¼ cup batter into the pan and quickly swirl around so the batter coats the pan. Cook for a minute or so until bubbles begin forming in the middle of the crepe and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Carefully flip the crepe over and cook for another minute or so, until cooked. Remove from pan and repeat with remaining batter. This amount should make about eight crepes.

Filling:
 
1/2 cup chopped summer squash
1/2 cup chopped green beans
1/2 cup fresh cooked corn kernels
1/2 cup fresh cooked peas
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped dill
Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add all the vegetables and cook until brown, stirring frequently (about 5-6 minutes). Remove from heat. Stir in the ricotta and dill and season with salt and pepper.

Dill Yogurt Sauce:
 
1/4 cup low-fat plain or Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped dill
2-4 tablespoons low-fat milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl. Consistency should be somewhat thin and pourable. Adjust amounts of yogurt and milk if necessary.

Assembling the crepes:
 
Divide vegetable filling equally among the four crepes, spooning down the middle of each crepe. Gently roll each crepe around the filling. Pour the yogurt-dill sauce over the crepes and serve while crepes are somewhat warm.