• 2 parts olive oil
• 1 part champagne vinegar
• mango puree (I got mine at Surfas it’s in the freezer section)

put vinegar in bowl and slowly pour olive oil in a steady thin stream while whisking. add mango and enjoy! I just went off taste for how much mango to use, it just depends on how sweet you like it. I probably used 2.5-3 parts of the mango puree.

I cooked a few panko crusted shrimp and threw them on mixed greens. It was perfect, all it needed was some goat cheese!

I saw this recipe several months ago. First, I couldn’t find the harissa. Second ,I found it but was too lazy to go to the Middle Eastern store that I had found it at. My friend Gennie www.bellycakes.com knew I wanted to make it so for my birthday she gave me the harissa along with other great foodie items! Yay, thanks Gennie!

Two months later and I finally had the pinenuts and kale (I used Cavalo Nero) to go with it! SUCCESS! This is a fantastic dish and I can’t wait to make it again. I would do some things differently this time though.

I would use a mortle and pestle for sure, I’d add a little more harissa and garlic then what is called for, I’d make sure the Gas man didn’t show up at my door in the middle of me toasting the pine nuts (good thing I like burnt stuff!) and I would add FETA.

3 medium cloves garlic, peeled (I’m going to use 5)
a big pinch of fine grain sea salt (I used flake)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons harissa (paste) (maybe 3 next time)

8 ounces (1/2 pound) whole wheat spaghettini ( I used white)
1 small bunch kale, well-washed and deveined (it’s very time consuming to devein this!)
1/2 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted (mine weren’t oil-cured)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted (mine were burnt, thanks gas man! no really he was wonderful and fixed my water heater so I love him)
zest of 1 lemon (forgot this step)

Bring a big pot of water to a boil. In the meantime, place the cloves of garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle then with a big pinch of salt (forgot this part too). Crush with the flat side of a knife. Now crush and chop, crush and chop until you have a garlic paste. Alternately, you can use a mortar and pestle (this is the only way to do it IMO!). In a small bowl whisk together the garlic paste, harissa, and olive oil. Set aside.

Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta, and cook per package instructions. Just before the pasta is done add the kale to the pasta water, count to six ( I find cavelo nero needs to cook longer so I left it in for 2 minutes and thought it was perfect), drain and set aside.

Heat half of the harissa dressing in the now empty pasta pot Add the pasta and kale, black olives, pine nuts, and lemon zest. Stir over the heat for a minute or so, then turn everything out onto a platter and drizzle with the remaining harissa olive oil.

Serves about 4 – 6.

leftovers were just as tasty today. I seriously can’t wait to make this and add feta!

Here it is adapted for one

• 1 skate wing filet (mine was .30 of a pound)
• olive oil
• butter
• honey
• capers
• flour, salt and pepper for dredging
• wine vinegar

Heat oil in a stainless steel fry pan, add a smidge of butter to get the luscious brown color.

Dredge Skate in flour, salt and pepper on both sides. Shake off excess. Fry on med-high for about 5 minutes. Flip over carefully(mine stuck a little.) and cook another 5 minutes. Remove onto plate.

Add about 1 Tbs of honey ( I guesstimated) and a Tbs of butter to the pan and cook on low for about 2 minutes. Pour sauce over skate. I used about 1-2 Tbs wine vinegar and deglazed the pan. Pour vinegar over Skate and devour!

It’s such a simple and easy meal! Protein, veggie and carbs….Today however, I spruced it up with something special…my friend Gennie brought me some Smoked Salt from the Ferry Building.

It was such a nice treat. I can’t wait to try it on meat! Oh no I rhymed!

• 3 cups all purpose or bread flour
• 1/3 tsp instant (I couldn’t find INSTANT so I used RAPID RISE)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 5/8 cup water
• cornmeal or ap flour for dusting

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl. It will be loose. Cover with saran wrap and let sit out for at least 12 hours. 18 is recommended. I did 14 and it was fantastic.

Dough will be dotted with bubbles. Flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. The recipe called for lightly flouring the surface but it stuck everywhere so I suggest using more flour on the surface.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

It was crusty and perfect! I will be making this often!

My date for the evening was Josh Brolin…you are probably thinking wait isn’t he going out with Diane Lane? Yes, yes he is. Okay fine I admit it, I didn’t really have a date with Josh, I just planned to watch W after dinner!

Seared Sea Scallops w/Truffle Butter and Spinach

for one but obviously it’s easily doubled or even octupled!

• 5 sea scallops
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• butter
• truffle butter (My friend Cindi turned me on to this awesome truffle butter from Surfas it’s SO GOOD! )

Pat the scallops dry with paper towels. If they aren’t dry enough they won’t brown well. Salt and Pepper both sides. Heat just enough oil so they won’t stick (don’t use non stick pan or your color will suffer). Add a smidge of butter to the pan…this will let you know if it’s hot enough and also make the color more rich! That was an awesome trick I learned from a cooking class!

Put the scallops in and cook for 4 minutes each side. Remove scallops and melt 1tbs of truffle butter in the pan. Pour on top and enjoy!

Spinach

• 2 bunches of spinach
• 5 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• cream or half & half

Smash the garlic with a large knife. Roughly mince. Heat about 1tbs of oil in large pan. Brown garlic and add spinach. Cover till it starts to wilt. Drain any excess water and add 2-3 tablespoons of cream (before anyone starts freaking about how fattening cream is…it’s 40 cals a tbs so you are safe!). Cook till it thickens. Add salt and pepper and eat up!

The Killers Romeo and Juliet

Tastespotting has been such an inspiration to me. I have always liked taking pics of my food but that took me to a whole new level. it’s total food porn! If I keep it up maybe I will have a tastespotting entry one day!

It’s neat after trying out a few recipes to get a sense of which blogger has smiliar “tastes” as you. Or people with such dedication like french laundry at home…not many people can say they went through the entire French Laundry cookbook!

This world of blogging also scares me because people can get offended… SmittenKitchen.com got blasted for irish car bomb cupcakes, ICB’s are my favorite shot and I’ve never heard anyone get offended before. It was quite a shock!

Now I’m rambling…basically welcome to Pepita’s Plate, I hope you enjoy what you see and that I may inspire you!

* warning* In my about me section I gave a warning that I’m not the best with grammar and punctuation so please bear with me! Sometimes you might find a whole post in lowercase, which I know for some people is a nightmare! Sorry!

~ Pepita