Week 3, or I’m so behind…

Well, life got in the way of blogging these past few days… or over a week. Although, my last post was after fourth of July, and that was a super busy weekend. Between going to NYC to see Jade and Eric, having Eric come to visit on Saturday, Argentina’s loss, bbq and movie outside, wine tasting, and going to The Place… very nice long weekend. Then, more world cup during the week, which culminated in a less-than-exciting final game.

But I digress…

Week 3 share, aka: when we learn exactly how many different types of pod vegetables exist:

* Snap peas
* Shell peas
* Green beans
* Zucchini
* Yellow squash
* Spinach

Luckily one of our friends gave us this amazing recipe that can be used with peas (although it can also be used with squash, so that’s another option).

Cream Sauce & Peas Recipe

For the sauce:
* 1/4 tsp sugar
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/2 tsp garam masala
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
* 1 tbsp tomato paste - she didn’t think it was necessary, I added a tiny bit with the spices…
* 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (or milk with butter, turned great!)
* 1 tbsp lemon juice (lime juice also works)
* 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (used dried cilantro, and it was ok, although I’m sure fresh is yummier)
* 1 green chile, finely chopped (don’t remove seeds)
(I adjust all of these ingredients depending on how strong the flavor is and the amount of cream that I have)

Mix sugar, cumin, garam masala, salt, cayenne pepper and maybe tomato paste if you have that with 2 Tbsp of water. Then add cream and mix. Then add lemon juice, cilantro and green chile and mix.

For the peas & onion part:

Boil or microwave the peas with water. Chop up a white onion and fry until soft, then add the peas + cream sauce mix. Super fast to make.

When you first combine them:

Then allow to simmer and it gets thicker:

Meanwhile, make some rice (I recommend white rice, since there’s so much flavor in the sauce).

Pour sauce over rice:

Then put over some white rice. Delicious!

Canelones de Espinaca (Spinach Canelones)
These are an argentinean staple, similar to stuffed shells or lasagna, but way easier to make. We had leftover crepes that our friend made (and she made it with gluten free flour…).

Basically, we just sauteed spinach with some onion and pine nuts. I usually add ricotta to this mixture, but I didn’t have any.

I also made some salsa blanca (bechamel sauce):
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 1 cup milk
* salt, pepper, nutmeg

Added 1 tablespoon butter and allowed to melt in a small saucepan. Then, added 1 tablespoon of flour, and stirred until mixed, but before it browned. Remove from heat and add 1 cup of milk and stir, avoiding clumps. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Return to low heat and stir for a long while (10 minutes?) until it gets thicker.

Then I put some tomato sauce at the bottom of a baking dish, rolled the crepes with the spinach filling and mozzarella cheese, and placed on top of the tomato sauce. Topped with salsa blanca, then some tomato sauce on top of that, with mozzarella cheese on top. Baked at 350F for 20 minutes.