Cooking show recipes

This is where I will test those "easy" recipes that some of our Celebrity chefs and cooking show hosts demonstrate for us. Hopefully they will come out as well and as tasty as suggested by our hosts. All photos you see are my own from the recipe testing and finished product.

First up is a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis, host of the "Giada at Home" and "Everyday Italian" show on Food network and Food TV. Here is a link to her instructions:

Parmesan Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad

I begin by chopping up my Broccoli and Cauliflower.

I will only be using half of the amount from the store. The other half of the cut pieces are placed in a freezer bag, and will be frozen for later use. Total time here was about 15 minutes, including clean up. Clean up? Yeah, when was the last time you chopped up Broccoli or Cauliflower without those little pieces getting on you...your floor and most of your counter space? ;-)

You could save a little time by buying them already cut up in a bag, but here they cost more and I don't think they are as fresh.

Let's meet the players:

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

1 1/2 Lemons

4 cups spinach (I have baby spinach leaves here)

Broccoli and Cauliflower pieces

Grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)

Olive oil (Use regular for frying & Extra Virgin for vinaigrette)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Now I add the beaten egg to the veggie pieces. You're supposed to "Toss to coat", but I found trying to toss these and coat them evenly with all of those different sizes and crevices everywhere to be quite difficult. Choose a really big bowl, or as I did here, I just transferred from bowl to bowl a couple of times and mixed them up as I transferred. You don't want to wind up breaking all of your bite size pieces into little bitty pieces that will just burn and get too crunchy while trying to brown the larger pieces.

Note: Giada didn't toss her veggies in the bowl, she dumped it all on a foil line baking sheet with the cheese and mixed it with her fingers. I was hoping not to have to hand toss it. ;-)

Now I fumbled on a simple thing.....the difference between shredded and grated. What I had was "shredded" Parmesan, the recipe called for "grated". See the picture for the visual difference.

I guess I didn't get paid enough last week to pay attention this weekend. :-)

I was supposed to put the veggie/egg pieces in the cheese and press them to get the cheese to stick on them. What happened here is the shredded cheese just did not want to "stick". Eventually I wound up dumping most of the cheese into the bowl and doing the "tossing" thing again to try to get the cheese to stick as best it could.

Now I heat my oil up in the pan over medium heat (about 1/4" of oil) Then place some of the veggies in, giving a little room so they don't overcrowd. Giada suggests to do them in batches so you don't overcrowd....yep, I had to do that. This of course took the time to complete this recipe well over the "21 minutes" it was supposed to take. I put my timer on and the cooking of the veggies alone took almost 35 minutes having to do 3 different batches. This was a medium size fry pan, nothing small by any means.

When each of the first two batches were browned, I placed them on a paper towel to drain and sprinkled salt on them while warm.The one thing I didn't care for was the look of the broccoli pieces. the tops turned kind of black and didn't look really appetizing. they took longer to brown than the cauliflower pieces. I suppose they would have looked better if I had used the grated cheese and it covered them better.

The last batch I decided to try something different. I had already made the mistake with the cheese, so why not change that mistake into a possible good thing? I tossed the remaining items in the bowl until well coated and then dumped the whole thing into the hot oil. Using a spatula I turned the larger pieces over as they browned. I wound up with big pieces of browned cheese mixed in with the veggies and It really came out nicely.

The bits and pieces of cheese will add a nice texture to the dish.

Now it's time to make the vinaigrette. I used the same dish that the cheese was in originally, (I hate to dirty more dishes than I have to), and put in the 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil...the juice of 1 Lemon and the zest of 1/2 lemon. Whisk well until it's all incorporated.

My thoughts on the end result:

I thought the appearance was very appealing... very appetizing and even though I wasn't hungry, the aroma was so inviting I just had to have a bowl. It tasted wonderful. There was not too much lemon for my palette (which I find common in a lot of Giada's recipes) and the saltiness of the cheese was not overpowering at all. The spinach leaves were perfectly marrying with the vinaigrette.

My mistake on the cheese turned out to really compliment it, with those little crispy bites and bits in there. All in all, I would make this again for myself or guests.

The time to prep and cook turned out to be more than double the estimated time given, so plan on a good hour of work from start to finish. The serving suggestion is right on, it could easily serve 4 people. As far as "easy", yeah ..I guess I could agree on that.

There was relatively minimal clean up as far as dishes and utensils, so I won't be standing in front of the sink washing cookware all night. ;-) It helps to clean up as you go too. A++ recipe Giada!

One of my favorite snacks when I have good parmesan cheese around is to shred it and make cheese Latkes, I have called them fritters for many years. They look similar to Latkes and they are soooo good.

Your house will smell of parmesan cheese when you cook these, so if anyone doesn't like the smell...well tell 'em to take a walk. LOL

Heat the olive oil in a pan to medium high (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan). When the oil is hot add the cheese all in one area. I dropped the whole large spoonful in and then flattened it down carefully. Let it fry until the bottom is browned, you can lift the edge carefully and peek under. If you have little pieces of the veggies left over throw them in with the cheese and egg for a little extra flavor burst.

Flip the whole thing over when the bottom is browned. Fry it until the other side is good and browned. Transfer to plate on a paper towel to drain off the excess oil. I squeezed the remaining lemon juice from the 1/2 lemon used in the above recipe on top of the fritter. It tasted great! If you want a softer or chewier interior, cook them a little less done. I like mine crunchly on the outside and fairly firm on the inside.