One-Pan Orzo with Spinach and Feta from @MysteryMacRae

 

When the world starts turning green and leafy do you suddenly find myself wanting to eat green, leafy things? I do. Here’s a bright green recipe from Melissa Clark at the New York Times. It’s quick, easy, and one of those recipes that let you tinker and play. Thank you, Melissa, for this spectacular dish.

 

One-Pan Orzo with Spinach and Feta

 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (I used the whole bundle of 6 my husband bought)

2 large garlic cloves, minced (We’re garlic hounds, so I used 3 and next time might use more)

8 ounces baby spinach leaves (8 cups), roughly chopped (We had a 10 ounce box and I dutifully left 2 ounces in it for something else. Next time I’ll use all 10 for this)

1 teaspoon kosher salt (I’ll use less next time. The feta added enough salt on its own, even with low-sodium bouillon)

1 ¾ cups low-sodium vegetable bouillon (or chicken)

1 cup orzo (according to reader comments on the recipe, rice is a good substitute)

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

¾ cup crumbled feta (3 ounces), plus more for garnish

½ cup frozen peas, thawed

1 cup chopped fresh dill, parsley, or cilantro (I can’t wait to try this with dill. We didn’t have any, though, so I used cilantro)

 

Directions

In a 10-inch skillet (or larger), over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the garlic and most of the scallions (saving some of the green parts for garnish). Cook until softened, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.

Stir in spinach, adding in batches if it won’t all fit in the pan at once, and ½ teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is just wilted (less than 5 minutes).

Stir in bouillon, bring to a simmer, stir in orzo, lemon zest, and remaining ½ teaspoon of salt. Cover and simmer over medium-low until orzo is nearly cooked through and most of the liquid is absorbed, 10-14 minutes, stirring a few times.

Stir in cheese, peas, and dill, parsley, or cilantro. Cook for another minute to finish cooking the orzo and to warm the peas. Sprinkle with more cheese and reserved scallions, serve, and enjoy.

Argyles and Arsenic, book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mystery series, is now available in paperback! Look for it wherever books are sold or ask for it at your public library.

 

About Argyles and Arsenic:

After 93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail, Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from all that’s left.

But a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse – with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.

 

Look for Molly’s new series—the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries—coming in July 2024!

Book 1: Come Shell or High Water

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket @LucyBurdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE: We’ve had such a good time with the Key West Friends of the Library speaker series this year, hosting SA Cosby, Carl Hiaasen, Lisa Unger, and many more wonderful writers. At the end of February, we had the pleasure of listening to New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling writer Deborah Crombie, in conversation with Barbara Ross, author of the fabulous Maine Clambake mystery series. (Photo above is Barb, Lucy, Deborah, and Hallie Ephron.)

John and I were hosting a small group for a potluck dinner after the event, so I needed a dish I could make ahead and serve soon after everyone arrived. This BBQ brisket was the perfect solution—so good that several people wanted the recipe. Next time I make it, I might refrigerate the cooked brisket and sauce overnight so I can skim off some fat. But truthfully, no one complained! If you don't like any of the ingredients in the rub, leave them out...

Ingredients for the rub:

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp cumin powder

¾ tsp ground mustard

½ tsp salt

½ tsp freshly ground pepper

Ingredients for the barbecue sauce:

¾ cup ketchup

½ cup cider vinegar

½ cup brown sugar

2 tsp black pepper, onion powder, mustard powder

½ tsp cayenne or to taste

1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3-4 lbs beef brisket

The day before you plan to cook the brisket, cut away any big pieces of fat and pat the rub over all sides of the meat. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. 

The morning you will be serving, brown the brisket either in the slow cooker if yours has that function, or in a frying pan. 

Mix together the ingredients for the barbecue sauce and taste to see if it needs more vinegar, sugar, or heat. Add the meat to the slow cooker along with the BBQ sauce and set the timer for 8 hours on low. You can easily leave it for another hour or two on warm. 

Cut the meat into thin slices and serve with the sauce and slider buns. Friends brought macaroni salad and a fennel-citrus salad, but it would also be good with potato salad and coleslaw! (For this dish, I tweaked and simplified a recipe in RecipeTinEats.com.)

Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries. #13, A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS, will be published on August 8, but is available for pre-order now!

Gluten-Free Hot Cross Buns #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

Libby Klein Being the baker of the family, holidays always revolve around food for me. I've hosted almost every holiday meal for the past thirty-five years. My love affair with bread means every holiday has a special doughy counterpart. For Easter, it has to be Hot Cross Buns. I like mine a little heavy on the spice - especially the cloves. After all, this isn't just gluten-free raisin bread. Although, I really like that too. The finished rolls will be soft and pillowy and you won't be disappointed. I've been working on this recipe for years now, and I'm amazed with my latest results. I feel I need to apologize to anyone who made this recipe in Beauty Expos Are Murder as part of my Afternoon Tea collection. They have been greatly improved and they were really good before. I like to make these into chicken salad sandwiches - without the icing crosses.

Gluten-Free Hot Cross Buns

Makes 12-18 buns

 

This recipe takes two days to complete.

INGREDIENTS

 

1 cup whole milk, slightly warm

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon yeast

 

3 cup gluten-free flour blend*

*2 teaspoons xanthan gum (if not already in your flour blend)

¼ cup nonfat dry milk

1 ½ teaspoons psyllium husk powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

OR – you can substitute everything in red with 2 ½ cups All-purpose flour if you are not making the recipe gluten-free

 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Zest from one orange

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

6 Tablespoons butter that is a little soft but still cold

 

Day 2 ingredients

1 cup Mixed Raisins

1 large egg mixed with 1 Tablespoon of water for an egg wash

 

Icing for the crosses

1 cup confectioners sugar

½ teaspoon clear vanilla - optional

Pinch salt

4 teaspoons milk or water

 

DIRECTIONS

Day 1

Warm your milk and add the tablespoon of sugar and yeast. Stir together and set aside to bloom.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, measure the flour blend, xanthan gum if you’re adding it, nonfat dry milk, psyllium husk powder, baking powder, spices, orange zest, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine.

Add the eggs, followed by the yeast/milk mixture, and the vanilla extract. Mix on medium-high. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time until it is completely incorporated into the dough. Your butter should be firm enough to pick up with your fingers without squishing all over the place, but not so firm and cold that it stays in a lump in the mixer and won’t disappear into the dough. If it’s too cold, zap it in the microwave for 5 seconds.

Dough will be sticky and stretchy, more like a stretchy batter than bread dough. Don’t panic – it’s normal.

Cover your mixing bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight.

 

Day 2

Cover your raisins with water in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for 90 seconds. Leave the bowl in the microwave to steam the raisins for 10 minutes. Drain the water off, and set the raisins aside to cool.

Boil a kettle of water.

Remove the dough from the fridge and flatten it with your hands on a Very well-floured surface. The dough is very sticky so you might end up adding as much as another ½ cup of gluten-free flour before this process is finished. Once you have a flat disc, use your hands to brush the excess flour from the top of the dough.

Sprinkle the top of the flattened dough with your rehydrated raisins. Knead it until smooth and the raisins are incorporated. You may have to be generous with your flour so it doesn’t stick.

Divide the dough into equal parts and roll into balls. Place on a parchment lined sheet pan. Put the sheetpan in a cold oven with a 9x13 pan of steaming, just boiled water underneath. Allow the buns to rise until doubled in size. This will take about 90 minutes.

Remove the pan from proofing, and Preheat the oven to 350° F. Gently brush the top of the buns with egg wash. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a probe thermometer reads 200° F in the center of the buns.

Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before icing. 

To make the icing crosses, mix half the milk into the confectioner's sugar with the pinch of salt and the vanilla. Add milk a little at a time until you get a thick paste. You want it to run off the spoon in a slow ribbon. If it’s too thin the icing crosses will run all over.

Move the buns next to each other so they are touching. Hold a spoon of icing above the buns and let the icing run off the spoon in  slow ribbon. Move the ribbon down the buns without touching them to cover each one in a line of white. Now make another ribbon in the opposite direction.

 

These are best the first two days while they are fresh.

 

Recipe inspiration from Let Them Eat Gluten-Free Cake

 

B&B owner and gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister, along with her saucy Aunt Ginny, is on the case at the annual Cold Spring Village antique show in Libby Klein’s seventh deliciously witty, paleo-themed Poppy McAllister Mystery.
 

When vintage items go up for auction, gluten-free baker and B&B owner Poppy McAllister discovers some people will pay the ultimate price...
 
It’s peak summer season at the Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast in Cape May, with tourists fluttering in and out and wreaking enough havoc to rival a Jersey Shore hurricane. Also back in town is Courtney Whipple and his family of antique dealers for the annual Cold Spring Village antique show. Courtney’s son Auggie has a unique piece he believes will fetch them a fortune if he can get it authenticated in time—a piece rival dealer Grover Prickle insists was stolen from his store.
 
Poppy and her Aunt Ginny attend the auction, hoping to bid on an armoire for the B&B, and discover a veritable armory for sale—everything from ancient blades and nineteenth century guns to such potential killing devices as knitting needles and a blacksmith hammer. Strangely, they don’t see either Auggie or Grover—or the mysterious item they both claim to own. Then during the auction, a body falls out of the very armoire Poppy was hoping to acquire, stabbed through the heart. Now, surrounded by competitive dealers and makeshift weapons, she must find out who turned the auction house into a slaughterhouse…
 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Passover Ravioli or How to Make Italian Malfatti using Matzo Meal by author @CleoCoyle #Passover

From Cleo Coyle: Malfatti are little dumplings in Italian cuisine. They're also known as "gnudi" because they look and taste like "naked" ravioli; that is, ravioli filling without the pasta covering. 

With Passover coming next week, and matzo meal more widely available in grocery stores, I thought this recipe would be a timely one to share, so...

Let's start cooking!

☕ A Recipe Note from Cleo

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

 series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

There are many recipes for malfatti, some of which use flour. My Italian family prefers bread crumbs, which is why I was easily able to turn my malfatti recipe into a Passover dish. 

To my happy surprise, I found the matzo meal worked even better than bread crumbs. Perhaps it’s the unleavened nature of the crumbled matzo that does the trick. It gives the malfatti a great structure, helping the dumplings stay together while cooking.

Malfatti are also a great deal of fun to form, and I'll show you how to do this using a simple wine glass. I even made some videos to help illustrate the step...

Whether you are celebrating Passover, Easter, Ramadan, or simply the renewing spirit of Spring, Marc and I wish you peace and joy!

~ Cleo

To download this recipe in a 

PDF document that you can 

print, save, or share, click here.

Click here for Free Recipe Guide.

🍅 Cleo Coyle's

Passover Ravioli "Matzo Malfatti"

Makes about 16 pieces – 4 servings of 4 each

Ingredients:

For the Malfatti:

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt)

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

2 teaspoons dried Italian seasonings (or your own mix of herbs,
   see my note at the end of this recipe*)

1 cup whole milk ricotta (pour off any visible liquid)

1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (or Parmesan or aged Asiago)

1/2 cup matzo meal + about 1/2 cup more for finishing

(optional) A few cloves of garlic and more salt for the boiling water

Variation: For Spinach Malfatti,
see my note at the end of this recipe.

Step 1 – Make the dough: In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs well. Add oil, salt, white pepper, and Italian seasoning mix. Add the ricotta and whisk vigorously until the mixture is completely smooth (no lumps!). Stir in the grated hard cheese. (If creating the spinach or kale version, see instructions below, and add the pureed spinach onion and garlic mixture now.) Finally, stir in the 1/2 cup of matzo meal.

Step 2 – Chill the dough: Cover the bowl with plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. Do not skip this step. Chilling the dough makes it easier to work with and gives the matzo meal time to absorb the liquid in the dough.

Step 3 – Form the naked ravioli: Watch my little videos (below) to see exactly how to do this....

How to Form Malfatti with a Wine Glass

Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of dough into
a bowl of matzo meal and lightly coat. 

Drop the dough ball
into a large wine glass. 

Hold the glass by the stem and spin it in your hand as if you were swirling wine. First move it vigorously in a circular motion and then in a side-to-side motion.

First in a Circular Motion...

Then in a Side-to-Side Motion...

The dough ball will knock against the sides of the glass, forming a smooth elongated oval, like a little football. Gently slide the finished dumpling onto a plate. Repeat with a new lump of dough. 

My Full Video Below

👇 👇 👇

🍷

FREEZE (or not): If you have time, and for the very best results, freeze the dumplings before cooking. Otherwise, move to the next step and cook without freezing. 

Step 4 – To cook: Fill a deep pan with water, generously sprinkle with kosher salt and add a few cloves of garlic. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Gently add the malfatti to the water. Do not crowd, be sure the dumplings have room to expand while cooking. Boil for about 12 to 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to carefully remove. Place them on plates covered with paper towels to remove excess water.

Step 5 – Cool: Allow the hot malfatti to cool to room temperature. As they cool, the texture changes, becoming more dense. To serve, move gently to plates, cover with well-heated marinara sauce, sprinkle with grated Pecorino, Parmesan, or aged Asiago cheese and…eat with joy!

*NOTE ON HERBS: In the recipe, I suggest using a standard mix of dried Italian seasonings to save time, but you can certainly create your own combination of dried or fresh herbs. I suggest oregano, rosemary, parsley, and basil, perhaps some garlic and/or onion powder. The final mix is to your own taste.

**NOTE ON SAUCE: If you’re not a fan of red sauce to finish the malfatti, try a cream sauce, or simply sauté slices of garlic in butter and olive oil. Throw in some chopped basil and thyme and pour the buttery herb sauce over the malfatti.

🌿 

SPINACH MALFATTI

This is a delicious and highly nutritious variation. To make it, simply dice up 1 large onion (3 cups roughly chopped) and 4 cloves of garlic. Warm a bit of olive oil in a skillet and sauté the onions and garlic. 

After the onions have caramelized into a light brown color, add no more than 2 cups of chopped frozen spinach (or kale). Stir and cook the spinach for a good ten minutes (see more on this below). 

You're watching for steam to rise from the spinach, which means the liquid is evaporating. That's your goal here--to dry out the spinach. 

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree. This spinach-onion-garlic mix should measure about 1 cup packed. If you have more than that, do not use the extra. Use only 1 cup packed. 

Pop the mixture into the fridge or freezer to cool it quickly to room temperature and add where indicated in Step 1 of the recipe. Then proceed as directed and...

Eat (and read) with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author

of The Coffeehouse Mysteries and

Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

Cleo (Alice) with her husband Marc

Visit Cleo's online coffeehouse here.

And follow her at these links...

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Pinterest - Bookbub - Goodreads

🔎

Don't Miss Our New
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Mysteries...

  

Jack & Pen 

Together Again!

Coming May 2023

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"A BEST READ OF 2022"

~ Lori Caswell, Escape with
Dollycas into a Good Book

The Ghost and the Stolen Tears
Our 8th Haunted Bookshop Mystery!

"A GEM OF A STORY"

~ Kirkus Reviews

     

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Cleo Coyle’s Honey Roasted
is not only a coffee lover's mystery. 
It's a culinary mystery with a tempting 
menu of delicious recipes!

Click here or on the image (above)
for Cleo Coyle's Free Recipe Guide
to HONEY ROASTED

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☕