Brooklyn Supper Club: Armando’s

It’s Restaurant Week in Brooklyn (which in reality is more like Restaurant Two Weeks)! While I don’t always take advantage of this event, I just had to to use this opportunity to try Armando’s, an Italian restaurant in my little Brooklyn neighborhood. When I moved here two years ago, Armando’s had just closed after decades of being a Montague Street institution. It was replaced by a Spicy Pickle. I know.

But when the Spicy Pickle folded, Armando’s returned, and then some. The space was gutted, renovated and turned into the restaurant we have today. I can’t compare it to what it was pre-reno, but I can say that my dinner tonight was awesome. I would have paid more than the pre-fixe $25 for this meal, but I suppose I’m happy to keep some cash-ola in my pocket. :)

I met Sarah and Vani (my fellow Brooklyn Supper Club members) at Armando’s tonight and we were soon delighted by the little olive oil dish on the table.

That’s a Brooklyn-scape, in case you foreigners don’t recognize the landmark Brooklyn Bridge there.

Oh, and there was bread too, of course.

We destroyed it pretty quickly. I was so hungry I could’ve eaten a horse, but the eggplant rollatini appetizer was a decent substitute. ;)

(Sorry for the doctored photos—it was really dark in there!)

And for our main course, we all chose fish. Sarah and Vani got the salmon with pesto sauce, while I chose a filet of sole in a lemon-butter sauce, accompanied by roasted potatoes and butternut squash.

Sole food indeed! This totally hit the spot and made my innards all happy-like. I also had a taste of the salmon, so I can say with some authority that this place knows what it’s doing where fish is concerned.

Lastly, a wee bite of dessert. We had a choice of tiramisu, gelati or ricotta cheesecake, and we had one of each between the three of us.

Mine? Tiramisu.

And a good choice it was—I liked it best of all three desserts!

Armando’s is well worth your money if you are near enough to give it a try, especially if you can do it during Restaurant Week!

Do you have something like Restaurant Week where you live?

Bad-Ass Baked Ziti

Let’s get something straight: I do not spend my days eating rabbit food. I do eat healthily, but I certainly have a taste for heavy dishes as well and I have no problem with indulging that on occasion. It usually happens at a restaurant, but if I have the means to make such a dish at home, I will certainly do so.

Behold, the means:

Bertolli sent me two of their new pasta sauces via Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program. In fact, if you visit Bertolli’s website, the tagline is “The restaurant experience you create at home.” SO! There you have it. Let’s inspect the goods.

Four Cheese Rosa and Arrabbiata sauces. The former is rather like a tomato-infused alfredo sauce, and the latter is a slightly spicy tomato sauce.

Last weekend, I was craving some baked-pasta-gooey-comforting bizness like whoa, at which point I remembered I had the Arrabbiata on hand to make it with. The recipe you're about to read mutated as I went along, resulting in a rather unorthodox yet amazing pasta dish that satisfied my craving and then some.

Bad-Ass Baked Ziti

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a large eggplant
• 1/2-3/4 cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
• almond (or other) milk for drizzling
• 6 oz uncooked whole wheat ziti
• 1 24oz jar Bertolli Arrabbiata sauce (or other tomato sauce)
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 cup Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa sauce
• bacon bits for topping, optional (but bad-ass!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Slice eggplant in quarters lengthwise, then in thin slices (no more than 1/4 inch). Place in a large bowl.

3. Drizzle milk over eggplant lightly, just enough to moisten all surfaces. Toss with your hands.

4. Add bread crumbs and continue to toss until eggplant is well coated.

5. Spread slices on a greased cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, boil pasta according to package directions. Once done, drain and toss with Arrabbiata sauce and spinach.

7. Alternate layering pasta mixture and eggplant slices in a 2-quart casserole dish.

8. Bake 20 minutes, then spread Four Cheese Rosa sauce over the top and sprinkle on bacon bits (if using). Bake 10 more minutes, or until warmed through and bubbling slightly.

Serves 4

Like I said, this recipe evolved as I was making it. I’d originally intended to do sort of a standard baked ziti + eggplant casserole, but then I was like, I don’t feel like making a salad…I’m just gonna throw in some spinach so it’ll be a one-pot meal.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering what I’ll do with the Four Cheese Rosa, now that I’d found a use for the Arrabbiata. I don’t ordinarily make myself meals with cream sauces—these kinds of ingredients are the kinds I tend to reserve for restaurant dining. But then my inner Paula Deen piped up: Honey, just pour that stuff on top! And add some bacon while you’re at it.

No, I wasn’t aware I had an inner Paula Deen. Not altogether a bad thing, though, if your dinner comes out as good as mine did. It was a practical move too—the cheese sauce eliminated the need to add cheese (not to mention actually go through the labor of grating it), and I’ve had some vegan bacon bits lurking in my fridge for so long that I rarely remember to use them.

So, while a legit Italian chef might cringe at my use of pasta and various sauces all in one place (and correct my use of the word “ziti” in place of what is obviously penne), I was quite happy to have conducted this experiment.

Recipes are overrated, anyway. Unless they’re mine, that is. [WINK!]

What’s your favorite Italian dish?

Stevia Giveaway Winners!

Free NuNaturals stevia, comin' your way:

kyko said...
I tweeted about this giveaway! But my tweets are protected so...does that affect anything?

Willie said...
This would provide the perfect excuse for me to try Stevia, which I've been wanting to do for a while!

Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga) said...
tweeted and re my celestial contest, i see no reason you can't enter it...i mean who cares if you're on deck so to speak, enter mama!

amelia said...
i would love to try this!

Congratulations, kids! Email me your mailing address and Ron, the Stevia Fairy, will ship you your prize! Send emails to diana at soapandchocolate dot com.

Bon weekend, friends. :)

Stevia Week Recipe #4: Black & White Milkshake

Alright, this is the last of the Stevia Week recipes! Mayhaps you’re glad to see them go? I’m not! It was fun playing with stevia. I’m never one to forego sweets, so hopefully the experimentation will be ongoing.

In cased you missed them, here are the other three recipes:

• Raw Almond Cookies
• Double Carob Chip Ice Cream
• Chocolate Ginger Cake

And last, but not least, I give you the Black & White Milkshake!

Not exactly the kind you’d find in the malt shops of days gone by, but I’d like to think this version is updated and healthified for the better. Or, at the very least, safe for daily consumption. :)

Black & White Milkshake (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vanilla non-dairy milk
• 1/2 cup water (or more milk)
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• 3 drops NuNaturals cocoa extract liquid stevia
• 3 drops NuNaturals liquid vanilla stevia
• 1/8 tsp xanthan gum

Directions: throw it all in the blender!

Ok, I know my photography is lacking this time, but it’s hard to make a blender look good, especially with the shake still in it! Yeah, I could’ve poured it into a pretty glass, but don’t forget that I am a real human being who doesn’t like to wash more dishes (by hand!) than she has to. What’s the point of a personal blender if you don’t drink the shake straight from the blender canister anyway?

And yes, that is my new Tribest Personal Blender, thank you for asking. :) More on that next week!

So if you’d like to start playing with your very own stash of stevia, you have but mere hours left to enter my NuNaturals stevia giveaway. I’m choosing the four winners tomorrow—readysetgo!

Stevia Week Recipe #3: Chocolate Ginger Cake

Did you miss Stevia Week Recipes #1 & #2?

• Raw Almond Cookies
• Double Carob Chip Ice Cream

Or, God forbid, the stevia giveaway itself?

Assuming you’ve got that taken care of, onward with experimental recipe #3! And I do mean experimental—I do not consider myself a skilled baker, and at first I thought my Chocolate Ginger Cake idea didn’t turn out very well. After a night in the fridge, however, it tasted a lot better to me! Go figure. Sometimes I think the fridge is a better cook than I am, or that it must at least have some mysterious, Magical Deliciousness Elves living in it. Perhaps they’re related to the Magical Deliciousness Elves that live in my slow cooker.

Anyway, for this recipe, I used NuNaturals NuStevia Sweetener Stevia Baking Blend in place of sugar. This can be substituted for sugar in a 1:1 ratio. No-brainer!

Chocolate Ginger Cake (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend (or sugar)
• 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used hemp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Mix applesauce through vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a smaller bowl.
4. Add dry mixture to the wet mixture gradually, stirring until just combined.
5. Stir in the candied ginger. Pour batter into a greased baking dish (I used an 8”x8” square, glass dish).
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Now for a few words about this cake: it probably doesn’t taste quite like you’d imagine it does. As I said a few posts ago, I prefer to err on the side of less sweet where stevia is concerned, and in retrospect, I could have probably safely used 1/2 cup baking blend in this recipe. It’s not sweet like birthday cake from a boxed mix is sweet.

I guess that’s what I was expecting when I first tasted it, though, and that’s why I originally thought this was a bit of a fail. Kind of surprising, considering how great it smelled while baking, not to mention that there’s nothing much better than baked goods fresh from the oven.

After cooling in the fridge, though, it totally grew on me. Part of this is the expectation, though. As you can see from the pictures, this is not the kind of cake you frost and stick candles in. The combination of chocolate, ginger and coconut oil gives it a mildly sweet yet somehow slightly salty flavor that begs for a cozy-hot beverage and bitchy girl talk. Or high tea. Same difference.

So what do you prefer: cake, cookies or ice cream? We’ve had all three this week already…what ever could tomorrow’s stevia recipe be??? ;)

Stevia Week Recipe #2: Double Carob Chip Ice Cream

Time for my second experimental stevia recipe! Did you miss #1? Definitely have a gander—methinks you shall soon want some almond cookies in your life. You can even score a chance at some free stevia via my giveaway. I’m choosing a winner Friday—get on it!

So here’s today’s recipe. Don’t pretend like you didn’t see ice cream coming a mile away. ;)

Double Carob Chip Ice Cream (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 2 cans coconut (one lite, one regular)
• 60 drops NuNaturals liquid vanilla stevia
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp carob powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup carob chips

Directions:

1. Combine all remaining ingredients except for carob chips in a blender and whiz just until well-incorporated.
2. Process ice cream batter in your ice cream maker per manufacturer’s instructions.*
3. Add carob chips in the last 5 minutes or so of processing.
4. Freeze and enjoy!

*If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I recommend blending ingredients per step 1, then placing the ice cream mixture in the freezer. Stir every 10-20 minutes or so until the mixture has reached soft serve texture, at which point you could stir in the carob chips. Feel free to nosh as soon as you have achieved your desired ice cream thickness.

My photos don’t do much justice to the carob chips, but they were in there, I swear!

No carob of any kind on hand? Feel free to substitute cocoa powder for a chocolate version. You might also like to top your ice cream with something fun like, I don’t know…say, Raw Almond Cookies?

Carob has a very distinct taste, but I kinda love it for a chocolate alternative every once in a while. How about you—carob, chocolate or both?

Stevia giveaway here!

Stevia Week Recipe #1: Raw Almond Cookies

Welcome to the first recipe of Diana’s self-proclaimed Stevia Week! If you missed yesterday’s post, four lucky stevia winners will be chosen this coming Friday, so make sure to enter the giveaway!

For this recipe, I used NuNaturals Alcohol Free Stevia liquid.

Raw Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond meal/pulp/flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 tbsp raw almond butter
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 30 drops NuNaturals alcohol free stevia liquid (or other sweetener to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 150* (or prep dehydrator if that’s how you roll).
2. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir until you have a soft ball of dough.
3. Scoop by the tablespoon-ful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 60-90 minutes. I left them in the oven for 90 minutes, but the bottoms were beginning to brown by that point (not my intention), so keep an eye on them and use your judgement.
5. Remove from oven and cool completely. Store in the refrigerator.

With stevia, I prefer to err on the side of less sweet because too much tastes funny to me, so definitely taste the batter before baking to make sure it’s sweetened to your liking. To the credit of NuNaturals, though, I haven’t yet noticed that funny taste that I’ve heretofore associated with stevia.

I really love these cookies! If you like almond-flavored desserts (Russian Tea Cookies?) or marzipan, you’ll totally dig these lil bites. Best use of almond pulp (as in leftover ground almonds from making almond milk) ever!

And it goes without saying that these cookies are totally healthy, especially without all the added sugars. Along with a tall glass of the almond milk that accompanied the creation of this recipe, I’m thinkin’ cookies and milk are a totally legitimate breakfast now. ;)

If you want to try this recipe, make sure to enter the NuNaturals giveaway for your chance at some free stevia!