Corn-Jalapeno Salmon Chowder

Serves 10

Ingredients:

8 ounces hickory smoked bacon, diced

3 tablespoons butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 white onion, finely chopped

4 celery ribs, finely chopped

1/2 to 1 jalapeno, diced (optional)

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Freshly cracked pepper

2 tablespoons cornstarch

8 cups + optional 1 to 2 cups chicken or seafood stock

3 large russet potatoes, skin on, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 cans yellow corn or 3 cups cooked kernels cut from the cob

2 cups half-and-half or heavy cream

1 1/2 to 2 pounds salmon, de-boned, cut into 1-inch cubes

Fresh chives or green onions, diced (garnish)

Cilantro, finely chopped (garnish)

Sweet pickled jalapeno or fresh jalapeno, sliced (garnish)

Method: In a large heavy-bottom pot over medium heat, melt butter and cook bacon until it’s just beginning to crisp. Add shallots, onions, celery, jalapeno, garlic, salt and generous pepper. Saute until vegetables are softened. Combine cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of stock in a lidded jar, shake well, set aside. Add the stock to the pot, bring to a simmer, stir in the cornstarch mixture and the potatoes and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes until potatoes are just done and the soup thickens a bit. Add the corn, cream or half-and-half and the salmon. Return to a simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, cover, turn off the heat and leave the pot on the warm burner for 10 minutes, allowing the salmon to cook through. Remove the lid, taste to adjust the salt and add a cup or two of extra stock if the soup is a little thicker than you like. Serve garnished with chives, cilantro and sliced fresh or pickled jalapeno.

The post Try this light salmon/corn chowder with a jalapeno kick appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Lemon-herb oil:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tablespoons of finely chopped mixed fresh herbs like chives, basil, thyme and/or tarragon

Zest and juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Method: In a small pan, whisk all ingredients together until just warm. Pour over a hot fillet.

Originally published as part of “Your guide to a not-boring summer salmon dinner in four quick, easy recipes” on Substack.

The post Make the most tender grilled salmon with warm lemon-herb oil appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Ingredients:

12 to 16 ounces of fresh mozzarella or burrata, sliced or torn into 12 pieces

1 cup of red or Rainier cherries, pitted and sliced or torn in half

1/2 cup basil leaves, larger ones torn

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

1 1/2 tablespoons thick, sweet aged balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Method: Lay cheese on a large plate and arrange cherries and basil around and atop it. Whisk together vinegar, salt and oil. Drizzle over plate. Sprinkle with pistachios and zest.

Originally published as part of “Your guide to a not-boring summer salmon dinner in four quick, easy recipes” on Substack.

The post Add cherries and pistachios to your mozzarella or burrata for fresh summer flavor appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

This surprisingly simple, very quick salad packs a zesty, crunchy punch. (Just pay attention to the mandoline and don’t cut your fingers.)

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

One head of fennel, sliced thin (3 mm) on the mandoline + a tablespoon of finely chopped brushy fennel greens

One sweet red apple, sliced thin (3 mm) on the mandoline

Three ribs celery, sliced thin (3 mm) on the mandoline + a tablespoon finely chopped celery leaves

1 cup chopped Italian parsley

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons oil

Sea salt and pepper

Method: Whisk lemon juice, oil, salt, celery leaves, fennel greens and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. Toss. Chill for 10 minutes.

Originally published as part of “Your guide to a not-boring summer salmon dinner in four quick, easy recipes” on Substack.

The post This quick mandolined fennel salad is my favorite summer side appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I asked Facebook about Romano’s and the post has going on 200 responses about favorite dishes. Tortellini in Alfredo. Stuffed mushrooms. Veal marsala.

Romano’s specialized in a kind of Italian- American restaurant cuisine that no one eats in Italy but that never goes out of style here. Tonight, there will be a wait at every restaurant in Anchorage that offers garlic bread, wine, and a menu that includes creamy seafood pastas, single-portions of lasagna served under rafts of bubbly cheese, and salads made of crisp iceberg lettuce, wedges of tomato, and a vinaigrette dressing made with dried oregano and wine vinegar.

But, maybe you’d like to have your ’80s romance at home? I offer you the main ingredient for many a Romano’s tribute pasta. Add shrimp, scallops, clams, smoked salmon (a little goes a long way), or top it with a sliced, breaded chicken cutlet. Turn the lights down and the Dean Martin up.

The key with this pretty simple recipe is to watch the heat. Keep it on the low side and pay attention; you don’t want butter or cream to separate. Also, don’t overcook the pasta, and it will not work with pre-grated cheese.

Restaurant-style Alfredo pasta

Ingredients  

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1½ cups cream
• 1½ cups Parmesan, freshly grated (do not use pre-grated Parmesan), plus additional to serve
• Freshly ground pepper to taste, plus more to serve
• Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• 1 pound fettuccine, preferably fresh
• Chopped Italian parsley to garnish

Instructions 

1. Put a pan of salted pasta water on to boil. In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium-low heat and sauté the garlic until it’s just fragrant. Pour in the cream and, on medium-low heat, allow it to reach a gentle simmer and then let it reduce for about 5 minutes. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add 1 cup of Parmesan and stir until sauce is thickened and creamy. Remove from the heat. Stir in several cracks of fresh pepper and the nutmeg, if desired. Meanwhile, when the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook according to directions, until it is al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water and drain. Put the sauce back over low heat and toss with the hot pasta and an additional ½ cup of cheese. If the sauce seems thick, add reserved water, a little bit at a time, until the noodles are silky. Serve with a sprinkle of cheese, chopped Italian parsley, and additional cracks of pepper.

This recipe was originally published in Edible Alaska magazine.

The post Make any Alaska seafood pasta with this Romano’s Restaurant-style Alfredo recipe appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I gave myself a challenge to make a complete summer meal with all Alaska-grown foods and settled on homemade ricotta, made from Alaska Range Dairy whole milk, homemade sourdough bread, and locally grown cherry tomatoes roasted with Cousin Emily’s honey from Twitter Creek Gardens in Homer. I’m a real fan of Alaska Range Dairy milk. It’s Alaska’s only local cow milk, produced on the Plagerman family farm in Delta Junction. It’s not homogenized, so there is a layer of cream on top, and it’s pasteurized more slowly and at a lower temperature than milk from large commercial dairies. The free-ranging cows eat hay, grains, barley, and peas. The milk has a creaminess and distinct funk—perfect for making ricotta. You should be able to find it at your local health food store. In Anchorage, I find it at Blue Market, Johnny’s Produce, and sometimes Sagaya. In the Mat-Su, you can find it at Three Bears, Bushes Bunches, and even Walmart.

Of all the cheese a person might make, ricotta is pretty easy. It’s a process that takes half an hour, and it’s really more about having the right equipment than anything else. You need a heavy-bottomed pan, a thermometer, a strainer, and some cheesecloth. You heat the milk, add acid, in this case lemon, but you can also sub in white vinegar, and then strain out the solids. A lot of liquid whey will be left. You can stir that stuff right into your pancake batter for extra protein. (I am certain there is also a whole vein of homesteader social media videos about using whey.) If you want to add a little more volume to your ricotta, sub in some cream. I also sometimes sub a tablespoon of hot honey into the tomato mixture.

Homemade Ricotta With Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 cups whole milk or 6 cups milk + 2 cups cream
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, for topping (recipe follows)
• 4 slices fresh sourdough bread
• Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

For the tomatoes:

• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons local honey
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1½ tablespoons good olive oil

Instructions: 

1. Position a large metal strainer over an empty bowl that will hold at least 8 cups. Line the strainer with at least 4 layers of cheesecloth. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat milk and salt slowly over medium-low heat. Use a thermometer to monitor the milk’s temperature. When it reaches 185° F, add the lemon juice and stir gently for 2 minutes. You should see the milk separating into fat solids and whey liquid.
2. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 20 minutes. Ladle the milk mixture slowly into the cheesecloth, allowing the liquid to drip out. Once you have ladled all of it in, let it drain for at least 20 minutes. Then, if desired, you can wrap the cheesecloth around the curds, twist the top, and gently squeeze to remove a bit more moisture.
3. Once the tomatoes are prepared, spoon the ricotta onto the fresh sourdough bread slices, spoon the tomatoes on top, and drizzle with some sweet tomato liquid. Garnish with fresh basil.

FOR THE HONEY-BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Whisk the salt into the honey. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on a prepared baking sheet. Drizzle half the honey over the tomatoes. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until soft, dried a bit, and slightly scorched on the edges. Remove to a bowl. Drizzle in the rest of the honey and the oil.

This recipe was originally published in Edible Alaska magazine.

The post You too can make trad wife-style ricotta + honey-blistered tomatoes appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I happen to have just such a muffin recipe in my back pocket. I never make it totally the same and tend to riff. You can too. Sometimes I add lemon zest, sometimes I skip. Sometimes I add just a tiny drop of almond extract and throw some slivered almonds in the topping. I often reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup when I use store-bought berries, which tend to be less tart. And, I use whatever dairy I have on hand for the liquid, including heavy cream, buttermilk or even plain yogurt or sour cream.

For a tidy look, when I’m using store-bought berries, I toss them in a little bit of the dry ingredients. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin cup and eases their tendency to bleed juices. It’s far harder to control those things with wild blueberries, but I still do the toss. Frozen blueberries should be added when they are thawed. Those are going to turn a muffin blue no matter what, but there’s something kind of nice about that too.

Essential Alaska blueberry muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk (can substitute buttermilk or sour cream)

1/2 cup (one cube) salted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the topping:

1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold salted butter

Method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper muffin cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pull out a 1/4 cup of that dry mixture and set it aside in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, milk, lemon zest and vanilla. Pour that mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined into a batter. In the bowl with the 1/4 cup of dry ingredients, gently toss the blueberries until they’re floured. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Now make the topping. Combine all the dry topping ingredients in a bowl. Using your hand, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it is broken down to balls slightly smaller than a pea. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, fill each muffin cup with 4 tablespoons of batter. Sprinkle each with a little less than a tablespoon of the topping. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of a muffin springs back when you press it. Serve warm with butter.

The post Every Alaska kitchen needs a blueberry muffin recipe. This is mine. appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

This sauce inspired me to think about making a special Sunday dinner extra-green lasagna with some of the greenest things I could find at the grocery store: leeks, baby asparagus and green peas. The result is a verdant take on classic “lasagna in bianca” or white lasagna, as beautiful and seasonal as it is delicious. I call it Green Queen lasagna because it feels very fancy.

This recipe has a number of components — green sauce, bechamel and sauteed spring vegetables — but I found making it went faster than I expected, thanks in part to using no-boil noodles. You can make the pesto ahead of time, like when you have some extra Costco spinach you need to use, and store it for a few days in the fridge. I wouldn’t freeze to preserve the green color. I used regular grated mozzarella, but you can also use torn fresh mozzarella. In that case, I would use a light hand with it because it can get heavy. When I make it again, I may lay basil leaves on top for one more touch of spring.

Green Queen Spring Lasagna

3 cups baby spinach, loosely packed

2 cups basil leaves, loosely packed

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large clove of garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons white miso

Juice and zest of one lemon

One 9-ounce box oven ready lasagna noodles

2 tablespoons butter

1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced

1 bunch thin asparagus, bottoms removed, diced in 1/2-inch pieces

1 cup frozen peas

Salt and pepper

2 cups whole milk

1 stick or 1/2 cup salted butter

2 1/4 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

A pinch of nutmeg

1 15-ounce container whole milk ricotta

1 egg

4 cups grated mozzarella

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Make the green sauce. In a powerful blender like a Vitamix or a food processor, add spinach, basil, olive oil, miso and lemon zest and juice. Blend on high until all the ingredients are fully broken down into a smooth, very green, concentrated sauce, that’s sort of a smoothie texture. Set aside.

3. Make bechamel. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Sprinkle flour over it and then whisk a minute or two until it smells nutty. Slowly whisk in the milk. While whisking, bring to a gentle simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk in salt and nutmeg. Set aside.

4. Make the fillings. Heat a large pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Once it’s melted, add leeks. Saute until softened, add asparagus and peas. Saute until the peas have defrosted and the asparagus is a brighter green, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, combine ricotta with one egg and two thirds of the green sauce.

5. Assemble the lasagna. Butter a 13-by-9-inch lasagna pan. Drizzle 2 or 3 tablespoons of bechamel in the bottom. Lay three noodle sheets in the pan, spread with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 1/3 of the vegetable mixture, about 1/3 cup of bechamel and about 1/3 cup of mozzarella. Continue the layers until you get to the last set of noodles. Spread these with the remaining green sauce, pour remaining bechamel over the top, sprinkle with about 1/2 cup mozzarella and the parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 more minutes, until the top is browned and the sides are bubbly.

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(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped small

1 large clove garlic, very thinly sliced

1 large handful of fresh basil leaves, big leaves torn

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 pound dry penne or rigatoni

2/3 + 1/3 cup cup finely grated parmesan

Method: About 6 to 24 hours before you plan to serve the pasta, combine all the ingredients except the pasta and the parmesan in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate. Before serving, cook the pasta in generously salted water according to package directions for al dente texture. Rinse in cold water until the noodles are cool to the touch. Mix with the tomato sauce and refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Stir in 2/3 cups parmesan. Serve with additional parmesan.

Originally published as part of “Your guide to a not-boring summer salmon dinner in four quick, easy recipes” on Substack.

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