Friday Night, quick and easy

This week I didn't plan anything at all for Friday because I still have a lot to do for our annual cookout (only a few weeks away) and I wanted to get some mulching and yard work done. I thought I would play it by ear, maybe this time we would order a pizza. Well I ended up going to Boston for the day with Lisa and Karisa so I didn't get the yard work done, but that's OK it was more fun to go enjoy the weather, friends and food in Boston. I left Lisa's house about 4:30 and went to Whole Foods just to grab something for the grill. I don't know what drew me to the fresh tuna steak, but I had to get a piece of that. I figured I would do a quick honey soy marinade and grill it for an appetizer. Then I originally planned on lamb (lolly-pops) chops, but they were so expensive and they had these small lamb steaks that looked a lot like fillet mignon, I was curious about those so I got a couple to try them out (It was a cut from the leg). I got some heirloom tomatoes and figured I'd do a quick tomato salad to go with it. I also got some asparagus because they were calling out to me, they are always good on the grill. At the farmer's market in Boston we got these baby carrots that we decided to par-boil and then grill them. I made a quick herb and Bulgar salad; just lots of herbs from the garden, some butter, salt and pepper. Dessert would be cannoli's from Mike's Pastry in Boston. I ended up getting home about 5:45 and dinner was ready in no time. Comparing what I usually do... cooking all day long...to... dinner tonight in no time... You know I love to cook but sometimes simple is best.

Friday Night Bites #5

This week I had a crazy idea, a BLT. What's so crazy about that you say? It's not what your thinking...

BLT with a twist

I saw an ad on the cooking channel, just a quick little thing where the guy said... "we use caramelized bacon and a ham hock to make our bacon ice cream." That's how this recipe began. I said ok would this be a dessert or can it be served as a savory course? What would I serve it with? Would it be by itself or maybe a play on a BLT? What could be the Lettuce part? What would be the Tomato part? Would I serve it on bread? I figured it out...

I made the ice cream by infusing cooked bacon that I chopped up into the milk for 30 minutes (I couldn't find a ham hock that day, but it turns out it wasn't necessary). I proceeded with a Maple Syrup Ice Cream recipe that I found on line seriouseats.com. Again I am serving this as a savory course so I didn't want it to be too sweet, and what kind of sweet goes with bacon? Maple syrup. I used a good pinch of Fleur de Sel to heighten the savory side of things. The Lettuce part was an arugula infused olive oil. I tour up a good amount of arugula leaves and put them into a small saucepan, then covered them with extra virgin olive oil. Put the heat on very low and once I saw it was heated through, but not at all boiling, I covered the pan and removed it from the heat. Let it sit for an hour to steep like a tea, then strained it. I tasted it and it was now "Arugula Oil". For the Tomato part, I slow roasted, drained and cut in half, San Marzano whole tomatoes from a can for about 2 1/2 hours at about 250 degrees. I cut them into a small dice. When I was ready to plate it I toasted a thin slice of sourdough bread and cut it into a triangle. In a shallow bowl I put in one scoop of bacon ice cream, drizzled with arugula olive oil and spooned on some diced slow roasted tomatoes. To garnish I sprinkled over some bacon that I cut into matchsticks, one whole arugula leaf and of course the triangle of sourdough bread. Can I tell you, it came out fantastic!

Scallion Crepe Cigars

This idea came from the Boston Globe Magazine. There was a recipe for these scallion crepes and the chef likes to serve them with this dipping sauce that was also featured in the magazine. I decided to roll them into a cigar shape, just to make it easier to dip. These crepes have a whole bunch of scallion mixed into the batter, and they end up being almost spicy from the white parts of the scallions and the dipping sauce has hot sauce in it. The sauce is 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp Mirin, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp Siracha, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger and 1 Tbsp of water.

Butterflied and BBQ'ed Whole Chicken

I never did bbq chicken in the oven, slow cooked and covered with foil. I think if I ever made bbq chicken it was on the grill with bbq sauce brushed on toward the end of cooking. Tony has made real bbq chicken with his charcoal grill and smoker. So I want to give this a shot. I saw a recipe on foodnetwork.com called Jack's BBQ Chicken and I used his method, but I also liked the sound of Bobby Flay's Bourbon BBQ Chicken with Sixteen Spice Rub so I used his rub and sauce. One of the reviews said they saw the show and he soaked his chicken in buttermilk but that wasn't even talked about in the recipe on-line. So I made some buttermilk with milk and a squeeze of a lemon, then removed the backbone from a chicken and layed it out flat and submerged it into the buttermilk, covered it and put it in the refrigerate for a few hours. It needed about 2 hours to cook so I took it out and padded it dry a little bit. Put it into a shallow baking pan and rubbed it with the rub, filled the bottom of the pan with some apple cider then covered it with aluminum foil. Put into a 300 degree oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes, then removed the foil and brushed on the BBQ Sauce and cooked it uncovered for 15 minutes. It came out nice and juicy and very flavorful. I served this with macaroni and cheese.

Spicy Crunchy Topped Mac and Cheese

I made a cheese sauce using Gruyere, Cheddar and Monteray cheeses, and the spice came from some cyenne pepper. I boiled a small funky shaped pasta and mixed the two together. I heated some olive oil in a skillet and added some bread crumbs and some fresh sage from the garden that I sliced thinly. I cooked these together with a pinch of salt and pepper until the bread crumbs became crunchy. I topped the mac and cheese with the crunchy crumbs.

Butterscotch Tirimisu

I didn't follow a recipe for this except for the Butterscotch Pastry Cream. The difference between regular pastry cream and butterscotch is the use of brown sugar in place of regular white sugar and a pinch of Fleur de Sel. I made the pastry cream and chilled it. I softened a 4 oz container of marcarpone cheese and set aside. I whipped some heavy cream with some confectioners sugar and vanilla. I mixed the three together until it tasted really good. So I made the coffee syrup for the lady fingers. If you ever made tirimisu you know you dip the store bought lady fingers into a coffee syrup before assembling the dish. I dissolved some sugar and water together on the stove top, I dissolved some decaffeinated instant coffee in some hot water and just added it until it was a rich dark color, but not too dark. I added some Bourbon, not too much. I tasted it and it needed just a splash of water to make it just right. I dipped the lady fingers into the coffee syrup quickly and lined the glass dish with them. I spread on 1/2 of the cream mixture and another layer of lady fingers and topped with the other 1/2 of the cream mixture. Cover and let it sit overnight so it all comes together nicely. I had slowly cooked some white chocolate that morning until it caramelized and put it into a small bowl and let it harden in the refrigerator. I grated that over the tirimisu before cutting into it. It was fantastic!

Friday Night Dinner, Spicy Chicken Coconut Curry

I haven't really been slacking off the past couple weeks on blogging, I have good excuses why. Two weeks ago on Friday night we went to a Neil Young concert in Worcester at the Hanover Theater. We had received a gift certificate to La Scala restaurant in Worcester for Christmas and hadn't used it yet, so we thought it would be a perfect time to use it. The restaurant was small, not too fancy, but very good basic Italian food. I felt like I was eating at some Italian family's house. Last week we had a yard sale on Saturday and we really didn't have everything pulled together for it ahead of time so Tony suggested we order a pizza and make it an easy night. I couldn't do that completely...we had pizza but I made it. I also had in my mind that I would make key lime pie for dessert and since it could be made easily that morning and sit in the refrigerator all day I decided to do that too. Instead of a regular graham cracker crust I mixed it up by adding in some ground almond flour to the mix and I actually topped the whole pie with meringue which we loved.

So this week I finally had time, but I had to keep it simple and I couldn't be too creative because I have this tooth ache that is driving me crazy. I got a tooth ache out of the blue. I made an appointment with the dentist and they scheduled me for the next day...Wonderful, only to find out I didn't have a cavity, instead I need a root canal. So now the root canal is scheduled for Wednesday (5 days later) 5 more days of tooth aches. So instead of the "bites" I went back to simpler times and did an appetizer, main dish and dessert.

Steamed Dumplings in a Flavorful Thai Broth

I bought these dumpling wrappers from a Asian market in Westboro and I hadn't used them yet, they had been sitting in the freezer. I looked for a dumpling recipe and I found these by Alton Brown on the Foodnetwork.com. (Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings) He uses tofu and cabbage and a whole bunch of other flavors and after they are steamed he likes to dip them into a broth, so that's what I did. I had some homemade chicken stock and I just added some to a pot with a couple cloves of garlic just cut in half, a couple pieces of fresh ginger about the same amount as the garlic, a dried Thai chili pepper ripped in two, salt and pepper. Just keep tasting it until it tastes right. Alton's recipe was really good, as most people rated this recipe with 5 stars. It's a nice light and flavorful appetizer to serve before Spicy Chicken Coconut Curry.

Spicy Chicken Coconut Curry with Jasmine Rice

This is a Tyler Florence recipe also found on Foodnetwork.com. A lot of people rated this recipe with 5 stars also, but once in a while someone said it wasn't flavorful enough, and I see what they mean. It was very good but the only thing it needed was more fresh herbs at the end or mixed in. Tony even thought that a fresh salsa spooned over the top would be a good addition. It wasn't spicy at all so maybe some spice in the salsa so someone can have it as hot as they like it. I cooked some Jasmine rice and served the curry over the rice.

Tangerine Creme Brulee

This sounded so good I had to do it. It was found in a French Style book I have. It's one of those books that has lots of pictures of French homes and gardens and there are also some recipes at the back of the book. They make this with Creme Fraiche, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla bean and they used Clementines. It was supposed to bake for 30 minutes in a 300 degree oven. It didn't work, I cooked it at least an hour and at some point I put the temperature up to 350. It never set up completely. After taking it out and cooling it a bit I chilled it and by the time dessert got here and Tony torched the sugar to make the "Brulee" part, It had set a bit but it also seemed to separate, it almost seemed like I poured some melted butter in the mix, but there was no butter. I know I did every thing the recipe said to do, maybe in France there Creme Fraiche is made differently, I don't know. The flavor was excellent. I will make this again and just use an American version custard with the orange flavors from this recipe. I topped the dessert with some shavings of orange chocolate bar I found at Whole Foods Market.

Sunday in the back yard

We invited Brian, Tara and the kids over this past weekend for a little cook-out and hanging out in the back yard. It turned out to be a nice and sunny day. Brian brought his camera, and let me tell you...he knows how to take a picture (he did today's food photography). We simply had cheese burgers on the grill, roasted sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. I also made a salad with tomatoes, blue cheese, roasted red peppers, grilled zucchini and summer squash (grilled ahead and marinated in balsamic dressing), roasted beets and fresh basil. For dessert it was "Hot Fudge Sundae's". I made a simple hot fudge sauce by heating up 1/3 cup of corn syrup and 1 cup of heavy cream in the microwave, remove it from the microwave and add 8 oz of chopped bittersweet chocolate, let it sit for a minute then stir and its ready to go on the ice cream. We had Vanilla and Mocha Chip ice cream, chocolate sauce, homemade whipped cream, walnuts and a cherry on top.

Friday Night Bites #4

I have been making these "Bites" and we are always very full by the time dessert is ready to be served so I made one less course this week, an it was perfect. I wanted to use pearl cous-cous somehow, I wasn't sure but I pictured it being suspended in a gelatin or something. After doing some research on gelatin and reading about "aspic", I decided to do this. Aspic is a savory jelly made from clarified stock and gelatin. This "clear jelly" is used as a base for molded dishes, where you can add fish, poultry, meats or eggs. You can serve it cubes as an accompaniment relish to cold meats or fish.

Sunset Borscht Aspic with Pearl Cous-Cous and Sauteed Beet Greens


Borscht is a beet soup that can include meat but I didn't want the meat. I wanted to make a "red jelly" and suspend the pearls of cous-cous in it. I bought a bunch of red beets and a bunch of yellow beets. I roasted off the beets, separately, a day ahead (just to save time). On Friday I chopped up the beets and added just one color at a time into a sauce pan that included chopped leeks softened in olive oil and about 1-2 cups of homemade chicken stock. I cooked this mixture together with salt and pureed it up with my emursion blender, then I strained it to remove any solids ( I wanted it to look like "stained glass" when I was done). I reheated the clear red liquid and added about a tsp of gelatin that I softened in 2 Tbsp of cold water for 5 minutes. Once the gelatin dissolved into the red liquid I removed it from the heat. In 6 oiled ramekins I sprinkled in some cooked cous-cous maybe about 1-2 Tbsp in each, then I spooned in some of the red aspic. I put the ramekins in the refrigerator and chilled while I did the same exact thing with the yellow beets. About an hour later I spooned the yellow aspic over the red aspic with a bit more cous-cous and placed them in the refrigerator to harden completely. When I was ready to serve I dipped the ramekins in hot water to help dislodge the aspic from the ramekin onto the plate. I topped it with sour cream mixed with lemon juice, salt and pepper. I also sauteed some of the beet greens in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and at the end I added red wine vinegar. I called it "Sunset" because the two colors; red and yellow, looks like a sunset. This turned out to be pretty damn good.

Homemade Pork Sausage with Cannellini Beans

I planned on getting a pork shoulder for this but I saw the "country style pork chops" and they looked like they had a good amount of fat on them ( which is what you want when you make sausage, fat) so I got them. I should have gotten the shoulder. The flavor of these were great, I followed one of Emeril's recipes ( I really haven't made enough sausage mixtures to be sure of myself). Like I said the flavor was great but they were a little too dry to be considered perfect.

Grilled flank steak with homemade tortillas and cucumber kimchi

I saw some good looking flank steak at Whole Foods and thought I would do something with it. I decided to marinate it first thing in the morning and grill it on the charcoal grill later. I found a recipe for homemade flour tortilla's and made that. The problem was that I wanted it to be soft and fresh, that's why I made them from scratch, but it tuned out that when they cooled down they became crispy. They were still very good but I wanted SOFT! I kept it simple, I wanted the flank steak to be the star so I didn't do anything else but a wedge of really good blue cheese, which was the perfect thing to put there. Along side I made a cucumber kimchi. Tony loved kimchi the last time I made it with cabbage so I happened to come across a picture of cucumber kimchi in a magazine earlier in the week. I looked through a bunch of magazines trying to find it and I couldn't find it. I said, "I don't need no stinkin' recipe, I can figure this out". I had a recipe for a quick kimchi that was from a Bobby Flay show in my files, so I used that as a guide to make my own. I combined julienned cucumber in a bowl with garlic, red pepper hot sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, water and scallions. Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for an hour and it's ready. I hollowed out a small section of cucumber and filled it in with the julienned cucumber mixture. I served that along side the flank steak with a radish rose garnish.

Zeppole with homemade strawberry rhubarb jam

Someone at work asked me if I ever made a zeppole. I didn't really know what it was, so no I didn't. After doing some research I found that it's just an Italian Doughnut. Recipes on the Internet were all in Italian so I found a recipe on fineliving.com from the show "Follow that Food", that looked like the ones I saw Italian women making on You Tube. It's a basic yeast doughnut dough. I have seen three different ways they do it. One is with a Pate Au Choux pastry dough, which is the same pastry you make a cream puff with. The second one is similar to a potato gnocchi dough with the addition of sugar and yeast in it. The last was is a sweet yeast dough, without the potato and that's what seemed to be the best way so I did that one. I fried them in some hot oil just when we were ready for dessert, so they would be fresh and hot. I coated them in a sugar and cinnamon combination when they are freshly drained out of the hot oil. I also got some fresh rhubarb from my brother-in-laws fantastic garden on a recent trip to visit my mother-in-law, so I had to make a strawberry-rhubarb jam to go with the zeppole. I just cut it open like you would a bun for a sandwich and filled it with the jam.

Friday Night Bites #3

I love to do these "bites night's", but Tony was right...again...It is more work. I don't mind more work if everything tastes as it did last night, which was excellent (if I do say so myself). The key is that you have to be organized and I already know that but I didn't have everything bought ahead so I had to go out and I left kind of late so I got started late. When that happens I am pretty much dead by 9:30 PM because there is no stopping to sit for a moment. So the other key is to cook as much as possible ahead and finish or heat through at dinner time. I didn't have ANYTHING done ahead, I started at 12:30 PM making all that you see below. I still love doing it...

Cheese Stuffed Croutons over Arugula Salad

This was really a last minute addition that took the place of something I was going to make that included Masa Harina, which I couldn't find anywhere, but when I am not looking for it I see it everywhere! I had just seen someone roll out white bread with a rolling pin and he topped it with something then cooked it, bread side down in a skillet until it got crispy. I took that same idea and made "cheese stuffed croutons" which were basically little baby grilled cheese sandwiches (about the size of a nickle). I put a slice of Swiss cheese between to slices of sourdough bread and rolled it as thin as I could and pan fried them in olive oil. I got some really peppery arugula and simply dressed it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Topped it with three of the cheese filled croutons, it was simple but pretty good.

Fried Cheese Ravioli with Parmesan Tomato Sauce

I have been wanting to do this, I saw Giada do it on "Everyday Italian" one day, a while ago. I combined it with another idea I saw in Jamie Oliver's magazine, where he made fresh pasta and in the process of rolling it out into a sheet, he sandwiched in some fresh herbs for a pretty decoration. I made a small batch of pasta dough and layered in basil and parsley to make the pasta sheets. For the filling I got some fresh ricotta from Whole Foods and strained it out for a few hours. I mixed some of the strained ricotta with Raclette cheese (which I never had but the description said it was a good melting cheese and it was earthy and meaty, so I gave it a shot). I also mixed in salt, pepper, basil chiffinade, lemon zest and a half of a beaten egg to bind it. I assembled the ravioli by placing a dollop of the cheese mixture over the herb that is in the pasta, so when I cut the ravioli shape, I get a nice whole herb leaf in the center of the ravioli. I placed the ravioli in the refrigerator for a couple hours until I was ready to fry them. When ready I just fried them in an inch of olive oil until it turned golden. I served 2 per person with some homemade tomato sauce. I actually took the left over centers of the whole tomatoes that I used to make the "Tomato Concasee" in the next recipe (the Leek Custard) to make this sauce. I did what I would normally do for canned tomatoes but it needed to cook a little longer because of the natural water that you get from fresh tomatoes. I combined garlic and olive oil, red pepper flakes, the chopped up tomato centers, salt, sugar and pepper. I cooked it for maybe 45 minutes and when I was ready to serve it with the "Fried Ravioli" I grated some Parmesan cheese in it. Very nice! The ravioli wasn't as crispy as I expected but very interesting and Tony thought is was a good idea to fill it with something sweet and top it with confectioners sugar for a dessert.

Leek Custard with Tomato Concasse, Tomato Water and Crispy Shallots

I happened to catch Emeril Lagasse on his show Emeril Green and he was just finishing up this leek custard. The very next day Tony was watching TV and he said ... ooohh a savory custard, that's interesting (he was watching something completely different)... That made me think of the one I saw Emeril do so I printed it and made it. But I made one change, instead of pairing it with smoked tomatoes, I made Tomato Concasse. That leads to why I thought of that, I saw Martha Stewart the same day and she made something with the concasse and said to do it over a strainer and save the tomato pulp to make "Tomato Water" it's delicious. So that's what I did, I never did that before. I fried thin sliced shallots in the same oil I used for the ravioli (above) until they were crispy and salted them after draining on paper towels. The custard was fantastic, it tasted like velvet and it paired very nicely with the tomato water and concasse and the crunchy shallots gave it a nice texture.

Skillet Fillet Mignon with Balsamic Steak Sauce and Buttermilk Mashed Potato

I almost always make a steak on the grill. This time I used my cast iron pan and started it on the stove top then into a 350 degree oven until they were done. These fillet steaks were beauties. They were at least 2 inches thick but small enough around to count as a "bite" sized portion. I brought them to room temperature about 45 minutes before cooking them so it cooks more evenly. I simply seasoned them with salt and pepper and got the pan hot over medium-high heat and cooked for 2 minutes on one side then turn over and put the pan in the oven for 8 minutes and they were absolutely perfectly medium. For the sauce simmer 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2/3 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup honey, 2 sliced shallots, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard, 1/4 tsp allspice, salt, sugar and pepper to taste until thickened, about 15 minutes. Strain then whisk in some butter (1-2 Tbsp). I made this ahead and just heated it up. I think it would go nice with grilled chicken too. I happened to have buttermilk from another recipe so I decided to use it in the mashed potatoes. That was all a dynamite combination, how can you go wrong with meat and potatoes?

Molten Lava Cake with Earl Gray Ice Cream

This is a combination that I have been seeing in one of Martha Stewart's books. I wasn't sure about "Earl Gray Tea" as a flavor for ice cream, so I had to try it, also I pictured doing a lava cake or something similar for tonight's dessert so I had to do Martha's combination of the two. The ice cream I thought wasn't sweet enough, it was OK if you ate it with some lava chocolate cake, but not on it's own. Tony really liked the flavor of the ice cream. The lava cake called for "ring molds" which I didn't have so I made my own instead of running around trying to find some. The recipe called for 2 1/2 inches by 2 3/4 inches so I found cans at the grocery store that were that size (tomato sauce if your interested) and I removed the top and bottom of the cans and walla, 2 ring molds. The idea was to cook them in the molds and remove the molds when done and you have a perfect cylinder or tower of chocolate and when you dive into it, it oozes chocolate onto the plate. Well I think I undercooked it a bit and it didn't really "stand" on it's own, it collapsed immediately, but wicked good!

Friday Night Bites #2

This time it was more than just Tony and I. Lisa and John joined us this week and we had a great night. I did make a couple repeats though. I planned to do the small dishes again, like last week, and there were a couple things I thought Lisa and John would like (since we already tested them out and were sure they were going to be good). One was the Mushroom Bruchetta that I made on "Friday Night, Rack of Lamb" night. The other was the Salmon en Papillote, which is salmon that is cooked in (parchment) paper. I have made this but it must not have been on a Friday night since I just looked at my list of dinners and it's not posted. Actually I also made the dessert before too, which was Al Forno Apple Tart which was "Friday Night, Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken".

Mushroom Bruchetta

Check out "Friday Night, Rack of Lamb" posting.

Pork Ball Sliders with Pickles Shallots and Brussels Sprout Slaw

Lisa doesn't like beef so much, but she does like pork. I have made meatballs before using ground pork and I think they are better than the traditional mix of ground chuck, veal and pork. I added to a mixing bowl a pound of ground pork. I cut the crust off of day old Italian bread and cut it into 1/2 inch squares, toast in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees just to dry it out a bit then add into a medium bowl. Pour milk over the bread and press it to soak the bread, once it's all absorbed just add the milk soaked bread to the pork (figure 60% pork to 40% bread). Add Saracha hot sauce to taste, 1 egg, a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. I used a regular sized ice cream scoop (maybe 1/3 cup) to scoop out the pork balls so they are all the same size, then place them on a sheet pan and bake for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven. While they cook make the sauce. In a sauce pan add about 1 cup of ketchup, Saracha hot sauce to taste, about 1/3 cup brown sugar, a couple table spoons of rice vinegar, about 1/2 cup of apple cider, salt and pepper. Stir and heat it over medium heat, place the pork balls into the sauce and finish cooking the balls through for about 30 minutes covered and at a gentle simmer. FYI, I didn't measure anything exactly, you really just have to taste it and see if it's how you like it. I made a simple pickled shallot to put on the slider by just slicing a shallot very thin and cover with red wine vinegar, a good pinch of salt and good pinch of sugar. Let it sit in the frig for a couple hours then remove it from the pickle juice. When I was ready to assemble I cut open small dinner rolls and crisped them up in a skillet with a little butter until golden. Place a pork ball with the sauce in the bun and top with a little shallot.

We heard someone on Food TV say...Brussels sprout slaw...and that's all I needed to hear. It's a baby cabbage so why not? I shaved about 8 Brussels sprouts on a mandolin and that was plenty for 4 mini plates. I combined some mayonnaise, a dash of sugar, rice vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Mix the two together being careful not to overkill with the mayonnaise mixture. I added the slaw along side the sliders.

Salmon en Papillot

As I said above Salmon en Papillot means cooked in (parchment) paper, in the oven. You can really put anything in this package as long as it all will take about the same time to cook. I have found that it doesn't take long for fish to cook, and the "mini" piece that I served really would be fast. I assembled these ahead of time and put them in the refrigerator. So I also figured these packets are cold so I gave a couple more minutes to the time. I guessed at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and they were don't perfectly. Take a good sized piece of parchment paper and fold it in half. On one side start adding what you like. I put in shaved fennel, julienne carrots and leeks as the base (salt and pepper on the vegetables). I placed a small piece of seasoned salmon over that (3-4 oz), a tsp of butter on the salmon, 1 slice of lemon and a fennel fron over the butter. Drizzle in some white wine, I used Pernoid. Close by folding over the other half and making a series of small folds to seal as tight as possible. Place them on a sheet pan and place into the oven or refrigerate for a couple hours until you are ready to serve.

Crispy Mango Chicken with a Red Quinoa Parmesan Cake

I wanted to make a mango sauce and that is how this recipe was born. I decided to reduce mango juice (about 1 1/2 cups) by about half or until it turned thicker, so that's what I did. I tasted it and it was good but needed something so I added the juice of 1/2 an orange for brightness and a tang. I added Sambal hot sauce for the heat and I like how you can see the bits of pepper flakes, so you know it's going to be a little spicy. I minced a shallot and put that in and of course salt to taste. I just let it cook a little bit more until it had a nice consistency for topping a piece of chicken. I pounded out a chicken breast and cut 4 small portions. I seasoned with salt and pepper and coated each piece in flour, egg wash and then Panko bread crumbs. Place on a cooling rack, uncovered and in the refrigerator to let it dry out a bit (this will ensure a crispy crust). When I was ready to serve I heated a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and added about 1/4 inch of canola oil. Once hot cook the chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through.

Red Quinoa Parmesan Cake

I tried to make quinoa risotto by toasting the grain first in butter then add white wine then ladle in hot chicken stock a little at a time, just as you would aborio rice. I heard that before, that you can treat any grain as if you are making a risotto....but guess what? Not this grain. So I went to plan B which was to add some stock and cover until it cooked through (package directions). That worked just fine, but I wanted it to have the texture of risotto rice so I could form it into a cake and get it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside by cooking the "cake" just before serving in a little butter. So I added grated Parmesan cheese (it helped but needed something else). I added an egg and then some panko bread crumbs. Now we are getting somewhere, it's holding it's shape when I formed it. I added salt and pepper and some fresh chives from my garden. Mix together and I used a 1/3 cup measure to shape the "cakes". First line the measuring cup with plastic wrap, pack in the quinoa (bury a small piece of Parmesan cheese in the center) and the plastic wrap helps to get it out easily. I made 4 and put them in the refrigerator covered. When ready to serve I coated each one in some flour and in the same non-stick skillet I cooked the chicken in I cooked these "cakes" in. I added some pea shoots for a little green and that's it.

Free Form Apple Tart with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Check out "Friday Night, Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken"

Friday Night Bites

This week I did something a little bit crazy...and I liked it!
What do we look for when we go out? We want good food and different flavors and not necessarily a "meal". That's what I have been doing right along, an appetizer, main dish with a veg and starch then dessert, but you know what? We don't always want a meal. Maybe a spicy bite here and an acidic bite there and maybe a meaty bite... that's what we want.

Spinach and Artichoke Flat bread

Tony and I went to the mall last week and we ate at a place called "The Met Bar". We saw a show one time where they talked about the unique way they cook their burgers, with a vertical grill. We ate there before and wanted to go back. This time we had an appetizer first called "Spinach and Artichoke Flat bread" that I decided to recreate. We have all had spinach and artichoke dip but this was interesting. I made some pizza dough, I made spinach and artichoke dip and you just roll out the dough fairly thin and put it on an oiled sheet pan, I did a long rectangle shape. Spread out the spinach and artichoke as you would do tomato sauce on pizza dough, about 1/2 inch thick. Drizzle with a little olive oil and grate some Parmesan cheese over. Put into a 500 degree oven and about 15-20 minutes later it's done, when the crust gets golden. They also had some crispy, deep fried artichoke pieces on top, only a few, so that's what I did too. I made a little tempura batter and just used artichokes from a can that were packed in water, just one that I quartered.

Salmon Rillette [ree-YEHTS] with Toast

This came from "The best thing I ever ate" show. I think it was Tyler Florance that raved about this dish from "The French Laundry" restaurant ran by Thomas Keller in California. They don't give the exact recipes on this show but they give you a quick look at the basic way they do it and I watched closely and I think I may have been right on. It was really delicious. Here is what I did...1/2 Lb salmon steamed in a Pernod for about 8-10 minutes then let it cool and break it into pieces (not too much). Add the steamed salmon to a bowl then add 1/2- 3/4 cup half inch dice of smoked salmon. Soften minced shallots in butter and cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes let it cool then add it to the salmon. To the bowl add about 2-3 Tbsp Creme Fraiche, 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 egg yolk, juice of 1 lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Mix gently together and taste for seasoning. Pack it into a short fat glass (he used a cute little mason jar with a flip top lid) and pour over the top about 1/4-1/2 inch of clarified butter. Chill for an hour and serve with slices of toasted French Baguette. When you serve you remove the butter in one piece and put it on the side and you can spread the butter and/or the salmon rillette on your toast. It tastes like a fancy restaurant dish.


Braised Pork Belly and Frisee

In case you didn't notice, pork belly is big now in fancy restaurants and I come across it more and more when I flip through food magazines. It's the same cut that bacon is made from but it's not smoked it's braised. I am not one to enjoy a lot of this kind of thing because let's face it, it's mostly fat. But when we went to NYC on our restaurant hopping trip a couple months back, this was something we had at Momofuko restaurant, and it's very good in small bites. But the problem is that it's usually sold in a big slab, too big for just Tony and I. So I came across this small package of Salt Pork (which is the same cut) that was pre sliced and it was kind of meaty looking. I didn't know what I would do with it at the time but then it came to me. I could do something Julia Child would do to bacon when she wanted to remove some of the smoke flavor, except I want to remove some of the salt. I will boil it then treat it like it's just a small piece of pork belly. So I found a recipe that Emeril has on Food Network.com and I followed it. It's marinated over night in orange juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon and lime juice, garlic and ginger, green onions, sambal and chicken stock. Braise it in the oven for a couple hours and chill it for 6 hours then reheat it. It's really good, Tony loved it. Perfect for a small bite and I served it with frisee lettuce dressed with rice wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

Fried Soft Boiled Egg over Stewed Vegetables

I served this on the same plate as the braised pork. We were watching Iron Chef and the ingredient was basil. One of the chef's made some stewed vegetables and topped it with a deep fried soft boiled egg that was breaded. So I said "Ooo I'll do that"! I soft boiled an egg for 6 minutes and let it cool in cold water. Tap the whole egg with the back of a spoon and starting at the fat end of the egg start to peel carefully under cool water and it takes a minute but you can easily peel it. I chilled the eggs until I was ready to fry them a few hours later. I made some stewed vegetables by just throwing into a sauce pan; green and red peppers, baby tomatoes, basil, onions, olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar and salt. I covered it and just cooked it slowly until the vegetables looked delicious. When I was ready to serve I breaded the eggs with flour, egg and bread crumbs then deep fried for about one minute until it's golden in color and the inside warms through. Wow the egg on top of the vegetables and when you cut into it and it oozzes, it's something else. Who knew?


Sweet and Tangy Salad in Endive Cups with Mignonette Sauce

I wanted to do something light amongst all the other "bites" and I also wanted to use Mignonette sauce. Tony loves this sauce with his oysters at Mills Tavern, every time he gets them he's always loving the sauce. So I came across a recipe which is just 1 minced shallot, 1/4 cup sherry vinegar, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I don't think I will ever have oysters so what can I do? I thought I would do some different exotic fruits and vegetables all cut into 1/4 inch dice and use the leaves of the endive lettuce as the vehicle. So I cut up some kiwi, green grapes, Bosc pear, fresh mint and golden beets that I roasted ahead of time. I squeezed the juice of a half a lemon into the bowl just to prevent the pear from browning. I spooned the mixture into the endive leaves and put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to serve. Just before serving I spooned the mignonette sauce on top and around the endive "boats". We loved the combination of everything and I think it was a good way to use the sauce.

Martini Ice Cream with Candied Olives

Originally I was planning to make 3 mini examples of homemade ice cream of flavors we never tasted in ice cream (I will save that for another time). To get ideas I was looking through my "Food Lover's Companion" book and I saw Gin, it explains how they make it and what other flavors go into it. It's made with juniper berries (which we just happened to have in the spice cabinet), anise, caraway seed, cardamom, cinnamon, citrus peel, coriander seeds, ginger root and a couple other things I wouldn't be able to get. I thought that I would crush all these different flavors in my mortar and pestle and then steep them in the milk of the ice cream for 30 minutes and proceed with making ice cream as I normally would. But this gave me another idea. If I make ice cream that tastes like gin I will have to serve it in a martini glass (Tony drinks his martini's with gin not vodka so this was just a natural thought). And you can't just do that you have to have something that would be the olive... Well what if I just candy some real olives... That's what I did. I made a simple syrup and just gently cooked olives over low heat for about an hour. When I tasted them while they were warm they were great, a sweet olive, perfect! I put it together and put the martini glasses in the freezer. The ice cream was delicious but you don't think gin when you taste it, you think cardamom with some other flavors. The olives when frozen and next to the sweet ice cream tasted too savory, almost like I didn't candy them at all.

Friday Night, Boeuf Bourguignonne

The idea came from Anthony Bourdain's show on techniques, the same show that inspired the homemade pasta dish last Thursday night. Throughout the whole show he made this beef dish, while it cut to different chefs doing their "technique dish". I'm sure I made this before but I probably didn't do it exactly the same way. I am sure I used more vegetables and I didn't use all wine as the braising liquid like he showed, more like a American beef stew. It was hard to tell exactly what he did...Did he keep adding wine as it evaporates...Did he add something else...Did he cover the roasting pan, it didn't look like it...So I did it his way and my way.

Muhammara

I looked through some magazines to find an appetizer idea that I haven't made and I found something. Muhammara, which is a Syrian roasted pepper and walnut spread that is a great alternative to hummus. You just throw all the ingredients into a food processor until a coarse puree forms. The recipe calls for walnuts (I used almonds), I don't know how it happened but I was out of walnuts, I always have a big bag from BJ's in the freezer. It's 12 oz of roasted red peppers, 1 cup of almonds or walnuts, 1/3 cup of Panko bread crumbs, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of cumin and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. I served it with store bought pita chips. Really good and easy to do and not bad for the waist line.

Boeuf Bourguignonne

I would normally use my LeCruset heavy bottomed cast iron enamel covered pot for something like this and just brown the meat in two batches. Instead though, Anthony Bourdain used a heavy bottomed roasting pan spread over two burners on the stove top, it saves time to do it with the roasting pan. The reason is because when you brown the beef chunks, you really need to space them out a bit, otherwise you will end up with a tan color on the beef and it will turn watery and start to steam, and that is not what you want. So I browned some 2 inch pieces of chuck beef on all sides in a little bit of olive oil, which takes about 10 minutes or so. Remove the meat pieces to a plate and pour off the extra fat. Place the pan back on the heat and add an onion that's medium diced. Cook the onion over medium heat, scraping the brown bits and making sure the onions don't burn for about 10 minutes. Add Burgundy wine (about 2-3 cups, he didn't really say but that's what I did) and continue scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add big 1 inch chunks of carrots and the meat back in and just let it cook for 3 hours. Now that's when I was worried about evaporation, he never said he covered it but I took a big sheet of parchment paper and wet it, squeeze out the excess water and put it right on the stew, tucking it along the inside of the pan and every 30 minutes I removed the parchment and stirred it and replaced the parchment. It was still evaporating a little so I had made some beef stock a week earlier, it was sitting in the freezer, so I heated it to defrost it and reduced it down a bit. After it was reduced I added the stock to the stew when it needed it. I don't know if Anthony Bourdain did that, but I would suggest you do that. If you add more wine later on it won't taste very good, and you want a nice meaty sauce in your Boeuf Bourguignonne, it won't be good if it's dried out. That's it, after cooking for 3 hours the meat is very tender and the sauce is rich and tasty. Plate it in a shallow bowl and garnish with fresh parsley.


Homemade Basket of Flavored Breads and Butters

After going to the Mill's Tavern last week and getting a basket of flavored breads, it inspired me to do it myself. I have been making bread lately from Jim Lahey's book, the no-kneed method. At the restaurant they served a fennel and raisin bread, a sourdough and an Italian bread. I had a thought one day that the spice fennugreek (which has a maple syrup flavor) would pair well with bacon. So I thought I would do two breads; the fennel and raisin; the fennugreek and bacon. I cooked the ingredients ahead and after the second rise of the dough when I was shaping them into the final bread shape, I incorporated the ingredients to make the two flavors. The butters were just a really good European style butter which has a higher percentage of fat, and in turn it tastes really good. The other butter was something I never had and I kind of knew it might not go with Boeuf Bourguignonne but I made it anyway was, apple butter. It's apples and cider, sugar and spices and you cook it down until it gets really thick, which takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours. It was really good, I think it would be perfect with pork.


Mixed Berry Tart with Coffee

I have made lots of tarts... apple, peach, chocolate... I don't believe I have ever made a berry tart with pastry cream. I can't believe it myself! If I did it was a long time ago. So I got John Barricelli's new book, he is a guy that Martha Stewart has made famous. He's on her shows once in a while and he's like the 3rd generation of bakers in his family. He's got a bakery in Connecticut called The Sono Baking Company. He's got some good looking pictures of this berry tart in his book, I had to make it. I wanted to make the smaller tartlet shapes but I couldn't find the mini pans you need in the couple days I had, so I just used a bigger 12 inch tart pan. It's really easy to do and impressive looking. The one thing I would change is the crust, I made his which is very different than I usually do, his is a much more wet dough. So you make the dough and "blind bake" it, and let it cool. You make a pastry cream, which is simple and delicious. Use whatever berries you want, I used black berries and raspberries. To assemble just spread the pastry cream onto the cooled off tart crust, heat a couple Tbsp of apricot jam and coat the berries in the jam then spoon the berries over the top of the tart. Sprinkle some sliced almonds on the edges. Serve it with a rich cup of coffee.