Three days of golf was a body disaster. I was at my chiropractor today and am a little better. I subscribe to “A year of Slow Cooking.” Today a recipe came in that sounded very tasty and I had all the ingredients. . My slow cooker seems to cook too fast. I made her Slow Cooker Marmalade Curry Chicken Recipe.
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves or thighs
1 (16 oz) jar orange marmalade
1 ½ t curry powder
½ t cayenne pepper
¼ t ground ginger
¼ t kosher salt
¼ C chicken broth
Use a 4 qt. slow cooker. Put the chicken in the bottom of the cooker. In a small bowl, combine the marmalade with the dry spices and chicken broth. Pour this on top of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on height for about 4 hours. Mine I did on high for 3.5 hours and it was over cooked and dry. The sauce saved it. I served the chicken and the sauce over Red Quinoa. Jim really liked it.
I made a salad of tomato, cucumber, blueberries and romaine. I had a new salad dressing that was non-fat lime vinaigrette. It was very good, but I put too much dressing on the salad.
We drank a New Kent Winery Chardonnay that we bought on our weekend trip. I like it. Jim did not.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Burgers and green beans
I have been very spoiled for the last few weekends. Tonight we had burgers from Costco that we sprinkled with Chicago Penzeys seasoning and truffle salt. I served with whole wheat buns, mustard, catsup and lettuce. Jim picked our green beans and I made them as follows from a Viansa recipe:
1 # green beans
3 fresh tomatoes
2 T EVOO
1 whole garlic clove
2 T Italian seasoning blend
1 t chopped fresh basil (1/3 t dried)
1 t chopped fresh oregano (1/3 t dried)
1 lemon
As my beans from the garden tend to be a little tough, I put it all in a pot and started to boil. I boiled until the burgers were done, drained and they were good. I did not add the tomatoes as Jim did not like the last green beans recipe with tomatoes. If you have store bought green beans, boil first for 5 minutes, then add to a skillet with the EVOO and tomatoes plus seasonings and cook until done.
1 # green beans
3 fresh tomatoes
2 T EVOO
1 whole garlic clove
2 T Italian seasoning blend
1 t chopped fresh basil (1/3 t dried)
1 t chopped fresh oregano (1/3 t dried)
1 lemon
As my beans from the garden tend to be a little tough, I put it all in a pot and started to boil. I boiled until the burgers were done, drained and they were good. I did not add the tomatoes as Jim did not like the last green beans recipe with tomatoes. If you have store bought green beans, boil first for 5 minutes, then add to a skillet with the EVOO and tomatoes plus seasonings and cook until done.
Restaurant Reviews for VA
Jim says I may need to change my name to Linda’s Recipe Collection and Restaurant Review. We were away this weekend also in southern Virginia, this time, playing golf at courses associated with our Club. As our Club is a corporation, we play these courses for “free”, just like we do at home. I say “free” as that means minus the initiation fee and the monthly dues. However, there are clubs were you pay the same and don’t have privileges at other courses around the world. We started out Friday dropping off Max at the kennel and driving to The Club at Viniterra near Richmond. How someone figured out to make a golf course on this terrain was amazing to me. After golf we visited the winery across the street. Fabulous building; wines were OK. We then drove down to the Norfolk area. Our friends who had been there many times said they have been very disappointed with restaurants in the area. I went to opentable.com and found Vintage Tavern in Suffolk. The restaurant is very nice looking and the food is all locally grown and delicious. No one was disappointed in the food or the wine list.
The next day we played the Greenbrier Golf Club in Chesapeake, VA, not the famous Greenbrier in West Virginia. They have a lovely club with all amenities. That night we went to the Towne Pointe Club in Norfolk. Our corporation also owns eating clubs. We can eat for free once a month at these clubs, beyond a 50 mile radius of our home club. We have enjoyed them in many states. Everyone enjoyed their meal but me. I ordered coconut shrimp. There is no one that makes coconut shrimp better than The Tavern in Manayunk, PA, I am not sure if it is still there. If it is, order their coconut shrimp. My appetizer was divine. The salad course I chose was the tomato mozzarella stack. They should only offer this with great tomatoes. These were not. The wines were very good and the sommelier very knowledgeable.
The next day we played Stonehenge in the Richmond area on the way home. I drove the cart; way too much golf for me. On the way home we stopped in Warrenton and had dinner at our favorite restaurant called The Iron Bridge Winery. I love it as they have small dishes and dinners. I had gazpacho and a small mushroom pizza. Jim had mussels and scallops. We had champagne for free and dessert because it was our anniversary month. Another great weekend, but I have no recipes to share.
The next day we played the Greenbrier Golf Club in Chesapeake, VA, not the famous Greenbrier in West Virginia. They have a lovely club with all amenities. That night we went to the Towne Pointe Club in Norfolk. Our corporation also owns eating clubs. We can eat for free once a month at these clubs, beyond a 50 mile radius of our home club. We have enjoyed them in many states. Everyone enjoyed their meal but me. I ordered coconut shrimp. There is no one that makes coconut shrimp better than The Tavern in Manayunk, PA, I am not sure if it is still there. If it is, order their coconut shrimp. My appetizer was divine. The salad course I chose was the tomato mozzarella stack. They should only offer this with great tomatoes. These were not. The wines were very good and the sommelier very knowledgeable.
The next day we played Stonehenge in the Richmond area on the way home. I drove the cart; way too much golf for me. On the way home we stopped in Warrenton and had dinner at our favorite restaurant called The Iron Bridge Winery. I love it as they have small dishes and dinners. I had gazpacho and a small mushroom pizza. Jim had mussels and scallops. We had champagne for free and dessert because it was our anniversary month. Another great weekend, but I have no recipes to share.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Pork, cranberry wine marinade.
Sorry to say that tonight’s meal was all out of the freezer and I cannot find the marinade recipe. I labeled it cranberry wine marinade for pork. It may be in my used menus, but as I have had to take everything off the kitchen counters so that it does not look like I cook, I cannot find anything. Dinner was great. I marinated the pork tenderloin in the leftover cranberry wine sauce. I poached two great looking artichokes. That was dinner. Jim came in from grilling and asked what we were going to do with all the leftovers. I said what are you talking about. As he ate eveerything in site, he confessed that it looked like a lot. It is, but that is what Jim eats. All gone!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Dinner, ho hum
Dinner tonight was OK. Jim grilled Costco salmon burgers. We served them on whole wheat buns with tomato and mustard. I purchased baby zucchini that I stir fried in olive oil and Viansa Caprese Pepper and Citrus Blend. I also made Baked Sweet Potato Fries by a Paula Dean Recipe. She seasons it with her house seasoning. I have made and stored her house seasoning, but could not find it. My kitchen has been stripped and everything stuffed in the cupboards so it looks like no one cooks. It is beginning to drive me insane. Anyway I sliced using my mandolin into ¼” long slices. I salted and peppered. No garlic, but I was not in a garlic mood. I cooked for 20 minutes at 450 degrees as requested and cooled for 10. For me they were not crisp enough. They were spread in one layer on an 11 x 17 pan lined with parchment paper. I am still suffering from the excellent food from NYC this past weekend. Probably nothing will please me again.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Lunch and Dinner
I’ve been a little lazy since returning from NYC. Also, we have two stuffed freezers. We are trying to eat out of the freezer so things don’t go bad.
Yesterday my friend Fran came over to restage the house. We are trying to sell and people walk in and pronounce it modern. She rearranged everything, doesn’t look modern anymore. We will see what happens. We did lunch yesterday, before Fran left. I bought a pasta broccoli salad from Wegmans. We had a great salad and Omaha tornados wrapped with bacon. I served my fig cookies for dessert.
Today we were both very busy. We thawed chicken breasts and I marinated them in Viansa citrus herbs. Jim cooked them on the grille. I made a salad of romaine, cucumber and tomatoes and dressed it with Wegmans Ceasar salad. I cooked tiny mixed potatoes and dressed with a lime basil dressing. I made a compose like a Nicoise and sliced the chicken and placed on top. For dessert we had Jell-O, blueberries and left over cookies. Both days we had a Viansa Cabernet Sauvignon. It went well with both meals. We could not drink much at noon on Monday. Finished it today.
Yesterday my friend Fran came over to restage the house. We are trying to sell and people walk in and pronounce it modern. She rearranged everything, doesn’t look modern anymore. We will see what happens. We did lunch yesterday, before Fran left. I bought a pasta broccoli salad from Wegmans. We had a great salad and Omaha tornados wrapped with bacon. I served my fig cookies for dessert.
Today we were both very busy. We thawed chicken breasts and I marinated them in Viansa citrus herbs. Jim cooked them on the grille. I made a salad of romaine, cucumber and tomatoes and dressed it with Wegmans Ceasar salad. I cooked tiny mixed potatoes and dressed with a lime basil dressing. I made a compose like a Nicoise and sliced the chicken and placed on top. For dessert we had Jell-O, blueberries and left over cookies. Both days we had a Viansa Cabernet Sauvignon. It went well with both meals. We could not drink much at noon on Monday. Finished it today.
Monday, August 23, 2010
NYC Weekend
We just returned from a fabulous weekend in NYC. We stayed in the Marriot Marque on Times Square. We took the train from DC to NYC. It was a delightful way to travel. We read, slept and Jim conducted a little business. This trip was a surprise from Jim for our 45th Wedding Anniversary. After he told me, I planned the restaurants. On Saturday we saw Wicked. The production was so outstanding I was actually in tears at the end. The play is sad, funny, romantic, and evil all in one. The staging is fantastic. Friday night we went to Felidia. Felidia is Lidia Bastianich’s first restaurant in NYC. For those of you who don’t know Lidia she has had a cooking show on PBS for years. The food and service were outstanding. Jim told our waiter, “I have eater all around the world and this is the most creative and delicious food I have ever tasted.” The waiters were so knowledgeable about the food. They knew the preparation and ingredients. Their descriptions were amazing. For Jim’s appetizer the waiter suggested Polipo. He told Jim that it was a combination of octopus and eggplant. Jim answered that he liked octopus but wasn’t sure about eggplant. I laughed and told him I bet that was the first time the waiter had received that answer. The waiter talked him into it and said if he did not like it, he would bring another. It was wonderful. There was grilled octopus, but in the middle was a kind of jelled mosaic of eggplant and octopus cut paper thin. How they did that was beyond me. The plate was a work of art and delicious. When you sat down they delivered to the table a basket of what looked like broken pasta. It was actually Parmesan crackers, flavored with different flavors like pasta, i.e. , squid ink, basil, sun roasted tomatoes, plain. We asked and received seconds. The waiter explained to me how to make them when I asked if the recipe was in any of Lidia’s cookbooks. For Jim’s main course he had Vitello. It was veal tenderloin with Chanterelle mushrooms, asparagus and summer truffle sauce. I did not order off the menu but from the specials. For my appetizer I had fig crostini with prosciutto and melon. The crostini were spread with fresh figs. The melon and prosciutto were arranged decoratively on the plate. For my main course I had an amazing pasta dish. The pasta was Squid Ink pasta and the sauce was Alaskan king crab with sea urchin and Jersey tomatoes. They also serve amazing bread. One was whole wheat walnut bread. I make whole wheat walnut bread, but not as well as this. The table olive oil is delicious, not the tasteless stuff you get in most restaurants. For our main course Jim asked the help of the sommelier. He told her that he had a wine cellar with 1300 bottles, mostly French and California, but was lost when it came to Italian wine. She chose a 2006 Roero, DOC Audinaggio Estate bottled by Coscina Ca’Rossa di Ferrio Canole, Itallia. It was so good that he wrote down every word off the label to be able to hopefully purchase it. Jim’s dessert was a blueberry torte with lavender ice cream. I had berries with berry sorbet. They also brought out a tray of delicious mixed cookies. We brought a doggie bag of crackers, bread and cookies back to the room and ate them mid morning on Saturday with coffee and tea in the room. I have not been as impressed with the creativity and taste of the food since Topalabompo in Chicago. After dinner we returned to hotel and had drinks on the top floor called the View. It is a revolving restaurant and bar that gives you a 360 view of the city. We still have one day to go to #45.
Before the play on Saturday we stopped into Azalea Ristorante on 51st Street right in front of the theater. We ordered a light lunch to hold us over until dinner at 8:45 PM. It was delightful, but should not have followed Felidia. After the play we returned to our room to relax and have our 1999 Dom Perignon. As we relaxed and had our champagne, we discussed the play and read the Playbill to discover who all the actors were and go over our favorite lines. Finally we dress for dinner and take off for an evening at Gordon Ramsay, At the London. Off the lobby is a lively bar and eating area before entering into the elegant dining area. The dining room is very modern and I adored everything except the two chandeliers in the middle of the room. I do not think they reflected the elegance of the rest of the décor. All the wait staff wore tuxedos, male and female. I was in a black, white, grey and chrome environment. I felt completely at home. The other thing that I must talk about is the table ware. The plates, silver, and accessory service ware was exquisite. I later asked the chef about one plate in particular and he said all service ware is specified out of England by Gordon Ramsay. The evening started with a small taste of cauliflower soup and a bite of something neither of us remember as I was so enamored with the plate it was on. Jim ordered by the glass a French Rose for our appetizers that followed the taste teaser. By the way when Jim was asked how he liked the soup he commented that he loved it and could have 5 more. You guessed it; they brought him more on the double. All food was brought to the entrance to the room by a waiter who stood holding it until your waiter noticed him and escorted him to your table and served you. For appetizers, Jim ordered Butter poached Maine lobster, arugula, candied kumquats, baked yellow beets beurre rouge. I do not know what it tasted like, he would not share, but he ate the beets. I ordered Caramelized veal sweetbreads lemon poached endive, marinated Persian cucumber and English peas. I love sweetbreads and you hardly ever see them on a menu. I was worried about the dish as I hate endive. You can fix me endive any day if you can reproduce it in this way. It was divine. The cucumbers were marinated in balsamic vinegar and added just the right punch to the dish. The peas had been reduced to a sauce on the plate. The rosé was perfect with the dish. Unfortunately Jim did not write down the Rosé so all I know is from the bill, GLS STILL ROSE. I think something came out in between the appetizer and the main course, but it could have just been the rolls that were passed around, again on a beautiful silver tray. Jim had triple seared dry aged NY strip loin smoked beef tongue, roasted cippolini onions, beef jus. Again he did not share. I chose Colorado lamb roasted in goat’s butter, fava bean tapenade, confit potatoes, and cilantro with lamb vinaigrette. I chose this based on another favorite, fava beans. It is hard to explain what I really had in front of me. There were two gigantic pieces of lamb, one was a perfect rectangle. It might have had a sprinkle of powdered cilantro on top. It was definitely powdered something and if it was cilantro, which I do not like, it was great. The only thing I could complain about was the confit potatoes. I thought they were tasteless. By now Jim is on a first name basis with the sommelier. Jim and he picked the following wine based on someone named Paul Hobbs. I listened, but it was like they had a language all their own. Anyway the sommelier wrote the following for Jim, Paul Hobbs, Vlises Valdez Vineyard, Russian River Valley 2007. It is definitely worth looking for. They also had a big discussion about the wine cellar which is visible from the dining room. Jim was promised a complete tour after dining. For dessert Jim ordered Raspberry soufflé with quark ice cream. Quark is a kind of cheese. I had “Cornbread” blueberry cream, calamansi lime, steel cut oats with sweet corn gelato. It tasted nothing like it sounds. All I can say is it is divine. Dessert is followed by the Bon Bon trolley. We had two or three of everything. And they boxed more to go.
After dinner we indeed had a tour of the wine cellar and the kitchen. I met the head chef and the pastry chef. I asked the chef if it was as difficult to work for Gordon Ramsey as it seems on TV. He rolled his eyes and said it is “challenging but rewarding.” He asked where we were from and when we said VA, he asked if we knew Trummer’s on Main in Clifton. We indeed did and told him it was beautiful and the food was very good. He said it was owned by his best friend. We dined there to say goodbye to our friends Roger and Carole. We met at Michigan State in 1965. We were married a day and a year apart. Since moving to DC where they had lived since graduate school, we celebrated together. Carole new all the great places. She’d supply me with the name and I would tell Roger where to meet us. He always loved the food, but we’d have to pick him off the floor after they delivered the check. Now they’ve moved to NC to be near their daughter and grandchild. I sent a card that said don’t let Roger take you to Mac Donald’s this year.
Sunday was almost a disaster. I make reservations through Open Table on line. I plugged in Daniel’s and Danielle came up. We wanted to have a lunch before boarding the train at 4:00 as we wouldn’t reach home until about 8:00 PM and I was not cooking. I had read about Daniel in the NY Times while at our friend’s house. There was an article about the $25 hamburger. I wanted to try it. As we are leaving the hotel on Friday and the taxi turns on to 8th Ave, I see a neon sign that says Danielle. I said Jim what is the address of Danielle. Horrors, it is a dive. I began to get suspicious when they did not call to confirm. Felidia and London did. Jim the eternal optimist said we will get up early tomorrow and walk there before the play. Just because you don’t like the exterior doesn’t mean we have the wrong place. Well, we found it, it was a dive and $25 could have bought you soup to nuts for 12. Jim called and tried to cancel, but no one spoke English. They may not have even realized they had a reservation. Anyway we worked with the concierge of the hotel to get it all straightened out. Still working with the Concierge we found out that Daniel’s is not open on Sunday.
In the hotel magazine, I saw an advertisement for Megu, Modern Japanese Cuisine. We used to have wonderful dinners at a restaurant in NYC called Restaurant Nippon. We decided to go there for lunch. I don’t know but Kobe beef burgers with parmesan fries with truffle sauce were not what I consider Japanese. The waiter was dreadful. Everything I asked him about that seemed Japanese on the menu, he would mumble something like you only get blah. But finally one of the Japanese girls was served dessert and it was the green tea crepe I had seen in the advertisement. I had that and green tea; I was happy as a clam. Jim ate his burger, my burger his fries and mine. He was also happy. If you go for lunch order the bento box and don’t listen to the waiter. They also serve a crispy shrimp that taste just like Bang, Bang shrimp at Bonefish Grille.
It is hard to come down to earth when you’ve been to heaven.
Before the play on Saturday we stopped into Azalea Ristorante on 51st Street right in front of the theater. We ordered a light lunch to hold us over until dinner at 8:45 PM. It was delightful, but should not have followed Felidia. After the play we returned to our room to relax and have our 1999 Dom Perignon. As we relaxed and had our champagne, we discussed the play and read the Playbill to discover who all the actors were and go over our favorite lines. Finally we dress for dinner and take off for an evening at Gordon Ramsay, At the London. Off the lobby is a lively bar and eating area before entering into the elegant dining area. The dining room is very modern and I adored everything except the two chandeliers in the middle of the room. I do not think they reflected the elegance of the rest of the décor. All the wait staff wore tuxedos, male and female. I was in a black, white, grey and chrome environment. I felt completely at home. The other thing that I must talk about is the table ware. The plates, silver, and accessory service ware was exquisite. I later asked the chef about one plate in particular and he said all service ware is specified out of England by Gordon Ramsay. The evening started with a small taste of cauliflower soup and a bite of something neither of us remember as I was so enamored with the plate it was on. Jim ordered by the glass a French Rose for our appetizers that followed the taste teaser. By the way when Jim was asked how he liked the soup he commented that he loved it and could have 5 more. You guessed it; they brought him more on the double. All food was brought to the entrance to the room by a waiter who stood holding it until your waiter noticed him and escorted him to your table and served you. For appetizers, Jim ordered Butter poached Maine lobster, arugula, candied kumquats, baked yellow beets beurre rouge. I do not know what it tasted like, he would not share, but he ate the beets. I ordered Caramelized veal sweetbreads lemon poached endive, marinated Persian cucumber and English peas. I love sweetbreads and you hardly ever see them on a menu. I was worried about the dish as I hate endive. You can fix me endive any day if you can reproduce it in this way. It was divine. The cucumbers were marinated in balsamic vinegar and added just the right punch to the dish. The peas had been reduced to a sauce on the plate. The rosé was perfect with the dish. Unfortunately Jim did not write down the Rosé so all I know is from the bill, GLS STILL ROSE. I think something came out in between the appetizer and the main course, but it could have just been the rolls that were passed around, again on a beautiful silver tray. Jim had triple seared dry aged NY strip loin smoked beef tongue, roasted cippolini onions, beef jus. Again he did not share. I chose Colorado lamb roasted in goat’s butter, fava bean tapenade, confit potatoes, and cilantro with lamb vinaigrette. I chose this based on another favorite, fava beans. It is hard to explain what I really had in front of me. There were two gigantic pieces of lamb, one was a perfect rectangle. It might have had a sprinkle of powdered cilantro on top. It was definitely powdered something and if it was cilantro, which I do not like, it was great. The only thing I could complain about was the confit potatoes. I thought they were tasteless. By now Jim is on a first name basis with the sommelier. Jim and he picked the following wine based on someone named Paul Hobbs. I listened, but it was like they had a language all their own. Anyway the sommelier wrote the following for Jim, Paul Hobbs, Vlises Valdez Vineyard, Russian River Valley 2007. It is definitely worth looking for. They also had a big discussion about the wine cellar which is visible from the dining room. Jim was promised a complete tour after dining. For dessert Jim ordered Raspberry soufflé with quark ice cream. Quark is a kind of cheese. I had “Cornbread” blueberry cream, calamansi lime, steel cut oats with sweet corn gelato. It tasted nothing like it sounds. All I can say is it is divine. Dessert is followed by the Bon Bon trolley. We had two or three of everything. And they boxed more to go.
After dinner we indeed had a tour of the wine cellar and the kitchen. I met the head chef and the pastry chef. I asked the chef if it was as difficult to work for Gordon Ramsey as it seems on TV. He rolled his eyes and said it is “challenging but rewarding.” He asked where we were from and when we said VA, he asked if we knew Trummer’s on Main in Clifton. We indeed did and told him it was beautiful and the food was very good. He said it was owned by his best friend. We dined there to say goodbye to our friends Roger and Carole. We met at Michigan State in 1965. We were married a day and a year apart. Since moving to DC where they had lived since graduate school, we celebrated together. Carole new all the great places. She’d supply me with the name and I would tell Roger where to meet us. He always loved the food, but we’d have to pick him off the floor after they delivered the check. Now they’ve moved to NC to be near their daughter and grandchild. I sent a card that said don’t let Roger take you to Mac Donald’s this year.
Sunday was almost a disaster. I make reservations through Open Table on line. I plugged in Daniel’s and Danielle came up. We wanted to have a lunch before boarding the train at 4:00 as we wouldn’t reach home until about 8:00 PM and I was not cooking. I had read about Daniel in the NY Times while at our friend’s house. There was an article about the $25 hamburger. I wanted to try it. As we are leaving the hotel on Friday and the taxi turns on to 8th Ave, I see a neon sign that says Danielle. I said Jim what is the address of Danielle. Horrors, it is a dive. I began to get suspicious when they did not call to confirm. Felidia and London did. Jim the eternal optimist said we will get up early tomorrow and walk there before the play. Just because you don’t like the exterior doesn’t mean we have the wrong place. Well, we found it, it was a dive and $25 could have bought you soup to nuts for 12. Jim called and tried to cancel, but no one spoke English. They may not have even realized they had a reservation. Anyway we worked with the concierge of the hotel to get it all straightened out. Still working with the Concierge we found out that Daniel’s is not open on Sunday.
In the hotel magazine, I saw an advertisement for Megu, Modern Japanese Cuisine. We used to have wonderful dinners at a restaurant in NYC called Restaurant Nippon. We decided to go there for lunch. I don’t know but Kobe beef burgers with parmesan fries with truffle sauce were not what I consider Japanese. The waiter was dreadful. Everything I asked him about that seemed Japanese on the menu, he would mumble something like you only get blah. But finally one of the Japanese girls was served dessert and it was the green tea crepe I had seen in the advertisement. I had that and green tea; I was happy as a clam. Jim ate his burger, my burger his fries and mine. He was also happy. If you go for lunch order the bento box and don’t listen to the waiter. They also serve a crispy shrimp that taste just like Bang, Bang shrimp at Bonefish Grille.
It is hard to come down to earth when you’ve been to heaven.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Eggplant Pasta
I have an eggplant for a grilled recipe. When I reread it, I realized, Jim would hate it. So, from memory, I made my hid the eggplant recipe. I actually made this for my nephew when he was little and would not touch a vegetable. Jeremy was such a picky eater that one time I served grilled hamburgers on English muffins and we had to convenience him that it was like eating an Egg Mac Muffin before he would touch it.
1 eggplant cut in 1” cubes, salted and drained
Pasta sauce (I used the basil red sauce that I made and mentioned earlier
Mild Italian Sausage cut in ½” pieces. I used 3 sausages
½# pasta, any kind you like.
EVOO
Parmesan cheese
In a large pan heat the EVOO. Add the eggplant and sausage. Cook until well done. Add the sauce and keep warm while cooking the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce. Pour the mixture in a bowl and top with the cheese. Jim liked it. Did not remember the dish and did not detect eggplant. So Ann, if you are reading my blog, you can serve this to Jeremy. Just be sure to use good quality EVOO and a great sauce. An earlier blog describes the one I made and used tonight.
1 eggplant cut in 1” cubes, salted and drained
Pasta sauce (I used the basil red sauce that I made and mentioned earlier
Mild Italian Sausage cut in ½” pieces. I used 3 sausages
½# pasta, any kind you like.
EVOO
Parmesan cheese
In a large pan heat the EVOO. Add the eggplant and sausage. Cook until well done. Add the sauce and keep warm while cooking the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce. Pour the mixture in a bowl and top with the cheese. Jim liked it. Did not remember the dish and did not detect eggplant. So Ann, if you are reading my blog, you can serve this to Jeremy. Just be sure to use good quality EVOO and a great sauce. An earlier blog describes the one I made and used tonight.
Green Beans
I pulled another group of previously made pork burgers out of the freezer. To this set, I added Wegmans BBQ seasoning. Do to torrential rain, we grilled them inside. I have decided that I like pork burgers better than beef burgers. Jim does not agree. We also had our home grown green beans again. This time I solved the toughness. I remembered a recipe that I got out of the Washington post when we lived on the farm. The author says he adapted this from an Italian cookbook by Anna del Conte. The recipe cooks for 3 hours. I really liked them, Jim thought they were too spicy and did not taste like green beans. You can’t please everybody.
2T bacon drippings
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into thin slices
1# green beans, trimmed and washed
14.5 oz. can dice tomatoes with juice
1 t freshly ground fennel
½ t salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 thick slices bacon, diced
In a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid over medium heat, heat the bacon drippings or oil until warm. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes with juice, fennel, salt pepper, and bacon, bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to very low and simmer gently until tender, about 3 hours. Serve warm.
This would be a great dish to make in a Crockpot. I served a Viansa Syrah that came in the mail that morning as Jim was taking phone call after call instead of coming to dinner. It was too good for this dinner. He was mad and had a right to be.
2T bacon drippings
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into thin slices
1# green beans, trimmed and washed
14.5 oz. can dice tomatoes with juice
1 t freshly ground fennel
½ t salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 thick slices bacon, diced
In a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid over medium heat, heat the bacon drippings or oil until warm. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes with juice, fennel, salt pepper, and bacon, bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to very low and simmer gently until tender, about 3 hours. Serve warm.
This would be a great dish to make in a Crockpot. I served a Viansa Syrah that came in the mail that morning as Jim was taking phone call after call instead of coming to dinner. It was too good for this dinner. He was mad and had a right to be.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Catfish with Fig Relish
Growing up, our vacation was to go to southern IL to visit my paternal Grandmother. My Dad’s best friend George lived at the end of the road. These were farms, so it was a distance. He and George would go fishing and we’d all spend the evening at George and Loretta’s house eating fried catfish and turtle soup. Luckily I was not a picky eater. In fact, my Dad was pickier than me. All the vegetables served were just fresh from the garden and sliced. I have a feeling that dessert was strawberries. That is what I remember most is the fresh strawberries. To this day, catfish is still a favorite of mine. I don’t remember where I came across this recipe, but it is the only way I make it these days, unles I find something interesting in a magazine. It was billed as healthier as it is friend in EVOO and corn meal instead of grease and white flour. However the amounts will be relative as I fly by the seat of my pants not remembering where the recipe orginated.
Catfish fillets, I make 2 for Jim and 1 for me.
Buttermilk, enough to cover the fish (1C)
Cornmeal, enough to bread the fish
EVOO, tonight I used Lemon EVOO
Marinate the fish for about an hour in the buttermilk. Drain and after heating the EVOO, bread the fish. Cook until done and crispy.
Tonight I jazzed it up a little with the following:
Fig Relish from Eat Well Cookbook
Balsamic vinegar, 2 T
1 T shallot
Sea salt and ground pepper
Ripe mission figs, 8 oz., chopped
Mint leaves, 2 t chopped
Rosemary leaves, ¼ t minced
In a bowl combine all the ingredients. Jim really liked this on the catfish. The original recipe calls for grilled chicken breast. We have leftover and will try it with chicken. I think it would be good on anything.
We had salad and baked yams as an accompaniment. Jim served Alexander Valley Vineyards, Chardonnay, 2008. Very good.
Catfish fillets, I make 2 for Jim and 1 for me.
Buttermilk, enough to cover the fish (1C)
Cornmeal, enough to bread the fish
EVOO, tonight I used Lemon EVOO
Marinate the fish for about an hour in the buttermilk. Drain and after heating the EVOO, bread the fish. Cook until done and crispy.
Tonight I jazzed it up a little with the following:
Fig Relish from Eat Well Cookbook
Balsamic vinegar, 2 T
1 T shallot
Sea salt and ground pepper
Ripe mission figs, 8 oz., chopped
Mint leaves, 2 t chopped
Rosemary leaves, ¼ t minced
In a bowl combine all the ingredients. Jim really liked this on the catfish. The original recipe calls for grilled chicken breast. We have leftover and will try it with chicken. I think it would be good on anything.
We had salad and baked yams as an accompaniment. Jim served Alexander Valley Vineyards, Chardonnay, 2008. Very good.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Peaches
At the end of yesterday, I thought I would stop cooking forever. Along with a mighty clean up of the kitchen, today I had to clean the oven because the whole house smelled of burnt grease. Like I said yesterday, that recipe was a true kitchen killer and not well written. I am not a fan of Bobby Flay. But yesterday he had a recipe in the Post that sounded good.
Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Peaches
3T canola oil
2 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ t coarse black pepper
1 ½# pork tenderloin, trimmed of silver skin
Kosher salt
Reserved peach glaze (recipe follows)
1. Whisk the oil, rosemary, and pepper in a plastic bag early in the day. Trim the pork and add to the bag. Refrigerate for 1 – 8 hours.
2. Heat the grill to high. Remove pork from the refrigerator 20 minutes before grilling. Season tenderloin with salt and grill on all sided until golden brown and slightly charred, 2 minutes per side. Brush on the peach glaze, cover, and continue grilling 5 minutes. Instead read thermometer should read 145.
3. Remove to a cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice into ½” pieces and place on a platter with the peaches and drizzle with the remaining glaze.
4. I begged Jim to follow the recipe exactly so we did not have overdone meat. It worked.
Peaches Agro dolce
1C red-wine vinegar
¼ C water
½ C clover honey
Salt and black pepper
3 slightly under-ripe peaches, halved, pitted and each half sliced into quarters
1. Bring the vinegar, water, honey, salt and pepper to a simmer in a medium high-sided sauté pan over medium heat. Add the peaches and cook, stirring once or twice until slightly soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove peaches to a plate; continue cooking the liquid until slightly reduced, 5 minutes. Transfer half of the glaze to a small bowl.
This was very good. It serves 4, but by now you know that 4 means, Jim 3 and me 1. I made a salad with yellow pepper and tomatoes, cut up a really good tomato and sprinkled it with herbs de Provence. We also grilled the other half of the loaf of French bread as Jim liked the croutons so much last night. I have to say that even though I used the same EVOO to butter ratio as I pan fried the bread last night as tonight, they were better in the skillet than the grille.
Jim served Stephen Vincent, 2008 Pinot Noir from CA. It was excellent.
Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Peaches
3T canola oil
2 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ t coarse black pepper
1 ½# pork tenderloin, trimmed of silver skin
Kosher salt
Reserved peach glaze (recipe follows)
1. Whisk the oil, rosemary, and pepper in a plastic bag early in the day. Trim the pork and add to the bag. Refrigerate for 1 – 8 hours.
2. Heat the grill to high. Remove pork from the refrigerator 20 minutes before grilling. Season tenderloin with salt and grill on all sided until golden brown and slightly charred, 2 minutes per side. Brush on the peach glaze, cover, and continue grilling 5 minutes. Instead read thermometer should read 145.
3. Remove to a cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice into ½” pieces and place on a platter with the peaches and drizzle with the remaining glaze.
4. I begged Jim to follow the recipe exactly so we did not have overdone meat. It worked.
Peaches Agro dolce
1C red-wine vinegar
¼ C water
½ C clover honey
Salt and black pepper
3 slightly under-ripe peaches, halved, pitted and each half sliced into quarters
1. Bring the vinegar, water, honey, salt and pepper to a simmer in a medium high-sided sauté pan over medium heat. Add the peaches and cook, stirring once or twice until slightly soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove peaches to a plate; continue cooking the liquid until slightly reduced, 5 minutes. Transfer half of the glaze to a small bowl.
This was very good. It serves 4, but by now you know that 4 means, Jim 3 and me 1. I made a salad with yellow pepper and tomatoes, cut up a really good tomato and sprinkled it with herbs de Provence. We also grilled the other half of the loaf of French bread as Jim liked the croutons so much last night. I have to say that even though I used the same EVOO to butter ratio as I pan fried the bread last night as tonight, they were better in the skillet than the grille.
Jim served Stephen Vincent, 2008 Pinot Noir from CA. It was excellent.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Duck, Duck, Goose or a game pleayed on us by The Silver Spoon translators
I’ve had two days off. Friday I was not feeling good. Every bone, joint and muscle in my body ached. Jim was going to Costco. I asked him to bring dinner home. Instead he ordered Chinese from across the street. Saturday was make Max food day, so I said we were going out. I can only cook for one man at a time. Saturday at the Club is half price wine, but they screwed up Jim’s meal, so he was not happy.
A few days ago, I talked about starting the figs for Duck Fillets with Figs. We were supposed to have the meal on Wednesday and our friend was going to join us. She ended up canceling and then we had buyer traffic so I held off until today. I fixed the meal, but it only turned out eatable due to extreme measures. Following is the recipe from The Silver Spoon and I will follow with commentary. This may be the first and only cookbook I toss in the trash. By the way, Mary, this is an Italian Cookbook. Mary has asked why I don’t cook much Italian food. This cookbook could be the answer.
1 small duck, with liver
1 T EVOO
1/4C butter, plus extra for greasing
1 C red wine
1 T lemon juice
5 ½ # figs
½ white loaf, sliced and crusts removed
1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Set the liver aside. Season the cavity of the duck with salt and pepper and truss with kitchen string. Place the duck in a roasting pan, add the oil and 1 ½ t of the butter. Roast the duck for 1 hour then remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Cut off the wings, breast and legs and break up the carcass with a meat mallet. Stir the red wine into the roasting pan, add the carcass and cook in the oven for 10 minutes then remove from the oven but do not switch it off. Pass the cooking juices through a food mill into a pan and stir in the lemon juice. Chop the liver and add to the sauce. Cut the figs almost in half and open out slightly. Grease another roasting pan with butter, add the figs and put a small piece of the remaining butter in each, then bake until lightly browned. Remove the figs from the oven and season with salt and pepper. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, add the slices of bread and cook until golden brown on both sides. Carve the legs into slices and cut the breast into fillets. Place the fried bread and duck in the middle of a warm serving dish arrange the figs around them and spoon the sauce over the duck.
First of all there is no way that 4 people could eat at a setting 5 ½ # of figs. After looking at the photo, I believe the meant 5 figs cut in half. After you put the duck in the oven you have 7 ½ T of butter to cook the croutons and put inside the figs. Five and one half pounds of figs is 2, 11 x 17 trays. If you have the patience to stuff this many figs; more power to you, but 7.5 T of butter would not go very far. Also if you have to buy the figs, it would cost about $300. When you read the rest of the recipe, you realize that this is way too many figs. I brought it down it one tray, but finally realized the translation might be 5 figs cut in half. Finally you get to the part where you are putting red wine, duck drippings and carcass through a food mill. It dawns on me, they mean duck press and guess what, I do not have one. So I divert. I took the duck out after 1 hour and cut off the breast, leg-thigh and wings. I chopped up the carcass and put it back in the pan. This was hot, painful and very messy. I added all the figs to the mixture and put it back in the oven. I cooked it for 15 minutes more and removed the eatable duck pieces to a platter with half the figs. I did put the rest in a food mill and removed the bones as they clogged the mill. I ended up with a very flavorful sauce which I heated on the stove while cooking the croutons. Jim though it was very good. I said enjoy as you will never have it again. I cooked spinach as a side. I did it in a pan with EVOO and garlic instead of the microwave. It was much better. The wine we used for the sauce and then drank was an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon by Peter Lehmann. As I type this and edit it, he is still in the kitchen cleaning up the mess. He was out shopping during most to the work and I did a lot of cleaning. This is a kitchen destroyer.
A few days ago, I talked about starting the figs for Duck Fillets with Figs. We were supposed to have the meal on Wednesday and our friend was going to join us. She ended up canceling and then we had buyer traffic so I held off until today. I fixed the meal, but it only turned out eatable due to extreme measures. Following is the recipe from The Silver Spoon and I will follow with commentary. This may be the first and only cookbook I toss in the trash. By the way, Mary, this is an Italian Cookbook. Mary has asked why I don’t cook much Italian food. This cookbook could be the answer.
1 small duck, with liver
1 T EVOO
1/4C butter, plus extra for greasing
1 C red wine
1 T lemon juice
5 ½ # figs
½ white loaf, sliced and crusts removed
1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Set the liver aside. Season the cavity of the duck with salt and pepper and truss with kitchen string. Place the duck in a roasting pan, add the oil and 1 ½ t of the butter. Roast the duck for 1 hour then remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Cut off the wings, breast and legs and break up the carcass with a meat mallet. Stir the red wine into the roasting pan, add the carcass and cook in the oven for 10 minutes then remove from the oven but do not switch it off. Pass the cooking juices through a food mill into a pan and stir in the lemon juice. Chop the liver and add to the sauce. Cut the figs almost in half and open out slightly. Grease another roasting pan with butter, add the figs and put a small piece of the remaining butter in each, then bake until lightly browned. Remove the figs from the oven and season with salt and pepper. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, add the slices of bread and cook until golden brown on both sides. Carve the legs into slices and cut the breast into fillets. Place the fried bread and duck in the middle of a warm serving dish arrange the figs around them and spoon the sauce over the duck.
First of all there is no way that 4 people could eat at a setting 5 ½ # of figs. After looking at the photo, I believe the meant 5 figs cut in half. After you put the duck in the oven you have 7 ½ T of butter to cook the croutons and put inside the figs. Five and one half pounds of figs is 2, 11 x 17 trays. If you have the patience to stuff this many figs; more power to you, but 7.5 T of butter would not go very far. Also if you have to buy the figs, it would cost about $300. When you read the rest of the recipe, you realize that this is way too many figs. I brought it down it one tray, but finally realized the translation might be 5 figs cut in half. Finally you get to the part where you are putting red wine, duck drippings and carcass through a food mill. It dawns on me, they mean duck press and guess what, I do not have one. So I divert. I took the duck out after 1 hour and cut off the breast, leg-thigh and wings. I chopped up the carcass and put it back in the pan. This was hot, painful and very messy. I added all the figs to the mixture and put it back in the oven. I cooked it for 15 minutes more and removed the eatable duck pieces to a platter with half the figs. I did put the rest in a food mill and removed the bones as they clogged the mill. I ended up with a very flavorful sauce which I heated on the stove while cooking the croutons. Jim though it was very good. I said enjoy as you will never have it again. I cooked spinach as a side. I did it in a pan with EVOO and garlic instead of the microwave. It was much better. The wine we used for the sauce and then drank was an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon by Peter Lehmann. As I type this and edit it, he is still in the kitchen cleaning up the mess. He was out shopping during most to the work and I did a lot of cleaning. This is a kitchen destroyer.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Disaster Meal
I thought this was going to be a really great meal and it was not. This afternoon we went to see Eclipse, the third movie from the Twilight series. Had I know how bad this meal was going to be, I would have opted to eat in the amazing restaurants in Fairfax near the theater. In Eating by Color for maximum health they had a tomato tart. It looked great. There were 2 problems. The first was the amount of salt, so salty I almost gagged. The second was them adding milk to make the cheese into a paste. It made the prebaked shell mushy and stick to the pan.
Roasted Tomato Tart
2oz soft fresh goat cheese
3T low-fat milk
1 ½ T minced shallot
1 ½ t sea salt (too much)
2 T EVOO
12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1t herbs de Provence
1 partially baked 9” tart shell (I used Pillsbury refrigerated dough)
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Drizzle about half the EVOO onto a baking sheet and arrange tomatoes cut side up. Drizzle remaining EVOO on top and sprinkle with herbs de Provence, 1t salt and ½ t pepper. Roast tomatoes for 2 hours.
Meanwhile pre-bake the crust. Pillsbury says to bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Mine took 10. Mix the cheese, salt and shallots, only I would only add ½ t salt and if you want to add the milk, do it in a mini-Cuisinart. After my experience tonight, I would spread the cheese and sprinkle with the shallot and less salt, forget the milk.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and after arranging the tomatoes over the cheese, bake for 20 minutes, and let stand for another 20 minutes before cutting.
Grilled prosciutto-wrapped chicken stuffed with fresh mozzarella and basil.
This probably would have been ok, but the grille man over cooked it and the chicken was like shoe leather.
4 medium boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Kosher salt and ground pepper
12 large basil leaves
¼ # mozzarella, thinly sliced
4 thin slices of prosciutto
1 T EVOO
Cut each chicken breast in half horizontally almost through. Stuff with the cheese and basil, fold closed, and wrap with the prosciutto. Salt and pepper the breasts before wrapping. Sprinkle the breasts after wrapping with the EVOO.
Heat the grille to med-high. Back off to med. Sear for 4 minutes and then cook for 10 -12 minutes to finish.
I can hardly wait until grilling season is over. I cannot eat one more over done shoe leather dish.
I microwaved spinach to go with the above. It looked like a ton, but ended up very little and was probably the best dish.
Jim brought out an Italian wine from Sicily. Nothing helped this wine, even aerating. It tasted like grapes.
Roasted Tomato Tart
2oz soft fresh goat cheese
3T low-fat milk
1 ½ T minced shallot
1 ½ t sea salt (too much)
2 T EVOO
12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1t herbs de Provence
1 partially baked 9” tart shell (I used Pillsbury refrigerated dough)
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Drizzle about half the EVOO onto a baking sheet and arrange tomatoes cut side up. Drizzle remaining EVOO on top and sprinkle with herbs de Provence, 1t salt and ½ t pepper. Roast tomatoes for 2 hours.
Meanwhile pre-bake the crust. Pillsbury says to bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Mine took 10. Mix the cheese, salt and shallots, only I would only add ½ t salt and if you want to add the milk, do it in a mini-Cuisinart. After my experience tonight, I would spread the cheese and sprinkle with the shallot and less salt, forget the milk.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and after arranging the tomatoes over the cheese, bake for 20 minutes, and let stand for another 20 minutes before cutting.
Grilled prosciutto-wrapped chicken stuffed with fresh mozzarella and basil.
This probably would have been ok, but the grille man over cooked it and the chicken was like shoe leather.
4 medium boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Kosher salt and ground pepper
12 large basil leaves
¼ # mozzarella, thinly sliced
4 thin slices of prosciutto
1 T EVOO
Cut each chicken breast in half horizontally almost through. Stuff with the cheese and basil, fold closed, and wrap with the prosciutto. Salt and pepper the breasts before wrapping. Sprinkle the breasts after wrapping with the EVOO.
Heat the grille to med-high. Back off to med. Sear for 4 minutes and then cook for 10 -12 minutes to finish.
I can hardly wait until grilling season is over. I cannot eat one more over done shoe leather dish.
I microwaved spinach to go with the above. It looked like a ton, but ended up very little and was probably the best dish.
Jim brought out an Italian wine from Sicily. Nothing helped this wine, even aerating. It tasted like grapes.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
In a Pinch!
This is not the dinner I was going to make tonight, but at about 3:00 PM we got a call from a realtor that wanted to show the house at 5:00PM. So I thawed 2 Omaha Steaks and planned to make Fragrant Fennel in Fresh Fig sauce. This recipe is from the Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbook. I bought this cookbook in CA with my friend Marrilyn. As I look through it I would call it hot and cold. Previous recipes are marked, OK, bad, and great. Upon returning home, I started the Fennel.
6 small fennel bulbs, 3# total
½ C canned vegetable broth
1 C water
1/8 t salt
6 fresh figs, chopped
1 ½ T balsamic vinegar
¼ t ground pepper
1. Cut fennel bulb in half lengthwise through the base, and then cut each piece in half again. Remove the outer pieces of the bulbs if they look tough or stringy.
2. Coat a large nonstick frying pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place over medium-high heat. Add the fennel in a single layer and cook, turning, until lightly browned on all sides. 2-3 minutes.
3. Add broth, water, salt, figs. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the fennel is tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Stir in the vinegar rand pepper. Increase heat to med-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly, 5-7 minutes.
5. To serve, divide the fennel among individual plates. Top each with an equal amount of fig sauce.
Jim gave this dish thumbs down. I cut up wonderful home grown tomatoes and sprinkled them with Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper. I served the steak with a leftover butter sauce from a previous meal. The wine was superb. It was a Virginia wine. Barboursville Vineyard, 1999, Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve.
Consider the last minute change over it was good.
6 small fennel bulbs, 3# total
½ C canned vegetable broth
1 C water
1/8 t salt
6 fresh figs, chopped
1 ½ T balsamic vinegar
¼ t ground pepper
1. Cut fennel bulb in half lengthwise through the base, and then cut each piece in half again. Remove the outer pieces of the bulbs if they look tough or stringy.
2. Coat a large nonstick frying pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place over medium-high heat. Add the fennel in a single layer and cook, turning, until lightly browned on all sides. 2-3 minutes.
3. Add broth, water, salt, figs. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the fennel is tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Stir in the vinegar rand pepper. Increase heat to med-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly, 5-7 minutes.
5. To serve, divide the fennel among individual plates. Top each with an equal amount of fig sauce.
Jim gave this dish thumbs down. I cut up wonderful home grown tomatoes and sprinkled them with Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper. I served the steak with a leftover butter sauce from a previous meal. The wine was superb. It was a Virginia wine. Barboursville Vineyard, 1999, Cabernet Sauvignon, reserve.
Consider the last minute change over it was good.
Pork Sliders
Dinner last night was late as Jim had a meeting. I had a large pork but that I ground up and made burgers and sliders. I flavored each batch with a different seasoning. We grilled the sliders that I had flavored with Viansa Sonoma 3 Citrus Blend. They were juicy and delicious. We ate them with home grown tomato and whole wheat buns. My green beans were harvested too late and should have been boiled for hours to be eatable. Jim also grilled corn on the cob. Not exciting but very good. I think I prefer pork burgers to beef burgers.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Fish Night
Compared to the last few days of cooking, today was a breeze. I started by deciding what to do with the 8# of pork but left over from the tapas dinner that I had to buy to do the 1# of pork skewers. I decided to grind the whole thing up to make pork burgers. Not interested in roasting in 90 degree heat. Once the bone was removed I had 5.5# of meat left. I divided into 2#, 2# and 1.5#, I put three different herb spice mixtures into the groups and made burgers and sliders. I will report as they are cooked.
For dinner tonight we had Grilled Swordfish Steaks with lemon, dill and cucumber Sauce. Accompanying this we had grilled corn. Same corn recipe as I have blogged since the beginning of summer.
Serves 4-6
1 medium English cucumber, peeled finely diced
2 T fresh lemon juice
½ t granulated sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ C EVOO plus more for grilling
1T minced shallot
2 T minced fresh dill
2 T fresh mint
4-6 swordfish steaks, 1 1/2 “thick, 6 to 8 oz each
Obviously I just used a steak apiece. I made the entire cucumber sauce as I used it as a salad
1. Put the cucumber in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice and sugar, toss to combine, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in ¼ C EVOO, shallot, dill, mint. Taste and add s& P to taste.
2. Clean and oil the grille and warm to medium high.
3. Generously coat the swordfish with EVOO and salt. Grill 2-4 minutes per side.
We were very pleased with this meal. We have not had swordfish in a long time and this was delicious. Jim served a Viansa Reserve Vernaccia Della Vite. The write up that came with the wine specifically mentioned good with grilled swordfish. It was devine.
For dinner tonight we had Grilled Swordfish Steaks with lemon, dill and cucumber Sauce. Accompanying this we had grilled corn. Same corn recipe as I have blogged since the beginning of summer.
Serves 4-6
1 medium English cucumber, peeled finely diced
2 T fresh lemon juice
½ t granulated sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ C EVOO plus more for grilling
1T minced shallot
2 T minced fresh dill
2 T fresh mint
4-6 swordfish steaks, 1 1/2 “thick, 6 to 8 oz each
Obviously I just used a steak apiece. I made the entire cucumber sauce as I used it as a salad
1. Put the cucumber in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice and sugar, toss to combine, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in ¼ C EVOO, shallot, dill, mint. Taste and add s& P to taste.
2. Clean and oil the grille and warm to medium high.
3. Generously coat the swordfish with EVOO and salt. Grill 2-4 minutes per side.
We were very pleased with this meal. We have not had swordfish in a long time and this was delicious. Jim served a Viansa Reserve Vernaccia Della Vite. The write up that came with the wine specifically mentioned good with grilled swordfish. It was devine.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Fig Dishes
I spent the whole day cooking, but it had nothing to do with dinner. Jim was in a Men’s golf outing today and they had a huge not good for you lunch. He had a beef and cheese hoagie, a large ham sandwich, potato salad, chips and 2 beers. I asked about vegtables; none! Something about the new chef and vegtables. At out Ladies outing vegtables were considered a garnish. We had leftovers from last night’s dinner. I was working on my figs. I think I mentioned that my friend Hailey has a fig tree. I love figs. I ended with our favorite from last year and made a double batch. These freeze well.
Fresh Fig Cookies
1 C white sugar
½ C shortening (I use half butter and half Crisco)
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
12 t salt
½ t ground cloves
1 cup chopped fresh figs
½ C chopped walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream sugar and shortening and add beaten egg.
3. Sift dry ingredients and blend with creamed mixture. Fold in figs and nuts.
4. Drop by 1” ice cream scoopfuls on greased sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes.
Spiced Figs
The Silver Spoon is a cookbook given to me by my Italian friend Mike. He loves this cookbook. It also got good reviews. I find it very hard to follow and I think it has translation problems. But, Italians love figs as much as I do and there is where you will find a lot of fig recipes. Right now these are in the refrigerator, but maybe tomorrow I will can these for use on ice cream this winter.
½ t ground cinnamon
½ t ground coriander
2 cloves
½ t ground ginger
½ C superfine sugar
Rind of 1 orange, thinly pared and cut into strips
12 ripe figs
1. Put the spices, sugar and orange rind in a pan. Add 2 ½ C water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the figs and simmer for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil.
3. Remove the figs and return the syrup to the heat. Bring the syrup back to a boil and cook over medium heat until reduced by half.
4. Strain and pour the syrup over the figs and cool completely.
Here is a good example of the problems with this cookbook. On Wednesday my friend is coming for dinner and we are going to have Duck with Figs. This recipe is one duck and 5.5 # of figs! That is 2, 11 by 18 pans of figs that are to be cut in half and a little of a quarter # of butter put in each and then baked until golden brown. I started the process with less than half the amount of figs. It is probably still way too many, but as you add them to the duck after you finish it and all the sauce, I can use the remaining with other meats. I will blog this recipe on Wednesday.
Fig Focaccia
This is from Lidia’s Family Table. Jim and I had a piece right out of the oven and it is very good. If I made it again I would do some things differently.
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 ¼ C warm water
1 t salt
About 2 ¾ C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t EVOO
About 1/3 C cornmeal
Topping:
1Pt. fresh figs
2 T sugar
1. Put the yeast in the large mixing bowl of your mixer that has a dough hook. Add ¼ C warm water and proof the yeast. Mix the salt with the remaining cup of water. Add the water to the bowl and 2 ½ C flour. Attach the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes. This dough is very wet.
2. Lightly flour a work surface and scrape the dough out of the bowl on the surface. Turn the dough over on itself several times, using a dough scraper and your floured hands.
3. Clean the mixing bowl and oil it lightly. Dump the dough in and turn it to grease all over. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise unit it has more than doubled in volume.
4. Select 8 figs and save them for the topping. Chop the rest roughly and mix them in the risen dough, deflating it and mixing in evenly.
5. Here is where I differ with Lidia. She has you put it on a flat sheet over corn meal, spread to 8x 11 and bake. I think that I will next time grease and flour an 8 x 11 Pyrex pan and put the dough in. Her way it spreads out and gets very crusty on the edge. The corn meal also was little help with sticking.
6. Either way cut the saved figs in half and pres into the dough cut side up and sprinkle with the sugar.
7. Preheat the oven to 425. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes while the oven heats. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
If someone comes to visit while the figs are still in season, I will make this again for breakfast. Ya’ll come in September for this amazing breakfast treat.
Finally but not in that order I did the Fig Relish for a chicken dish later this week. You are probably wondering, why is she doing all this in one day for meals the whole week? Figs deteriorate very quickly that is why they are not grocery store friendly. This relish tastes amazing.
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T minced shallot
Sea salt and ground pepper
8 oz ripe figs
2 t chopped mint leaves
¼ t minced rosemary leaves
Mix together and store until ready to grille 4 chicken breasts. I will do this later in the week.
Fresh Fig Cookies
1 C white sugar
½ C shortening (I use half butter and half Crisco)
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
12 t salt
½ t ground cloves
1 cup chopped fresh figs
½ C chopped walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream sugar and shortening and add beaten egg.
3. Sift dry ingredients and blend with creamed mixture. Fold in figs and nuts.
4. Drop by 1” ice cream scoopfuls on greased sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes.
Spiced Figs
The Silver Spoon is a cookbook given to me by my Italian friend Mike. He loves this cookbook. It also got good reviews. I find it very hard to follow and I think it has translation problems. But, Italians love figs as much as I do and there is where you will find a lot of fig recipes. Right now these are in the refrigerator, but maybe tomorrow I will can these for use on ice cream this winter.
½ t ground cinnamon
½ t ground coriander
2 cloves
½ t ground ginger
½ C superfine sugar
Rind of 1 orange, thinly pared and cut into strips
12 ripe figs
1. Put the spices, sugar and orange rind in a pan. Add 2 ½ C water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the figs and simmer for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil.
3. Remove the figs and return the syrup to the heat. Bring the syrup back to a boil and cook over medium heat until reduced by half.
4. Strain and pour the syrup over the figs and cool completely.
Here is a good example of the problems with this cookbook. On Wednesday my friend is coming for dinner and we are going to have Duck with Figs. This recipe is one duck and 5.5 # of figs! That is 2, 11 by 18 pans of figs that are to be cut in half and a little of a quarter # of butter put in each and then baked until golden brown. I started the process with less than half the amount of figs. It is probably still way too many, but as you add them to the duck after you finish it and all the sauce, I can use the remaining with other meats. I will blog this recipe on Wednesday.
Fig Focaccia
This is from Lidia’s Family Table. Jim and I had a piece right out of the oven and it is very good. If I made it again I would do some things differently.
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 ¼ C warm water
1 t salt
About 2 ¾ C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t EVOO
About 1/3 C cornmeal
Topping:
1Pt. fresh figs
2 T sugar
1. Put the yeast in the large mixing bowl of your mixer that has a dough hook. Add ¼ C warm water and proof the yeast. Mix the salt with the remaining cup of water. Add the water to the bowl and 2 ½ C flour. Attach the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes. This dough is very wet.
2. Lightly flour a work surface and scrape the dough out of the bowl on the surface. Turn the dough over on itself several times, using a dough scraper and your floured hands.
3. Clean the mixing bowl and oil it lightly. Dump the dough in and turn it to grease all over. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise unit it has more than doubled in volume.
4. Select 8 figs and save them for the topping. Chop the rest roughly and mix them in the risen dough, deflating it and mixing in evenly.
5. Here is where I differ with Lidia. She has you put it on a flat sheet over corn meal, spread to 8x 11 and bake. I think that I will next time grease and flour an 8 x 11 Pyrex pan and put the dough in. Her way it spreads out and gets very crusty on the edge. The corn meal also was little help with sticking.
6. Either way cut the saved figs in half and pres into the dough cut side up and sprinkle with the sugar.
7. Preheat the oven to 425. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes while the oven heats. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
If someone comes to visit while the figs are still in season, I will make this again for breakfast. Ya’ll come in September for this amazing breakfast treat.
Finally but not in that order I did the Fig Relish for a chicken dish later this week. You are probably wondering, why is she doing all this in one day for meals the whole week? Figs deteriorate very quickly that is why they are not grocery store friendly. This relish tastes amazing.
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T minced shallot
Sea salt and ground pepper
8 oz ripe figs
2 t chopped mint leaves
¼ t minced rosemary leaves
Mix together and store until ready to grille 4 chicken breasts. I will do this later in the week.
Tapas Dinner
I started cooking for Saturday night on Friday. My thought was a grilling Tapas dinner. Jim had a real hard time with the concept as I found out later that he was thinking Dim Sum. He kept saying, “You going to serve this food cold?” It’s 98 degrees outside; I don’t think anything is going to get cold. Most of the recipes came from Food Network Kitchens, Get Grilling. My friend Linda brought Gazpacho from Epicurious.com and dessert came from Williams-Sonoma Eating by Color. A lot of the dishes had to be started the night before as they needed to marinate.
The night before I wrapped the cheese and made the marinated the chicken and the pork.
Warm Goat Cheese wrapped in Grape Leaves 6-8 servings
2 or 3 large jarred, brined grape leaves, stems trimmed
8 oz Bucheron cheese
Slightly heaping 1/2t fennel seeds
Slightly heaping ¼ t crushed red pepper
2T EVOO
I served with grilled French bread
1. Soak the grape leaves in water for 5 minutes, then drain. Sprinkle the cheese with the fennel and pepper. Wrap a grape leaf around the bottom of the cheese. Wrap the top of the cheese with another grape leaf or two using just enough leaves to form a single layer. I then wrapped in wax paper and placed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
2. Jim grilled over a medium high fire for 4 minutes. I had brushed the leaves with EVOO before he grilled them. He grilled the bread at the same time.
Pork Pinchos 4-6 servings
These were hotter than we expected
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1T kosher salt
1T hot paprika
2 t ground coriander
2 t ground cumin
2 t ras al hanout (recipe follows)
2 T EVOO
1 ½ T sherry vinegar
Black pepper
1# boneless pork shoulder cut in 1” cubes. Trim excess fat.
1. The day before mix put all the ingredients in a mini grinder. Process until well combined. Place pork in a plastic bag and add the marinade.
2. Soak wooden skewers. I had 18” skewers that I soaked all day. Jim burned them up while grilling the meat.
3. Prepare a hot fire. Thread 3 pieces of pork on each skewer. Lightly brush with EVOO. Grill 5 minutes per side or perfectly over done and skewers are charred and burned off in our case.
Ras Al Hanout
Makes about ¾ C
3 slightly heaping T 5 spice powder
2T ground cardamom
2 T ground ginger
1 T ground nutmeg
1 T ground turmeric
1T cayenne pepper
Mix all in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container for up to 2 months
Indian Spiced Chicken Wings 4 servings
8 T unsalted butter
1t crushed red pepper
2 slightly heaping T Madras curry powder
1 t ground cumin
¼ t ground cinnamon
½ medium onion, grated
1 1” piece peeled fresh giner, finely grated
3 T lime juice
2 T plain whole-milk yogurt
1 T kosher salt
2 # chicken wings
Mango chutney for dipping
1. The day before melt 4 T of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pepper and stir until fragrant. Add curry, cumin, onion, ginger and cinnamon stirring about 1 minute until fragrant and making a smooth paste. Cool completely.
2. Stir 1T of lime juice with the yogurt and salt. Add the curry mixture. Pat chicken pieces dry and place in a plastic bag. Add the mixture and refrigerate over night.
3. Heat the grill to medium hot. Have both direct and indirect sources on the grill. Melt the remaining butter and add the remaining lime juice. While grilling over the direct heat for 4 minutes baste with this butter. Finish the wings over indirect heat for an additional 4 minutes.
Except for the cooking I did all of the above before we went out to dinner on Friday.
Saturday morning I made White Sangria 4 servings
Quite frankly there was not enough liquid for all the fruit. We doubled the wine and amaretto
1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc
¼ C amaretto
Zest of ½ orange removed in wide strips
1 red skinned apple
1 ripe pear
Place all in a pitcher and stir. I put it in the refrigerator so it was very cold when served. I still added ice to the glasses as we were eating on the porch.
I made a salad of mixed greens including spinach, watermelon and goat cheese. I dressed it with the dressing I made last week for the lobster dish.
New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp 6-8 servings
½ C EVOO
8 T unsalted butter
12 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
1 # large shrimp, shell on and deveined ( I took the shells off. This would be a horrid mess to peel and eat these shrimp.)
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T kosher salt
1 T sweet paprika
½ t cayenne pepper
2 T dry sherry
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the EVOO, butter, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme in a large oven proof skillet over medium heat until the butter melts and the garlic and herbs are fragrant, about 5 minutes.
2. Toss shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, salt, paprika and cayenne together in a bowl. Add to skillet along with the sherry and transfer to the oven. Bake about 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with lots of bread for sopping up the sauce.
Pomegranate-Glazed Figs, serves 4
2 t butter
8 fresh figs, stemmed and halved lengthwise
½ C pomegranate juice
3 whole cloves
2 T mascarpone cheese
Unsweetened cocoa powder for garnish
This only takes under 15 minutes to make and cook.
Melt butter in a medium frying pan over medium high heat. Add figs, cut side down and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes. Using tongs turn figs and cook for 1 minute more. Arrange 4 fig halves on each of 4 dessert plates, with bottoms toward the center to make a star.
Add pomegranate juice and cloves to pan and boil until liquid is syrupy about 5 minutes. Discard cloves and spoon warm syrup over figs. Place 1 ½ t cheese in center of each plate and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Serve immediately.
My friend Linda made the following soup with fresh tomatoes from her garden.
Gazpacho Cordobes Yield: 5 1/2 Cups
2# tomatoes
2 red bell peppers
2 Kirby cucumbers
4 garlic cloves
2T Sherry vinegar
1/2 C EVOO
1/2 round loaf crusty bread ( about 9" in diameter)
1/2 t minced fresh tarragon leaves
2 t salt
1 t black pepper
Preheat over to 350 degrees and line a baking pan with foil. Arrange tomatoes and pepper in the pan and roast in upper third of oven 30 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to a large glass or ceramic bowl and continue to roast peppers until lightly charred about 15 min. more. Transfer peppers, including any juices in pan, to another large glass bowl and let stand, covered until pepper are cool enough to handle.
Holding tomatoes over bowl to catch juices, peel and cut into pieces. Holding pepper over their bowl to catch juices, peel peppers and discard stems and seeds. Tear pepper into pieces and add to tomatoes. Pour pepper juice through a fine sieve into tomato mixture. Peel and chop cucumbers. Finely chop garlic and stir into tomato mixture with cucumbers, vinegar, and oil. Cut four 1/2" thick slices from the cut side of loaf and trim crusts from slices. Cut slices into 1" pieces and in a small bowl soak in water to cover 10 minutes. Drain bread, without squeezing out excess liquid, and stir into tomato mixture with tarragon, salt, and pepper. Chill mixture, covered at least 8 hours and up to 1 day. In a food processor pure mixture, in batches if necessary, and return to bowl. Chill gazpacho, covered for an additionl 2 hours.
And that was dinner with friends. Aside from the Sangria, we finished 4 bottles of red Spanish wine and one bottle of white Spanish wine.
The night before I wrapped the cheese and made the marinated the chicken and the pork.
Warm Goat Cheese wrapped in Grape Leaves 6-8 servings
2 or 3 large jarred, brined grape leaves, stems trimmed
8 oz Bucheron cheese
Slightly heaping 1/2t fennel seeds
Slightly heaping ¼ t crushed red pepper
2T EVOO
I served with grilled French bread
1. Soak the grape leaves in water for 5 minutes, then drain. Sprinkle the cheese with the fennel and pepper. Wrap a grape leaf around the bottom of the cheese. Wrap the top of the cheese with another grape leaf or two using just enough leaves to form a single layer. I then wrapped in wax paper and placed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
2. Jim grilled over a medium high fire for 4 minutes. I had brushed the leaves with EVOO before he grilled them. He grilled the bread at the same time.
Pork Pinchos 4-6 servings
These were hotter than we expected
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1T kosher salt
1T hot paprika
2 t ground coriander
2 t ground cumin
2 t ras al hanout (recipe follows)
2 T EVOO
1 ½ T sherry vinegar
Black pepper
1# boneless pork shoulder cut in 1” cubes. Trim excess fat.
1. The day before mix put all the ingredients in a mini grinder. Process until well combined. Place pork in a plastic bag and add the marinade.
2. Soak wooden skewers. I had 18” skewers that I soaked all day. Jim burned them up while grilling the meat.
3. Prepare a hot fire. Thread 3 pieces of pork on each skewer. Lightly brush with EVOO. Grill 5 minutes per side or perfectly over done and skewers are charred and burned off in our case.
Ras Al Hanout
Makes about ¾ C
3 slightly heaping T 5 spice powder
2T ground cardamom
2 T ground ginger
1 T ground nutmeg
1 T ground turmeric
1T cayenne pepper
Mix all in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container for up to 2 months
Indian Spiced Chicken Wings 4 servings
8 T unsalted butter
1t crushed red pepper
2 slightly heaping T Madras curry powder
1 t ground cumin
¼ t ground cinnamon
½ medium onion, grated
1 1” piece peeled fresh giner, finely grated
3 T lime juice
2 T plain whole-milk yogurt
1 T kosher salt
2 # chicken wings
Mango chutney for dipping
1. The day before melt 4 T of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pepper and stir until fragrant. Add curry, cumin, onion, ginger and cinnamon stirring about 1 minute until fragrant and making a smooth paste. Cool completely.
2. Stir 1T of lime juice with the yogurt and salt. Add the curry mixture. Pat chicken pieces dry and place in a plastic bag. Add the mixture and refrigerate over night.
3. Heat the grill to medium hot. Have both direct and indirect sources on the grill. Melt the remaining butter and add the remaining lime juice. While grilling over the direct heat for 4 minutes baste with this butter. Finish the wings over indirect heat for an additional 4 minutes.
Except for the cooking I did all of the above before we went out to dinner on Friday.
Saturday morning I made White Sangria 4 servings
Quite frankly there was not enough liquid for all the fruit. We doubled the wine and amaretto
1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc
¼ C amaretto
Zest of ½ orange removed in wide strips
1 red skinned apple
1 ripe pear
Place all in a pitcher and stir. I put it in the refrigerator so it was very cold when served. I still added ice to the glasses as we were eating on the porch.
I made a salad of mixed greens including spinach, watermelon and goat cheese. I dressed it with the dressing I made last week for the lobster dish.
New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp 6-8 servings
½ C EVOO
8 T unsalted butter
12 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
1 # large shrimp, shell on and deveined ( I took the shells off. This would be a horrid mess to peel and eat these shrimp.)
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T kosher salt
1 T sweet paprika
½ t cayenne pepper
2 T dry sherry
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the EVOO, butter, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme in a large oven proof skillet over medium heat until the butter melts and the garlic and herbs are fragrant, about 5 minutes.
2. Toss shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, salt, paprika and cayenne together in a bowl. Add to skillet along with the sherry and transfer to the oven. Bake about 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with lots of bread for sopping up the sauce.
Pomegranate-Glazed Figs, serves 4
2 t butter
8 fresh figs, stemmed and halved lengthwise
½ C pomegranate juice
3 whole cloves
2 T mascarpone cheese
Unsweetened cocoa powder for garnish
This only takes under 15 minutes to make and cook.
Melt butter in a medium frying pan over medium high heat. Add figs, cut side down and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes. Using tongs turn figs and cook for 1 minute more. Arrange 4 fig halves on each of 4 dessert plates, with bottoms toward the center to make a star.
Add pomegranate juice and cloves to pan and boil until liquid is syrupy about 5 minutes. Discard cloves and spoon warm syrup over figs. Place 1 ½ t cheese in center of each plate and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Serve immediately.
My friend Linda made the following soup with fresh tomatoes from her garden.
Gazpacho Cordobes Yield: 5 1/2 Cups
2# tomatoes
2 red bell peppers
2 Kirby cucumbers
4 garlic cloves
2T Sherry vinegar
1/2 C EVOO
1/2 round loaf crusty bread ( about 9" in diameter)
1/2 t minced fresh tarragon leaves
2 t salt
1 t black pepper
Preheat over to 350 degrees and line a baking pan with foil. Arrange tomatoes and pepper in the pan and roast in upper third of oven 30 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to a large glass or ceramic bowl and continue to roast peppers until lightly charred about 15 min. more. Transfer peppers, including any juices in pan, to another large glass bowl and let stand, covered until pepper are cool enough to handle.
Holding tomatoes over bowl to catch juices, peel and cut into pieces. Holding pepper over their bowl to catch juices, peel peppers and discard stems and seeds. Tear pepper into pieces and add to tomatoes. Pour pepper juice through a fine sieve into tomato mixture. Peel and chop cucumbers. Finely chop garlic and stir into tomato mixture with cucumbers, vinegar, and oil. Cut four 1/2" thick slices from the cut side of loaf and trim crusts from slices. Cut slices into 1" pieces and in a small bowl soak in water to cover 10 minutes. Drain bread, without squeezing out excess liquid, and stir into tomato mixture with tarragon, salt, and pepper. Chill mixture, covered at least 8 hours and up to 1 day. In a food processor pure mixture, in batches if necessary, and return to bowl. Chill gazpacho, covered for an additionl 2 hours.
And that was dinner with friends. Aside from the Sangria, we finished 4 bottles of red Spanish wine and one bottle of white Spanish wine.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Sea Scallops with Zucchini Ribbons and Mint-Chive Oil
Dinner almost did not happen tonight. We had been warned that a big storm was going to be coming through tonight. We had one more stop while shopping when we saw the very dark clouds and lighting. I was afraid of hail so we drove home. Max was already in the basement bathroom wrapped around the toilet, his safe haven in a storm. I would not call it a big storm, but we got a lot of much needed rain. Unfortunately at about 3:30 PM the power went out. So we read and were hoping the power would come back on. Finally at 6:30 PM I made Max’s dinner. Jim went to get him to eat, very unusual as he demands dinner at 5:30 on the dot. I said we have left over noodles from last night and we could slice some of the great tomatoes we bought at the farm stand today for dinner. Jim said let me walk Max and then let’s go out. We had established through friends that the electricity was on in developments to the left and right of us so there were restaurants open. Jim walked out the front door with Max and all of a sudden all the appliances started talking to me. He called from their walk and said everyone has their lights on. I said you no longer shut the door than the lights came on. I raised the garage door for the reentry and started dinner. Jim walked in and said I assume we are back to plan A.
Plan A was great. It comes from Food Network Kitchens, Get Grilling. I grilled inside with my stove top grille as the outdoor was very drippy. It says four servings, but Jim ate it all.
1 large zucchini
1 ¼ # large sea scallops
¼ C roughly chopped fresh mint
¼ C sliced fresh chives
3 T freshly squeezed orange juice
2 T grape seed oil
1 T lemoncello
1t kosher salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 large tomatoes
Freshly ground black pepper
This dish was not only delicious, but great to look at. For the skewers I used my curled skewers from Sur la Table. I could only get 2 to a skewer. I had really big scallops so I only used 6.
1. Prepare an outdoor (or indoor) grill with a medium high fire. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes. (I did it on my inside grille and did not have to soak them.)
2. For the scallops slice the zucchini lengthwise on a mandolin into thin slices, about ¼” thick. When you get to the seedy center, rotate the zucchini ½ turn and continue to shave slices until you hit seeds. I went all the way around the zucchini before stopping. You need the best of the strips to wrap around the scallops. If some did not fit all the way around I wrapped a second one to secure on the skewer. It all cooks up fine so do not worry. To most it would be a waste of zucchini, but Max loves zucchini, so I put the leftovers in a container after giving him some for a snack. Like I said, I had two per skewer. Salt and pepper each side and brush with grapeseed oil.
3. For the dressing I used my mini Cuisinart and put the mint, chives, orange juice, oil, lemoncello, salt and cayenne in the bowl. Turn on and blend.
4. Cut up the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.
5. Brush scallops with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill turning to cook both sides until zucchini and scallops are cooked through, about 8 minutes total. Worked for me.
We also had grilled corn. It is summer, now is the time to eat corn if you like it.
Jim served a Robert Mondavi, Napa Valley, 2008 Fume Blanc. It went very well with the scallops. This would be an excellent dinner to serve to guests that like scallops. Very elegant, very good.
Plan A was great. It comes from Food Network Kitchens, Get Grilling. I grilled inside with my stove top grille as the outdoor was very drippy. It says four servings, but Jim ate it all.
1 large zucchini
1 ¼ # large sea scallops
¼ C roughly chopped fresh mint
¼ C sliced fresh chives
3 T freshly squeezed orange juice
2 T grape seed oil
1 T lemoncello
1t kosher salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 large tomatoes
Freshly ground black pepper
This dish was not only delicious, but great to look at. For the skewers I used my curled skewers from Sur la Table. I could only get 2 to a skewer. I had really big scallops so I only used 6.
1. Prepare an outdoor (or indoor) grill with a medium high fire. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes. (I did it on my inside grille and did not have to soak them.)
2. For the scallops slice the zucchini lengthwise on a mandolin into thin slices, about ¼” thick. When you get to the seedy center, rotate the zucchini ½ turn and continue to shave slices until you hit seeds. I went all the way around the zucchini before stopping. You need the best of the strips to wrap around the scallops. If some did not fit all the way around I wrapped a second one to secure on the skewer. It all cooks up fine so do not worry. To most it would be a waste of zucchini, but Max loves zucchini, so I put the leftovers in a container after giving him some for a snack. Like I said, I had two per skewer. Salt and pepper each side and brush with grapeseed oil.
3. For the dressing I used my mini Cuisinart and put the mint, chives, orange juice, oil, lemoncello, salt and cayenne in the bowl. Turn on and blend.
4. Cut up the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.
5. Brush scallops with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill turning to cook both sides until zucchini and scallops are cooked through, about 8 minutes total. Worked for me.
We also had grilled corn. It is summer, now is the time to eat corn if you like it.
Jim served a Robert Mondavi, Napa Valley, 2008 Fume Blanc. It went very well with the scallops. This would be an excellent dinner to serve to guests that like scallops. Very elegant, very good.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Buckwheat Noodles with Asparagus in Sesame Dressing
Tonight was vegetarian night. I made a noodle and asparagus dish from James McNair’s Cold Pasta Cookbook. It says it serves 10 – 12 as a side salad. We have about 2-3 servings leftover serving it as a main course. I thought it would also be good as a side salad with salmon and that is what I will us the leftovers for.
1 C soy sauce
¼ C reconstituted dashi or homemade chicken stock
1 T granulated sugar
3 T sesame seeds, toasted (You can buy them already toasted in oriental grocers)
1# dried soba noodles
1# fresh young asparagus, cut diagonally into 1 “pieces
6 green onions cut diagonally into ½” pieces
1. In a blender combine soy sauce, dashi, sugar and half the sesame seeds. Blend until smooth. Set aside, but blend again right before adding to the noodles.
2. Cook noodles in 4 Qts. boiling water until al dente, about 3 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Do not add salt like you would to regular pasta. Soy sauce is very salty. Drain and toss in a large bowl with reserved dressing. Cool to room temperature, occasionally stirring the noodles to coat thoroughly and to keep the noodles separated.
3. Cook the asparagus in boiling water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes if it is nice and thin. Plunge immediately into ice water to stop cooking. Drain well and add to pasta long with green onions. Sprinkle the dish with additional sesame seeds.
Jim liked it a lot and he usually hates vegetarian night. I think it was due to the saltiness of the soy sauce. The onions were a little harsh. I can still taste them. It would make a very pretty buffet dish.
We tried a Trader Joe Coastal Sauvignon Blanc with it. I bought it to make white Sangria this weekend and we did not want to poison the guests. It will be fine for Sangria, but it was not my favorite.
1 C soy sauce
¼ C reconstituted dashi or homemade chicken stock
1 T granulated sugar
3 T sesame seeds, toasted (You can buy them already toasted in oriental grocers)
1# dried soba noodles
1# fresh young asparagus, cut diagonally into 1 “pieces
6 green onions cut diagonally into ½” pieces
1. In a blender combine soy sauce, dashi, sugar and half the sesame seeds. Blend until smooth. Set aside, but blend again right before adding to the noodles.
2. Cook noodles in 4 Qts. boiling water until al dente, about 3 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Do not add salt like you would to regular pasta. Soy sauce is very salty. Drain and toss in a large bowl with reserved dressing. Cool to room temperature, occasionally stirring the noodles to coat thoroughly and to keep the noodles separated.
3. Cook the asparagus in boiling water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes if it is nice and thin. Plunge immediately into ice water to stop cooking. Drain well and add to pasta long with green onions. Sprinkle the dish with additional sesame seeds.
Jim liked it a lot and he usually hates vegetarian night. I think it was due to the saltiness of the soy sauce. The onions were a little harsh. I can still taste them. It would make a very pretty buffet dish.
We tried a Trader Joe Coastal Sauvignon Blanc with it. I bought it to make white Sangria this weekend and we did not want to poison the guests. It will be fine for Sangria, but it was not my favorite.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
CHICKEN SAUTE WITH LEMON, CUMIN, AND PARSELY
The following recipe came from my friend Mary in Florida. When Jim saw his plate with raw spinach on it, you could read his mind. However, two bites and he was hooked. He said, "This is really good!" While he was outside grilling corn, my neighbor called to ask what we were having for dinner. She said she opened her door and the most wonderful smell was coming over. Jim served a French white table wine. You definitely have to make this recipe. It is the greatest.
From Fine Cooking
Serve this brightly flavored dish over baby spinach, with crusty bread on the side
Serves 2 to 3
1 medium lemon
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 large red onion thinly sliced
1 medium clove garlic, smashed and peeled
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs(1 lb) trimmed and cut into ½ inch thick stripes
¾ tsp. ground cumin
¼ cup fresh parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh baby spinach
Finely grate 1 tsp zest from lemon and then juice the lemon.
Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot. Add onions and garlic and cook stirring frequently, until onion begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chicken, lemon zest, cumin,1/2 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper and cook stirring until chicken is just cooked through, 4to 6 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the parsley and 2 Tbs. of lemon juice discard the garlic, if you like.
Serve over a bed of fresh baby spinach.
From Fine Cooking
Serve this brightly flavored dish over baby spinach, with crusty bread on the side
Serves 2 to 3
1 medium lemon
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 large red onion thinly sliced
1 medium clove garlic, smashed and peeled
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs(1 lb) trimmed and cut into ½ inch thick stripes
¾ tsp. ground cumin
¼ cup fresh parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh baby spinach
Finely grate 1 tsp zest from lemon and then juice the lemon.
Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot. Add onions and garlic and cook stirring frequently, until onion begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chicken, lemon zest, cumin,1/2 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper and cook stirring until chicken is just cooked through, 4to 6 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the parsley and 2 Tbs. of lemon juice discard the garlic, if you like.
Serve over a bed of fresh baby spinach.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Frozen Pizza for emergencys
No food blog tonight. We had our carpets cleaned today and everything is piled in the kitchen and the bathrooms. It should be dry by 8 PM, but we will just let it go until tomorrow. So we are having California Pizza Kitchen Pizza and salad. Our neighbor called and she has a peach pie. She is going to dinner with another neighbor and then we are all getting together for pie in her new screened in porch after. Jim offered to take me to dinner, but I would have to wade through our bathroom and take a shower and dress. Not worth it. That is why I keep a pizza in the freezer.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Avocado, Fennel and Grapefruit Salad with Grilled Shrimp
It is the best day we have had all summer. We ate dinner on the porch also and I hated to come in. This meal is perfect for 2 as a main course. But I did share some of mine with Jim as it was too much for me. It was really good. This recipe comes from the Fine Cooking Grilling Cookbook that came in my winning basket from the Rally for the Cure.
Ingredients:
1 ruby red grapefruit
½ C EVOO
1 large shallot, finely diced (about ¼ C)
1T fresh lime juice, more as needed
½ t fennel seeds, lightly chopped
Kosher salt and fresh pepper
¾ # jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined ( 21- 25 per #)
1 large head Boston lettuce, washed and torn into large bite-size pieces (about 3 C)
1 C Mache sprigs
1/2 small bulb fennel, cored and very thinly slice or shaved on a mandolin
½ C loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves (I used my fresh Italian parsley)
1 medium avocado
3 oz feta crumbled (about ½ C)
Assembly:
1. Slice the ends off the grapefruit and expose the flesh. Set the grapefruit on one of its cut end and slice off the skin in wide strips removing the bitter white pith. Working over a medium bowl, cut the segments free from the membranes. Squeeze the juice from the membrane and strain the juice into a small bowl. Segments one bowl, juice another.
2. Put 3 T of the grapefruit juice, oil, shallot, lime juice, fennel seeds, ¼ t salt and ¼ t pepper in a container with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously to combine. Taste and add more lime juice if needed to make the vinaigrette bright and tangy. Reserve ½ C of the vinaigrette for dressing the salad and pour the remaining vinaigrette into a medium non-reactive bowl. Put the shrimp in the bowl with the vinaigrette, toss and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.
3. Preheat the grille and when ready, grille the shrimp 1 ½ minutes per side. Bring in and cool slightly.
4. Combine the lettuces and fennel in a large salad bowl. Drizzle 3T of dressing over the lettuces and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper. Portion the salad on 2 plates. Scatter the avocado, grapefruit, and shrimp over the salad. Sprinkle with the feta and drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad and serve immediately.
Jim bought corn on his way home from golf yesterday so we used it with the Lime Butter Sauce from the Cooking Light Cookbook that I have previously blogged about. My brother has decided this is the perfect way to serve corn and I could not agree more.
Jim served a San Giuseppe Pinot Grigio that we purchased in NJ while up in PA for the 4th. It went very well with the meal.
Tomorrow my carpets get cleaned. I am excited.
Ingredients:
1 ruby red grapefruit
½ C EVOO
1 large shallot, finely diced (about ¼ C)
1T fresh lime juice, more as needed
½ t fennel seeds, lightly chopped
Kosher salt and fresh pepper
¾ # jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined ( 21- 25 per #)
1 large head Boston lettuce, washed and torn into large bite-size pieces (about 3 C)
1 C Mache sprigs
1/2 small bulb fennel, cored and very thinly slice or shaved on a mandolin
½ C loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves (I used my fresh Italian parsley)
1 medium avocado
3 oz feta crumbled (about ½ C)
Assembly:
1. Slice the ends off the grapefruit and expose the flesh. Set the grapefruit on one of its cut end and slice off the skin in wide strips removing the bitter white pith. Working over a medium bowl, cut the segments free from the membranes. Squeeze the juice from the membrane and strain the juice into a small bowl. Segments one bowl, juice another.
2. Put 3 T of the grapefruit juice, oil, shallot, lime juice, fennel seeds, ¼ t salt and ¼ t pepper in a container with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously to combine. Taste and add more lime juice if needed to make the vinaigrette bright and tangy. Reserve ½ C of the vinaigrette for dressing the salad and pour the remaining vinaigrette into a medium non-reactive bowl. Put the shrimp in the bowl with the vinaigrette, toss and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.
3. Preheat the grille and when ready, grille the shrimp 1 ½ minutes per side. Bring in and cool slightly.
4. Combine the lettuces and fennel in a large salad bowl. Drizzle 3T of dressing over the lettuces and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper. Portion the salad on 2 plates. Scatter the avocado, grapefruit, and shrimp over the salad. Sprinkle with the feta and drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad and serve immediately.
Jim bought corn on his way home from golf yesterday so we used it with the Lime Butter Sauce from the Cooking Light Cookbook that I have previously blogged about. My brother has decided this is the perfect way to serve corn and I could not agree more.
Jim served a San Giuseppe Pinot Grigio that we purchased in NJ while up in PA for the 4th. It went very well with the meal.
Tomorrow my carpets get cleaned. I am excited.
Wheaty 'Bran Muffin' Waffles
Weeks ago this recipe appeared in the Washington Post. I’ve been saving it for a more pleasant temperature. We had Brunch on the porch, reading the Sunday paper. It was a delightful way to spend the morning. We had ocasional intruptions to throw the ball and one attempt to eat Jim's tomatoes, but when breakfast appeared Max was all drool. It is described as a “bran waffle.” They were very good and very filling. The recipe says it makes 4 large Belgian waffles. My waffle maker is rectangular and makes 2 squares at a time. It made 5 large Rectangles or 10 squares. They said to serve with maple syrup and toasted walnuts or jam and ricotta cheese. We went the syrup route, but I thought while eating them that just cheese would have been great.
Ingredients:
1 ½ C all-purpose flour
½ C unbleached whole-wheat flour
1/3 C wheat bran, not bran cereal (recommended Shiloh Farms Organic unprocessed coarse bran called miller’s bran) I used Organic Buckwheat flour.
1 ¼ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1/8 t salt
5 T light brown sugar, packed
7 T unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ C buttermilk
2 T molasses
3 large eggs
1 ½ t vanilla extract
Steps:
Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine and cook in your Belgium waffle maker. They recommend 1-1 ½ minutes per waffle. Mine has a light on top that turns green when the waffles are done. I had a plate in my warming drawer and transferred each one as they were done. I also served them with bacon, but I think Adel sausages would have been better. Next time.
By the way you can freeze the leftover waffles for future breakfasts or I put them in the refrigerator to toast like an EGGO for the next few days.
Ingredients:
1 ½ C all-purpose flour
½ C unbleached whole-wheat flour
1/3 C wheat bran, not bran cereal (recommended Shiloh Farms Organic unprocessed coarse bran called miller’s bran) I used Organic Buckwheat flour.
1 ¼ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1/8 t salt
5 T light brown sugar, packed
7 T unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ C buttermilk
2 T molasses
3 large eggs
1 ½ t vanilla extract
Steps:
Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine and cook in your Belgium waffle maker. They recommend 1-1 ½ minutes per waffle. Mine has a light on top that turns green when the waffles are done. I had a plate in my warming drawer and transferred each one as they were done. I also served them with bacon, but I think Adel sausages would have been better. Next time.
By the way you can freeze the leftover waffles for future breakfasts or I put them in the refrigerator to toast like an EGGO for the next few days.
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