GeoFooding

One Meatball

2012-02-10T17:05:00.003-05:00

Today’s #letslunch is a favorite of mine. We all agreed to do a dish based on music. For some strange reason the song that kept coming into my head is a jazz/blues song by Josh White from the ‘40s about a man who ‘could afford but one meatball’ and the subsequent humiliation he felt at ordering it.
I’m not going to offer my recipe, since we all have our favorites but I do grind my own meat – about half beef sirloin tip and half pork, add the spices, brown ‘em and then cook them in the sauce.
Check out the video here – and no, it’s not a how-to. It’s just me messing around with the theme for fun! After all, #letslunch for me is ALL about the fun!

What do chefs say? ‘Please Enjoy’. I sure hope that you did!

Hawaiian Chili?

2012-01-06T10:23:00.001-05:00

Not exactly, but this is a chili I first made while I was living in Hawaii. Backing up, this month’s #letslunch theme is chili. In case you haven’t read all my posts (really?) #letslunch is a monthly virtual lunch date with some of the best cooks on twitter! We choose a theme and then all post our individual versions on our blogs on the appointed day & we get to share recipes from around the world. Oh and if you would like to join, we’d love to have you!

(Blissful enjoyment of said treat)

When chili was decided for this month’s lunch date, I took a trip down memory lane to my first batch of chili ever. I had no real interest in chili, my interest was purely mercurial. I was serving in the US Air Force stationed at the 548 RTG (Reconnaissance Technical Group) at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. I was an Airman First Class (2 stripes, no star) and desperately wanted an early promotion to Sr Airman (3 stripes, no star) which meant a pay increase. At the time, one had to interview before a panel of officers who would decide your fate. It was kind of like a college interview in that they not only looked at your job performance but at your history of merit in the service, behavior on & off the job and – gack – community participation. Keeping in mind that I was in my early 20s in the early 80s, living in Hawaii so you know that my off time was spent at the beach or a nightclub. I had to find some way to rack up community points. Enter the chili. There was a base-wide chili cookoff and our squadron really wanted to best the other squadrons on the base. I loved cooking so I figured, how hard can chili be? Rules in hand, I trundled off to the BX for supplies. This contest used International Chili Society rules so I was shocked to find that beans & pasta were expressly forbidden and one had 8 hours to make it start to finish. That began my long affair with chili. I dug up this photo from my friend Peggy (right) who unbelievably let me dress her up in all sorts of silly costumes in the name of chili.

Before you laugh too hard at the photo – showmanship was always a part of the contest and we were killer bees with killer chili. If you look closely you can see that we are sticking out our stingers!

We even made the local news with our killer chili – notice how I made my friends wear the short nurse uniforms! Anyway, we won the first chili contest and part of the prize was entrance into the next level chili contest. We won 4 contests this way, getting all the way to the Hawaii State finals where I was disqualified for having chili that was too hot for the wimpy Texan judges. They did give me a large fire extinguisher as a consolation prize, however.

On to my present day chili. I decided, since I had time, to change it up a bit and instead of using ground meat, I braised & shredded instead.

I took some sirloin tip (it would have been better with brisket) and have again as much pork necks, marinated them overnight in red wine, garlic, mustard powder and garlic. Braised them slowly in a 300 degree oven for about 4 hours, shredded them & set them aside. Then I rendered about 4 slices of smoky bacon & sautéed a chopped onion and about 3 cloves of garlic in the fat. Add about 2 cups of stewed tomatoes, chopped, 2 TBSP cider vinegar, 2 TBSP molasses, cumin, coriander, Worcestershire, paprika, smoke flavor (only cause I couldn’t use my smoker), chopped chipotle w/juices, diced jalapenos (frozen from our garden), epazote, 1/4 cup finely chopped kalamata olives (trust me on this),a few chopped oil packed sun dried tomatoes for brightness and anything else you happen to have lying around in the fridge!

I let the mixture simmer for about an hour before adding the meat back into the pot with it’s braising liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning & simmer for another 30 minutes or so. At the end, add in about 1/4 cup lime juice & some fresh cilantro. Serve with grated cheese, chopped onions, cilantro, sour cream & lime on the side. I prefer to serve this over a nice cheesy polenta but some idiot bought corn flour instead of corn meal so we made do with steamed rice as a base.

The flavors are complex and rich, very warming for a winter’s meal. While I talked a good game on #letslunch, chili is as individual as your style. You can shred, chunk or grind your meat, or even skip the meat altogether – just get out a pot & give it a try!

TV maybe?

2011-12-17T12:55:00.001-05:00

For the past year, due to my lack of a work permit in Canada, I have been volunteering at Access7 – the local cable co-op. I started doing floor directing for the show Talk of the Town and then moved on to my own short piece called City Sleuth, which features the cool & unusual here in Regina. Now, however, I am going to do a cooking show on Access, which should be a lot of fun! I’m thinking of doing a theme of “Everyday Gourmet”, wherein we take your everyday dinners & kick ‘em into high gear.

This is a clip of the piece I did as a test piece for the station, so obviously it is not ready for prime time, nor will it air as is. The ‘factoids’ are obviously made up – I have never even met Emeril Lagasse – and there are some editing errors such as the close up of the pork chop which is already seasoned, though I never seasoned the other side in the segment. So I would love to hear your comments, though please don’t point out the obvious editing snafus!

Here we go on air!

I would also love to hear what you think of the theme – would you prefer to watch a show about finding cool ingredients & cooking unusual dishes with them? I am also toying with doing some molecular gastronomy, which I find a lot of fun!

Let me know what you think in the comments and I also need a title for the show! Thanks in advance!

Seduction on the Menu

2011-11-13T12:30:00.002-05:00

This month’s #letslunch challenge is in honor of one of our foodie posters, Rashda Khan (better known to us as @spicebites on twitter) who had her first red hot romance novel published! Now I am not a huge fan of the genre myself but I have huge respect for anyone who can turn out a novel – no easy feat to be sure. Anywho – we all decided that our theme should be seduction foods in support of the steamy subject matter.
Yesterday, however, was a holiday and my husband and I did the usual running around town on errands and such so I really didn’t have time to whip something up, photograph & publish. However, Friday evening found us hanging out sipping martinis watching a little tube. I was fonder of the martini than the television program so on my way back to the kitchen for a refill, I asked hubs if there was anything I could get for him. He was feeling a bit loose and in good humor and responded “Sure, I could really go for a molten lava cake” and snickered at his own little joke. I thought about it for a few minutes and thought that seduction is as much about the surprise of an unexpected kindness as anything else – that’s romantic right? So I looked up a recipe on my iPod and replied, “OK, that doesn’t take too long.” and off I trundled to the kitchen, martini in hand to whip up a late evening treat for my sweetie.

It’s actually quite easy to make:
Ingredients:

5 TBS butter
3.5 oz dark chocolate
2 large eggs & 1 egg yolk
3 TBS sugar
3 TBS flour
2 tsp cocoa powder
pinch salt

preparation: (preheat oven to 425)
Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave on half power until chocolate is nearly melted and stir well to combine and finish melting chocolate. Whisk eggs, egg yolk and sugar together until pale yellow and sugar is no longer visible. Stir together the egg mixture and the chocolate mixture. Sift flour, cocoa & salt over the mixture and fold until completely incorporated. Spoon batter into 4 buttered 5oz ramekins & chill for 15 minutes in the fridge. Place ramekins into a casserole dish and fill halfway up the sides with hot water. Place into the oven on the middle rack and bake 10-15 minutes or until sides are just set. Sift some powdered sugar atop & serve!
This truly is a fast & easy dessert, you can set the cakes for a few minutes and turn out onto a plate or if it’s 9:00 at night you can serve them in the ramekins as I did. These are also great little foils for any fruit you have on hand or even a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream.
So seduction doesn’t have to be a well planned event, it can be spontaneous, surprising and romantic – it can also get you out of watching Grimm and still earn you a late night massage!
For all the seductive treats from my other #letslunch pals – check out my virtual magazine: http://paper.li/geokaren/1318019351#

Tribute to LAM–the Haunting

2011-11-03T13:07:00.003-04:00

This post is near and dear to my heart. I will start it off with my Halloween cookies which were brushed with edible tempera before baking and then decorated with royal icing. That, however, concludes the food portion of this post.

My dear departed Dad (LAM), had a Halloween tradition of scaring the bejeezus out of the neighborhood kids when we were growing up. All of his props were home made (this was well before the days of animatronics) he would use dry ice and build his own sets & make his own costumes. It was always something we looked forward to for months. And the best coming of age rite was being old enough to stay home and help scare the neighborhood kids instead of going out trick-or-treating!
My older brother (LAMII) has been building upon the traditions for decades – yes, I said decades, even enlisting his own son – LAMIII! LAMII, however has taken it to new heights with technology as you can see here in this video:

LAMII Halloween 2010

In past years I have dressed up and done small Halloween things for the trick-or-treaters but having lived mostly in apartments or gated communities, the effort would have been wasted. This year, however, I live in a suburban neighborhood ripe for haunting! I told hubby that I wanted to do a mini-haunted house and that’s all it took to get the ball rolling.
By now you know that I did a piece on Spirit Halloween for my City Sleuth show on local cable: City Sleuth and that got my ideas rolling but we didn’t have years worth of Halloween props & we had to be careful on the budget so off I went in search of deals!
Gerald gave us a roll of corrugated paper stone wall that we used to paper the main entry way and hubby even built a frame to enclose the area, which we also papered with the faux stone

I also trekked to the Dollar store for all sorts of props and came up with a bunch of flimsy headstones. Hubs, being the handy guy that he is had to go me one better and bought some thick styrofoam at Home depot along with some simulated stone spray paint and turned my little Dollar store purchase into truly cool headstones by cutting out the shapes, painting & then gluing my purchases onto them!

It also happened that the new neighbor had bought a bed and was about to recycle the box, when we swooped in and took it for our own. It became this casket (my work, not hubby’s!) with a little tape & black spray paint and another of those Dollar store headstones. The fingers creeping out of the casket were also Dollar store finds that we attached with wire & duct tape. After all, duct tape fixes everything.

In this photo you can also see the ‘blood’ streaked lanterns that we placed around the room on the walls – these were a summer’s end Superstore find for less than 2 bucks each that we painted black & of course, added our own blood. We used all LED candles for the inside. The lenticular photos we got at Wal-Mart & the Dollar store and added a bunch of little spot lights from – you guessed it – the Dollar store!
The candelabra behind the casket was a real find! I was at Gale’s florist here in regina, which also doubles as a craft store with much better prices than Michael’s. They had lots of Halloween goodies, like the gel blood splatters & fake knives for under a buck but I was looking for creepy candle sticks. So I asked. As luck would have it the owner told me she was throwing away two very large gothic candelabras and if I took them I would save her a trip to the dump! SCORE! These things added the perfect touch when fitted with LED candles and strewn with spider webs.
Then of course, you need creepy pumpkins – so I downloaded a pumpkin pattern and off I went. It was nice that Superstore had pumpkins on sale for less than 3 bucks each – any size!

We couldn’t get video of the inside since it was so dark but I do have video from outside and some pics from inside. The tunnel we got from Spirit Halloween – it was an instore prop that they let us tear down & cart away a couple of days before Halloween. The neighbors sure were surprised to see it go up!! The music in the video was some creepy classical that I downloaded from iTunes & then edited to add my own sound effects. We piped it outdoors and had it playing inside as well.

Outside Halloween 2011

Not as much fun or creep factor with the flash but you get the idea!
Hope your Halloween was as much fun as ours – This one was for you Dad!!!

High Tea – or just High?

2011-10-07T16:30:00.001-04:00

This month my #letslunch pals on twitter (and there is getting to be a lot of us!) decided on High Tea as our virtual lunch theme. Now what the heck would I know about High Tea? I am an American, living in Canada and have absolutely no class so I was really out of luck on this one. Plus, this weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada so I had no time to research. I decided it was like a normal tea – scones, pastries & small sweet bites (boy was I out to lunch) and made Saskatoon Berry tarlets, figuring that I could make them and then use them as a dessert choice for Sunday’s big Thanksgiving meal. Hey, I am NOT lazy, just…er…creative.

Basically it’s a puff pastry shell, filled with mascarpone filling & topped with saskatoon berries, cooked in cassis.

I actually thought about making my own puff pastry from scratch but frankly unless you are making croissants (where it really matters), puff pastry from scratch is just a huge pain in the ass. Trust me, as a survivor of radiation treatment for anal cancer, I am an expert on pains in the derriere. So I purchased puff pastry shells and, completely free of guilt, popped them into a 400 degree oven until they were puffed and not quite golden brown, since I was going to bake them again.

(makes 6 tartlets)

Ingredients:

purchased pkg of puff pastry shells (OK, OK – yes I do feel guilty)

8 oz mascarpone cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups Saskatoon berry filling (recipe to follow)

Mix the mascarpone, egg and vanilla (I just used a wire whip) until smooth and fill the partially baked shells (make sure that you remove the inside of the shells!)

Pop them back into the 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes and then remove them immediately to a cooling rack to set.

Gently warm the berries and spoon over the cooled pastries & serve!

You could also add a nice big dollop of cream whipped with a hint of vanilla – which I will do on Sunday. Honestly, I would have done it for you but hey, it’s thanksgiving and there was no room in my fridge to store whipped cream for two days!

For the saskatoon berries:

4 cups saskatoon berries (serviceberries)

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c cassis

2 TBS cornstarch mixed with 1/4 c water to make a slurry

Mix all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cornstarch slurry to thicken and continue to cook for about 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Check out the other great #letslunch posts here:

http://paper.li/geokaren/1318019351

Wedding Bells & Willow on the Wascana

2011-09-01T13:16:00.001-04:00

How do you blog about your own wedding without sounding smug? I have no idea so I will no doubt fail because, frankly, my wedding was the best I had ever been to. Of course it was, because everything was just the way I wanted it. Everyone’s own wedding should be their favorite. I’m telling you about it here because the food was one of the major highlights but I will get to that in a moment. To me, my friends and family that traveled so many miles to be here with me meant the world to me and took my wedding from happiness to sheer joy! Peggy and Jessica came from Eugene OR; Amanda (who took most of the photos posted here) came from Scottsdale, AZ; Kirsten and Danielle came all the way from San Diego, CA (you’re next Danielle!), Cathy came in from Toronto and my Mom & Brother & family came in from Philadelphia, PA! Of course my husband’s family came in from all over Canada too but that’s another post and you’re really here to talk about the food anyway.

The willow

yes, we went all out for guest transportation to and from the venue!

our grand entrance

We booked a local restaurant (Willow on Wascana) whose fare we had enjoyed on several occasions prior and knew to be focused on local fresh ingredients, which we really wanted to showcase. So we sat down with the chef and the manager ahead of time to collaborate on a menu that would be uniquely ours for this special occasion. As much as I’d like to take credit for the menu, I can’t. The executive chef there; Tim Davies, listened to our ideas and comments and came up with an absolutely fantastic menu. Dave, the manager and sommelier at the Willow, took this menu and created the perfect wine pairing for each of 7 courses – yes 7, not counting the passed hors d'oeuvres at cocktail hour! And, Tim came up with no less than three menus to please us, the vegetarians and the children!

groom, me and Chef Tim Davies

the menu

amuse bouche: pickled fennel, carrot and beet – really got the juices flowing & ready for the meal!

roasted sugar beet & goat cheese salad w/baby arugula, toasted walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette

Lamb and mint ravioli w/fresh garden peas, brown butter and grilled peach coulis (and my personal favorite of the evening!)

Sunflower satay trout w/beluga lentil pilaf, celeriac and apple pave and raspberry gastrique

Apple cider-brined wild boar and prarie cherry demi-glace w/saskatoon berry wnd vanilla whipped potato and fresh morels

Chocolate chili mint and rhubabrb mousse (w/edible gold leaf for the groom)

Field berry tartlet w/apricot glaze

Prior to dinner there was a cocktail hour with passed hors d’vours and chocolate bacon martinis too! Chef Tim made an amazing duck confit (for which I am still awaiting the recipe), a mushroom strudel and a white chocolate bacon toffee bar to go with the chocolate martinis! The dinner was everything we had hoped for and more. Each taste tantalizing course was paired with the perfect wine, too!

Oh and the view is pretty spectacular as well!

OK and being a chick – I have to include a pic of the back of my dress cause it totally rocked!

view the pic full res to see all the detail.

All in all – the wedding was perfect – the ceremony was touching and meaningful for us. The food an the reception was incomparable – better than at any event I have ever attended and better than the most expensive restaurants! The restaurant itself was cleared of tables & chairs (we ate ate in a tent attached to the deck) and the dancing continued late into the night with dancers from age 5 to 80! The only downside of the dancing was that they played the Macarena. Oh well, you can’t have everything!

Summer Bread Rolls

2011-07-26T14:58:00.001-04:00

Bread in summer? You bet! Here in Canada, the summers are much cooler than what I am accustomed to in Hotlanta. Yesterday the temps climbed to a whopping 31C (about 88F), which to me is a cool spring morning – apologies to all those suffering from massive heat waves this summer! Even if it is hot in your area, this recipe only takes 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven so it’s not really going to blast you out of your kitchen in normal summer temps.

I was thumbing through the July issue of BON APPÉTIT magazine and came across a photo of herbed bread rolled into spirals that looked delicious. Our herbs are growing like wildfire this summer so I leapt at the chance to use some of them. I had also gone to the farmer’s market on Sunday and come home with fresh peas, kohlrabi and purple spring onions, so I wanted to showcase fresh produce and herbs for dinner. Now I used to be a huge fan of Bon Apetit magazine and had collected over 20 years worth starting in 1978. Over the years, however, I have become less than enthusiastic about it since either I had outgrown it or it had begun to try to appeal to the busy Mom instead of the serious cooking enthusiast. This recipe, however, may make me take another look.

The recipe I started with is Cilantro Scallion Bread from the July 2011 issue. I say started because I am somehow completely incapable of following a recipe as instructed. The ingredients as written are:

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 teaspoons Kosher salt, divided

2 teaspoons sugar, divided

1 3/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cubed

1 large egg plus 1 yolk

1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped scallions

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1 tablespoon black sesame seeds

3 tablespoons olive oil plus more for bowl and brushing
However, I substituted fresh oregano for the cilantro.

Their recipe instructs you to sprinkle 1/2 the sugar AND the salt, with the yeast over 1/2 cup very warm water and let stand for 10 minutes until it bubbles. I chose to only include the sugar with the yeast and added all of the salt to the flour. You can also use rapid rise yeast.

Next, their recipe has you using both a mixer and a processor whereas I opted to do the whole thing in my processor fitted with the dough blade. So into the large bowl on the processor; add the flour, salt & remaining sugar and pulse a couple of times to blend. Then add the butter and pulse until you have coarse meal. Add the egg & egg yolk along with the yeast mixture and pulse until well blended. At this point you may need to scrape down the inside of the bowl but I didn’t find it necessary. Then simply turn it on for 5 minutes and let the dough blade knead the dough. You should end up with a soft, slightly sticky dough. Place it into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap to let rise in a warm place until doubled or about an hour.

Meanwhile, in the small bowl of the processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse onions and herbs until finely minced. Remove from processor and add the olive oil and the sesame seeds, stirring to combine well.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the risen dough to form a 9” x 18” rectangle and coat it evenly with the onion and herb mixture. Roll it up jelly roll style starting from the narrow end. Slice into 3/4” slices and place on a baking sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper. Brush each roll with olive oil or to make it really easy, spray with canned olive oil. At this point I opted to add a twist of coarsely ground sea salt atop each roll. Bake for about 30 minutes, turning the baking sheet midway through to ensure even browning.

That’s it! Written down it seems like more work than it actually is. Heck, washing the processor took me longer than preparing these. I love the herby flavor and the salt really kicked it up. Give it a try with whatever herbs you have on hand, I may add a bit of cheese next time too. These rolls are worth thinking ahead a little for since you do need to let them rise but they are about the easiest herb bread you an make.

Is it hot in the kitchen? yeah, maybe but these are so tasty you can always eat al fresco while the kitchen cools!

Champagne Nibbles

2011-07-15T15:46:00.002-04:00

It’s been a while since I have been around the blog. In the past couple of months I’ve had colostomy reversal surgery – what I hope is my last surgery of my cancer journey, I’ve gotten married and been on a mini-honeymoon. Whew, I’ve been busy as you can well imagine!

What brought me back today is a very special event. My #letslunch pals are celebrating our two year anniversary of meeting, virtually and sharing recipes for lunch treats. I haven’t posted for our regular meetings in a while but this crew is amazing – they even made a liquid lunch theme for my post surgery – brought me to tears, it did!

So I couldn’t miss today’s celebration of nibbles to pair with champagne – or in my case, Proseco. Not only is two years a milestone but as I indicated, I have a helluva lot to celebrate in my own life. So I chose a recipe that I adapted from my all-time favorite chef; Chef Keller of French Laundry fame. last year for my 50th, my husband (wow, that still sounds weird to me) took me to the French Laundry for the meal of a lifetime and also presented me with its venerable cookbook.

The dish I chose is probably the easiest one in the book but it is perfect with bubbly! It’s a parmesan cup filled with herbed goat cheese. Chef Keller tops it with shaved black truffle but I opted for making my own ‘caviar’ from balsamic vinegar for little pops of brightness that contrast with the creamy rich cheese flavors. It truly is easy so follow along with me.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and have a clean (and empty) cardboard egg carton standing by. Start with about a cup of moist finely grated parmesan and using a ring mold, drop about a tablespoon of cheese into the mold atop a Silpat lined baking sheet.

Something like this:

Bake them for about 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown. This is the toughest part of the whole endeavor since if you get them two brown, you can’t mold them and if they are not brown enough, they won’t crisp up once they’ve set.

Take them out and let them rest for about 30 seconds or until you can lift them from the sheet – and them gently press them into the egg carton to form a tulip-shaped cup. Let them set and bake another batch.

Remove them to a plate and continue with the remaining parmesan cups. A cup of parm will make a lot of cups! Measurements in this recipe are really extraneous – my favorite kind of dish!

The cheese filling is the easy part – I took about 4 ounces of creamy chevre, mixed it with a tablespoon of mascarpone and 2 tablespoons of plain greek-style yogurt – then minced a couple of tablespoons of fresh parsley and basil from the garden added some fresh coarse cracked pepper, creamed it very well and piped it into the cups. Keller’s recipe called for heavy cream but I like the way the yogurt and mascarpone lighten it while adding some tang.

Now my favorite part – the balsamic caviar – it is easy and fun to make! Place about 3/4 cup olive oil into a small bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then, in a small vessel (I use my measuring cup) combine 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar with a tablespoon agar-agar and bring to a boil. Immediately after the mixture comes to a boil, pour it into a clean bowl. Then using an eyedropper, drop the vinegar into cold oil.

Fish the ‘pearls” out of the oil with a small slotted spoon or a tea strainer works great for this part. Rinse the pearls in cold water and use them as desired. In this case as a faux caviar for our bubbly appie!

Serve these with some nice bubbly and wow your guests. Seriously, the crispy parmesan, creamy herby goat cheese and bright little bursts of balsamic will blow you away!

So Happy Anniversary my wonderful #letslunch friends – here is to many more virtual lunches and may my cooking always improve and be inspired by your culinary examples! Cheers! <clink>

And please check out the other submissions too :

Cheryl's Cheddar Pecan Crisps: Bubbly Friendly Bits at Tiger in the Kitchen

Caitlin‘s Gruyere Lace Cookies at Caitlin Shetterly

Charissa‘s Bacon, Apple & Swiss Quiche at Zest Bakery

Ellise‘s Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Palmiers at Cowgirl Chef

Emma‘s Cold-Cured Salmon Bites at Dreaming of Pots and Pans

Linda‘s Cheese Straw Crackers at Free Range Cookies

Lisa‘s Salmon Tartare at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Maria‘s Parmesan Toasts at The Bubbly Girl

Rashda‘s Samosa-Shingara Pies at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Steff‘s Stuffed Figs, Parmesan Crackers & Spicy Cheesy Pecans atThe Kitchen Trials

Eleanor's Summer Snacks at Be a Wok Star

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em

2011-04-25T12:54:00.001-04:00

I’m in love. His name is Bradley and he smokes – a lot - but that’s why I love him. Meet Bradley:

Bradley is the one in the middle. The smoker. Not the cat. Not the grill. Sure, he may seem small compared to the grill but he packs a flavor wallop! We brought him home a little over a week ago and after a good seasoning dry run, I made a batch of ribs as our first test. Obviously I liked them:

Though I found them less tender than the ones I had been doing in the oven – practice makes perfect, however, so practice is what I have been doing. Saturday I smoked some wings with a honey-mustard-garlic sauce and some apple wood smoke – delicious – so much so that there was no time for pics before they were devoured.

My first public test of sorts was for Easter Sunday. I went on down to Butcher Boy meats in search of a fresh ham, which they didn’t really want to sell me. “you know this won’t taste like the ham you’re used to, right?” was pretty much the response I got – Yeah, yeah, I know what it will taste like! I tastes like real meat not a salt lick! After talking the butcher into parting with an 8 pound fresh ham, I brined it for a few days in a brine with maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Next time I will brine for about a week but I had been busy so some brine is better than none.

Next I smoked that bad boy at about 200 using apple wood for about 8 hours. Unfortunately I had to do this the night before, since we would be out most of the day on Sunday and we are not yet comfortable with leaving a smoking device unattended on the back deck. When we returned home I had about 3 hours before dinner so I glazed the ham with a maple-mustard glaze and popped it into the oven at 200 degrees until it reached 150 on the meat thermometer. I let it rest about 30 minutes before slicing and thanks to a few smart twitter pals, served it with a Spanish Rioja, which was an absolutely perfect complement.

The moral of the story is – smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. You won’t regret a moment and neither will your guests!

Sushi Sushi

2011-03-18T03:06:00.001-04:00

This month’s #letslunch endeavor is small bites for spring. This left me with a bit of a dilemma since spring is an awfully long way off here on the prairies. So I dug my way through the snow to my favorite local fish shop in search of fresh ingredients to make sushi at home. Heck, there ain’t a farmer’s market here until at least June so fresh to me is imported fresh.

The tuna looked fantastic – line caught only 2 days ago in the deep pacific so it was sashimi grade, scallops, masago (both frozen – which is preferable due to bacterial concerns) and some pickled sea beans. I think I see my challenge.

I have eaten my own weight in sushi but have never tried to make it myself until now and figured that this would be a good time to start. Armed with a recipe for sushi rice and good fish…here I go…

I love sushi, I love Asian food in general. Don’t let it scare you – if I can do it at home, so can you!

Tacos – South American Style

2011-02-08T12:15:00.002-05:00

A friend recently challenged me to come up with a party menu with a Columbian theme – Cartagena to be exact. Ok, so she didn’t really challenge me, she mentioned it in passing but anyone that knows me knows that the mere mention of a cuisine or ingredient sends me scurrying off to my kitchen obsessed with a new creation ala Top Chef. So what comes to mind when thinking of the cuisine of Cartegena? Caribbean influences, South American influences, coffee, spices, chocolate, fruit, seafood, etc leap to mind for me. Something unusual including all these flavors would be suitable and no utensils required – it is a party after all. I came up with an idea for mini corn tortillas topped with coffee crusted flank steak and mango salsa and decided to put it to the test.

The first challenge of this dish was to find a corn tortilla recipe. Doesn’t sound like a huge challenge until you realize that most tortilla recipes call for two things that are impossible to find here – masa harina and a tortilla press. Plus, tortillas made with masa harina have a much more subtle corn flavor than I was after. So I tweeted my conundrum with spectacular results. Elizabeth Nyland from the awesome food blog; Guilty Kitchen, came to the rescue with the perfect recipe for my soft corn tortillas.

I used the recipe found here but made a few changes based upon my own experience. Ok, based upon royally screwing up the first two tortillas and setting off the smoke alarm in the process. Hey, practice makes perfect, right?

I mixed the batter exactly as directed. The recipe calls for a non-stick pan, which I do not own so I started by using a very hot All-Clad fry pan and adding a little safflower oil, then I added the batter – big mistake. The pan was so hot that the oil pooled in the center and the batter clung to it without spreading over the pan. I ended up with a fat corn pancake that was charred on the outside and runny on the inside. So after clearing the kitchen of smoke, and swapping to a larger saute pan, I began again. This time, I sprayed the pan with a bit of cooking spray and tried again. This time the batter spread as it should but it was still too thick. Finally, I added about 1/2 cup of water to the batter to thin it so that it was a bit thicker than a crepe batter and it worked like a charm. The trick:

Ladle the batter into a hot pan (hot but not smoking) and tilt the pan (off the heat) to coat to desired thickness. Set the pan back on the heat until it begins to bubble on top and the tortilla slides around the pan on its own – flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so and turn out onto a paper towel covered sheet pan. After the first couple, it is so easy you will feel like a short order cook at a taqueria!

The mango salsa was simply, diced mango, red onion, tomatillos, tomatoes, jalapeno, some chopped cilantro and a few dashes of lime juice. Season with salt and pepper and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes while you prepare the steak.

Next is the easy part – the flank steak.

I took a flank steak* and marinated it for 4 hours in 2 cups of strongly brewed coffee, 2 cinnamon sticks and a few dried Serrano chilies. remove the flank steak from the marinade and pat dry, discarding marinade. Next coarsely grind about 1/4 cup coffee beans with about half that much of peppercorns. Coat both sides of the flank steak with the ground mixture, pressing gently to adhere. Grill on an oiled BBQ grill or place under broiler about 6 inches from heat until desired doneness, turning once during cooking. I did about 3 minutes per side for medium rare though cooking time will vary greatly depending upon the thickness of your steak. Let the meat rest for at least tem minutes before slicing thinly on a bias against the grain.

Serve the tortillas, flank steak, salsa some shredded red cabbage an sour cream separately so everyone can build their own tacos at the table. For a party I would make mini-tortillas and fill them before serving.

**note, I chose flank steak for this recipe since the coffee crust can be overwhelming for some people. Flank steak, when sliced correctly will only have a bit of the crust on the top and bottom, which in my opinion, yields just the right amount of coffee and pepper crunch!

Chocolate Turtles

2011-01-04T15:01:00.002-05:00

I must start by saying that no actual turtles were harmed in the making of this TV segment. Nor do I condone the harming of turtles in any way, unless of course, it’s to make a really fine snapper soup topped with sherry, but I digress.

I volunteer at the local cable station here in Regina, SK (Access 7) which does local community programming. I am usually behind the cameras as a floor director for a show called Talk of the Town. Occasionally, however, they need someone to fill in on camera. I have hosted the show once, when the regular host was stuck in a snow bank someplace and for this segment, they wanted a holiday themed interest piece that could play throughout the holiday season. Of course y’all know my passion is cooking, so that leapt to mind immediately. The problem was; what to “cook” with no kitchen and only a microwave for equipment! Hence the Turtles.

See the video here:

Access 7 Turtle demo

Hope you enjoy it! The simple version is a bag of caramels, some toasted pecan halves and some chocolate chips. If you want the real version – using yummy homemade caramel and tempered chocolate, let me know in the comments!

Now, get your popcorn ready and enjoy but remember that buttered popcorn will leave marks on your video screen when you throw it.

Holiday Moose

2010-12-21T15:28:00.001-05:00

Yes moose, not mousse. No typo. No chocolate. No cream. Here in the great white north, game meat is a part of the fabric of life. Interestingly however, it is illegal to purchase game meat here in Saskatchewan though it is legal in neighboring Alberta. A couple of years ago, we wanted to establish a new Christmas traditional feast and the suggestion that bubbled to the top was venison. Now you can’t just go down to the local butcher and order some up, so one needs to be more creative. The last time my fiancé went to Calgary, he purchased a 6 pound venison sirloin, frozen solid for this year’s dinner. I happened to mention this to my father-in-law and let the games begin!

He, of course, mentioned it to a friend of his who immediately delivered a fresh venison roast….quickly followed by some venison for sausage making (yes, I had mentioned that I planned to make sausage from some of it). He talked to a friend of his who offered up elk sausage that he had made, along with several pounds of ground moose and a 3 pound moose loin roast! Apparently hunter’s wives tire of game meat and after all, there is a hell of a lot of meat on a moose! But now what to do with a moose roast? I’d never eaten it, seen it or touched it much less cooked one!

The roast is very dark in color (I will skip adding a photo of the raw meat since it is decidedly unappetizing!) – almost purple and it was tied as you would tie a normal loin roast but beyond that I didn’t know what to do. So I took to the internet, reading game hunter sites, cook sites and even some humorous posts about cooking moose wile chugging Jack Daniels. I have found that when it comes to something you are really unsure about, look for commonalities in different posts. What I found to be most common was; trim the fat and silver to reduce the gaminess and cover with strips of bacon during roasting to maintain the moisture since the meat is extremely lean. So I trimmed, retied, marinated, seared and roasted with surprisingly excellent results!

For a 3 pound roast, I marinated for 2 hours with about a cup of dry white wine, a couple of splashes of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh thyme, rosemary and black pepper. Then I seared it well on all sides, put it an a roaster, draped it with bacon slices, poured the marinade in and scattered onions and fresh cranberries around the roast and roasted at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours until the internal temperature reached 145. I then rested it while I deglazed the pan with about 1/2 cup of Madeira wine. I strained the liquids and put them back into the pan with some beef demi-glace that I made this weekend, which thickened the gravy to a perfect consistency. Discard bacon, slice and serve!

The roast was wonderful though It was surprisingly on the rare side of medium, even at 145 out of the oven (which will rise about 5 more degrees during resting). It was tender with a mild game flavor that went well with the sauce. The cranberry added a nice background tartness while the Madiera tempered the meaty flavor. I highly recommend this dish if you come across some moose meat. And if you live in an area where hunting is a way of life, all you need do is mention it and you will have a freezer full of game to experiment with!

Plentywood, Montana

2010-12-10T12:10:00.002-05:00

This month’s #letslunch category is meant to be holiday side dishes. As a quick reminder, #letslunch is a twitter hashtag wherein some of twitter’s finest cooks submit their chosen lunch entries on a designated day. It is a means of sharing lunch with other cooking enthusiasts around the world. I used to be an avid participant but events over the past year have left me straggling in to contribute only now and again. Fate struck again this month so I thought I would mix it up by offering up a side dish of life, since there was no time for cooking.

The last time I traveled into Canada, I was given a 3 month visitor visa by a Canadian immigration officer. I had thought that I could stay up to 6 months but apparently the length of time one can stay is completely at the discretion of immigration officers at the point of entry. Three months ended today, so yesterday my fiancé and I made a mad dash for the closest border control station, which happens to be in a remote area of the prairies between Montana and Saskatchewan. I only mention this because it explains how I found myself in tiny town in a remote area of Montana on a blustery Thursday morning in December, which is my #letslunch slice of Americana side dish for today.

Driving south on route 6 out of Regina, the buildings quickly give way to vast windswept prairies sprinkled with massive rolled bales of hay and even fewer farmhouses and outbuildings. The wind blows fiercely from the west blowing the snow so constantly over the road that it appears to be a mist machine circa 70’s disco clubs. The rising sun, a fiery pink ball in the east illuminates the remoteness of the area as we struggle to keep the car between the lines of the two lane road amidst the ice and buffeting wind. Two hours later we approach a wide spot in the road which proves to be Regway, a Saskatchewan border crossing into Montana where I turned in my visitor visa. 20 minutes farther down the road south, we came to the tiny hamlet of Plentywood, Montana whose claim to fame is being the historic spot where Sitting Bull ultimately surrendered to the US Army.

With a population of about 2,000; it boasts 4 churches, a Masonic temple and one traffic light. We drove from one end of the town to the other, scoping out the community for something to do to kill a little time before heading back to the border to renew my visa. I particularly liked the Sherwood Inn that also includes the Robin Hood Lounge, Friar Tuck steakhouse and Maid Marion styling salon but at 11:00 AM the spot that looked the most promising, judging from its very crowded (relatively speaking, of course) parking lot, was the EZ-Way bakery.

Inside the Ez, there are 3 very large round tables & chairs with a scattering of smaller tables throughout the large “cafe”. Two of the tables were surrounded by elderly women, chattering and filling out Christmas cards, though likely half of them were for each other. Their hair was coifed and sprayed in place and they were sporting mostly holiday sweaters and matching thematic earrings. At the other table all the men gathered wearing baseball style caps in camouflage or bearing slogans like “Git er done”. I kid you not. On the wall was a poster announcing a raffle which promised its participants 30 guns in 30 days. All of the clientele, averaging 70+, were obviously there for the long haul.

The coffee, self-serve in glass mugs, was tepid and no stronger than weak tea but I guess if you have a couple dozen seniors cooling their heels while drinking coffee all morning, that’s probably advisable. But what struck me the most was that these people were a community. This was obviously a regular gathering for them at which the wives swapped recipes, tales of children and grandchildren and no doubt, complaints of husbands and muddy boots. The men were spinning yarns about hunting and fishing escapades that may or may not have happened and some sat quietly reading the paper in companionable ease. I’ve never been a small town girl, I guess it’s just an experience that never presented itself in my life. But sitting at the cafe window, which was clad in home-made cheerful curtains, I could see the appeal for these folks who likely were born there, grew up, raised families and worked hard in this small modest community. They know each other’s pasts and presents, secrets and heartaches and still gather at the local bakery to indulge in a doughnut or the daily bran muffin special (not surprising) to share their lives. We were warmly welcomed by the proprietor who recommended the pumpkin muffins over the bran and he even came to our table to refill our coffee. We did get some curious looks, especially when 3 elderly women came in only to find us in what appeared to be their regular spot. But everyone was smiles and the owner set them up at a different table arranging chairs and newspapers for their comfort. Maybe we were able to change up their routine with a different perspective.

As we drove out of town, past the “Kum and Go” Gas station (yes, I swear I did not make that up) I realized that in a small way they gave me a different perspective too. A close knit group that is as comfortable as your old holey college sweatshirt can be as fulfilling as an exotic vacation on a tropical beach. It’s just not as warm. It’s all in your perspective.

Thanksgiving….again

2010-11-22T15:19:00.001-05:00

We have our Canadian thanksgiving early in October but as an American, I am always going to be rooted in the American version in late November. Thanksgiving (American style) is Thursday and I have been giving it a great deal of thought. It was exactly one year ago today that I had my first doctor’s appointment that ultimately led to a diagnosis of cancer two short but intense weeks later. It sure put a cramp in our holiday plans as we had to switch Thanksgiving dinner from Thursday to Sunday but we did indeed have our feast and give our thanks.

This year I am waffling about making another Thanksgiving dinner – mostly because it will just be two of us. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without a crowd of people and at least one argument. It’s not a holiday here in Canada so everyone has to work as usual on both Thursday and Friday, meaning that you can’t lie on the living room floor all day on Friday, occasionally parting with the floor to raid the fridge for leftovers.

I guess I am also feeling a bit blue, reminiscing about the past year. It has been the most difficult of my life. Cancer, financial ruin (as a result of the treatment costs) and debilitating mental illness in the family have conspired to test my mettle. All these things, one muddles through at the time, but they invariably ‘catch up’ and have, in the form of pre-holiday blues. So far, I have survived all these trials and presumably will continue to persevere and for that I know I should be thankful.

For a sense of peace, I have been trying to give back to my new community. I am volunteering at the local cable television station, The Schizophrenia Society and also participated in a two day cancer agency forum as a patient representative. The latter had the unfortunate side-effect (forgive the pun) of forcing me to relive the treatment experience and realize that I am still far from recovered both physically and emotionally. I do, however, hope that offering to medical professionals, some insight into a patient’s perspective, will help those who must follow in my footsteps.

So all in all, some good can come of our experiences, no matter how trying they may be at the time. That said, I will plaster a smile on my face and go and do the thing that usually brings some happiness to me and my loved ones. Where the hell is that cookbook anyway?

Thanksgiving – Canadian style

2010-10-12T16:04:00.002-04:00

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. Now, thanksgiving is entirely different up here in the great white north, from what I am accustomed to in the states. For one, football does not play a central role but the oddest thing to me is that it falls on a Monday so most people have their big dinner on Sunday, as did we. This just makes sense because one needs at least a day to recover from any respectable Thanksgiving feast.

This year, I was quite excited about the holiday, since I have a great deal for which to be truly thankful. Less than a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery, radiation and chemo yet here I am today, feeling good enough to lay out a decadent spread for the holiday. And decadent it was! I spent days preparing for the big dinner and it was worth every minute. Add to that, a birthday cake thrown into the middle of my prep, and I was very busy to say the least. Our feast consisted of two hors devours ala the French Laundry; parmesan crisps filled with chevre mousse and gruyere gougeres willed with warm mornay sauce. We also had a white asparagus soup, drizzled with sugar snap pea soup and topped with homemade creme fraiche and caviar as a starter. From there we had a mostly traditional meal; a maple brined 20 pound fresh local turkey, which I stuffed with lemon, apple, orange and clove studded onion – the brine made it so deliciously juicy that I highly recommend taking the time to do it.

The dressing was made with french bread (I couldn’t find any panettone and was to lazy to bake it), homemade pork sausage, dried cherries, cranberries and golden raisins with plenty of fresh made turkey stock. For sides we had brussel sprouts with pancetta, brown sugar and cider; carrots with parsley pesto from our garden; mashed potatoes made with creme fraiche and parmesan; cranberry chutney with ginger, orange and currants; arugula salad with pears, cherries, toasted pinenuts and pecorino; and fresh baked pretzel rolls – oh and of course about a gallon of madiera pan gravy! There was so much going on in the kitchen on Sunday that I made the dressing on the grill outside and finished it in the oven while the turkey was resting!

Of course, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without dessert. For that we had three choices; pecan pie with chocolate drizzles, open face apple pie and a pumpkin mousse pie.

The apple pie was my favorite – I got it from the Pie and Pastry Bible. I have heard that many cooks don’t care for Rose Levy’s books but personally, I love them because I can mix and match crusts and fillings, etc.

Best of all, though, was the gathering of family, the clinking of glasses, the laughter and sheer happiness of sharing a special meal and special thanks with people in my life that make it worth living. So whether your holiday is on a Monday in October or on a Thursday in November, remember to enjoy every moment no matter what you have to eat! BTW – champagne really helps!

Black Sesame Ice Cream

2010-08-13T12:01:00.002-04:00

Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. It may sound a bit unusual but I got hooked on the stuff at one of our favorite local sushi joints called Michi. I was dubious about trying sashimi here on the prairies so far from any ocean but it’s actually quite good. The kicker though is the black sesame ice cream. I searched for it locally in the markets to no avail so I figured I’d just have to whip up a batch on my own.

Unlike my friend @freerangecookie on this cool blog http://www.freerangecookies.com/ I used an ice cream machine instead of our new clothes dryer. I’m thinking either method would work.

Ingredients:

5 large egg yolks

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cups heavy cream

3 TBS black sesame seeds

method:

Using a mortar & pestle, crush sesame seeds. In a saucepan, combine milk, sesame seeds, sugar and vanilla and scald milk over low/medium heat. Set aside and let the seeds steep in the milk for about an hour.

Beat egg yolks into milk and heat over low/medium heat stirring constantly until a custard that coats the back of a spoon forms. Pour the custard into the 2 cups of heavy cream and stir well. Pour into ice cream machine and churn according to your machine’s instructions. That’s it! How simple is that?

I like to use a mortar & pestle as opposed to a grinder or processor since I like to have some texture. I have heard of people using black sesame paste though frankly I doubt that is something I could source around here. If you get the black sesame seeds at a local Asian market, they tent to be really inexpensive too.

This ice cream was made for an entry into the #letslunch group on twitter that comes together to cook and post on a common theme. It’s a great way to meet new tweeps, learn new cooking ideas and read some great blogs – give it a try!

Apricot Slab Pie

2010-08-05T16:57:00.004-04:00

Apricot slab pie is just fun to say, isn’t it? “Gimme a slab” just sort of rolls off the tongue. I saw this slab pie on the cover of Fine Cooking Magazine this month and it offered the perfect solution to a dessert for a crowd. I’m throwing a big party this weekend for my fiancé's daughter and husband who are returning to Canada after five months spent working in Uganda. The idea behind the slab pie is that you can (theoretically) slice off a slab and eat it sans plate and utensils. In practice, we found that you will likely prefer the usual method of eating, if you are over the age of eight, since it is a bit sticky – but man-oh-man – this is good eats!

It may seem a bit strange to tackle a recipe that takes so much kitchen time in the middle of summer, but this one is really worth the effort and the additional heat. You know the old saw about not being able to take the heat anyway. I won’t bother to reprint the recipe here since, for a change, I made it exactly as directed – OK so I didn’t really measure, but you get the point. I will give you my photos and tips, however.

The full recipe can be found in the August/September issue of Fine Cooking (the cover recipe) or online here.

First off; read the recipe thoroughly before beginning. I don’t often follow recipes – I tend to use them as ideas so when I do actually follow a recipe I sometimes forget this basic step. This recipe has a lot of steps and if you are using the magazine, they can get lost in the overall text until the last minute.

Second; give yourself plenty of time to make this “pie”. The pie dough needs to be cold and very firm and the filling needs to be completely cooled – fridge cooled is even better. I made the pie twice – the first time, it came out perfectly and the second time, it burst out of the side since the dough had come to room temp and the filling was still slightly warm. It wasn’t a disaster but it certainly wasn’t as spectacular a presentation.

Third; the magazine states that the slab pie is best eaten the same day it is baked. By the time you make the dough, and the filling (which takes an hour), cool everything, roll, fill and bake for an hour, then cool the whole pie for several hours, you may be eating it at midnight. We tried it the day of baking and the next day and actually found the flavors to be better the next day.

Finally, I found that the crust recipe makes a good deal more than you will need. With the leftovers from the two slab pies, I was able to make a lattice top cherry pie – both bottom crust and lattice. This is not necessarily a bad thing since it does keep in the fridge well and also freezes.

Overall, I love this recipe. The crust is flaky and just the right thickness and the filling is a symphony of flavors with the orange, apricot, almond and brandy. I am new to Fine Cooking Magazine and I love that it has recipes that aren’t ‘dumbed down’. It has recipes for less experienced cooks as well but I love the excitement of a truly wonderful dish done right, even if it takes some extra work. The folks at Fine Cooking are also very responsive on twitter so if you have questions, it is like having your own support line without pushing menu buttons on your phone.

Check it out – your friends and family will thank you – profusely!

Oh Canada!

2010-07-23T14:03:00.003-04:00

I’m a little late on posting this since Canada Day was July the first but hey, it’s summer and I have been busy eating and working on my new website (details as soon as I wrestle CSS to the ground). We decided to have a dinner for a family member who has been ill recently and left it to him to decide who else to invite since there is a lot of family locally and we didn’t want to overwhelm the poor guy. So the day before the BBQ we went from a BBQ for 3 to a BBQ for 14 - OK so one was under a year old but 13 is a bad number for a party. Now I am of the mind that the more the merrier - especially for a summer BBQ so off I went to the market, list in hand and mind spinning a thousand miles per hour with all my recipe ideas.

This was to be the first big gathering I would be hosting for my fiance’s family so of course I wanted to do a bang up job. They need to know I can take care of my honey the way they expect and I wanted them to all want to come back for the next event not dread my food! I have written before about the family’s German heritage and I knew I wanted to stay as far away from that sort of menu as I could since my flavors would not be what they were accustomed to.

Since I didn’t know all of the food preferences of my guests I opted for middle of the road dishes that most people would like. The menu looked something like this:

BBQ Spare Ribs	Honey Mustard Chicken Wings
Corn on the cob w/lime butter	Cole slaw
German Potato Salad	Grilled Garlic Naan

Of course I also had fresh salsa & chips, Spinach & artichoke dip, spiced almonds, onion dip and cucumber dip – all in large quantities. OK, so I am Italian and find it impossible to make just enough food. Sue me.

Now grilling and BBQing are typically the man of the house’s domain – or so we chicks let them think. This undertaking was no different. I used pork spare ribs – not back ribs – as they are meatier and more tender in my opinion. Start the morning of by removing the membrane on the bone side of the ribs. Next liberally add your rub. Everyone has a rub they swear by so I will just tell you what goes into mine, knowing full well that you will use your own faves. I use paprika, cumin, coriander, mustard powder, onion powder and garlic powder. See, there really is a reason to keep garlic powder on hand. You could also add brown sugar but since I am not smoking these and just grilling at the end, the sauce on the hot grill will add all the carmelization I am looking for.

Next wrap the ribs in foil and place on a large rimmed baking sheet and pop into a 250 degree oven for about 3 hours. No turning, basting, mopping or anything else is required. After 3 hours the internal temp ought to be about 160. At that point, I pour off the juices and add them to my favorite home brewed BBQ sauce, mop it on the ribs and give them a few turns on a hot grill until the sauce just starts to get a little crusty. This is the part where the guy manning the grill takes all the credit for these tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone, spicy, tangy beauties. Enough adjectives? Actually, no. They are that good.

Top off the meal with some homemade vanilla ice cream and toppings so everyone can build their own sundae, some home baked chocolate chip cookies and your guests will think they died and went to the deep south!

So do most of the work in the kitchen, finish on the grill and you will have fabulous BBQ that your guy can’t mess up. Er, that he will proudly take credit for.

Summer? Cherry Cobbler

2010-06-23T10:54:00.001-04:00

Technorati Tags: cherries,cobbler,summer recipes,fruit desserts

They tell me it's the first day of summer but I will have to take their word for it. Here on the prairies of Saskatchewan, I'm still waiting for spring. Magazines, newspapers and cooking shows are chock full of recipes for the grill so you don't have to heat up your kitchen during the summer months but our grill is water logged and I am huddled indoors in a sweatshirt and bunny slippers so I can't wait to crank up the oven for some ambient heat. They also tell me this is unusually cool weather but they said the same thing this past winter when the mercury refused to budge above 50 below. For a chick used to Atlanta temperatures it's discouraging to spend each morning in front of my closet gazing longingly at shorts, tanks tops and cute little sundresses.

As a result, when I went grocery shopping this weekend, I got fruit envy. Nothing says summer like ripe juicy fruit - the vibrant colors and scents are like a siren song to me even if they are not local. However, this means that I always buy too much to reasonably be eaten in a short amount of time, especially when you are still adjusting to a colostomy friendly diet like I am. Nuff said. This weekend I bought big fat juicy cherries, plums, blueberries and a nice fat pineapple. Of course I had forgotten that we are taking a roadtrip tomorrow an will be gone until next week. So today to stave off the summer chill, I decided to turn those cherries into some cherry cobbler. Cobbler is what I like to call lazy man's baking. It is fast, easy and forgiving to make. Recipes are mere guidelines and amounts are completely flexible, which is good when your hands are shaking from the cold and measuring is a challenge.

The only downside of this dish for me is that my cherry pitter (yes, Alton, I do have a uni-tasker) is in my drawer in Atlanta and the cherries and I are here. A quick, albeit messy, way to pit cherries by hand is to run your sharp paring knife around the edge of the cherry - through to the pit, then twist the cherry in half (much like you would pit an avocado) then scoop the pit out with your fingernail. I have long nails so this works brilliantly except for the fact that when I'm done, I look as though I have been slaughtering small animals bare handedly. The upside is that the Jehovah's witnesses don't stay long at the front door.

Cherry Cobbler

Filling:
Pitted fresh cherries - tart or sweet (about 4-6 cups or however much you have left after snacking)

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water

2-4 tsp corn starch

Cobbler topping:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

dash nutmeg

3 TBSP cold butter cut into chunks

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 TBSP milk

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

For the filling, place cherries, sugar, water and cornstarch into a saucepan over low-medium heat and heat until liquid bubbles and cornstarch thickens the mix and cooks out. You can adjust the sugar and cornstarch according to the quantity of berries used and whether they are tart or sweet. Pour filling into an 8"x8" baking dish.

For the topping mix flour, sugars, baking powder and spices in a bowl. Cut in cold butter until it is coarse and crumbly. Beat egg with milk and almond extract and stir into flour mixture with a fork until just combined. Drop topping by spoonfuls onto top of cooled filling in baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees until topping gets golden brown - about 35-45 minutes. You may also want to put a baking sheet lined with foil on the rack beneath the cobbler in case the fruit filling bubbles over your dish.

I like so serve this warm with French vanilla ice cream scooped atop. It is also good with toasted almonds sprinkled atop.

So even if you are spending 'summer' on the prairies, you can still enjoy the flavors of summer even if you have to do it next to the fireplace like I am. Now I just have to figure out a way to eat 4 plums, a pint of blueberries and a pineapple before tomorrow afternoon's trip. I am open to ideas, people.

Salmon month is here

2010-06-15T13:38:00.002-04:00

June is salmon month, or so they tell me at Pacific fresh Fish, and that's fine by me. Salmon is not my favorite fish, though a fresh piece - pan fried so the skin is crispy and the flesh is still cool and soft in the middle, will win me over every time. I had gone into the fish shop to buy sea beans but I couldn't resist the beautiful coral colored salmon on sale. I bought half a fillet, which for two people is quite a lot, and decided to cook a portion fresh for dinner and make gravlax from the rest.

I first had gravlax in Sweden at an honest to goodness smörgåsbord. Growing up in Philadelphia I had certainly had lox but never gravlax before then. I didn't care for most of the items offered on the smörgåsbord so I ate a boatload of the gravlax. The slightly sweet, oily fish combined with the pronounced dill flavor was wonderful on its own but when combined with a dark pumpernickel and mustard sauce it was divine. Of course, placed next to pickled herring and over marinated vegetables it was even better. I knew that I had to recreate this at home without the other Swedish accoutrement of course.

The keys to good gravlax are, of course, good fresh salmon and patience. The fish is amazingly simple to prepare but it takes patience to wait for the fish to cure in your fridge when you are dying to cut into it. What you will need is simple:

1 portion of salmon fillet; skin intact and small pinbones removed
2 parts granulated sugar
1 part salt (sea or table salt - not coarse)
lots of fresh dill

optional:
ground black pepper
ground mustard

glass dish large enough to hold the salmon flat
plenty of plastic wrap.

Method:

Roll out some plastic wrap on a cutting board and center the salmon fillet, skin side down. Mix the sugar, salt and optional pepper and mustard powder in a small bowl. Pour the mixture over the salmon fillet spreading to cover all the exposed flesh and pressing gently to adhere. Lay the fresh dill sprigs liberally over the top of the sugar mixture. Pull the plstic over the fish wrapping tightly. Wrap with more plastic to seal. Place into a glass dish (to collect the liquids the fish will exude) and place into the refrigerator for at least 48 hours. Thicker fillets will take longer to cure. To serve, unwrap fish and rinse well. Slice very thinly against the grain and serve with sliced dark bread, mustard/dill sauce and capers.

There is much debate over whether the fish should be weighted with something heavy during the curing process but I have not round this necessary. It may reduce the curing time for thicker cuts of fish though since the fillet I most recently did took about 72 hours to fully cure.

The dill flavor in this dish is quite pronounced so you may skip the dill in the mustard dill sauce - sour cream is also a good option as are chopped red onion and chopped egg. This dish lasts in the fridge and makes a great simple appetizer on a warm day even just topped with some chopped fresh dill. So before you freeze all that leftover salmon or throw it on the grill, try making some gravlax and I bet you'll be making some everytime you buy fresh salmon!

Back Again!

2010-06-07T13:14:00.002-04:00

I have been remiss in keeping this blog current - have you missed me? I will say that this year has been one of the most challenging of my life, if not THE most. Having enjoyed good health throughout my life, I found myself plunged headlong into the medical world both with my own cancer and with a family member's newly diagnosed chronic illness. I have been cooking, however! Unfortunately, I have not been taking many photos. Most of what I have been cooking you probably wouldn't be inclined to repeat since I have been cooking to gain weight and I find that is not something that most people actually attempt to do. I am happy to say that having gained 8 or 9 pounds, I can now return to my 'normal' eating habits!

Fortunately (I suppose), the weather here in Regina, SK has been unseasonably cool so I have been able to easily cook meals that pack on the pounds. I don't know about you, but I find that I eat a lot lighter in the warmer months and tend to naturally lose weight then. In the past few weeks we have had temps that went down to freezing so I was able to try my hand at Schweinshaxe (traditional German ham hocks), Kartoffelkloesse (traditional German potato dumplings, referred to previously as 'gut bombs'), German rye bread (weighing in at about 2 pounds per slice), enchiladas, demi-glace, oatmeal raisin cookies, a huge fresh easter ham, roasted quail and on our one warm day - slow roasted * BBQed pork spare ribs! It is truly amazing that I am not 20 pounds heavier!

I will say that I have found one more gem here on the desolate prairies - a *real* butcher! Butcher Boy Meats on Park Street is a true find. I went in just before Easter, seeking a fresh ham so I could do an authentic Southern Easter dinner. All I had been able to find around town was the salt-cured pre-cooked hams - yuck. Butcher Boy has certified butchers and do all the butchering on site. Walking into the shop I was greeted with the smell of roasting meat, the tantalizing smoker and the sound of power saws cutting through bone. The owner cut me a ham while I waited and then smoked it overnight for me in their on-site smoker! How cool is that? They get all of their meat locally and can tell you exactly what farm it came from and when the animal was slaughtered. They do their own smoking and curing of meats, make salamis, sausages, corned beef and yes, even head cheese (I left that in the case, thank you very much). They also stock such exotics as local lamb, ostrich, bison, duck, goose, quail and rabbit. Woohoo - Karen found a new playground! What is even better is that not only is the meat fresh and local - it's less expensive than the pre-cut shrink wrapped chemical laden products one can buy at the chain markets!

I am still a big fan of Pacific fresh Fish, who sent me an email last week to let me know that fresh sea beans were coming into the store. Of course I stopped by to pick some up and found that June is apparently fresh salmon month. I also picked up half a fillet and am currently making gravlax - I will post that, along with pictures next. So thanks for coming back even though I have been absent for so long. I promise to add new recipes, photos and general cooking hijinks on a more regular basis again!

Deep Fried Frog Legs

2010-03-31T18:30:00.014-04:00

This will be the final entry dedicated to the fun of radiation therapy - er, at least I hope it will. During the final week of radiation (28 days is the norm with extra days tacked on as needed) I was in the 'booster' phase which required moving to a new machine which could not only deliver the photon radiation but additional blasts of minimally penetrating electron radiation to blast the hell out of those pesky lymph nodes. The new machine was in a different room, with an entirely new radiation team and a new set up. It was at this point I realized that I could see the computer screen used to position my coordinates on the table in reference to the radiation beams. I noticed on the screen, that it named my position as "frog leg". Now I had pictured myself this way but had no idea that it was actually called that by anyone other than myself. It figures though when you picture laying on your back with the soles of your feet together and a Styrofoam two-by-four between your knees! Picture the frog that was pinned to wax in formaldehyde in junior high biology class and you have the picture.

You know I had to laugh at that and with 6 treatments left, I had time to think about it. I knew I wanted to have a celebration for my last day of tx (treatment) and had planned on the brownie for the staff that I posted here last time but what to do for a home celebration? Eureka - how about fried frog legs? I know there are lots of ways to cook frog legs but given that I felt and looked like I had repeatedly been dipped into a deep fat fryer - I knew that fried had to be the only way.

Having lived in the deep south the past few years, I know that frog legs can frequently be found on menus there. Think about it - the whole region is covered with lakes, creeks, marshes, swamps and bayous so there are frogs aplenty. I also think that the French influence in Cajun cooking helped greatly with the popularity of frog as an edible food source in the south. However, I am currently on the prairies of Canada, so where the heck would I source raw frog legs? I saw an ad in a local foodie newsletter that said Pacific Fresh Fish was celebrating Mardi Gras by having Cajun month....could it be? I called PFF and of course, Ted indicated that they indeed had frog legs, though they were frozen. Gadzooks, is there anything that these guys don't carry or won't get for me? So off we went to pick up some frog legs.

I had never prepared frog legs before and had only eaten them on a few occasions. Suffice to say that they were not my favorite dish since, to me, they tasted a bit of the mud they had spent their lives happily leaping about in. We bought 5 frogs, which means we had 10 legs - too much or too little? We would soon find out.

To prepare the frog legs you must split the legs and cut off any tough torso meat (Pacific Fresh Fish's frog legs were already well cleaned). Then to eliminate some of the 'muddy' flavor I recalled none too fondly, I mixed buttermilk with a pinch each of cumin, garlic powder and cayenne pepper and poured it over the legs to cover. I then popped them in the fridge to marinate for about an hour. If you don't have buttermilk you can use whole milk mixed with a dash of vinegar. After an hour, drained the legs and discarded the buttermilk. In a small bowl I combined plain white flour with cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of chili powder, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Roll the frog legs in the flour mixture to coat well and set aside on a piece of waxed paper. Heat about a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet to about 350F and fry the frog legs until brown and crunchy. Remove to paper towels and drain. Season with additional saslt and pepper while still hot and on the towels.

I served this with a dipping sauce that was one part mayonnaise, one part sour cream and 1/2 part prepared horseradish. The coolness of the sour cream and the zing of the horseradish really work well with the deep fried frog legs. My fiancé loved it so much that I only met one frog personally before the plate was empty. I would definitely make this again but would like to try the frog legs Provencal or in another dish that isn't deep fried.

This time had to be deep fried frog legs in honor of surviving 31 days of imitating a frog's legs being fried. Some would say that I have a twisted sense of humor but maintaining a sense of humor through radiation or any other cancer treatment is nearly as important as the treatments themselves. Oh and if you are celebrating - don't forget the party hat and the champagne!

Chocolate Truffle Brownies

2010-03-12T11:15:00.009-05:00

Or an ode to my radiation team. (**note** I will not use all names or titles since I have not asked permission and the spelling of the first names used is purely my own concoction.) You all know that I just completed a round of 31 days of radiation therapy with a couple of rounds of chemo thrown in for good measure. Now, that is 31 treatments (tx) not calendar days. Rad Tx - funny how you need to learn a new language for every new endeavor in life, no? - is daily, Monday through Friday except holidays where I had to drink 500 mls of water within 15 minutes and hold it for an hour beforehand, which has never been easy for me even before my bladder started shrinking with the radiation! Anyway, the radiation therapy clinic at Allan Blair Cancer Centre is the most amazing assemblage of professionals I have ever encountered. My radiation oncologist (Rad Onc) led the team with a no-nonsense, full speed ahead attitude that could only inspire confidence and trust both from me and the staff. From the first day that I met her, she told me that I was young (hunh?) and healthy and that we would treat this cancer very aggressively because she knew I could fight it.

However my first day in radiation was not my best. I was still in the hospital recovering from surgery when they bloated me with water and wheeled me to the basement therapy ward for a CT simulation, which simulates the radiation therapy so that the patient can be positioned properly for when they use the real guns. At this point all modesty must be checked at the door as one is positioned, taped in places no tape belongs, prodded, photographed, scanned, x-rayed and finally tattooed. I cried silently throughout, until two of the nurses - or technicians - or therapists (I'm still learning their titles) held my hands and offered kind words, which of course made me cry even more! Sherrie and Arlene understood right away that it was not pain (at least the physical sort) that was causing my tears and their comfort was like a warm blanket in an otherwise freezing cold room.

The following day rad tx actually started when Bertha escorted me into the room with smoky (as I came to call the radiation machine) and helped me up on the table. The radiation itself was not as immodest as the CT sim since I got to disrobe under a blanket which stayed in place throughout. Having a freshly installed colostomy bag which the techs were obligated to move out of the way as they positioned my tattoos with lasers and a belly full of surgical staples did make me embarrassed at first, however. Though Phil, my lead radiation therapist had explained the process prior to this visit, the reality is still jarring. Day in and day out, however, one can become accustomed to anything and since the actual radiation blast doesn't hurt (that comes later, trust me), one adapts. So throughout 31 days of this; Phil, Leanne, Lisa and the RN Stacey became regular fixtures in my life. They always asked seemingly innocuous questions but if they detected the least bit of change in my comfort or demeanor I was sent off to exam room 5 where Stacey or my Doc would meet me to probe further and usually offer some measure of solution though I rarely asked for one. Someone even noticed a weight loss and magically a nutritionist appeared on the scene to weigh me weekly and offer protein powders and advice.

This long preamble was to ask the question; "How does one say thank you?" I mean *really* thank someone for their professional expertise, for putting up with my lame jokes, eclectic music CD mixes, bad moods, random emotional outbursts and generally looking after my health in a way I couldn't myself? How do you thank someone for trying to save your life and caring so deeply about it at the same time? My answer?

Chocolate Truffle Brownies with Chocolate Ganache (adapted from The All American Cookie Book)
Brownie:
6 1/2 oz bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate cut into chunks
1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate cut into chunks
1/2 cup unsalted butter cut into chunks
3/4 + 2 TBS granulated sugar
1 1/2 TBS liqueur (I used amaretto) or strong coffee
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs room temperature
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9" round cake pan. Line the pan with a long strip of aluminum foil so that it overhangs on two sides (this will make removing the brownie from the pan a snap) grease or spray the foil with non-stick spray (unflavored)

in a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a large microwave safe bowl, place chocolates and butter. Microwave on high for 1 minute, remove and stir well. If chocolate is not melted continue to microwave in 30 second increments at 50% power, stirring well after each zap until chocolate is completely melted and blended with butter. Stir in the sugar, vanilla and liqueur until well blended. Vigorously stir in the eggs one at a time until they are evenly incorporated and sugar is dissolved. You should not need a mixer, a wooden spoon or heavy plastic spatula work best. Stir in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated and turn the batter into the prepared pan spreading evenly to the edges. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean except for the bottom 1/2 inch, which should still be moist. remove from oven and cool completely in tha pan on a wire rack.

Ganache topping:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 TBS liqueur or strong coffee
6 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (not unsweetened), cut into small chunks

In a small bowl, microwave the cream and liqueur until the cream just comes to a boil (about 1 minute) Stir in chocolate until smooth and shiny. If chocolate has not completely melted continue to microwave in 10-20 second increments at 50% power until chocolate completely melts when stirred. Cool ganache until just pouring consistency.

Assemble:
Remove brownie from pan by inverting onto wire rack and pulling the aluminum foil strips. Reinvert brownie onto serving dish. Pour ganache over top starting at the center and spreading to the edges with an offset spatula until ganache just runs over edges. Slice into wedges and garnish with fresh whipped cream (if you can wait!)

I had some leftover red chocolate plastic which I had used on another cake so I made a few roses and added to the top for a decorative feel but these are not necessary. A few days after my last radiation treatment, I received a call from Leanne in radiation, which of course set my heart to beating stacatto - had I forgotten an appointment, was something wrong? But no, Leanne simply wanted the recipe for this brownie, which I had brought in to the radiation centre for my last day!

So while no brownie can adequately say thank you to the people who changed my life, noticed when I took the time and care to put on make-up, looked after my whole being and saw me and not just the disease; it's the best I can do for now and I hope that these wonderful people go home at the end of each day comforted in the knowledge that they truly help people and not just through medicine and technology.

Friends in Need - Oh and in Food, Too!

2010-03-01T14:39:00.006-05:00

I have an old friend that I haven't seen in years and hadn't spoken to in several months until just a few weeks ago. You know how it goes - life happens, geogrpahy and obligations tear us apart but the old lasting love is still there as I think it can only be with girlfriends. Manny and I were living in San Diego 10 years ago and we became inseparable friends. She is a very talented artistic and crafts sort of person whereas my only artistic endeavor is cooking. She tried to teach me to make soap once but when she brought out the lye I balked - see I'm kinda clutzy so Karen + Lye = emergency room and I thought I'd spare everyone that particular hell.

We both cooked, however, so cooking together was a natural for us. Amanda (Manny) was the grill queen and I was more a master of the indoor stove. When Manny found out about my cancer and the difficulties it was causing with eating and maintaining my weight, she set out on a mission. Manny and I used to put away prodigious amounts of rice and seafood at our favorite sushi joint, though I never recall her cooking Asian food much at home, she took me on my first trip to 99 Ranch Market back in 2001. I was in love at first sight. This market is thousands of square feet of every asian ingredient I had ever heard of in addition to massive live fish tanks and a butcher. A far cry from visiting 8 different corner asian market so find what I was looking for. It was to 99 Ranch that Manny returned to fix up a care package for me. And what a care package it was!

She had obviously given specific care to select items that would not only tempt my apathetic palate but would provide me with nutritional bang for the buck. Most of the treats I was already familiar with ; miso soup, soy crackers, sardines packed in a variety of delicious oils & spices, spicy peppers, nuts, soba noodles etc. But she threw in a few things I had not seen before, which I have since added to favorites; red cargo rice - a lovely nutty flavor that is chock full of iron, canned spicy mussels - full of protein, salted crunchy soy beans and broad beans and these wonderfully spiced bamboo shoots in a jar! The best part about most of the foods is that they are ready to eat (or nearly), big flavors and plenty of iron, protein and vitamins that my body needs to heal properly. Of course she also tossed in some chipotle and some salsas because while my mantra in the kitchen is garlic, hers is peppers!

This box, that arrived at my front door was like getting a hug from Manny. the love and care in the box was palpable and as I am sitting here eating the miso soup (to which I have added extra tofu) that came in the mail, I think of just how lucky I am to have such a dear friend. Even as the years pass and we don't get to see each other as much or talk as much, the love is still deep and abiding. Girls just rock don't they? (Especially my friends!) OK so now I have to go wipe my nose and prepare my wedding invitations so that Manny can get even with me for her wedding - sorry, long story for another day!

A Mission in Uganda

2010-02-13T04:04:00.001-05:00

This post is a bit of a diversion from my usual but I am so compelled that I had to write it. My fiance's daughter and son-in-law are taking a huge trip. This is not just any trip, not a vacation to the south seas or europe but a 6 month trek to Africa to work with a group who is bringing clean water to a village in Uganda. You may say, Ok, lots of people do this type of thing but I am really impressed by these kids (they are in their early 20s) not only for what they are doing, but for the why.

Let's face it being married in your early 20s is tough enough since you are trying to find yourself as well as your way with another person to whom you have committed your life. That's not easy at any age but so young, it's especially difficult. These two kids are both extremely bright and well educated. Brittany (fiance's daughter) has a degree and has worked in high finance - please don't ask me specifics since I can barely balance my now depleted checkbook; and Steve, her husband, is an engineer specializing in water systems.

As they have been trying to find their niche in the world they have diverged from the usual. Rather than focus their energy on themselves and using their money to either plan for a house, kids etc, or spend their money on cars, clothes and nightlife (as I pretty much did at that age) they have embarked on a quest to find a place in the world where they can give back and grow in the process. After working for a couple of years in their chosen fields, they realize that there must be more, so they are seeking a deeper meaning for themselves in the world. I didn't figure that out until I was in my forties. I have a great deal of admiration for the both of them as a result. They are packing up their worldly goods into storage for 6 months and heading out into the unknown in Africa to be productive and useful with their hard-earned degrees. What a perfect time to do this, while they are young and can make a difference. They also will be changed, more than even they imagine, by this experience and what a wonderful thing that is. These two, who obviously already care for those in need will come back from this adventure with a true appreciation of what we all consider basic necessities but millions of others die for lack of every day.

One thing they do need though is financial help to fund the trip. If they had been making this trip a year ago, I'd have written them a check for the entire amount but now with my medical bills, I am no longer in a position to do so. However, all they need is $10K! I will let you read what the money is used for and more about the mission from their own website. Even if you can't donate, please visit the site as they will update when possible from onsite in Uganda and hey, prayers are free and I am sure that they will welcome those. See the link here: http://www.sbtrips.blogspot.com/

They are visiting us this weekend, probably the last time we will see them before the big trip, so I am going to research a little about food in Uganda and hopefully make them something tasty as a send off. I am proud to know Brittany and Steve and they inspire me to be a better human being.

A Visit to Atlanta

2010-02-03T12:04:00.003-05:00

Its been a while since I've posted and lots has been going on. I had surgery, and am midway through radiation and chemo. One of the toughest things for me has been separation anxiety from my two fur-faced pals. See, I came to Canada to visit for 6 days back in mid-November and have not been out of Regina since. This past weekend my fiance and his Dad went down to Atlanta to rescue my car (which was still in the airport parking lot) some clothing (remember I had packed for a week) and my two cats. You are probably wondering to yourself about now - what the heck does this have to do with food? I'm getting there I promise, keep your britches on.

The 'boys', as I'll refer to them here on out, arrived at my apartment on Friday afternoon to what I knew would be inedible fridge contents. The veggies had liquified, the bleu cheese was green and what the heck was that stuff in the tupperware anyway? Some sort of science project? So aside from some baking staples in the cabinet and a few tins of anchovies - which I love but they don't - I knew that they would need some sustenance from someplace else. Of course I insisted that their first dinner MUST be at the River Room, which is not only fantastic but within stumbling distance to my house so they could enjoy some adult beverages with their meal if they so chose. You may remember my article about the River Room from this blog a while back. My future father in law is German born and lives in Regina so while there is some decent food to be had here (he prefers German dishes) - there is nothing like the art you get in your mouth at the River Room. The last time I wrote about River Room and chef Jeff, my favorite dish of the evening was the pork chop. I have since been back for the crispy skin trout and it was amazing. This is the dish I recommended to my fiance's dad. Fiance, who I have never seen pass up a mussel appetizer did indeed order them. He told me that mine were better but he is a very smart man. However, if I could make anything as well as Jeff Sigler, the chef there, I would not be writing about food - I would be cooking it professionally. Fiance had the scallops with "squash spaghetti" for an entree and as he texted me with his choices, my mouth watered for that squash even from 2000 miles away....c'mon, do the Homer drool with me. Apparently Jeff even came out to bring a cheese plate and sit and chat with them, the wait staff did the same so here is a shout out to all my friends at the River Room for making their experience above and beyond mere dining. As always a wonderful meal and excellent service were enjoyed. Damn....have I said I am hungry for one of Jeff's dishes? Do me a favor - go there and eat one for me and post a comment about every little detail so I can enjoy vicariously!

I next sent the boys on to Williamson Brothers BBQ since when left to their own devices they ended up at the Olive Garden - really??? In Atlanta where the choices are so fabulous? How about Flip? Southern traditional BBQ seemed a good choice for my father-in-law's one and only visit to Atlanta. Other than the language barrier (the boys don't speak Georgia drawl) they had a great time and enjoyed stuffing themselves on the treats. I Insisted (via txt message) that they order pulled pork and ribs with all the fixin's - mac & cheese, fried green tomatoes and sweet tea. They took my advice except for the sweet tea which they eschewed in favor of some locally brewed beer. OK probably a better choice given that they had to go back to my house and wrestle with two ornery cats.

There are, of course, a myriad of wonderful choices in Atlanta ranging from the outdoor casual BBQ, to burgers, taquerias, chic southern and fine dining. I chose two of my favorites since I wanted, not only to give them a sense of Atlanta, but a sense of what I love about it. Excellent food and amazing service be it fine dining or home southern style is a hallmark of Atlanta and one of the things I have missed the most these past couple of months. We will need to take another journey south to store my household goods and car so if you have suggestions for eateries that will rival the ones I have chosen, please comment and tell me about them! (sorry for the lack of food photos - since I am food obsessed, I take them but the boys are appetite obsessed so they simply devour them!) The boys like the River Room best followed by Williamson Bros with Olive Garden a distant third - guess I'm doing something right!

New Year and Squid Ink?

2010-01-04T17:28:00.006-05:00

Yes, I said squid ink but I’ll get to that later. In my Italian heritage, New Year’s feast consists of 13 kinds of fish – one for each month and one for luck and happiness. Now 13 kinds of fish is a crapload of food – unless you are feeding an Italian family, which are typically very large and always very hungry. Since I was cooking for 2 of us (and only one of us has the Italian appetite gene) I had to scale back. I desperately wanted clams since starting next week they are taboo for me to eat but alas Pacific Fresh Fish wasn’t going to get any in. BTW – they called us to tell us that and take a new order – yes THEY called US! (don’t you love small towns?) So instead I ordered an octopus and some Gulf fresh water prawns – I’m almost all set now.

Enter the squid ink. For Christmas I got 3 packages of squid ink – my favorite gift, in fact. You may find it an odd Christmas gift but I was absolutely delighted, especially since it is not available here on the tundra. Once again Pacific Fresh Fish managed to obtain the stuff and ship it in. The reason I love this gift is that it was so thoughtful and took some serious advance planning, too. The first thing I wanted to do with this was make black pasta. I love pasta and I love clams so that was the original plan but I think the final dish was even better and certainly more exotic.

So the first step was to clean and parboil the octopus. I will skip those particular photos since they are not likely to incite you to run out and try this dish. Let’s face it – raw octopus is ugly looking and not particularly appetizing. Anyway, I parboiled it for about 5 minutes (it was 1kg and please don’t ask me to convert that to pounds – I have to think like a Canadian now). I pulled it out, rinsed it an sliced it up. Then I simply marinated it for about an hour and a half in olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, a little anchovy paste, garlic and some herbs de provence.

Next step was to make the pasta. I made a standard semolina and flour pasta using 1 cup each fine ground white semolina and all purpose flour, one large egg, a tblsp of olive oil, and some cold water. Making a well in the center of the flour, I mixed the liquid ingredients with abut a TBSP of squid ink and a tsp of sea salt.

The flavor of squid ink is very delicate – it’s not at all fishy and just gives the pasta a hint of sea tang in flavor and aroma. Oh and it looks way cool. I then rolled out the pasta to a number 6 thickness on my trusty atlas pasta roller and cut it into fettuccini.

For the prawns, I simply cleaned them and added them whole to the octopus in marinade for about 10 minutes before cooking. I cooked the prawns first in a hot skillet to give them a nice crust and removed them from the pan before they were quite done. Next add the octopus and enough of the marinade to make a sauce to the hot skillet. Cook over low to medium heat so that the marinade just simmers. Cook for about 20 minutes or until octopus is nice and tender – of course you have to keep tasting to tell when that is – or at least I did…OK, OK, I was hungry by then.

When the octopus is just about ready, drop the pasta into the boiling water – you did put a large pot of salted water on to boil, right? And add the shrimp back to the skillet. At this point, my sauce wasn’t thickening the way I wanted so I added a slurry of potato flour and white wine to the mix. You could also add cream if you were so inclined.

When the pasta is done (and this really only takes a few minutes – watch it closely so you don’t overcook) drain the pasta and toss it in the skillet with the seafood and sauce. I serve it in a bowl with a little cracked pepper atop – you can also add some drained capers. Serve with a crusty slab of bread to soak up all that extra sauce. Never, never add grated cheese to this dish though or the ghost of my Nonna will hunt you down. Italians never add cheese to delicate seafood dishes like this because you will simply mask its flavors.

So our New Year’s feast was only 3 kinds of fish, if you count the squid ink, but we enjoyed it thoroughly. Octopus may be something you aren’t quite ready to make at home yet but you could make this dish with almost any kind of seafood or shellfish. I had a request to add mussels but the idea of a completely black dish of food was just too noir for my sensibilities.

I still have 2 packages of squid ink left that I will dream up some new ideas for. In the meantime, I am going to be focusing on cooking and writing about cancer treatment-friendly foods that also taste good. You didn’t think I was going to let a few naughty invasive squamous cells keep me from my passion, now did you?

Cancer and Stigma

2009-12-28T17:31:00.002-05:00

If you are squeamish or prefer not to hear about cancer, this would be a good time to hit the ‘back’ button. I may lose a lot of readers, FB friends and twitter pals over this post but it’s one I feel strongly that I need to write.

**NOTE: Don't worry, the next post is going back to food since got squid ink for Christmas and can't wait to make black pasta.

I’ve admitted that I have cancer but haven’t said what kind it is. I have Stage IIIB Anal cancer, a type I didn’t know existed before hearing about Farrah Fawcett this past summer. I have told my family of course, and a few friends. The news is usually met with silence. People are expecting me to say breast cancer or even lung cancer, since I have been a longtime smoker. Once they recover their equilibrium they are still at a loss for what to say, though I can hardly blame them. No one even likes to say the word ‘anus’ much less put it next to the word ‘cancer’. It’s funny that our society has no problem with the words; breast, vagina, penis, prostrate, cervix, uterus etc but anal cancer is taboo.

Additionally most anal cancer is associated with HPV – a sexually transmitted disease that over 25 million women in the US alone have been exposed to; even though it is a rare cancer effecting only about 5000 people per year. If HPV is so prevalent and the cancer so rare, there must be other factors. From whence my particular cancer came, I don’t know at this point but I think people want an easy answer such as HPV or smoking so that they can point to those risk factors and declare themselves safe. I get that, I really do but it certainly doesn’t help the person suffering from this disease. And believe me, it is suffering since this particular type of tumor is very painful.

This type of cancer used to be treated with a radical surgery that left the patient with a permanent colostomy bag. Medicine has since come up with a treatment that is less radical in its permanent effects but apparently just as radical in its debilitating effects during treatment. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to the treatment which involves a temporary colostomy bag and simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy. I'm telling you this because like any cancer patient (no matter what the type) - treatment sucks and I may need your support.

It’s a cruel irony that a self-proclaimed foodie like me should get this particular tumor since I now need to be ultra careful of what I eat simply to minimize the pain. At the end of the day, I have a cancer that may make you feel uncomfortable. I try to minimize that by making crass butt jokes hoping that laughter will help everyone relax and not treat me as though I am tainted. I don’t mind if you crack (pun intended) a joke or too as well. So don’t stop calling or talking to me because you don’t know what to say. I don’t expect you to know what to say because frankly, I don’t even know what I need to hear. Just remember that it’s still me. I still like to talk about food and share a laugh. I just may need a bit more compassion than I normally would.

Oh, and no one brings cancer upon themselves. Thanks for listening - we now return you t your regularly scheduled food blog...

Christmas Repasts

2009-12-26T12:38:00.003-05:00

I know that a lot of my friends don’t celebrate Christmas at this time of year but since I do, that is what this post is about – Christmas, food, family and love.

I am spending my 3rd Christmas in Canada with my fiancé and his family. Now, my beau is much more comfortable with tradition, structure and ritual than am I. So once again, we celebrated Christmas on the eve of the day as opposed to the morning of, as I am accustomed in my family. Christmas eve we spent at my future father-in-law’s with wine and many German appetizers (read: meat on a stick and pickled thingies). While the food is not what I am used to nor necessarily prefer, the evening was nonetheless wonderful. The place was stuffed to the rafters with my fiance’s blended family; stepsister, sister, nieces, nephews and even a grand nephew this year. Since I was not feeling 100%, we only stayed for the appetizers and skipped the big meal and church outing but I got to see his nieces and nephew open the Christmas gifts I had gotten them. Usually the gift opening madness occurs simultaneously after church so you never really get to see the looks on their faces when they open your gift. This year I had that pleasure and it’s one that I love. Did I pick something they would really enjoy? I think I did OK.

From there we went home and made a traditional German Christmas eve feast of rouladen, red cabbage and potato dumplings (Tums anyone?). I’ve written about this before so you will know that these are not my favorites but I know that it isn’t Christmas without them for my fiancé so I enjoyed it because he did. My family has no tradition for Christmas meals, mostly because my mom played the organ for church for so many years that she spent her time there instead of building rituals at home. I like to try something new most of the time. The fiancé and I agreed that Christmas eve, we stick to his traditions and Christmas day is all mine – I get to pick whatever I want to make!

This year we had his mother and stepfather over and I made a Christmas goose. His mom was concerned when we proffered the invitation, mostly because her experience with goose had been a greasy mess of gamey bird but to her credit, she was willing to give it a go.

I have found the perfect trick for ensuring a goose whose meat is not in the least bit greasy – ready? Write this down now, it’s simple yet extremely effective. Two days before you cook the goose, remove all the extra fat and prick it all over with a toothpick or sharp knife, just to cut through the skin, being careful not to puncture the meat. Next, completely immerse the goose in boiling water for a full minute. Remove the goose from the water, pat dry and place on a tray in the fridge – uncovered – for 48 hours. This tightens the skin so that when you roast it, the skin forces all the fat out from between the skin and the meat. Roast at 350 uncovered on a rack that sits above the lip of the roasting pan so the hot air can circulate all around the bird and you end up with a beautifully cooked goose with crispy skin and lean non-fatty meat! The gravy is another post because I made a quart of the stuff and it still wasn’t enough. Madeira and demi-glace is your friend for gravy….trust me on this. Even his mom had seconds.

Even though I couldn’t get out to do a lot of shopping (thanks nasty painful tumor) I managed to make some lovely baked goodies, a couple of dinners and spend some quality time with family. My best present was a cat pillow that my niece made for me to keep me company through my treatment since my kitties are currently so far away. She made the pattern herself and sewed it, stuffed it and decorated it with eyes and whiskers. She’s 12 years old and made her old auntie cry with joy. What more can anyone ask for at Christmas?

I hope that yours was as priceless as mine. Being sick has one advantage; I truly appreciated every moment this Christmas. Every thought, hug and gesture touched my heart – or it could have been the hydromorphone. Next week I get radiation tattoos and then surgery so my Christmas thoughts will carry me through the next few months. Hope yours do as well, no matter what the new year holds for you.

Thanksgiving Dinner of a Different Sort

2009-12-16T14:10:00.003-05:00

This year I planned to be the American emissary of Thanksgiving to Canada. Yes, Canada has thanksgiving but it’s on a Monday and doesn’t get near the respect that the American version does. So I had planned a big Thursday dinner with crowds of the Fiancé’s family and teaching them how overstuffing yourself on a Thursday with plenty of leftovers to last through the weekend is an American tradition. Alas, that was not to be.

The Monday before turkey day, at the insistence of my fiancé, I went to the doctor for a painful nagging problem that I thought was fairly minor but had been bugging me for a couple of months. Turns out I was wrong. I spent Thanksgiving day preparing for a colonoscopy on Friday so instead of turkey with all the trimmings I had Jello and a ‘tasty’ (and sadly effective) bowel cleansing cocktail. If you’ve never done that particular procedure, I wouldn’t recommend it. There is something just wrong about fasting and cleansing when the fridge is stuffed to bulging with holiday feast fixins! I’ve heard about these Hollywood, ‘cleanse’ fads and diets – who the hell would willing do that to themselves?

Anyway, I did make the feast on the following Sunday so all was not a loss! We had turkey ala Alton Brown, panetone dressing, Madeira pan gravy, scalloped potatoes with wild mushrooms and bleu cheese, pan roasted brussel sprouts, homemade herbed bread, cranberry/orange/ginger/currant compote, Caesar salad, hot apple pie and homemade French vanilla ice cream!

From there I went on to a tissue biopsy and CT scan and then the final word came in from the Doctor that it was indeed the big C. Yes cancer. I have to say that I was quite shocked. I’ll tell you more about the cancer in another post but suffice to say that it is a stage 3 tumor that will require radiation and chemotherapy. I have never been a big fan of pain or of being poked and prodded by all sorts of medical professionals but then I guess no one really is - except maybe those crazy Munchausen people. Since then I have endured many indignities in the name of medical tests with just a final MRI left to do this week in the diagnostics regime and a meeting with the oncology team.

I will say that with the tests looming large in my mind on our Sunday Thanksgiving dinner, I was truly thinking about what I am thankful for. What I found was that I have many people who love me. Family, friends, extended family the thought of all of them brought tears to my eyes as we went around the table and expressed our thanks. I am blessed to have a loving family, though their desire to ‘help’ can drive me nuts and I am fortunate to have great doctors and medical staff that have moved so quickly to get me excellent care.

Apple Pie Ice Cream – Seriously Good Eats

2009-11-13T08:45:00.004-05:00

I created this dish for our #letslunch on twitter, a group of fun foodies that cook dishes and then post them to the searchable hashtag #letslunch on a predetermined day. We select a theme for our dishes and this one was Fall desserts. So for my dessert I decided on apple pie ice cream with gingersnaps. I made the gingersnaps last week and posted them already but now they get a chance to join their partner in flavor.

I swiped the basic ice cream recipe from Alton Brown and it is amazing on its own, even though it is probably the easiest ice cream I’ve ever made. Then I sautéed up some apples with cinnamon, butter and enough sugar to make a nice caramel in the pan. Probably the most work involved in this ice cream was coring and peeling two apples, so roll up your sleeves and give it a try. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Ice cream ingredients

2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean

For Ice cream:
Combine creams and sugar in a medium sauce pan. Split vanilla lengthwise and with the back of a knife scrape out the vanilla seeds and add to the cream mixture. Add pods to mixture and heat over gentle heat until mixture reaches 170 degrees or just starts to bubble at the edges. Do not scald. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight to steep the vanilla. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions until the mixture is slightly firmer than soft-serve ice cream. The vanilla will taste very strong at this point but when it’s frozen the taste is mellowed by the temperature.

Apple Mixture
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used Gala apples)
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
~ ½ cup granulated sugar

To prepare
Melt butter in medium sauté pan, add apples and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon atop. Stir well and sauté until apples have softened and sugar turns to caramel. Set aside and cool completely.

When Ice cream reaches the right consistency and apples are completely cool, remove ice cream from freezer (machine) and combine with apples in a heavy plastic freezer safe container. I use a Rubbermaid tub. Place into freezer for a minimum of 2 hours. I also like to stir the mixture a couple of times during freezing to prevent ice crystals from forming on top.

That’s it! Plate it with some of those gingersnaps and the taste of Autumn is right in your dish. The combination of the apple, cinnamon, streaks of caramel and vanilla is really amazing. I would make this dessert in a heartbeat and in fact plan on doing just that to serve to my thanksgiving guests atop, what else, but a big wedge of homemade apple pie!

Autumn cookies/Air freshener

2009-11-08T10:31:00.004-05:00

I am amazed at the number of air freshener commercials on television. Fresheners that automatically squirt at innocent passersby on cue, beads in bowls, faux candles, electric fans to circulate smells. First of all, how are these people’s homes getting so stinky to begin with, that they require these constant air freshener vigils? Second in this age of being ‘green’ how do people reconcile the constant distribution of chemicals throughout their homes and using electrical power to do so? Clearly based on the sheer number of advertisements, someone is buying these products.

I have a better answer – get to the kitchen and bake some cookies! Another nice way to make the home smell festive is to save your apple cores and peels, orange peels and pop them into a saucepan with a stick of cinnamon and a few whole cloves. Simmer on the stove for a while and the fragrance is amazing. You can also fool people into thinking you’ve spent the weekend baking apple pies. But I digress, back to the cookies.

Autumn here in the south brings us mostly temperate days and cool nights but occasionally we get cold and rainy. On those days, rather than turn on the heat, I crank up the oven. If you think you don’t have time, these cookies will dispel that notion. They are quick to assemble, quick to bake and really taste and smell of autumn to me.

Gingersnaps!

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
Pinch ground nutmeg
1 ½ cups butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg
Granulated white sugar for coating

Preparation

Cream butter and sugar in large mixing bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Beat dry ingredients into butter mixture. Add molasses and egg and beat until dough is well combined and dough gets fluffier. Chill dough for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Roll dough into balls about an inch in diameter. Roll balls into white sugar and place onto baking sheet lined with silpat or lightly greased (I prefer the silpat). Flatten cookies with the base of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake in center of preheated oven 10-12 minutes.

That’s it! How easy is that? I love the smell of the ginger, cinnamon and molasses. These cookies aren’t overly sweet so they are great with coffee or milk as an afternoon snack. Mine will find their way to my brother up in Philly who has been going through some changes in his life. What better way to add fragrance to your home, warmth to your house and your family?

Seafood Paella - Romance on a Plate

2009-10-07T10:15:00.003-04:00

As most of you know, I love to watch Top Chef but for the last 2 weeks I was in Canada where they lag several weeks behind in airing new episodes so I only just watched the latest installment this morning, thanks to the miracle of DVR. Imagine my surprise to find that Ron had been sent home for his misinterpretation of a deconstructed paella when I had just made my first paella over the weekend. Not that I was surprised to see him go home, the poor guy didn’t have the chops for the show in cooking finesse or in TV personality. However, I think deconstructing paella should be a crime punishable by being banished from the fish market for at least 2 weeks…OK. One then. The whole point of a good paella is the building of flavors – oh and it’s about saffron too.

I was at the fish market (Pacific Fresh Fish in Regina) and spied some fresh PEI mussels, which my fiancé absolutely adores. I bought a lot and the first night made a spicy Thai green curry dish with the mussels but saved about a dozen for what was really kicking around in the back of my head – paella! This was my first attempt at making the dish though I have consumed countless versions – good and bad – at restaurants. I went on line and read tons of recipes, tossed them aside and dived in to make my own version.

My version includes:

1 boneless chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
1 link Spanish chorizo sliced
5 thin slices pancetta, chopped
3 clove garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
2 bell peppers roasted, peeled and chopped (I used red and orange peppers)
¼ cup chopped black calamata olives
1 dozen mussels, scrubbed & debearded
2 alaskan king crab claws
1 lobster tail, split down the middle (leave shell on)
8 raw shrimp, deveined
1 ½ cups shortgrain rice (I used Arborio)
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine
2 TBS drained capers
½ tsp saffron threads
½ tsp dried oregano

Preparation:

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Saute pancetta, garlic and chicken pieces until chicken colors. Remove chicken and reserve. Add chorizo and onion and sauté until onion is translucent. Meanwhile, heat stock in a saucepan with saffron and oregano. Add rice to sauté pan and stir to coat with oil. Add the wine and reduce heat to low, stirring to allow rice to absorb liquid. Add the stock all at once, stirring while it I added. Mix in peppers, olives and tomatoes and cover. Let simmer over low heat for 20 minutes or until rice is nearly tender.

Place chicken, crab, shrimp, lobster and mussels atop rice and cover until mussels open and chicken and seafood are cooked through. Sprinkle capers over the top. Remove cover and increase heat to medium-high. Cook over medium-high heat until rice gets a crunchy crust on the bottom (about 1 minute). Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve directly from the hot pan.

This dish is very yummy, the crust (called socratto) is my favorite part. Don’t use long grain rice if at all possible but if you must, then substantially reduce the cooking time for the rice. The chorizo is also important in that it adds the spicy, smoky paprika taste. If you can’t find chorizo then use a pork sausage and add smoked paprika, being careful not to overpower the saffron.

Make this dish for a romantic meal for two, though there will be leftovers! It seems impossible to make a small amount of paella but that won’t be a problem, trust me. Serve it with a crisp white wine and enjoy!

Ethnic Heritages in Food - Cross Over to the Other Side!

2009-09-28T15:42:00.004-04:00

Last week I attended a ceremony at the Regina, SK city hall on the last day of summer. It was the dedication of a new sculpture celebrating the founding of Regina by First Nations and immigrants that took place outside the city hall. The sculpture has two parts that flank the fountain on the front lawn; one called “lace” that is cast in bronze and has the written description of immigrants and their contributions and the opposite side is a series of bronze casts of living immigrants to Regina. The day was quite chilly and the ever present prairie winds reminded us of what it must have been like for those early settlers in this often austere climate.

me, Ursula, Mayor Fiacco, Stephanie

What might this have to do with food you might ask? I have found that the overseas immigrants here have largely maintained their respective cultures to include food, which always seems to be at the heart of any culture. You can see this at their annual festival of diversity called Mosaic in which Regina’s many cultural clubs each demonstrate their respective cultures through dance, song and primarily food. I found it amazing for a place with such a relatively small population to maintain such diversity. In fact the ‘lace’ part of the sculpture has an homage to pasta fagioli (Mayor Fiacco is undeniably Italian) as prepared by Gina of the Star Deli; an authentic Italian deli here in town that I found in my very first week of visiting. I think good pancetta has the lure of a siren’s song.

Regina has, in a very small geographic area, many small grocers that specialize in their own ethnic ingredients. In the space of only a few miles there is Oskar’s; a German butcher that stocks my favorite licorice, house made bratwurst, heavy rustic breads and packets of premade potato dumplings. We have the aforementioned Star Deli with its gourmet dried pastas, array of olive oils and balsamic vinegars, the torrone nougat candy I recall fondly from childhood and of course, pancetta, prosciutto, salamis and cheeses and always a friendly banter with Carlo, the owner’s son. The Asian market is like most, with cramped aisles and shelves packed to the rafters carrying all kinds of rice, dried mushrooms, fish sauces, ingredients unidentifiable to westerners, teas, dried cuttlefish, fresh lime leaves and even green tea ice cream. The East Indian spice and grocery store is a symphony of aromas and colors; bags of coriander and fennel large enough to last me years, cans of coconut milk, secret curry mixes, garam masala, big bags of corn nuts (a personal favorite) and a backroom full of exotic produce. The Korean grocer stocks, spicy chili pastes, hand labeled jars of kimchee, dried tofu, fresh bean curds, noodles, spices and an wide array of pickled treats. I’ve not been into the Ukranian market/bakery yet and I am sure I will find more ethnic delights the longer I stay here. How cool is that?

However, I think that there is very little crossover between cultures except for the annual Mosaic festival. In my last post I poked fun at my fiancé who’d never tried eggplant parmesan, which to me is a dish more American than authentic Italian. However, at a family birthday party this weekend, a show of hands proved that none of his family had ever tried it. Now my fiancé is first generation; both his parents German immigrants, but even the second generation had never tried it. I was stunned. They had also very little exposure to sushi or other Asian food, with only one having tried it (except for my fiancé who I stuff with sushi whenever I get the chance). No Pho, summer rolls, lumpia, vindaloo, basteeya, nicoise, etc, had ever passed their lips. I can’t say for sure but I’ll also bet that our friend Mai from Tay Do restaurant (our special Pho place) has never had rouladen, bratwurst, spaetzle or any of the other well known German staples.

I can see where these silos of culture have value in that they keep their own traditional foods alive and vibrant but I also find it quite sad that these people of different heritages have so many amazing authentic cuisines in their midst that they have never dared to try. I try to bridge the gaps, if only in this one family. I remember the looks of doubt, skepticism and reluctance when I offered some of my home made mozzarella last spring, but slowly everyone tried after seeing that the first taster had not been stricken down. While they might never come to love diverse ethnic cuisines as I do, I will continue to ply them with ‘foreign’ (to them anyway) foods while comforting with the familiar at the same time. I commend their willingness to let me introduce them to the flavors of my world while teaching me about theirs.

Tell me about your favorite 'exotic flavors' and how you came to sample dishes that differed from those upon which you were raised. I'd really love to hear about them and perhaps along the way you can open me up to a new cuisine!

Eggplant Parmesan, Italian Comfort Food

2009-09-24T15:18:00.005-04:00

Last night I was in a quandary over what to prepare for our evening meal. I’m here in the great white north visiting my fiancé. He had meetings all day so was off with the car while I was at home scratching my head over dinner. Usually I get some bright idea (or not so bright in some cases) about what I’d like to cook and then head off in search of the proper ingredients. Where I live the grocery store is less than a mile away so it’s walking distance should I be so inclined (though I rarely am since that sounds too much like exercise to me). Here, however I would have to make do with what was in the house.

I hadn’t been up here since last May so the ingredients on hand are bachelor ingredients – no offense to you cooking bachelors out there – it’s what my fiancé calls it, I am simply repeating his lame excuse. We had gone to the local famer’s market on Saturday so I knew that everything in the fridge, I had chosen, since it was empty when I arrived. In the fridge was lots of fresh salad fixings, some fresh beets (yuck – he loves them, I do not), leeks, a big fat purple eggplant and 5 kinds of cheese. Ok so I like cheese. The pantry is stocked with dried spaghetti, chicken stock, canned corn and 50 cans of tomatoes. I also located some onions and some herbs. I am saving the leeks for a corn and leek soup I intend to make after we hit the farmer’s market again this weekend so I opted to make the eggplant.

I am not a huge fan of eggplant parmesan mostly because I love eggplant and I find the flavor to get lost in all that cheese and sauce. However, my fiancé had never had eggplant parm before – really??? Do you live under a rock?? OK, he’s German so that could explain it. So I steeled myself and decided to make an eggplant parmesan that I thought I could live with. A dish I have honestly never made before but one which I had seen my Nana make on occasion.

(disclaimer – you have to forgive the quality of the photographs as my camera is in Atlanta and the one on hand is circa 1988 or so)

I started by making a tomato sauce and decided to make a big potful since leftovers will freeze well and then poor, poor fiancé will not have to use condensed tomato soup as a pasta sauce when I’m gone. You can dramatically reduce the amounts accordingly.

3 16 oz cans diced tomatoes (you can use whole or whatever you have on hand)
1 onion chopped
5 slices pancetta, chopped (do not use bacon as it flavors the sauce too much, if you don’t have pancetta, use a little bit of sausage or skip entirely to make a vegetarian sauce)
1/3 bottle red wine
½ tsp crushed hot red pepper
1 TB, dried oregano (for all the herbs, you can use fresh if you have them but triple the amount and add them near the end of cooking so their volatile oils are not lost)
1TB dried basil
1 ½ tsp dried thyme
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Splash worchestershire sauce
Plenty of salt and pepper

For the Sauce

Heat a couple Tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add onions and pancetta and sauté until onions are translucent, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the tomatoes and the dried herbs and reduce heat to medium low. When the tomatoes start to bubble, stir in the wine and bring back to a simmer. Taste and add salt and pepper according to the sweetness or tartness of your particular tomatoes. Reduce heat to simmer, add worchestershire (yes, I mean it) and simmer partially covered for about 3 hours or until reduced to the correct thickness. You can also shorten the cooking time by adding a small can of tomato paste, but I prefer to slow cook the sauce to remove some of the natural tartness without adding sugar – perish the thought! This may seem like a long process but really all you have to do is give the pot a stir now and then and as you are using canned ingredients the prep time is minimal.

Eggplant:

I large ripe eggplant (look for smooth shiny skin that is deep purple and feels firm)
1 ½ c panko
¼ c grated parmesan or romano cheese
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp milk
Flour for dredging
Canola oil for frying

For the Eggplant

Slice the eggplant into rounds about 1/3 inches thick. Lightly salt the rounds and place them into a colander in the sink for about 30 minutes. This will draw out any bitterness. Pat the eggplant dry. Mix panko crumbs with grated cheese in a small high sided dish. Heat oil in a large high-sided fry/sauté pan until very hot but not smoking. Dredge eggplant slices one at a time in flour, shaking off excess and then dip into egg wash and then panko crumbs to form an even coating. Crumbs will not stick to eggplant skin so no worried there. Place on a sheet of wax paper and repeat with each slice. (reserve extra panko crumbs for topping) Fry each slice in the hot oil until more brown than golden and panko is crispy. Do NOT over crown the pan as it will reduce the temperature of the oil and the eggplant will absorb to much. Eggplant seems to love nothing more than a big drink of cool oil but you won’t like it. Drain eggplant on paper towels, turning to drain each side. Eggplant will not be cooked through at this point so no snacking.

Assemble the dish:

Oblong, round or oval oven proof baking dish
2 c shredded mozzarella
6 thin slices of provolone
1 cup grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spoon a thin layer of sauce into the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange eggplant rounds in the pan, slightly overlapping rounds. I used one eggplant so I had a single layer, which I prefer, but you can use multiple layers if you like. Place provolone cheese in a single layer atop eggplant. Sprinkle with the parm, reserving about ¼ cup for the top. Spread shredded, mozzarella atop and then spoon sauce over all in a thin layer. Top with remaining parmesan cheese and sprinkle with any remaining panko crumbs that you have atop and drizzle with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil. Bake in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes or until eggplant is cooked through and sauce and cheese are bubbling. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

You can use more cheese or sauce if you like, but I really prefer not to have a big goopy pile of sauce and cheese since I actually like the taste of eggplant. I also do not completely cover the eggplant with sauce so that I still have some crispy panko coated areas of the eggplant. This was my first time making this dish and I will definitely make it again. Separately frying the eggplant takes a little bit of effort but it is well worth it. I understand that you can opt to oven bake the eggplant first as a way to reduce fat and calories but cannot attest to that method.

Fiancé seemed to like his first taste of eggplant parmesan and maybe it’s good for me that he had never before had it. My version will now be his baseline!

Mac & Cheese, Grown-Up Style

2009-09-07T15:40:00.008-04:00

It almost feels like fall here, with the nighttime temps plummeting into the 60s. To some that may not feel cool but this is Atlanta and that is very cool for the first day of September. I have been meaning to make my version of mac and cheese ever since I won an apron from Cabot Lodge Cheese on twitter - @cabotcoop. The apron is great but the cheese is better. Not only has it been too hot here to heat up the kitchen but it’s been to hot for such a heavy meal.

Speaking of Mac & cheese, it seems like everyone has some version of their favorite and it is universally considered comfort food. It was brought to the states by the British but throughout Europe; different cultures have been preparing their own versions since the 15th century. I’ve even heard that Thomas Jefferson had it served in the White House, though it was a bit before my time despite the opinion of my nieces. During hard economic times, it can be cheap to prepare for a large family and Kraft introduced the Kraft Dinner (macaroni and cheese in a box) in 1937, popularizing it even further.

Personally, I’ve always thought of it as a southern dish though my Canadian fiancé makes it for his daughter when she visits, his version topped with sliced tomatoes. A twitter pal @Candacekaru from Maine, told me that she had been experimenting with different versions when her 6 year old son told her that he liked the truffle version the best! Another friend of mine @studley from Louisiana (Loooosiana – you have to say it that way) told me that it wasn’t a family celebration without his Mom’s famous Mac & cheese. Heck, even Bobby Flay did a throw-down cook-off of Mac & Cheese with a woman in Reading Terminal in Philadelphia. Here in the south, I challenge you to find any BBQ joint that doesn’t proudly serve their version of Mac & Cheese as a side dish.

So I had to throw my hat into the ring with my grown-up version of Mac & Cheese. It’s a 3 cheese Mac & Cheese with bacon and jalapeno – oh and I also throw some madiera into the cheese sauce for added measure!

I start with 8 ounces of dried cavatappi, which I like better than elbow macaroni since it is thicker, and doesn’t get mushy after baking in the sauce. Cook it more al dente than you normally would since it will absorb some of that luscious cream as it bakes in the oven.

For veggies I use:
½ red onion, chopped
½ red bell pepper, chopped,
½ yellow bell pepper chopped
2 jalapenos, one chopped and one sliced and reserved for the top
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 slices bacon

Cook the bacon until very crispy and set aside. Pour off all but a Tbsp of bacon fat and then add the onions and garlic to the pan and sauté until onions soften. Add the chopped peppers and continue to sauté until onions are cooked through and pepper have softened. Mix the vegetables with the cooked cavatappi and set aside while you make the cheese sauce.

For the sauce:
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter
1,½ cups whole milk
½ cup half and half
1/3 cup sweet Madeira
1 cup shredded Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar
1 cup shredded Cabot Habanera cheddar or jalapeno cheddar
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh thyme

Combine milk and half & half and thyme in a small sauce pan and bring to a scald over low heat.

In a heavy sauce pan, over medium low heat, melt butter. Add flour to form a roux and cook stirring constantly until roux has colored slightly to a very light caramel color. Discard thyme from milk and add it in a steady stream to the roux, whisking constantly. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens and then whisk in the madiera. You must do this over a low heat to prevent curdling. Stir in shredded cheeses, whisking just until cheese is melted and incorporated. Adjust seasonings with salt and white pepper.

To Bake:
A deep ovenproof 2qt casserole
¼ cup cornmeal
Reserved sliced jalapeno
2 scallions, chopped (white and green parts)

Reserved bacon, chopped
½ cup shredded Cabot Private reserve cheddar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix bacon and scallions into pasta and place mixture into casserole. Pour cheese sauce over the mixture – sauce should nearly cover the pasta mixture. Place covered casserole into the oven for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, remove the cover, sprinkle the cornmeal, then cheese, then jalapenos over the top and return to the oven under the broiler (leave the rack in the center of the oven) for 10-15 minutes or until the top browns. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes before serving so that the cheese sauce mixture can set up a bit.

I use cornmeal at the end because it adds a subtle crunch that you can’t quite get from breadcrumbs. The cornmeal has just enough time to both absorb some cream and get some crunch from broiling.

This recipe is not quick to fix and uses its fair chair of pots and pans. That’s why I splurge and use really good cheese – it makes all the difference in the world. I like the Private Reserve for the topping since it melts so smoothly and tastes so good on its own. So put away the Velveeta or processed cheese food and pony up for the good stuff. You won’t be disappointed and maybe your Mac & Cheese will get famous enough to merit a visit from Bobby Flay!

Filling Phyllo - Spinach tartlets

2009-08-30T15:35:00.004-04:00

What do you do when unexpected visitors announce that they’ll be by in half an hour? My guests always expect food. And they always expect GOOD food. Isn’t that why they invite themselves over, after all? It is for this reason that I always have Athens Mini Fillo (phyllo) shells in the freezer. The great thing about them is that you needn’t spend time thawing them before filling and popping into the oven so they allow you to make great treats – and fast! Unlike plain phyllo sheets that need a day to thaw in the fridge and then need to be buttered and baked, the minis are already baked and formed. But you still get to take credit for them!

So I rummaged through the fridge and found a bag of fresh spinach, some lemons, garlic, shallots, yellow and red bell peppers and some Cabot Private Stock cheddar cheese. I also keep pine nuts in the freezer so I had some of those on hand as well – score! Looks like the flavors of Greece win the day. I love Greek flavors because they always feel so sunny and bright to me.

All I do is toast the pine nuts in a sauté pan, remove and then sauté the garlic, shallots and peppers in olive oil until the vegetables are soft, add the spinach and sauté until wilted. Then hit it with some fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt and pepper. If you happen to have a little fresh mint on hand it really spikes up the flavor profile to add it at this point.

I then drain the spinach and cool it a bit so the Phyllo doesn’t get soggy. Mix in the pine nuts, spoon into the shells and top with a slice of the cheddar cheese.

Then when the guests call from the front gate, I pop the filled shells into a preheated 425 degree oven just until the cheese gets all melty and wonderfully gooey.

Serve these treats right away or reheat to melt the cheese if you’ve refrigerated them. They are almost like bite-sized spanikopita but they are so fast and easy that you can make them on a moment’s notice when your inconsiderate friends decide to drop by to raid your liquor cabinet and pantry. Serve these with Ouzo it’s a perfect fit, though you maybe making breakfast for your friends as well, if you do.

Crabfest – or a #geocrab tweetup

2009-08-27T18:44:00.003-04:00

This gorgeous "geocrab" was created in PhotoShop by Bill Dollins - thanks for letting me use it my friend!

If Maryland is known for anything then it must be the blue crabs. Nothing says summer on the East coast like a table covered by butcher paper loaded down with fresh crabs steamed with Old Bay. For this particular crabfest we relied upon Bill Dollins @geobabbler to make the restaurant choice.

Having lived on the west coast I have also had access to Dungeness crabs and snow crabs but to this east coast girl, nothing beats a big pile of Chesapeake’s finest. I find the lump backfin to be sweeter than any other crab I’ve had though Florida Stone Crab claws are a close second.

I grew up in Philly so I have had plenty of crab shack experience but my fiancé had never before malleted a blue crab or dug his fingers into the sweet flesh until they were coated with Old Bay seasoning. I told Bill that I was looking for the true crab shack experience – a dive with butcher paper, fresh crabs and cold beer. Bill really delivered on this on, selecting Captain Billy’s crab shack on the Potomac in western Maryland. We were not disappointed. The crabs were a perfect size – not too big or too small, came on a plastic platter and were served with a mallet and an oyster knife. PERFECT!

Bill also gave crab picking 101 lessons to my fiancé so that he could quickly get at the good stuff. He caught on fast under Bill’s practiced tutelage. The instructions started with yanking off the legs and claws and then using what I call the handy pull-tab on the underside of the crab. Pulling on the tab opens up the belly and allows you to just pull the top shell right off.

Next you clean out the “fingers” and the gook you don’t want to eat, snap the remaining carapace in half and dig into the sweet meat – no mallets or knives required! You can then eat the claws or as Bill did, save them all for last. A quick tap with the mallet is usually sufficient to open the claws so you can simply pop out the claw meat in one big piece.

Don’t bother wiping your fingers between crabs since they will only get really messy with the next one – and no one can eat just one. I think we all enjoyed the crabs and I know my honey enjoyed the lessons.

I think we will all be back from crabs next summer, cause it isn't really summer until you've had fresh crab, corn on the cob, tomatoes, watermelon and steamed clams. I'm hungry for them again already!

Fantasy Top Chef – Let the Games Begin…

2009-08-25T21:57:00.006-04:00

I have never played a fantasy sports game so I’m not at all sure that I understand what I have gotten into but Chris - @BlogWellDone convinced me to join. I was assigned two chefs from the new Top Chef Vegas season and I guess I win points or something based upon how well they do. If you understand the whole game, please leave a comment and explain it to this neophyte.

I was assigned the two Jennifers; Jen C and Jen Z. I love that I got Jen C because not only is she awesome, but she’s a cook in Philly under Eric Ripert – and Philly is my hometown.

The game started out with a Mise en place relay race, always fun, and then a cook-off between the two losing teams, each chef using the ingredient that they had prepared as a mise en place. Jen C had the clams and made a clam ceviche with nice citrus flavors. Truthfully, even if she hadn’t been my chef, I would have wanted to eat it – I love clams and the less cooked the better. Incidentally, she won the quickfire with her concoction.

Jen Z on the other hand, was just scary to start with. I don’t think that I could have watched a whole season of those disgustingly stretched out earlobes without thinking of them dangling in the food. I was at an amusement park last week and noticed a man with the same earrings outfitted in his lobes at the beginning of a ride. I noticed he didn’t have them at the end of the ride and his droopy lobes nearly brushing his shoulders really grossed me out.

For the elimination challenge, Robin had immunity, thanks to a random drawing, Jen C ended up in the top two and Jen Z went home for a really crappy version of rellanos. Buh-bye Jen Z. even though I’m left with only one chef, I won’t miss you since you didn’t even realize that your dish sucked. Jen C is destined for the top 4 since she has the culinary chops and a personality. Kevin won the challenge but has the personality of a limp dishrag.

And no, Chris, I will not trade you Jen C for Robin and any amount of cookware – I have a complete set already.

Call it Cactus or Nopales - I Call It Delicious

2009-08-14T10:59:00.006-04:00

It’s August and the summer is winding down but the mosquitoes don’t seem to know that. I have a bad reaction to the little vampires and tend to swell massively wherever they decide to attack. This morning I awoke with an elbow the size of a basketball and bites on my upper cheeks and neck that make me look like Jack Palance with a goiter. You remember him right? OK so I guess I’m old or at least I feel that way with a birthday coming up next week. It’ll be my last one, I swear. So if this post is rife with typos it’s because I’m squinting from one eye to write this.

Cactus – it’s a lovely treat done right. I had a hard time finding any information on correct cooking techniques. I even resorted to asking Rick Bayless @rick_Bayless on twitter for a resource but the king of Mexican cuisine told me that he didn’t know of any such resource that was written in English. I hope he writes something because there is so much misinformation on the web that many people will undoubtedly have a bad first encounter.

I picked up some Cactus – Nopales – at Harry’s this week along with some corn to make a black bean salad. The pads were about the size of my hand and about ¼ inch thick. I scraped off all of the remaining prickles on the pads and cut off the ones on the edges with a sharp paring knife. Then I simply brushed them with olive oil and grilled them in my grill pan for about 4 minutes per side.

Then I cut it into slices and tossed it with my other salad ingredients which included black beans soaked over night and simmered with bacon and chipotle, fresh grilled corn, bell peppers and jalepenos and some diced red onion. Throw in some cilantro, fresh squeezed lime juice and some fruity extra virgin olive oil and you have a delightful summer salad. That can serve as a main or a side.

I found the cactus to be sweet tasting and slightly citrus flavored. I understand that improperly cooked it can be either bitter or slimy but I detected none of that in my version. I also found loads of recipes in the interwebz that are very, very wrong. Once recipe instructs you to chop the cactus pads and boil them for 45 minutes adding baking soda at the end to reduce the slime! Please don’t ever abuse any vegetable in this fashion!

So I give two thumbs up to Nopales and will be adding them to my regular ingredient list. I understand that they are available from late spring through the fall months here in North America. I know that it's grown and harvested across the south but a fellow foodie from Cleveland @BlogWellDone tells me that he has ready access to it there as well. Give them a try when you get the chance and let me know if you find a book that has good information on this delightful ingredient.

Southern Food & Wine Fest part III – Alton!

2009-08-12T15:07:00.005-04:00

For the food festival, I bought the very pricey 3 day VIP package, mostly because I wanted to get the full experience. To say I was disappointed is putting it mildly. When I went to pick up my package I was presented with nothing more than a stack of tickets. No goodie bag, badge or even marketing slicks were offered. As a marketing person, I have attended and arranged hundreds of conferences so this was a shocker to me. Not even a measly logo totebag or Guy Fieri bobble-head? So lame. And not even badges for exhibits or events, I had to use tickets each day and get my hand stamped. Maybe I should offer my services because they sure could use them.

The highlight of the event for me was the Alton Brown cooking demo. When Alton came out on stage, I have to say I gasped. Here was a man a mere shadow of his former self. Brown went on to explain – with props of course – that he had lost 45 pounds in 5 months eating a low carb, high protein, high fat diet. That fat being Omega-3s obtained mostly through eating oily fish. At this point of course, he had to hold up the little buggers, inches from the camera and added a little ventriloquism just for fun.

Alton got the white board into play explaining why smaller oiler fish is better for you than large ones, both because of heavy metals and sustainability. Also some mumbo jumbo chemical discussion about Omega 3 fatty acids, some guy's prostate and brain cells. Mostly flew over my head since I don’t have a prostate and have very few brain cells.

Then the real fun began with Alton stirring up brines and pickles. Never, never answer a question that is lobbed to the audience by Alton. His searing dry wit will wither any answer that you think you know. For a change, I sat quietly and held my tongue.

After the brine and pickling he brought out the big guns – yes the munitions box smoker! In it he made smoked trout. The most bizarre thing he made was a dish called rollmops, of which I’d never heard. It’s apparently German and my regular readers know what a fan I am of German food…um, not exactly! So these were fillets of herring or anchovy that were wrapped around cornichons or cocktail onions, secured with a toothpick and then pickled for a couple of weeks in a jar. He didn’t get many volunteers to sample that one, to be sure.

At the end, Alton started taking questions from the audience – and he took a lot of them running over the allotted time by a good 30-40 minutes. Kudos for that, the audience loved it. One of my favorite Q&A exchanges went like this:

Woman: But Alton, what do I do to get my kids to eat fish?
Alton: You say; ”here, sit down and eat this”

Gotta love Alton. Since I was sitting at the front most table near the doors, as soon as Alton left the stage, I practically fled the room and dashed over to the reception venue, not wanting a repeat of the Deens debacle of the night before. It worked as I ended up 3rd in line. I had the chance to meet Alton, he signed my copy of Feasting on Asphalt and even expressed interest in this blog when I told him about it. So Alton, if you’re reading this, thanks for the fun but remember – GeoFooding is trademarked.

Twitterlicious Burgers - Mine is a Lamb Burger

2009-08-07T13:29:00.005-04:00

OK, taking a break from the Food fest updates – I promise I’ll get to Alton’s demo next but I had to post today for our second virtual lunch on twitter. @cheryltan88 and @cowgirlchef started this madness with BLTs a couple of weeks ago and we’re on to burgers this week. Burgers were a great choice for virtual cooking since they are so versatile! Ellise - @cowgirlchef http://twitter.com/cowgirlchef made a sumptuous looking Roquefort burger – see the post here - http://www.cowgirlchef.com/ and Cheryl’s http://www.atigerinthekitchen.com/ here. Kelsey made her brother’s recipe which you can see here; Naptimechef

I was torn about what kind of burger to make so I bought the fixins for two types. For this lunch I went with a feta stuffed lamb burger with a mint yogurt topping. I chose this one mostly because I had forgotten about the #letslunch challenge and this is a quick and easy burger to throw together. The other one, which I will make and post this weekend involved grinding my own top round and cooking black beans.

For the lamb burger I started with a third of a pound of ground lamb, about a tsp of ground coriander and a tsp of powdered garlic. Mix them together gently. The more gentle you are the more tender your burger will be. I had also chopped some fresh organic mint for the yogurt so I threw some of that into the lamb as well. Then flatten the lamb out and place a slice of feta in the middle and seal it up well forming a patty. I use a stiff feta for this one rather than a creamy version so that it stays in the burger instead of leaking out all over the pan. Season well on both sides with salt and pepper.

(I’m not taking a lot of pics for this one since raw meat doesn’t really make anyone hungry!)

I lightly oiled a fry pan (oven safe) and started the burger on the stovetop for about 5 minutes to get one side browned, then flipped it and put it into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. I also flipped it once during cooking. Meanwhile simply mix 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt or greek style yogurt with 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped mint to make a topping.

Plate with fresh spinach stuffed into ½ of a split pita and burger topped with yogurt. Easy peasy and pretty tasty if I do say so myself. The creamy yogurt with zingy mint combining with the feta and lamb make the flavors really pop in your mouth and the slight background of coriander makes you wonder what that subtle taste is.

I wonder what we’ll make next time? Suggestions? Grab your spatula and follow along on twitter for great Friday lunch ideas or toss in your own but remember that pics are a definite requirement!

Food Network Southern Food and Wine Fest Part II

2009-08-05T16:24:00.004-04:00

Friday night I had tickets to a cooking demo done by Jamie and Bobby Deen as well as tickets to the chef’s reception, which followed. Now I am not a huge fan of Paula Deen, I don’t dislike her but would not really cook any of her food. I don’t want a cholesterol count of 900 and would prefer not to have an ass the size of Alaska. I also find her to be a a caricature of herself with all those y’alls and loud cackling, but I guess that’s what you need to be in order to have a wildly successful career as she does. In fact the only reason I had the tickets is because I purchased a whole package for the festival and given that it is the southern festival, I suppose they wanted to highlight southern cooks from their lineup. Why they didn’t just have Paula is a mystery to me.

Suffice to say I wasn’t hugely excited to see the cooking demo but there were tons of people who were. I needn’t have worried since very little cooking actually took place. They made coleslaw some tilapia and a few burnt buns.

The Deen boys arrived late and disheveled as they explained they had flight delays and lost luggage but they came out with great spirits. They spent at least the first 40 minutes just talking to the audience like we had stopped by their home for an evening chat but they didn’t even offer us any sweet tea.

They mostly talked about their famous mother and I still am hard pressed to figure out just how they are riding those coattails. They told stories of Paula and “Aunt Peggy” wearing underwear on their heads in lieu of hairnets when they started their sandwich business. They told of selling sandwiches door to door as children and of finally opening their restaurant. They also told of how Paula is quite the task master with the boys all liberally peppered with “Mama”. Bobby only slipped up once by calling her “Mom”. I think that may be a breach of his contracts.

In fairness they were very entertaining and for one pathetic loser of a fan who kept shouting throughout, they were the top. We all thought that ‘Michelle’ – the pathetic fan – appeared to be desperate to be noticed by Bobby, who was apparently named most eligible bachelor in some publication or other…maybe the hillbilly journal but I could be mistaken. Jamie had a couple of bites of the coleslaw proclaiming it to be his first food all day and then they distributed some food to the audience. I had a single limp spear of sweet potato – which was never even mentioned in the demo.

Since the pair was so chatty, they never had time to cook all the dishes that were promised, Jamie went on to show us the magic of TV cooking, wherein he had the camera man focus on his face while a chef brought in the finished goods. It was actually quite comical to watch. Oh I should mention that the cameras were for the benefit of the large screens they had mounted for the audience. I was sitting at a table in the front row so didn’t have to rely on them.

Afterwards there was a chef’s reception, which I thought, in my naïveté, was a party with food and drink. I thought that mostly because that’s what the schedule said. So I took my time and moseyed on over to the reception only to find a very long line. OK, I waited because I expected there to be FN quality food at the end of the wait. After 2 and a half hours, I was grumpy and hungry and had a whole new set of friends. I found that what was taking so long was that we had to go through a line to meet Jamie and Bobby and have a photo/autograph opportunity. I would have gone straight for the food.

I must say that they were very friendly and when I asked about the lack of food, Bobby said “Aren’t you a sweet thang”. So I guess it was worth it. Seriously, the are very nice individuals

and very entertaining but something tells me that they should leave the cooking to Mama.

Next up is a recap of Alton Brown's cooking demo.

The Food Network Southern Food and Wine Festival- Part I

2009-08-03T15:59:00.014-04:00

This past weekend I drove up to Nashville from Atlanta for the Southern Food and Wine festival put on by the Food Network. I’ve only lived in the south for a couple of years and Atlanta is pretty metropolitan. I’ve even heard it called a northern city plunked down in Georgia. Nashville, however is a southern city. Much more southern than Atlanta in every way but geographical. I’m going to write about the festival in several parts since not only did they have a vendor exhibition, there were cooking demos with Food Network hosts that I attended as well.

The festival exhibit area was filled with many more local vendors than I had expected – after all the food network is ubiquitous no? Almost all the vendors were local Tennessee purveyors of food – all kinds of food. If you are dieting, it isn’t a good place to be since everything seemed heavily laden with fat or sugar or in the case of the Piggy Popcorn; both. That also seems in keeping with my experiences in traditional southern food. Don’t mistake me; there are some fantastic eateries in the south but I’m talking the old family recipes here, which were mostly the wares on display.

The Lynchburg Cake and Candy Company was started by a man named Billy Thomas (even that name sounds southern to my northern ears) who retired from a career working at Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg TN. Incidentally, Tennessee has it’s own classification of whisky and there are only two TN whiskeys manufactured, of which Jack Daniels is one. That must have been some good ole’ boy string pullin’ on that one since the differences are only location, cask and time in cask. Anywho (see I’m turning southern, wandering from story to story to complete my yarn)

Billy took his Mama and Gamma’s (which I can only assume is his grandmother) recipes and took two years perfecting them so that they could go from a “pinch of this” to being manufactured. The cakes are steeped in whiskey with spices and raisins. They also offer Billy’s Whiskey Balls – chocolate and whiskey confections and whiskey pecan pralines. All very tasty and combined with Billy who’ll invite you to set a spell and chat – all very southern.

There were also tons of relishes, jams, jellys and chutneys. The flavors I have found to be prevalent here in the southeast are spicy, pickled and sweet. Indeed I have never acquired a taste for sweet tea so when you order it south of the Mason Dixon, know that sweet tea is the default. These canned concoctions tended to be mixes of these flavors.

Blackberry jalapeno jam, cajun chutney, pickled watermelon jam pickled beets and okra all filled tables up and down the aisles. Most were mild in terms of heat. It is my distinct impression that the southeast part of the US, in general, likes their peppers on the mild side and tempered with something sweet or fried.

What I also got was that all these companies were started with a great deal of love and pride. Most were extremely proud to say that they were from Tennessee and that recipes were hand crafted over generations. Memories of Mama pickling and canning vegetables in the summer to put away in the pantry till winter seemed to motivate these people.

There is a lot of pickling and canning that goes on down here. My personal experience with living in the south tells me that fresh foods spoil much more quickly here due to the heat and humidity than they do in other places - so if you don’t pickle it or can it, you’ll lose it. In addition for generations, this part of the country was very rural and indeed, a lot of it still is. So when it came time for dinner you didn't pop down to the grocery store, you popped out back to the garden or into the pantry. A lot of southern Mamas pass this down to their daughters.

The other thing that is prevalent here is pork. Pork sausage, ribs, bacon and at the Loveless Café booth, even bacon toothpicks and bandaids. Most of the bacon I came across was smoky or peppered – not a lot of the maple cured type. When you live in the south where there are so many local hog famers, there is no excuse to eat Oscar Meyer when it comes to bacon. One of the stage demos was a demo on making jalapeno poppers and if you follow this blog you’ll remember mine not to long ago. Is this southern thing contagious then?

Loveless Café, however, takes this a step, well no make that a leap farther with their Piggy Popcorn. This popcorn, as it was explained to me, is popped in peppered bacon fat and then covered with maple caramel for and end product that Cracker Jack never would have dreamed. Only thing it was missing was the peanuts and hey, we have enough of them here! (yes the peanut cooperative had a booth too). All I can say about this popcorn is that you have to try it. How could you not?

This photo I just threw in from the Viking booth because I want one for my birthday...hint...hint.

I’ll post some more on some of the fine Tennessee folks I met and treats I ate at the fest after I post about the demos with Alton Brown, James and Bobby Deen and Pat and Gina Neely.

For now...travel globally - eat locally

The River Room, Atlanta – a restaurant review

2009-07-25T10:14:00.006-04:00

My regular readers know that I can sometimes be harsh on restaurants, especially when they serve something I think I could have cooked much better. Last night, that was not the case. My confidence in my cooking was totally humbled by the creative and exquisitely cooked dishes I had at the River Room.

A bit of background; I ate at the River Room well over a year ago and the food was good, the service better but the price tag was high so I haven’t been back until now. I went down to the tavern there to have a glass of wine when work men made staying in my townhouse unacceptable. I looked at the menu and knew I had to go back for a second try.

I don’t often do smart things but returning was one of them. The new chef, Jeff Sigler is really shaking things up there. I understand he used to work with Richard Blais of Bravo’s Top Chef fame. I started by asking my server what the chef would want me to eat. Kelly was very knowledgeable about the menu and ingredients and I was impressed right off the bat. It seems the staff is well briefed on the menu that changes daily based upon available fresh ingredients. I was in heaven already. I ordered a salad but Kelly came back and asked if I would be interested in having a chef’s tasting menu at his discretion. Um….YES!!

As I was waiting for my first morsels, I looked around at the restaurant. The banquettes could do with some updating – the fabric is dated, the seats are vinyl and the bases are a bit beat up but the music was a nice jazz suitable for dining. The kitchen is visible behind a glass wall, which is perfect since you can see the bustle but not hear the noise. One thing I have to say is that they have the friendliest people on Earth. The first time I ate there I thought it was a southern thing but it’s not – it’s a River Room thing. That, at least, has not changed. They have a great wine list and serve excellent wines by the glass though I do think the whites are kept too cold.

The first thing I was presented with was a BLT amuse bouche – great because my last post here was a BLT post. This tiny bite packs a wallop. The kewpie mayonnaise really makes the dish but the Benton Farms bacon is smoky goodness.

The next bite was a cantaloupe ball topped with country ham and a basil oil all served in a Chinese spoon. I really loved the flavors but there was a tad too much basil oil for me and all I tasted afterwards was the oil. Great concept – less oil.

I then had a very tiny bite of the beet salad with herbed goat cheese and sugared pecan. I am not a huge fan of beets – I was tragically born without a sweet tooth - but I really liked this bite. The creamy herbed goat cheese was a great foil for the sweet roasted beet. I liked that it was just a bite because I can’t eat a whole plate of beets.

Next up was not one of my favorites - mixed plums – black, red and pluot (a hybrid of plum and apricot) with country ham, unrefined honey and pinenuts. I’m not big on sweets and this dish could have been dessert for me since the honey was so sweet. I would order this for dessert not for a starter.

Then we got into the serious eats. The scallops…the scallops….picture Homer Simpson drooling. I have made scallops frequently, I have ordered them a lot but I have never eaten a better scallop. The top had a crunchy sear and the inside was creamy and rare. The crispy sunchoke chips made a nice texture contrast but what made the dish for me though was the squash “pasta” as they call it. Summer squash ribbons, still al dente (no small feat in a restaurant) that tingled the palate with lemon and brown butter. I could have eaten a gallon of the squash.

Yes there are more dishes – you must think I’m huge by now – the next was a seared salmon dish. The salmon was beautifully cooked – rare in the center as I like it. It was served with fennel 4 ways – roasted fennel, cream of, fronds and seeds. It also came with a grapefruit puree and supremes of grapefruit. Now I’m not a fan of grapefruit but the mix with the fennel cream was quite good, amazingly so. It did, however, make my Sonoma Cutrer chardonnay taste kinda funky.

By now I was stuffed and asked the server for the check but she informed me that the chef wanted me to try the pork chops and would not be offended if I couldn’t eat more than a bite or two. Wowza – I would probably not have chosen it from the menu but it was absolutely fantastic. The charred smoky taste of the pork with the peach & fried parsley topping was great but when mixed with the herby sage and parsley sauce over the roasted sunchokes – I nearly swooned….it was that good. As much as I loved the scallops, this was the single best dish that I had. Smoky and sweet, buttery and herby – a masterpiece of flavors that danced in my mouth.

Of Course the chef had a finishing bite for me – a creamy chocolate bite of rich dark chocolate (my favorite) topped with sea salt and pistachios. The combination of the 72% bittersweet with the salt was the perfect finish. I was stunned by the flavor profile and it truly was a wonderful finish to the gluttonous meal.

I had long ago written off the River Room but I have now put it back at the top of my list. The service is excellent – friendly, knowledgeable staff that are clearly excited about the new chef and the food. The vision is fresh seasonal food with a nod to southern cuisine and it really shines through. The alfresco dining on the patio has a wonderful view of the fountain and impeccable landscaping that Post properties are known for. The new pricing makes the River Room a must visit. The prices are very modest for food from a chef that is bound for greatness. I’m keeping my eye on this guy because I see Beard awards in his future. His creative combinations are surprising and fresh but he never loses sight of the fact that food should be perfectly cooked and tasty.

My twist on the classic BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich)

2009-07-23T08:04:00.009-04:00

This week on Twitter, Cheryl Tan @Cheryltan88 author of the blog "a Tiger in the Kitchen" decided to organize a virtual BLT lunch. You can find all the entries and discssion by searching #BLTlunch on twitter. This got me thinking because I have not had a BLT in many, many years. Mostly because I had given up all meat but fish for over 20 years. In fact my nieces – both avid consumers of bacon - will randomly shout BACON! at me for my historically feigned distaste for the stuff and to see me cringe. My reply was, of course, SPINACH!, to which they would scream EWWW – with glee. A strange ritual to be sure but in reality who really can hate bacon. I began eating meat again when I met my very carnivore fiance and also decided to forge a new career in the food industry. You can't serve it if you haven't eaten it.

I love the invitation idea since the wonderful thing about cooking is that no two people do it alike. The BLT is a perfect way to experiment with variations and see what other people will do. My memories of BLTs were toasted Wonder bread, slathered with mayo, a couple of pieces of bacon, some butter lettuce and tomatoes that got the bread all soggy. Not what I wanted to produce for my version.

I wanted a bread that wouldn’t get soggy and I wanted cheese, so mine is sort of a cross between grilled cheese and a BLT.

Ingredients are straightforward:

Fontina cheese (I chose fontina because I wanted wonderfully melty cheese)
½ 8 oz loaf 9 grain bread
2 slices of bacon
Handful of baby arugula (washed & dried)
1 small tomato
½ fresh jalapeno sliced thinly
1 tsp stoneground mustard
2 Tbs mayonnaise

I use a grill pan on the stove for this sandwich. Start by cutting the bacon strips in half and cooking them in the grill pan until crisp. I use the grill pan for the bacon so the fat runs away and you get crispier bacon., crisp is important for this dish. Drain the bacon on paper towels, and rinse and wipe the pan. A little residual bacon fat on the pan is a good thing.

Next, split the bread in half and spread the mayo on both sides of each piece of bread. Grill cut side down until the bread is hot and has nice grill marks. Then turn the bread over in the pan and spread mustard on one half.

Place sliced fontina atop both pieces of bread. Continue to heat until cheese starts to soften. Sprinkle the bottom half with the sliced jalapenos and place tomatoes atop. Sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper. When cheese is starting to melt, remove to a plate.

Add Arugula to the top of the bottom half. Place bacon into cheese on the top half.

Cover the bottom of the sandwich with the top half. Serve immediately.

This was a really fun challenge and got me thinking creatively. I love that social media pushes us creatively and intellectually as well as providing humor and new friends. This sandwich is definitely going into my repertoire – maybe I’ll surprise my nieces by making it for them. I will no doubt hear the banshee scream of BACON!! (but won't they be proud of my progress?)

I scream…you scream. Yes it’s Ice Cream!

2009-07-21T18:14:00.003-04:00

Ice cream is a summertime favorite so I thought I’d whip some up. Now I am not a huge fan of ice cream or sweets in general but homemade ice cream is worth the calories. I know people though who will go through a gallon a week so this is for them.

Not being a huge ice cream fan you’re probably wondering why I have an ice cream machine. A few years ago I hosted a Halloween pumpkin party for which we all trekked out to a pumpkin farm, selected our quarry and converged on my house for some serious cooking. I bought the machine because my contribution was pumpkin ice cream – now that’s a flavor I can get behind!

So this week, I dusted off the machine and put the liner into the freezer a day ahead of time and then set out to choose a flavor. I asked my twitter pals for suggestions and got some great ones – peach, mint-chocolate, peppermint, French vanilla etc. Now my favorite flavors to date are a bit off-beat; green tea, ginger and my all time favorite; black sesame. Trust me, it’s out of this world.

I chose to make coconut because a) I was having Vietnamese soup for dinner and b) it was the fastest and easiest!

It consisted of a can of cream of coconut (the kind sold in the mixers section of the grocery store) 1 cup of milk, 1 ½ cups heavy cream and coconut. That’s it! I decided to toast half of the coconut and leave half untoasted. Oh and this is sweetened flaked coconut so between the sugar there and the sugar in the cream of coconut, no more is required. Simply put all the ingredients into the food processor and pulse until the coconut breaks up and the cream starts to thicken a little.

Then simply pour it onto your ice cream machine and process according to your instructions. Mine is a Cuisinart and I simply let it churn for about 40 minutes and then turned it into a plastic container to freeze for about 3 hours. A good tip is to lay plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming.

This is a tasty ice cream but you have to like coconut. I served it with fresh organic mint but grilled pineapple or fresh mango would also be fabulous. So break out that ice cream maker and give it a shot – you won’t be sorry, nor will your guests!

PS – I took the photo with my new Nikon P90 – let me know if you can see the difference.

Mustard Crusted Lamb with Mustard Greens

2009-07-19T16:33:00.006-04:00

Last week, while on a road trip, I found out that my credit and debit cards had been “compromised” (their word) in a large scale Bank of America data heist. This was interesting on the road and after many phone calls to BofA support, I managed to get enough money to get home. However it will take a week to 10 days to get the cards replaced. In the interim, I am running on what cash reserves I have. So for dinner tonight, I decided to go pawing though my freezer. OK, so I’m moving in a couple of months and need to do that anyway. So don’t send donations, I have plenty to eat.

I found a rack of lamb that I had bought this past spring when they were so delicious looking that I had to buy two. I thawed it in the fridge over night and set out to make something different this time. Lamb is not usually summertime fare but I love it and it seemed more appealing than the other stuff I found squirreled away in there – pork loin, pork chop, flank steak and roasted duck – and soup, lots and lots of leftover soup (not optimal for 94 degree weather).

At the market I picked up some fresh mustard greens and tomatoes to go with. The menu being mustard crusted rack of lamb, sautéed mustard greens and roasted tomatoes. Greens are popular here in the south and I do love all of them, just not cooked to within an inch of its life as most greens/vegetables are traditionally prepared here. I also skipped the requisite bacon since I was preparing lamb.

Lamb:
I frenched rack of lamb
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp prepared horseradish
2 tsp minced garlic

½ c breadcrumbs
¼ c grated parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper

I started the lamb first figuring I could work on the greens while I seared the lamb off. Start by patting the meat dry and liberally season both sides with salt and pepper. Place a large oven safe sauté pan over a medium high heart ad get the pan really hot. Place lamb into the hot pan, fat side down, first and sear until you’ve got good color. Be sure to turn the fan on as this can get pretty smoky. A good way to tell when you’ve got a good sear is that the meat will move easily – i.e. it no longer sticks to the pan. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Once you’ve gotten a good sear on both sides, remove the lamb from the pan and let it cool a bit to make it easier to handle.

While the lamb is searing, mix together mustard, horseradish and garlic in a small bowl. When lamb has cooled a bit, slather the mustard mixture on both sides of the lamb. Mix together the breadcrumbs and cheese, reserving a little bit to sprinkle atop the tomatoes if you are making them. Press the breadcrumbs evenly onto the mustard coating. Place the lamb back into the sauté pan, fat side down and place into the center of the hot oven.

Roast for about 10 minutes and turn bone side down. You only need to do this with a breaded rack in order to brown the bread coating. Roast for another 10 minutes for medium rare and remove lamb to a plate tented with foil. Allow to let rest for 15 minutes. I then deglazed the pan with a little bit of madiera and let it reduce, then finish with a small pat of butter for a nice shine on the sauce. The sauce is optional but the sweetness went well with the mustard and the peppery flavor of the greens.

While the lamb is in the oven, thoroughly wash about a pound of mustard greens, chop into 1 inch strips and thinly slice a Vidalia onion. Heat a large chef's pan over medium-low heat and add enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom. Sauté onions until they soften and become translucent. Add greens and about 3 Tbs chicken stock. Toss to coat and simmer over medium low heat until greens are done. I added a lid that was partway on to allow the steam to escape.

While the lamb is resting, cut a tomato in half and place on a baking sheet – cut sides up. Bake in the hot oven for about 10 minutes, then add the breadcrumb/cheese mixture to the top and continue baking until the tomato softens and topping starts to bubble.

I know that it sounds like a lot of steps but it’s really not too tough and you have plenty of time for prep work while the lamb is hanging out on the stove and in the oven. Resting the lamb thoroughly is also important. These flavors all work really well together. I love the peppery mustard greens along with the tang and zip of the mustard and horseradish coating. The tomato is like a sunny exclamation point on the plate and balances everything out. So even though turning the oven to 450 when it’s stifling outside seems crazy – I make an exception for this meal. Call me crazy, but full! (apology for some of the photos - my camera had a problem so my phone stepped in)

Jalapeno Poppers – ala Karen – read; bacon and mozzarella!

2009-07-16T13:40:00.003-04:00

I found some beautiful big fat juicy jalapenos at the market and had to buy them. I guess I’m like a magpie that way – entranced by the beautiful color, I have to take foods home even though I have no idea what I’ll use them in. I thought, why not jalapeno poppers? I’m not usually a huge fan of jalapeno poppers because I don’t care for cream cheese or the deep fried batter that usually encases the whole mess. I do like jalapenos, bacon and smoked mozzarella though. So I thought I’d give my own version a try, again wishing I had a grill.

With jalapenos it’s pretty much a crapshoot as to how hot or mild they will be. I was delighted to find that mine packed a whallop. Because they are baked until the peppers are roasted through, the peppers become mild themselves but the cheese absorbs some real heat. This is the first time I’d tried this experiment but I will definitely try them again.

All you need for this recipe is some jalapenos, smoked mozzarella and bacon.

The trickiest part of this whole incredibly simple snack is cleaning the peppers. Start by halving the peppers short ways – so that you have the whole top on one end and the bottom on the other. Then using a small sharp paring knife, remove the ribs and seeds without removing the top.

Next, slice the cheese into small slices that will fit into the peppers. Stuff the peppers with the cheese and fit them back together.

Cut the bacon strips in half and wrap each pepper with a slice of the bacon. Wrap it tightly around the middle so the cheese doesn’t have a chance to escape while cooking.

Place on a foil lined baking sheet (in case the cheese does find a way to get out) and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven. Roast until the bacon crisps and peppers are cooked to desired doneness. This took about 20 minutes for me. You don’t need to turn them and if you do, they’ll probably split apart.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before handling – again, so they don’t break apart.

These make great party food because you can prepare them ahead of time, refrigerate and then pop them in the oven just as guests are arriving since they need no tending during roasting. For variations in flavor you can try different bacons – I used maple flavored since with the smoked mozzarella, I had enough smokiness. The contrast with the sweet, smoke and heat was tasty and memorable. I hope you give them a try. They take about 5-10 minutes to prep and give a party a real bang. So save the fireworks and make your own!

Sour grapes or failed marketing ploy?

2009-07-07T23:38:00.001-04:00

No this post is not about a recipe for sour grapes. I have been a marketing professional for many years and have been tracking different marketing ploys on twitter. There have been the bsquare and moonfruit campaigns which are nothing more than awareness campaigns to get people to say(tweet) your company name with a randomly awarded prize as your reward.

Sunday a food blogger named Jaden Hair had a more clever idea. She had a trip that any foodie would love and decided to give it away, since she was unavailable. The trip was to the food blogger’s premier of the Julie and Julia movie including meeting with Julie, food demos etc. and the chance to work with Jaden who is a well followed blogger. To enter the contest you had to post a comment on her blog and, if you could, get your friends to vouch for you.

Ingenious in that it created a very targeted audience for her blog and her first cookbook, set to hit the streets in October. However, her blog laid out the requirements for what she was seeking; someone witty, a food blogger, someone who could engage in an interview and take photos and videos. I got excited because I felt I fit all these criteria and even had my friends post endorsements, as did numerous others.

Here comes the fail part of the ploy. When it came time to pick a winner out of the 279 comments, she demurred and decided to have a total stranger – and a 17 year old at that – select the top ten contestants and he did so in the space of less than 45 minutes. According to Jaden, she gave him no guidelines whatsoever. Then out of the top ten, she had someone randomly select a number and that was the winner.

So she established criterion and then completely ignored. In the end, I felt duped as did a lot of people. If she had wanted a very professional writer or chef or photographer, I would have understood, since she had all of those posting. Or if she had wanted to help a home cook – like herself – get a leg up, I would have understood that too. But in the end it became a random choice based on a kid she doesn’t even know. Why not just spin the big wheel at the lottery and why bother to give us criteria in the first place so we pour our hearts out and get our family and friends to post?

I don’t think the intent was malicious but the effect was bad. I know I was alienated from a woman I thought was sweet and a good cook who I now see mostly as a self-promoter who would do best to leave marketing to professionals. And if you object? You’re publically labeled as not being very classy or a sore loser. I thought her comments to posters who questioned the selection method were rude. I would think that someone with a book coming out would hire a PR firm before doing something like this that has the potential to hurt her reputation. Forr this reader it did hurt. Can you say Unfollow?

Spicy Drunken Shrimp with Somen – a hot treat for a hot night

2009-07-02T19:45:00.003-04:00

Why do so many cultures in hot climates feature hot and spicy foods? My theory is that when it’s really hot, the only way to cool off is by sweating – in the absence of overcooled grocery stores that is. Hot spicy foods inevitably bring beads of sweat to your upper lip, forehead and the back of your neck. Evaporating sweat cools the body.

Since I live in Hotlanta, I went in search of hot spicy food and came home packing jalepenos and sriracha– which I absolutely love. So I actually used much more of the sriracha in my recipe than I recommend but then I was raised on home pickled hot peppers and ruffinad (Italian horseradish bread) so I can take liquid fire. Adjust the hotness according to your own palate.

What you’ll need (assemble prior to cooking since cooking goes fast!)

½ c vermouth
¼ c gin
Juice from ½ lime
4 garlic chives, chopped (or you can use scallions and 1 tsp minced garlic)
1 tsp minced ginger
1 ½ tsp sriracha
Dash fish sauce (nuoc nam)

8 large fresh water prawn (12-15 count)

About 6 oz dry somen noodles
2 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp cornstarch

Preparation:

Mix vermouth, gin, lime juice, garlic chives, ginger, sriracha and nuoc nam in a small or medium bowl with a fork or wire whisk. Clean and devein prawns leaving the tail intact. Marinate shrimp for about 15 minutes.

On a grill or in a grill pan on medium heat, grill shrimp until opaque and browning. Mop additional marinade over the shrimp with a grill brush or pastry brush.

Meanwhile bring a couple of quarts of water to a boil. Add somen noodles and boil for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain noodles and rinse under cold water.

In the same pan you used to boil the noodles; pour the remaining marinade and mix with cornstarch and soy sauce until cornstarch is dissolved. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil until sauce is thickened. Add noodles back to pan, tossing to coat with the sauce.

Place noodles into bowls and toss shrimp in remaining sauce (whatever is left in the pan) and place atop noodles. I allotted 4 per diner but they are big prawns so if you want to stretch a budget, add some veggies to the somen and use only 2-3 prawns per person. You can also eat this dish chilled so if you’re like me and live alone, lunch tomorrow comes right out of the fridge.

I love Asian food and while the marinade only slightly reeks of Asian cuisine, it’s still good eats. In a time crunch, it’s quick food that tastes good. Skip the overcooled fast food joints and have some spicy good food at home. Break out the towels though, you’ll need them!

Cherry Turnovers with Mascarpone cheese

2009-07-01T18:47:00.003-04:00

The cherries are here, the cherries are here! Problem with cherries at Harry’s market is that the come in gigantic bags – you can’t buy less than a pound, so what’s a person who lives alone supposed to do? You betcha – bake! This one goes out to @gezjames on Twitter.

This recipe is my own concoction and took some failures to get right! But as our ever lovin’ Julia once said – “The grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes”

1 lb pitted cherries
3 tsp sugar
¼ c Grand Marnier or Cointreau
1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

1½ c mascarpone cheese
2 egg yolks
¼ c sugar

2 sheets puff pastry (I use the frozen kind but thaw it to room temp first!)
Egg wash
Raw sugar for sprinkling over the top before baking

I halved the cherries because they are very large and I didn’t want to make huge turnovers, though you can if you like. Sprinkle sugar over cherries and pour Grand Marnier over – allow to macerate for about 30 minutes.

Mix cornstarch with water to dissolve. Pour cherries into a medium saucepan and add cornstarch mixture over. Heat over medium heat until liquid is bubbly and thickens. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Using a mixer fitted with the whip, beat mascarpone until smooth, add egg yolks and beat until smooth again. Add sugar and continue beating until smooth. It should be thicker than cheesecake batter so it is spreadable.

Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 9 equal squares per sheet. Top with about a Tbsp of the cheese mixture and some of the cherries. The amount you use will really depend upon the size of your tarts. Fold the pastry over the filling on a diagonal and seal the edges well with the eggwash and a fork. It's crucial that you seal them well cause all that yummy goodness inside just wants to get out. It's OK if some does and the Silpat sure makes cleanup easy when it does.

I place them on a Silpat lined baking sheet, brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with some of the raw sugar. If you live in a hot humid climate like I do, put the turnovers into the fridge to chill before baking. Bake in a 425 degree oven until golden brown about 10 minutes.

These taste almost like cherry cheesecake wrapped in puff pastry! Yes, decadent but the tartness of the cherries cuts the richness somewhat. You can also opt for a pie-type crust instead of puff pastry - It will hold up better in a hot humid climate. If you have any of the cherry filling left over, it also makes a fabulous topping for vanilla ice cream! Viva summer!

Black Mission Fig Tarts with Mascarpone Cheese – a taste of summer

2009-06-30T19:24:00.006-04:00

I don’t go in much for sweets though I do love to bake them. These fig tarts are just right for me – not too sweet. The creamy mascarpone filling is perfect against the sweet glazed figs. It’s a little early in the season for figs but when I saw these plump ripe California figs at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market, I had to bring them home with me. One thing I really miss about living in California is the abundance of local produce – artichokes, asparagus, garlic, tomatoes, olives, nuts and tons of fruit!

The recipe is not my own so I can’t publish it here. Usually I do my own recipes but this one from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Pie and Pastry Bible is so good I can’t improve on it. I will give you picks and a description of some of the techniques. I do recommend making this when you can take your time since there are quite a few steps. One variance I made on the recipe was to make individual 4 inch tarts instead of one large one. This recipe made 5 individual tarts for me.

First you start with a sweet nut cookie crust, which is very easy because you can use a food processor for the whole thing! You pulse the nuts and sugar add the butter, pulse some more add the egg yolk and cream and pulse until it holds together. Flatten to a disk and chill. For this dough I prefer to press the crust into the tart pans as opposed to rolling it – this also works better in a humid climate like Atlanta and the results are the same.

You then blind bake the tarts at 375 for 12 minutes.

The filling is a little more complicated in that you need to beat egg yolks, sweet marsala and sugar over a double boiler until tripled in volume. Then it needs to cool. Separately you then beat mascarpone cheese with the egg mixture and set aside. Next you need to beat heavy cream with dissolved gelatin and vanilla and fold into the mascarpone mixture.

Fill the cooled, baked tart shells with the filling and let chill for about an hour before adding sliced figs. Slice the figs lengthwise into about ¼ inch slices and arrange like petals over the top of the tart. I remove the tart pan from the tarts at this point.

The glaze is a simple sugar/lemon/water mixture that is brought to a boil and coated onto the figs with a pastry brush. The glaze adds a little lemony sweetness as well as making the tart look fabulous and preventing the figs from turning brown. Don’t skip the glaze.

These tarts are tasty and you can use lots of different fruits atop if you are not partial to figs. They are showy and delicious - you cold even impress a mother-in-law with these tasty treats! Give 'em a try and let me know how they turned out. If you want the actul recipe, tweet me and I'll share it. Just can't publish a copyrighted recipe - that would just be wrong.

JCT Kitchen and bar, Atlanta – a Review

2009-06-28T17:13:00.004-04:00

Last night at the suggestion of a twitter pal, @GeoDawg, I took my fiance for dinner at the JCT Kitchen and Bar in Atlanta GA on Howell Mill Rd. I must admit to being surprised at first. It is an understated upscale restaurant with top quality food and service. I guess that I expected more down-home southern style.

We were seated downstairs and warmly greeted by our server, Nicole. She is one of the best waitresses I’ve ever had. She recommended a new drink on the menu which was a cucumber martini made with Gin. When it first arrived, it was far too lemony and sour. She stopped by to ask us how it was and while we didn’t complain we told her honestly how it tasted. She immediately went back to the bar to speak with the bartender and came back with another version of the drink, which was bang on what she had originally described. Kudos to Nicole for “fixing” the drink, because after she did, we both thought it was amazing.

My fiance loves mussels so he had the “Angry Mussels” as a starter while I had the crab cake. The mussels were absolutely delicious. Smoky bacon combined with cream and jalepenos made it a decadent dish. The crab cake was crunchy outside – obviously deep fried but the crab was inferior – not at all like the lump crab I had at Ray’s on the River. The spice was great though.

(the angry mussels din't stand a chance!)

For entrees we had the braised short ribs and pork tenderloin. I wanted us to have southern classics. The short ribs were so tender and well marinated that they just fell apart on the fork. The pork tenderloin was perfectly cooked (I asked for medium rare as I hate overcooked pork) It was wrapped in a smoky bacon and served in a sweet and savory sauce of apple and wine. Yum…

I am not a big dessert eater but my dinner companion is. He ordered the rum soaked coconut cake at the recommendation of Nicole. She couldn’t have recommended a more perfect dish for him. It was sweet and sticky – all the things he loves and definitely a southern treat.

All in all, it was a fantastic meal. Service was outstanding – not too in your face but not too obtrusive, even the decaf cappuccino I had was terrific.

We had a hard time finding the place but it is worth the search. The distressed antique looking tables are cool, the décor overall is casual but upscale and the bar upstairs seems like fun with both indoor and outdoor seating. I Love, Love, Love this place and would go back in a heartbeat. If you get to Atlanta it is a must visit. Oh and the JCT stands for junction because there is a train junction right out back – still trains going through, which was also cool!

Veal Chops with Porcini Mushrooms and Port Sauce

2009-06-26T10:43:00.002-04:00

OK PETA members, sign off now. I was close to vegetarian for over 20 years – all I ate in terms of meat was the occasional piece of fish. I guess I’m making up for it now. I know that veal is supposed to be taboo but wow, talk about tender and juicy. I bought two veal rib chops at Whole Foods and wanted to make the best of them. The meat was amazingly tender so I wanted to highlight the meat with accompanying flavors. What better than fresh porcini and vidalia onions? The veal was raised here in GA as were the onions. The porcini were imported from California but I couldn’t resist.

Ingredients:

2 veal chops
4 tbsp butter
2 tsp olive oil
1 large sprig rosemary
2/3 c port wine (Tawny or Ruby)
1 shallot minced
Stems of 6 porcini mushrooms, diced

6 porcini mushrooms, sliced
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced ¼” thick
Olive oil to coat for grilling

This meal is simplicity and complexity of flavors at the same time. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Heat a large skillet over med-high heat and add olive oil and 2 tsp butter to coat. Season veal chops with fresh ground sea salt and black pepper and to pan when butter is melted and pan is hot. Sear the meat on both sides. When searing the meat do not disturb in the pan until the chops can be turned easily. The chops will stick to the pan until the sear is complete. When you have a good crust the chops will turn easily. Baste the top side with the butter and olive oil while the chops are searing.

After searing both sides, place the pan into the hot oven to complete cooking. Meanwhile, brush a grill pan or grill (if you are lucky enough to have one) with olive oil and grill the onions and mushrooms.

When the meat is done to your liking (I prefer medium-rare) using touch method to test doneness, remove pan from oven and remove chops to a plate. Cover with foil and allow to rest at least 10 minutes, preferably 15, while you make the sauce.

(I always put an oven mitt over the handle to remind me that it's hot since I have grabbed more than one hot handle in my lifetime - this simple trick avoids painful burns)

In the hot pan over medium heat on the stove, add shallots and chopped mushroom stems stirring with a wooden spoon. When shallots have sweated through and mushrooms have softened, add port, stirring to scrape up the goodness on the bottom of the pan. Add rosemary and allow the port to reduce until it coats the back of a spoon. Add remaining 1 tsp of butter. Turn off heat and stir butter into port reduction. Pour any accumulated juices from the chops back into the pan and stir well. Discard rosemary and serve atop chops passing any extras in a gravy boat.

Serve chops with onions, mushrooms and sauce atop.

I served this with a mixed green garden salad and grilled Chayote squash. To finish, we had fig tarts with mascarpone and poured a nice Shiraz. The sauce is wonderful, you’ll want to lick the pan but be careful it’s hot. The aromas of porcini, shallots, port and rosemary will make you hungry just smelling it. Don’t skimp on the butter at the end. It adds a rich smooth texture that can’t be beat. If you must use margarine, you need to find another recipe.

That all said - I think it was a hit! Happy cooking!

Peach and Vidalia salad – Georgia at it’s finest

2009-06-22T16:40:00.005-04:00

I’ve been looking at the 100 mile diet challenge and doing some research on where I live; Atlanta Georgia. This would be a simpler place to do the challenge than many places since GA is largely an agrarian state. Georgia is known for peaches and peanuts and historically cotton and tobacco but GA is also home to the US’s largest roaster poultry industry, it raises pork, chicken, dairy, beef and a huge variety of crops. In fact I even found locally produced olive oil and wheat flour.

I’m not ready to jump off into the 100 mile deep-end yet but I’m experimenting. My latest experiment was with a salad comprising locally grown butter lettuce, grilled GA white peaches, sweet Vidalia onions, feta cheese and a Dijon vinaigrette. Sounds strange at first but the flavors complement each other amazingly well.

I started with a local Georgia Vidalia onion and a couple of fresh white flesh peaches I got at Harry’s along with some fresh locally grown butter lettuce. Vidalia onions are not your standards yellow onions, they are sweet and get even sweeter when cooked or roasted. The white peaches are less sweet than the yellow and are great for grilling.

Ingredients:

1 ripe white peach, pitted and cut into quarters
1 Vidalia onion, sliced into ¼ inch thick slices
1 head butter lettuce, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:
¼ c sherry or apple cider vinegar
½ c olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ tsp minced garlic

Preparation:
Start by heating a grill or as in my case – a grill pan, over medium high heat. Brush the peaches and the onions with extra virgin olive oil and place onto a pre-heated grill.
Grill until the peaches have great grill marks and are softened, do the same with the onions.

For the dressing combine all ingredients and whisk well with a wire whisk or a fork. Add the olive oil in a steady stream whisking all the while to form an emulsion.

In a large bowl, combine the torn lettuce with the peaches, onions and dressing (just enough to make the lettuce glisten – don’t overdress) and toss to coat. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese and serve room temperature.

I still haven’t decided to do a “Just Georgia” challenge because I love my spices and condiments but if the bulk of my ingredients are from Georgia, that must count for something?

Ray's on the River – an Engagement Celebration

2009-06-19T12:33:00.009-04:00

I know I got engaged in April but we had his family over that evening and I was on a plane at 6:00AM the following morning. This was the first chance we’ve gotten to go out for a lovely dinner to celebrate. I picked him up at the airport and his flight was a bit delayed, just enough to put us on I75 northbound out of ATL airport at 5:30PM. I have to say that the carpool lanes are great! We zipped by tons of standing traffic to make it home in record time.

I planned a reservation at Ray’s on the Riv er in Atlanta (Sandy Springs for you locals). As you walk in the front door there is a beautiful fountain depicting salmon swimming upstream to spawn. While it is beautiful I am vexed to see how it fits into the Chattahoochee river theme, the banks of which is where Rays is located.

The décor inside is very chic, upscale nautical themed. Not in your face nautical but blue lit porthole shaped opaque windows and a ceiling reminiscent of teak decking. We were seated in the back with floor to ceiling windows that showcase the river view. The tables have crisp white table cloths, comfortable seating and the dining room is designed such that the noise is kept to a minimum.

We started our celebration with a glass of Piper Heidsieck Brut, which they had by the glass – very nice. We then had starters of Mediterranean mussels and fried calamari.

The mussels were tender and the broth was a white wine with smoked garlic, onions and tomatoes. The broth had a heck of a lot of garlic – more than I would ever use. It was tasty but strong. The calamari was big enough to serve 2 or 3 and I wish that the waiter had warned us when we ordered. They were very good though, tender on the inside and crispy batter on the outside. It also included crispy batter fried hot peppers with a spicy marinara dipping sauce. It was very good – in fact I took home the leftovers.

For our entrees we had the parmesan crusted sea scallops on lobster risotto and the crab cakes with creole buerre blanc. I thought that the scallops were cooked perfectly but the parmesan coating was mixed with some sort of breading that to me, detracted from the overall texture, though it was my fiance’s entrée and he loved it. The risotto was good but I’ve had and even made better.

The crab cakes were heaven. The were big lumps of crab meat with no filler. Perfectly seasoned and cooked so that they had a nice crunch on the outside while not being overcooked on the inside. The creole buerre blanc made the dish for me. Some fresh corn and tomatoes and a tangy butter sauce complemented the sweetness of the crab beautifully.

The wait staff was awesome, our waitperson; Adam, showed genuine excitement when I proudly showed off my ring and our news. He brought us a complimentary dessert of chocolate roulade with crème anglaise, raspberry coulis, fresh strawberries, whipped cream and a chocolate inscribed message on the plate which said “Congratulations”. Very nicely done.

I loved Ray’s and highly recommend it. The service is attentive but not overbearing. The staff is knowledgeable about their products and the live soft jazz filtering in from the bar made for a wonderful dining experience overall. They are also famous for their steaks and while we did not try one, they looked divine. If you get to Atlanta – do give it a try, you will not be disappointed. And take the time to walk around the grounds afterwards. It’s a wonderful setting.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some leftovers to attack!

Wild Mushroom Risotto with Gorgonzola Cheese

2009-06-12T08:35:00.005-04:00

I love risotto and yes, it does seem like a weird choice for Atlanta in the summertime. Lemme tell you why. What I have found about Atlanta, is that food spoils very quickly here, even in the fridge. I had planned to cook a veal chop but when I took it out of the fridge after only 2 and a half days it had a suspicious slime. When I brought it up to room temp it had an even more suspicious smell. Thus I opted for risotto.

Risotto starts with a fat round short-grained rice. I use Arborio. It has a high starch content and its short length keeps it from falling apart as you stir it, and stir it you will. The key to risotto is adding hot stock. You’ll need to keep it hot in another saucepan as you cook the rice. It's also very important to coat the risotto with oil and or butter before adding the liquids. Don't skip that step.

Risotto is also very versatile as you can add any vegetable (within reason) or seafood that you like. For this one I’m using morel mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese. The tanginess of the cheese mixes well with the earthy mushrooms and rich creamy risotto. Hungry yet?

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup fresh morel mushrooms, chopped
½ cup Arborio rice
2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
about 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup romano cheese, crumbled
¼ cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

You can also use dried wild mushrooms for this recipe, when I do, I like to rehydrate them in the stock I use to make the risotto as it permeates the mushroom flavor throughout the dish.

First thing you have to do is wash the morels very thoroughly. Put your little mushroom brush away and wash them under cold running water. All those little nooks and crannies are a haven for dirt and insects.

Next thing you need to do is put the stock on to heat. The stock has to be kept at a low simmer throughout the cooking process or your risotto just won’t work.

Now heat 1 Tbsp of butter and add shallots and mushrooms. Saute until shallots are soft. At this point I remove the shallots and mushrooms from the pan since I don’t like my mushrooms to get too soft. We’ll add them back later about halfway through.

Add the rest of the butter and the olive oil to the pan, heating until the butter is melted. Add the rice and toss to coat. Cook for a few minutes until rice is completely coated with the fat and starts to slightly color. Add the wine and stir until absorbed.

Add stock a ladle at a time, stirring until each addition is almost absorbed. The stirring is important because it brings out the starch from the rice, which is what makes it creamy in the end. You also want to add the stock in small increments, which also helps it get smooth and creamy.

Add the mushroom mixture back into the risotto and stir, stir, stir. Continue to add stock a ladle at a time. The best way to determine when it is done is by tasting. You may need to add more or less stock than I call for here but typically figure on a ratio of 1 part rice to 4 parts liquid (including the wine)

When the rice is tender and thick and creamy, add the cheeses and stir until melted and incorporated evenly into the risotto. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. It’s important to note that I don’t add salt until the end in this dish since the constant reduction of stock would intensify the salt flavor making it easy to over salt. Plate the risotto, top with a few snipped chives and serve immediately.

Some risotto recipes will call for the addition of cream or half & half at the end to finish. I have done this in the past as well but truly if you give the dish the time and care it wants it is amply creamy on its own.

Probably not the best dish for a hot summer day, since you are standing over a hot stove for 30 minutes but at least you haven’t heated up the oven. Try this with your favorite vegetables, cooking the separately and adding them at the end – asparagus and fresh peas are two of my favorite combos, shrimp and crab work well too. You can also serve this as a side or a main. I had this as a main and for that it would serve 4 with a nice crispy green salad as a side.

Tuna Puttanesca - ala Karen

2009-06-04T13:27:00.004-04:00

OK this is not the classic Puttanesca sauce that Nana made but I think it’s pretty darned good anyway. This dish combines flavors that I just love – especially combined. I mean you have sweet tomatoes, tangy capers, nutty depth of anchovies (trust me on this), the spice of hot red chili peppers and the salty goodness of olives. What’s not to love?

First off, if you think you don’t like anchovies, think again. In this recipe I use anchovy paste available at most Italian markets, because I can’t use a whole tin of anchovies in any one recipe and I don’t like them smelling up the fridge. It wouldn’t be puttanesca without the anchovies. I also use fresh tomatoes instead of tomato sauce or paste because I like the sweetness of chunky fresh tomatoes.

For the sauce:

2 fresh tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp anchovy paste
½ cup chopped olives (I use a mix of black and green cerignola)
2 tsp drained capers
¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 shallot
Olive oil

Method:
Pour olive oil in sauté pan to coat, adding shallots, anchovy paste and garlic. Stir well and heat gently over medium heat until shallots are softened and garlic begins to color. Add tomatoes and red pepper flake and cook until soft and tomatoes begin to break up. Add olives and capers and cook until everything is heated through. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn to low while you cook the tuna.

For tuna; season both sides with salt and pepper and sear in a well oiled hot sauté pan.

To serve I used polenta that I had made the day before. I made the polenta with garlic chives, put it into a loaf pan to cool and set and then cut it into wedges. Put the wedges under a hot broiler for about 10 minutes. Place seared tuna atop, spoon sauce over all and garnish with a chiffonade of basil.

I prefer this dish with polenta since the polenta soaks up the sauce but you could make it with risotto or pasta just as well. If you make the polenta with skim milk or stock, the entire dish is practically fat free. It’s tasty, filling and oh so satisfying because it is chock full of flavor. Try the sauce on just pasta too for a (nearly) meatless entrée.

Summer on a Plate - Grilled Veggie Stackers

2009-05-31T14:52:00.004-04:00

What is more summer than grilling? I don’t have an outdoor grill as they are prohibited where I live (for now) but that doesn’t take away my need for grilled food to bring in the summer. While I know it’s not technically summer yet, the temperature outside belies that fact. So with top down on the car, I sped off in search of veggies for the grill – OK, OK, it’s a grill pan on the stove but you get the point. I return home with Portabella mushrooms, eggplant, red onion, zucchini, yellow squash and multi-color bell peppers. This is gonna be a feast. You’ll also need some fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar and fresh basil.

To get started pour about a cup and a half of balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan with some fresh basil and simmer until reduced and syrupy – about 20 minutes or so. Be careful not to breathe it in while it simmers since those vinegar fumes will knock you on your can!

Then simply slice up the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and put on an oiled grill or grill pan until they get nice grill marks and are done al-dente. I have to do them in batches so I cover a sheet pan with foil and place it into a 350 degree oven and let the veggies finish in the oven while I do the next batch.

When you are finished grilling all the veggies, build a stack starting with the mushroom on the bottom, stem side up, add grilled onion, squash and a slice of bell pepper, top with a slice of fresh buffalo mozzarella and pop back into the often until it gets all melty. This won’t take more than about 5 minutes. Plate and spoon the strained vinegar reduction atop along with another slice of pepper. I don’t add both peppers before the cheese since they tend to fall over when I do.

I also throw in a few pinenuts and some olives on the side. I’ve done this before, roasting and peeling the peppers instead of grilling, which gives the dish a mix of textures and in season, grilled tomato slices are also fantastic. Last night I wanted fresh and a little crunchy to make it feel like summer and did it ever! I followed it up with some fresh watermelon and a banana popcycle. OK, so I am a kid at heart and what says summer more than a popcycle? Hope you enjoy this fast, easy, healthy and economical dish as much as I do!

Meatballs cooked in tomato sauce – comfort food for the Italian in me

2009-05-24T16:52:00.005-04:00

What do you do when you’re a little Italian woman who’s lonely for her fiancé that is nearly 2000 miles away at the moment? Bingo – comfort cooking! Spaghetti and meatballs doesn’t get more comforting or more fun. Heck, even kids love it. You can slurp in the noodles and spatter sauce all over your face in the process. What’s not fun or comforting about that?

My last post was about meals in a hurry and this one is anything but. I can’t bring myself to purchase tomato sauce in a jar, though I have come to appreciate the convenience of canned crushed tomatoes in the off season. It would seem just wrong to take the time to make meatballs and then toss them into someone else’s sauce. Tomato sauce is so simple to make but it does take time if you want to do it right….ya gotta let it simmer slowly and fill the house with aromas that make your stomach growl hours before it’s even dinnertime.

For the sauce:
½ yellow onion chopped
½ large red bell pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 large cans (16 oz each) crushed tomatoes
3 tsp dried Basil
2 tsp dried Thyme
2 tsp dried Oregano
¼ tsp hot pepper flakes
¼ cup balsamic vinegar

Sauté onions and garlic in a couple of Tbsp of olive oil until onions are softened. Add red peppers and continue to sauté until peppers are fragrant. Add tomatoes, and dried herbs. (I use dried herbs because this will simmer for a long time and fresh herbs lose their flavor quickly. Add them just before serving to brighten up the flavor.) Add the balsamic vinegar and stir well. I add balsamic vinegar instead of sugar because I don’t like the flavor that sugar imparts. Since the sauce will simmer for between 2-3 hours the balsamic sweetens and adds a depth to the sauce. Cover and simmer between 2-3 hours over a very low heat, stirring occasionally. If it gets too thick try adding red wine or V-8 juice to thin. I know the V-8 sounds weird but it really works!

For the meatballs:

For about 2 dozen 1 ½ inch meatballs:

1 pound ground veal
½ pound ground bison
¼ pound ground pork
3 day-old slices of bread soaked in milk
1 cup grated romano cheese
1 egg

Soak bread in milk until it start to fall apart, squeeze excess milk from bread. Mix meats in a large bowl being careful not to overwork the meat. Add one egg and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, add bread and mix well, again, not overworking the meat as it will change the texture. Mix in the cheese and form into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter.

I have tried this recipe both by browning the meatballs in a pan with olive oil and under the broiler. I have found that placing the meatballs on a foil covered pan about 6 inches under a 500 degree broiler works the best for browning them. Turn them over when they get brown on one side. It’s also a heck of a lot easier to clean up! This will brown the outside of the meatballs but not cook them through

I put the sauce into a large sauté pan and then add the meatballs to cook in the sauce for about 20 minutes. Keep the sauce over a low heat so that it just barely bubbles. Remove the meatballs to a bowl, cooking in batches as necessary.

Now you are ready for spaghetti and meatballs, a meatball sandwich or just a bowl of meatballs and sauce! I used Perciatelli because I like thick noodles. After all, if you are getting a pasta fix, you might as well get PASTA!

I used the pork with the bison and veal because both of those meats are so lean that they need a little fat to retain the moisture. Plus the pork adds a different flavor. I don’t really care for these meatballs cooked on their own, it is the final cooking in the sauce that really kicks up the flavor. Don’t skip the cheese either because it adds a mysterious dimension that most people can’t place but notice.

This is truly comfort food at its finest for me. It's raining, I'm by myself and I can splatter all the tomato sauce I like. Just be sure to put on an old T-shirt because it is delightfully messy. If you've got kids, they will love this. It's not high in fat and you can make it even healthier by using whole wheat past if you like (perish the thought). Add a nice glass of chianti and you have Italian bliss. Mange!

Dinner in Under 15 minutes – Pasta and Fresh English Peas

2009-05-20T18:38:00.002-04:00

I love spring and the fresh bounty it brings. I wrote previously about fiddlehead fern and now I’ve got fresh English peas. I have to start with about twice as many peas as I’ll need for a recipe since half of them go into my mouth while I’m shelling them. The other nice thing about fresh veggies is that they take very little cooking time.

For this dish, cooking the pasta takes the longest amount of time so start the pasta water boiling first off. Shell the peas while that water comes to a boil. For two servings I use about 2 cups of fresh shelled peas, one chopped shallot and some fresh snipped tarragon.

Add pasta to boiling water. I used store-bought tagliatelle but you could use shells, fettucini or other favorites.

Melt about a Tbsp of butter in a skillet over medium heat and add shallot, cooking just until softened. Add the peas and toss to coat, cooking for about 3 minutes. Add tarragon and about ¼ cup heavy cream or half & half. I like the heavy cream – OK so I said this was quick, not lo-cal! Shake the pan to coat the peas with the cream and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat off, drain the pasta and toss pasta in the skillet. Adjust seasoning with salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. Plate. You can also add a little shaved parmesan but go easy since the tarragon and peas have such a wonderful flavor.

That’s it. It’s fast, fresh and easy and really tastes like spring in a bowl. I know lots of people that claim to eat fast food or prepared entrees because they don’t have time to cook. This dish disproves that theory. Even cleanup is easy. So the next time you are thinking of ordering out for pizza, check your produce section, stock up on dried pasta and Voila! Dinner in minutes.

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Thyme and Marsala

2009-05-09T18:35:00.005-04:00

I’ve mostly had duck done in the Peking (Beijing) style with a few exceptions so I really wanted to try duck breast at home. Believe it or not, years ago when I was living in SF, I made a Peking duck in the traditional way, hanging the thing by its neck after soaking in herbs and spices, overnight in my kitchen. Yes, it still had a head attached, I bought it in Chinatown. My Chinese friend had taken me to a market that more closely resembled a pet shop than a food market, at least to this westerner.

This time, however, I bought the duck breasts already butchered at whole foods. Duck breast is not cheap, though but there is no waste like there is on a whole duck. For two, this dinner would be about 6 bucks each. Expensive on the surface but not if you compared it to restaurant fare.

So I experimented – I’d never made a duck breast before and wanted to maximize the true duck flavor while adding some flair. The recipe is very simple and very fast to create. Who says you can’t have a gourmet meal in 30 minutes or less. Trust me, you do not have to resort to Rachel Ray.

Simple ingredients:
Duck breast
Some sprigs of thyme
1 tsp butter
½ cup Dry Marsala

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start with a duck breast that is patted dry, skin on and liberally salted and peppered. Leaving the skin on is important. You can remove it and the fat before eating but the fat protects the meat during cooking and the meat doesn’t absorb it so set aside your calorie/fat fears.

Next heat an oven-proof sauté pan over medium-high heat (think of the dial as a compass and set it to SSE) add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the seasoned duck breast skin side down and sear for about 7 minutes. Don’t poke at it or disturb it, when the skin is adequately seared and browned it will release itself from the pan so tongs should be able to pick it up without it sticking to the pan.

Remove the duck from the pan and add a few fresh sprigs of thyme. Turn the duck breast over and place skin-side up atop thyme and place the pan into a preheated 350 degree oven. Roast for about 7 minutes in the oven and remove the pan.

Remove duck to a plate and cover with foil to rest for about 5 minutes while you make the pan sauce. Now I’m a spaz so I often grab for a pan handle even though I know I have just removed it from a hot oven so what I do is to place the oven mitt over the handle of the pan and that way I can grab the handle without 3rd degree burns involved.

Anyway so now you have a hot pan with thyme and hot duck fat – pour the duck fat off leaving less than a tsp in the pan and add about ½ cup marsala wine and place on the burner at medium-high (SSE). Bring to a boil to reduce and then stir in 1 tsp butter (cold), shaking pan to incorporate. Remove thyme branches.

To plate; slice duck breast and pour sauce over and around, reserving leftover sauce for passing at the table.

This dish is really amazing – I loved it. I will tell you to use good sea salt, kinda coarse and more liberally than you might think. I think this would also be great with madiera instead of the marsala but haven't tried that yet. The flavors are simple but accentuate the taste of the duck. You’ll love it, really, I did.

Ode to Spring – Fiddlehead Fern

2009-05-06T18:44:00.002-04:00

Spring comes at different times in different locales and with it a variety of fresh treats for the palate that are only available for a short time. Among my favorites are morels (haven’t seen them yet), English peas and fiddlehead fern. At whole foods this week, I managed to get my hands on some fiddlehead fern.

Fiddlehead fern is indigenous to the northeastern states of the US – New England in particular, where the spring is cool and wet and fosters the growth of all types of fern. This one is a baby fern that has yet to unfurl. Sautéed, it is redolent of asparagus, spinach and artichoke (the leaves, not the hearts). It’s earthy and green tasting and absolutely delicious.

To prepare it you must clean it well. This means soaking and rinsing in very cool water for about an hour, changing the water and rinsing often. Like leeks, they grow in the soil and can be very dirty but you don’t want to be harsh or unfurl them in the cleaning.

You also want to trim the ends of the fern stems so that you don’t have more than a ¼ “ of stem or so.

The next step is to bring a pot of water to the boil, salt and add the fiddlehead ferns to blanch them, you only want to keep them in the pot for about a minute and a half. At this point you want to drain and sauté them immediately or they will start to brown.
I sauté using equal parts butter and extra virgin olive oil, not only to reduce the fat but to raise the smoking point. I also add about a clove of garlic minced. Heat the butter, olive oil and garlic in the pan until the garlic gets fragrant. Then add the fiddlehead, shaking the pan to coat the ferns with the oil.

I like to sauté them on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until they start to brown slightly. Serve them while piping hot and squeeze a little lemon juice over. Don’t forget the salt and pepper either, these have an earthy flavor that really benefit from some good sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Fiddlehead fern don’t store or keep well so cook and eat them the day you bring them home, whether you’ve foraged the forest or the market for them. They look a little strange but the flavor is unique. I do prefer them with fresh morels but couldn’t find them this time. If you are able to find them give them a try and like me, you’ll end up anticipating their arrival at the market every spring!

For now...travel globally - eat locally

Bread for very little Bread

2009-05-01T17:11:00.003-04:00

Who doesn’t like the smell of fresh baked bread? I’m not a huge bread eater and really don’t care for the fluffy white variety, so when I bake bread it has to have a twist and this one does; literally. Bread is so cheap and easy to make that I’m surprised more people don’t do it. I understand that it takes time and forethought but it takes very little active time, especially if you have a mixer with a dough hook. Gone are the days of your mother, huffing and puffing to knead dough on a messily floured countertop. A good KitchenAid stand mixer is only a few hundred bucks and lasts a lifetime. I’ve had mine now for 18 years and it’s still the workhorse it always was.

Fit your mixer with the dough hook attachment.

Ingredients

2 ½ - 3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 packet active dry yeast
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs olive oil
3 tsp cracked black pepper (optional)
1 cup hot water (hot from tap – 110 degrees F)
3 Tbs mixed dried herbs (I used thyme, rosemary and oregano)
1 cup mixed shredded cheese (I used sharp white cheddar and mild yellow cheddar)
1 well greased baking sheet
1 egg white mixed with a little water and beaten

To Make:

To mixing bowl add 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, yeast and olive oil and give it a stir. Add hot water and turn on the mixer at medium speed. Mix for about a minute. With mixer running, add additional flour about ½ cup at a time until dough forms a ball that isn’t sticky. Continue to run mixer for several minutes to knead the dough. (this really makes the job easy!) Turn out dough checking to make sure it is smooth and elastic. If not, plunk it back in the mixer and keep kneading. When done, place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning dough to coat lightly. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rise until doubled in a warm draft-free spot. This should take about an hour. Skip off to catch some FoodTV while you are waiting,

When dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a clean floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 15” x 12”.

The speckles are the pepper – OK so I used more than 3 tsps – sue me.

Next brush the sheet with a tiny bit of olive oil – just enough to make the herbs stick. Sprinkle the herbs evenly across the dough. Then sprinkle the grated cheese over top and roll up jelly-roll style from the long side. The next part is the only tricky part and I apologize for not having photos but I hadn’t actually intended to blog this recipe until I got so many requests on twitter for it.

Using a very sharp knife, split the jelly-roll in half lengthwise leaving about an inch at one end unsliced so that it is still connected. It’s best to do this on the pan you intend to bake it on. Gently cross one side over the other, keeping all the layers facing up. Now repeat with the other side. Keep repeating until the whole loaf is “braided”. Gently form the braid into a circle and squeeze together at the end to secure. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover with a towel and let rise again for about another 45 minutes.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until bread is golden and sounds hollow when thumped. Turn the pan around once during baking in case there are hot spots in your oven.

Try to let is cool without eating for at least 10 minutes – go ahead, try. I dare you.

It’s almost embarrassing to post this recipe because it truly is so simple. The Braiding makes it look spectacular and the pepper and herbs make it taste that way. This is nice served with a tossed salad for lunch or a nice homey cream soup for dinner. Either way, there won’t be much in the way of leftovers. Hope you enjoy it too.

For now remember, travel globally...eat locally

Pizza for Dinner?? - yeah but this ain't Domino's

2009-04-26T02:22:00.013-04:00

This is my ode to fast food - pizza that's anything but fast and worth every floury toss.

I started with fresh homemade mozzarella and what better foil for that than homemade pizza? Personally, I don’t care for deep dish or thick crust pizza. I like a thin crust that is slightly chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Sorry, Chicago, you can keep your pizza. Sorry New York, you can keep yours too. OK so I know they don’t care but I’m taking a stand here.

Good pizza starts with a good sauce. I love a long slow-cooked, chunky tomato sauce for my pasta but for pizza it’s gotta be smooth and a lot fresher tasting than the slow-cooked type. Yes, I do use different sauces for my linguini than for my lasagna than for my pizza. Being that it’s not summer yet and fresh tomatoes still suck, I actually use canned tomatoes for this sauce – I know, please hold the hate mail. The tomatoes are canned when fresh and are really quite nice in a pizza sauce. Fresh herbs garlic and onions add the freshness that makes it.

Sauce:
1 16 oz can whole or diced tomatoes.
½ an onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
Handful of fresh thyme
Fresh chopped parsley – about 3 Tbsp or to taste.
Olive oil

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic until fragrant, add onions and sauté until softened. Add tomatoes and herbs. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium-low. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the sauce starts to thicken. Using a stick blender (immersion blender) blend the sauce until it is smooth. Set aside to cool. ** the sauce must be cooled to room temperature before putting it onto the pizza dough or it will make the dough gooey.

Start the pizza dough when you start the sauce since you’ll need to let it rise for an hour before you can punch it down and work with it. I had traditionally used the standard flour recipe for pizza dough but this week I found a crust that is to die for. I’ll never make the standard flour crust again. Since it’s not my own recipe, like all the others on this blog, I will simply link to it and give you my experience with it. Cheri’s Favorite Pizza Dough

Her tip about very hot water is a good one. I made the dough in a mixer, which does most of the kneading for you – sweeeeeet! I also used a yellow semolina which is a little coarser than fine white semolina and the results were truly fantastic. I also used quick rising yeast but gave it the full hour so it was really bubbly and full of air when I punched it down. I give the dough a few rolls with a rolling pin but then I like to actually toss the dough, pizzeria style. (hey, I’m Italian, it wouldn’t be pizza otherwise!)

For toppings, I used what I had on hand – sliced Japanese eggplane, red & green peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, hot peppers, some leftover ham and I also crisped some pancetta. And, of course, grated parmesan and our fresh grated mozzarella!

So, roll, pull, toss or whatever to get your dough into a round. I divided the dough into 4 and it was enough for about 4 12” pizzas. Except for my friend’s pizza, which defies conventional measurements (and he’s an engineer). Now you know why I do all the cooking – here is his pizza, followed by mine.
Engineering style…

My style….

Since I’m not cooking at home, I don’t have a pizza stone or a paddle here so we needed to make due. Once recommendation I have is lots of cornmeal on your baking surface before laying down the dough – that way it’s guaranteed not to stick. The cornmeal adds a nice crunch too but if you don’t care for it you can always brush it off. I also like to drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the top just before baking. Use a HOT oven. I bake in the lower third of the oven in a preheated 450 degree oven.

The finished product! You’ll notice that the fresh homemade mozzarella cheese doesn’t get as melty and stringy as the kind you are used to. What I found is that if you make the firmer variety (see mozzarella post) and don’t store it in water but put it in a plastic baggy in the fridge for a couple of days, it starts to act less like fresh mozz and more like the melty, stringy stuff you’re probably used to.

As a footnote, we only made 3 pizzas so I had some leftover dough that I put in a plastic bag and stored in the fridge for a couple of days. For dinner tonight, I took the dough and formed it into small thick rounds, brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled herbs over and added the last of the mozzarella along with some grated parmesan and baked it in a 450 degree oven for about 12 minutes – totally awesome use of leftover pizza dough. In fact I highly recommend that the next time you make pizza, save some dough. Leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days, really develops the yeast so you get an amazingly airy yet still chewy and crunchy bread treat!

Check it out!

The long and the short of it is that even foods considered to be fast food, like pizza, can be food of the Gods if handled properly. My Nana used to say; “if it goes into your body it has to be the best”. You can wear cheap clothes, drive a cheap car, live in a dive but the food you put into your body needs to be wonderful, nourishing and uplifting. I hope that some of my food finds its way into your belly and lifts your spirit as it does for me and my pals.

For now...travel globally - eat locally