Burrata, pesto, roasted tomatoes

I've been salivating over Nancy Silverton's Mozza cookbook recently and I have to say that I bought the book because of its cover.  On the cover is a beautiful burrata dish.  I'd not had burrata (cream-filled mozzarella balls) until very recently and while I've read that it's a more recent invention, Wikipedia claims that it's been around since the turn of the last century.  Oh well, I've got a lot of catching up to do!  Here's my modification.


Burrata balls cut into 1/2" thick slices
Pesto (I've been using a store-bought bottled pesto)
Roasted red and yellow grape tomatoes (roast at 350°F for about an hour after tossing with salt and olive oil)
Mint and Basil leaves, sliced


Cut the burrata into slices and plate 2 slices next to each other on small serving plates.  Spread about a Tbs of pesto on the cheese on each plate.  Artfully arrange the roasted tomatoes over the pesto and allow them to tumble off the cheese.  Garnish with thin slices of mint and basil leaves.


I served this for the first time at a party recently and folks were calling for more!

Tilapia with cream and capers

We were all in France recently and Janice's cousins made a delicious monkfish with a green peppercorn cream sauce.  Canned 'fresh' green peppercorns aren't too easy to find around here (we brought some back from France) so I've been playing around with substitutions--capers are fine.  I've also been playing around with a variety of other fish for this recently and just tried tilapia the other night for a party.  THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE WAY TO PREPARE TILPIA--IT IS DELICIOUS.


4 or 5 tilapia fillets, cut into 1.5" lengths, lightly dusted in seasoned flour (flour, pepper, and perhaps some salt)
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs olive oil
8 oz heavy cream
2-3 Tbs capers
extra pepper to taste


Melt the butter in the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Lightly fry the dusted tilapia fillets for about 5 min until they just begin to brown (do not overcook).  Turn down the heat to medium.  Add the cream and fold in the capers.  Cook just until the cream is about to boil.  Remove from heat and serve immediately (crack extra pepper on top if you wish).  Can be served alone or on rice. 


Too many calories, a heap of cholesterol, and wonderful memories of France!   YUM!

Panini!

Just got an indoor grill/panini press; wow!  We've made vegetarian and vegan paninis and hot cubanos: grilled red peppers, grilled zuchini, marinated  artichokes, tapenade with or without cheese.  Also playing around with mustard, smoked salmon, cream cheese.  It's easy to get great looking grilled vegetables (450 for about 8-10 min). 


The rub: our regional nuke has been shut down (San Onofre).  I fear that the carbon free energy produced by that is now coal based.  Wonder if I should be using my gas grill?

asparagus-fennel risotto

I had a bulb of fennel lying around and modified the asparagus risotto recipe that I have in the cookbook by substituting the fennel for the onion.  Last nights was also butter free (but I did add some Parmesan cheese).


The fennel added a subtle extra flavor to the asparagus risotto.  Nice.

New mirin salad dressing

Imagine this.  We just ran out of olive oil.


Oops.


Desperately I looked through the larder for ingredients to make a salad dressing.  How about 1 tsp of dijon mustard, equal parts (about 2-3 Tbs) of mirin and rice vinegar and about 1Tbs of ponzu.  Dressed on an organic spinach and tomato salad.  Yum.

wilted spinach, fennel with rice vinegar and ponzu

Here's an emerging recipe:


Half bulb of fennel, sliced super thin
1 lb spinach
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs rice vinegar
2 Tbs ponzu


Place all ingredients in a large frying pan; saute over medium heat.  When the spinach is wilted, it's done.  5 min for a delicious warm salad!

the limits of Meyer lemons

I've been fixated on Meyer lemons since I first discovered them a number of years ago, and our friends (as I've previously written about in both the book and blog) have the BEST Meyer lemons I've ever had.  Sweet and tart.  Firm and with a beautiful skin.  We were over there the other night and got a 'fresh shipment' that I'm cooking through.  


I think I've just discovered the first thing that they don't enhance.  Pizza.  Just don't try it,  I figured that buffalo mozzarella might, just might be enhanced with the lemons--I was wrong.  Upon baking, the lemons were simply too bitter with the cheese.  Oh well.  Gota try some strange pairings in order to find the ones that work.

Steak with fresh rosemary butter

While one theme of this blog and cookbook is that meat should be viewed as a condiment, if you're going to have meat, eat small,  high quality portions and treat it very, very well.  Last night I was playing around with flavored butters.  I bought very good filet mignon, washed it, dried it, and seasoned it on both sides with a little kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  I covered it and let it warm to room temperature over the next hour.  To cook it, I first seared it on a hot and lightly oiled iron skillet.  After I flipped it over in the pan, I put a tablespoon of butter into which I mixed in fresh rosemary (from our bush--about 5 'stems' worth of rosemary with about 4 Tbs butter).  Then, into the hot 350°F oven went the 2" thick steaks.  About 15 min later they were ready to serve.  Juicy.  Delicious.


The steak was preceded by an herloom tomato pizza, and pan seared scallops.  The steak was served with mushrooms (2 lbs of mushrooms that I sliced and cooked slowly in a large frying pan in about 1/8th cup of olive oil with half an onion (thinly sliced) and cooked down for about 45 min over low heat).  This was followed by a palate cleaning Meyer lemon sorbet and finished with a pear salad (bosque pairs, mixed with organic greens, and a walnut, wine vinegar and jam dressing).

Sushi potatoes with herring

I've modified this from Marcus Samuelsson's inventive Aquavit cookbook.  It's an easy and refreshing appetizer that pairs wonderfully with Aalborg's Jubilaeums Akvavit--a coriander and dill flavored akvavit.  Herring can be a sustainable fishery, and potatoes don't quickly spoil and thus waste is minimized.  Any extra potatoes taste great when mashed with these flavors.


2 lbs yellow (ideally Yukon gold) potatoes
5 tsp rice vinegar
4 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp wasabi powder
2 tsp kosher salt
herring, pickled in wine, rinsed before use 
greens from fresh dill or fresh fennel


Wash and cook the potatoes.  Cool and peel.  Mash the potatoes and mix in the rice vinegar, mustard, wasabi and salt.  Mix well.  Form the seasoned potatoes into little sushi sized balls.  Place a piece of herring over the potato ball and garnish with the greens from fresh dill or fennel.  


Serve with a sip of akvavit.  
Skol!

Angostura bitters and carbonated water

I was tracking down some good aquavit the other day to pair with a potato-herring appetizer I'm making for New Years (see next entry) and found myself in the 'bitters' isle of a really good neighborhood wine/spirits shop.  I'd never purchased bitters before but have been reading a lot about them recently and figured, what the heck, let's try the classic Angostura bitters.


Bitters are aromatic botanicals in an alcohol base.  You only need to use a few dashes.  I'm just starting my exploration of cooking with them, but here's the absolutely most simple recipe you can imagine...just mix with carbonated water (hopefully made with your own machine rather than purchasing bottled water!), ice, and consider adding a squeeze of lime.  Very refreshing.  I've been drinking this all afternoon while cooking!

Mixed nuts

At a holiday party the other night I couldn't keep my hands off these delicious mixed nuts.  Our hostess, Jackie, generously shared her recipe.


2 cups pecans
2 cups walnuts
2 cups almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp red pepper
1/2 tsp salt


Mix well together and spread across a baking sheet.  Heat at 350°F for about 30 minutes.  Stir so that they neither stick nor burn.  Consider adding more pepper and salt to taste.  Serve warm or cold.  

caprese scallops

The other night we had an interesting app at a restaurant...caprese scallops.  


Given that diver scallops are a good seafood alternative, I'm always looking for new ways to eat them.  This wasn't 'magical' but it was good.  My deconstruction of the recipe was:


Slices of heirloom tomatoes, alternated with freshly pan seared scallops (my recipe is in a previous blog post), warm caramelized onions (I would consider adding caramelized fennel to the onions; recipe in the book), and covered with a drizzle of a balsamic reduction (wine and balsamic vinegar, cooked down to a thick syrup in a saucepan).


I'll play around with this in the future, but it's an idea worth sharing...

Ahi with a panko wasabi crust served with coconut jasmine rice

Eating most populations of tuna isn't so sustainable.  Fisheries vary in their population status and harvest methods vary in their direct and indirect impacts (see, for instance NOAA's site).  According to NOAA and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Atlantic pole-caught ahi/big-eye is the fish to look for but most of the ahi/big-eye sold in the US comes from Pacific fisheries, which, if harvested incorrectly (sein nets) isn't sustainable.  Yet, you can't always believe what you read:  thus, an additional problem is knowing, with any certainty, whether or not the labeling is accurate (much is not, as I've written before).  Finally, tuna, particularly ahi/big-eye is high in mercury:  eat at your own risk. 


So, it was with some irony that Janice and I independently looked at some fresh ahi and thought we should get some, particularly since we've not cooked it in years and even try to not to eat it in sushi.  Thus, I wanted to make something new (for me). It turned out pretty well and is festive.  If you know you've got pole-caught, Atlantic ahi/big-eye, enjoy!  Otherwise, consider passing on it.  Either way, eat tuna modestly.


3/4 cup mayonaise
1 Tbs wasabi powder
3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1.25 lbs ahi/big-eye 1" thick tuna steaks (cut into 3 pieces)
black sesame seeds


Mix the mayonaise and wasabi together well, drag the tuna steaks through it, and then pat them onto a plate filled with pakno to create a nice crust on all sides.  Put the well-breaded steaks into a baking dish (I used a metal baking pan with a silicon mat).  Bake at 350°F for 15-20 min (typically you cook about 15 min per inch).


Drizzling sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp wasabi


Mix together, heat in microwave for 30 sec and ensure that it's fully mixed.  Serve with tuna. The wasabi-mayo would also be a good sauce...consider putting some soy in that.




Rice
1 1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 small can (5.6 oz) coconut milk


Cook in a rice cooker with appropriate amount of water mixed with the full can of coconut milk.  Serve sprinkled with seaweed seasoning.

Kale, garlic, and Creole seasoning...

A friend brought over some home-grown kale the other week.  We didn't get to cook it that night, but for a pot luck a few days later, and inspired by a recent meal we had, I decided to make it with potatoes.  I cooked my normal pan fried potatoes with Zatarain's Creole seasoning and was considering mixing the kale with it at the end. However, I needed to make it separately. I tried to keep a similar flavor profile and discovered that the kale, alone, was delicious.  It was delicious served separately.




3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 bunch kale, chopped
Zatarain's Creole seasoning (to taste)


Into a hot wok place the oil and garlic and cook for a minute or so.  Add the kale and toss until it starts to wilt.  Season liberally with the Zatarin's seasoning and serve wilted. 

Mussels with sun dried tomatoes and sake

Some of my best recipes are made from necessity (read:  we're out of food, what can we salvage from the freezer and fridge!).  Here's one we made tonight that turned out pretty well.  


1/2 stick butter (4 Tbs)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (cut into thin slices)
2 Tbs capers (strained and rinsed)
1 lb of mussels (I used frozen, pre-shelled ones that I thawed in cool water)
1 bottle (300 ml) dry sake
1/2 cup chopped Parmigiano-Reggiano
freshly ground black pepper to taste


Saute the garlic in the butter over medium-high heat until the butter melts and begins to bubble.  Add the tomatoes, capers and mussels and mix; saute for a few minutes.  Add the sake, reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook for about about 5-10 min.  Add the cheese and cook for 5 more min until it is well integrated and the entire mixture is a luscious orange.  Sprinkle freshly ground pepper over the sauce, mix and serve over spaghetti.

I find that the sake adds a delicate flavor different from the Chardonay that I usually cook mussels in.  Yum. Enjoy.  Mussels can be sustainably grown and by eating them, we're supporting efforts to control water pollution.

Basil hummus

My friend Paul made a delicious fresh basil hummus and this is my attempt to recreate it.  I think it turned out pretty well.

1 can garbanzo beans (strained and rinsed off with fresh water)

1 Tbs cumin

3 big garlic cloves

several large leafy stems of fresh basil

1/8 cup water

juice of 1 large lemon

1/8 cup olive oil (plus another 1/8^th cup in reserve)

freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

Place all but pepper into a food processor and mix well.  Add more olive oil (up to one more 1/8^th cup) to smooth out the texture.  Grind in black pepper to taste.  If the taste of basil is not strong enough for you, add more fresh basil.  The dish should have a greenish color.

'reversed' pizza

Some friends our ours (who are OUTSTANDING cooks) make pizza a really neat way by baking the dough without any toppings and then create inventive toppings for it. The other night we stood around their kitchen, drank wine, talked, and watched them make a number of them for an impromptu dinner .  The idea is to roll out the dough (they used pre-made/pre-packaged dough that night) and lightly bake it.  The dough was cooked without being browned (essentially they made a flat yeast bread).  Then, they put various mixes of toppings; some cooked, some not.  I can't remember all of them, but ingredients included cooked portobello, goat cheese, buffalo mozzarella, uncooked tomatoes (one of the better was a buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, olive oil, and rocket, served immediately on the warm bread but otherwise uncooked), thin slices of freshly harvested zucchini, toasted pine nuts, rocket, a balsamic reduction, etc.  Really inventive. Some went back into the oven for a quick bout of cheese melting.  


Really good.  I particularly liked the mix of uncooked and cooked toppings put on top of the pre-cooked pizzas).  I'll try more of these.

boned leg of lamb...

I used to live in Australia and cooked a lot of lamb over the years.  I've eaten much less red meat over the past few years and have not cooked lamb for at least five years.  Despite its horrid carbon footprint, lamb is really tasty, it's often organically grown, and often the sheep are not finished on a feed lot.

I had a hankering for some the other day and decided to BBQ it on Sunday.  As a guest said, "this doesn't look like meat as a condiment!".  However, when served with a lot of other veggies, a little bit can go far. We purchased 3.5 lbs of boned lamb and served it to 4 adults and 4 kids and had leftovers for dinner for three tonight.  

Rationalization?  

Perhaps.  But it's certainly better to eat meat occasionally (if you're going to eat meat) than regularly, and this was a special treat.

Here's how I like to cook it.  First, I marinade it for a few hours in the following marinade (these are pretty rough and from memory; I'm not likely to make this again for a while):

cumin powder (about 4 Tbs)

black pepper (about 1 Tbs)

kosher salt (about 2 Tbs)

dried chilies (I used about about 5 1" chiles)

garlic (about 2 Tbs--or about 4-5 cloves)

cloves (about 10)

ginger (2-3" knob, peeled)

soy sauce (about 3 Tbs)

olive oil (about start with about 1/4 but add up to about 1/2 cup)

Mix all of these ingredients with a hand mixer or a small food processor until you've got a liquidy paste.  Add a bit of olive oil if it's too thick; it should pour.  

Bone the lamb (if you're not buying it boned).

Remove fat and connective tissue from the lamb and if not already done, and butterfly it so that its about 1/2" to 3/4" thick throughout.

Hammer it with a meat hammer to flatten the thick parts so as to try to make it a consistent thickness (cooks more evenly that way) and prepare it for the marinade.

Rub the marinade into the lamb and let it sit in the marinade for at least 2-3 hours.

Grill it on a hot grill, turning regularly until the meat puffs up (you'll want to move it and turn it regularly to prevent burning when the oil catches fire).  After about 10 min, move to the side and cook on indirect heat for about 5 more minutes.  Remove and let rest for about 5-10 minutes before cutting. 

Cut into thin slices on a bias and serve warm (it's also good cold on a hot day...).  I bet you could serve 12 people with this as a condiment-sized serving ("a taste of lamb").

Butternut squash Risotto

I was playing around last night and made a delicious risotto.  Here's my best reconstruction...


1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4 inch cubes tossed in olive oil and then baked at 350 F for 15 minutes and broiled for another 10 minutes or so until browned


1 red onion, 1/4 inch dice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups rice (I used Thai)
2 cups white wine (I used a 'too good for cooking' chardonnay)
30 oz vegetable broth
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)


After pre-cooking the squash, saute over medium high heat the onions in olive oil in a wide coverable pot.  When the onions are translucent, add the squash and rice and about half the wine.  Stir until integrated and let sit until the liquid is absorbed.  Start pouring the vegetable broth and stir and let it integrate.  Repeat until all the vegetable broth is used.  The rice should be mostly cooked. 

Depending upon how well done it is, you might need to add some water. When it's almost done, stir in the remaining wine, turn down the heat to low and let it sit covered for about 10 more minutes until you serve it.  Adding the wine at the end adds a wonderful floral finish.  Plate with freshly ground black pepper.   


While this vegan version is delicious, if I'd had some fresh Parmesan I would have considered adding that and/or butter to make it even richer.

fish sauce balsamic vinaigrette

I've been reading The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show.  There are a number of new tricks I've learned, but one's rather simple and I've been experimenting with it for a few weeks now.  Add fish sauce (I use Squid Brand) to vinaigrette dressings and other things that you want to bring out the umami flavor.

Since my basic is a balsamic vinaigrette (typically 1 Tbs of Dijon mustard, 1 minced garlic clove, and then about 2:1 mix of extra virgin olive oil to balsamic), I've been adding 1-2 Tbs of fish sauce to this.  It's delicious and adds another layer of complexity to the dressing.  It's particularly good in a chopped salad burrito where I wrap freshly cooked black beans and either a romaine lettuce and tomato or a spinach and tomato salad dressed with this vinaigrette in a large, pan-warmed flour tortilla.