It's getting cold ... time to start braising things!

Every year as it starts to transition from fall into the ice-age I find myself drifting a little further down the meat counter, away from the nice lean fillets that go on the grill while sitting outside and towards the heavy shanks and osso bucco cuts.

Lamb shanks are one of my favorites because of a solid meat to fat ratio as well as the subtle flavor that develops during the long cooking process.  For this dish, I used a very simple, one pan, approach to cook these shanks.

Braised Lamb Shanks
2 Lamb Shanks
1/2 box Pomi crushed tomatos
1 14.5oz can Cannelloni beans
4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 small yellow onion (chopped)

First things first, preheat your oven to 325F, we're cooking low and slow (so make sure you have a few hours to prep this dish).

Start a braising pan (or a dutch oven or other covered pan that is oven proof and large enough to fit all ingredients) over medium high heat with a little bit of olive oil.

Once the pan is hot, sear the lamb shanks for about 1 minute per side and then remove the pan from the heat.  Add the tomatoes, onions, beans and garlic to the pan (try and aim for a somewhat even distribution).

Cover the pan, place it in the oven and then set your timer for about 2.5 hours.  Once the timer is done, remove from the oven and remove the lid.  At this point the meat should have pulled tight and look like it's falling off the bone.

Use tongs to remove the shanks to a cutting board to sit for a minute.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beans, onions and garlic to the plates and then top with the lamb.  Finally, pour the tomoato sauce from the pan over the top and serve, enjoy!

Bone in pork chops ... this time no brine!

I know that for frequent readers of this blog, it will amaze you that I cooked a pork chop that I didn't brine first, but that's my commitment to you dear readers that I'll change it up so you don't get bored!

For this meal I started with two bone-in, thick cut, pork chops and cut into them from the middle towards the bone.  This allowed me to open them up and have a nice large area for stuffing!  For this dish I decided to go simple and so I went with a blend of peppers for the stuffing and then grilled the chops.

I diced up a couple large pieces of roasted red pepper and one serrano pepper (I kept the seeds to increase the heat but you could go either way with it).  I pressed the red peppers pretty well to get the liquid that they were packed in out, otherwise it will cause them to ooze water when cooking.  If you have a nice cheese that will melt but not ooze too much (a parmesan or something like that) it would make for an interesting addition to the mix.

After stuffing the pork chops I grilled them (remember that the butterflying of them will cause them to cook more quickly), hitting them with a little bit of bbq sauce right at the end to give a little glaze, and then served them with braised greens and oven roasted sweet potato waffle fries.  They came out awesome so I will definitely be trying other combinations like this in the future ... try it yourself and enjoy!

What do you get when you roll up a pizza before cooking it? Calzone time!

I'm back...Tom has assigned me a blog.  Today I will highlight a great pizza dough recipe we just started using.  I believe Tom has mentioned that he bought me a collection of Marc Vetri books for Christmas.  We gave the Romana pizza dough in "Rustic Italian Food" a try on New Year's eve.  We used for a calzone and were very pleased with the results.  Last week I offered to make dough again for Tom and he was happy to put a calzone in the rotation for a week night dinner.

Ingredients

6 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons cold water

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, water and oil in the bowl of  stand mixer.  Mix in yeast (I used active dry yeast which I activated in some water prior to combining).  Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until everything is moist, about 4 minutes, scrap the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and mix until the dough clings to the dough hook, about 4 minutes more.  Add the salt and mix until the dough is very soft and stretchy, another 3 minutes.

Remove from mixer and cut the dough into 6 or 7 equal pieces and roll into balls on an unfloured board.  Sprinkle with some flour, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

When you are ready to use the dough remove the dough and let stand at room tempertaure for 1 hour. We were using for a calzone so I rolled out the dough into a circle ~7-8 inches.  Feel free to make smaller calzones.  

Once rolled out fill with your desired filling.  Suggested fillings: cooked sausage, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, artichokes, etc.  Be creative.

Cook in the oven until golden brown and it sounded hollow when tapped ~15-20 mins.

Picture below is our finished product!

You can freeze remaining balls of dough for a month in an airtight container.

What sort of hash does one serve with fish? Read and see ...

Not everyone finds fish to be as exciting as I do without accompaniments, for my regular readers you will know that Shells falls into this category.  For this dinner I decided to forgo my regular salsa or sauce topper and went with a take on a hash instead.  For this hash I used a potato base with a mix of veggies and, of course, some garlic.  I served it with a piece of broiled red snapper.

Onion & Pepper Hash

2 small yellow potatoes

1 small yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

20 shishito peppers

1 Tbsp olive oil

Chop all of the veggies into bite sized pieces, keep the potato separate and soak in water for 30 minutes, drain and allow to sit in a colander for 30 minutes.  Slice the garlic cloves.  Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium high heat and once hot add your potatoes.  Use a wooden spoon, or spatula, to keep moving the potatoes around for a few minutes or so to prevent them from sticking, after about 10 minutes add the onion and shishito peppers.  Continue to stir and agitate the mix for another 5 minutes and then add the garlic.  Cook for another 5 - 10 minutes (until everything is as browned and done as you'd like) and then serve and enjoy!

There's a reason that everyone prefers to eat at an Italian Grandmother's house!

There's just something about Italian food that makes you feel all warm and happy inside.  Movies will tell you that for Italian chef's "food is love" or that you should "never trust a skinny Italian chef" ... I don't know about all of that, but I do know that when it was cold outside the other day I knew that only a nice filled pasta dish would do.

I thought about stuffing the pasta with the scallops I served for this meal, as well as the other fillings, but figured that might be over-kill for the simple, and classic, taste that I was going for.  The scallops therefore were relegated to the side!

For the filling I started with the traditional cheese base, ricotta, and then decided to add a non-traditional kale to the garlic and peppers.

Kale & Pepper Stuffed Manicotti
6 pieces dried manicotti pasta (cook in salted, boiling water, for 7 minutes then cool on a rack before stuffing)
2 bunches kale
1 large yellow bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic (feel free to add as much more as you'd like)
2 cups ricotta cheese
2-3 cups of pasta sauce (red sauce or vodka sauce; may not use it all)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cook your kale however you prefer, I sauteed/steamed in a large saute pan to allow it to cook down (steamed) then ultimately removed most of the liquid via sauteing.  I diced it and then transferred to a large bowl to cool.  I then diced the pepper and the garlic and sauteed them until the pepper was just soft and then added to the kale.

Once the veggies had cooled to room temperature I added the ricotta and stirred until it was well mixed.  I then stuffed the manicotti with the mixture (don't worry if you have a little filling left over, it will be great in an omlette the next morning) and put them in a single layer in a baking dish.  I covered the manicotti with the sauce (I used vodka sauce for this dish), topped with a little shredded parmesan cheese and then popped it into the oven for about 25 minutes.  Once cooked remove and serve with a spatula, enjoy!

Fancy Mexican Food ... just the thing for one day home in two weeks!

Knowing that I'd be coming home for basically just long enough to shove the contents of my suitcase into the washing machine and then repack ... I wanted something fun for Saturday night dinner.  I also needed to bribe Shells on the laundry aspect since I hadn't been home to cook for two weeks.

I had just eaten some tasty Mexican food in Houston and it had made me want to experiment with a couple of things.  Shells wasn't going to argue, even though I refused to share the menu ahead of time.

For the first course I made a style of "Taco Shop" guacamole which is a mix of tomatillos and avocados with jalapenos, lime juice and cilantro.  I served it with a quesadilla for dipping, but I kept the bowl of guacamole full for each of us all night.

For the next tasting component I served blistered shishito peppers with corse sea salt.  These peppers are a great tasting, mild pepper (I've heard 1 in 10 is hit, but I think it's less than that).

For this next course sauteed a U-10 sea scallop that had been sliced into three even slices.  In between the first two slices I served a thin slice of avocado, in between the second and third was a slice of Cotija cheese that had been lightly grilled.  A splash of "Taco Shop" guac finished off the plate.

For this course I used some extra scallops I had from the prior course and some shrimp that I would be using for the next course to make a quesadilla filling.  I used Oaxaca melting quesadilla cheese as the filler and plated with some thin tomatillo and jalapeno slices.

For the shrimp course (and second to last course in the dinner) I made a slow cooked poblano cream sauce that I served over sauteed shrimp and then topped with queso fresco.

Poblano Cream Sauce
3 poblano peppers
1 cup cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp Oaxaca cheese

Roast the Poblano peppers at 375F until soft and the edges are well browned.  Chop the poblanos into thin strips that are about 1/4" in width and 3/4" in length.  Add them to the cream and whole milk and cook in a heavy pan on the lowest temperature setting.  Allow the mixture to cook for at least 30 minutes (preferably more), whisking occasionally to help it thicken.  Immediately before serving add the cheese and whisk well to mix.

The final course was a take on a dish I have made many times, arrachera.  For this rendition I used a USDA Prime New York strip and marinated it for a short 3 hours in the black pepper and Jugo Magi mix before grilling it.  I cooked it to a nice rare and served it sliced, family style, on a single platter.  Hope this dish brings you some inspiration to try something fun and enjoy!

She Can Finally Make a Lasagna!

So a few weeks back when Tom was not feeling well I made my 3rd attempt at making lasagna.  I can make bread from scratch, build dumplings, and make a mean multilayer cake but you put some noodles, sauce and cheese in front of me I find ways to mess it up!  Don't believe me ask Tom!!!  I was anticipating Tom would be out of the kitchen for a few days and figured a lasagna would be a great meal for us to have for lunches and additional dinners.

I'm happy to say that this time it was a success.  I used a recipe from Bon Appetit.  Click here for recipe.  

Here are a few things I changed and would change in the future for this recipe.

Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage - Whole Foods did not have spicy so I just got the mild.  I added a few flakes of red pepper when sautéing to give a little more spice!  Worked just fine.

Whole Milk Ricotta cheese - I did purchase the whole milk but if I make again I do plan to buy the lower fat version.  I don't think this would change the texture or taste! 

Grated Whole Milk Mozzarella - I went with part skim mozzarella and it worked fine!  Honestly think that in most cases (unless baking) you can substitute a lower fat item when whole is listed.  I tested that concept by only doing one change here.  

Warning: I used my largest non stick skillet which I believe is a 12 inch.  Once I added the tomatoes it was quiet full!  It still worked great but take the request for a large skillet seriously!

Hint:  I suggest preparing your ingredients ahead of time as much as you can.  The timing moves quick and you want to make it as efficient as possible.  Also if you forget to split the parmesan cheese  it still tastes ok :-).

Overall this recipe was relatively easy...the no boil lasagna noodles worked great...just remember to leave time for them to sit in water.  

I definitely plan to try this recipe again.  I will update the blog if I find any new tricks!

Having a little fun with king crab

This post is a bit delayed (it was Shells' birthday dinner in early February), but I figured better late then never.  Some of you may have seen the pictures on Shells' facebook right afterwards, now you can see what all the fun was actually about!

I was walking through Whole Foods trying to figure out what I was going to do for the dinner and was forced to stop in my tracks when I saw the display at the seafood counter that read ... Alaskan King Crab.  Yup, sounds good to me!  I picked up two legs (about 1 lb of crab) and started thinking about the fun things I could do with it.  I had always planned on beef for dinner so I went and grabbed a bit of that as well and then grabbed some veggies and headed off to the kitchen to start getting creative.

Crab bites with avocado cream 

For the first course I decided to do something simple ... I deshelled one of the leg keeping the meat completely intact and then cut it into round slices about 3/4" thick.  I made an avocado puree (using the Vitamix of course!) that was very simple mix of water and a ripe avocado with a little salt and then whipped the puree into a bit of sour cream with a whisk to complete the creamy texture I was looking for.  The actual dish was simple from that point as I sauteed the crab on both flat sides in butter until cooked just through and then served with a bit of the sauce on the plate.

King Crab "confit"

For the second course I decided to combine the remaining solid pieces I had cut off of the crab as well as some of the stringy pieces I had removed from the smaller parts of the shells.  I called this dish King Crab "confit" because it had a similar texture to the chunks and little pieces you would expect to find when eating something like a duck confit leg.  I cooked it up in a saute pan with a little bit of butter and garlic and then added a bit of wine to create a sauce and then I served in a small shallow bowl with a small spoon.

Steak and Crab w/ Baked Potato and Baby Artichoke

For the final savory course of the evening I decided to pair the remaining crab (I only had used about 1/2 of the crab by this point) with the beef and serve it with two of Shells' favorites ... a baked potato and baby artichokes.  I bought baby filets and cooked them in a cast iron skillet before topping them with a mix of chipped king crab and sliced garlic that had been sauteed in butter.  I served the artichokes with drawn butter and the baked potatoes with sour cream and parmesan cheese.

The final course of this dinner was a homemade ice-cream sandwich, we were so full of crab though that we only needed a half.  Hope something here has inspired you, try it and enjoy!

Garlic stuffed pork anyone?

Do you like pork?  Do you like Garlic?  Do you wonder why you haven't put them together yet? If you answered no to all of the questions above, you probably don't need to read on ... otherwise, please do.

For this dinner I had a pork tenderloin and was looking for something fun to do with it.  This was a leadup meal to vacation, so I was serving it simply with rice and roasted veggies, so I really needed the pork to have a kick and make the dish.

I decided that garlic would be the way to go to make this dinner healthy but still have a kick.

Garlic Stuffed Pork
1 pork tenderloin
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
7 cloves of garlic (or the equivalent of garlic paste or pre-minced garlic)
2 tbsp parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)
kitchen twine
salt and pepper mix

Preheat oven to 375F.  Remove the skin from the garlic and slice thinly (skip this step if using paste or pre-minced).  Use a sharp knife to cut a slit, lengthwise, starting and ending about 1/2" from either end.  The slit should be about halfway deep into the pork.  Spread the mustard evenly into the slit that you have cut.  Layer the garlic slices (or mince/paste) into the slit that you cut, filling it evenly.  Top the garlic with the parmesan cheese, again filling evenly.  Use the kitchen twine to tie the pork back together (between 4 and 5 pieces most likely), keeping the slit to the top.  Put the pork into a roasting pan with a rack, sprinkle the top with salt and pepper mix and then into the oven it goes.  The pork should cook for between 30 and 45 minutes (or until a meat thermometer registers 160F) depending on the size of your tenderloin.  I prefer to cook mine covered, but if you like the outside a little crispy you can cook it uncovered, however you risk drying the pork out a bit.  Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes, slice & Enjoy!

Comfort Food = Meatballs

It was a dark and cold sunday and Shells & I were looking for something warming to make the day feel better.  I really just wanted to spend the day in chef pants and a sweatshirt on the couch, so I tried to come up with something that would meet both requirements.

I wandered around Whole Foods looking for inspiration and when I saw the huge line at the meat counter I decided to see what was in the packaged case.  I saw the packages of ground meats and that made my decision for me ... I grabbed a 1 lb package of ground pork and a 1 lb package of ground veal.

Now that I had my main course figured out, I worked my way back through the store filling out the remainder of what I would need: white beans, asiago cheese, pancetta, Pomi strained tomatoes, garlic cloves, red onion and brussels sprouts.

I got home and put on the before mentioned chef pants and a chef coat (the sweatshirt would come once this first part was done), put down a cutting board and grabbed my favorite knife.  I finely diced the red onion and cut the garlic cloves into slices and then tossed them into a sauce pot that I had heated over medium-high heat with olive oil.  I cooked the onion and garlic until lightly browned and then reduced the heat and added the tomatoes and some salt, pepper, dried basil and crushed red pepper.

I put a cup of white beans in a pot with three cups of water and then brought it to a boil.  I had to do this because I hadn't made the decision to cook this in time to soak them overnight.  Once it reached the boil I reduced the heat.

I left the sauce and beans, covered, on the lowest heat settings and just let them cook for a few hours while I donned the sweatshirt and retired to the couch.

I would eventually get back up off the couch to make the meatballs (pork, veal, bread crumbs, grated asiago cheese, eggs and seasoning) and after cooking them I served them over a bed of white beans, topped with sauce and accompanied by pan roasted brussels sprouts w/ pancetta.  Shells prefers hers ordered on a plate (pictured above) while I enjoyed mine all mixed together in a bowl (below) ... try it either way and enjoy!