If brined pork is so good then why not brined ... ???

As I've written about previously, I have been having a bit of a love affair with brined pork this winter ... well, I figured if pork was so good when brined, other things must be too.  I have been having dreams (and if you find this sad you can just stop reading right now) about brined ribs and and brined skirt steak ... but I thought I would start a little lighter and go with brined chicken tonight.

Following a similar method I've been using on pork, I sealed the chicken breasts in a ziploc bag with pickle juice for about 24 hours before cooking them.  I grilled the chicken, finishing it off with a quick glaze, and caramelization, of some bar-b-que sauce to add a little sweet to offset the savory.

I served the chicken with sauteed greens and mushrooms, hand cut baked potato chips and salad.

Lately it's been corporate by day & night ...

The last few days have been pretty hectic getting ready for a workout next week, so while that has not prevented me from cooking, it has put a damper on my posting ability.  This is going to be a bit of a quick post, but I thought I'd catch up on the last couple of nights' dinners while I have a few minutes between meetings.

Tuesday night I decided to try something a little new, a buffalo flat iron steak.  I marinated it in Stubs Steakhouse Marinade overnight and then grilled it.

I served the steak sliced over black beans and rice and topped it with grilled red onion and sliced avocado.  I served a salad on the side.

Wednesday night we went back to an old favorite ... stuffed peppers.  Usually I don't break this dish out until the farmer's market opens and I can go get nice big local sweet & spicy peppers, but I decided to use some bell peppers to make this work instead.

For the stuffing I mixed in some of the leftover rice and beans from the night before with de-cased cilantro chicken sausages and some shredded cheese.  I topped & deseeded the peppers, stuffed with the mixture and then baked them on 425F for about 40 minutes, turning a few times to make sure that all sides blistered a bit.  With about 5 minutes to go I put some shredded cheese on top of each and let it melt.  I topped the peppers with avocado salsa & served with quesadillas and salad.

Quick avocado salsa

1 avocado (medium)

15 cherry tomatoes

1/2 lime

1/2 red onion (small)

1 hot pepper

I rough chopped all ingredients but the lime and added to a tupperware container, squeezing the lime juice over.  A good shake of the container mixed the ingredients and then I let sit in the fridge while I cooked dinner.  One more shake to ensure everything was mixed well and it was ready to go.

It's a grouper sort of night ...

Tonight just felt like a good night for a nice easy dinner ... and I had a nice fresh piece of grouper ... and so that's what I went with.  Tonight I was once again punished by my lack of purchasing propane and so I had to broil this piece of fish instead of grilling it.  No worries, it turned out awesome anyways.

To go with this very basic fish (I added a little seasoning and put it right under the broiler for about 15 minutes) I went with white beans with bacon & kale.  Canned white beans mixed with whatever make for a very simple, yet tasty side dish.  I added a salad and a roll to finish this mean off.

White Beans w/ Bacon & Kale
1 14.5 oz can white beans (cannelloni beans)
1 bunch kale (de-stemmed and rough chopped)
3 pieces bacon (I used Whole Foods habanero bacon)
1 cup beef stock (I used Kitchen Basics)

Put white beans, bacon, kale & stock in to a 3 qt (or larger) pot.  Cook on medium low heat, stirring often, until liquid has cooked down to a thick sauce (approx. 45 minutes).  If dinner lags behind, add a little beef stock every so often and continue to cook down (however doing this will cause the beans to go from crisp and creamy to soft and mushy).

Starting the week off right ...

My trip to Whole Foods today yielded a host of inspiration ... at least that's what I am calling it.  The other way to think about it would be to admit that I went to the store hungry ... whoops!  Never the less, I've figured out how to make something out of everything I came home with and written up this week's menu ...

Tonight just felt like a good steakhouse sort of night ... and what better way to kick that off than Raw Bar style.  So I got out my oyster knife and sanitized my new clam knife (Shells decided to buy me one so that I stopped having an excuse for only doing oysters).

Tonight's Raw Bar featured a large Cherrystone clam and two Choptank Sweets oysters.  Shells had hers with a clump of horseradish, I had mine plain ... both of us enjoyed a nice 2009 white Burgundy with the shellfish.

Following beyond the Raw Bar came the main course ... tonight I lead off with local grass fed, aged NY Strip.  I seasoned the strip with some truffle salt and garlic pepper and then broiled it (I bailed on going to get propane for the grill today, despite the fact that today would have been a perfect grill day).  In addition to the steak I did sauteed broccoli & onion as well as smashed potatoes & onions (roasted potato, roasted onion, cheese, bacon).

A 24 hour break from cooking for Tom

Tom was able to enjoy almost a day without cooking for us this weekend.  This is pretty rare since we tend to enjoy being home and don't regularly head out for meals other than some brunch/lunch outings.

Friday Night - Pesce & Vino (Three Chopt Rd - West End)
Tom and I have been meeting for a martini at Patina Grill after work on Fridays but due to a vet appointment for our dog Lexus that was not possible this week.  We decided to scrap our Chinese takeout plans and head out for dinner.  We voted on staying close to home and trying a new place.  Pesce & Vino is a relatively new place that focuses on Italian fare with an emphasis on seafood.  The yelp and open table reviews showed some promise so we went for it.  The restaurant is not large and it pretty much one large room with ~55 seats.  We got there around 7 and the place was pretty much at capacity.  It took a few mins for someone to seat us as the hostess was helping out with tables as well.  Some of the reviews noted that dinner could take awhile so we were prepared and honestly that normally doesn't bother us..assuming we have a glass of wine or drink while we wait :-).  As soon as I sat down I knew we were going to have a wait as I noticed a large table of 10 in the restaurant and only 2 waiters.  Our waiter was very nice and tried his best but I feel like they are still working out the kinks of being new and how to run the restaurant efficiently. So let's just get to the food...to start Tom and I decided to share two appetizers; Clams Casino and Spicy Shrimp.

Clams Casino

Spicy Shrimp

The spicy shrimp were good they were not too spicy and had a nice flavor.  As you can see both dishes only came with 5 of each item which made it a bit uneven for a table of 2 to split.  Clams casino is one of my favorites and I was slightly disappointed to find that the majority of the filling for the clams were bread crumbs.  Overall, the appetizers were good however, I would have liked to see a little less bread filling in the clams.

Next up, entrees.  Tom chose calamari stuffed with crab and I went with linguine with lump crab meat, prosciutto, and walnuts.

Linguine with lump crab, prosciutto, and walnuts 

Calamari stuffed with crab

  I thought my meal was very good.  The portions were large so i focused on not eating all the pasta (which for me is tough) and eat all the goodies.  I had never had walnuts in a pasta before and I thought it was very good and different to have a bit of crunch as you enjoyed the pasta.  Tom enjoyed his calamari however he was slightly disappointed in the crab filling.  He thought it would be just lump crab meat but it seemed to mixed with additional ingredients (which we couldn't figure out what).

Overall, we were pleased with our meal.  I don't think we will be rushing back there but I would definitely keep up with reviews of the place to see how they dealing with their growing pains.

Saturday morning - Toast (Patterson - Near U of R)
Tom and I already had plans to go to VMFA on Saturday afternoon which was definitely my suggestion :-). While we were at dinner on Friday Tom asked if I wanted to go to Toast for a bloody mary and light brunch before we go to VMFA and Amuse.  He would then be able to watch his Barcelona Soccer Game.  He had me at bloody mary.  We love Toast!  We have been going there for a while now primarily on the weekends for brunch/lunch.  We tend to sit at the bar...there is usually never a wait...and we can watch the TV for whatever sports game we are there to watch.  They have great mimosas and bloody mary's as well as impressive beer selection (for Tom).  As we were deciding on how much food we were going to eat here vs. Amuse later we decided to start with one of our favorite appetizers.  Fried jalapeno's and pickles.   They come in a small tin bucket and are delicious and always hot!  The sauce it comes with is fantastic as well.  As we enjoyed those we decided we would have a meal at Toast versus more snacks.  I went with something I haven't had there and tried there 3x3 omelet.  You get to choose three ingredients and have option for egg whites for $1 extra.  It comes with toast and awesome hash browns!  I chose cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and avocado.  It was good but my cheese wasn't all melted and I probably would have enjoyed some chorizo instead of tomato!  Something to know for next time.  Tom went with Huevos Rancheros with eggs over easy.   That is one of our favorites on the brunch menu.  It comes with two corn tostadas, black beans, eggs, guacamole,salsa and cheese.  We had a great brunch unfortunately Barcelona lost.

Huevos Rancheros

 Amuse at VMFA - Boulevard
After Toast we headed straight down to VMFA.  I wanted to check out the last Hollywood Costume exhibit of celebrity photography before it closed.  To get Tom excited to go I suggested we go to Amuse for a cocktail and snacks after..as an added bonus he was able to get the reservation on Open Table and get a 1,000 point bonus!  We walked around most of the museum and headed to Amuse about 15 mins early.  They had no problem seating us.  Amuse currently has a themed cocktail menu focusing around the Hollywood Costume Exhibit.  We were told that was changing in the next few weeks.  First up, drink choices.  I went with the Ruby Slipper which was a sparkling wine with Creme de Cassis and candied lemon.  Creme de Cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur that is pretty sweet.  It pairs phenomenally well with sparkling wine. Tom went with a Vesper.  They still had the lunch menu while we were there but due to our large brunch we went with two small appetizers while we enjoyed our drinks.  We chose the fried oysters and the cheese plate.


The Rappahannock Curry-Fried Oysters are served over cucumber-mint raita & garnished with pickled veggies.  I'm not one for curry but the waitress told me that it was light and I shouldn't notice it.  Unfortunately, I seem to be pretty sensitive to curry and I did notice it.  Even with that the breading and the oysters were well done and I know Tom definitely enjoyed.

The cheese plate came with 3 cow's milk cheeses.  All of which were delicious.  There was also fruit, honey and apricot preserves.

Our choices were spot on for a nice snack after walking around the museum.  Tom and I recently became members of the museum and definitely see ourselves heading down there in the spring/summer to enjoy the beautiful patio during their happy hour.

Well, that concludes our 24 hours of restaurant adventures.  Now it is time for Tom to get back in the kitchen.  No more time off for him for another week!

Bon Appetit!

Time to cook again ...

After three straight restaurant meals it was finally time for me to cook again ... and I was ready to do it.  I love eating out, but it just always seems to be so much heavier and filling then when I cook something at home ... even when whatever I'm cooking at home is a heavy dish.

Stopping at Fresh Market I grabbed a nice looking piece of red snapper ... now I just needed to figure out what to do with it.  With only a few more cold days (here's hoping) left before spring/summer starts up and the heat returns to Richmond I went with something a little bit of a combination between heavy and light.  I call this dish spicy prosciutto snapper w/ avocado and I served it over hand cut baked waffle fries and a vegetable sautee of snap peas and mushrooms.

Spicy Prosciutto Snapper w/ Avocado ... hand
cut baked fries & sauteed vegetables

Spicy Prosciutto Snapper w/ Avocado - Serves 2
3/4 lb Red Snapper
4 slices Prosciutto
1 8oz can "El Pato" mexican spicy tomato sauce (I buy it at Kroger)
1 avocado
8 slices cheddar cheese (approx 2 oz from an 8 oz block)
Olive Oil
Garlic Pepper
Lawry's Season Salt

I cut the snapper into two pieces and seasoned lightly with garlic pepper & Lawry's seasoning salt.  A little bit of olive oil on top and into the broiler it went.  I broiled the fish for about 10 minutes to allow it to get about halfway cooked and then pulled it out, switching the oven to 425F.  I put four slices of cheese on top of each piece of fish, and then a slice of prosciutto.  I poured about 3/4 of the can of spicy tomato sauce over the top and returned to oven to 5 minutes.  Put a pan with olive oil on medium heat. After five minutes, switch oven back to broil.

While the fish is broiling, cut an avocado into 8 slices (see a tutorial here) and cut two slices of prosciutto in half (long-ways).  Wrap four of the avocado slices with prosciutto and flash fry them in the oil (about 30 seconds per side).  After five minutes under the broiler, remove the fish from the oven, plate and top with four slices of avocado ... two of the flash fried and two plain, alternating.  I recommend drizzling the extra sauce over to fries and fish (before adding the avocado).

Avocado Training ... create perfect slices & cubes

Cutting avocados is one of those things that seems daunting to many people, and I would have agreed until I learned these tricks.  I've tried to use pictures to demonstrate the technique, let me know if video would be preferable.

First, use a sharp knife to cut the avocado in half down to the pit.  I usually start at the stem part (remove the stem) and work around in a circle from there.

BE CAREFUL WITH THIS PART: Holding the avocado side with the pit in it, hit the knife blade into the pit so that it goes in a little bit and then twist the knife so that the pit loosens.

The pit should pop right out, still attached to the knife blade.  Remove the pit from the knife and throw away.

BE CAREFUL WITH THIS PART: Using the knife, cut in through the avocado flesh down to the skin to create slices (I find it easier to do while holding the avocado in my hand, but be careful not to cut yourself if the knife punctures the skin).

OPTIONAL: If you want cubes, after cutting the first set of slices, cut slices in the opposite direction to form the cubes.

Using a spoon, slide in between the flesh of the avocado and the skin, working gently around the outside and under the flesh to separate from the skin.

When completed, you should have a shell of skin that looks like this, and perfect avocado slices or cubes.

Quesadillas for everyone

Some days you sleep in, don't have time to escape at lunch and get to 6.15 with absolutely no desire to go to the gym that late in the day ... other times you realize you just need to get a few miles in.  So 3 miles later, it was 7.00 by the time I got home.  Queue up simple dinner option number 1 .. quesadillas!

Tonight I did a quesadilla stuffing of Cilantro chicken sausage and a mixture of sautéed sweet & hot peppers.  I topped them off with some avocado salsa and served it on top of rice and beans.  It's taken me a while to figure out the best way to do quesadillas, but I've finally figured it out and am ready to share.  The secret is a cast iron pan ... yep, that simple.  Put the pan on a medium low heat, and let it warm up.  Combine your filling ... meat, cheese, etc and fold over.  With a medium sized pan you should be able to do two of these guys at a time.  No oil, butter, or anything else is needed ... though I do recommend a nice thin metal spatula to help flip them.  I recommend flipping every 2 minutes or so to allow both sides to heat, melt and cook ... when done your tortillas should have a nice crispy brown outside.  This method works wonders with both corn and flour tortillas.

As an aside, I often do about 30 - 45 seconds per side with corn tortillas before putting them in a tortilla warmer for tacos ... gives them more of that restaurant quality than the normal chewy taste you get from store bought corn tortillas.

A nice cold weather meal, in the hopes that the cold will be gone soon ...

Mmmm, on a nice cold day there is very little that is more filling and just really makes you feel better than a nice Southern style meal.  Having grown up in the South I have an appreciation for all things comfort food and tonight just felt like a comfort food night.

I started with grilled, pickle brined pork and greens ... but the real winner tonight was the Shiitake white beans that it was all based on.

Shiitake White Beans
1 can (14.5 oz) cannellini beans
1 cup beef stock (I used low sodium Kitchen Basics)
8 large Shiitake mushrooms (rough chopped)
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 pinch salt
1 pinch Lawry's

Put all ingredients into a 3 qt sauce pan (stir together well) over medium low heat.  Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When the remainder of dinner is within 10-15 minutes ... raise heat to medium high, stirring frequently, until liquid is almost entirely evaporated.  Stir and enjoy!

Snow day, fun day ...

As I mentioned in my last post ... people in Richmond get a little crazy when it snows out.  So when we got about 1/4" of ice and 3 inches of snow I naturally decided that the prudent thing to do would be go to the office.  Actually, ... I wish I could say I was kidding, but I did have to go to the office for a Telepresence.

I digress ...

While doing my pre-snow shopping yesterday, I saw some fantastic looking whole yellowtail snapper ... so I bought one.  I got the baby of the bunch, about 2.5 pounds, which when cleaned and filleted yielded about two dinners worth for us.  In order to make sure the second half was still good for tomorrow, I am marinating half for tomorrow's tacos.  Tonight therefore I went with something a little different.  I did the fish pan-seared with accompaniments (sautéed onion, avocado) served with: fennel mash, roasted asparagus & sweet peppers and salad.

Fennel mash is a great substitute for potatoes when you want something a little lighter to go with fish ... it takes a little longer to prepare given the roasting time, but is incredibly simple to execute.

Fennel Mash
1 fennel bulb (cut off the shoots and save the leaves to use for anything else you want to put fennel on)
1/4 cup shredded cheese (I used 6 cheese Italian blend)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard (I prefer Maile)
Pinch each of salt, pepper & Lawry's seasoning

Preheat oven to 350F.  Clean fennel bulb, trim off root end and then slice downwards from top towards root end through the long side.  Put the two halves in a roasting pan, put one tsp of olive oil on each half and then sprinkle with the seasonings.  Cook the fennel for about 45 minutes, until soft (may take a bit longer depending on the size of the bulb).  Once soft, put the fennel in a mixing bowl and mash (preferably with a potato masher, but a strong spoon will work too).  If a large amount of liquid has released from the fennel, you can dab with some paper towels to absorb a bit of it.  Once mashed, add the remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Plate, and enjoy.

Sunday night, snow is coming

I have decided that there are two mentalities in Richmond when snow is imminent ...

Mentality 1 (Everyone in Richmond who is not me): OMG, the sky is quite literally falling ... get out of my way slow person, I need to get to Martin's and buy enough sliced bread and milk to feed the small army that I appear to have hunkered down at my house to wait out the snow.

Mentality 2 (Me): Oooh, snow ... well, guess I'm going to be at the house for a bit, seems like the perfect opportunity to try out something new that I've been thinking about for a while.  Let's go see what sort of fun things Whole Foods has that everyone is ignoring since they're all buying sliced bread and milk.  Oysters?  Well you can't have dry aged NY Strip without some of those to start ... Whole yellowtail snapper?  Yes please ...

Because of these divergent mentalities, tonight's dinner does not feature either milk (I did put a splash in the potatoes, but that's only because we had it on hand) or sliced bread.

Choptank Sweets oysters on the halfshell
Horseradish optional

The main course tonight was broiled dry aged NY Strip over shiitake & pepper mashers with sauteed asparagus and salad.

Dry aged NY Strip w/ Asparagus and Shiitake & Pepper Mashers

Shiitake & Pepper Mashers
3 medium/small red potatoes
3 small sweet peppers
7-8 large shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp milk (a little more can be used if you prefer them more creamy)
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup cheese (I prefer Italian 6 cheese blend)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Wrap potatoes in aluminium foil with a light coating of olive oil and salt, cook on 425F for about 45 minutes (or until soft).  Remove the seeds from the peppers, chop peppers & rough chop mushrooms.  After 30 minutes on the potatoes, heat a sautee pan with a little oil to medium high heat until oil runs smoothly.  Add the mushrooms and peppers, cooking until the mushrooms release and then reabsorb their water.

Once potatoes are soft, transfer to a mixing bowl and mash (skin and all) using a potato masher or a sturdy spoon (I prefer wooden).  Add the milk, cheese, mustard and pepper & mushroom mixture, stirring it all to blend.  If you want the potatoes to be creamier add a bit more milk (a little at a time to the consistency you prefer).  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Plate and enjoy!

Saturday night before the first soccer game of the season

I love Saturdays because they're a time that I can sit back and enjoy cooking things that I would otherwise not have time to do on a weeknight.  For this one, it wasn't too hard, or time consuming ... but I have to admit, I'm a big fan of carb loading before soccer games (or long runs) and since Shells is a fan of carb loading pretty much anytime ... this dinner was always going to go over pretty well.

I took the approach that if one protein is good, two must be better, so I added some broiled Black Grouper to this dish.  You can choose whether there is anything you'd like to add, or if you want to just go with the base recipe here.

Noodles with Sausage Sauce
1 small yellow onion
1 large yellow bell pepper
2 Italian sausages (I used Whole Foods Tuscan Pork) (about 2/3 lb)
1 can (14.5 oz) Petite Diced
1 can (8 oz) Tomato Sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp garlic pepper
7 large Shiitake mushrooms

Dice the onion and bell pepper, rough chop the shiitake mushrooms.  Remove the casing from the sausage and add to a 3 qt sauce pan over medium heat with a splash of Olive Oil.  Using a wooden spoon, break up the sausage as it cooks.  After about 5 minutes add the onion and bell pepper, continue stirring as they cook (if things start sticking to your pan, a splash of white wine will deglaze the pan and free the food).  Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, crushed red pepper & half of garlic pepper reduce heat to a simmer.  In a separate saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat ... once oil is running clear add the Shiitake mushrooms and the remaining garlic pepper.  Agitate the mushrooms repeatedly while waiting for the liquid to release and then re-enter the mushrooms.  Once the liquid has come back in the mushrooms, add to the sauce ...

At this point the sauce is ready to go, just add your favorite pasta, maybe a little cheese, and enjoy!