Roasted fresh figs!

A coworker of mine was kind enough to bring in some fresh figs from her fig tree!  The first time she gave Tom and I them we let them spoil. I vowed to not let that happen again. A few days later she left me some more...but the challenge was that Tom was traveling!  So off to google I go!  My first thought was figs and cheese so just needed to decide how to prepare. I found that figs are very versatile and you can roast, bake, or stuff!  I decided on roast!  I found this recipe.

Roasted Figs Recipe
(serves 2-4)

Ingredients
a dozen fresh figs
1 tablespoon olive oil2 tablespoons honey
freshly ground pepper (optional)
salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F. Trim the stems off the figs and cut in half. Place them in a casserole dish cut side up. Drizzle with honey, olive oil, and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Put in oven and roast for 15-20 minutes. Until soft and starting to caramelize.

I followed the recipe and then served as an appetizer with some of my favorite cheeses!

                                 

Seafood day

I know that you've seen a ton of pictures of oysters and clams on here, yes, we really like to eat them.  This picture was more about the mignonette ... I mixed some sparkling wine with ground ginger to make a surprisingly light and fun mignonette that mixed well with both the briny oysters and the fresh clams.  Might be a little over powering if you're drinking muscadet or champagne, but with an ice-cold martini it was perfect!

For the main course I created a layered dish consisting of sauteed kale, white beans with a tomato sauce and a grilled piece of grouper.  The kale provided a nice consistency underneath the white beans and with the fish, almost like pasta without the extra carbs.

A new take on chilaquiles

I decided to have a little fun with this dinner, starting with an american style dish and then following up with my take on a Mexican classic.

To start, I baked/broiled up a batch of bacon wrapped scallops.  I have found these in the frozen section at Whole Foods, and they are great.  They are packaged with 8 on a cedar plank and you just put them right onto the grill or into the oven.  I have found that allowing them to defrost is preferable because they will cook a little more quickly and therefore not get rubbery ... even frozen though they turn out pretty well.  I served them up with sweet chili and sriracha to provide a sweet and spicy kick.

For the main course I decided to have some fun and put a bit of a spin on a Mexican classic ... Chilaquiles.

To make the sauce I mixed up the following:

1 can Tomato sauce (14.5 oz)
1 can Pato spicy tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 tsp salt
2 corn tortillas (Cut into small strips)

I cooked this over medium heat until it was warm and well mixed together.  I removed from heat and covered.

While the sauce was cooking, I cut 5 corn tortillas into strips and heated up a pan of oil.  I fried the strips in batches until all were crispy and then removed and put on a paper towel to drain off the excess oil.

To plate I divided the fried strips between the two plates and then topped them with a generous portion of the tomato mixture.

Traditional chilaquiles are topped with fried egg or pulled chicken ... I went a little different route here topping mine with: two poached eggs, two strips of fresh mexican cheese (habanero from our local farmers market) and some chopped avocado.  Give this a try and enjoy!

Quick weeknight fish pasta

Some nights just feel like a pasta night ... sometimes it's cold and pasta feels like the thing to warm you up, other times you just need a carb load and occasionally you just don't know what else to do with a nice piece of fish.

For this dinner I cooked up a nice batch of my quick pasta sauce (Pomi crushed tomatoes, garlic, red onion, salt & pepper) while I cooked up a batch of noodles.  I broiled a piece of snapper and cooked up some sauteed asperagus.  Once the fish was done, I plated: first the noodles, then the fish and finally topped with fresh sauce.  Start to finish, 20 minutes ... a great weeknight dinner.

Grilled, roasted and broiled ... that's the recipe for a good dinner

The star of this dinner was a bone in ribeye, but before we got to that I had a couple of starters that I put out there.  I pan roasted some Shishito peppers (a sweet Japanese pepper) with a little bit of olive oil and coarse sea salt.  In addition, Shells had found a mini cantaloupe at the farmers market that was calling out to be wrapped in prosciutto.  I used a melon baller to scoop out the cantaloupe and then cut strips of prosciutto in half and rolled a melon ball in each one.  Yep, the cantaloupe was better with the prosciutto!

In the meantime, I decided to get rolling on the steak.  Despite the fact that I love my steaks rare, with a ribeye you need to cook it a bit more to ensure that the marbling breaks down and imparts all it's flavor to the beef.  I started by letting the steak come to room temperature and then adding it's little black dress (salt and pepper).  I started cooking the steak on the grill over medium high heat ... given that my steak was about 1.5" thick I cooked it for about 6 minutes and then rotated it one quarter turn and cooked it for another 5 minutes.  I flipped the steak over and cooked it for 5 minutes before removing it to a plate and covering it with a light kitchen towel (note that the steak will release juices).

I let the steak rest for about ten minutes (while preheating the broiler, with the grill tray I was planning to cook the steak on inside) and then moved it to the cutting board.

I used a sharp fillet knife to slice the steak into chunks (moving from the bone to the edge) so that the steak remains attached to the bone, but is otherwise in slices.








Once the broiler was preheated, I used a spatula to transfer the steak from the cutting board to the hot tray that I had in the oven while it was preheating.  I added a slab of butter (about 1/4 inch chunk of a butter slab like Plugra ... would be two 1/4 chunks of standard butter) and into the oven it went.


I let the steak cook in the broiler for about 10 minutes until the top had a nice crispy char to it and the butter was completed melted.  I removed the steak from the broiler and put it back on to the cutting board.  I plated the starch (Israeli couscous) and veggies and then sliced off pieces of the steak from the bone and added them to the plating.  The final product looks like this ... enjoy!

An extremely versatile batter bread!

So it seems I'm all about batter bread right now.  As much as I love to make my french baguettes they are very time consuming which is hard to commit to during the summer months!  We started with the corn meal batter bread which was fantastic...but I was looking for something with more flavor.  We had a ton of fresh rosemary so I decided to do a google search for rosemary bread.

I found a recipe sponsored by King Arthur flour (which I personally love for my bread making).  Here is the link to the site with the recipe.  The recipe is listed below as well.

Ingredients
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 cup semolina flour
1/4 cup buttermilk powder
1/4 cup Vermont cheese powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh or dried rosemary, snipped into small pieces
1 cup grated Asiago cheese or sharp cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup for garnish
1/3 cup fresh parsley, cilantro, or green onion, finely chopped
1 cup olives, drained and chopped (black, green, or a combination)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large eggs

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan, or smaller pans of your choice (see tip at right).
2) Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl until well blended.
3) Toss in the cheese, herbs or onion, and olives.
4) In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, oil, and eggs until foamy.
5) Stir the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture.
6) Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup grated cheese.
7) Bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes (30 to 35 for mini loaves), until a tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove it from the oven, and after 10 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool.
Yield: one 9" x 5" loaf.

Fresh Rosemary Goodness

Bread Batter

So I have made this twice so far.  I have still not found Vermont Cheese Powder and have just put in a bit of extra cheese.  At some point I will get some but from what I found on line you could substitute with Mac & Cheese powder.  

For the first loaf I chose, rosemary cheddar cheese, parsley, and green olives.  The second time we decided to test the versatility and only put in rosemary and roasted garlic (roughly chopped).  Both loaves were awesome..the garlic one was especially good and went well for dinner!  

This bread is hearty so would be great for the fall and winter months.  I actually made in 4 small mini loaf pans and it was perfect for storing and sharing with co workers!

Happy Baking!

Finished Product

Finished Product

Fun with Carbs - Batter Bread

Tom is back in town for a while which means he cooks.  Well he decided to play a nice game with me in the food store the other day.  He came up and asked me if I would like grits or cornbread with dinner.  Without thinking I said cornbread and without hestitation he says "great you're making it".  At that point I couldn't take it back :-(.  Cornbread is something I have not tackled yet so I had to start looking up recipes.  We found a few options and made sure we had ingredients.  

When we got home we actually looked on the back of the Beattie's corn meal and found a recipe for batter bread.  Tom thought it would work and I went to work.  

I followed the recipe as directed due to my inexperience with batter bread.  

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups corn meal

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Beat eggs, add buttermilk, then sift into corn meal, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well add boiling water.  

Pour batter into well greased 7 inch Pyrex dish and bake 20 to 25 mins.

When the bread came out we were somewhat concerned it was a bit soft.  However, it sat for a bit prior to dinner and when we served a slice underneath porkchops, mushrooms, with greens it was a great addition to the meal.  

Red Snapper Bake ...

I am going to just start this post off by saying that I went a little bit too far with this one ... sometimes it happens, and it's ok ... so this post is going to be a little bit about what worked, and a bit about what didn't.

I started with a whole red snapper that I had cleaned, deboned and the head removed.  I opened the fish up and put a layer of shredded cheese on either side of the fish followed up a layer of sausage (case removed and made into a thin layer).  I then folded the fish back over.  This is where I started to make a mistake.  Instead of a standard salt crust, I added a number of whole hot peppers to the baking dish and then poured a mix of diced tomatoes and shredded cheese over the fish.

I roasted the fish in the oven for 30 minutes at 425F and then broiled it for 5 minutes at the end to create a crust on the top.  Once I was done I pulled the fish out and realized I had created a number of tasty layers, only one problem, there was a layer of skin in there too.  In order to salvage the dish I gently moved the cheese and tomatoes off to the side and removed the fish.  I opened it up and scooped out the fish and sausage and spooned it onto the plate ... topping it with the cheese and tomato mix.  All in all, not terrible, but I won't be making this specific iteration again.

Taco night ... two different ways

I always try and make taco night fun in our house, and tonight was no different.  Shells came home with some fresh tomatillos and peppers (hot and sweet) from the Farmer's Market and challenged me to figure out what to do with them.

I started off by marinating some skirt steak arrachera style (black pepper and Jugo Magi) and de-shelling and de-veining some large shrimp.  I fired up the grill and then put the peppers and tomatillos (removed from their husks) on the grates.  I turned the peppers and tomatillos every few minutes allowing them to char on the outside.  After they were charred evenly I removed them from the grill and added the skirt steak.  After flipping the skirt steak I added the shrimp to the grill.

While the steak and shrimp were cooking I roughly chopped the tomatillos and added them to one bowl and then the removed the outer skin from the peppers and roughly chopped them, added them to another bowl.  After the shrimp and steak were finished cooking I chopped up the shrimp and added them to the tomatillo mixture ... then I chopped up the steak and added it to the pepper mix.

I served the two meats with chopped avocado and a potato & black bean bake (recipe to be posted at some future point) ... Enjoy!

Scrambled goodies ...

In the US (at least in our house) eggs are often overlooked as a protein at dinner time.  I went out for a happy hour, but when I got home and went to cook dinner I realized that I hadn't planned out a protein for the evening.  I rummaged through the fridge for a bit and came up with a bunch of veggies and five eggs.  I chopped up the veggies (zucchini, yellow squash and yellow onion) and sauteed them on medium high heat for about 8 minutes, agitating frequently.  While the veggies were cooking, I cracked five eggs into a bowl and added a splash of milk, salt and pepper and then used a whisk to mix them.  

The key to good scrambled eggs is a lower heat, constant movement and ensuring they stay moist.  I reduced the heat on the pan to medium, melted about a tbsp of butter and then added the egg mixture.  I used a wooden spoon to stir continuously allowing the eggs to form fluffy curds and then added a little cheese right before spooning them on to the plate.

I topped the eggs with a little hot sauce and we were off and running!

Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash Goodness

Tom is back on the road again so I'm back on as head chef for the week.  I was perusing Pinterest the other day and happened upon a pin of a recipe that I thought was interesting.  I'm a huge fan of spaghetti squash and thought that a twice baked version was such an inventive way to enjoy the squash!

I actually didn't follow the recipe exactly and used more for inspiration.  Click the link to the recipe - Twice baked spaghetti squash recipe

Below are my modifications:

Instead of oven baking (because who has 60-90 minutes on a work night to wait for dinner?) I chose to use the microwave to do the initial cooking of the squash.  I only need a half of the squash so I cut in half, removed the seeds, and placed center side down in a pyrex dish with some water covered with cellophane.  Microwave for 10 minutes until soft.

I decided to use the variation suggestion from the recipe to make the dish as a meal.  While the squash was in the microwave I uncased a chicken sausage and put it in a small sauté with a sliced banana pepper.  I also prepared black beans and rice.

When the squash was prepared I followed directions of removing the squash from the casing with tongs and put into a large bowl with butter.

I then mixed in the sausage and pepper mixture to the squash, added some garlic, pepper, salt and oregano.  I lined the bottom of the squash casing with two spoonfuls of black beans and rice then added my sausage and squash mixture and topped with shredded cheese.

I then put the final product pictured above into a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese melts.  I served with a chopped salad.  This is a very versatile recipe so be creative!

A seafood evening ...

It's been a while since I was able to post ... travel will do that to me.  I've been home for a few days now, so I have a bit of content that I can start posting again.  For this dinner, I decided to have some fun with seafood thinking that it would be a healthy option ... then I fried the first half and covered the second half with cheese ... whoops!

For the first course I made a panko fried shellfish dish.  For Shells I went with 16-20 count shrimp and for myself a softshell crab, both panko crusted and fried!

I served both of them over sweet chili sauce and added a roasted hot chili to the plate.

For the main course I broiled a piece of red snapper and topped it with a slice of mozzarella cheese at the last minute.  I served it with an awesome bean and rice mix as well as some sauteed zucchini squash.

Saffron Rice and White Beans
1 package Saffron rice (5 oz)
1 14.5 oz can cannellini beans
6 large spoonfuls petite diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 roasted red pepper (seeded)
1 1/2 cup veggie stock
Salt & Garlic Pepper to taste

Put the beans (with juice), rice and veggie stock in a saute pan over medium high heat.  Stir often while bringing to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and add the diced roasted red pepper and the tomatoes. Cook, covered, until all of the liquid has been absorbed into the rice. Add the salt and garlic pepper to taste and enjoy!