Make your own Mojo!

Continuing along the recent trend of using my Vitamix for everything, I used it yet again for this dinner to make a mojo style marinade.  I must pause here for a disclaimer, I do not actually know all of the ingredients that go into a real mojo, this was really just my take on it.

I used this marinade on a combination of pork cuts and then served it with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts w/ pancetta.  As a side note, this marinade is really tasty with the pork but I wouldn't recommend serving more than a little bit of it as a sauce (e.g. what I did on the plate here).

Pork with Mojo Marinade (note that you need to do this the day ahead)

1 lb pork tenderloin

1 lb pork belly

2 large oranges

1 lime

1 head garlic

1/3 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp dried oregano

1 jalapeno (seeded)

1 Tbsp cilantro

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

In your Vitamix (or blender/food processor if you haven't yet been convinced to buy a Vitamix) combine the cloves from the head of garlic (remove the papery outer skin), jalapeno, cilantro, salt, pepper, oil and the juice from the oranges and lime.  Blend until smooth.

Put the pork into an airtight container and pour in the marinade.  Seal and shake to coat the pork.  Marinate the pork overnight, shaking again in the morning to ensure that the pork stays evenly coated.

Allow the pork to come to room temperature and preheat the oven to 350F. Wrap the pork loosely in foil and slow roast in the oven for 2 hours.  Remove the pork from the oven and raise the temperature to 425F.  Remove the pork pieces from the foil and transfer to a cutting board.  Cut the pork into chunks and transfer to an oven proof dish.  Into the oven with it for 15-20 minutes or until the edges get nice and crispy.

Remove the pork from the oven, plate with whatever you're serving it with and enjoy!

Flank Steak with Blistered Tomatillo Salsa

For the longest time I did not think I liked tomatillos, and not because I didn't like the taste.  They're annoying because you have to take the shell off of them, and they're sticky.  Great reasons, right?

Well, luckily, I've been forcing myself to get over this and do some cooking with them recently which has lead to some pretty awesome results.  For this dinner I wanted something with a bit of heat and flavor to go with strip steak so I fired up the oven to make a Blistered Tomatillo Salsa.

Blistered Tomatillo Salsa
10 tomatillos (husks removed)
8 cloves garlic (add less if you don't have a garlic obsession like me, add more if you are afraid of vampires)
1/2 small yellow onion (peeled and halved)
2 serrano peppers
1 lime
1 avocado
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.  Put the tomatillos, garlic, onion and peppers on a tray and into the oven they go.  They will need to roast for about 20 - 30 minutes, but check every five minutes or so (flip after ten) and remove the individual items as they finish roasting (garlic should be golden and soft, everything else should have a bit of a char on it and also be soft).

You'll want to bring the veggies to room temp, and while this is happening you can decide how much heat you want the salsa to have.  Remove the stems from the peppers no matter what, but then choose to remove some or all of the seeds to bring down the heat (this can be easily done by cutting the peppers lengthwise and using a spoon to scrape them out).

Transfer the room temp veggies (plus any liquid that accumulated in your roasting pan) to your vitamix (or blender) and then add the avocado and the juice of the lime.  Add salt and pepper to taste and then blend until smooth.  Serve and enjoy!

Restaurant Highlight - Attica, Melbourne Australia

As you all know Tom and I just returned from a 3 week holiday to Australia.  Tom has also been telling me for weeks that I need to start blogging again.  My reasoning that I take all the pictures for the blog was not enough.  So to start off I will run through what we enjoyed at Attica in Australia.

Tom and I decided prior to leaving that we would do 3 "big dinners".  Our definition of big dinner is basically a restaurant that only serves or is known for their tasting menus.  Because these restaurants do not run cheap we limited ourselves to 3.  First up was Attica, which is located in a suburb of Melbourne.  We came to know of Attica after the chef was highlighted in a Bon Appetit article as well as the restaurant being ranked 32 on the List of Top 50 restaurants in the world.  The restaurant is located on a street that reminded me of Carytown in Richmond with lots of shops and restaurants around.

Front of Attica

We knew going in that the restaurant is knowing for "foraging" and growing their own vegetables and herbs.  I anticipated that the focus on the food rather than decor and I was pleasantly surprised.  Inside were dark walls, white table cloths and minimal wall art.  It was a small place with only 50 tables and 1 seating a night. We noticed quickly that reservations are 15 mins apart which allows for the staff to keep up with serving and give everyone proper attention.  After a cocktail for Tom and glass of champagne for me we started with some amuse bouche.  

Baby corn in the husk

Cheese curd and local honeycomb

<--- The chef of the evening came out to  serve the raw honeycomb which was amazing.

I had never actually seen baby corn in husk before but thought the presentation was fantastic-->

The mussels and flowers were in a chicken broth it was very refreshing and you can taste the freshness of the flowers.

Blue Mussels and Summer flowers

Wallaby Blood Pikelet

Recipe on back for Wallaby Blood Pikelet

 The last amuse bouche was a Wallaby blood Pikelet.  This came out and unwrapped in front of us and on the back of the paper was a recipe for the pikelet.

The mystery of the 2 white porcelain feather was solved pretty quickly when the butter and a hazelnut spread came out.  They were to be used to spread on your bread.  The topping of the hazelnut spread is salt bush (which you can ensure Tom found some to bring home to play with in his cooking).

Now on to the main tastes...First up was spanner crab and begonia.  This was lovely and light.  Again fresh flowers and herbs make the dish so fresh.

Spanner Crab and Begonia

Next was Salted Red Kangaroo and Bunya Bunya.  Bunya Bunya is a pine tree that has edible nuts.  

Salted Red Kangaroo

The next two courses are mainstays on their menu.  The first is called Minted Potato, Medium Rare.  This reads just as you expect.  They cook the potato to not be fully cooked so you actually have a bit of "crunchiness" to it.  It was fantastic.  The second is called 142 days.  I should have taken a picture of the waiter building this course for us.  They come out with a bowl with huge cabbage leaves and build the dish in front of you.  Basically the cabbage is ~142 days old!  It is served with an emu ragu. 

Minted Potato 

142 Days

 The next course was King George Whiting in Paperbark.  I took a pic of how it was presented and then when it was open.  The best was the waiter reminding us to NOT eat the bark.  I commented that I have to assume that someone tried.  She confirmed.  She said it wouldn't kill you but it was quite chewy :-).  Let's just say they liked butter on this dish!!!

King George Whiting in Paperbark

Open to reveal the Whiting

Our last savory course of the meal was Pork, Rotten Corn and Lemon Aspen.  The yellow is the Rotten Corn.  I can't remember the story about it!  Just trust me that it was not rotten tasting in anyway.

Pork, Rotten Corn and Lemon Aspen

Prior to our last three dessert courses we had the opportunity to go out to their small roof top garden (they have a larger space down the road where the chefs go each morning to pick the food for the evenings meal).  This smaller garden had a selection of herbs and edible flowers that we had the opportunity to forage for to include with a scoop of ice cream.  Sorry no pics of that!

The remaining desserts are pictured below.  Egg's were chocolate and were served in small nests to each table.   I don't remember the story on The industrious Beet but I do know this was the one dish I was not a huge fan of.  

Pears and Maiden

The Industrious Beet

Pukeko's Egg

Overall we had a wonderful time.  The service was top notch and the food was so fresh.  Details in serving ware and presentation took priority to focus on the food.   Let us know if you have any additional questions about the dishes.  Tom took some notes at the meal as well and are happy to add commentary from what we can remember.

Sweet Potato Puree

So I didn't have much time to play with my new toy (Vitamix) before we left town for holiday, but this was one dish that I was able to use it for.  The vitamix is a great tool for creating smooth purees that don't need to be super liquidy (you can make perfect mashed potatoes in a vitamix, for instance) and that was exactly what I was after for this dinner.

This sweet potato was really closer to mashed potatoes, from a consistency perspective, than a sauce ... which is exactly what I wanted as a base for this grilled pork and greens dish.  If you do not have a vitamix to use for this, instead of using a blender, you will want to do it the old fashioned way with a bowl, masher and spoon.

Sweet Potato Puree

2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped into cubes)
1/2 cup milk
1/6 cup parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage (1 tsp if using dried)
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Put the sweet potato cubes, milk and sage into a heavy sauce pan and add a couple of pinches of salt and pepper (based on your taste).  Put the sauce pan on lowest heat setting and cover to allow the sweet potato to cook slowly.  You will want to cook the potatoes until soft (a knife should pass into the flesh easily) about 30 - 45 minutes depending on the size of the cubes.  The milk may separate a little bit and leave white curds on the potatoes, that is ok.

Once the sweet potato is softened, transfer the potatoes to the vitamix and add the butter, parmesan and 1 tbsp of milk.  Begin mixing the mixture, adding milk by the tbsp until you get to your desired texture for the puree, plate and enjoy!

Contrary to popular belief, a twice baked potato is four times as good

Ok, so you caught me ... sometimes a twice baked potato is 16 times as good as a regular baked potato (although Shells doesn't believe that).  I love making twice baked potatoes, and they are so super easy, I don't know why you wouldn't want to make them too.  For this dinner I paired up a couple of twice baked potatoes with steak & mushrooms and some nice broiled asparagus; but really they go with anything.

Twice Baked Potatoes (for 2 people)

2 medium/small baking potatoes (you can use 1 large as well if you want 1 side per person), washed

2 slices bacon

5 tbsp shredded cheese blend (your choice, whatever you like)

1 green onion, washed

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 425F and the rub the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook in the 425F oven for about 45 minutes or until soft.  While the potatoes are cooking, pan fry the bacon, drain and then roughly chop.  Dice the green onion.

Once the potatoes are cooked ... put the bacon, 3 tbsp of cheese, milk, green onion and butter in a bowl.  Use a hot glove, or a towel, and a sharp knife to cut the potatoes straight through the middle long-wise.  Use a large spoon to scoop the middle out of the potato halves, you should leave about 1/4 - 1/5 inch of potato on the side of the skin to allow it to keep it's shape.  Transfer the scooped middle to the bowl with the other ingredients and then mix well until smooth.

Switch oven to broil.

Spoon the smooth mixture back into the potato skin halves until it is all used and then top with the reserved cheese.  Put under the broiler until the cheese is bubbling, serve 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!

Scallops with a spicy polenta

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a bit is surely starting to think that we have an infatuation with scallops ... my question back would be: why don't you?

That being said, sometimes just cooking some scallops over pasta gets a little boring, so for this dinner we were looking to spice it up.  I decided to whip up a batch of polenta and make that the flavor base for this dish by adding some heat to it.

Spicy Polenta
1 cup yellow corn grits (not instant)
6 cups water
1/4 cup of diced green chilies (canned, found in the Mexican food section of your grocer)
1 jalapeno
1/2 tsp garlic pepper
1 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp grated asiago cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil and add grits.  Turn down heat to a simmer and continue to stir grits with a whisk frequently (to keep from sticking and burning) for about 30 minutes.  While this is going on, drain the green chilis and dice the jalapeno (deseeded if you would like less heat).  After the 30 minutes add the chilies, jalapeno and garlic pepper and continue to stir occasionally to allow the polenta to thicken (about 15-20 minutes).  After the polenta has thickened, remove from heat, stir in the milk and cheese and any salt and pepper you want to add, serve and enjoy!

Blistered (my mouth) salsa with steak and sweet potato puree

For this dinner I decided that I wanted to throw a curveball to a somewhat basic combination of sweet potato puree and steak.  I made a fairly basic sweet potato puree and served sliced grilled steak over the top of that.  But the part of this dinner that really lit it up was the salsa.

Blister (my mouth) salsa
10 Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 red onion (quartered)
2 large jalapenos
6 garlic cloves

Pre-heat an oven to 425F (I use my counter-top for this) and wash all the veggies.  Put the onion and the jalapenos on the pan and into the oven once pre-heated. Cook for about 10 minutes and then flip the jalapenos and onion and then put the tomatoes on the pan.  After 10 minutes add the garlic.  Continue checking the veg until it is all shriveled and the garlic is soft (if the garlic begins to blacken pull it out).

Allow the veggies to cool for about 10 minutes before the next step.  If you want to take a little of the heat out of the salsa, cut a slit into the slides of the jalapenos and remove the seeds (discarding them).  Remove the back most part of the jalapenos and then roughly chop all of the veggies before mixing them well in a bowl and then spooning on top of the food of your choice, enjoy!

More Morel Mushrooms Makes My Meal Magnificent!

Yes, I apologize for the alliteration but once I had written "more morel mushrooms" I just had to see if I could complete the entire title using only words starting with M!

I did one of our old favorites for this dinner: broiled dry-aged NY Strip steak, rice and sauteed greens and so in an attempt to jazz it up, I decided to do a Morel mushroom au jus to top it off.  Morel mushrooms are a great, flavorful, mushroom that has a fun shape for stuffing (as I have posted about before) as well as a great texture.  Beware though of two things (which do kinda off-set each other): Morel mushrooms are almost always sold dry, and are quite pricey (although you will be surprised how much you get for a little money) and they can give you a bit of a tummy ache if you eat too many.  I buy them at the bulk section at Whole Foods and can usually get 10 - 12 of them for about 5 bucks.

Morel Au-jus
6-8 large dried Morel mushrooms
1 cup beef stock (Veggie stock can be used here too!)
Little bit of butter

Put the mushrooms and stock in a 2 cup measuring cup and then weight them down with something like a smaller measuring cup or bowl so that the mushrooms are as submerged as possible in the stock.  Allow the mushrooms to re-constitute in the stock for about an hour.

Once the mushrooms have softened, remove them from the stock being careful to allow excess liquid to drain back into the measuring cup.  Begin heating a small saute, or sauce, pan over medium high heat. Put the mushrooms on a cutting board and chop them shortways, so that they make rings.

Put the butter in the pan and allow it to melt around the pan (you should use just enough butter that spreads around the base of the pan). Put the mushroom rings into the pan and saute for about 2 minutes, using a wooden spoon to keep moving them and making sure they don't stick.

Add the stock that you have retained and allow it to cook down to about half of what it was before turning the heat to the lowest setting (or melt setting if you have that one).

(Optional Step) If have allowed your steak to rest on a cutting board and some juices have leaked out (and if you had an juices in the pan from the broiler) ... you should definitely add these juices to the stock and mushroom mix and stir well before serving.

Your Au-jus is now ready to go on top of your meal, try it and 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!

2014 New Years Eve dinner

This year, Shells and I had some company over for New Years Eve dinner, so we thought we would do something fun.  We also looked for something that would burn some time so that we could hopefully make it to midnight!

We went with an Italian theme for dinner as we could make everything from scratch and we had plenty of inspiration with 3 new cookbooks.  In addition to all of this fun, I also was looking for something that would let me play with my new Christmas toy ... my Vitamix!

First things first, we were going to be making different stuffed pastas so I pre-heated the oven to 325F and put l lb of pork belly and about 3 lbs of short ribs in to cook.  The pork belly was slow roasted on a raised pan, and covered with foil, to allow the grease to drip off of the pork.  The short ribs were braised with red wine, beef stock and pomi strained tomatoes.

For the first course, I made frutti del mare with some fresh fish and calamari.  I used a light mixture of flour, yellow grits, salt & pepper to dust the seafood before pan frying them in light olive oil.

For the second course I made one of our favorite dishes from Marc Vetri's Vetri restaurant in Philadelphia: Sweet Onion Crepe with White Truffle Fondue.  We cooked down the onions for a little over two hours and then cooked the crepe.  I spread a layer of onions across the entire surface of the crepe and then rolled it.  I allowed the crepe to sit for a few minutes and then sliced it into circles.  I sprinkled the top with parmesan cheese and then cooked them in a 500F oven for a few minutes to brown the tops and then served the crepe over a bed of the White Truffle Fondue.

For the next course, I made mini "caprese" calzones.  Shells made the pizza dough and when it was time I rolled it out and made four small calzones stuffed with mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and basil.  I cooked them on the pizza stone at 500F until they were nicely browned.

Following the calzone was the first of our stuffed pasta courses, Roasted Pork Belly Manicotti.  I shredded the slow roasted pork belly and mixed it in a bowl with roughly chopped red chard and a little bit of parmesan cheese.  I stuffed the mixture into cooked manicotti shells and then put the shells side by side in an oven-proof dish.  I covered with bechamel and topped with more parmesan cheese.  I cooked the manicotti for about 20 minutes in a 450F oven.  While the manicotti was cooking I got a chance to play with my Vitamix!  I made a sweet potato and sage puree by slowly cooking the potatoes and sage in milk and then adding all of the ingredients to the Vitamix and pureeing until smooth.  I served the manicotti over a bed of the sweet potato puree and a side of roasted brussels sprouts.

For the last course of the evening I pulled the short ribs from the oven and went to work on Shell's and my Short Rib Ravioli.  I pulled out all of the ribs and then moved the red sauce to a new pan (I didn't need to do this but I didn't have room on the stove for the large Le Creuset so I moved to a smaller sauce pan).  I added the meat from three of the short ribs to the red sauce and another small box of strained tomatoes.  I reserved one of the ribs to provide a topper and then shredded the rest of them into a bowl with ricotta cheese to make the ravioli filling.  I mixed the filling together well and then handed it off to Shell's to make the raviolis.  Once the ravioli was prepared, I cooked them in a pot of boiling water and then plated them over the red sauce and topped with a little of the reserved short rib and some shaved parmesan cheese.

The final course of the evening was Shell's new favorite dessert, babkallah which she will be posting about in the near future.

Taco Night

I've found that a quick way to make flavorful tacos is to de-case fresh sausages that are already spiced and make a good taste.  Whole Foods near us has been making a lot of great flavors that work well as taco filling such as: cilantro chicken and chipotle chicken.

I just de-case the sausages and cook them in a saute pan, breaking it up well.  I'll add a little bit of extra spices if needed (e.g. red pepper flakes with the cilantro chicken) and serve it as the main protein.

For this dinner I added rice and beans, sliced avocado and quesadillas with the sausage.  Try it and enjoy!