Pork Chops and Peach Salsa

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Everything but the pork chop is courtesy of my shopping trip to Gentile's on Monday.  We started off with white sweet potatoes - mashed with butter and sour cream. Basic and good.

Fresh spinach cooked in a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of garlic. How could it be bad? And then a simple peach salsa with fresh peaches, jalapeños, green onions, and cilantro.  Oops. I lied. The cilantro came from the garden.

The pork chop was pan-seared then finished off in the oven. Perfectly tender. All of the various flavors worked well...

And now for another flavor - fresh figs.

I have an idea for a roasted fig over ice cream.

I'll be back!

 


Braised Leeks and Beef Tips

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I picked up a bunch of leeks at the produce market on Monday. They were an impulse-buy - as was just about everything I bought that day. The only problem with impulse-buying perishable items is - they're perishable. I have to quickly figure out what I'm doing with this stuff because I'll be damned if I'll let anything go bad or throw anything away.

Leeks are one of those things I really don't use a lot of. I usually have to have an idea in mind before I buy them, but they looked good and the price was right... into the cart they went.

Tonight, I had a plan... Grilled Beef Tips and Braised Leeks. Braising is simplicity, itself. It's nothing more than putting something in a pan, turning on the heat, adding a splash of liquid, and putting a lid on it.

Really. That simple.

The liquid of choice tonight was a nice sherry - never cook with anything you wouldn't drink. And I do have to say it came out quite well. I really do like layering food and beef on a bed of leeks really was a fun idea.

The potatoes were coated with olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper, before going into a 375° oven for about 20 minutes. The green beans - also bounty from Monday - were simply steamed and drizzled with butter. The beef was seasoned with one of the Kansas City Steak Seasonings Victor received. A nice dry rub with a lot of flavor and not a lot of BBQ.

Braised Leeks

  • 6 leeks
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup sherry
  • juice form 1/2 lemon
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cut off the roots and cut up the leek about 6" - through the pale green and before the tougher dark green.  Slice lengthwise in quarters and soak in cold water to remove any grit.

Melt butter in a small saute pan and add leeks. Saute a few minutes and then add 1/4 cup sherry. Put a lid on the pan, reduce heat, and cook about 5 minutes, or until leeks are tender.

Add lemon juice and season with S&P to taste.

Really simple. Really flavorful. And it works really well with belgian endive, too.


Tortellini and Broccoli Rabe

06-04-13-broccoli-rabe-pasta

 

 

I headed down to my favorite almost-local produce store - Gentile's Market - yesterday, and came back with several bags of garden goodies. With lots of local produce, as well as national and international products, you really can't beat their prices and selection. I used to drive down there weekly back when we first moved back here, but over the years, I've slowed the trips. It's only about a 20 minute drive but somehow, I don't make the effort, as much.

I'm glad I did, yesterday, though!

I had a bunch of broccoli rabe that I wanted to use, as well as a bunch of exotic mushrooms. What I needed to do, however, was figure out how to get Nonna to eat them - she's not big on the leafy greens. The solution was to make cheese tortellini and a quick fresh tomato sauce, along with some Italian sausage. Nonna got tortellini, sauce, and sausage, and we got the whole shebang!

Everybody was happy!

I did a quick blanch of the broccoli rabe and merely added a pinch of salt and pepper. I will often go crazy with broccoli rabe and add everything from anchovies to raisins, garlic, onions, pine nuts or pistachios. Tonight, I did nothing, at all, because I knew I was going to top it with fresh tomato sauce. It didn't need any competition.

I did the quick sauce and cooked a few sausages in the sauce as it simmered.

Onto the plate went the broccoli rabe, topped with a few tortellini, and then sauce and a sausage.

It really was good. The sweetness of the tomatoes played well with the bitterness of the broccoli rabe - and cheesy tortellini goes with everything.

We had a couple of thick slices of Sunday's Multi-Grain bread, and later will be slices of the Frog Commissary Sour Cream Apple Pie from yesterday.

Tomorrow, I need to figure out something with leeks...

 

 

 


Apple Sour Cream Streusel Pie

 

Of all the pies I have made in my life, I don't think I've ever made a sour cream apple pie. Until today. I now have a new favorite pie.

Granted, just about any pie I happen to be eating is my favorite pie of the moment, but this one really is special. I'm impressed.

It's put together differently than I usually do, and since the recipe stated "thinly-sliced tart apples" I used my mandoline to get a thin, uniform cut on all of them. A winner.

Everything about this pie worked - from the flaky crust to the still-crisp but fully-cooked apples. The only thing I might change next time I make it - and I will make it again - will be to crumble the butter into the streusel a bit more and add a few more walnuts. But it was prit-near perfect the way it was.

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Flaky Pastry for Pie Crusts

adapted from Frog Commissary Cookbook

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp lard and butter mix (equal parts of both)
  • 2 tbsp ice water

Place flour, butter, lard, and salt on counter. Cut butter and lard into flour until ity is coarse and crumbly. Add 2 tbsp water and mix well. Gather into a ball and roll into a 12" circle. Place in pie plate and crimp edges.

If you want, use your food processor to cut the fat into the flour. It's easier.

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Apple Sour Cream Streusel Pie

adapted from Frog Commissary Cookbook

Streusel Topping:

  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 stick cold butter
  • 1/2 cup coarsely-chopped walnuts

Filling:

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sour cream
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 cups thinly-sliced tart apples

Putting it together:

Streusel:

Combine sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Toss with walnuts. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line 9" pie plate with pie dough. Mix together flour, sugar, and eggs. Add the sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon rind. Mix well.

Stir in the apple slices, making sure to coat them all well. Place in the pie shell and bake in lower third of oven about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with streusel topping. Return pie to oven and continue baking for another 30 minutes.

Cool completely before serving.

This is another recipe that took a couple of extra steps but was so worth it.

It really is restaurant-quality food you can make at home.

I'm old enough to remember when folks had dinner parties and they spent most of the day cooking and making desserts from scratch. No one would have dreamed of buying frozen pre-made appetizers and dinner most definitely would not have come out of a box. Today, it's all about "convenience" - which translates to overly-processed-soy-lecithin-and-carrageenan-laced franken-food. An organic Pop Tart is still a nutritionally unsound food choice.

So I have my new friend, and I plan on making a few more of the recipes. The salad dressings, alone are worth the price of the book. And home-made avocado mayonnaise!

I'm going to have me some fun!

 

 


Buckwheat Crepes with Chicken and Horseradish Sauce

06-03-13-crepes-2

 

Methinks it was a big ooooops that I re-discovered the Frog Commissary cookbook.  I'm hooked!

I love cookbooks that use real food and don't rely on canned, boxed, or otherwise-packaged foods. It's a throwback to when I was cooking professionally and really experienced the foods we produced. I'm in gastronomic love.

My first foray into the book starts with buckwheat crepes. I just happened to have buckwheat flour in the pantry, so it seemed like a natural place to begin.

Crepes are an extremely easy thing to make. We have a great crepe pan, but a non-stick skillet would work in a pinch.

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The Frog recipe calls for smoked chicken. That was one thing I didn't have, so I made it with diced chicken breast. Smoked would have taken it to another level, I'm sure, but it was pretty spectacular without it.

Buckwheat Crepes with Chicken and Horseradish Sauce

adapted from the Frog Commissary Cookbook

Crêpes

  • ¾ cup milk
  • ¾ cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • ¼ cup melted butter
  • 2/3 cup white flour
  • 1/3 cup buckwheat flour
  • ½ tsp salt

Filling

  • 2 cups diced cooked chicken breast (original recipe calls for smoked chicken breast!)
  • 2 cups coarsely chopped broccoli, blanched
  • 6 tbsp butter
  • 2/3 cup fine chopped onions
  • 6 tbsp flour
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons drained horseradish
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ¼ - ½ tsp salt

Horseradish Cream Sauce

  • 2 tbsp minced shallots
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup drained horseradish
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 4 tbsp butter at room temperature

Crêpes

Combine the milk, water, eggs and butter. Blend the flours and salt in a bowl and whisk in the wet ingredients until smooth. Brush a 6” crepe pan lightly with butter and heat it until very hot. Pour about 1 ounce of the batter into the pan and quickly swirl to cover the bottom. Cook until the bottom is set,and top is dry. Repeat until you have at least 12 Crêpes.

Filling

Have ready the chicken and broccoli. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until transparent. Whisk in the flour and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in the chicken stock, horseradish, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil. Stir and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Chill. Add the chicken and broccoli. Set aside.

Assembly and Horseradish Cream Sauce

Preheat the oven to 325°. Roll each of the 2 Crêpes with about 1/3 cup of the filling. Arrange the Crêpes in a buttered baking pan and cover with foil. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until heated through. While the Crêpes are heating, make the sauce

Combine the shallots and wine in a saucepan and reduce to 5-6 tablespoons. Add the cream, horseradish, salt and pepper and simmer until thickened. Stir in the softened butter in bits and serve at once over Crêpes.

This one took some time to make, but was worth all of it! It could be made in stages and put together at the last minute, as well.

I was just a tad worried about how Nonna would take to it, so when she came into the kitchen, I told her it was canneloni. She really liked it!

I also made their streusel-topped sour cream apple pie. I'm heading into the kitchen for a slice right now!

 


Frog Commissary Scallops

06-02-13-scallops

 

Many moons ago when we gave away all of our cookbooks, we didn't really give away all of them. There were a couple dozen that made the cut - and the Frog Commissary Cookbook was definitely one of them. I never ate at The Frog or The Commissary, but I love the cookbook.  It's written in a fun '70s sort of way - using real ingredients - and it has great illustrations.

The restaurants were in full swing when Victor owned his restaurant - Montserrat - at 6th & South Street back in the '80s. It was a time when all the restaurateurs knew one another, when cooks, bartenders, and waitrons jumped ship on a whim, and recipes were stolen and improved upon with aplomb.  Liquor flowed like water. I was opening hotels all over the USofA. Victor was in the heart of the Philadelphia Food Renaissance. We are so lucky we met each other after-the-fact..

So back to cookbooks... This one has been down in the basement with a score or more of other books, but it caught my eye when I was looking for The Italian Baker for a loaf of bread - that I passed over for the Bob's Red Mill Cookbook.

It all seems to have a purpose.

Anyway... I knew I was making salads tonight with scallops, but that was as far as it went. When I opened Frog Commissary and saw "South American Scallop Salad with Lime Dressing" I knew I had dinner.

As is my modus operandi, I didn't really follow their recipe, but I did make a variation of the lime dressing - and it totally rocked!

Lime Dressing

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 2 tsp lime zest
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, minced
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Place everything except mayonnaise into a blender and process until smooth. Add mayo and blend well. Place in bowl and chill until ready to use.

I marinated the scallops in olive oil and lots of fresh garlic and then quickly grilled them. The salads, themselves, were greens, yellow peppers, tomatoes, red onion, black olives, artichoke heats... Leftovers from Mike and Barbara's visit. Waste not, want not, and all that sort of stuff.

And Frog Commissary did not let me down. The dressing was stellar and it went perfectly with garlicky scallops. Creamy, rich, refreshing, and with just a hint of heat.

Tomorrow I'm going to make their famous Apple Sour Cream Streussel Pie. After a mere 18 1/2 years, I found out tonight that it is one of Victor's most-favorite desserts. He had the recipe years before the cookbook ever came out.

I think I'll actually try and follow the recipe as written. Wish me luck.

 

 


Fresh Multi-Grain Bread

06-02-13-multi-grain-bread

 

It's about a million degrees outside with a bazillion percent humidity. Perfect weather for baking bread.

Weather like this really is perfect for bread-baking. The heat and humidity make for Mother Nature's Perfect Proofing Box.

It's about the only positive thing I can think of about the weather.  I'm a west coast wuss when it comes to humidity and heat. I just don't like it. And I hate living in air conditioning  ::he says with the air blowing like there's no tomorrow:: I seem to hate the heat more.

I remember all those summers I spent in Bakersfield with my grandparents. We'd be outside playing in 100+° weather and the only cooling at grandma and grandpa's was an old swamp cooler in the living room. When it got up past 110° we'd head inside for Kool-aid or head out to Center Street Market for an ice-cold Coke if we had any money.  It's amazing how a mere 55 years can change one's outlook. I'd die, today.

No Kool-aid and no Coke in the house nowadays, so it became time to bake bread.

The bread-baking happened because I saw fresh yeast at the grocery store this morning. Impulse-buy of the day. The recipe is a take-off of a Bob's Red Mill recipe. I changed things around to suit my own needs, but the basic recipe is sound.

And really really good. It's an easy one to pull together, so go for it.

Multi-Grain Seeded Bread

  • 1/2 cup Grape-Nuts-type cereal
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp fresh)
  • 2 1/2 - 3 cups unbleached white flour
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3 tbsp poppy and sesame seeds, mixed

Place the cereal in a large bowl, and pour the boiling water on top. Stir, and let it stand until the cereal and water cools to about 105°.

Sprinkle the yeast over the cereal and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Let stand until the yeast begins to foam, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup of the unbleached white flour to the cereal, along with the oil, sugar, and salt, and stir until smooth. Mix remaining flours and slowliy add. You may or may not need the remaining 1/2 cup. Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about ten minutes, adding more flour if it's sticky.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough inside, turning it over in the oil, and cover with the dishtowel. Let the dough rise until it's doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 3 to 4 minutes, then shape into a 12 x 4-inch loaf. Sprinkle a baking sheet with 2 teaspoons of the seed mixture and place the loaf on top of the seeds. Cover the dough with the dishtowel and let it rise until almost doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Set one of the oven racks in the center of the oven and one just below the center. Place a baking pan on the lower rack and preheat the oven to 425°. Brush the dough with a little water and sprinkle with the remaining seed mixture. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 slashes across the top of the loaf. Place the baking sheet with the loaf in the oven and immediately pour 2 cups of water into the hot pan on the lower rack in the oven (water will steam).

Bake the loaf about 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.

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It had a beautifully-light crumb and a nice, crusty crust.  Definitely one of my better loaves...

Slather it with butter. And forget about the heat.