52: Fennel Seed-Crusted Lamb Chops / Caramelized Green Bell Pepper & Carrots / Rosemary Bacon Whipped Potatoes

Well, I figured out what to make for dinner tonight. It was just me tonight, so I surveyed the refrigerator and did my thing. Sometimes I have a bad habit of doing too much to each component of a dish. I felt like I was over-seasoning and that the flavors wouldn’t go well together. You be the judge.

The fennel seed imparts a lovely fragrance when slightly charred, adds texture, too. The caramelization of the veggies provides a nice nutty and bittersweet contrast to the richly flavored and slightly spicy feeling from the rosemary whipped potatoes. And, bacon – well, bacon just makes everything better.

I was going to drink a big California chardonnay with dinner tonight, but then I forgot to put the bottle in the fridge when I started prep. The alternative became one Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale. It’s missing a good dose of hops, but it did the trick with dinner.

Ingredients and Directions:

1/2 pound of lamb rib chops

1 tablespoon fennel seed, chopped

1/4 of a green pepper, sliced lengthwise into 8 strips

2 large baby carrots, quartered lengthwise (8 pieces total)

1 smallish medium potato, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 sprig rosemary, minced

1 slice of bacon

1/2 cup sour cream

 1 garlic clove, minced

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat broiler. Cook bacon until crispy while boiling potatoes until very tender. Wrap bacon in paper towels when finished. While potatoes boil and bacon cooks, sauté bell peppers and carrots in olive oil over medium low heat, cover and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Season chops with salt, pepper, and fennel seed while everything else cooks. Add sugar to vegetables when 5 minutes out to caramelize. Be careful not to burn the veggies. Turn off heat and keep veggies covered if not ready to serve everything yet when they finish.

Stick a cast iron plate under broiler for 10 minutes. Drain potatoes and mash with a fork. Add garlic, rosemary, and sour cream and puree with hand blender to desired consistency. Add bacon and stir to fold into potatoes.  Place on low heat to keep warm. Remove cast iron plate, add lamb chops, and stick back under broiler for 5 minutes for medium rare. Arrange your plate.

Enjoy!

51: Grill Action -- Herb-Roasted Filet Mignon / Corn Stuffed Artichoke with Bacon

Thank you, Mother Nature, for not raining while I ran the Capitol Hill Classic this morning and grilling this evening. Tonight’s dinner is mostly grilled, except for the artichoke. The coals impart a subtle smokiness to the meal, and the red wine is a nice addition to dinner.

Herb crusted filet mignon pairs well with a grilled corn stuffed artichoke. The stuffing is made complete with green bell pepper, onion, and the artichoke heart. The meal takes a little patience as it’s about an hour from start to finish with a lot of moving parts.

We drank a tempranillo cut in half with grenache that is simultaneously full bodied, jammy, and earthy. It goes very well with grill flavor.

Ingredients and Directions:

1 lb filet mignon, 2 filets

1 tablespoon each fresh rosemary and sage, minced

2 whole artichokes

2 medium ears of corn

1/4 quarter of a green bell pepper, diced

1/3 of an small onion, diced

2 pieces of bacon

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

1/4 stick butter

Half a lemon

Peel most of the husk of corn off, but leave a layer or two on for cooking. Soak corn in a bowl of water for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, start the charcoal, and prep the artichoke. With the artichoke, chop off stem and thorny parts of leaves. Additionally, chop an inch or so off of top of artichoke. Add a couple inches of water, salt, pepper, and sliced lemon (helps prevent discoloration) to a pot; boil. Add artichokes standing right side up, cover tightly and steam for 35-40 minutes.

The coals should be ready now, so add the corn to the grill. Turn every 10 minutes, should be done in about 30 minutes – it will be burnt looking and ashy. While corn cooks and artichoke steams, press herbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper into both sides of each steak. Set aside for later.

Remove corn and artichoke from respective cooking devices, let cool. Start bacon. Remove husk and silk from corn, wash under warm water to remove excess silk and ash, and then shave corn kernels off ears of corn. Also,lightly push artichoke leaves down, but do so with caution because you don’t want the artichoke leaves to fall off right now. Drain bacon and wrap in paper towels, crumble when cool. Reserve a few tablespoons worth of bacon fat and add 1/4 stick of butter. Also add your steak to grill at this point. When butter and bacon grease is sizzling, about 3-4 minutes, add bell pepper and onion. Sauté for a few minutes, add salt and pepper, and then add shaved corn to the mixture. Sauté for a few minutes until warm. Add salt and pepper to taste, and spoon into artichokes. Garnish with bacon. Don’t forget about your steaks. Cook until desired temperature.

Enjoy!

50: Grilled Balsamic-Glazed Chicken / Broccoli Puree / Tomato Parsley "Confit"

Wow, this is post #50 on the food blog. I suppose I should write a mini recap of the last six months, which I will do in the next entry. For now I will share with you tonight’s dinner.

It’s the first time I’ve fired up the grill for a meal this year. I love this recipe because it’s made from ingredients I already had in my refrigerator. I marinated the chicken in balsamic, salt and pepper for a couple of hours, and the grill imparted a very subtle smokiness to the bittersweet profile of the balsamic. The broccoli puree came out heavenly, and I am really happy about that because I’ve wanted to make this puree for awhile now. The puree has some body to it because of the potatoes, and it comes out rather savory. I round out the meal with diced cherry tomatoes cooked in olive oil with parsley for a couple minutes. I think you’ll find the smoky chicken, flavorful puree and the bright acidity of the tomatoes perfect complements to each other.

We drank a South African chenin blanc with dinner tonight. Chenin blanc can be overly sweet in the US, but this particular chenin blanc – Secateurs from Swartland – is full bodied and finishes crisp on the palate after the typical fruit profile of a chenin blanc.

Ingredients and Directions:

2 chicken breasts

Balsamic vinegar

2 small red potatoes, peeled and diced

6 cherry tomatoes, halved and then halved once more

2 handfuls of broccoli florets, chopped

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 large spoonful of sour cream

1 tablespoon of minced parsley

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Boil potatoes until super tender, about 20 minutes. Also, steam your broccoli for 12 minutes to get it nice and tender.  Get your charcoal started, about 20 minutes until ready to cook. Drain both potatoes and broccoli. Mash potatoes with a fork and set aside.

Add chicken to grill and cook for about 15 minutes, turning once after 10 minutes. Occasionally brush leftover marinade on chicken. Meanwhile, add mashed potatoes, broccoli, sour cream, cheese, broth and salt and pepper to a food processor, about 30-45 seconds total. Taste the puree and add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a pot and keep warm on low heat.

Don’t start the tomatoes until about 5- minutes out from chicken being finished. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, turn pan a couple times to coat the surface. Add tomatoes to pan, season with salt and pepper, and lower heat to medium. Add parsley after 2 minutes and stir, but reserve a couple pinches for garnish. Let tomatoes cook while you remove the chicken from the grill. Assemble your plate and garnish.

Enjoy!

49: Open-Faced Venison Burger / Roasted Bell Pepper & Horseradish Cream Sauce / Mushroom Grean Beans

Oh man, I’m stuffed. This is definitely a hearty meal, but I think the flavors and the balance work really well together. We skipped lunch today after a big breakfast of pancakes with fresh strawberries, mascarpone cheese, and maple syrup as well as scrambled eggs and bacon. Two large meals is not normally our style, but it’s the way the cards played out today. We’ll probably have some cheese later tonight.

Anyways, the succulent and rich flavor of venison is paired with the exquisite sweetness of a roasted red bell pepper, mild and tangy fresh spinach leaves, toasted artisan bread, and a little spicy horseradish cream sauce (needs four hours to chill in fridge). I’ve had a ton of green beans on hand lately for some reason, so I added green beans with minced mushrooms caps to complement the meal. The flavors are wonderful together, but there are a few things I would do differently on this dinner. I would probably make the slices of bread thinner and the venison patties a little thinner as well – makes for a better picture. No, really, thinner patties and bread would increase the flavor profile in your mouth. I bought whole wheat bread from the local bakery, but I ended up using fresh bread that my roommate made earlier in the day.

We drank a French blend of grenache and cinsault with dinner. Grenache adds dark berry jammy-ness while the cinsault adds smoky, earthy undertones. The label is Canet Valette from Saint-Chinian. Don’t sleep on this wine.

Ingredients and Directions:

1 lb ground venison (can substitute beef)

2 tablespoons each of fresh rosemary and sage

4 pieces of thick bread (can use baguette)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large red bell pepper

Handful of spinach leaves

1/2 pound of green beans

4 large white mushroom caps, diced

1/2 cup sour cream

1/8 cup grated fresh horseradish

Splash of white wine vinegar

Dallop of tablespoon Dijon mustard

Cooking spray

Salt and pepper

For horseradish cream sauce, combine sour cream, horseradish, salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar in a bowl. Whisk for a few minutes, cover, and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Preheat broiler. Roast a whole bell pepper over high heat on a stove burner, turning as needed to get the entire skin roasted. You want the skin to get black and blistering. Once roasted, place pepper in an airtight container for 30 minutes to build up steam, which allow the skin to slide off easily. While bell pepper is steaming, form your patties with the herbs and a generous amount of salt and pepper.  You should have time left for the bell pepper to steam, so toast bread slices with a squirt of cooking spray on each side for 2 minutes per side in broiler, set aside when done. Slide skin off bell pepper and cut into four pieces, removing the core and seeds, set aside.

Heat a cast iron plate over high heat and an additional pan over medium heat – warm both for five minutes. Add patties to cast iron plate, reduce heat to medium high and cook for four minutes. After two minutes, add green beans to the other pan. Flip patties to cook for an additional four minutes while occasionally stirring green beans. Add mushrooms to green beans two minutes prior to completion of patties. Build your open-faced burger and serve your veggies.

Enjoy!