58: Pesto Chicken Salad with Boiled Red Potatoes / Brussels Sprouts / Balsamic Vinegar

Lunch time! I often make salads for lunch, and here is a salad I made awhile ago. The weather must've been cooler, for this is a hearty salad. I had forgotten about it until I was cleaning up my blog pictures folder on my computer earlier today. I most likely made this post-workout one day.  At any rate, the pesto, boiled potatoes, brussels sprouts, and spinach round out this semi-rustic and earthy salad. You really could eat it any time of the year. Add some shredded parmesan to the top if you like.

Ingredients and Directions:

1/3 pound of chicken, diced

1/4 cup pesto sauce

2 red potatoes

4 brussels sprouts, sliced in half

Good handful of baby spinach
Shredded parmesan cheese (optional)

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Boil potatoes whole in well salted water for about 15 minutes, drain. Let stand whole until ready to plate salad, which will help them keep cooking inside. Slice potatoes into quarters when you’re ready to plate.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add brussels sprouts and chicken with seasonings and cook for about 8 minutes, brussels sprouts cut side down in pan. Arrange brussels sprouts around chicken, which should be in the center of your pan.

Add raw spinach to a bowl – I start with raw greens because the heat of the cooked items will help naturally wilt the spinach after a couple minutes.

Now you’re ready to plate as everything comes to a finish. Two minutes prior to being done, arrange potatoes and sprouts (leaving chicken in pan) around the edge of the bowl, and add 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add pesto sauce to chicken and cook for 1-2 minutes to nicely coat the chicken. Add chicken to center of salad, and toss the salad to infuse all the flavors.

Enjoy!

57: Farmer's Market "Frittata"

I hadn’t been grocery shopping in a minute, so it was a challenge to throw together breakfast this past Sunday. Lucky for me I had a bunch of random veggies in my refrigerator and eggs to boot. Frittatas traditionally are baked in a dish and look more like quiche. Sometimes they are also considered open-faced omelets. This is my interpretation of a frittata. I call it a farmer’s market because of the number of different vegetables that would turn out rather well with this dish that, surprise, can be found at farmer’s markets, where I do the bulk of my food shopping anyways.

Ingredients and Directions:

4 eggs, beaten, dived in half

Handful of kale, shredded

Fennel, diced

Cremini mushrooms, diced

Red onion, diced

Cheddar cheese, thinly slice

Garlic powder

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in two separate 8 inch pans over medium high heat. Now add two eggs’ worth to each pan once oil is hot and season to your liking. Also began sautéing your veggies in an additional pan.

The trick to the eggs is to not overcook it on one side so as not to produce a rubbery frittata, but cook it enough that you can flip the eggs in the pan without it falling apart on you. I think I cooked it on one side for about 2-3 minutes, and then flipped it over very carefully. Once flipped, place cheese on the top. Cook for a few minutes more. Remove frittatas from pans, with the cheesy side up on the plate. Add your sautéed veggies.

Enjoy!

56: Pan Seared Steelhead Salmon / Spicy Kale Salad with Fennel, Cremini, and Tomatoes

I miss cooking salmon. Amber is allergic to salmon, so I don’t buy it often. Lucky for me I picked up a pound of steelhead salmon at a great price from the butcher to eat as post-workout meals. Steelhead salmon has such a rich and fatty taste and texture that I didn’t want too much the taste, so I just added a little salt and pepper. The key to a good piece of salmon is how you cook it in a pan. I like to let the pan get really hot with no oil or butter in it, then add the oil, then add the fish. This method creates a nice and crispy skin within minutes, with just a gentle flip of the salmon on the other side to finish it off.

Kale is a super food, so I added some of my favorite veggies in cherry tomatoes, fennel, and cremini mushrooms to round out my salad. This meal could also serve as a light dinner, even though I had it for lunch.

Ingredients and Directions:

1/3 pound salmon filet, skin on

Handful of kale, shredded

Fennel, diced

Cremini mushrooms, diced

Spicy sesame oil

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the salmon: Heat pan for salmon on high heat for 3-5 minutes. Generally, I like to let it start smoking a little before adding olive oil. You can dust salmon in salt and pepper while waiting for the pan to warm up. Let the oil warm for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and add the salmon. Cook for 3-4 minutes on one side, flip, and turn off heat. This will create a medium rare salmon, so adjust cooking times as needed if you like your salmon cooked past medium rare.

For salad: Heat spicy sesame oil in a pan for a few minutes over medium heat. Sauté kale, fennel, and mushrooms with salt and pepper until kale wilts, about 4 minutes. I didn’t cook the tomatoes to add a bright contrasting flavor to the dish. Arrange your salad and fish on a plate.

Enjoy!

55: Grilled Roasemary & Oregano Laced Chicken / Ginger Caramelized Sweet Potato Cakes / Garlic Broccoli

Here is another dinner I was able to cook by simply taking stock of my refrigerator and pantry. I love meals like this because I don’t have to go out and buy anything, and I try to grill as much as possible when it’s nice enough to do so. Dinner was a little hands on because of the timing with starting the grill and cooking the sweet potatoes, but it should be relatively easy to replicate on your own. Plus, I got to use herbs from my garden. The interplay of texture and flavors works really well together in this dinner.

We drank a tempranillo with this meal because it pairs well with the herbs and bitter/sweet contrast of the broccoli and sweet potatoes. It’s also not too big a wine that it would overpower anything on the plate.

Ingredients and Directions:

2 chicken breasts

Rosemary and oregano, finely chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced into spheres

Ginger

Sugar

6-8 broccoli florets, sliced in half

Olive Oil

1 large clove of garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper

For the chicken: Very lightly coat the chicken in olive oil. Now dredge the chicken breasts through the herbs on one side only. Add salt and pepper. Firmly press herbs and seasoning into chicken breasts. If using a charcoal grill like me, I recommend starting your grill after you have prepared the chicken breasts. Grill chicken to desired doneness. I like to undercook chicken just a tad to keep it moist. I think the breasts took about 10 minutes on the grill.

For the sweet potatoes: Boil in salted water for about 10 minutes, drain. You want them firm but not mushy, since you’ll be finishing them in a pan. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Sauté sweet potatoes for 5-7 minutes on each side. The trick to caramelization is to dust a healthy amount of sugar and ground ginger for each side of the sweet potatoes. Don’t forget salt and pepper. If they’re not turning black, or charred, turn up the heat and/or add more sugar. They should be crispy on the outside but soft on the inside.

For broccoli: Pretty standard preparation. Heat some olive oil and sauté broccoli with garlic, salt, and pepper for 3-5 minutes. Arrange everything on a plate.

Enjoy!

54: My Blog's Top 10!

Here is the Top 10 as of June 2011, listed in order of the number of times it has been viewed.

1.       Braised Veal Chops with Root Vegetables
2.       Curry Goat Stew
3.       Filet Mignon with Mushroom Provencal over Fennel and Leek Puree
4.       Pan Roasted Pacific Cod with Wild Mushrooms and Zucchini Puree
5.       Mussels w/ Smoked Sausage and Fennel in Champagne Broth over Squid Ink Linguine
6.       Mussels in a Thai Style Coconut Curry Broth
7.       Braised Elk Meatballs with a Carrot and Thyme Torte and Broccoli
8.       Filet Mignon with Swiss Chard and Beet Puree in a Rosemary Balsamic Sauce
9.       Lamb Stuffed Cabbage Rolls in a Green Pepper-Tomato Sauce
10.   Braised Bison Short Ribs over Goat Cheese and Sage Polenta with Asparagus

I promised you I would write a recap of the first six months of this blog a few posts back. While I might still fall short of giving you the full recap, I thought I would use a post to talk a little bit more about the 10 most viewed recipes and some general background insight on why I created this blog.

I have cooked for many of you – my friends in different parts of this country, and you all have said one thing to me: Your food is good. My mom thinks I missed my calling as a chef, but I’m still waiting for her to give me the keys to her kitchen. My girlfriend says I have ruined food for her, but I counter that I have taught her how to taste it. With such things in mind, I created this blog in November of 2010 as a way to share my cooking. Food, after all, and the subsequent feelings of community and satisfaction, is designed to be shared. It’s also a way for me to gauge just how good a cook I am, for I have no formal training as a chef. I cook based on the tidbits I have picked up from working in restaurants, other people’s recipes, and my own understanding of how food works together. See my bio on the right as you scroll down for more information.

Something missing from this blog is comments on the recipes. I average 136 views a month, so people are viewing this blog – 956 views over the past 7 months as of this post. The blog is also viewed in different countries around the world, including but not limited to Russia, Australia, and Japan.

I hope that you will provide some feedback from this post as to what I can do to better engage my readers. I have included easy to use features such as rating my blog entries with one click (feature removed due to lack of use and ease to post comments. I don’t mind if they’re anonymous. I’m more concerned with what you think of my cooking. Is it good, is it easy to recreate from my instructions, what changes can be made to the blog itself to promote engagement – those are the elements I’m concerned with as I enter my 8^th month of having a food blog. Originally, I created this blog to share recipes with the occasional restaurant review, but I have since abandoned that formula and went simply with providing the recipe. The blog continues to be a work in progress.

53: Pan Roasted Black Bass/ Caramelized Sweetbreads / Asparaus & Wild Mushrooms / Tarragon Veloute Sauce

Memorial Day Weekend just passed, and while DC was bombarded with tourists and a national motorcycle rally, the lady and I skipped town to Pittsburgh to hang out with a good friend, Paulina. Pittsburgh is a cute little town with a strong neighborhood vibe. We ate and drank very merrily while discussing every topic under the stars.

In exchange for the hospitality, I offered to cook dinner for us Sunday night. We went down to the public market, which was booming, and very similar to the Florida Ave Market here in DC. We checked out various local produce stands and fish and meat shops. I originally wanted to braise rabbit leg to serve with a liquid gold sauce (mustard demi glace), but I couldn’t find cuts of rabbit the way I wanted them. Paulina suggested fish, so we went to the fish shop and waited while they cleaned and cut three black bass. The next place we stopped in had veal sweetbreads, and it was on after that!

Black bass is considered a royal fish, and its firm, mild profile makes among of the best food fishes out there. The simple pan roasting of the bass let its natural flavor stand out, while the mildness and sweetness imparted from the caramelization of the sweetbreads was a fantastic accompaniment to the fish. I rounded out the meal with sautéed asparagus and mushrooms in tarragon-infused fish veloute sauce.

Paulina remarked that she was going to recreate this meal, so here is the recipe. I didn’t use any exact measurements or really pay much attention to the cooking time, but I will do my best to include these measurements.

Note: I bought frozen sweetbreads, so there was a lot of prep involved to get the sweetbreads ready to be cooked. Buy them a day in advance if you plan to use them.

Ingredients and Directions:

3 black bass filets, halved for 6 total filets

1lb veal sweetbreads

Mix of wild mushrooms (enough for 3 people)

1/2 a bundle of asparagus, ends chopped off, then cut into inch long pieces

1 shallot, diced

Fish fumet package (or fish demi glace)

1 garlic clove, diced

Lemon juice

Dried tarragon

Dried basil

Olive oil

Butter

Sugar

Salt and pepper

If you’re sweetbreads are frozen as mine were, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator and thaw at room temperature the next day if you must because there are still several hours of prep left before you can cook them.

Once thawed or if bought fresh, soak sweetbreads in bowl of cold water for 3 hours. This will help remove blood and any impurities. Drain from water and place in a pot of water on stove. Bring to a mild boil over medium heat with salt and lemon in the water – this continues to remove impurities and firms the texture to make cutting them easier. Submerge in ice bath once brought to a boil and let cool completely. Add more ice and/or cold water if you must. Once cooled, remove any gristle and thin layer of membrane on the sweetbreads. Lay them out on a cookie sheet in between two towels. Place another cookie or baking sheet on top of this, and now add a heavy pot filled with water over the top cookie sheet – this will help flatten them out and further firm them up. Refrigerate like this for 3 hours.

You should have found time to prep your fish filets with salt and pepper and sliced your veggies at this point. Remove sweetbreads and slice them however you would like for dinner. I cut medallions out of them. Now you’re ready to cook. This will get a little crazy because you will have four pans going at once, and each pan will require some attention. I will separate out each component and let you decide how to time it all. Adjust heat as necessary on each component, so nothing is overcooked if timing is off a little.

Sweetbreads:  In a skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil and butter. Melt butter and let it brown for 1-2 minutes. Now add the shallots and sweetbreads, stir often. After about 10 minutes, lightly cover sweetbreads in sugar, stir and reduce heat to medium. Continue to stir sweetbreads as sugar breaks down. Dust in sugar once more after flipping the fish, raise heat to medium high, and stir often.

Veggies:  Warm olive oil over medium heat, and sauté asparagus in garlic for about five minutes. Now add mushrooms, but be careful not to overcook because you don’t want mushy mushrooms. Add a couple pinches of herbs to veggies as they cook.

Fish: Heat a dry skillet on high heat for 5 minutes. Add olive oil and butter. Brown the butter for 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium high, add filets, douse with lemon juice, and cook for 5-6 minutes on one side. Flip over for final 2-3 minutes, reducing heat to medium low. Filets should be nicely browned on the one side.

Sauce:  Combine half the package of fish fumet, basically incredibly reduced fish stock, with 1.5 cups water. Add a generous amount of herbs to this pot. Bring to gentle boil, reduce heat to low and keep warm. After you flip fish, combine sauce with veggies and keep warm.

Arrange your plate as you wish and enjoy!!