comfort food...tomato soup

soft shell crab over a strawberry and melon salad

butter beans

tom yum soup - thai hot and sour soup with shrimp

seared duck breast with blackberry cabernet sauce over brussel sprouts and pancetta

i've been thinking about making duck for a while now, so finally i got around to doing it. i think the reason it took so long was deciding what to serve with the duck...the only thing i was sure of was that i wanted duck with a blackberry cabernet sauce, but then what? it's been a while since i had brussel sprouts, so what the hey, brussel sprouts it is. if you have ever cooked duck, or for that matter eaten it, you know how fatty it can be. most of that fat is right under the skin, but you dont want to remove the skin because that's one of the tastiest parts. when dealing with duck breast, most recipes will tell you to score the skin, but not all the way through to the meat of the breast, just through the skin revealing all the fat; this gives the fat a way to escape when you cook it. i find that method to be a good one, but i like my skin to be really crispy, so another trick of the trade is to "boil" the fat out. after you scoring the breast you place it skin down into a a pan with 1-2 inches of water for about 10 mins (if you want added flavor the water could be chicken stock if you have it around); you get alot of the fat to cook out this way. becareful not to poach the duck breast because that's not what you're going for. after you boil the fat out you remove it from the fatty water and pat it dry, removing any excess water. then you sear it skin side down first using a hot pan; brush the pan a bit with oil, not too much, but you want something in there so the duck doesn't stick, remember you just cooked most of the fat out in the water bath. i finished the duck off in the broiler to about a medium rare/medium doneness seasoning it first with some s&p; i like my duck just pink in the inside. the blackberry cabernet sauce is just a reduction of cabernet, beef stock and blackberry perserves; really simple. the brussel sprouts were sauteed with pancetta, a very classic/common dish. i added some red pearl onions for added color and flavor. oh! i also used some white wine and chicken stock to deglaze the pan after cooking up the pancetta...flavor, flavor, flavor!!...mmmm. let's eat!!

grilled swordfish with citrus, soy and balsamic glaze over roasted vegetable couscous

the citrus soy and balsamic glaze has a touch of honey for some added sweetness, especially since the roasted veggies and couscous had a lemon vinaigrette dressing; the mouth would have puckered with all the acidity going on in this dish if not for the honey. the green stuff in the couscous mixture/salad is basil. you don't want to over cook the swordfish, otherwise you get a really dry piece of tough fish, at which point you were better off buying canned tuna. the fish should be just done and yet not quite in the middle. i don't cook the fish with the glaze on it; the sugars from the balsamic vinegar and honey caramelizes quickly, which can lead to a very dark, hard coating on the fish and not a shiny, translucent glaze, which is what i was going for. after grilling the fish and while it's still hot i used a pastry brush to brush on the glaze.

prosciuitto wrapped salmon with fennel, red onion and watercress salad

taking into consideration how summery the weather has been these past few days, i thought this would be a nice light dish, it definitely satisfied my craving for something savory, yet had a nice bite to it with the crisp fennel and peppery watercress. i chose to use some left over prosciutto because i couldn't find any serrano ham at any of the markets, but prosciutto worked just as well. the fennel along with the red onion was thinly sliced using a japanese mandolin; i find them to be easier to use than their more bulkier, western counterparts. the salad was dressed using an orange vinaigrette and the zest of the orange; you could use store bought orange juice, but fresh gives the vinaigrette such a brighter taste and natural sweetness, not sugary. there's no need for much pepper because of the watercress, but still season the vinaigrette a bit. included in the salad were the fennel ferns which were added at the very end to keep their form. the salmon fillets were seasoned with s&p before wrapping them with the procuitto. oh! and they were skin on cuts, just a personal preference. the skin holds so much flavor i think, but you can definitely use a skinless cut. the salmon was topped with a lemon butter caper sauce: garlic, shallots, lemon juice, dry white wine, butter and capers. i may have added some cream to thicken it up a bit, but i can't recall. the sauce would go great with any fish or even some chicken, most definitely. let's eat!

steak and potatoes

i was at the store and wanted something that wouldn't require alot of work, so i decided on a steak and potato dish. i picked up a nice hand cut piece of top round, it can be a tougher piece of meat, but if cooked the right way and cut against the grain, you get some good steak at a more reasonable price. here i pan seared the outside on high heat using my grill pan and then finished it off on a low temp in the broiler cooked to medium rare doneness. while the steak was cooking boiled some yukon gold creamers with the skin until fork tender. mash those babies up with some butter, cream and sour cream. add some chopped chives and season with salt and pepper. for the veggies i picked up some broccolini, it's like broccoli, but so much more tender: BROCCOLINI. i did the normal fair of sauteing them with garlic and added fresh lemon juice right at the end with some lemon zest. the steak is paired with a thyme peppercorn sauce: garlic, shallots, peppercorns (roughly crushed), beef stock, red wine, fresh thyme and cream. it's your regular steak and potato dish with a few twists.

sundried tomato and rosemary stuffed leg of lamb, sautéed swiss chard and honeyed polenta

this dish utilized the meat from the leg of lamb, bone out. i got about 2lbs and asked the butcher to butterfly cut the meat, but i don't think he understood me and i ended up doing it myself at home. butterfly cutting the meat is basically splitting it in half to get a thinner piece of meat, but you don't cut all the way through the meat, you want the meat to be one continous piece: BUTTERFLYING. after butterflying the leg i used a meat mallet to further thin the meat; thicker the meat, the harder it is to roll. the stuffing is pretty straight forward, saute some garlic and shallots, add chopped sun dried tomatoes, fresh rosemary, and then salt and pepper to taste. i think i may have added some roasted red pepper to this...forgive me, my memory betrays me at the moment and that's what happens when you make things on the fly and don't write down what i'm doing. i let the stuffing mixture cool before slathering it over leg. oh! don't forget to season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper. once you have the stuffing all layed out, then you just roll; try to get it as tight as you can for more uniform cooking. tie up the rolled meat with some butcher's twine, drizzle with some olive oil and roast. let the meat rest and cool for a bit before you slice it, otherwise the stuffing is just going to spill out along with all the meat's juices. the swiss chard was just sauteed with some garlic and of course seasoned with salt and pepper. i took some sweet corn and gave it a few pulses in the food processor, still chunky and not completely pureed. this was added to the polenta with a tbsp of honey. you let the polenta set up and with a round cookie cutter and in a hot pan coated with oil you fry it to get a crispy outter shell while it's still nice and soft in the middle. let's eat!

eggplant and roasted red pepper bruschetta

a nice light snack for lunch. as you can tell from the title of this entry, that there is some eggplant and roasted red pepper bruschetta and them tasted something awfully good...haha. the lightly toasted slices of french bread were wrapped with procuitto before topping them. you don't need much of the procuitto to taste it; sliced so thin you could practically see through it. for an added touch i could have added some shaved or grated parmesan, but i just wasn't in the mood; let's face it, i was just too lazy.

the topping mixture contains, of course, eggplant and roasted red pepper. add extra virgin olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes (for some heat), sun belle tomatoes (golden in color), fresh basil, .salt and pepper to taste and...voila! some of you may not like eggplant because it has a bitter taste to it. to remove most of that bitterness treat the eggplant with salt and rinse. i cut the eggplant widthwise into rounds that were about an inch thick and layered them in a colander salting each layer generously. the result will be a brownish liquid, which is where the bitter taste comes from. this process of treating the eggplant is called degorging and is not really necessary when dealing with the smaller varieties of eggplant. be sure to rinse the eggplant thoroughly after degorging them, otherwise you'll have some really salty results.

what kind of bruschetta that you like to make? there are so many varieties out there. i would love to hear all about the different yummy variations. i've done smoked salmon bruschetta...nummy. it would be great to get some new ideas away from the traditional tomato and basil. let's eat!

photoshop can be so much fun sometimes

seafood linguine with roasted tomatoes

this is a take on my "infamous" clam linguine that i tend to make for pot lucks at work, but just a little fancier. i say "infamous" only because its the dish i am known for at work; make something once or twice and jeesh. since i'm not feeding 20+ people, i can splurge a little on better ingredients; fresh basil, roasted tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, shallots instead of onions, shrimp (bonus! they were on sale), real clams in the shell and a great pino gris. start out with some extra virgin olive oil and a little pat of butter...i just like the mix of the two, don't ask me why, garlic and shallots. sweat the garlic and shallots until they are nice and soft. i like my pasta to have a little heat, so at this point i added dried red thai chilis; usually run a finger nail lengthwise to open up the chilis. up next comes the roasted tomatoes; usually i take some romas, cut them in half, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and under the broiler they go. i like to use roasted tomatoes because they hold less water content and the flavor is more concentrated like sun dried tomatoes. i use half roasted tomatoes and half fresh sweet strawberry tomatoes quatered. saute all that until the fresh tomatoes get a bit wilted. oh! i forgot, during all this there's a pot of water going with salt for the linguine; i was too lazy to make it from scratch, so store bought it is. it's funny how excited i was when i got my pasta attachment for my kitchen aid stand mixer, but i think i have only used that thing a handful of times. maybe with this new food blog i'll get that thing out of the cupboard more often; already thinking of a wild mushroom ravioli in a broth, that's gonna take some more thought. any who, back to the dish at hand. where was i? oh yes, so you have the pasta going while you're cooking all the other stuff; pasta just until it's aldente because you're going to finish cooking it in the sauce. after the tomatoes have wilted you pour in the pino, don't ask me how much...in fact don't ask me how much of anything in this recipe because that's not how i cook. i'll touch on this more a little later. so, in goes the pino gris to deglaze the pan and some kind of liquid is needed to steam the shrimp and clams. with that segue, in goes the shrimp and clams; i used littlenecks for this dish. cover and let it simmer for 10 mins, until the shrimp pink up and the clams open. any clams that don't open, throw out and do not eat; only two were shy this time...not bad. by this time the pasta should be done. i take out all the clams (just for the ease of mixing), add the linguine, coat the pasta with the sauce and allow the pasta to finish cooking. at the very end add fresh basil; i want to avoid really cooking the herb. add back the clams and fini. this dish really isn't that complicated and really isn't as long and drawn out as my post makes it seem. i just tend to be a bit wordy and often go off on tangents. the second photo shows the dish as it might be plated at an olive garden or macaroni grill, with the parmesan and a sprig of basil...hahaha.

alright, back to what i was saying about recipes and measurements. i know that i should be totally flattered when someone asks me for a recipe after eating my food and i do, but quite frankly it's annoying too. not because i'm all snooty and all my recipes are top secret or anything, but it's the fact that i'm forced to sit down and think that i detest. step by step i have to visually go back through the cooking process and figure out...was that a table spoon or three teaspoons? because i never measure anything. i can't be the only one that cooks like this. baking is a different story, but when it comes to cooking over the stove or what not, i hardly use measuring cups or spoons. the only time you'll see me measuring anything is when i'm trying to follow someone else's recipe, but even then, 20 percent of the time you'll catch me just doing a quick read through, jotting down an ingredients list and a few instructional directions and off i go; pretty unorganized that way, but it works. maybe that's why i had such a hard time following along in culinary school...it was so strict and rigid. my instructors always said, "imitate before you create." meaing you follow recipes and instructions before you went off on your own making adjustments. i was one that couldn't wait to get to the creating part. another thing is i hate writing things down, comes with the thinking part. this is something, however, i would like to change. it would be nice to keep some kind of record of the dishes i make and to be able to look back. here is where this blog comes in. hopefully, this will aid in my "record keeping." any who, that's enough for now. i have gone on long enough. i'm hoping my rendition of this dish is something that you'll be able to try or even better yet, gives you some ideas for your own. let's eat!

i enjoyed the linguine with some of the pino gris i used to cook the dish

pre-photoshop

post photoshop

bear with me please...

new to this blogger site, so you will have to bear with me until i get how everything around here works. it's been a hit and miss so far...