Summer Scallops w/Sauteed Corn, Pepper & Avacado

One last go around for the summer combo of corn & scallops. This time we added a slight mash of avocado beneath each scallop to fix them in place on the bed of summer corn.

These avocado were a little less ripe than we would have liked, but the stronger 'green' flavor that an under-ripened avocado has worked well with the peppers in the corn.

The avocado was slightly seasoned with a bit of salt and a touch of olive oil to give it some smoothness.

Here's a shot of the black peppers that we picked up from Savoie Farms at Headhouse Market. The flesh of the black pepper was a little thicker and had a pronounced crunch, which worked well to marry the green-ish tinge of the avocado to the corn.

The corn was sliced off the cob and then added to the diced pepper.

Sauteed with a touch of butter and olive oil, we didn't overseason the corn.

Final step was to create little lillypads for the scallops to rest upon.

This is starting to become a habit - more seared scallops.

Fresh Peach, Thyme & Goat Cheese Pizza

We were visiting my family last weekend and my dad happened to bring up a crate of fresh peaches from South Carolina. We grabbed a dozen to take back to Philly. These guys were perfectly ripened - during the car ride we kept smelling those fresh peaches waft from the back seat.



After the success of the last seasonal fruit pizza, Strawberry, Cashew & Goat Cheese Pizza, we were itching to do something with these peaches that involved grilling the delicious ripe & juicy flesh.

A quick Google popped up this recipe for Grilled Peach Pizza, but the pizza was actually thrown on the grill whole as opposed to grilling the peaches...we were after that charred peach flavor, so I kinda made this up as I went along.



Trader Joe's always has a good deal on goat cheese logs, so used some of that, along with some thyme from the garden. Normally I would make a dough, but lately I've been using lavash brushed in olive oil for a good thin crust.

With the crust brushed in olive oil & sprinkled with thmye & goat cheese crumbles, it goes into a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes to firm up.



Meanwhile the thinly sliced peaches go onto a grooved grill pan to get marked and get a little softened up. These peaches were so ripe that I had to be gentle with these to keep them from tearing apart.



The end result was a simple flatbread pizza spiked with tart goat cheese with rich, gooey slices of grilled peach. The grill brings out the meaty-character of peach flesh while removing the syrupy sweetness. The crispy thin crust was a great counter to the peaches...I couldn't see this working too well with a softer crust.

Prosciutto Ham & Hirtenkase Cheese Pastry

Elizabeth saw this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa and changed up the ingredients a bit.

Here's the link to the original...


We bought some prosciutto and a German cheese called Hirtenkase to replace the ham & Gruyere. The Hirtenkase is a super-strong cheese, like an Emmentaler or strong Swiss cheese with the crunch of a Parmesan. Elizabeth left out the mustard because the cheese was so strong and had that bit of zestyness that Dijon would've brought.

This came out of the oven golden brown and delicious...we sliced it up into pieces to have with some wine, but saved some an reheated it for breakfast.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Smoked Brisket, Blue Cheese & Beer-Braised Leeks

Elizabeth's parents gave us some Thanksgiving leftovers to take home...the crown jewel was a chunk of smoked brisket.

Elizabeth's father smoked the brisket with applewood I think and kept it moist with a mixture that included apple juice. The end result was a smoky richness with a hint of sweetness...perfect flavors to build on.

I sliced the smoked brisket thin against the grain, then seared them to get a bit of crisp around the edges.


Next, I sliced a huge leek from the farmer's market, sweated it off in some olive oil & salt, then braised the leeks in a Belgian blonde ale. The ale gave the leeks a flavor similar to the smoking process of the bitter-sweet brisket...main flavor of slight hoppiness with malty sweet undertone. I let these caramelize and kept adding the beer in small doses to prevent burning.

We had some Danish Blue Cheese from Whole Foods that would go great with the smoky-sweet brisket & bitter beer-sweetened leeks. This is similar to a Saga Blue...very firm and salty to balance the pungent 'blue' notes.


We pan-toasted some flatbread to get a cripsy base for the toppings. We then arranged the three components with a bit of parsley before enjoying these smoky bittersweet meaty cheesy appetizers.

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Veggie, Noodle & Shrimp Bowl

Here's a nice little weeknight noodle dish that Elizabeth usually makes for lunch...I threw some pan-seared shrimp on to to make it a dinner.


Ingredients in no specific amount:

• 2 sticks of Soba buckwheat noodles
• carrots, matchstick cut
• edamame beans, steamed
• cilantro leaves
• seasame seeds
• sauce (order in lessening amount) - sesame oil,rice wine vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar

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Butternut Squash Risotto Redux

After the success Elizabeth had with her last Butternut Squash Risotto, she decided to amp up the presentation factor.

We cut the neck off a medium sized Butternut squash; then we split the bottom sphere in half. IMPORTANT! Slice a small bit off the bottom of each bowl so that the halves will stand up without rolling over.

While I peeled and cubed the neck, Elizabeth scooped out the seeds, then scooped out a bit more flesh to make room for risotto.

Place the squash bowls in a 375 degree oven, cut side down and coated with a thin layer of olive oil on exposed squash.

While the squash cooks, begin making your risotto. Here's the basic ingredients for that step:

2 cups chicken stock & 2 cups water, simmering in a pot
1/2 onion diced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1 tblsp butter
Parmesan cheese to taste

Here's how you make risotto...but if you now how to 'risotto' then go to it!

Also Elizabeth toasted some pumpkin seeds (pepitos), then sauteed the reserved squash cubes for 10 minutes and finally crisped some whole sage leaves.



By the time your risotto is ready, your squash should be done. Pull it out, stuff it in the bowl, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, Parmesan cheese and diced squash.


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Weekday Dinner: Savoy Cabbage, Sausage & Whole Wheat Penne

Here's a recipe we've been fixing for a long time after spotting it in an edition of Cooking Light. I usually halve the amount of pasta they call for..it always seems like carbo overload.

This easy for a weeknight because you can make the leek, cabbage & sausage mixture all in one skillet and boil your pasta at the same time. It all comes together in the same pan.


This is Cooking Light's version...I think our cabbage was a bit greener and cut in larger pieces, which gave it more chew.


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Fast Apps: Seared Diver Scallops on Pancetta & Brussels Sprouts Leaves

After a spectacular couple of weeks cooking with autumn greens, we were left with three lonely Brussels sprouts. Strolling through Whole Foods, we spied some U-10 Scallops that would make a perfect appetizer.

Elizabeth manned the scallop station here, creating a perfect sear on the humongous U-10s. Cook them on medium-high heat, keeping a close eye on the scallop.

Don't bother with cooking according to minutes...sear your tops & bottoms, then watch the side of the scallop...when the watery, translucence goes away and you get an elastic touch, wait a moment or two more then it's time to pull them off the heat.

The sprout leaves to me are the coolest thing about this recipe. I always hated Brussels sprouts (whole, halved or quartered) because they were green chunks of semi-sulfurous bitterness. But if you peel the sprout, leaf by leaf, the eggy sulfurous character goes away and you're left with a mellow leafy-green.

Pull the first four or five leaves off each sprout, then cut the base off what's left of your sprout-nub.

Cut the remaining nub in half and pull it apart with your fingers. Discard any chunky bit.


We rendered some chopped pancetta in a hot pan (you could use thick-cut or slab bacon), then added the Brussels sprouts leaves.

Once the leaves wilted and took on a slight char, turn off the heat and splash it with a scant tablespoon or so of an acid...we used sherry vinegar, but red-wine vinegar or apple cider would work.

The final result...sweet seared scallop, salty crispy pork bits and slightly sour & bitter bite from the leaves.




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Recipie Research: Hillbilly Eggrolls

One of the things I miss most about the Norfolk restaurant scene is The Taphouse...a great mix of good food, beer and outdoor patio kickback dining. The greatest thing they ever served on their menu were Hillbilly Eggrolls.

Hillbilly Eggrolls disappeared for a short while from the menu and although we wanted to try and decipher the mystery without using chunky eggroll skins, we didn't have access to good spring roll wrappers...until we moved to Philly.

Hillbilly Eggrolls are your standard eggroll/springroll made with:

1 lb. Cooked Ham
1 can Black-eyed Peas
4oz. Gruyere Cheese
10oz. Cabbage
1pkg. Spring Roll Wrappers

Serve with Texas Pete or Tabasco dipping sauce

(Beware! This yields about 1 1/2 to 2 dozen rolls)


A quick Google search revealed that nobody has a good recipe even more reason to try and figure this one out.


Attempt #1

-Ham & Cheese were sliced into large matchsticks
-Cabbage was wrapped uncooked

You can see roughly the amounts added to a single roll.

Deep-fried in 375-400 degree peanut oil (canola is fine, but peanut gives more flavor) here's the results.

Attempt #1 was decent, but when the cabbage cooked down in the wrap, it left alot of vacant space in the roll...not very satisfying. Plus the cheese didn't' really blend in well.


Attempt #2

Elizabeth had a better idea...cook the cabbage beforehand so that it wouldn't wilt in the wrapper.

Next, we diced some of the ham a little smaller to match the size of the black-eyed peas. Also, we shredded the cheese so that it would fold into the cabbage and flavor it without running out.

The end result was perfect. The rolls came out of the hot oil bath plump withHillbilly goodness...chunks of ham, strong cheese flavor and little punches of beany texture, all dripping with hot sauce.

Now that we've got the third and final member of the Decadent Springroll Trio...Duck Confit & Dried Cherry, Philly Cheesesteak, & Hillbilly....although the Duck confit is a little too upscale...maybe we'll try the Redneck Eggroll...pork BBQ, cabbage and pickles.



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Celeriac & Brussels Sprout Risotto w/ Proscutti Leaves & Lamb

Here's the inspiration Elizabeth ran across.



...and here's the result of some farmer's market finds...celeriac & brussels sprouts. Elizabeth whipped up her signature risotto recipe and we then added the ingredients to the finished risotto. Here's the components:

Risotto
1 cup arborrio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1 leek, sliced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups chicken stock & 2 cups water, boiling
salt & parmesan sprinkles to taste

and here's what you do with that...but if you now how to 'risotto' then go to it! To give it a theme, just throw in any ingredient when the risotto is 5 minutes from being done.



This is the FIRST time we actually used ALL FOUR eyes of the gas stove here. On the main eye, (lower left) we've got your standard risotto recipe going....and the accompanying pot of broth that you use to ladle your stock into the rice one cup at a time.

Top right is a pot of celeriac root, cubed and boiled. Bottom right is a pan of brussels sprouts with 1 tbs of olive oil sauteed, then a 1/3 cup of water to steam it.

The main trick to the sprouts is to pluck each leaf off the sprout individually; I cut the base off of the sprout and peel off the layers like an artichoke. I chop the remaining nubs up or discard the knobby part. Now you've got a nice pile of leafy sprout goodness instead of quartered hunks of green gobs.



To give a meaty foil to the leaves of brussels sprouts, we pan-crisped some proscutti and then served it with the risotto. Finally, we seared up a slice of lamb leg ($1.69 @ Super Fresh...yum!) cooked rare and sliced on the bias.


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Thanksgiving Tryouts! Turkey & Sage Sauce w/ Brussels Sprouts

We just received the Thanksgiving edition of Cooking Light and decided to try out a few recipes. Here's Turkey Cutlets with Pancetta Sage Sauce with a side of Brussels Sprouts with Currants & Pine Nuts.

These recipes were fast and easy. We had them done in under 40 minutes for under $15 bucks

Recipe for Turkey Cutlets with Pancetta Sage Sauce

The turkey cutlets came in under $5.00 at Whole Foods (no hormones).....................$5
We substituted pancetta with thick-cut bacon...you'll need only one piece...................$1
Also, we used salted water instead of chicken broth
You could substitute the 3/4 white wine with 1/2 cup apple or white grape juice.......$3
Sage came from the garden, but you could substitue with Thyme.

Recipe for Brussels Sprouts with Currants & Pine Nuts.

The sprouts were less than $3.00 at the farmer's market..........................................$3
The currants & pine nuts were from Trader Joe's ...the best place to get good nuts & dried fruits for cheap...$8 for both bags with PLENTY left over...................................................$2
You could substitute with raisins (golden or not) & slivered almonds.


C & E

Butternut Squash Risotto

Here's the recipe we used for the farmer's market squash...Butternut Squash Risotto. Elizabeth adapted a version of the risotto from the Barefoot Contessa. She left out the saffron and added in toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitos), sprinkled over the final dish.




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Making Pesto

The nights are getting cold in Philly, which means not much more time before the basil goes...time to make pesto!



Elizabeth's trimmed the basil way down, then rinses and plucks the leaves. We blend the basil leaves in a food processor with enough olive oil to give them a luster.



The final paste goes into an ice-cube tray that we've sprayed with non-stick oil. Freeze the pesto-starter cubes, then store in the freezer. Whenever you need a shot of pesto or basil, you can just reach into the fridge for a chunk of green summer goodness.


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Yo! Crostini-ize My App! Flammenkuche

Here's a photo of a delicious appetizer I had at a new French-style restaurant that opened on 6th st., La Minette. Here's our review.

This is Flammenkuche...an Alsatian 'pizza' consisting of heavy cream, caramelized onions, cheese and lardons (bacon croutons YUM!).



Not having time the other night to make a real crust and not wanting to eat alot of calories, we decided to do a crostini that mimiced the flavor profile...but was alot faster and cheaper.

Components
Baguette; sliced along the bias into crostini and toasted lightly

Thick-cut or Slab bacon

1 Medium Onion
2 teaspoons Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Butter
1-2 tablespoons Cream Sherry

Neufchatel Cheese or light cream cheese



I cooked off the bacon in the pan, drained the grease, reserving about a tabelspoon.

Slice your onion into long slivers, from pole-to-pole, dust with a pinch of brown sugar and a tablespoon of butter then allow them to caramelize in a pan over medium. When the onions are starting to get brown and gooey, splash in about a table spoon or two of cream sherry to punch up the gooey caramelized sweetness

Spread the Neufchatel over your toasted crostini, top with onion mixture and sprinkle with bacon.


C & E

Tool Time - Crispy Chicken Thighs

Whole Foods has been doing some good specials on skinless thighs, so we've been trying to get them extra crispy without using a lot of oil.

Here's an example of a chicken thigh cooked WITH the skin on...cripsy, golden brown and delicious! We seared it off in the pan, topped it with thinly sliced lemons and then baked it off on a 375 oven for 30 minutes.



We sliced the thigh pieces in half, soaked them in buttermilk and then dredged them in rice flour.

Next I heated up two pans...one had some peanut oil in it, the other dry.

We seared off the thigh pieces, getting them slightly browned on each side; the rice flour, while crispier, will char faster then regular breadings.




Once each side of the chicken pieces was browned, we lowered the heat to med-low and placed the other pan on top, now super hot.

We found this brick laying on the sidewalk...I washed it up and double-wrapped it in foil...the Society Hill Chicken Press.

We added the foil wrapped brick to the top to weigh the pan down and press the chicken flat; this slowly squeezed out the chicken's grease & moisture to continue the browning while avoiding the charring.



Here's the end result...a good crispy coating on tender boneless chicken thighs. The heat and weight of the second pan helped to cook the chicken off faster while keeping it from becoming dry or charred.

Although this technique didn't use skin-on chicken, I think it's similar to the Italian Brick Chicken, Pollo al Mattone, which uses the weight of a brick to keep a splayed whole chicken flat on a hot plate.


C & E