We had some potatoes and lettuce left from a previous produce delivery, some eggs left from saturday’s brunch, some tuna from the fancy food show. And so, after a quick grocery run for a few things we were missing (like anchovies, nicoise olives, etc), Suzanne made Salade Niçoise tonight, loosely based on this Tyler Florence recipe from the Food Network.

The tuna we had was in oil with Jalapenos so it gave a slight heat to the salad. Unusual but nice. It turned out fabulously. Here it is in all it’s glory:

Salade Niçoise

Vinaigrette:

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoons dried thyme
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, including some from the tuna and anchovies
• jalapenos from the tuna, chopped

Salad:

• lettuce
• some small red new potatoes, scrubbed and halved, boiled
• 3 large eggs, boiled and quartered
• 1/2 pound haricots verts or French green beans, stems trimmed, steamed
• bottle of Tonnino tuna, with oil, chunked
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Sel gris and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pint teardrop or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup nicoise olives, chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets, chopped
• capers
• green onions, chopped

I ran across this recipe a couple of months ago while trying to find something quick and easy. The dish itself only takes about 5 minutes of prep work, and about 7 minutes to cook.  It’s one of those dishes that tastes ridiculously amazing, despite being very easy to make.

Jamie Oliver’s website has both the instructions and a great video of how to make it, so in an effort to keep the internet DRY, I’ll let you look at those there. I will say this though, the directions in the recipe are different than in the video. I’ve found the video instructions to be better.

Besides that, I wanted to share a couple of tips to help make this dish awesome:

• Use Prosciutto

  You need to use prosciutto for this. Other salted hams just don’t crisp up the same. Wimpy, limp ham drastically brings down the quality of the dish.

• Lemon Zest

  This really makes the dish awesome, but it’s a balancing act. It doesn’t take a lot to overpower the other flavors, but it’s important there is enough of it to meld properly with the cheese. It may take a time or two before you learn how much to add. Also, I think this goes without saying, but use fresh zest.

• Organic Chicken

  Besides the health and environmental reasons, organic chicken is just easier to work with. The standard, non-organic chicken breasts are freakishly huge compared to their organic counterparts. That makes pounding them flat nearly impossible, which is a must for this dish to turn out proper.

Enjoy!

Today’s secret ingredient: Collard Greens.  Um… excuse me… but… WTF?

As you may recall, I got a box of produce yesterday.  In it was Collard Greens. I remember hearing about this stuff from my mother. All I remember was that it was something that ‘the old people’ ate. I’d never eaten it. I don’t recall ever seeing it cooked or eaten. In short, I had no idea what to do with it.

My friend, Suzanne, came to my rescue.  ”It’s good in soup” she said.  I figured that the leek in the produce box would be quite good in soup as well.  And I had leftover red wine in the fridge, and beans & tomato paste in the cupboard. Soup would work. I ducked out to Safeway and picked up some nice mushrooms and cilantro.

Back in the kitchen, I cleaned, thickly sliced and browned the mushrooms (don’t crowd them!). While they browned, I split the leek lengthwise (it was massive) sliced one half in about 1/8″ thick slices, and rinsed it well. Then I trimmed the stalks off the greens, washed & dried them.  I split each leave along the spine, and coarsely chopped them.

When the mushrooms were finished, I quickly sauteed the greens with a bit of salt and pepper.  Into a pot went a can of kidney beans, the mushrooms, and the greens.  I stirred.  I put the leek on to sauté, and added wine to the pot.  The pot simmered while the leek softened.  Then the leek went into the pot, and I topped it up with more wine and some water.  I also stirred in some tomato paste and a bit of salt & pepper.

I let this simmer for a while, before adding coarsely chopped cilantro. It simmered a bit more before being served & consumed.  I had a good picture, but it’s on the iMac that got packed up earlier this evening.

Oh. I should mention that the soup was good.

So, I’m very happy with my first collard greens experience, and am looking forward to opening future produce boxes and saying “WTF?”.

Cod is not really one of my favorite fishes. There are many other fish types that are richer in taste which I enjoy much more than this Atlantic fish.

Still I decided to bake cod that I bought at a local market  today (it is really difficult to find good fish variety in England, specially if you where brought up in Spain).

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients (light dinner for 2 people):

• 2 Cod fillets (boneless and clean)
• 2 tomatoes (I used vine ripened claret tomatoes which have a sweet and juicy aroma)
• 1 onion (in this instance I used a small shallot onion)
• 1 garlic clove
• Dired oregano
• Black pepper
• Salt (I used sea salt flakes; a natural occurring sea salt)
• Virgin olive oil (I was tempted to use my newly acquired ‘2008 Frantoio Gulielmo di Malavalle‘ oil, but I will leave it for another dish)

Preparation

1. Sprinkle the cod filets with the salt and pepper to your taste.
2. Place the fillets on the oiled baking pot.
3. Chop the tomatoes, garlic and onion into small pieces and mix them.
4. Spoon the mix on top of the cod fillets.
5. Sprinkle the top with the oregano.
   
6. Bake at 450ºF for around 30 minutes (possibly less ~20 minutes)
7. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 2 minutes before serving.
   

You could also serve it with a nice mediterranean salad as it will mix very well with the taste of this cod recipe.

I hope you enjoy trying it out as much as I did eating it tonight

This is a great meal for fall or winter. I tend to pair it with Broccoli Raab if I can find it, and wild mushroom risotto.

• 6 T olive oil
• 4-6 lamb or veal shanks – traditional is veal, I’ve had good luck with both
• salt and pepper
• 1 lb of fresh mushrooms – a mix of whatever is available – crimini, shiitake, chanterelle, wood ear, lions head, porcini, the more the merrier, rough chopped
• a few oz of dried mushrooms – porcini, etc
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup each of diced carrot and celery
• garlic minced
• a bay leaf or two
• 2 cups dry red or white wine
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups or a can of of chopped tomatoes depending on season
• couple of Ts of fresh basil
• couple of Ts of fresh oregano
• Coriander, cumin, other spices to taste

Ideally use a nice dutch oven or something similar . I’ve got a le Creuset dutch oven that I use all the time for various recipes and will last a lifetime, well worth it and it is one of the tools of the kitchen I highly recommend.

Heat the oven to 300 degrees, and get a burner up to med high with the dutch oven or oven proof pot.
Add some olive oil – a few tablespoons.
Season the shanks with salt and pepper, brown them on each side, 10 mins or so and then pull them out.
Add the mushrooms and saute them for a few minutes to pull out the moisture on the stove top, add some salt and pepper. Around 5 mins and pull them off.

Dried mushrooms are a great addition – heat up a cup of water to boiling in the microwave, add some dried mushrooms and let them sit for 1/2hr, strain out the mushrooms, and use the mushroom water along with the broth, strained while you make the dish.

Add some more olive oil, put in the garlic for a minute, until slightly browned, then put in the onion, carrot and celery. Cook til translucent, 7 or 8 minutes.
Put in the wine and bay leaf, bring to a boil, reduce by half or until you don’t get alcohol on the nose while smelling it, but just savory hints of the wine. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, bring it to a boil.

Add the shanks, salt and pepper to taste. And then place it in the oven to braise for around 3 hours. It will be done when it’s falling off the bone. This is mostly a one pot dish and surprisingly easy, but impressive and great for cold days.

Since I got appreciative comments on my tweet of my Christmas brunch (including offers of semi-nudity), I figured I’d blog about it.

Here’s the end result:

I made the apple topping first:

• 2 Honeycrisp apples (more if you want to, you know, make more of it)
• butter
• some sort of sugar
• scotch

Core & peel the apples. Slice thinly. Heat a skillet to low-med. Melt a generous amount of butter in said warm skillet. Add the apples. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until they are soft. Add sugary goodness. I used honey, but would have used brown sugar if I’d had some. Cook a bit more. Add some scotch (unlike the toast batter (later) I’d stick with scotch here for that lovely butterscotchy flavor you get). I used about an ounce. Continue cooking until the apples are browned & slightly caramelized. Keep warm.

Then the french toast itself:

• sliced, dayish old French Bread
• eggs
• eggnog
• scotch

As I was just cooking for myself and the egg nog is think & rich already, I used just one egg. Beat the egg into ‘nog (I don’t know how much… enough… maybe a cup). Mix in some scotch. I think it gluged twice. With your skillet hot (low-med), soak a piece of bread on both sides in the egg mixture. Fry to perfection. Repeat.

Serve topped with the apples, a handful of pecans, and a dust of cinnamon. Feel free to add a dust of powdered sugar and/or whipped cream as you like.

Enjoy! I know I did.

Note: I used scotch because a) I really like scotch, b) the bourdon I have it too good not to sip straight up, and c) I didn’t think to buy any rum to have over xmas.

This recipe is an old recipe from my godmother. Usually it is served in our house during Christmas time making it a very special event.

Although it tastes like heaven, it is very simple in its preparation.

You will need the following ingredients (for 2 people):

• 8 scallops (if you can get them in their shell the better)
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• 2 spoons of breadcrumbs (from a baguette)
• olive oil and salt

Preparation

1. Chop the onions and the garlic into very thin pieces.
2. Fry the chopped onions and garlic for about 8 minutes.
3. Remove from the fire.
4. Add the paprika to the mix. This will be very oily, don’t remove the oil.
5. Wash the scallops and remove them from their shell, making sure you remove the darker parts of the scallop.
6. Put each scallop on a shell.
7. Cover the scallops with the onion/garlic/paprika mix.
8. Cover the scallop/onion mix with the breadcrumbs.
9. Put into the oven and wait.
10. Once the breadcrumbs have turned golden you can take it out.

Serve putting the shells on a plate and enjoy!

I haven’t cooked much in the last couple years. First it was “I can eat as well/better at Google for free, so why bother?” Then it was “I get home too late to bother doing much.” Sad thing is, I love to cook. I sometimes wonder if I made the wrong career choice. I started cooking when I was in my late teens and haven’t stopped since.

So, when my good friend & co-worker @stesla said his wife (@etesla) was coming to visit for Thanksgiving and they were wondering what to do for Thanksgiving dinner, I invited them down. I was excited by the challenge as well as a bit intimidated… I’d never done a full Thanksgiving dinner by myself before!

But armed with my experience in the kitchen as inspiration from Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners past, I knew I could do it. Apparently I was right, as dinner was much enjoyed.

Here’s the spread (clockwise form the top we have stuffing, ww dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, and gravy, with the turkey in the center):

I twitpiced that and got questions, so here’s the specifics:

The Cheats

I bought the rolls and cranberry sauce at Safeway, and used a turkey gravy base from William Sonoma prepared according to the directions (highly recommended, btw).

Stuffing

Inspired by my mother’s and Nancy’s great aunt Mary’s stuffings.

INGREDIENTS:

Adjust based on the amount you want to end up with. After doing a trial run a couple weeks ago, I added the apricots & pecans to the recipe. The apricots give a nice sweet counterpoint to the hot sausage, and the pecans give a bit of texture.

• potatoes, peeled, cubed
• hot Italian sausage meat
• butter
• mushrooms
• celery
• onions
• garlic
• assorted Italian-style herbs
• salt & pepper
• sour dough bread, cubed and dried
• dried apricots, coarsely chopped
• pecans, coarsely chopped

METHOD:

Cook the potatoes until just tender, drain, reserving the liquid. Cook the sausage, crumbling into small pieces. Drain on paper towels.

Melt a bit of butter in a skillet. Saute mushrooms until lightly browned and any water has been reduced off. Reduce heat and add garlic, onions and celery. Cook until caramelized somewhat. Add the herbs and sausage. Mix and remove from heat. Let cool somewhat. Mix (in a big bowl ideally) with potatoes and bread. Mix gently so as not to mash the potato. Add potato liquid to moisten the mixture as required. Mix in apricots and pecans. Press into baking dish.

Put it into the oven, covered with foil, when there’s about an hour left on the turkey. Remove foil after half an hour or so to let the top crust up.

Rich Mashed Potatoes

These are almost a direct copy of Nancy’s mom’s potatoes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 lb butter
• garlic, chopped
• potatos, duh… a bunch
• 8 oz brink or cream cheese
• chives, finely chopped
• salt & pepper

METHOD:

Get the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge and let it warm up so it’s soft.

Saute the garlic over low heat in a bit of butter. You just want to soften it and let it mellow a bit.

Peel and roughly chop the potatoes… like, inch or so cubes. Boil them until tender and mashable. Drain. Mash the potatoes well. I used a ricer and it totally rocks. If you like mashed potatoes, get yourself a good ricer. (sidenote, yes. My kitchen is like Unix: it’s full of very focused tools that do one thing extremely well.)

Chop up the remaining butter, mix it into the potatoes. Chop up the cream cheese, mix in. You want to do this while the the potatoes are still really hot. Mix *well*. You don’t want globs of cream cheese. Mix in the garlic and the butter it was cooked in. MIx in the chives.

Pack the potatoes into a baking dish. Put it in the oven along with the stuffing, covered. Like the stuffing, uncover a half hour or so before the end to brown the top.

Pomegranate-Balsamic Glazed Carrots

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup pure pomegranate juice
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 ounce (2 Tbs.) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 lb. carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut into sticks about 2 inches long and 3/8 inch wide
• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup lower-salt chicken broth
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 tablespoons lightly packed thinly sliced fresh mint

METHOD:

Combine the juice, vinegar, and honey in a liquid measuring cup and whisk. Cut 1 Tbs. of the butter into 4 pieces and refrigerate.

In a 12-inch skillet, heat the remaining 1 Tbs. butter with the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the carrots and 1-1/2 tsp. salt and toss well to coat. Cook without stirring until the bottom layer of carrots is lightly browned in spots, 4 to 5 minutes. Using tongs, stir and flip the carrots and then leave undisturbed for 1 to 2 minutes to brown. Continue cooking, occasionally stirring and flipping, until most of the carrots are a bit browned in places and are starting to feel tender, an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if the bottom of the pan begins to brown too much.

Carefully add the chicken broth, cover quickly, and cook until all but about 1 Tbs. of the broth has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Uncover, reduce the heat to medium low, and add the pomegranate mixture (re-whisk, if necessary) and the cayenne. Cook, stirring gently, until the mixture reduces and becomes slightly glazy, about 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat, add the chilled butter, and gently toss with a heatproof spatula until the butter has melted, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and stir in about two-thirds of the mint. Serve in a warm shallow bowl or on a platter, garnished with the remaining mint.

SOURCE: Fine Cooking 101, pp. 53

Brussels Sprouts

Chef Brian Mattingly taught me the joys of sauteed brussels sprouts when we were both working at Google. Brian’s since moved on to revolutionize the food program at Apple.

INGREDIENTS:

• brussels sprouts, lots
• butter
• salt and pepper

METHOD:

Trim and clean the sprouts. Quarter them.

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sprouts. Saute over low-medium heat until they are browned and softened. Add salt and pepper as desired. Add more butter as required.

Turkey

I bought a 3lb frozen turkey breast, which worked out nicely for 3 people. I simply roasted it, basting occasionally with melted butter mixed with a generous amount of dried Herbs de Provence.

After it was done, I drained off most of the fat and made the gravy in the pan, first deglazing with a bit of red wine.

Leftover boeuf bourguignon for dinner tonight. Yum. Check it out:

I warmed up the bourguignon, steamed some fresh green beans, boiled some little potatoes, skins on. While they were boiling, I caramelized some crushed garlic cloves (as in smashed with the side of a chefs knife) in a bit of butter and olive oil. Drained the potatoes, and smashed them with a wooden spoon, mixing in the butter/oil/garlic mix. Finally I threw in a teaspoon or so each of fresh thyme and rosemary. YUM!

Well. Nowhere near as good as she no doubt made it, as this was my first attempt. I used the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. That makes it like hers, right?

Julia Child referred to a well made boeuf bourguignon as one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man. I think this might have been the tastiest thing I’ve ever made, and possibly ever eaten.

This is probably the most adventurous single dish I’ve attempted to date. Sure, I’ve made bigger meals, but no single dish this involved and time consuming.

Walk Through

First, I prepped the little, whole onions and sautéed the mushrooms (no pic of that). I did that Friday night to give me a bit of a jump on it. This could have been done while the dish was in the oven, but I had other things to do then.

Next: Bacon! No seriously good dish is complete without bacon That’s something I learned at Google… and they’re all smart people, right? So it’s gotta be true. In any case, the recipe really does call for some bacon. Blanched (no pic… it was boring) and browned:

“Where’s the beef?” (anyone remember that ad campaign?) Here’s the beef in all it’s organic, grass-fed glory, 3 pounds of it:

The beef got lovingly dried (so as to brown better), and browned a few pieces at a time, resulting in this bowl of awesomeness:

Next up was browning onions and carrots:

Note that each successive round of browning happens in the same pot. The flavors just keep layering & layering.

The bacon and beef go back into the pot:

And in goes a bottle of red wine and broth to just cover, along with the herbs. Then it goes into the oven and magic happens.

After 3 hours in the oven it’s reduced down into an incredible gravy, with the beef falling-apart-tender.

The whole time this was bubbling away merrily in the oven my apartment smelled unbelievable incredible. I was doing laundry during this, and each time I stepped back into my apartment I was assailed by this simply divine aroma.

Next you strain off the gravy, reduce it as necessary, add it back to the meat, along with the whole onions and mushrooms previously prepped. The result looks brilliant!

And here it is plated for a simple meal.

I will so be making this again. Since I’ve done it once successfully, I might build a small dinner party around it with a more complete and organized meal. I also have a few tweaks to make, now that I know how it works.