Wild Cod En Persillade and Nantes Carrot Stew

I love seafood but it is hard to find great seafood dishes to make at home if you don't have access to a fish market.  This recipe peaked my curiosity as it included cod which is a common item found in the supermarket seafood case.  The cod is served alongside the nantes carrot stew and the asparagus coins (previously made).

I started by cutting the cod filets into pieces, seasoning with salt, and brushing one side with dijon mustard.

The cod filets were then dredged in a mixture of bread crumbs and parsley.

The cod filets were then browned quickly in oil and then transferred to the oven until cooked through.  Meanwhile, I cut the carrots into oblique shapes.

They were cooked in butter, sherry, carrot juice, curry powder, and herbs.  The cooked carrots were removed while the liquid mixture was reduced to a glaze.

The finished cod served alongside the carrot stew and the asparagus coins...

The cod was really good and I cooked it perfectly.  There is a high oil content so it was pretty rich and buttery.  The asparagus and carrots were great with the fish and the perfect bit was when you got a little of all three in one!  I also used the leftover cod the next night and made a fish taco with fresh pineapple, jalapeno, and red onion.  It was just as good reinvented!

Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

It's starting to warm up and I am realizing how many soup recipes I have left to go. I am cramming one in before swing is here in full force. For the lentil and sweet potato soup, I ordered Spanish Pardina lentils from La Tienda (www.tienda.com). 

This is a great site for southwestern food products. I also threw in a sample of “grilling sausages” for Matt that included about four different kinds of sausage and chorizo. We haven't tried any yet but I am loving finding these new sources for different ideas and flavors that aren't the same old same old. 

I started the recipe off by rendering the fat off of lardons of applewood smoked bacon. I could probably just stop there and have dinner, it smells so good!

I then cooked chopped leeks, carrots, and onions in the bacon fat with yellow curry powder for seasoning.

In the meantime, I cooked the diced sweet potatoes until just tender.

After the vegetables were cooked, I added chicken broth and the lentils and cooked until the lentils were done. After stirring in the sweet potatoes, I crisped the bacon lardons for garnish and also added cilantro leaves to the finished soup.

I thought the soup was pretty good and it was definitely healthy (minus the bacon anyway). Matt on the other hand wasn't so crazy about it. I thought the lentils were really different. They are a lot smaller than a normal bean and the the curry powder in the seasoning was really good. I also am getting to be a big fan of leeks in almost any dish. The only thing that didn't really go to me was the addition of the sweet potatoes. I think the soup would have been great without that step. All in all, this was a pretty easy recipe, which was nice, but I'm not sure I would make it again exactly as it is written.

Porterhouse Steaks (Actually Filets) with Grilled Asparagus with Prosciutto, Fried Bread, Poached Egg, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar

It is March 1st and my last dish cooked from the book was on Valentine's Day.  I have been bad and I know it!  No excuses here, just a review of how it turned out and a few pictures to share.  All I will say is that I promise to be better after tax day.  I'm actually really looking forward to getting back in the kitchen and trying out some of my new toys from Christmas like the meat grinder and ice cream maker.  The spring also brings more produce and seafood options so we all have that to look forward to.

For Valentine's day, I opted to cook the Porterhouse Steak recipe with Herb & Shallot Butter.  Now a Porterhouse is a big steak, so I trimmed the portion size down to a filet.  I can't imagine it would have been any better had I used the porterhouse.  I started by making a special herb & shallot butter out of sauteed shallots, chopped parsley, paprika, salt, and of course butter.  The butter went back into the fridge and I started work on the asparagus dish.

You may remember the torn bread crouton recipe from previous posts, it is exactly the same.  Cook garlic in hot oil and then tear bread and brown in the oil.  The next step was to poach the eggs and light the grill....yes, everyone - I lit the grill.  Although I'm not sure that I did the little "tee-pee" approach that Matt employs from Boy Scout days correctly...it seemed to take a really long time to get the temperature up.  In the meantime, look how great these filets look...a little salt, pepper, and oil and they were ready to go on the grill,.

The poached eggs turned out great. Sometimes it can be a little hard to poach the perfect egg, but first time was a success.

The filets went on the grill and were brushed with the herb butter.  While the filets "rested", we grilled the asparagus on the grill as well.

 The finished filets were topped with another dollop of the herb butter and the asparagus was combined with prosciutto, the poached egg, and the croutons.  The asparagus dish was drizzled with balsamic vinegar (one of my favorites). 

I think this was our favorite meal yet.  It was so nice to avoid the crowds and cook a quick & easy "gourmet" grilled meal at home on what was a busy work Monday.  The poached egg literally "melted" over the plate with the asparagus and the steak.  The balsamic vinegar combined with the egg yolk really just put the dish over the top.  The butter melted down into the filet and made it really juicy and flavorful.  These two were both "keepers!"

Recipe Countdown:  65 of 251 recipes

(You would think I would be further along than this...lol)

Rubbed and Glazed Pork Spareribs, Corn on the Cob with Lime Salt, and Red Potato and Green Bean Salad w/ Creamy Pepper Dressing

I am a little late posting this but last weekend was absolutely beautiful weather.  After all of the rain and cold weather, it was so nice to be able to sit on the back porch and fire up the grill.  The groundhog indicated an early spring and I am crossing my fingers that holds true.

I have never grilled ribs before because grilling is the only thing I can get my husband excited about when it comes to getting food on the table.  I normally delegate anything that has to do with a grill or outdoor cooking his way.  This recipe was pretty straightforward and while he seemed to enjoy offering his advice, I pretty much handled this one on my own.

I started by making a rub for the ribs from brown sugar, salt, paprika, cayenne, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

After refrigerating for six hours, I put the ribs on the grill, seared them, and cut down the temperature.

The salad involved a few more steps and I started by making the creamy pepper dressing which is a mixture of vinegar, honey, buttermilk, creme fraiche, and homemade mayonnaise combined with crushed peppercorns.    I tried to make homemade mayonnaise and it was runny and gross.  Why make homemade when Duke's is so dog gone good?

 I then cooked the potatoes, blanched the green beans, and tossed the two with chopped shallots and chives.

The mixture was tossed with the creamy pepper dressing and placed on a bed of shredded bibb lettuce.

The lime salt for the corn is exactly that...lime zest and kosher salt.

I boiled the corn and emulsified butter in a bowl over the boiling water with the lime salt.  The corn was then tossed in the butter and a little extra lime salt was added. 

The final verdict:  I was proud of the ribs.  They weren't bbq competition worthy but for as easy as they were, they weren't bad.  The brown sugar melted and made a nice glaze on the ribs.

 The corn on the cob with the lime salt was also pretty tasty.  The lime salt added a nice kick which complimented the sweetness of the corn.  (I think I may try this lime salt for margaritas with the girls!).

The green bean and potato salad was also a great variation from traditional potato salad.  Also, I might mention that I think it was just fine with the Duke's mayo!

All in all this was a great February meal for the middle of tax season.  While the busy time has slowed down my cooking some, I am still committed to finishing this book this year.  I know my posts are less frequent but don't give up on me...I plan to have dinner at the restaurant before 2011 is up!

Recipe Countdown:  62 of 251 recipes

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Red Beet Chips and Banana Bread Pudding

It's been a while since my last post, don't worry I am not giving up.  It's been really cold so I decided to try to make a dent in the soup recipes and tackle the cream of cauliflower soup with red beet chips and the banana bread pudding.

To start the soup base, I sauteed the chopped cauliflower with leeks, onions, and curry.  The book calls for the use of a "parchment lid" in quite a few recipes.  You basically make a steamer lid with a hole in the center to cover the pot while the vegetables cook.  It allows the steam to escape through the hole in the center and since the rest of the dish is covered, prevents the liquid from evaporating and the vegetables from caramelizing.  I have been a little wary of the parchment lid because I can just see it coming off the pot and catching on fire on my gas stove, but I decided to give it a try.  It did work, the cauliflower and other vegetables cooked evenly and did not brown.  After the vegetables were ready, I added milk, heavy cream, and water to the soup and pureed it with an immersion blender.

The next step for the soup was the red beet chips to garnish.  I have never cooked with a beet before and boy are they messy.  My hands looked like I had soaked them in red wine after I had finished.  I peeled and sliced the beet and fried the chips in peanut oil until they were crispy...well I was shooting for crispy, mine were soggy.

 I then sauteed cauliflower florets in butter and white vinegar for the finishing garnish.  This is the finished soup...

The soup was a thicker, creamy soup and it was very flavorful.  The dish was pretty filling even though there was no protein.  The red beet chips were not that great.  I may should have sliced the beet chips a little thinner to allow for them to crisp up during the frying process.  The soup wasn't that difficult to make and the recipe could be adapted to use different types of vegetables.  I mean let's face it, if you put enough heavy cream in anything, it's going to be good.

 The banana bread pudding was a strange recipe.  I'm still not convinced that I didn't mess something up.  I started out by making a custard over the stove of milk, cream, and sugar.  I toasted bread slices in the oven and submerged them into the custard in a pan.  The way the recipe read you basically have one layer in the middle and the custard all the way around the pan.  It called for a 9 x 13 baking pan but only a layer of two slices.  The bread pudding recipes in the past that I have tried called for cubed bread that filled the whole pan.  I basically ended up with two banana sandwiches submerged in a baking dish of custard.  It looked odd.  Nonetheless, I baked the dish in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes until it looked like the custard was set.  Into the fridge it went for six hours.  After refrigeration, I had to cut the dish into squares and then reheated the squares in butter over the stove...kind of like french toast.

I was very skeptical of this dish.  It was messy and the pan of bread pudding looked awful.  However, after cutting out two squares to actually warm in the butter, it didn't look half bad.  The dessert was pretty tasty as well, kind of a cross between bread pudding, banana pudding, and french toast.  I think I just totally misunderstood something in the process.  It was so unappealing looking that I will just post a picture of the finished dish!

I know I cheated a bit this week.  I promise a protein next weekend!

Recipe Countdown:  62 of 251 recipes

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Sweet Sausages and Peppers

Snow Day...or rather Ice Day!  Middle Georgia doesn't get much snow or ice so when we do, the whole town literally shuts down.  A one dish meal sounded pretty good after a day of no power and board games. 

This recipe sounded easy but once I started looking at the components including peperonata rustica..soffrito (which takes six hours to make)....I figured I better start early.  I made the soffrito and roasted the peppers which were used in the peperonata rustica on Sunday to assemble the components needed.  The chicken also calls for a twelve hour brine and since I started late on Sunday, I decided to assemble everything I needed that night for the next night's dinner after a work day.  Mother nature had different plans and I ended up having all of Monday at home.  I can't say it still wasn't nice to have everything I needed for dinner despite being home all day.  Lately most of my free time has gone to assembling dishes from Ad Hoc so it was nice to have everything already prepared.

The first step was making the soffrito.  I diced Spanish onions and cooked them very slowly in oil for about two and half hours.  The onions caramelized and started to separate from the oil.  I then added a puree of plum tomatoes and cooked for two and half more hours.  The finished dish after draining the oil off, which separates, is soffrito.


I roasted a combo of red, yellow, and orange bell peppers in the oven for the peperonata rustica, peeled them, and cut them into strips.

The next step was to make the Ad Hoc chicken brine of honey, salt, herbs, and lemons.  I then cut my whole chicken into eight pieces.  Let me just say here that I have always had a horrific time trying to butcher a whole chicken.   Well, I am so happy to report that I wasn't the problem at all...it was my poor, cheap, dull knives!  My in-laws gave me an awesome Christmas present which was a new Chef's knife and two ceramic knives.  I pulled that chef's knife out and cutting up that chicken was a breeze.  I am so glad it's not me! 

I brined the chicken for twelve hours and was ready to get to work on dinner.  The peperonata rustica is assembled by combining the roasted peppers, the soffrito, chicken broth, and piment d'Espelette which is ground dried Chile peppers from Spain that had to be ordered over the Internet.  The mixture is simmered over the stove for thirty minutes and is ready for serving.  

I browned the chicken in canola oil with sweet Italian sausages.  The browned chicken and sausages are added to the peperonata rustica and finished off in the oven.  The finished dish was topped with parsley and chives.

For so many steps, I was a little disappointed in my presentation.  The 1/2 cup of soffrito which was used in the pepper dish, which then became a component of the chicken and sausage dish took six hours so I guess I had higher expectations.  Despite the presentation, the flavors were really nice.  I love roasted peppers and the combo of the sweet peppers with the chicken and sausage really accentuated one another.  The chicken was delicious and I am definitely learning the benefit of using the brine in the chicken dishes.  Even the white breast meat is juicy after using the brine and it is usually the most prone to be dry.  While the exact steps of these recipes may not be something I would repeat for time's sake, I think the same dish could be assembled fairly quickly with similar results as long as you used the brine. 

Quail with Lemon and Herbs and Glazed Sweet Potatoes

This was a quick weeknight dish and while I didn't take many pictures of the process, it's two recipes so it does count!  I marinated the quail for about six hours in a marinade of scallions, rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.  I then cooked the quail in a skillet until brown and finished off in the oven.
The sweet potatoes were cut into wedges and cooked in butter in the oven.  I then sprinkled brown sugar on top and caramelized them under the broiler.

This was probably the shortest menu time-wise yet.  Start to finish (not including the marinade time), dinner was ready in thirty minutes.  Thomas Keller isn't exactly one to publish a thirty minute meal book but if he did, this for sure would be in it!  The quail were juicy and lemony like roast chicken.  This recipe is a keeper for all of those birds Matt brings back from his annual hunting trip.  The sweet potatoes (missed getting a good picture) were also really good.  The wedges were tasty and had a crispy topping from being caramelized.   

Recipe Countdown:  57 of 251 recipes