A New Pasta Sauce

Tonight, I thought I'd try making a new and slightly different pasta sauce. This sauce was inspired by a "Shepherd's Sauce" recipe in a Lidia Bastianich cookbook. Starting with her recipe, I added my own little twist which I think turned out well.

My Shepherd's Sauce

serves 6-8 

2lb sweet Italian sausage, bulk or removed from casing
1 med. yellow onion, diced
1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1  15oz. package of part skim milk ricotta cheese
2 tsp. dried basil
1 dozen fresh basil leaves, shredded
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups water


---Brown the sausage in a large heavy bottom pot. Drain most of the grease and then add the diced onion. Stir around and allow to cook for a minute. Add the garlic and stir.
--Add the tomato paste and stir well, cooking for 30 seconds or so. Next add the entire package of ricotta cheese and stir well. Everything will look very thick; don't panic, it's supposed to look that way. Now add the water (white wine or chicken broth can be substituted for the water) and stir. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
--Add the dried basil, salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes and taste. Adjust seasoning. Five minutes before serving, add the shredded fresh basil.

Serve this sauce over rigatoni and top with some grated Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Tandoori Spiced Stir Fry

     This dish was created with the hope of winning a recipe contest sponsored by Hellman's Mayonnaise. I normally don't use mayonnaise when I cook, so this was a big challenge for me.
 I think it turned out well and I hope you enjoy it too.

Chicken Tandoori Spiced Stir Fry


serves 4

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

For the first marinade:
1 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cayennne pepper, optional
Salt to taste

For the second marinade:
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup Hellman's Mayonnaise with Olive Oil
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 Tbs. ginger paste (easily found in jars at Indian grocery stores)
1 tsp. Garam masala (a spice mix also found at Indian grocery stores)
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. cardamom powder
Red food coloring, just a few drops and completely optional
Salt to taste


Vegetable for stir fry:

1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced thin on the diagonal
1 cup of green cabbage ribbons, about 1/2 in. wide
12 or so fresh okra pods, cut into 1/4 in rounds
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 Tbs. peanut oil

3 sliced green onions, as garnish


---For the first marinade, mix the lemon juice, salt and optional cayenne in a medium sized bowl. Add the sliced chicken pieces and stir well. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
---For the second marinade, mix together all of the ingredients in a medium to large bowl. Transfer the chicken strips from the first bowl to the second marinade. Cover and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for another hour or more.
---While chicken is marinating, prepare vegetables for stir fry. When everything is ready, place a wok on medium high heat. Add oil to wok and allow to heat. Place half the chicken in the hot wok and stir frequently. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and place remaining half of chicken in wok and cook just like the first half. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Remove chicken to plate with the rest of the chicken.
---Wipe any excess yogurt out of wok after removing chicken. This will prevent burning. Place wok back onto heat and add remaining peanut oil. Allow to heat for 30 seconds to a minute. Add chopped onion. Stir fry for a minute or two before adding okra and minced garlic. Stir rapidly to allow the okra mucilage to cook out and dry up a bit. Add the carrots and the cabbage. Stir some more and allow to cook for another minute or two before adding the chicken back to the wok. Mix well and allow to cook for another 5 minutes or so.
---If things look like they are trying to stick or burn, turn the heat down a bit and add a couple splashes of water. Stir well. Serve immediately and garnish with green onions.

Chicken with Poblanos & Cream

Chicken with Poblanos & Cream

This recipe is inspired by the one in 'Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen' cookbook (page 324). I left out a few of his ingredients, simply because I didn't have them on hand and some of my measurements are guesstimates...but it still turned out really well.

Serves 4-6

4 to 6 - chicken breasts, boneless & skinless
2 - medium onions, peeled and sliced
6 oz. (or so)- sliced fresh mushrooms, baby portabellas work great
4 - fresh poblano peppers
3/4 cup - fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves, washed and chopped
3 TBS - olive oil
1 TBS - minced fresh garlic (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp - dried oregano
3/4 tsp - dried thyme
Salt to taste
1 pint (16 oz) - heavy whipping cream or half-n-half (if using half-n-half, add some sour cream to help thicken the sauce)
1 cup - water (approximately)

~~ Roast the poblano peppers over an open flame or under the broiler, turning occasionally, until skin is charred on all sides. Place peppers in a large bowl and cover tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Let sit for 5 minutes or so. At this time, the peppers should be easy to peel. Peel the skin off the peppers and remove the stem and seeds. Rinse briefly under cool water to finish removing the seeds and left over bits of the skin. Slice the peppers in strips and set aside.

~~ In a medium sized sauce pan, preferably with a heavy bottom, heat about half the oil over medium high heat and then add the sliced onion. Stir around and cook until slightly browned. Add the garlic, oregano and thyme. Stir for 1 minute or so. Add the pepper strips and heat through. If it looks like things are cooking too fast at this point, add a little of the water and turn the heat down a bit.

~~ At this point, you can scoop out some of the pepper/onion mixture and set it aside for garnish. Add about half of the cream to your sauce pan now, along with the chopped cilantro and maybe a small pinch of salt. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now pour sauce mixture into a blender, cover loosely and blend smooth. If you don't have a blender you can use a food processor or a stick/immersion blender. At this point you need to taste the sauce to check for seasoning. You may need to add a pinch of salt at this point. If the sauce is too spicey for you, add some more cream or sour cream (or even a tiny pinch of sugar) to tone down the heat level. Stir well and set aside.

~~ Turn the oven on to 350 degrees F. Wash and dry the chicken breast with a paper towel. Lightly salt the chicken on all sides. In a large skillet, heat the remainder of the oil and add the chicken. Brown the chicken on all sides. You may have to do this in batches. When the chicken breasts are browned, put them in the bottom of a glass baking dish, making sure not to crowd them too much. Add the mushrooms to the hot skillet and saute until soft. You can add a splash of water to the pan, if it seems too dry. Pour the cooked mushrooms over top of the chicken. Now pour the sauce over the chicken as well. Cover the dish, tightly, with aluminum foil and bake for 30-35 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. When serving the chicken you can garnish it with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro and some of the reserved onion/pepper mixture.

Enjoy!

All American Cheeseburger!

(Sorry about the picture. I can't figure out how to rotate it so that you can see it the way I took it.)

Today's recipe is dedicated to a British friend who is craving an "Authentic American Burger." I hope he likes this and I hope you do too.

Cheeseburgers

serves 2

• 1/2 lb ground beef chuck, 85% lean-15% fat ratio
• 2 TBS softened butter
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 TBS Worcestshire sauce
• 2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• Fresh ground black pepper, to taste 
• 3 TBS cooking oil of your choice (I used a 50/50 mix of olive oil and bacon grease) 

  Mix all ingredients well in a medium sized bowl. Once mixed together, divide meat mixture in half and roll each half in your hands to make a ball.  Flatten each ball to desired thickness on a plate and season once more with salt and pepper.
    Over medium heat, place a heavy bottomed skillet (a.k.a. frying pan for those of you across the pond) and add your cooking oil. When the pan is good and hot, gently add the burger patties. The oil and grease will pop and sputter, so be careful. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, flipping the burgers only once or twice. One minute before removing burgers from pan, add a slice of your choice of cheese (I like cheddar or swiss). Once cheese has melted lightly, remove burgers to a paper towel lined plate to rest.

To Serve

     On a separate plate, assemble your burger accessoriess: sliced onion, sliced tomato, dill pickle slices, lettuce and of course the all important hamburger bun. Place burger on bottom half of bun and top with your choice of the accessories. I like to use onion, pickle, lettuce and a small dollop of tomato ketchup.

    The final accessory that I like to add for a true American experience is a nice cold milkshake.

Strawberry Milkshake

• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 scoops strawberry ice cream
• 4 or 5 fresh strawberries, sliced
• Dollop of whipped cream

  Place strawberries, ice cream and milk in a blender and blend for one minute. Pour into a tall glass, garnish with a dollop of whipped cream and a couple of strawberry slices.
*If you want a thicker milkshake, just increase the amount of ice cream.

Again, sorry about the picture.

Butter Chicken

I don't have a picture for this post, but I just wanted to share my all time favorite Indian dish, Butter Chicken. As with all of my recipes, feel free to make any substitutions you want.
 Indian Butter Chicken
 Ingredients:   
1/4 pint/150ml natural yogurt
2 ounces/50g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp garam masala
 4 green cardamom pods or 1 /4 tsp cardamom powder
 1 tsp ginger pulp
 1 tsp garlic pulp
 14 ounce/400g can tomatoes
1 1/4 tsp salt
 2 tbsp (or 3 oz) tomato paste
 2 pounds/1kg chicken, skinned, boned and cubed
 3 ounces/75g butter
1 tbsp corn oil
 2 medium onions, sliced
 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
 4 tbsp cream or more to taste

   How to make butter chicken : Place the yogurt, ground almonds, all the dry spices, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and salt in a mixing bowl and blend together thoroughly. Put the chicken into a large mixing bowl and pour over the yogurt mixture. Set aside.

 Melt together the butter and oil in a medium wok or frying pan. Add the onions and fry for about 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir around the pan for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Add the chicken mixture and stir-fry for about 7 to 10 minutes.

You may have to cook the chicken in batches. Stir in about half of the coriander and mix well. Pour over the cream and stir in well. Bring to the boil. Garnish the indian butter chicken with the remaining chopped coriander to serve the chicken curry.

My Sunday Gravy

Just like most Americans I love, love, love Italian food. In a lot of Italian-American homes, especially on the east coast, it is fairly traditional to have a type of Marinara sauce called Sunday Gravy or just Gravy. Usually served on Sundays with pasta, this is a rich long simmering red sauce that is almost indescribable(?) in it's complexity of flavor. Complex in flavor, yes...but simple in execution. Here is my version.

4 beef shank steaks, with bone & bone marrow
1 pkg of six sweet Italian sausages
12 home made Italian style meatballs, browned (recipe to come soon)
1 4oz can of tomato paste
4 large cans (13 oz, maybe) tomato sauce or whole tomatoes
4 cups beef broth
Salt & pepper to taste
2 TBS dried oregano
1 TBS dried basil
2 tsp dried fennel, optional
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes, or more to taste

Place everything in a very large pot and simmer on low for at least 3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking or burning. If level gets too low, add some water or more broth. Go easy on adding salt to sauce; as the sauce simmers and intesifies in flavor the salt from the canned goods become more noticeable.
This makes approximately 4-6 quarts of gravy. Leftovers freeze well for later.

Bon Appettit!

Steak & Taters!

My cousin and I dearly love to cook together. Being as much of a foodie as I am, she was excited to check out a nearby butcher shop that specialized in local, pasture fed beef. So once we gave in to temptation, and purchased some beautiful steaks for dinner, we had to figure out what side dishes needed to go with these steaks. We tossed plenty of ideas around before settling on a classic. Potatoes. Steak and potatoes, in some form or other, just seems to be a marriage made in heaven.

Well, we didn't want just plain old baked potatoes so we found a recipe for potatoes au gratin. Of course we couldn't just follow the recipe as it was printed, so we added our own twist to the recipe, white truffle oil. I'm pretty sure we aren't the first people to add truffle oil to potatoes au gratin, but it felt like a new discovery to us.

So, here's the recipe for the rest of you. If you've never tried white truffle oil, please give it a try.I'm certain you won't be sorry.

Truffled Potatoes Au Gratin
serves 8-10


4 quarts water
2 tablespoons olive oil
6-8 medium potatoes, peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, minced (or more to taste)
1 and a half cups heavy whipping cream
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, grated
2 tablespoons white truffle oil (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350. Place the water in a large pot and add the peeled potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender, but not fully cooked. Drain potatoes and let cool in a bowl of cold water.

While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they are lightly brown and wilted. Set aside.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them with either a food processor or a mandolin. You want the slices to be about 1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch in thickness.

Place one layer of potato slices on the bottom of a 8 x 11.5 inch baking dish. Thinly spread a layer of the onions on top of the potatoes,then add another layer of potatoes. Continue like this until you are just barely to the top of the dish. Add your salt and pepper now.

Pour the heavy cream over top of the potatoes. Drizzle the white truffle oil over top of the potatoes. Spread all the cheese over the top of the potatoes and place dish on top of a cookie sheet, in case of a spill over.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until top is golden brown and bubbly. Let rest for ten minutes before serving.