SIDE DISH~ BRUSSELS SPROUTS with BALSAMIC VINEGAR CARAMELIZED ONIONS

This dish is rich, and slightly sweet from the onions, a tiny bite from the cayenne, and lots of delicious caramelizing! It's A-Mazing. 

OK, so I'll admit, my first choice for this dish was not Brussels sprouts. This developed out of necessity, because my original ingredient was sweet peas. But my sweet peas were rotten. Shoot! It was a last minute thing - I looked in the fridge, my choices were broccoli, collard greens, Chinese cabbage, Brussels sprouts and green chard. The best fit I saw, was Brussels sprouts. 

Ingredients:

serves 4

2 large yellow or white onions

2 oz pancetta or bacon

Brussels sprouts for 4 - about 1 lb

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp white pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

To begin, saute the pancetta (or chopped bacon) in the butter and olive oil for 3 minutes.

Add the onion. Reduce to low, and stir frequently. You do not want to brown the onions. You are caramelizing them. Slow cooking. 

Keep stirring ....

Almost there ...

OK, now add the vinegars, salt, pepper, sugar, cayenne and water. Bring to a boil. Cook on medium-high until all liquid is reduced. 

After the liquid was reduced, I moved the onions aside, and I added the bs and sauteed them on med-low until golden.

Serve immediately.  

KILLER APPETIZER - FRIED HAM & CHEESE CIGARS

This is a delicious, hearty, and super simple party food! I like ham, but like it even more after it's taken a roll around in a pan for a minute, getting all crispy and golden. These ham & cheese cigars are so fast to make, and they will be THE item that disappears fastest at the next party! 

Ingredients:

Mozzerella cheese sticks

Thinly sliced deli style ham

Enough olive oil to generously coat your skillet

Depending on where you get your ham, the size of the slices will vary quite a bit. Basically, you'll need enough to wrap around the cheese stick, completely covering it, and providing 2 layers of ham evenly all the way around the cheese. 

The cheese must be cold, and keep refrigerated until you are ready to prepare it so that it doesn't melt too much in the pan. Ideally, the ham will get crispy and the cheese inside will stay relatively intact. 

Coat the inside of a skillet with olive oil -- When the pan is hot, put the cigars into the pan, seam side down, and cook on med-high turning frequently as they brown. When done, remove promptly and drain on paper towel. You can serve these warm, but I prefer them served cold because the cheese firms up and they are easier to eat and I think the texture is better. Also when cold you can cut into smaller pieces easily.

You can get creative with these, and cut thin slivers of pickle and wrap that inside with the cheese, or add pepperoni .. or hot peppers .. or ?

TUNA POKE WITH FENNEL FRONDS

I'm not a big fan of seaweed. So when making Poke last night, I wondered how fennel fronds would be as a substitution, since seaweed is a pretty prominent ingredient in Poke. It's mostly texture and appearance, and the fronds don't really have a strong fennel flavor, so why not? I had a gorgeous piece of Ahi from the Santa Monica Seafood Market, and I wanted Poke. 

It worked out wonderful -- Fresh and clean, a nice adaptation. 

Ingredients:

Serves 2-4

6 ounces sushi grade Ahi, cubed/diced (whatever your size preference)

4 TBSP finely diced sweet Maui or Walla Walla onion

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp canola oil

1/4 cup chopped fennel fronds

1/2 tsp lemon juice 

1 tsp soy sauce

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Serve at room temperature with your favorite crackers. 

Makes 4 nice appetizers, or 2 really nice appetizers.

The texture of the fronds did the trick, added a bit of freshness to the recipe, along with the tiny squeeze of lemon I added -- not lemony and no real fennel flavor. Just fresh tuna with no fishy seaweed.

RIGATONI WITH FRIED EGG (OR TOFU?) AND ROASTED VEGETABLES

I'm getting over a cold and have just been dragging all week. It's fast approaching dinner time, I have a toddler that is getting grouchier by the minute, and I have no energy for long ingredient lists or lengthy prep times. I also have not visited the grocery all week, so my protein choices would have been some sort of frozen meat (which would have to be thawed in the microwave because I didn't have time to do it slowly, like I prefer) or eggs, or tofu. 

So, I grabbed the TOFU Cookbook for inspiration. And I find a lovely recipe, Rigatoni with Fried Tofu, Roasted Red Peppers and Olives. Sounds easy enough, and it was, except my husband doesn't like olives, and I prefer to use fresh roasted peppers, as opposed to jarred like they use in the recipe. And, while I was at it, I threw in some sweet onion and a yellow squash because I like to sneak in as many vegetables as I can. Oh, and a few eggs. So in the end it was a completely different recipe than the one in the book. This is so typical of me though.  

My altered ingredient list:

serves 4

1 red bell pepper

1/2 sweet onion

1 yellow squash or zucchini 

1 pound rigatoni

16 ounces tofu or 8 eggs or an equal combination  of both

2 TBSP canola oil

3 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP soy sauce

1 large garlic clove

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt & pepper to taste

I start by cutting the vegetables, then coating them lightly with oilve oil, add a dash of salt & pepper and roast at 450 for around 30 minutes or until they look like this (below)

I know not everyone is a fan of tofu. That is fine, just use fried egg instead. In my opinion though, I think they taste very similar anyway.  In this recipe, I actually used both fried egg and fried tofu. 

Fry tofu in the canola oil until golden brown and then transfer to a large bowl.

Drizzle the tofu with the soy sauce. Toss well and set aside. In a large pot, bring several quarts of water to a boil and cook the rigatoni. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water for later. 

Dice the roasted vegetables. Saute the chopped garlic in 1 TBSP of the olive oil over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the diced vegetables and saute for 2 minutes more. 

Add the 1/2 cup reserved pasta water and stir, then pour over the tofu (which is sitting in that large bowl waiting for it's veggies and pasta!) 

Toss in the cooked pasta and the parmesan and mix. Drizzle with remaining 2 TBSP olive oil. 

TURDUCKEN ANYONE?

TURDUCKEN = A chicken in a duck in a turkey

I'm thinking about ordering one of these for Thanksgiving this year. Or, maybe I'll just make my own. I know, they sound weird and turd is in the name, but still. I'm curious. We're huge fans of Louisiana's fine food ... so I'm assuming that they're delicious. Has anyone had one? What did you think?  

Anyway. If you also were wondering where in the heck to get a Turducken, you are in luck. Cajun Grocer is a gold mine for people like us! Boudin. Turducken. Gumbo. Sigh. 

SIDE DISH - KEN'S CHINESE FIVE SPICE ASPARAGUS

About a year (or two?) ago I was on the phone with my best friend and she mentioned that her husband made this great asparagus on the grill ... 

He seasoned it with Chinese Five Spice. Interesting, I thought. That was pretty much the end of it.

A long time later -- I remembered it out of the blue. Maybe because it was interesting, or maybe just for no reason at all, but I thought it would make a great "Side Dish" post. 

You'll need:

1 bunch young asparagus

1 tsp olive oil

1 TBSP Butter

1 TBSP Chinese Five Spice

Salt & Pepper to taste

(optional - and only if you like sweet stuff) 1 tsp Brown Sugar

I was too lazy to uncover the grill. So, I steamed my asparagus. 

Then I flash-browned it in the olive oil & butter.

The five spice, as  you can see, is mostly warm spices, so if you liked things sweet, a generous pinch of sugar (or brown sugar!) would go excellent with the flavors. My husband does not like sweet foods though, so I just used the five spice and s&p.

After the quick saute, dust with the five spice powder (and sugar, if desired) and toss. It's different, intensely flavorful, exotic, easy and GOOD.

ROASTED TOMATOES; CAN YOU DO CANNED?

Yesterday I was talking with my mom on the phone, and she mentions that she has a surplus of tomatoes from the garden on her counter and they were getting soft and she didn't know what to do with them. Of course I said, Roast them! 

After talking about it with her, it really made me crave some roasted tomato soup myself, but I had no fresh tomatoes, and the baby was taking a nap, so I couldn't go to the store. Then I wondered, hmm ... how would canned tomatoes turn out?  It's worth a try?

Oh what the heck, add the juice too! I love the syrupy juice after roasting tomatoes :)

Hmmm. I shouldn't have added the juice. It burned. No big deal really, the dark portions are easily removed from the parchment paper. The tomatoes though turned out really well! 

Just to compare, when the baby woke up we went to the grocery and bought a few pounds of over ripe heirlooms and came home to roast them (btw, I prefer 375 for about an hour or until brown and collapsed ... the higher temps often burn the juice, see above pics, argh!) And with this roast, I also added onion and garlic because those are also yummy roasted!

The verdict - the fresh were better, only because they had their skins to hold more of the syrupy juice in, but really, they were both fantastic.

 

And then there was soup. Ahhhh.......

SIDE DISH - BON APPETIT'S CITRUS-GLAZED CARROTS

The stars were aligned just perfectly I guess. 

I've been focusing on side dishes lately. Then, the other night I was reading Thursday Night Smackdown's First Thursday Challenge and while I usually don't participate in these food challenges -- merely because I only have time to cook my own stuff and no time for other people's "requests" --  I thought it sounded kinda fun. Mostly because you got to choose what you made. Then, while thumbing through the Bon Appetit Nov/08 Thanksgiving Special issue I see a pretty picture of a plate of carrots. The challenge was for something orange. It's a side dish. And, it looks easy and good! 

The ingredients are simple, just carrots, sugar, orange juice, lime juice, some zest, butter and parsley. If I can say this - the lime juice definitely makes this special. If you don't have limes, go get some. It's important. The flavor is amazing, and without the lime it would just be the same-ol glazed carrots your grandma made. This recipe is actually bright and fresh and these would be good cold or hot. 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled, cut on diagonal into 1/4 inch thick slices

2 cups (or more) water

1 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 teaspoons orange zest (grated peel, no white part)

2 teaspoons lime zest

1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley

Start by boiling the carrots, 2c water, and all ingredients except the parsley for about 10 minutes or until carrots are crisp-tender.

 

Remove the carrots to a plate separate from the broth and let the broth continue to boil until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Let both rest/cool. 

I made mine last night and took it out today to finish it. Heat the liquid to a boil in a skillet, then add the carrots and cook over medium heat until the liquid is reduced to a syrup. Serve hot, or cold. I ate a few bites when it was right out of the pan, and it was very good, then put it in the fridge for later. I just got it out while writing this post, and I must say I prefer this cold. In fact, I've eaten almost the entire bowl! 

 

The end result is a very orange-flavored firm vegetable, with sweetness, and the lime flavor is amazing. The carrot taste is not strong at all, the citrus has overpowered the carrot taste. I know it sounds weird, but I think this would also make a good ice cream flavor.