Suppli al Telefono

2Amy's here in DC has these on their menu and they're really good. Deep fried balls of risotto with a piece of mozzarella tucked inside. Frying them gives the croquettes a crisp outer shell that you crack open to get at the creamy insides. I'm not an at-home deep fryer but after seeing a baked version on another food blog I decided to try that. Also, I spent pretty much the whole time these were baking trying to figure out a way to photograph a smell. It was probably the chicken stock and onion in the risotto that made the kitchen smell really good.

The idea here is to make a bunch of risotto (arborio rice), let it cool, throw in some bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and an egg. Scoop up a bunch of the mix and tuck a cube of mozzarella into the middle. Put all the formed balls on a plate and chill them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Then roll the balls in bread crumbs (seasoned with S&P) and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes, turning half way through.

I followed the directions on the risotto for preparing it, which called for sauteeing 1/4 cup of chopped onions before adding the rice and using chicken stock for the liquid. My finished product tasted a lot more flavorful than 2Amy's and this might be the difference. They probably prepare the risotto differently (no onion, etc).

At 2Amy's they don't give you marinara sauce, but that's really the perfect condiment for these. Maybe they don't want them to come off as cheese sticks, but these are so much more than that.

One other trick, for the mozzarella I actually just cut up a couple of sticks of string cheese.











Final verdict- these are great and all, but it was a lot to clean up for a version that when all is said and done can't live up to the fried version at 2Amy's. Also I froze most of them and I have no idea if they'll be any good later. I'll throw a couple in the toaster oven and try to bring them back to life.

Just a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

What do you get when you slather spicy brown mustard on two slices of whole grain bread, layer on cave-aged Gruyere cheese, sweet caramelized onions and dry salami then grill that sammy up?

Behold...




Inspired by The Kitchen Sink


Round two (one night later): Substituted fire roasted red peppers for the mustard.

Pretzels

I found bread-and-honey.blogspot.com when someone linked to a post about the broccoli package with tiny green human heads photoshopped into the florets. It's a quality blog. That's where I got the recipe for these pretzels. They got the recipe from smittenkitchen.com who got the recipe from a 1994 issue of Bon Appetit, no doubt modified along the way...
If... no, when I make these again I'll remember to add a little honey and have nutella on hand.

2 3/4 cups bread flour (I used regular all-purpose flour and it worked just fine)
1 envelope quick-rising yeast (or regular active-dry yeast- it will just have to rise a little longer)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (about) hot water (125°F to 130°F)
Cornmeal
5 cups water
1/8 cup baking soda
1 tablespoons sugar
1 egg, beaten
Coarse salt (I used kosher salt)

Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Gradually add the hot water. I used just a little over a cup. Mix with a wooden spoon until its combined into a ball. Turn the dough out into another bowl thats been coated with some vegetable oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel; let dough rise in a warm draft-free area until it's doubled in volume, about 35 minutes.

Punch down the dough and knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 8 pieces. From here you can shape them into pretzels, balls, knots, whatever. Place the 8 pretzels on a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with a towel for another 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray another baking sheet (really, just use one and line with foil) with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Bring 5 cups of water to a bowl in 2 qt saucepan and then lower the heat so it's not rolling. Add baking soda and sugar. The water will foam up a bunch from the baking soda and then subside, so just add it slowly. Add 2 pretzels at a time and poach them for a minute, flipping them half way through. Remove them with a slotted spoon and line them up on the baking sheet.

Brush the pretzels with the egg wash, sprinkle generously with coarse (kosher) salt. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. I forgot to set a timer, so I just went by eye and took them out when they looked nice and golden.

After the second rise

Poaching

poached, egg washed, salted, ready to bake

Pan Seared Scallops with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

I got this recipe from CookingForEngineers.com. They break recipes down into flow charts that help with timing the different components of a recipe. For example, it tells you to start boiling the water for the pasta then do another step that you'll complete right when it's time to throw the pasta in the water.

Enough of the tech talk... This dish is both hearty and light, strong and bold yet creamy and smooth. The meaty scallops are substantial and filling but won't weigh you down like a heavy steak. Their buttery flavor contrasts perfectly with the bite of the cayenne and lemon zest in the roasted red pepper sauce. Serve over linguine or fettuccine for a great Sunday dinner.

4 large sea scallops
2 Tbsp butter
1 large red bell pepper
4oz sour cream
pinch of salt
1/8tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
pinch of lemon zest

Sauce:
Cut the red pepper in quarters and place skin side up on a foil covered toaster-oven tray. Turn the toaster oven up as high as it goes and roast the peppers for about 15 minutes, or until the skin gets large black charred spots. Turn off the oven. Pile the peppers in the middle of the foil and wrap the foil into a pouch. Let the peppers steam in the pouch for 10 minutes. Peel and discard the charred skin from the peppers. Combine the peppers, sour cream, salt, cayenne, parsley and lemon zest in a blender, blend until smooth and set aside.

Scallops:
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat until it stops foaming. When the butter starts to brown and release a nutty aroma, place the scallops in the pan on one of their flat sides. Sear on each side for about 2 minutes. Keep a close eye on them while searing. You want them to get some dark, crusty caramelization but don't want them to cook so long that they get tough.

Serve the scallops over pasta, spoon the red pepper sauce over top and garnish with some more chopped parsley.

Roasted Peppers

Seared Scallops

Tomato Soup

Tropical storm Hannah is rolling through, and even though it's still 80° out, a rainy day means two things: Grilled cheese and tomato soup. Somehow I managed to set off my fire alarm while making the soup, but that's neither here nor there.

1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil shortly before serving.

I served the soup at this point. You could go a step further and blend the soup, but I liked it chunky. If I were a vegetarian I'd go as far as to call it meaty.

Roasted tomatoes

Cooking the celery, carrots, onions and garlic

fresh basil

Is it soup yet?

Ta da!

Update: It actually tastes even better when blended...

Braised Short Ribs

I got this one from Mark Bittman. His recipe calls for an onion, but I didn't have one so I used the mushrooms. I made this once before with the onion and I think it came out better that time.

4 beef short ribs
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large dried chili, chopped
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
2 shots espresso
3/4 cup red wine

Rehydrate the mushrooms in a bowl of water. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. In a heavy pot, heat some oil on medium high heat until the oil just starts to smile. Sear the ribs, meaty side down until they get a nice crust then take them out and set aside. If they're large, sear on a couple sides.

Lower the heat and in the same pot cook the garlic, chili and mushrooms for a couple minutes. Save some of the mushroom liquid. Pour in the wine, coffee and mushroom liquid. Raise the heat and reduce the liquid by half.

Lower the heat, put the ribs back in and cover the pot. Let it all simmer for 2 to infinity hours. The longer you let it simmer the more tender the ribs become. If your doorbell rings, it's your neighbors wanting to know what smells so good. As Mark Bittman says, these things are just sexy. Make them for someone you love.



Here's a link to Bittman's video blog on the NYTimes website where he makes this recipe: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=b864e7ab2f2c7ed5ba373917696c67b14555cc2f

Chili Garlic Lime Shrimp and Chile Roasted Mushrooms

I got a good tip from the guy at the fish counter- always season your meat/fish/whatever before you put olive oil on it. It sounds like it makes sense to rub with olive oil first so that the seasoning sticks, but if you do that the oil forms a barrier and the seasoning doesn't actually season the food.

So here we go-

Chili Garlic Lime Shrimp

1 Tbsp chopped dried chili
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 pound shrimp
1 lime

Chop up the dried chili, removing the seeds if you don't want it to be too spicy. Clean and de-vein the shrimp, pat dry. Season the shrimp with S&P, the garlic and the chili. Place the shrimp in a zip loc bag with about 1 and 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil. Let marinate for 30 minutes. Right before cooking squeeze in the juice from half of the lime.

Heat a large skillet on med-high and add just enough olive oil to coat the pan. Dump the contents of the zip loc bag into the pan. Let the shrimp cook on each side for just a few minutes. Only about 5-6 minutes in all, depending on the size. Plate them up and squeeze some more juice from the other half of the lime.


Chili Roasted Mushrooms

1 Cup oyster mushrooms
1 Cup cremini mushrooms
1 Tbsp chopped dried chili
1 small shallot, chopped
fresh parmesean

You can substitute other interesting mushrooms as available. Preheat the oven to 425'. Chop the mushrooms into large pieces and mix together with the chili, shallot, S&P and 1 and 1/2 Tbsp olive oil.

Dump the mushrooms into a roasting dish and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Plate up the roasted mushrooms and grate some fresh parmesean on top. Goat cheese also goes well on top.

Seared tuna steak with wasabi mayo sauce

You can get a decent frozen tuna steak from trader joes. Just let it defrost in the fridge overnight and...

Marinade:
soy sauce
sesame oil
rice wine vinegar and/or mirin
(or white wine vinegar and lemon juice in my case since I had neither)

Mix this stuff in a zip lock bag, throw in the tuna, and let it marinate on the counter for about 30 minutes. You want it to warm up a little.

Heat a small amount of sesame oil in a skillet on Med-high heat. Once hot, put the tuna in the skillet and sear it for about a minute on each side. Seared tuna is best served seared. Rare. So don't overdo it. Shown here served with jasmine rice and the wasabi mayo sauce.

Sauce:
Wasabi paste
Mayonnaise
Soy sauce- just a little bit



This steak was about a pound. Which is easily two servings.

Q: When is a salad no longer a salad?

A: When it involves rendered bacon fat.

Here's a pretty simple salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. (Thank you firefox spell check for telling me I don't know how to spell vinegarette.)

Salad:
1 bag mixed field greens
3 slices thick cut bacon
1 package white button mushrooms, sliced.
some goat cheese

Dressing:
dijon mustard
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
lemon juice
S&P

Cut the bacon into ~1/2" pieces. Cook in heavy cast iron pan (is there any other kind?). Scoop out the bacon and drain on a paper towel. Sautee the mushrooms in the hot bacon fat. Scoop these out and set aside with the bacon when they're done.

Combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk together. Dress the salad. Toss the salad. Add the bacon, mushrooms, and goat cheese. Toss again. Serve.

Tapas

This post originally said "stay tuned to see how I made this," but you might as well just read the sheet of paper cause I'm not writing anything up. I just adapted from some recipes in a tapas cookbook and some recipes online.

Lime drizzled shrimp
Chorizo in red wine
Sauteed garlic mushrooms
Spinach/chorizo and spinach/potato empanadas