Stuffed Mushroom Salad

This dish was actually inspired by the dinner we had the night before, my wife and I had been trying to figure out what we wanted for lunch, and she said "the only thing I want is more of that spinach stuff from last night" unfortunately we had used our entire supply of spinach in that one dish, and no, this was not a small amount either.  We started talking about the different components of the dish, and she reminded me that we had some fresh lettuce from our garden. And then this was born. 

Quiche

It’s been a long time since I actually posted anything, so I was looking for something to write about that might really get people excited to go cook something. Scanning though my images I stumbled across this Quiche, which I had nearly forgotten about (of course that is a clever way of saying I had forgotten it, and only remembered about it because of the picture) I was surprised a little by the fact that it had not already made its way onto this blog, surprised because when I had first made it, I had been extraordinarily excited about the prospect of sharing it with all of you. not to mention the picture is nearly perfect.

The inspiration behind this dish is not all that exciting. I had been wanting to make a Quiche all week, so when I got a morning off, I turned to my wife and said “how do you feel about quiche for breakfast” naturally she agreed so off to the kitchen we went.  

Now Quiches a pretty simple in concept and construction, and this one is no different, so I’ll just walk you through the steps. To begin with a quiche is basically an egg pie. This one is eggs bacon green bell pepper, onion and cheese, stuffed in a pie shell and baked.  The pie shell is very important because without that it’s a frittata, and there are much more fun things to be done with frittatas then this. Hopefully we will get into that someday, maybe after I finish the mozzarella post I promised. Anyways, the best pie shells are home made of course, what I usually do when I want to make a Quiche is make a pie for dessert the night before, make a double batch of dough and keep it in the fridge. You can also freeze pie dough without really hurting it, but you do have to wait for it to defrost.

Once you have your Pie shell, preferably baked so it doesn’t get soggy on you, and you don’t have to overcook your eggs (this is a very important point as there a few crimes as severe as over cooked eggs). Blend you eggs with some cream (Milk works too) and whatever fillings you like, broccoli is pretty traditional, and you can never go wrong with bacon! I like my quiche stuffed pretty full with veggies, but simple and plain always works as well.

Here is the part where I wish I could be more specific, unfortunately eggs are extremely delicate, and ovens are temperamental, you will have to do some experimenting with yours to find what works best for you. Generally I set my oven to 350 and let it preheat, then put my quiche in for 8-10 minutes, at this point I check it and judge if it needs to cook longer or not. Sometimes that enough, other days my oven is less cooperative, you will just have to do some experimenting and see where yours lands. Yes that means you, now! Always remember to have fun with it, never get so caught up in the direction that it stops being your own.

Mediterranean Flair

So there really isn’t much of a story behind this dish, but it was a lot of fun to make, looks good, and tastes even better. The Idea was sparked from a gallon of feta cheese I have in my fridge, yes I have a gallon of feta, that’s not the important part here. In addition my wife had just pulled a zucchini out of the garden and was looking for something to do with it, as always this got my wheels turning. While my wife sliced and pan-fried the zucchini, I made a rice pilaf with turmeric and lemon, then cut some thick slices of tomato and asked my wife to cook them for just a second on the skillet, just to soften them a little and draw out some sugars.

When it came time to plate I cut the top off of a small plastic cup, which I used as a ring mold. I filled the cup, 2/3 with the pilaf, and then topped it off with feta cheese. Carefully removing the ring, I created three more stacks,( you do have to move quickly or else the dish will be cold before you can serve it.) I then completed the stacks with the tomato and zucchini. I finished the dish off by dressing the whole thing in a little bit of lemon juice.

Hopefully this dish will inspire you to take a second look at some of the things in your kitchen and come up with some creative and beautiful ways to put them together.

Deconstructed Banana Split

Deserts have long been the most terrifying realm of cooking for me. Many of the techniques and flavors I use just don’t seem to translate well into the realm of meal finishing deliciousness, however I have been practicing, and I believe I have been making some progress. Exhibit A, Deconstructed, Bruléed Banana Split

This delicious masterpiece came about because of a brulée torch I was given for my birthday (yes most of the gifts people give me are toys for my kitchen, and yes that is one of the coolest things ever) It started off with just the bananas and a swoosh of Nutella on a plate, but then I decided I could top that, no pun intended . . . okay maybe it was a little intentional. I pulled out some fresh mango and made mango syrup on the stove, essentially just mango, water and sugar. I then put a smooth layer of Nutella in the bottom of one of my desert dishes, followed by vanilla Ice cream, the mango syrup, and finally the two banana halves which I coated generously in sugar, then bruléed with the torch.

The art of bruléeing is still fairly new to me me (meaning I haven’t used it in many dishes) and I am currently looking for new and inventive ways to incorporate it into my cooking, so please feel free to share any tips or suggestions in the comments. Enjoy, and this week, try to take something familiar and make it new!  Brulée

Pizza

Originating in Italy, pizza is one of the greatest culinary inventions to come to America. Of course that is just my opinion. You don’t have to agree of course, though I wouldn’t tell anyone because you might get stoned. This is just one of the Pizzas I have come up with lately which is more traditional then the popular American style pizzas of today, if you haven’t tried one I highly recommend it. For this pizza I took a homemade Italian bread dough, but you could use any pizza dough you like, this is just a little more authentic, I cooked the dough in the oven, on my pizza stone at high heat until it was cooked pretty much all the way through, I then coated it with olive oil, put on some thick slices of fresh homemade mozzarella (Don’t worry, I am working on the tutorial now) spread some fresh tomato around, the sprinkled the top with sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Once everything was put together it went back in the oven just until the cheese started to caramelize. Remember to keep the oven hot, you will get a better crust, and more flavorful topping. The point of this method is to try and mimic a pizza oven in your home kitchen. It doesn’t take very long to cook a pizza this way so watch it closely.  of course you can put anything you want on top of your pizza, my favorite is a good barbecue chicken, but there is something uniquely special about the original napoleon flavor

Fruit Tart

Let me start out by saying, though there are some things I bake regularly, I am not a baker, or a pastry chef. This is probably my single biggest short coming when it comes to cooking.  That being said, my wife has spent a lot of time working with pastries and helps me make up for this lack of experience. Actually she is mostly responsible for this post. You see my wife has a tradition of having fruit tart instead of cake for her birthday. So, here is the story It was my wife’s birthday and we were looking to buy a fruit tart for her, and trust me, we searched just about everywhere, apparently people around here just don’t appreciate that kind of thing. Anyways, we eventually came to the conclusion that we had to make our own, digging through our collection of food stuff . . . yes we have a lot of really random food stuff in the kitchen pretty much all the time. . .  we discovered that we had everything except some berry’s and kiwi, so we went to work. I made the pastry cream while my wife made the Pate Sucrѐe , or the pastry dough and made a chocolate crust. We then put it all together and put the fruit on top. It was delicious and definitely better than we could have found in a store .

*Edit* to clarify, yes we had to go to the store to get the kiwi since, as I mentioned that was one of the few things we didn't have.

Good morning Leftovers

So, you made some baked potatoes last night and need something to do with them? Here is a really fun idea I came up with. I was looking for something fun to bring to my wife in bed one morning, I started looking through the fridge and pantry when I stumbled across some baked potatoes, eggs, and some left over pico de gallo. I hollowed out the potatoes, filled them with wiped eggs, then stuck them in the oven, meanwhile mixed the insides of the potatoes, with the remainder of the egg, then put them in the skillet to turn into a sort of potato cake. Finally I took the pico de gallo, and modified it into more of a true salsa, by adding roosted peppers and cooking it down, I also add grape fruit juice just to keep it interesting. I then plated it and presented it to my loving wife. It has now become one of our favorite breakfasts. its super easy to put together and makes a classic

Blackberry Rhubarb Pie

So let me start out by saying that
rhubarb is basically my favorite vegetable of all time. Having a lifelong love of all things sour, the day I discovered rhubarb was . . . well let’s just say I learned that my life was far from complete before that point, and leave it at that. Anyways most people are familiar with the delicious creation which is the strawberry rhubarb pie, which was actually my first introduction to this incredible gift from mother earth, and the universe in general, though it wasn’t long before I discovered that it was even more fantastic in it raw forum, but I digress. So, one day I was looking at different pies and suddenly I got the idea, what if I used blackberries instead of strawberries, here was my reasoning; one of the things that turns good food into great food is contrast. The biggest reason strawberries, and rhubarb go so well together, is the sweet and sour contrast, blackberries having long been my favorite berry, and being generally sweeter then strawberries, seemed to me to be a natural improvement. I then thought “you know I bet I can make this better” and proceeded to make a lemon whipped cream to put on top. This experiment of course turned out brilliantly, and I highly recommend giving it a try at your next picnic, or barbeque. Just take your favorite strawberry rhubarb pie recipe, and substitute blackberries. (Note: depending on the recipe you may have to add more liquid, just make sure you keep all of your ratios balanced and you should be fine.)

Trying something new

Ever Had shark before? I hadn't until a couple of days ago. I was in the grocery store, looking at shrimp actually, when I noticed that they had a chunk of shark sitting there. I said to myself, “hey I kind of want to try shark, and I am sure I can figure out a good way to cook it”, so, I turned to my wife and said "Hey want to buy some shark" and so we went home with some shark to try. Now not wanting to be totally unprepared I did a little research before I began cooking, and learned a couple of things. First thing I discovered was that sharks have a very strange metabolism, because of this, if the shark is not cleaned properly right after being caught can cause the meat to become saturated in ammonia. The second thing I found out was that, my shark had not been handled properly when it was caught. I fixed the problem by removing the blood line, then soaking the fish in a mixture of white vinegar, and lemon juice, which was quite effective. having heard that shark can be similar in texture to tuna, or swordfish, I figured, the best way to cook this thing would be like a steak; however being that I already knew the shark has been miss handled, and having no way of knowing how gross this miss handling really was, I knew I had to make sure it was cooked all the way through. I decided I would implement an Asian cooking style in this preparation, slicing my meat supper thin, I pulled out my wok and turned the temperamental on my temperamental stove to high. After seasoning the shark I tossed it in the pan, where it nearly instantly cooked through, after no more than a minute my shark was cooked to perfection! I decided to serve it as a sort of appetizer, over a lemon pilaf, with a pineapple chipotle salsa, and a coconut sauce. The shark had a very strong flavor, so it pared nicely with the other intense flavors on the plate, over all it was a great dish!

Moral of the story, never be afraid to try something new.

 

Artisan S’mores

Imagine yourself, sitting by the campfire, your family, maybe some close friends sitting by, that wonderful smell of campfire in the air, marshmallow roster in hand preparing one of America’s favorite summertime snacks. I speak of course of the s’more, who doesn’t love biting into a delicious sandwich of Gram Cracker, marshmallow, and most importantly, chocolate! But wait, what if we could make it better? Ridiculous you say? I say let’s try it . . . actually I already did, and it totally works. The Idea is simple, (actually my wife stole it, from an add in a grocery store, but don’t tell anyone) I started out by adding fresh cut strawberry’s right on top of my marshmallow, It was every bit as delicious as that sounds like it should be. Here is where things got dangerous though, I started thinking, what if I melted the chocolate first, so I promptly grabbed a Dove brand chocolate and tossed it on the fire (due to the fact that Dove chocolates are packaged in individual aluminum wrappers, this works quite well, just don’t try to grab it with your bear hands when you take it off). I then roasted my marshmallow and proceeded to assemble my s’more, very artfully squeezing a steam of chocolate all over my strawberry. The results follow.

Now I think this idea could be taken even further, try using chocolate gram crackers with a white chocolate sauce, or maybe different fruit. Use your imagination and get creative, who knows what could happen. what every you do, give this a try before summer runs out!

Milk

Milk is probably one of the most important foods on the whole planet! Okay maybe I am exaggerating a little being that only 35% of the human population can even drink Milk past the age of seven; you have to admit though, milk is pretty incredible stuff. I mean think about it some of the greatest foods on earth would not exist without milk, we use it to make cheese, yogurt, butter, we can’t forget butter, and most importantly Ice cream, and let’s face it, without ice cream, life would just stop. That would be sad. I think it’s safe to say that milk is pretty important.

There are a lot of other great things about milk. Like the fact that it is the primary food source for all mammals during the first stages of life. Cows produce it, goats produce it, heck even we produce the stuff, and in hippos it comes out pink! With all the varieties out there, and its incredible versatility keeping milk around seems like a no brainer, but it turns out nearly 75 percent of the world is lactose intolerant meaning they can’t eat or drink most milk products.

This is an unusual problem here in the USA because of a mutation known as lactose persistence introduced into the European gene pool around 7000 years ago. How did this mutation come about? Speculation says through the invention of none other than cheese and yogurt. By making fermented cheeses and yogurts  our ancestors were able to reduce the amount of lactose, or milk sugars down to a level that was tolerable for their stomachs, over time this caused their body’s to begin developing the necessary enzymes  to process milk. Pretty crazy stuff eh?

I don’t know about you, but I for one am Grateful for milk. And for the ability passed on by my ancestors to be able to enjoy the many wonderful products it creates.