Friday Food Find: A Composed Salad: Leftovers & Pantry Accouterments

After a morning of shooting for my next three Tuesday Tip videos, I was pretty ravenous.  But needed to get my Friday Food Find post published. 

Not one to have a solid time-line (I know, I should, and am working on it!), I thought I’d just go out and find a fun restaurant with a great menu. 

As it were, and after catching up on calls, e-mails and thinking about where I would go for my FFF, I looked down at my iPhone to 2p. 

With dinner plans in the not too distant future I decided to make do with what was in my fridge and pantry.  And here’s what I came up with: A Composed Salad of Leftovers & Pantry Accouterments to “dress it”. 

I think I did a pretty good job. YOU CAN TOO! 

Have fun and know you can replace any of these ingredients with what you have in your own fridge and pantry.  The sky’s the limit…

Ingredients

2C mixed baby lettuces
1/2 - 1Tbsp of your favorite vinaigrette
6oz of leftover herb/lemon chicken, sliced thinly
1/4C of calamata olives, pitted
1/4C of Feta Cheese, cubed
1/4C of a bell pepper, julienne
1/4 to 1/2C of baby tomatoes, sliced (or not-up to you)
1Tbsp of leftover stove grilled lemon, minced

Process

Place the lettuces in a small bowl.  Drizzle 1/4Tbls of vinaigrette over the lettuces and gently mix.  If the lettuces seem dry add more vinaigrette; do not overdress.  Take the dressed lettuces and pile them softly on a dinner plate.  Arrange all other ingredients the way you like.  Serve immediately and ENJOY!     

Yields 1 dinner or 2 lunch/side servings.

Friday Food Find: Goat & Cream Cheese Pate

I first saw this recipe in Gourmet Magazine years ago.  Always looking for fabulous party dishes for my catering company this one caught my eye immediately.  It’s visually inviting, tastes heavenly (especially if you like goat cheese) and it’s perfect to have or bring to a party.  I generally serve it with garlic toasts or multi-colored vegetable chips.  Really you can use anything that you find pleasing.  It’s gone through a lot of tweeks since I first made the recipe from the magazine.  And by trial an error I learned a few things which you will see below under “Tips”.  Have fun and enjoy!

Ingredients

4 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
1.5 C of goat cheese
¼ to ½ C of whipping cream
1-2 Tbls of fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper
1-2 small containers of sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and patted between paper towels
½ to 1 C of pesto
Fresh herbs or flowers to garnish

Process

Line the inside your favorite ceramic or pyrex dish with plastic wrap (7"x10” rectangle or a square works great). Make sure that the plastic wrap is very smooth on the insides & pressed smoothly up and around every edge. Leave enough plastic so that it hangs over each side and over the edge of your dish.  Set aside.

In a food processor process cream cheese, goat cheese until smooth.  Drizzle in whipping cream to open up the cheese mixture. Which will make it smoother and more airy.  Drizzle in up to ½ C although you may not need it. Add one TBLS of lemon juice at a time for flavor only.  You may not need the second one.  Stop machine at intervals to scrape down the sides with a spatula.  Mix in salt and pepper to taste.  Place cheese mixture in to a pastry bag with a large round tip.  

Place your plastic lined dish in front of you, very gently pipe in your cheese mixture with your pastry bag so that you have one even layer on the bottom of your dish. I generally begin piping from the outer edge of the bowl.  And then move inwards towards the center following the line of the dish you are using.  On top of your 1st cheese layer gently finger or spoon in the sun dried tomatoes so that they are spread evenly over the cheese layer. Then pipe another layer of cheese mixture over tomatoes.  Repeat this process with the pesto.  Then pipe one more layer of cheese over the pesto. This will be your last layer.  Smooth each cheese layer out with a small off-set spatula and cover tightly with the overlapping plastic.  Place in refrigerator overnight.

The next day take pate out of refrigerator and peel plastic from the top.  Place a serving platter (large enough to cover the pate dish) over the ceramic dish and gently invert.  Gently pull the ceramic dish from the pate and set aside.  Very carefully pull the plastic wrap from the pate.  Smooth pate with a spatula.  Garnish with herbs and flowers.  Serve with parmesan toasts.

Tips
*The smaller & deeper your dish the more layers you may have or excess ingredients.   
*Always drain the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes & pesto prior to using in this pate.  Excess oil will seep out of the final pate if there is too much.
*Use the added liquid (cream, lemon juice) sparingly.  You only want the cheese mixture to be “spreadable” not too soft.  If it is too soft add more cream cheese.  It will spread somewhat once unmolded if too soft. 

Cantaloupe "Teaser"

Exciting news! I just produced my first home video for Tuesday’s Tip.  Everything to do with how to cut a cantaloupe.  So stay tuned it will be airing on Tuesday.  See you then!

Friday Food Find: The Extraordinary Rapini, Sautéed

It must have been in culinary school that I first tasted this unique leafy green.  It’s generous leaves, budding broccoli-like florets and striking yellow flowers were captivating; and still are.  It has a few names that are familiar to us: Broccoli Rabe (or Raab) and Rapini.  It is essentially a turnip but is grown for it’s shoot rather than it’s root (turnip).  When cooked it has a flavor that is both sweet and bitter at the same time.  This recipe is super simple.  And once finished it can be used as a side dish,  tossed with pasta or grains and added to soup.  How versatile is that?

Ingredients

1 bunch of Rapini, rinsed and patted dry
4 large cloves of garlic, sliced very thin
2 tsp of red chili flakes (optional)
2 Tbls of olive oil
2 tsp of kosher salt
1 tsp of fresh ground pepper
1/4 C of water

Process & Pictures

Take the bunch of Rapini and cut the stems from the leaves.  Slice the stems into 1/2” pieces. Slice the leaves (and there will be a little stem along with florets) into 3rds.  Set aside. 

Place olive oil into a large sauté pan and begin warming it over medium heat.  Add garlic, red chili flakes, salt and pepper.  Cook until garlic is soft.  Add the chopped Rapini stems and water.  Turn heat up to medium high.  Stir all ingredients until the stems soften but still have a good crunch.

Add the remaining leaves of the Rapini piling high into the sauté pan.  With a tong begin to gently moving the bottom leaves to the top turning them repeatedly until they begin to wilt.  Continue this process until soft.  It should take no longer than 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve. 
Yields 4 side servings.

The Finish - 2 views

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Tuesday Tip: Fat — To Have or Have Not?

And that’s a good question, right?  In one of my restaurant jobs I used to cook a pork tenderloin (or more) a day.  Since we butchered in-house we were able to keep as much fat on the tenderloin as we could.  It was really cool. Not only to butcher but also have the opportunity to choose the amount of natural fat we wanted to cook with.  The resounding philosophy being “fat=flavor”.  And it’s true!  In all the years I’ve been cooking and teaching I’ve always adhered to that philosophy. And with eating moderately it’s worked for me.  That said my metabolism has changed as I’ve matured. So what do I do?  I still cook with fat but then I remove it.  Therefore, keeping the flavor and removing the added fat and high caloric content. 

Last week I made pork butt in a crock pot.  I didn’t trim the meat.  Consequently there was a fair amount of fat when said and done.  Here’s what I did:

After the meat had cooked I let it cool to room temperature.  I then placed it (covered & in the same crock it cooked in) into the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning I took the crock out of the refrigerator.  Took the lid off the crock.  With a large spoon or spatula skimmed the layer of fat that had congealed while in the refrigerator.  As you can see in this picture the fat layer is white.  Place the fat in another container (for later use) or dispose it. 

And that’s your Tuesday Tip.  One easy way to keep flavor while removing fat (from any protein) after it has been cooked.  It’s just my way of getting around the question of “to have or have not”!