Roasted Garlic and Green Onion Smashed Potatoes

To continue with our Mesa Grill theme I made a variation on Bobby's Green Onion Mashed Potatoes.  By variation I mean I changed up the dairy portion a bit and added cloves of fresh roasted garlic to his recipe.  It turned out great!  I mean, what's not to love about mashed potatoes!

My variation is below uses less butter and I subbed plain Greek yogurt for creme frache plus added 6-7 cloves of roasted garlic.  If you want to make Bobby's, double the butter, leave out the garlic and use creme frache.  But I think you might like mine!

PS - If you are daring, go for the whole head of roasted garlic.  That's what I will do next time!

Roasted Garlic and Green Onion Smashed Potatoes

• 3 lbs small potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 6-8 cloves roasted garlic 
• 6 green onions, green and white parts, thinly sliced
• fresh ground black pepper
• kosher salt

1. Break the head of garlic, drizzle with oil and wrap in foil. Bake at 300 for 45-60 minutes.  Cool a bit then squeeze the garlic mash out of the skins into a container.  Refrigerate the unused cloves.
2. Put potatoes in large pot and cover by 1 inch with cold water.  Add 1 tbsp salt and bring to a simmer over high heat.  Cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife. 12-15 minutes. Drain.
3. Mix together the butter and yogurt in a bowl and season liberally with salt and pepper.  Add the garlic, using a potato masher if necessary to make it smooth.
4. Add the potatoes and using the masher, gently smash the potatoes while folding in the yogurt mixture.
5. Fold in the green onions and season with more salt and pepper if needed.

NOTE:  The recipe calls for 8 T of butter for the three pounds of potatoes.  I only used 3T and the mixture was a touch thick, so I mixed a bit of half and half and skim milk and added it.  It made them perfect!

Coffee Rubbed Rib-Eye

We had a Bobby Flay/Mesa Grill night.  It wasn't pre-planned that way, it just happened.  Bo is still enamored with his Big Green Egg and loves to seek out ways to use it and he came across a coffee rub in our Mesa Grill cookbook.  I decided a potato dish to match would be a good idea, then a crab cake came into our life....well you get the picture.

But first the steak. The real recipe here is for the rub.  It smelled amazing and would be a great quick fix for chicken or pork chops too! 

Now for the finish - Bo didn't care for the steak - he said we needed to used NY Strip next time.  I'll be honest - I can't tell the difference.  Im not a huge lover of steak, and to me they taste mostly the same.  But again, the rub was the reason for the meal...

The main event of Mesa Grill night:  (you'll note the recipe is for making it in a skillet - we used the grill)

Coffee Rubbed Rib Eye (Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay)

• 1/4 cup ancho chili powder
• 1/4 cup finely ground espresso
• 2 tablespoons Spanish paprika
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons chili de arbol powder
• 2 bone-in or boneless rib-eye steaks, 2-inches thick, approximately 1 1/2 pounds each
• Canola or olive oil
• Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Combine all spices in a bowl.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Preheat a cast iron pan over high heat. Brush each side of the steak with oil and then season each side liberally with salt and pepper. Rub 2 tablespoons of the coffee rub onto 1 side of each steak. Cook the steak, rub side down until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the steak over, cook for 2 minutes and then transfer to a baking sheet and cook in the oven to medium-rare doneness, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and let rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 photo by babasteve

This year will be a bit different for us.  We aren't having lots of company as usual.  Instead it will just be a quiet day at home - and unlike other years I don't have a huge menu planned (One that I have obsessed over and altered hundreds of times).  In fact, we haven't made the final decision about what we will eat tomorrow. 

Don't panic.  I wont be trying to pull together a turkey meal at the last minute.  Instead, I think we are going to have fun in the kitchen and make a homemade pasta and sauce together. 

I hope every one has a great day, what ever you decide to do!  And have a leftover turkey sandwich for me Friday!

The Great Neopolitan-Pizza-Crust Experiment

Recently an amazing place came to town - a true Italian pizza place complete with a chef/onwer born in Naples, a large wood fired oven and a pizzoila brought in from Naples to make the pizza.  It is AMAZING!

So of course I had to learn how to make it!  After lots of research (my favorite) I picked the technique I wanted to use.  But now for the really big quiestion - what kind of flour would I use?

I have read so much about 00 flour - with its lower protein content it is supposed to be the one to use for true Naples style pizza.  The one that is thin but still chewy.  But of course I have all purpose flour and bread flour always on hand -  So did I do?  I made two crusts, two pizzas and made Bo go throught a taste test.

First I ordered a small bag of 00 flour from King Arthur Bread Company because I couldn't find any locally. Once it arrived I made two pizza crusts using the same recipe and technique, just different flours.  And of course I kept track which was which.

When it was time to make the pizza, I dressed them both the same - simple but with flavor.  They each got a light coating of a Neopolitan sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes.  Each had 4 small disks of buffalo mozzarella and a sprinkling of oregano.  Then they were each grilled.

I had Bo taste each and give his opinion which had the identical (or close) crunch and chew of the Neopolitan pizza we had in town and hands down it was the 00 flour. 

While the bread flour had the same crisp bottom, it was "fluffy" in the middle.  It didn't remain thin with a chewy bite.

By all means keep using bread flour for your pizza.  Unless you want a Neopolitan style crust.  Below is the amazing recipe I used.

Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough Recipe

4 1/2 cups (20.25 ounces) unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 (.44 ounce) teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon (.11 ounce) instant yeast
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in a 4-quart bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). With a large metal spoon, stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment), If you are mixing by hand, repeatedly dip one of your hands or the metal spoon into cold water and use it, much like a dough hook, to work the dough vigorously into a smooth mass while rotating the bowl in a circular motion with the other hand. Reverse the circular motion a few times to develop the gluten further. Do this for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are evenly distributed. If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn't come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a tea- spoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55F.

Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and misting the parchment with spray oil (or lightly oil the parchment). Using a metal dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you are comfortable shaping large pizzas), You can dip the scraper into the water between cuts to keep the dough from sticking to it, Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan, Mist the dough generously with spray oil and slip the pan into a food-grade plastic bag.

Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days. (Note: If you want to save some of the dough for future baking, you can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag. Dip each dough ball into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of oil in it, rolling the dough in the oil, and then put each ball into a separate bag. You can place the bags into the freezer for up to 3 months. Transfer them to the refrigerator the day before you plan to make pizza.)

On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Before letting the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours, dust the counter with flour, and then mist the counter with spray oil. Place the dough balls on top of the floured counter and sprinkle them with flour; dust your hands with flour. Gently press the dough into flat disks about 1/2 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil, and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag. Now let rest for 2 hours.

At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven as hot as possible, up to 800F (most home ovens will go only to 500 to 550F, but some will go higher). If you do not have a baking stone, you can use the back of a sheet pan, but do not preheat the pan.

Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. Make the pizzas one at a time. Dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, in flour and lift I piece of dough by getting under it with a pastry scraper. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. If it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue shaping it. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss as shown on page 208. If you have trouble tossing the dough, or if the dough keeps springing back, let it rest for 5 to 20 minutes so the gluten can relax, and try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, though this isn't as effective as the toss method.

When the dough is stretched out to your satisfaction (about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough), lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. Lightly top it with sauce and then with your other top- pings, remembering that the best pizzas are topped with a less-is-more philosophy. The American "kitchen sink" approach is counterproductive, as it makes the crust more difficult to bake. A few, usually no more than 3 or 4 toppings, including sauce and cheese is sufficient.

Slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. Wait 2 minutes, then take a peek. If it needs to be rotated 180 degrees for even baking, do so. The pizza should take about 5 to 8 minutes to bake. If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone to a lower self before the next round. if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone for subsequent bakes.

Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.

Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts.

Cauliflower with Sweet Potatoes

Again I try to make Indian food, and again, no score. 

I followed the recipe exactly.  The dish was very good!  It tasted healthy, it felt like fall on the palate but according to my Indian expert it just didnt taste like Indian food. 

Apparently sweet potatoes would not have been used in India white potatoes would have been the chosen spud.  Although I did find this on Cooking Channel from an Indian cook...

But dont you think the orange makes a prettier contrast to the white cauliflower and red tomatoes then more "white" would have?

I didn make one substitute in the recipe.  Tomatoes are no longer in a tasty place in the season, so I used a good quality canned tomato.  Otherwise prepared as written...

Cauliflower with Sweet Potatoes (Recipe courtesy Bal Arneson)

• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 small head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets

Place the oil in a large nonstick skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add the onion and ginger and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, and salt and toast for 15 seconds and then add the tomatoes and sweet potatoes, and cook until they are tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Add the cauliflower and stir well to combine. Place a tight fitting lid on the pan and cook until the cauliflower is crisp- tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Orzo with Spinach Pesto

There are times, ok, always, when I feel guilty that something so simple deserves such accolades.  I came of "cooking age" during the time of "in order to be true gourmet it must be expensive to make, difficult to pronounce and make your guests feel inferior." 

I never enjoyed this time.  I didnt ever appreciate the multitude of ingredients that didnt make sense on my tongue.  I never liked the intricate work involved to produce something that I wasnt really proud of, and I really didnt like purchasing expensive ingredients that could be used only once...

Today's way of cooking is mine!  A few simple ingredients, high quality, in season, and perfectly paired.  But still I feel guilty when something this tasty was so simple to make.

I encourage you to try it. Make your own changes and upgrades, then serve it to your family.  Accept the praise and hide the guilt!

Orzo with Spinach Pesto (Pesto recipe inspired by Giada DeLaurentiis)

• 2 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves (about 2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Combine the spinach, pine nuts, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a processor. Lightly pulse. With the machine running, gradually add 1/3 cup of the oil, blending until the mixture is creamy. Add salt and pulse. Put whatever portion of the pesto you won't be using into ice cube trays and store in the freezer for future use.

1 cup orzo cooked as directed
3/4-1 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Crumbled feta (optional)

Mix 1-2 tablespoons of pesto with still warm orzo.  Toss with the sun-dried tomatoes and feta.  Garnish with basil if desired.

Private football party

We love football - Sunday's are fun for us whether at a party, at a bar, or at home we love to do something fun for football day.

So this particular Sunday we had a private football party - company food but just for us.   I started out with Kale Chips.  Fun, crunchy, salty and bitter melding perfectly together, and best of all, feels naughty but it is nice!

I also made jalapeno chips with homemade ranch dressing, and  some fabulous little drummies on the grill.  Have fun with the recipes below or use your own, but by all means, don't skip the party because there are only two of you!

Spicy Black Pepper-Coated Drumsticks (Adapted from Mario Batali)

12 chicken drumsticks  Kosher salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce (preferably chipotle)
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed such as with a spice
or coffee grinder
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

In a medium bowl, stir together the buttermilk, Tabasco sauce, fennel seeds, and black pepper. Set a wire rack over a large plate or a small baking sheet.  Toss the drumsticks in batches, into the buttermilk mixture and turn to coat, then place skin side up on the rack to drain. Spoon a little of the mixture, with the fennel seeds and pepper, over the top of each one, and set aside.

Preheat a gas grill or prepare a fire in a charcoal grill.

Place the drumsticks on the hottest part of the grill, cover the grill, and cook, turning occasionally at first and then more often as they start to caramelize, until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes.

Kale Chips
There isnt a "recipe" for these, just a list of things to do:

Wash and carefully dry a large bunch of kale.  Remove ribs and tear into bite sized pieces.  Place on a baking dish.  Sprinkle or brush with olive oil and liberally sprinkle with sea salt. 

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.  Check and remove those that are crispy.  Continue in 5 minute increments until crisp.  Enjoy!

More Thanksgiving recipes from Food Network

As promised, here a few more ideas from Food Network to make your holiday easier :)
Side Dishes
and
Stuffing

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

This simple dish is one of my favorite 'I want pasta on the spur but dont have a sauce' recipes.  It is very versatile and very forgiving. 

This time I used a very hearty whole-wheat-flax spaghetti and although we LOVED the heartiness of the noodles we were split on the topping.  I felt it wasnt strong enough to stand up to such a strong base but Bo thought it was great.  Either way it is an easy fix by using more garlic, more red pepper flakes or a few Italian herbs.  Or use a less dense pasta.

Either way, I recommend adding this to your repertoire of easy to throw together dishes.  Add a green salad or some sauteed greens and nutrition and taste buds will all be happy.


Spaghetti Aglio Olio

• Small bunch fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1+ tablespoons of crushed red pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring salted water to a boil, and cook the spaghetti for about 6 minutes. Drain, reserving a cup of pasta water.

In a saute pan, heat the oil, garlic and peppers over  medium heat.  Cook until the garlic starts to sizzle and become soft.

Add the spaghetti to the pan with the olive oil, and mix well.  To make more of a "saucy" texture add hot pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time until the texture you prefer.  Sprinkle with parsley and parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Need help with Thanksgiving recipes?

 I am doing a small series with easy links to Food Network recipes.  I am hoping it will help making that day easier. The first article is on appetizers/starters.  I am going to include the link here is case anyone is in that mode!

Day one:  Appetizer Recipes from Food Network

Absolutely Gorgeous Tomato Soup

Welcome to the 2nd best month of the year!!!

 

Gorgeous Tomato Soup.  I'm not sure much more needs to be said.  I really can't stomach the flavor of grocery store soups, but I love tomato, so the time had come to find one to make at home.

I played with some recipes, practiced on my stove until I found what I think is the perfect soup.  At least for me.

 

Feel free to add more veggies - green beans and/or corn would be fabulous.  Carrots will only add more antioxidents.  Also white or black beans would make for a great full meal with some crusty bread.  Or have it like we did - as written with a procuitto and sharp provolone panini!

Absolutely Gorgeous Tomato Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (fire roasted will leave a nice kick)
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth 
• 1 cup water
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan or dutch oven melt the oil.  Add the onion, garlic and oregano and saute until soft, about four minutes.  Add the tomatoes, broth, water, bay leaf, red pepper flakes. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. Season with salt and pepper.

Great add-ons include green onions, shredded cheese, sour cream or plain yogurt etc.  If it is too thick for your family, add a touch more water.