Month: January 2007

Bravo’s Top Chef is my favorite show. EVER. It’s embarassing to admit, but I actually squeal with delight and clap my hands together when this shows comes on. Like one of those little monkey toys that bares its lips and bangs cymbals together. Really.

Tonight is the Season 2 Finale. It’s come down to Ilan vs. Marcel. I think they’re both talented, but, for some reason, Marcel has been cast as the “villain” this season. Is he arrogant? Yes. Is he annoying? Yes. But, can the boy cook? Hell, yeah! So, part of me wants to see Marcel win just because he’s the “underdog”. Some crazy woman actually attacked this poor guy on the street with a bottle and he had to get a ton of stitches. Because she thought he was a jerk on a TV show. How crazy is that??? This poor guy was woken out of a sound sleep to a huge, muscular colleague chef attacking him and trying to shave his head. Marcel, in my opinion, has gotten a raw deal.

Marcel’s recipes, however, are hard to duplicate because he uses lots of lecithin and xanthan gum and odd emulsifiers and foam-making supplies, so……tonight I’m trying one of Ilan’s recipes as a tribute to the final episode of Season 2. Ilan is charming, talented and does a better job of motivating his co-workers. My prediction is that he will win tonight. This recipe (from Episode 11) got RAVE reviews from the judges. I had to adapt it quite a bit, because my family doesn’t do clams, but the final result was VERY VERY good. You can find the recipe here (my adaptations are below).

The Romanesco cauliflower is also from my in-law’s farm. It is an heirloom Italian variety and its spirals follow the Fibonacci sequence. Imagine that: a fractal veggie! It also happens to be quite yummy. My photography skills leave a little something to be desired, but it really is quite “otherworldy” looking.

Adaptations:

I used two pre-grilled (seasoned with salt and pepper) chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sized pieces, instead of the clams.

I used more cauliflower than the recipe called for (maybe an additional 3/4 cup). Even at that, it could have used a little more, since we were using this as our main course, and not starter, which is how Ilan used it. I made 4 oval baking dishes of the fideos and still had enough left over to make two more separate bowls, but I removed the cauliflower from those, because there wasn’t enough to go around. I’ll add veggies to those leftovers later for tomorrow’s lunch.

I used some chicken stock (maybe 2 cups), in addition to the white wine, to cook the fideos in before they were broiled.

Ilan’s recipe was not really clear (at least not to me) about what to do with the garlic. It never said to take the garlic cloves out of the dish, but it didn’t say, either, that they should be chopped or minced. I’m sure for CIA-grad Ilan, this sort of thing is intuitive, but I wasn’t sure, so I just used 5 cloves of garlic, instead of the 8 or 10 that was called for. I ran them through a garlic press and left them in the dish.

I forgot to add the parsley, which is a shame, because I have fresh Italian parsley growing outside, but it’s cold here and the kids are sick, so it just slipped my mind. The dish was great, but would have been better with just a tiny bit of parsley.

Oven-toasted Fideos (I probably over-toasted them just a bit, but they still tasted great.

Saffron Cream Sauce with the Romanesco Cauliflower Florets

This wonderful recipe (and the brussels sprout leaves) comes from my mother-in-law. She creates and prints out recipes for her farm customers, who sometimes need some creative encouragement to induce them to purchase some of the “exotic” produce that she offers at the organic farm that she and her hubby, Larry own and farm.

All four of us liked these. I knew that we had a heavy dinner coming, so these fit the bill perfectly – a great, light lunch. I would be tempted to put some of the leftovers into Boy and Girl’s lunch tomorrow, but I’m afraid their schoolmates would think that they are too “weird”. Conformity is a big thing at their age. It makes it really hard to inspire your kids to eat well at school when their buddies are eating Doritos and individual serving-sized bags of Kraft marshmallows. Can you honestly believe that they even MAKE such a thing? I just don’t get it – why not just pack your kid a baggie filled with sugar?

It’s a long story, but I initially browned too much beef and didn’t make enough rice, so I had to make more and consequently ended up with more filling than I needed. I had some red bell peppers and decided to stuff the remaining filling in them. Into the freezer with them, to have another day……….

Stuffed Brussel Sprout Leaves

1 lb. of ground beef
about 1 and 1/2 cups frozen baby green peas
about 1/3 cup chopped white onion
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
4 cups uncooked rice
(I used a whole package of Lundberg’s Jubilee brown rice blend)
enough beef stock to cook rice in

1 bunch brussel sprout leaves (about 12)

Set a large (stockpot) pot of water on to boil.

Cook rice in beef stock, adding frozen peas and and about 1/2 cup more beef stock (than is required to cook the rice) during the last few minutes of cooking time.

In a large saute pan, brown the garlic, onion and ground beef together. Drain.

Gently place brussels sprout leaves in pot of boiling water and simmer about 4 minutes. Remove with tongs or a spider strainer and set aside.

Mix cooked rice/peas together with beef mixture and add all remaining ingredients (herbs).

Place about 1/4 cup of filling mixture in each leaf and roll up, gently but tightly. Place on a serving platter and dig in. Depending upon your mood, these can be finger food or “fork food”. We used forks today.

This is the recipe that we learned at the family cooking night at Whole Foods, but I’ve adapted the recipe a tiny bit to suit our tastes. These are REALLY good. The kids even like them, although they drink a lot of water with them!

We went to another cooking class at Whole Foods last night and my parents watched Girl (Boy was at a sleepover) for us (it was an adults-only class: Duck Breast Fillet, Spaghetti Squash, Salad with Radicchio, Pear and Honey-Pancetta Vinaigrette, Blood Orange Flan). We took them a pan of these enchiladas as a thank you.

For chile sauce:
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1 Tbsp. oil (canola or olive)
4 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
4 dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 cups chicken stock
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Saute onion and garlic over medium-high heat in a small pan until softened and translucent. Set aside. Heat a large pan or griddle over medium heat. Tear the chiles into flat pieces and place into the pan. The chiles will slightly blister and change color. Remove chiles and place in a bowl. Cover with water and weigh down so chiles remain submerged for at least 1 hour. Drain chiles (reserve liquid for another use, if desired – see chili recipe). Squeeze lightly and place, with remaining ingredients (including onions and garlic), in a blender. Blend until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Place the sauce in a wide, shallow bowl and set aside.

For filling:

3 to 4 cups chicken stock
1 and 1/2 pounds peeled and diced potatoes and carrots (about 3/4 pound of each)
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1 Tbsp oil
1 rotisserie chicken
(The store was out of plain chickens, so we used one that was seasoned with honey and jalapeno and it was really good.)

Simmer potatoes and carrots, covered, in a medium saucepan until fork-tender. Drain vegetables, then set aside in a medium to large-sized mixing bowl. Saute onions in the oil until softened and translucent. Pour onions into mixing bowl with carrots and potatoes. Tear chicken meat off bones and shred into small pieces. Add chicken to other ingredients in the bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the chile sauce to the filling ingredients and stir well to evenly mix and combine.

To prepare enchiladas:
about 8 Tbsp. canola oil
16 corn tortillas
about 1 cup grated cheese (cheddar, monterrey jack or queso freso – your choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat about 1 Tbsp oil in a small skillet. Add one tortilla to the skillet and cook in the oil until softened – being careful not to cook to long or the tortilla will “crisp” up into a tostada. When the tortilla is softened, remove from the skillet with tongs (careful – it will be hot) and dip it into the chile sauce. Place 1/4 cup or less of the filling into the tortilla and roll up, gently but tightly. Place seam-side down in a lightly greased (we use Pam) baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. We use two 13-by-9 inch pans and can make about 16 enchiladas, but it will depend upon how much filling you use in each enchilada. Spoon leftover sauce over enchiladas in pan and top with grated cheese. Bake until enchiladas are warmed through and cheese is thoroughly melted – about 10 minutes.