Antipasto Salad

I’ve been looking for a good appetizer to serve with a meal and tried many different ones. When I was going through some cooking blogs, I came across a recipe for something called an antipasto salad. It was based on a recipe from the Food Network web site. I checked out the web site and decided to try it out. What I liked about it was how simple it was to make. Best of all, the recipe called for fusilli pasta which my local market sells freshly made that day. I cooked the pasta that and let it cool while I made red wine vinaigrette. I followed the recipe to the letter and took a taste test of the vinaigrette to see if I needed to add anything to it. Well, it tasted great the first time, and I didn’t need to add anything else. After the fusilli was cool, I added the cheese and meat (I forgot turkey meat, but it did not matter). I set everything aside and worked on dinner. When it came time to eat, I just put the pasta and meat into a bowl and drizzled the vinaigrette over it. My wife loved it. My son, not a vinaigrette fan, ate it dry. If anyone is looking for a good appetizer, I highly recommend this. Here’s a link to the recipe.

Bon Appétit

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/antipasto-salad-recipe/index.html

Barbecue Sauce

There are not many barbecue sauces that I like. Andy’s Barbecue and Famous Dave’s Barbecue are 2 of my favorite sauces. I thought about trying to make my own, but I never got serious about it. Then one day, I was watching Tyler Florence’s show, Tyler’s Ultimate, on Food Network. He was making ultimate barbecue chicken which included homemade barbecue sauce. I watched and thought, “This is too simple.” My curiosity got the best of me; so when I got the opportunity to do some barbecue, I used the opportunity to tryout making some of Tyler’s barbecue sauce. Well, it was very simple to make, and tasted great. My family really enjoyed it. I plan on doing some tweaking to adjust the recipe a little closer to my taste. But now I have 3 of my favorite barbecue sauces in the refrigerator. Here’s the recipe for those out there who would like to try it.

Bon Appétit

•4 slices of smoked bacon
•1 bunch fresh thyme
•Extra-virgin olive oil
•1 onion, chopped
•4 garlic cloves, chopped
•2 ½ cups ketchup
•2 tablespoons molasses
•2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
•1 tablespoon dry mustard
•1 tablespoon ground cumin
•1 tablespoon paprika or smoked paprika if available
•Freshly ground black pepper

Cut bacon into squares. Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Separate thyme leaves from stems and add to saucepan and cook slowly 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors.

Like Father, Like Son

My son is taking French in high school. A couple of assignments were cooking French dishes. One time he made French onion soup and beef bourguignon. My wife told me the French onion soup was great, but the beef bourguignon was a bit rich. I had to work and missed that meal. I was lucky enough to be around for the next one. My son asked me for some suggestions on what to cook, and I came across a recipe for pot au feu. It was fairly simple, and best of all it required the use of a slow cooker. The recipe required beef with bone, and I suggested short ribs. I bought all the ingredients, showed him how to cut them up, and let him at it. He cut up everything, fried the vegetables, braised the ribs and put them in the cooker. The only things I did, besides show him how to cut the vegetables, was cook some bacon in the microwave and take pictures of him preparing the meal for his report. The prep time took about 30 minutes, and 5 hours later it was done. The meat fell off the bones and tasted great. It looks like there’s another cook in the family. The recipe for the pot au feu is at the link below.

Bon Appétit

http://france-property-and-information.com/pot-au-feu.htm

Potatoes Dauphinios (Scalloped Potatoes)-Take Two

Well, using the information I received from a waiter at “Les Chefs de France” in the France Pavilion at Epcot, I’m finally cooking my potato recipe right where I want it to be. The Potatoes came out tender, not soggy. The cream had hardened up and was not runny. My wife told me that they were great. I liked the way they turned out, although I believe I can “tweak” it to make it even better. By “tweaking,” I mean changing the spices to how I like it. For those of you who would like to try this recipe, here it is.

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• ½ clove of garlic
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• Pinch of flour
• 4 small Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 8 ounces Swiss cheese, grated (add in a little cheddar cheese)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish with the butter and set aside.

Place the cream in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are barely fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Rub casserole dish with cut garlic clove. Smear the inside of casserole dish with 1 teaspoon of butter. With a large slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to a prepared casserole dish, forming an even layer on the bottom. Cover with layer of cheese, and continue layering the potatoes and cheese, ending with cheese on top. Season cream with spices (salt, pepper, nutmeg and paprika) to taste. Pour cream into casserole dish. Place on a baking sheet and roast until golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Dinner at Disney World

I did not cook last week because my family and I went to Walt Disney World, Florida for vacation during the President’s Week. A great time was had by all. While we were there, we ate out at many of the restaurants at the theme parks and resorts. All of the restaurants we went to had great food, and I would highly recommend them all; but there is one restaurant that I would like to write about. We had dinner at the France Pavilion in Epcot at a restaurant called “Les Chefs de France.” Although there were many great items on the menu, I chose red wine braised short ribs. I did this for 2 reasons. First, there is a red wine braised short rib recipe by Hebert Keller that I want to try in the future, and I would like to see and taste what it should look and taste like. Second, it came with Potatoes Dauphinios. In my previous blog I wrote about trying to “tweak” a scalloped potatoes recipe, and I figured this would be a great opportunity to see what properly cook potatoes look like and taste like. I was not disappointed. The braised short ribs were very tender, and the red wine sauce was great. The potatoes were excellent too. This is what I want my potatoes to taste like. While examining the potatoes, I told my wife and friends it appeared as if I was putting too much cheese on my potatoes. My wife explained to our friends the problems I’ve been having trying to make potatoes (to soggy at times). Our waiter over heard our conversation and threw in his two-cents. He suggested using flour as a thickening agent and this should stop my potatoes from becoming soggy. He also suggested using a roux if I did not use flour. He then recommended adding some nutmeg for flavor. It was a great night. Not only did I get to eat some great food, but I also came out with some good suggestions for my potato dishes. So, I’ll be experimenting on my family when I get back home.

Bon Appétit

P.S. Here's a gift my wife bought me at one of the Disney Resorts to help out with my cooking. It's a Refrigerator magnet with measurements broken down.

Potatoes Dauphinios (Scalloped Potatoes) & Potatoes Au Greaten

One day my wife picked out a recipe from Julia Child’s cook book for me to make, Coq Au Vin; but that’s not the subject of this blog. With the Coq Au Vin, I cooked Potatoes Dauphinois. They turned out a bit soggy, and some of the potatoes weren’t cooked as much as I would have liked; but they were still good. Since then I tried Potatoes Au Greaten from a recipe I found on the Food Network web site. However, this time the potatoes weren’t cooked all the way through, and I used too much cream. Well, knowing to use less cream and to let it cook longer, one would think I would try it again…Wrong! I decided to try a different recipe. Once again, I looked up a recipe on the Food Network web site, I chose to make a Scalloped Potatoes recipe. One thing that is common with most of these recipes is Swiss cheese. While I love Swiss cheese, I wanted to change the flavor a little. Looking at some of the comments when I looked up the recipe, I read that someone had mixed in some cheddar, and mozzarella cheese into the recipe; so, I decided to experiment with that. I was careful with the cream, and I let the potatoes cook a little longer than usual. They came out of the oven bubbling, and all the potatoes were cooked through and weren’t soggy. The cheese combination worked out well, although I could have layered them better between the potatoes. Even though the potatoes came out fine this time, I’m going to keep on trying to “tweak” the recipe to fit my taste a little more. Here’s the recipe I used.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/scalloped-potatoes-recipe/index.html

Slow Coking

In my local paper, I came across an article on slow cooking. The article stated that it’s a lost art that is coming back because it’s easy to prepare beforehand. It just needs to be started before one leaves for work; and when one returns from work, dinner is ready. Well, I tried slow cooking. The day before I needed to start cooking, I made a marinade. It only took 10 minutes to make, and I put it in with a pork shoulder in the refrigerator. The next day, early in the morning, I put the whole mixture into a slow cooker for it to cook for 10 hours. The smell permeated the whole house. When my son got home from school, he kept asking me when we were going to eat. I told him it would be a few hours and asked him why. He said, “It smells so good.” It did smell good; and when we ate it, it was wonderful. The pork shoulder was very tender and juicy. My wife looked up other recipes that I could slow cook. I’ll try those recipes later, and I’m sure I’ll blog about that later, but here’s the recipe I used. Enjoy.

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_14143263?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

Homemade Fries

This Christmas a family friend gave my wife a Zyliss food slicer, and I thought to myself, “I could use that.” And so far I have (like so many of her kitchen utensils). It has a setting for Julian cuts, so I decided to try and make some homemade French fries. I did a little research on the internet on cooking fries and broke out the deep fryer. They tasted great. I knew my son liked them because he kept on stuffing his mouth full of fries. It’s a nice treat to have once in a while and not to tough to make. I think we’ll be having fries more often.

Reduction Sauce

Sometime ago my family and I went to Chef Hubert Keller’s restaurant in San Francisco, Fleur De Lys. I have never in my life tasted such great food. I’ve heard of chefs describe food coming together in their mouth and coming alive. I never knew what that meant until I tasted Chef Keller’s food. I had a steak that came with a reduction sauce that was heavenly. While I know I can’t duplicate his reduction sauce, I have since been trying to make my own reduction sauce. So, my ongoing project is to try to make a good reduction sauce. Right now I’ve been experimenting with a red wine and tarragon reduction sauce which has turned out well at times (sometimes it thickens and sometimes it does not). So, what I hope to gain from this blog and fellow cook bloggers is help with this or another reduction sauce recipe. Right now I’m using a recipe I found on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5l4AgnOpAg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz3T_e9dugs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwDu9cJA1UM&feature=related

Any suggestions?