Cookography: Fried Green Tomatoes

I am a somewhat "genteel" southern woman at heart. I love my southern cooking. Be it a good spicy gumbo or boo fries. I really enjoy the huge comfort content of dishes served in the southern states.

This past weekend I took a stab at fried green tomatoes. One of my coworkers had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and was lamenting how many of them were green, he doubted that he could get them ripened before they rot.

Me to the rescue! I told him I would take the green ones. I'm sure he thought I was crazy...but then, people often do. So, I brought them home, sliced them up and let the magic happen.

The assembly line!

So yes, a few of the tomatoes managed to ripen a bit before I got to them, but I decided to slice them up too. I prepared my buttermilk and egg bath (one egg and buttermilk to cover) and combined a "Shake & Bake" package with a healthy helping of Parmesan Cheese as my crispy goodness.

Then, I grabbed my extra large skillet and placed about a quarter of an inch of oil in it. Use whatever oil you like...I went with Canolla. Once it was hot, I took each tomato and dipped it in the liquid, and then heavily coated it in the crumb mixture. Into the hot oil they went...SIZZLE!!!

Crispy tomato goodness!

I fried them for 2 minutes on each side. You don't want the tomato to become too soft and mushy. The trick is to get them brown and keep the tomato a little firm. So, vary your cooking time with that goal in mind.

In the south, they also serve these with a spicy remoulade (aka...dipping sauce). To replicate this, I took a couple of tablespoons of mayo and added a healthy few shakes of Tabasco sauce to it and mixed it up.

Fried Green Tomato HEAVEN! These make a great side dish to any meal. I coupled them with a roast pork I had slow-cooked in the crock pot all day long. The combination of the fall-apart-in-your-mouth pork and the crispy tomatoes was fantastic!

Bake-A-Liciousness: Spiced Apple Chutney & Brie Tartlets

I came up with these delights for a contest at work. I won the contest, but it was because I was the only contestant. Damn coworkers! Anyway, it's a great fall recipe, sweet and savory at the same time. It can also be whipped up days in advance and assembled as needed.

The test batch...YUMMY!

For work I put the Brie on top where you could see it. Either way works.

Spiced Apple Chutney & Brie Tartlets

            

            CHUTNEY:

            1/4 cup orange juice

            1/4 cup water

            3 Tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar

            3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

            1/2 tsp. cinnamon

            1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

            1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

            2 shallots, minced

            1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

                   or 1 tsp of jalapeño pepper hot sauce.

            1 clove garlic, minced

            2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely diced

            2 tsp. Butter

            3-4 Boxes Filo Dough Tart Shells

            1 8oz wheel of Brie, rind removed and cut into ¼ inch squares

Preparation

For Chutney, in small bowl, combine orange juice, water, brown sugar, vinegar,cinnamon, salt and pepper. Mix and set aside.

Melt 2 teaspoons butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots, jalapeño and garlic and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until shallots are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in apples and orange juice mixture and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the tart shells evenly on a baking pan.

Place one square of Brie into each tart shell and spoon a small portion of the chutney over top (Or reverse it if you prefer). Fill each tart shell, but don’t overfill or you’ll have a mess on your baking sheet. Bake the tarts for 5 - 7 minutes or until the Brie is melted. Remove from oven and serve warm.

Cookography: Brie, Cranberry & Pecan Tarts

We interrupt this Holiday Season to talk about the last one...Thanksgiving. Yeah, I 'm behind on posts, sue me! Anyway, I am always tasked with bringing a light appetizer to Thanksgiving dinner. It's my lot in life. Also, it's easily transportable. Last year I took the Pumpkin Garlic Bites. They were a huge hit and just the right savory combination of flavors.

This year, I was looking for a baked tart of some kind. I found something along the lines of what I was considering on the web, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so, as I tend to do...I modified it. Here are Brie, Canberry & Pecan Tarts.

Warm, yummy, sweet and savory

They're incredibly simple to put together and since everyone complains that I never provide recipes, here is a stab at one. Remember, I hardly every use them, so take this with a grain of salt.

          Brie, Cranberry & Pecan Tarts

                    8 T   Chopped Pecans
                    8 T   Chopped Craisins
                    4 T   Honey
                    8 oz  Wheel of Brie
                    30     Filo Tart Shells

         Mix together the pecans, craisins and honey in a small bowl. Add a little extra honey if it's too dry. Here is what that will look like. Everything nicely coated, but there shouldn't be extra honey pooling anywhere.

Yeah, I could just eat this by the spoonful.

Leave it to sit at room temperature while you cut the skin off the brie and cube it into roughly half inch by quarter inch cubes. (Note: I found it easiest to cut the wheel into the half inch cubes first and then simply cut each of those cubes in half and then cut the skin off).

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and place the tart shells on a non-stick baking sheet. Place a cube of brie in each tart shell and cover with the pecan/craisin mixture. Use all of the pecan craisin mixture. They may look over-filled, but as the brie melts it all fills in nicely. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them. I found in order to get things nicely combined I wound up baking them a little longer.

Let them cool a bit before tasting. I got anxious and burned the heck out of my mouth. That honey is hot!!! Even at room temperature they still tasted great. My Mom also just took these to a Christmas Party and they were a huge hit.

One last Thanksgiving thought...I ate too much!

My view of the table.

Presto Pesto!

I have a terrible weakness, ok fine...I have many. But, one of my most crippling is the search for really great Pesto. I try Pesto dishes whenever I can at restaurants, hoping that they've gotten it right. Some have and some haven't. So, the easiest way for me to satisfy my hunger for the Perfect Pesto is to make my own.

This weekend I harvested our Basil plant and proceeded to turn it into amazing Pesto...like MAGIC! Now, let me first say that I don't use a recipe for this. A good Pesto "recipe" is all about feel and consistency. Some people prefer a wetter Pesto, some a dryer. I fall into the latter. I will walk you through my process.

Fresh from the garden...Thanks Hubby!

Granted, I should have harvested this Basil two weeks ago in it's prime, but my schedule just didn't allow for it. Still, it worked just fine. One should always start with very fresh green Basil when making Pesto. That being said, I have whipped up some passable Pesto in the past (wow alliteration!) using some high quality dried basil, but I certainly don't recommend that...except in the case of Zombie Apocalypse. 

Now, lets talk nuts. I use Pine Nuts, but there are folks that say that Walnuts work just fine...I don't agree with them, but they are entitled to their opinion. For me, Pine Nuts impart an unusual flavor your just can't get from the namby pamby Walnut. Save your Walnuts for cookies people!

Toasting is touchy!

When toasting Pine Nuts, you have to be paying attention. Pine Nuts go from browned to black in like 3 seconds! These took about 10 minutes on low heat and I was constantly flipping them around in the pan. I used just slightly over a 1/3rd of a cup pretty much because that is how many were in the bag.

Garlic! It's one of the main ingredients of Pesto and I like a lot of it!

Heaven in a hard to peel container.

I used 4 cloves of garlic for my Pesto. I was going to go for 6 cloves, but I got tired of peeling it. OK, so once you have assembled everything, you throw it all into your food processor.

About to be pulverized!

Here it is. My Basil, the Garlic, the Pine Nuts, Parmesan Cheese, and a dash of salt and pepper. Heck, I could eat is as a salad just like this. I pulse this about a dozen times in the food processor just to get everything chopped up and saying, "Hi" to everyone. Then, with the food processor on high, I begin to very slowly drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the mix. 

You want to keep an eye on this step. Too much EVOO and you wind up with really runny Pesto, which...if you like it that way, go for it. I prefer a dryer Pesto so I add just enough to incorporate the ingredients.

Once processed it looks pretty much like this.

Heaven in a Food Processor!

This was still a little lumpy for my tastes, so I processed it for a bit longer on high giving the blade time to cut it down even further. Here is my final result.

Just looking for some fresh pasta to mate with!

So, even after all of my careful oil pouring this turned out a little runnier than I prefer it. No problem, I just added some extra Parm to it. The cheese absorbed the oil perfectly.

Now comes the hard part. What to pair it with? Pasta? Chicken? Pork? Spread it on a piece of bread and be done? Eat it by the spoonful right out of the food processor??? That is the great thing about Pesto, you can do ANYTHING with it. I have opted this evening to coat a chicken breast in it and bake it. Nummy!

What so you like to do with Pesto? Sound off in the comments.

Prison Reform

A few weeks ago, before I was admitted to the hospital, I hosted a retirement party for my buddy Dave. His wife Emily asked me to provide my "space" in order to properly house the larger party. We went with a prison theme, since Dave had been a prison guard. I designed the invitations using a vintage "Get Out of Jail Free" card from my Mom's Monopoly Set.

Then we had to figure out the menu. I wanted it to have hints to the food that is served in prison. Off to Google I went and with Emily's help, I discovered Meal Loaf. It is this horrid concoction that is served to prisoners that have misbehaved. Typically it is vegetarian, but some institutions add ground beef to it. So you take beans, spinach, cut-up bread, potato flakes and few other ingredients and you make them into a loaf. You bake it and serve it up to the miscreants. The challenge for me tho, was to make it appetizing. I basically followed the recipe I had found online, but I used all fresh ingredients and topped it with cheese. I also provided a gravy to dip it in.

Ok, so I really only wound up throwing half of it out.

All in all, it wasn't too bad. I found if you dipped it and slowly chewed it, letting all the flavors come out, it was actually palatable. Some people had a problem with the raisins in it. I assume they are in the recipe to be "dessert".

I also made a big pot of Chili Mac. Apparently, they serve this often in the prison environment. I can see why, it was sooooo easy to make. Couple cans of chili, some pasta and cheese in a crock pot...done!

Simple is as simple does

What is funny is that as I was opening and dumping the cans of chili into the crock pot, I couldn't help but notice how much canned chili looks and smells like canned dog food...even sounds like it plopping out of the can.

Emily made a big ol pot of Franks & Beans, another prison staple due to it's ease. One giant can of baked beans and 2 packs of hotdogs cut up.

Beans, beans, their good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you...

I stayed away from the beans. The last thing I needed was the gas. But I did eat some of the hotdogs. After cooking in the bean juice, they were delicious. Maybe eating in prison isn't so bad as long as you stay way from the Meal Loaf.

Emily also made a cake, building on the "Get Out of Jail Free" theme. She's actually quite a good decorator of cakes. I will need to keep this in mind for future parties.

So cute! What is black icing made of???

She did a great job with the art from the Monopoly card. I am told the cake was great. I didn't try it cause well...SUGAR!

So, if you ever find yourself in prison, now you have a bit of preview of what to expect in the chow line. Oh, and remember...don't drop the soap!

Happy 2012 Everyone!

Well, New Year's Eve has come and gone with little or no damage to life, limb, or property. The "Come See The Tree Before It Dies" Party here at Sanctuary was a great success (except for those who missed it…you know who you are!). One might say that Tod and Scott had a little too much to drink once we got up to The Lodge, but it certainly wouldn't be me. Imagine that, I was the DD last night. That almost never happens!

Anyway, back to the party. This time I decided I wanted to make things that I had never made before. No Puke Dip or Fabulous Meatballs this time. I went with a "Create Your Own Canape" idea. I had seen a graphic in a New York Times article showing the many possibilities for Canape creation and it got me to thinking. Why not let my guests play with their food?

Signage! How cool is that?

That way I didn't have to do a lot of assembly. I could create pieces and then let the guests put it together in whatever fashion they chose.

For the bases, I purchased an assortment of crackers, mini-toasts, toasted french bread, and was given some hearty bread made by some Bosnian friends of my sister.

Those Wasa Crisps look like you could build a house with them. Sturdy!

The spreads are where I got to have my fun. I made a Chicken Liver Pate, a Salmon Mousse, and what I am calling, "Sort of Aunt Carol's Pimento Cheese Spread" (that will get a post all to itself at some point). I also had some Homemade Pesto in the freezer that I defrosted and a Roasted Veggie Bruschetta that my sister had given me for Christmas.

Mmmmmmm, goodness at the end of a knife.

Once a guest had chosen a spreadable (to my delight someone decided to mix the pate with the mousse and came up with a Surf & Turf canape!) they could either pop it in their mouth at that point, or move on to the toppings area. Here, I got to chop, grate and open lots of jars. Very little cooking involved.

Thyme, Dill, Capers & Spicy Pomegranate Sauce

Dry-Roasted Walnuts, Black Olives, Parmesan & Maple Roasted Apples

I didn't actually do the math, but given the number of ingredients, there were quite a few ways all of these various bases, spreads and toppings could have been combined. I enjoyed the Pate on mini-toasts with a caper or 2 on top. The Salmon Mousse was delicious with a black olive or 2 and some parmesan. The cheese spread went well with the Thyme (Who knew?) and dry-roasted walnuts gave the Pesto a nice little kick. I saw guests putting together all kinds of combinations. I wish at the end of the line I had made them all "Show & Tell" their creations with everyone.

The Assembly Line Party!

In addition to the "Create Your Own Canape" line I also provided some "more typical" party fare.

Tablescape!

On the dining table are Chips & Dips and Crudite with a delicious Lemon Dill Dip. My mother brought a couple plates of her Christmas Cookies and some of her Homemade Peanut Brittle.

Oh! I almost forgot. At the last moment I came up with a cocktail for the party. I was just going to retread The Poisoned Apple since very few people got to sample it at the Halloween Party (thanks snow!) But it really didn't fit the theme of the party. So with a little browsing around (thank you interwebs) I came up with this.

Crappy art, but I had time constraints!

My apologizes to Dick Clark. I did not ask his representation if I could use his name on the party cocktail. They can sue me later. Basically, it's a Cosmo constructed a little on the light side and then Prosecco Bubbly is added once all of the other ingredients are shaken and poured into the martini glass. I also can't take credit for the cocktail recipe. I found it over here and only modified it slightly. All I can take credit for is the combination of the two. Both if which will probably get me sued. Not to mention the art I stole to create the graphic to display on my bar. Ryan Seacrest will also probably not be happy with me for blocking out his name in the above art with the word "Cosmopolitan".

Apparently, my New Year's Resolution is to be sued by one or more parties for various incursions. What's your New Year's Resolution???

Off-The-Cuff Cooking: Garlic!

I hope everyone survived the Holiday. Not just the eating, but the horrific shopping there after. I myself, did not partake of the shopping, only the eating.

Dinner at Mom's was wonderful this year. The stuffing was perfect, nice and moist the way I like it. I made sure to bring home lots of left-overs. They're all gone now. But on to the cooking! This year, it was my job to bring a light appetizer to Thanksgiving Dinner. Mom didn't want everyone to fill up on my treats and then not be hungry for dinner.

I agonized over this for quite some time. I wanted to do something with pumpkin, but I also didn't want it to be the sweet pumpkin that everyone was expecting for as a pie for dessert. So I decided on a savory pumpkin idea. One decision down! Now I had to figure out how to present it. Here I journeyed without the aid of a recipe, or any logical thought what so ever.

I mixed my pumpkin puree with Rosemary, Thyme, Garlic, and Lemon Zest. I don't have any actual measurements to provide you for this. I just "Dashed and Shook" till I thought it looked like the right amount. After all of this, it was still mixing up rather thin and watery. So I added about a cup of Sour Cream to the mixture to give it a tang and thicken it up.

My choice for the "Vessel of conveyance" were Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. They make a nice crust without over powering what you put on top of them. I refrigerated the pumpkin mixture to give it a chance to rest while I got the crescent rolls ready. I spread them out in a 13x9 rimmed pan. I squeezed together all of the seams and the spread my pumpkin mixture on top. Into a 350 degree over they went for about 20 minutes.

The day before, I had discovered a box of freshly harvested garlic in our kitchen at work with a sign which read, "Please find me a good home". Well, I couldn't think of any better home than mine for a few bulbs of fresh garlic, so I grabbed about 5 of them. Once home I grabbed 2 of bulbs, slit the tops of them off to expose the pungent cloves below, drizzled on some Olive Oil and then roasted them in the oven for about 30 minutes. I can't tell you how wonderful my house smelled!

So, once my treats came out of the oven, were cooled, and then cut into bite-sized pieces…I added a thin slice of roasted garlic to the top of each one. Of course, being who I am, I tried to match the size of the garlic slice to the size of the pumpkin treat slice. Here they are once they got to my Moms house.

Yummy Roasted Garlic & Savory Pumpkin Bites

They were quite popular. A few folks were wary of the garlic. Once I told them it was roasted garlic, those fears went right out the window. I had cut the treats to the perfect size to simply pop them in your mouth. Therefore, all of the flavors combine perfectly in your mouth. You're not just getting a bite of garlic or pumpkin. I'm still warming up the leftovers! Yummy!!!

The Hubby got in on the fresh garlic too. He has a version of roasted green beans that made perfect use of the spoils from work.

Fresh out of the oven and smelling wonderful!

He combines the fresh green beans with whole cloves of the garlic, olive oil, fresh red onion, salt, and pepper. Then they are roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. He stirs them every now and then as well. We served them with some stuffed chicken breasts and they were delicious! They made spectacular left-overs too.

By The Seat of My Pantry - Meatloaf

Here's another feature I hope to make a regular one. A well stocked pantry is a must for every kitchen. I'll talk more about my pantry itself in a future post.  I often like to challenge myself when it comes to cooking by flinging open my pantry doors (yes, I fling...it's all very dramatic), grabbing 3 or 4 items almost at random and then seeing what I can whip up with them. I call it Off-The-Cuff Cooking ™. I am not a recipe guy. Even when I'm using a recipe that I found somewhere I rarely ever haul out the measuring cups and spoons. The exception to that is baking...it requires a level of precision that my slap-dash cooking style would ruin very quickly.

Last night while I was at the grocery store ground beef was on sale. Knowing that my stock of pre-browned beef was getting low, I grabbed one of those huge 3 pounders and made my way home. I decided to brown half of the beef for future use and the other half I decided to make into meatloaf.

Meatloaf mechanics are pretty basic. You need meat, spices, something gooey to stick it all together and something to add as a filler. Luckily I had eggs in the fridge (almost out of date, but still good). That gave me my goo. Spices also were not a problem, always a lot of those on hand. I had to go to the pantry for the filler. Flinging open the doors I found I had no bread crumbs, no saltines, no stuffing mix. I started to panic a little. You have to put something in meatloaf of a fiber-ish nature or it comes out rock hard like a giant loaf hamburger. There was cereal, but I didn't think Crunch Berries were the way to go. Triscuits? A little too fiber-ish. My eyes came to rest on the box of Wheat Thins Ranch Flavor. Hmm, filler and spices all in one? I grabbed my trusty rolling pin and pulverized the crackers right in the bag till I had a nice fine crumb.

Into the bowl with everything, and then comes my favorite part of meatloaf, getting in there with your hands and mushing (no technical terms in Off-The-Cuff Cooking™) it all together. It reminds of making mud pies when I was a kid. Some people will tell you not to mush your meatloaf too much when mixing. I find the more you mush the better you incorporate your ingredients and the more even your meatloaf turns out. I mush my meatloaf within an inch of it's life!

Another great debate then begins. Should I throw it in a loaf pan or mound it on a flat baking pan? I can go either way on this one. Mounding provides more crusting, if you like that sort of thing. I went with a loaf pan on this occasion, thereby allowing the meat to cook longer in it's own juices making a moister loaf. I also thought the Wheat Thins might need a little more juice to "sog up" than say saltine or bread crumbs might. The "sogging" of the fiber element is very important in meatloaf. If your fiber element doesn't "sog" then you wind up with grainy meatloaf...ick.

Into the oven it went. OMG, I forgot a sauce! Out of the oven it came. Back to the Pantry I went. Saucing a meatloaf is another opportunity to add flavor. You can go the gravy route, the tomato sauce route, ketchup is often a favorite. Once I even used a sour cream sauce that created a Stroganoff Meatloaf...yummmm! I opted for the ketchup, into which I mixed a healthy amount of garlic powder. I then spread that mixture thickly on top of the loaf.

And back into the oven the meatloaf went. Now lets talk about baking. My general meatloaf rule is 350 degrees and a half hour for every pound of meat you've used. That is my rule for the loaf pan. It gets trickier when you mound the beef on a flat baking pan. Depending on the height of your mound you may need to increase or decrease your baking time. Meatloaf really isn't meant to be served rare. or even medium well. A meatloaf should be done, as in cooked through. I use the convection setting on my oven in order to insure that the top cooks evenly and the bottom doesn't burn. I checked on the loaf about 25 minutes into it cooking and noticed that the sauce wasn't cooking up, so I switched the oven over to broil for a couple of minutes to get the sauce bubbling.

Once done, I removed it from the loaf pan and allowed it to rest while I microwaved some veggies. It's important to let it rest for a few minutes. You'll get less breakage when slicing a rested meatloaf than if you try to slice it hot out of the oven. Here is my rested meatloaf.

I love how the sauce caramelized on the top. Also note the consistency in the "grain". That comes from all the mushing. So here is the final plated dinner. I opted for green beans as my veggie. The Hubby loved it and Molly wanted some too. She really is my true gauge. If she doesn't want a bite then we probably shouldn't be eating it either. And yes, I like a lot of real butter on my green beans...don't judge.

Today, I will be making a sandwich with the leftovers. That really is the best part about meatloaf...the leftovers!